“Please,” I said.
Mia’s mouth flattened into a line.
“One last thing,” I said, then I called out to the seemingly empty room. “Nona, it’s not another sprite in the box. You’re my friend...I...love you.”
Mia laughed bitterly and shook her head.
“Goodbye, Zane.” She turned to go.
“Awww, that’s sooo sweet,” Nona flew in from the hall, dropped the box on the bed, and fluttered around my head.
I looked to Mia to beg her to see the truth, but she already had. She was staring, mouth gaping at the tiny sprite.
“Mia,” I said, “meet Nona.”
Nona flew over to Mia and hovered in front of her.
“This...this is where the voice was coming from all along?” Mia asked.
“You’re not going to try to take my Zane away from me, are you?” Nona asked.
I hadn’t thought it possible for the tiny sprite to look threatening, and still it didn’t. But the squinted eyes did make the catbird appear skeptical.
Mia’s eyes were wide and a hint of a smile played on her lips. “No.”
“Great,” Nona said. “Then it’s a pleasure to officially meet you.”
“You, too,” Mia said. “You’re flippin’ adorable.”
“But of course,” Nona said.
“Those ears, with the itty-bitty beak. Your fur and plumage—lovely.”
“It’s nice to finally interact with someone with good taste,” Nona said.
Part of me already regretted my decision. If these two were going to go on like this, I might be worse off than I’d been when I was just stuck with the catbird.
“So, do tell.” Mia offered her open palm, and Nona landed. “What kind of being are you?”
Mia crossed the room and sat on the bed, everything else, including me, forgotten.
“I’m a one-of-a-kind, majestic being,” Nona said.
“A sprite?” Mia asked.
“Perhaps, though I’m sure I’m unclassifiably unique.”
Mia nodded seriously, indulging the little annoyance.
I rolled my eyes.
“You have better than good taste, by the way, fabulous taste,” Nona said. “Zane’s one hundred percent genuine. When he’s not trying to leave me in the garbage or throw me out the window.”
“Zane!” Mia looked at me sternly.
I shrugged. “It won’t leave.”
“She,” Mia said. “You’re female, right?”
The catbird lifted its wings. “I’m Nona.”
“It sounds like an object. May I call you she?”
Nona nodded and made that weird purring sound. The two of them actually liked each other.
“So where do we stand?” I walked over to the side of the bed and picked up the device. I’d need to be more careful if the little catbird was going to hide it from me. That was dangerous, even more dangerous than the budding friendship between the Nona and Mia.
The two of them looked up at me.
“Say I believe you,” Mia said. “Say that thing is a dragon exterminator. Then it needs to be destroyed, right?”
“It’s only half,” I said.
“So we go find the other half, and then we blow that shit up. How does that sound?”
Nona nodded its approval.
“Sounds risky,” I said.
“As risky as leaving the other half of that thing out there not blown up?” Mia asked.
I looked down at the box in my hands.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t even know how to find the other half.”
“Lemme see.” Mia snatched the device from my hands.
“Be—” I reached out, then pulled my hand back and crossed my arms. I wanted her to believe me about the intentions and truth of the Therion Tribunal. This trust thing had to go both ways. “Be careful,” I said. “Please.”
“Trust me,” Mia said.
Famous last words before all of dragon kind was exterminated. I closed my eyes and told myself that it wasn’t true. Trust. I could trust her.
“What’s it doing?” Mia asked.
My eyes shot open, panic welling in my chest.
The thrum that sounded when I wasn’t touching the device was a pulse, pounding louder and louder still.
“What’d you do?” I took the device back, but the sound didn’t stop. Instead, it grew louder.
“Me?” Mia scowled at me. “Fuck off, dude. I didn’t do a damned thing.”
It was like a heart in my hands, pounding, beating, so loud that it was all that I could hear. So loud my head throbbed with pain.
Mia tilted her head and touched my wrist. She looked concerned, and her lips moved. I couldn’t hear her.
The pain was too much. The sound was too loud. It had to stop. It hurt. White-hot agony.
I grabbed my head as everything went black. This was it.
This was the end.
Chapter Eight
Mia
It wasn’t like before. This wasn’t a smooth and instantaneous blink from one place to another.
It was an earthquake, a tremor that shook not only the ground, but the air and everything else, down to the fabric of my being. It was like my body was splitting apart. And it was fucking terrifying.
Then it just stopped.
When it was over, the first thing I did was check that my legs and arms and eyeballs and such were all where they were meant to be. It was too dark to see, so I could only feel. And as far as I could tell, all my body parts were in the right spots.
The second thing I did was look for Zane.
It was dark, cool, and damp, and the air carried the moist scent of earth.
“That was crazy, I mean soooo wild.” I recognized Nona’s voice right away. It echoed through empty space.
“Nona?”
“Can we go again?” Nona asked. “I want to go again. Can we, can we, can we, please?”
“Zane?” I squinted, waiting for my eyes to adjust. There seemed to be no source of light, only darkness. Had I not been graced with shifter senses, I’d probably have been screwed. Might still have been anyway.
There was movement along the ground about twenty feet away. The big form slowly rose and groaned.
A few steps closer and I was able to make out Zane’s shape.
“You okay?” I asked.
He held his head in one hand as he walked toward me. The other was cradled to his chest, with the box held tight to his heart.
“Yeah.” Zane raked his fingers through his hair. His steel blue eyes were dark and hollow.
“What the hell happened?” I asked.
“I don’t...I’m not sure.”
“Where’s Nona?”
“Right here.” The sprite landed on my shoulder.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She nodded her tiny little fluffy head. “Peachy.”
I looked to Zane. “Was that a blink? It felt…”
“Wrong,” he said. “No. I didn’t do that. Blinking only happens when I will it so.”
I looked up to the pointy stone formations, around at the stone walls, the slick stone floor.
“Could we be nearby the hotel, in an underground cavern?” I asked.
“There aren’t caverns beneath Fairview,” Nona said.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Zane said. “If this was me…I would know. If we’re not in Fairview anymore…”
“Then where the hell are we?” I asked.
“Underground. It’s a cavern—ooooo spooky.” Nona danced on my shoulder.
Maybe something was wrong with Zane’s teleportation powers. Maybe that just happened sometimes, like a hiccup in his head or something.
“Has anything like this ever happened to you before?” I asked Zane.
“No.”
His voice was firm. He was entirely certain. But just because it hadn’t happened before didn’t mean it couldn’t happen now.
“My guess is it has something to do with this
.” He lifted the cube. It had a soft glow that I hadn’t noticed before. Had it been glowing at the hotel? Or before that? I didn’t think so.
The light was faint, then brighter. It pulsed in his palm like a beating heart.
Zane stared down at it, quiet as if he was lost in thought. “It made this sound—”
“I didn’t hear any sound,” I said. My hearing was as sharp as any shifter’s. If there was something to hear, I would have noticed.
“It was like a beacon, calling to me,” Zane said. “The sound was constant, only ceasing when I was holding it. Now, it’s stronger than ever, even while the device is in my hand.”
Weird.
“Do you think that maybe you shouldn’t be holding it?”
“No.” His response was short, clipped. Almost a little defensive.
“Okay then. Do you think you hear it because you’re a dragon?” I asked. It was my only guess—either that or it was all in his head. I preferred the dragon answer.
“Maybe. I can feel its power, feel it pulling me...somewhere.”
If it wasn’t Zane who had blinked us, or at least not directly...if it wasn’t him, leading us...
“You think it brought us here?” I asked. Had this been any other day, in any other company, I’d have laughed off the thought. But I was done second-guessing Zane.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But I don’t have a better explanation.”
“And so it’s making sounds still?” I asked.
“Like a beating heart.”
Just like the pulse of light.
“Creepy.”
“If it brought us here, maybe this is where we find the missing half of the device.”
“Sure,” I said, “why not?”
Nona dove from my shoulder, beak-first toward the floor. Then she zipped across the expansive cave, bouncing from wall to wall. A stream of neon light followed.
Zane started walking, ignoring the sprite.
A whirring whistle echoed off the walls as Nona darted about. She seemed to have no interest in following us. I spared her one last glance, then went after Zane.
There were a bunch of tunnels splitting off of the path we walked. Each was a choice that Zane didn’t seem to consider. It was like he knew where he was headed in the darkness, like he knew which path would lead us to wherever we were going.
Golden light emanated from Zane’s arms, casting shadow in a pulsing blur. There was enough light to see just in front of us, but little more.
The walls narrowed and footing grew more slippery as we traveled down and around. Maybe the dragon weapon was nestled at the center of the earth, surrounded by lava. Fire seemed fitting.
Whistles faded into the distance, growing quieter and quieter with every step forward. I liked the idea of the little sprite staying with us. She seemed to know things, and she could scout ahead. Plus, I just liked her.
“Why do you think Nona isn’t coming?” I asked.
Zane dropped down off a small ledge, only a few feet. Then he turned and offered me his hand. I sat down on the edge of the rock and let my legs dangle ahead of me. The cold of the stone seeped through my jeans, through my skin, chilling me to the bone.
“No idea,” he said.
“But you aren’t worried.” It was only kind of a question. He didn’t seem worried, not about anything but the weapon. But there was something in his blue eyes that made me think he felt more than he showed. Something that called to me like that box called to him.
“That thing always shows back up. I can’t get rid of it. If it’s really gone it would be more of a relief than anything.”
“But she’s so freaking cute, I just want to snuggle her every time I look at those big eyes and ears and that fluffy fur.”
“Maybe we’ll both get lucky and it’ll start following you instead of me.”
I took his hands and used them to steady myself as I hopped down. I landed on his feet and quickly stepped off.
“Sorry, and thanks,” I said.
He was standing so close. My hands were on his chest. His scent, fire and forest, enveloped me, an aphrodisiac that set my body ablaze. I wanted to taste him, to feel his hands all over my skin. I wanted him there, in the dark cave, against the rock face at my back.
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” I cleared my throat and dropped my hands. “Having a furry companion to chat with.”
Zane leaned closer and closed his eyes.
His features were shadowed in darkness, giving him a haunted look in the pulsing glow. The sharp edges of his features seemed intensified.
The space between us was electric, and I could almost feel him, it was almost like he was pressed against me, but he wasn’t.
Then he took a step back and opened his eyes. I wished there was more light so I could decipher his expression. Or that he wasn’t so damned hard to read in the first place. I wished I could hear his thoughts.
“A hairy annoyance that doesn’t shut up,” he said.
The sprite—I’d almost forgotten we were talking about Nona.
“She’s not that bad,” I said. “I actually like—”
My phone rang and buzzed against my leg in my pocket.
I pulled it out, surprised that there was a signal down here.
The screen glowed with a number I recognized—Drexel.
I looked up at Zane.
His brow furrowed and he snatched the phone from my palm and snapped it in half.
The two pieces dropped to the ground.
The ringing stopped. The screen went black.
“What the fuck, dude?” Fury filled me where attraction had been. This man—grrr. He really pushed my buttons, sending me from hot to cold and back again.
“You can’t have that,” he said.
“Wow.”
I put my hands up and stepped away from him.
Zane just stood there, unapologetic.
“They’ll know where you are,” he said. “Which means they know where I am.”
“You mean the Tribunal?” I asked.
He turned and started walking.
Of course he meant the Tribunal.
I hurried after him. “Even if they made shitty choices in the past, there are different people in charge now. I bet most of them don’t even know—”
“We can’t trust anyone at the Therion Tribunal.”
His words cut deep.
I grabbed his wrist. He stopped walking and turned.
“What about me?” I searched his face for an honest answer. “Don’t you trust me?”
His jaw clenched and that little vein ticked.
“Poof me back to reality now if you don’t,” I said. “But that’s it. You either trust me and we do this whole thing together, or you don’t and we part ways now before…” Before leaving got even harder than it already felt.
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?” I didn’t hold back an ounce of the bitterness I felt. I was the Therion Tribunal, as much as Leonard was, or Drexel.
Zane grabbed my upper arms softly and leaned his forehead down on mine. A touch of the anger I felt melted, but I wasn’t ready to let it go.
“Yes, I trust you, Mia.”
And there it was, with that, all my frustration was gone. Fucking button-pushing effect.
“Good.” I looked up at him and smiled. He really was so sincere. It was too hard to stay mad at him, and I hated that just a little. “Then you don’t break my shit anymore, got it?”
“But...” He stood up straighter, his jaw tight once more. “I explained why it had to be done.”
“Sure,” I said. “After you broke it. Next time, you tell me that I should break it and explain why I should.”
“That’s reasonable.”
I nodded. Maybe it wasn’t just him that could influence me. Maybe I had an effect on him, too.
“Good,” I said. “Then let’s get back to it. Where exactly are we going?”
“This way.” He pointed.
“Yea
h, I got that.”
We walked farther into the darkness, this time side by side.
“We’re following the sound. The vibration. The other half—it’s this way.”
I took his hand and laced my fingers between his. And just like that, some of the tension in his jaw and shoulders seemed to melt away. Hell yeah I had an effect.
Even with the odds stacked against us, there was no denying that being together felt right. I loved the feel of his touch, his unfiltered honesty, and the warm fuzzies that I got when we were together and not fighting.
The cave turned this way and that, and we walked the path, ever deeper.
“Mia and Zaaaane sittin’ in a tree.” Nona popped up in front of us, and Zane’s tension came back tenfold. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”
Chapter Nine
Zane
One step after the next, we advanced through the darkness.
Mia’s palm was warm, a comfort that grounded me as the beating in my head threatened to burst through my skull.
The constant chatter of the catbird faded beneath the thrum. There was only Mia beside me and the insistent throbbing rhythm.
It was a heartbeat, a drum pulsing through the cave, through the earth, through me. I followed, knowing the way as well as I knew myself. It was the strangest sensation, since I had no idea where we were.
The sound beckoned, threatened, louder and louder still.
“We’re almost there,” I said.
Mia squeezed my hand, a reassurance. We were together in this, whatever happened.
The tunnel curved, and with it, darkness waned.
Ahead was an opening from the tight passage--an entrance to a massive cavern. It appeared to be the size of a stadium. Where the tunnels had appeared natural, this was something else entirely. There were stairs leading down, and polished stone for walls. Pieces of this place were crafted by shifter hands, not nature’s. Jagged spikes threatened from the rock ceiling above, reflecting on the dark pool below. The water was completely still, its depths uncertain. Only a narrow stone path crossed over the water, and the feeling in my gut said to fall was certain death. But all of it fell away to the object at the center of the space, a brilliant beacon of blinding light, a glowing object—the second half of the device.
In Deep Shift: The Protectors Unlimited Book Three Page 7
