Sheets of heavy rain pinged against the metal above and seeped into the building below.
I watched in darkness as droplets soaked into dry soil and I wondered which was me. Was I the soil that devoured, or the droplets that were consumed to nothingness? Perhaps both.
The memory of my reflection still haunted me. I’d been a monster filled with rage, alight with flame. That wasn’t me, yet it was.
Deep within, I could feel it, feel the weapon’s hold on me, like a weed, its roots coiling throughout my being, relentlessly taking hold.
Unbridled rage boiled within, a hunger for destruction.
I stared down at the glove, watched as flame licked up metal fingertips, turning from silver to red.
No. I didn’t want this.
Fire rushed over my elbow, up my shoulder.
No. Please, no.
Soft footsteps met my ears. I looked up.
There in front of me stood Mia. I hadn’t noticed her sweet cinnamon scent as she’d approached, hadn’t heard her footsteps outside. Yet she was here.
I sucked in a deep breath, filling my lungs with the cool night air.
“Hey.” Mia dropped to her knees beside me.
Droplets of water clung to her lashes and streamed down her face. Her hair was flattened to her scalp, and instead of reaching halfway down her back, it was cut short, just below the ears. But it was her eyes, the concern in her big green eyes that held me captive, that made it impossible for me to look anywhere else.
“Hey.”
The heat, the fire—it was gone. In its place was a cold, empty pit where my heart was meant to be. And I was thankful.
“You look like you could use a friend.” Mia’s smile was kind, but not pitying.
“I don’t have friends.”
“You have me.” She touched my shoulder and smiled.
So sweet. I didn’t deserve her.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
Her eyes hardened but her tone remained soft and calm.
“You still don’t think you can trust me.”
“What?”
“I would never, never betray you, Zane.”
I didn’t understand. “I never thought—”
“You have to understand, I’ve been with the Therion Tribunal since I was fourteen.”
“Just a child...”
“Yeah, well, most shifters in the Tribunal grow up as soldiers. The Tribunal gets babies, assigns them to a unit, and that unit becomes their family, and that’s where they learn their job.”
“That’s terrible.” Did the depravity of the Tribunal truly know no bounds? “Where do they get the children?”
“Orphans maybe,” Mia said. “Or maybe they take them, I don’t know. But a lot of soldiers have it pretty shitty from the start. Not me.”
She too had been with the organization since she was a child, how had she been treated better than the rest?
“What happened to you?” I asked. “If they take infants, how did you end up in their custody at fourteen?”
“I had a mom, growing up. It was just the two of us.” There was a sadness in her eyes as she spoke. “We didn’t have a home. Instead, we traveled. We’d go to a new town every few months, find a place to stay, and she’d find work waiting tables or bartending, until she got bored and decided it was time to go again. I read a lot of books, because a few weeks here and there was never enough time to enroll in school. Until Midway.”
I took her hand in mine, and squeezed. “What happened in Midway?”
“Mom met a guy. Well she met lots of guys, but Johnny, she liked. We stayed with him instead of in some shitty motel room. And we stayed for three months. When it seemed like we might have finally found something real, a place to settle and call home, I asked to be enrolled at the local middle school. My mom said no. So I enrolled myself. I was thirteen at the time.”
My heart ached for Mia. A life on the road, without education, without solid roots was no life for a child. “How long did it last?”
“After I started school—just a week. Then Mom and Johnny broke up, and Mom decided it was time to move on. I refused. She took me anyway, so at the first chance, I ran away.”
“Did you go back? To Midway?” I asked.
“I did, but it didn’t last. The state found out I was crashing at another girl’s house, and that I didn’t actually have any parental permission to be there, or parent in town at all. So before I had to deal with the consequences, before I ended up a ward of the state, I ran. Just like my mom.”
“Did you find her again?” I asked. “Did you find your mom?”
“I didn’t look for a long time. At first, I didn’t want to find her. I ended up crossing paths with Liam Blake a year later. Turns out the Tribunal had noticed my thievery and didn’t much care for it. So eventually, it was either join up with the Tribunal or go to shifter jail. Easy decision. And Leonard, my guardian-mentor-boss, he turned out to be a really good guy.”
I couldn’t imagine what Mia had been through, or how she could grow to care for an organization that forced her into labor as a child.
“I see that face you’re making,” she said. “I actually got to go to school with the other kids who grew up in the Tribunal, and I got to have the family and stability I’d always wanted. Leonard made sure I wasn’t pushed to do anything I didn’t want to. And I chose to stay.”
“What happened to your mother?”
“One of life’s great mysteries.” Mia shrugged. “I’ve looked over the past few years, but I haven’t found any leads. Not yet. If it was me who had a magic wish, I’d use it to find her. Maybe we could make up for lost time.”
I let out a sigh. She knew about the wish. I still wasn’t convinced that it was real.
“You talked to the flying rat.”
“How do you think I found you?” Mia smiled. “And I wouldn’t call her a rat. She could pop up out of nowhere and hear you.”
I shook my head.
“Anyway,” she continued, “my point is, I know all about the Tribunal. I know not everything they do is right. I completely believe what you told me about how they treated dragons in the past. But I also know that they aren’t all bad guys. Leonard’s not a bad guy. I’m not a bad guy. You can trust me.”
There was vulnerability in the way she looked at me, pleading for me to trust her. But I already did, utterly, completely.
“Mia,” I said. “I trust you.”
“Then why did you leave me behind? Why did you push me away?”
“Because I’m dangerous,” I said. “You saw what happened in that hotel room. You were there, and in the cave, too. The Tribunal will come for me, and something’s changed, something’s broken inside of me. I don’t know if I can protect you from it—from me.”
Mia climbed into my lap and leaned her head on my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her and basked in her warmth, in her softness, in her comfort.
“I’m not afraid of you.” Her voice was a whisper, her breath a cool echo on my damp neck.
“You should be.” I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, taking in her sweet cinnamon scent. After this, she’d understand. After I told her, she’d run, and my heart would break all over again. “With every moment that passes, a little more of me is consumed by this thing on my arm. I don’t know how much time I have left before I’m completely devoured. All that will remain is rage, fire, and death. I don’t want you to see that. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“No one chooses for me,” Mia said. “No matter what happens, I will be by your side.”
Chapter Fourteen
Mia
Zane looked down at me, his eyes two pools of cobalt anguish.
I tilted my chin up and brushed my lips over his. He responded with a deep growl and a sudden, hard kiss that took my breath away.
As I kissed him back, I laid my hands on his soaked and tattered shirt. Through the gashes of the thin fabric, cool skin met my palms, and something else. To the right of his
heart, where skin should have been, there was metal. The dragonkiller was spreading. My heart ached, a tightness in my chest. It couldn’t be true. There had to be some way to stop it. I couldn’t accept that thing holding onto him, hurting him.
Zane pulled back and rested his forehead on mine.
“You should run while you can, Mia.” His voice was breathy and raw. It broke my heart.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
I looked up into his blue eyes. I wanted to take away the pain that filled them.
One piece at a time, I peeled away the thin stained fabric of his shirt. There was little left to remove after all that had happened, but I had to see. I had to know what we were up against.
A flash of lightning illuminated the dark space for a brief moment, and with it thunder boomed just outside. After, the room returned to black.
My eyes readjusted, allowing me to make out every chiseled ab, every valley in between. I could see the metal plating that fused itself over half of his chest, over his shoulder, over his entire arm. There were intricate details in the metal, as if it had been meticulously adorned with runes, with swirls and patterns of bumps and divots. It appeared to be armor, crafted perfectly to fit his form. A beautiful horror that I would tear to shreds if I could.
“Can you wish it off?” I asked.
“If I could, I wouldn’t.”
What? Frustration and sorrow filled me.
“Why the hell not?” I shook my head.
“Because, Mia, it’s a weapon. If it’s attached to me, it’s safe. No one can take it away. No one else can use it.”
I clasped my palms to his rough cheeks and straddled his legs. His chest rose and fell, lifting us gently with each breath. I needed to be closer to him, to ease his burden, to seal my fate to his.
His cock was hard beneath me, and the feel of it set every inch of my body on fire.
“I won’t let you sacrifice yourself,” I said. “We’ll figure this out. We’ll find an answer, a way to get rid of this thing once and for all. Together.”
Searching his face, I waited for his response. He’d said he trusted me, but still he had to decide. My breath was held as I waited for him to accept me or send me away.
Finally, he whispered, “Together.”
This time when I kissed him, neither of us pulled away. This time when I wrapped my arms around his neck, he pulled me close like he would never let go. And if it was up to me, he wouldn’t.
He tasted like smoke and fire, like desperation and acceptance.
I rose from his lap and shed my shoes, my clothes. And I watched as he stood and did the same.
He was beautiful and bare. He was vulnerable just like me, and I wanted him to be mine.
His heated eyes slowly took me in as I approached.
I reached up to his shoulders and met his gaze. “I expect after this you won’t leave me behind again,” I said.
“Never.”
I trailed a hand down his chest and took his cock in my palm. It was thick and firm.
A crack of lightning flashed, and the open room quaked with the thunder that followed.
Zane’s eyes shut as I moved my fist slowly up and down his length.
“Mia,” he growled.
I smiled and stroked him a little slower.
He grabbed my ass and pulled my hips to his. “This is exquisite torture.”
“Then show me what you want,” I said.
In one swift movement, I was on my back. The dirt floor beneath me was damp and gritty, but I didn’t care.
Zane kneeled over me, cupping one of my breasts in his palm.
He pinched the nipple ever so slightly. I arched my back, pressing toward him in response. A moan escaped my lips as he rolled his fingers.
“What I want is to blink you away from this place. To take you to Portugal, to a private sea cave on the beach, feel the sun and sand on our skin as the waves wash over our feet. I want to savor you for hours on end.”
Raindrops trickled down over us, falling from the broken roof.
Zane’s lips trailed down between my breasts, leaving kisses as he moved over my ribs, across my belly. My breathing quickened as heat coursed through me.
“Next time.” I gasped as he pinched.
The scruff on his jaw tickled as he reached my mound.
“Tumble in the grass by the Cliffs of Moher, feel the wind gust over our bare skin as I kiss you, as I touch you.”
“Mm-hmm.” I nodded. “But how about right here, right now?”
“Right now, I want to do this.” His tongue lapped softly over my clit.
It was warm and wet and fabulous. My eyes fluttered shut as I let go of everything but this feeling, everything but this moment. He stroked and circled, building a knot in my core.
“Zane,” I cried.
The sensation was perfect, but I ached for more.
I grabbed hold of his metal arm.
“Up here,” I said.
He held himself over me, his eyes a beautiful blaze of excitement. I wrapped my legs over his hips and pulled his tip to my entrance.
“Savor me later,” I said. “I need this now. I need you.”
My tunnel stretched as he pressed inside, and my body was fire.
Too slow, too careful, he gave me inch by inch.
I squeezed my legs around him, taking him deeper.
“I love you, Mia.” He tilted his hips and mine, building onto that knot inside of me.
It felt so good, too good.
“I love you, too.”
Faster, he moved his hips, each time giving me his entire length.
I squeezed his shoulders and leaned my head back, basking in this feeling, this closeness that we shared. I didn’t need mountains and beaches. I just needed Zane.
Each thrust pushed me closer, and closer still, until that knot unraveled. And with it, I fell over a cliff of my own.
As pleasure coursed through me, tightening and letting go, I felt Zane let go, too.
When it was over, and my body was languid and tired and content, Zane rolled onto his back and I laid next to him.
We stared up through the broken roof, at the stars.
Only then did I realize the storm had passed.
Everything would be okay, because we had each other.
Chapter Fifteen
Zane
The first glimmer of morning light cast a soft glow through the broken windows of the steel building. As the sun rose, it brought color to the world.
Mia was curled in the crook of my arm, her short, golden hair fanned out around her face. She looked so peaceful with her eyes closed, her lips slightly parted. Her bare breasts rose and fell with her gentle breaths.
I wanted to squeeze her tight and never let go. I wanted to kiss her full, pink lips and run my fingers through her jagged new haircut. But I also wanted to let her rest.
I laid my head back and stared up at the sky. Black faded to blue, to a blanket of fluffy clouds taking their sweet time as they crept by. Birds chirped from the treetops, and everything was right, save for me.
I lifted my metal arm up toward the sky. This moment could only last so long, this reprieve would end, and what would be left was the truth. I was going to die, consumed by this weapon. And if I let her stay, Mia would, too. I couldn’t push her away, not now. But I couldn’t let her be harmed. How I could manage both, I had no idea. But it was the only choice, even if it was foolish.
An engine approached, the sound of tires crunching over leaves and stone.
“Mia.” I shook her shoulder gently.
Her eyes shot open.
“We have to go,” I whispered.
A thud echoed through the quiet peace, the sound of a car door.
We threw on our clothes, then ducked down and crept toward the back of the building.
Footsteps sounded on gravel, approaching the building from the front. At least three sets.
Memories of our last encounter here filled my head. Bullets f
lying, my wings a shield. We’d blinked away, but that wasn’t an option, not anymore.
Mia went first, slipping through a hole in the metal wall. I followed.
Outside, I rose to my feet and found Mia waiting. She was completely alert, though she had only just woken, and she was poised for a fight. If I didn’t know any better, I never would have guessed she’d just been asleep.
“Not here, boss. No sign of the dragon,” a male voice said from inside the building.
Mia smiled and held out her hand. I grabbed it and she pulled me alongside her as she took off at a run.
I glanced back over my shoulder and found two more black SUVs pulling into the drive by the metal building.
Mia kept running, so I did, too.
We raced past the warehouses along the river and down through a cluster of trees. Sparse greenery led to thicker brush, deeper forest.
“Mia,” I said, slowing my pace, and slowing her with me. “Where are you taking me?”
She slowed, she stopped, and then she turned.
There were trees all around us, and the sound of the river nearby. By my guess, we’d reached the edge of Fairview.
Mia’s eyes sparkled. “Away.”
“We left them far behind. But, we can’t run from this, no matter how far we go.” I held out my metal arm. It would be there no matter how far we ran. It would be there no matter how hard we tried to get away. It was a part of me, and I couldn’t escape that. I would have told her to leave me, to just go, so she’d be safe, but I knew she wouldn’t. I couldn’t ask that of her again, not after last night, even if I knew deep down that leaving would be best for her.
“So then what’s your plan? Because that’s all I’ve got right now,” Mia said. “Run as far and as fast as we can, if you’re not willing to ask Nona to—”
In Deep Shift: The Protectors Unlimited Book Three Page 10
