by Jaymin Eve
Since we were group B, we followed half the men out.
Jacob eyed the group remaining behind. “Want to bet that this is the point they head to John Caine,” he mused, shrewdly assessing the situation. He shook his head as he turned back to me. “It’s the same pattern every day, and his fear is growing more obvious.”
I didn’t disagree with any of that. “Something is going on,” I murmured, not wanting to be overheard. “He’s biding his time, and I’m worried about the trap we’re walking into.”
There was so much more to say, but I slammed my mouth shut at the sight of Colin McGraw, the second in command. He was glaring at us and I knew their strict “no fraternizing” rule while on duty was what had his undies in a twist. Usually they let it slide, but tonight he must have decided enough was enough.
“You two think you’re better than the rest of us,” he snarled, and since he’d stopped walking, so did all the other mindless soldiers. “You flout our rules, show your boredom with our ways, and then expect to sleep in our beds and eat our food.”
Jacob laughed; it sounded lighthearted, but I heard the undercurrents of fire. “Think we’re better than you?” he said, and some of the visible humor faded, leaving behind the terrifying mask a fey wore so effortless. Inhumanely. “There’s no thinking about it. We know we’re superior for more reasons than I could list.”
I called him arrogant. A lot. And that was no lie. But there wasn’t arrogance in his tone now—he was just speaking the truth as he knew it. Supernaturals lived longer, had magic, mated for life, protected their packs, and had a dozen other characteristics that made them superior to humans. It was basic truth.
“You better think long and hard about who you’re talking to,” Colin said, shaping up to Jacob, even though he barely reached his chin.
“What are you planning to do?” Jacob pushed. The fey ran a lazy hand through his hair, his go-to when he wanted to appear relaxed but was actually planning on throwing a lot of hurt this soldier’s way. His eyes had even darkened—a huge warning that he was starting to get annoyed. “I can’t wait to hear how you’ll discipline me.”
These humans should be more careful; they had no idea of the supernatural predator in their midst, and sadly I wasn’t talking about myself. I might be a jeweled princess, but I was only just discovering my powers—or more truthfully I had very little interest in my powers. Jacob, well, he was a Compass, one of the strongest feys in the world.
The brothers even had a quad bond that boosted the four of them to unnatural heights of energy. Jacob could kill every single human in the White House with barely a blip of energy. Drown them. Suffocate them. Crush them under an avalanche. His options were limitless, and yet he chose to try and deal with them. That said everything about the true difference between good and evil.
“You stupid fucking anima—” Colin’s words choked off and he started to blink rapidly.
At first I thought he was having a seizure, but then it became clear: Jacob had cut his air off. It was so subtle that I wasn’t even sure Colin knew what had happened.
The commander rubbed at his throat, a frantic look in his eyes.
I didn’t bother to step in, this human had brought it on himself, and he was about to learn a very valuable lesson.
We were not animals. We were not their prisoners. We were not here under their command.
We chose to be here to stop a war.
No one controlled us.
There was a reddish-purple tinge to Colin’s face now, and his eyes had just rolled back into his head when Jacob finally released him. The commander fell to his knees, coughing loudly, his hands trembling as he scraped at the ground.
In the month we’d been amongst them, we’d used no powers against them, turning a blind eye to their snide remarks and blatant hatred. We figured that getting through this without creating an international incident was our main goal, and we’d done pretty well until now.
The humans had gotten worse though, bloated with bullying strength, thinking of us as beneath them.
Jacob made sure that all ended today.
One of Colin’s friends helped him up, and then they basically sprinted from the room, the other frightened soldiers right behind.
Jacob and I continued on at the slow leisurely pace. “He’s going to tell Marcus about that,” I said. “I think he actually pissed himself.”
This time Jacob’s chuckle was legitimately amused. “There really is little they can do to stand against us. This power struggle was going to come to end at some point. Best they learn now before I have to really hurt one of them.”
I didn’t argue. But a tingle along my spine told me that this was where it all changed. Jacob had upset the tenuous line we’d all been walking, and maybe, just maybe, that was what the president had been waiting for all along.
3
Jacob Compass
“I need to get the fuck out of here,” I growled down the line. “I almost torched the lot of them today. I’m not sure how much longer I can stand it.”
On the other end of the line I heard lots of giggles and baby coos as Jessa and Mischa chased their children around. Lily, Jack, and Evie were growing up fast—too fast—but I still thought of them as my pack babies. Deep inside, I longed for their quiet innocence. Hearing them helped a little.
“I can pull you out at any time,” Braxton said in his grumbly voice. He was pissed off, his dragon close to the surface. My own temperament was growing more like his every day.
“Louis is talking to the council,” Jessa added from the background, sounding equally annoyed. “I’ve told him it’s already been one fucking month too long and he for real doesn’t want me at one of their meetings to hurry shit along.”
More lightness filtered through my energy as I chuckled. “Fuck, I think we should send Jess there. Especially when she’s hungry. I mean, if anyone will get it sorted, it’s going to be our girl.”
Tyson, way in the background, shouted: “Uh, you don’t think that might cause more trouble?”
There was a muffled sound filtering through the speaker, and I knew it was Jessa trying to beat the shit out of him.
I hated missing this.
This gnawing emptiness in my soul … it was the loss of my pack. Fey were normally happiest in very small groups or alone, but I was different, courtesy of the shifter, vamp, and magic user in my soul.
“Maybe you should get outside.” Grace was on the line now, her soothing healer magic almost reaching me. “Connect with nature. Commune with your gods. Release some of the negative from living in the human world.”
There was a slight pause.
“How is Justice doing?” she asked softly.
Grace and Justice were like sisters, a bond not as strong as mine with my brothers—they had not been born blood sisters—but the jeweled princesses shared something that was deeper than just their heritage.
“You know, she doesn’t really let me in on her inner thoughts,” I said, trying to hold back my annoyance.
I moved toward the window bench in my room. We all had our own rooms, small, utilitarian, but perfectly functioning. Justice was next door, and I never heard a sound out of her when we retired at the end of our shifts.
Part of what drove me insane was wondering what the hell she was doing over there.
“She has huge walls around her emotions,” Grace told me, “and she doesn’t trust men. There have been no positive examples of a decent male in her life. Not from her foster families, to the last megalomaniac that attempted to steal her power. You’re going to have to work harder to break through her emotional barriers.”
Grace knew Justice far better than me, a fact that annoyed me more than it should have.
I was losing it.
“I need to get out of here,” I muttered again. “I’ll call you all later.”
I heard their protests, but I was already hanging up. This was probably the first time in their lives they’d had to worry about me losing m
y cool, and I knew they’d be formulating a plan to get us out of here early.
I needed them to succeed, or things could really go to hell.
Opening the window on my third story room, I swung my legs over the side, launching out. Using the wind, I slowed my descent so that I didn’t slam into the ground and wake everyone. Glancing up at the dark window next to mine, I thought for a second the curtains flickered, but when there was no sign of Justice, I turned and strode toward the only piece of nature available to me. It was a small garden with a few trees and a lot of perennial flowers—nothing like Stratford, but enough to sustain me.
The moment the energy of the trees surrounded me, I pressed my hands against the closest trunk, sighing as my energy vibrated in sync with the energy all flora produced, resetting me to a place of calm.
I stayed like that for a long time, losing myself to the commune with nature. When I finally pulled away, taking the path back to my room, the sun was starting to rise in the sky.
4
Justice Winter
I’d watched him for half the night. I told myself it was because I was worried about him, and that wasn’t even a lie, but there was something more. I was drawn to the prickly Compass in a way I never remembered being drawn to anyone. I couldn’t explain it. I hadn’t even tried to explain it, but I had decided long ago not to lie to myself about my true feelings.
The truth was, Jacob Compass stirred emotion deep inside my chest … maybe even deeper than that.
In my soul.
The fact that we might be true mates had crossed my mind more than once, but my entire life was built on abusive relationships, power struggles, and evil as fuck men. A soulmate … I wasn’t sure how I felt about having one of those.
Just sleep with him and find out.
My inner voice was starting to piss me off. Pushing me to “find out” by seducing the fey—apparently that was how jeweled princesses discovered their true mates.
This was one of the few things I’d learned from my parents, fey I had spent next to no time with because I couldn’t bring myself to acknowledge that they even existed.
Yeah … Jacob wasn’t the one with issues. It was definitely me.
The heavy knock on my door didn’t startle me. Every morning at exact 6 A.M, rain or shine, Jacob knocked to let me know our shift was starting. And even though he must have been out in the forest until near sunrise, he didn’t miss today.
Pulling on the stiff jacket that was a stupid and uncomfortable part of the uniform, I pushed a few strands of my braid back and went to answer the door.
“Hey,” Jacob said, showing not a single sign that he’d had no sleep: perfect hair, perfect green eyes, perfect uniform of dark grey trousers and button up white shirt, that looked tailored even though they had just been thrown at us with almost no care at all. No one could ever mistake this guy as human—he was too godlike for that.
“You okay?” he asked, eyes narrowing as he took me in. “Did something happen?”
Giving myself a mental scolding, I forced a smile. “No, nothing happened and I’m fine. Just didn’t sleep very well last night.”
His expression shuttered, and I sensed he wanted to ask why, but didn’t. “Ready to go, then?”
No. Not even remotely.
“Let’s get this shit over with.” The monotony of our days was depressing; I had no idea how anyone lived like this for long periods of time.
Jacob chuckled, and it was obvious that whatever had gone on last night among the trees, he was much more relaxed. Maybe I should do the same thing. Only I had not a single clue how to commune with nature. I mostly just sat there and enjoyed the breeze.
“I’m going to request time with the president today,” Jacob said as we walked toward the main cafeteria where the special forces ate breakfast. The White House was a maze of long halls, unused rooms, and these huge grand spaces. We hadn’t explored that much, but from what I’d seen, it was overkill to the highest order.
“You’re going to ask to go home?” Had he taken my warning yesterday seriously? I needed someone to, because my bad feeling about this situation only continued to grow stronger.
He shrugged. “I might get to that, but mostly I’m going to ask what the fuck is the point of this entire thing if he’s not actually spending any time with us. I thought about what you said yesterday, and if he’s planning something, this might shake him up. I’m not worried, but I’d like to be prepared.”
Relief that Jacob was ready to start pushing for answers hit me. If there was anything I'd learned in my life, it was that you couldn't let these "people" get too comfortable. That was when they started to plan their evil bullshit, and no way was I blindly trusting a president whose ego was larger than his brain.
Nope. Been there, done that. Men fucking sucked.
When we were halfway to breakfast, we were intercepted by Marcus.
"You're going to be late!" he barked.
Jacob didn't miss a beat. "We're not late because we don't work for you. And even if we did, we still wouldn't be late."
Marcus opened and closed his mouth, so used to his orders being carried out without question. Jacob’s rebuttal had actually stunned him.
He recovered quickly. "I heard what you did with Colin last night," he hissed, leaning in closer. "You better watch yourself. You should realize who we are and who you're in the company of—"
Before he could finish his attempt at a threat, Jacob's arm shot out, his long, tanned fingers wrapping around the soldier’s throat. With no visible effort, he lifted the human so high that his feet left the floor and he was looking down on the fey.
"Tell the president to come and find me this morning," Jacob said, his voice low and without inflection, "or I’ll kill you.”
Jacob dropped him and the soldier managed to catch himself before he face-planted on the ground. Marcus gasped, face murderous as he held his throat.
"Guess the time for diplomacy is over," I noted as we started to walk again.
Jacob snorted, before he scrubbed a hand across his face and shook his head. "Look, I found some inner peace last night, but it wasn’t enough to stop today from happening. I’ve reached my breaking point. Happens to the best of us."
I laughed, enjoying the tendrils of humor finally making their way back into his personality. Jacob the jokester was not my favorite, I was a bit of a sucker for his alpha male side, but it was still an important part of how he portrayed himself, and it was nice to see it return.
When we reached the cafeteria, filled with a dozen or so long tables for staff and security, there was a beat of silence. We didn't stop though because this awkward pause happened every time we entered the room. We were famous like that.
"Coffee?" Jacob asked, and I tried not to smile at the lame married couple routine we had going on.
"Sure, extra strong today," I said, and his smile was slow and sexy, and I had to swallow hard and force myself to turn away.
Jacob Compass was dangerous. Really fucking dangerous.
While he got our coffee, I put some bread in the toaster so it had time to cook while we grabbed hot food from the buffet. The food here was actually rather good and one of the few positives I could find in the entire situation. The president liked his people well-fed, so that was a point for him.
So far he had exactly one point.
Grabbing two plates, I spun to hand one to Jacob, who was right behind me.
"Spicy rice is a special today," I choked out, trying not to notice how green his eyes were. I swear that they were almost reflective, as I found myself caught in his stare.
“Good, you know spice is my favorite.” I did know that. I knew more about Jacob than I realized, despite how hard he was to read.
The air practically sizzled in the space between us, and I wanted to shake my head to clear the fuzziness. Something was shifting between us again, and I wondered if it was his communing last night, or the fact that he’d suddenly decided to start pushing the many a
nd varied issues around here. Either way, today was the day it all changed. I could feel that in the air.
"We have to ask to go home today," I burst out, trying to break the emotional tension that was wrapping insidious tendrils around us.
"He really has no choice," Jacob said, this tiny smirk playing at the corner of his lips. "He agreed to it in the initial deal."
I shrugged. People lied. A lot. President John Caine was no different. If anything, a politician was the lie-iest liar of all.
Turning away, I cleared my throat, trying to regain some equilibrium by randomly piling food onto my plate. I took more than usual because I was distracted. Buffets were a new concept to me, the thought that you could eat as much as you wanted and come back for more … so weird.
"Good to see," Jacob said as we sat, coffee and piled plates in front of us.
"What is?" I asked around a bite of toast, my mouth half full. Manners were not something I bothered with around Jacob, since the fey generally regarded me as a nuisance anyway. A bit of chewed toast in his conversation wasn't going to lower my status.
He jerked his fork toward my plate. "You're finally starting to eat like a supernatural. For months you've picked at your food."
Observant bastard. "Yeah, I guess my appetite is finally finding its stride. The food is pretty good here."
He shrugged. "Not the best I've had, but it's passable. Now the food in Faerie…"
I shook my head. "Haven't really been there long enough to notice, but sure, I guess it tasted pretty nice."
He tilted his head, eyebrows quirked. "You're determined to hate your heritage, aren't you?"
Annoyingly observant bastard.
Stabbing a potato with my fork, I popped it into my mouth to avoid answering that. Jacob didn't press me, but that half-smirk was back. Again. Stabbing another potato, I imagined it was his eyeball. Stupid fey was too fast for me to ever actually stab him, but it was fun to imagine.
We ate our food in relative silence after that, the tension slowly easing until it was gone. That was one part of our relationship I really enjoyed—no one held on to a grudge or anger.
