by Jackie May
The feeling disappears, and suddenly I’m the one being shaken. “Nora? Nora!”
“Holy shit, Parker. Is it always like that?”
“Damn it, Nora, that was dangerous! If I didn’t have the control I have, I could have killed you!”
“I trusted you.” I giggle, as if I’m completely drunk. “Now help me. We need to get the werewolves out, Nadine wants to eat me, and I can’t lift Shandra by myself.”
I blink my way back to reality and look around. A soft groan rings out, and Maya shouts, “Hurry, Nora! He’s coming to!”
“Shit!” I grab Parker’s wrists and jump to my feet.
The second I do, everything goes sideways. Parker catches me with a curse. “Damn it. You shouldn’t have fed me after Elijah took too much from you yesterday.”
“Whatever. Let’s just get the others.”
Parker shakes his head as he scoops me into his arms. “I don’t think so. The Agency will come back for them. I’m getting you out of here.”
“No way.” I struggle to get out of his arms and point to the wolves and Shandra. “I’m not leaving without Shandra! I promised Terrance. Get her out of here while I unlock the wolves.”
“Not a chance.”
“PARKER!” I push away from his chest hard enough that he drops me to my feet. “I’M NOT LEAVING HER!”
His eyes meet mine, and I shake my head. “Please, Parker. Just get her first.”
Whether he decides I’d just run right back in here—which I would—or he just wants to get on my good side, Parker nods, then runs to Shandra’s cage. I head for the cupboard with the keys to the silver cuffs, and by the time I find the key, Shandra and Parker are gone.
I run to Maya, but before I can get her free, Elijah is there. “You shouldn’t have done that, Nora,” he says, dragging me backward out of her cell by my ponytail.
I fight with everything I’ve got to escape his grip, but I’m weak from blood loss and he has some kind of inhuman strength. I toss Maya the keys as I’m dragged from the cell, but they don’t quite make it to her. “I’m sorry! But Parker will come back, I promise!”
She shakes her head at me, as if her safety doesn’t matter. “Be careful!”
“Nora will be fine,” Elijah says as he throws me down onto a large table in the middle of the room. “However, Parker won’t be back, because no one can get back in through my wards.”
When I notice the shackles attached at both ends of the table, I start to think this is less of a table and more of an altar. My heart stops and then starts beating in overdrive. Adrenaline surges though my body, making me come alive with the need to fight back or flee.
I amp up my struggling when he grabs one of my wrists and locks it to the table. I manage to punch him with my free fist, and he falls backward. “Damn it, Nora! Stop it! You already broke my nose on the cell bars!”
“Good!”
I scratch and claw at my locked hand, and I yank at the cuffs so hard my wrist quickly rubs raw and starts to bleed. But I can’t break the lock. I’m stuck.
Elijah grabs my feet next, and though I kick and buck so hard I feel like I might dislocate something, he manages to lock both of my feet to the table.
Fear pulses through my veins. Raw terror seizes my lungs. “Please don’t do this,” I gasp.
I’m so scared my whole body starts shaking. Tears prick the corners of my eyes. Elijah smiles as he grabs my last free limb. I try to pull away from him, but my adrenaline is starting to leave my body, and I’m just plain not strong enough to fight him.
He smiles down at me with some kind of cracked out affection, and something deep within me responds to it. A feeling starts to bubble up in my gut, and my instincts start battling my fear. Something is telling me that I am stronger than this man.
When he holds a chalice to my wrist and lifts his knife as if he means to bleed me, my instincts take over and I call out his name. The word leaves my lips, sounding musical, and Elijah pauses. His eyes lock in mine and his pupils dilate. Satisfaction swells in my chest at his response. Elijah is my prisoner. Not the other way around. “Release me.”
Elijah sets his knife and chalice aside and robotically starts to unlock my chains. He frees one of my wrists and then seems to shake himself from his trance. His eyes flash to mine, burning with anger. “What did you do to me, you little vixen?”
The power inside me is starting to slip away, as if retreating back to its hiding place where it will go back to sleep. I reach desperately for it and tug it back to the surface. “Let me go,” I command.
Elijah flinches, as if being punched by my power. His eyes widen, but then he narrows them and grits his teeth. His jaw clenches tight, and he refuses to break my stare. “I don’t know what you are,” he hisses, “but you are not stronger than me.”
The tingling sensation of magic washes over me, and I start to feel sleepy. He’s putting me under a spell. I steel my resolve and thrust all that power inside me outward. It crashes against Elijah’s magic, and for a moment the two of us are locked in a battle of magical wills.
Our concentration is shattered by a huge boom that sounds like an explosion, but nothing has blown up as far as I can tell. The building shakes, though, and Elijah’s eyes go wide. “Impossible,” he breathes.
“What?”
He blinks at me. “Someone broke through my wards. They were infused with dark magic.” He shakes his head. “No one in Detroit is powerful enough to do that.”
A goofy grin spreads across my face, and I start screaming my head off. “Oliver! Oliver! I’m in here! Oliver!”
“Oliver Harrington?” Elijah gasps. “But he doesn’t use his magic!”
“Guess he does now. Oh, and by the way, I’m sure Nick Gorgeous and Terrance Balfrey are with him.”
I’m smirking at the stupid sorcerer who knows he’s beaten, so I see the exact moment he snaps. “You little bitch!”
He snatches up his knife and tries to stab me in the heart with it. I’m able to throw him off his target with my free hand but not stop him. The knife plunges into my shoulder instead. I cry out as searing white-hot pain rips through me. My scream is echoed by a mighty roar, and then suddenly Elijah is ripped away from me. There’s no time to look away from the gruesome sight that follows when Terrance literally rips Elijah apart from limb to limb.
“Terrance!” I scream as tiny droplets of blood splatter across my body. “T-man, I’m all right! You can stop now!”
Terrance whirls around at the sound of my voice, that all-black gaze looking me over from head to toe. My heart skips a beat at the sight of his rage, but I take a breath and will myself to be calm for him. “I’m okay, Terrance,” I say softly. “You saved me. You can calm down now.”
It’s hard to tell exactly where he’s looking with his eyes all black like that, but when they narrow, I know he’s honed in on the knife in my shoulder. “Nothing a healer can’t take care of,” I promise him. “Maybe you could calm down and find one for me?”
Terrance stands there, shaking from head to toe, and sucks in a deep breath through his nose. When he lets it out slowly, his rage settles a bit. His eyes are still black, but at least the trembling has stopped. It’s something. “Good,” I say. “Now, I know you’re still worried about me, and I know you’re still very pissed off, but do you think you could step out of the way and let someone heal my shoulder? It hurts pretty bad.”
Terrance growls, but stomps off. As soon as he’s out of the way, Nick and Oliver swoop in. Nick gets to work breaking me free from my chains, and I do mean that literally. He grabs the restraints around my ankles and my wrist and snaps them apart with his bare hands. I guess I can add super strength to the mystery that is Nick Gorgeous. Not that I’m surprised about that.
“Nora?”
I turn my head at the sound of Oliver’s voice and smile brightly. “It was you, wasn’t it? Who broke Elijah’s wards?”
Oliver’s face is pained when he nods. Seeing his distress wracks m
e with guilt. My smile fades, and I have to swallow a lump in my throat before I can speak. “I’m so sorry you had to use your magic for me.”
Oliver pinches his eyes shut and releases a sharp breath. He shakes his head. “Nora, I’m so sorry. I—”
“Move,” Terrance snaps, pushing Oliver out of the way and shoving Enzo in his place. “Fix her.”
Enzo bows as if he gets manhandled and ordered around on a regular basis, so I frown at Terrance on his behalf. “Be nice, you big grump. I’m fine now, and I’m safe, so calm down and stop being rude to people.”
Terrance growls at me.
“Careful, Nora,” Nick warns. “He may be responding now, but he’s still very volatile. He might not hurt you if he snaps, but the rest of us aren’t safe from him.”
“Sorry.” I look at Terrance again and force a smile. “Hey, T-man. I promise I’m okay. These guys are just trying to help. Take it easy on them, okay? Please? For me?”
Terrance huffs and crosses his arms over his chest, unwilling to calm down while there’s still a knife in my shoulder. Seeing that we’re at a standstill, Enzo moves his hands very slowly toward the hilt of the knife. “Nora, be very still,” he says. “I’m going to take the knife out now, and I don’t want to cause more damage than is already done. I’m afraid it’s going to hurt.”
“Okay.” I’m trying to look and sound brave, but it’s bullshit. I’m terrified. It hurt like hell going in, and I don’t want to feel that pain again.
“Hang on,” Nick says, stopping Enzo as he reaches for the handle of the knife. His eyes meet mine. “You should send your troll outside before he does this, because Terrance will lose his shit again if you start screaming.”
I roll my eyes. “Or, you could not be a douche and ask him yourself. He’s not my troll.”
Enzo bites his cheek as if trying not to smile, and Nick smirks. “Actually, he is your troll. And you’re his human. He’s claimed you as his, and you’re the only one he’ll listen to right now, so you have to send him away.”
My eyes bulge. “He what?” I shout so forcefully pain shoots through my shoulder. “You mean like a mate?”
Nick smirks again.
Terrance huffs again. “Not mate. Clan.”
Terrance seems to be limited in his speech ability right now, so I look to Nick for further explanation. “When you triggered his troll’s instincts,” he says, “that was his way of claiming you as his own. Him taking you into his home confirmed it. You are his clan.”
Whoa. That sounds serious. I glance at Terrance. “We’re going to talk about this as soon as you’re not ready to kill someone.” When he gives me a curt nod, I manage a smile. “Nick’s right. You should probably wait outside for a few minutes while Enzo heals me.”
He clenches his teeth and glares at me, but I don’t back down. “I need Enzo to heal me, and it’s not going to be pleasant. You’re still worked up. You don’t want to hurt Enzo for helping me do you, big guy?”
His teeth grind, so I play the only other card I can think of that might work—I give him someone else to think about. “Why don’t you go check on Shandra, and I’ll come find you in a few minutes?”
He narrows his eyes and waits a moment just to be stubborn but finally grunts and walks off. Man, my troll is one adorable big lug.
Removing the knife from my shoulder hurts like a bitch, but I manage to lock my jaw and not scream. Terrance left, but he has excellent hearing and I don’t want to risk setting him off again. “Damn, Spitfire,” Nick says after the deed is done, and I’m left pale-faced and panting. “You’re one tough little woman.”
“Years of practice,” I say, letting out a breath of relief as the pain in my shoulder is replaced with a pleasant tingling sensation. My entire body relaxes, and I grin at Enzo. “You’re my favorite underworlder. Have I told you that?”
Warmth spreads through my shoulder and through Enzo’s cheeks as he works. “Thank you, miss.”
“You can call me Nora, you know. No more of this miss stuff, okay?”
His eyes flicker up to me but quickly drop to my arm again, and he ducks his head once in a nod. “If you’d like.” He lets go, and I roll my shoulder. It’s a little stiff, but otherwise good as new. Seriously, he’s the best.
“Is there anything else, Miss Nora?”
I do a quick internal assessment. “Nothing that a few days’ rest won’t fix,” I say. I’m stiff and sore from fighting Elijah, and a little queasy from the magic-laced drugs Elijah pumped into me, but other than that, I came out of the ordeal relatively unscathed. “Unless you can do something about extreme blood loss from being a vamp’s dinner.”
I’m joking, but Enzo’s face falls. He shakes his head. “I’m sorry. I wish I could, but that’s out of my realm of healing abilities.”
“I know. I was only teasing. Sorry.” I give his shoulder an awkward pat, feeling bad for my tactless joke. “Thank you for fixing my shoulder. You’re seriously the best.”
This time, he lets himself grin. “Thank you, Nora.” He bows his head slightly. “If you’ll excuse me now, I must attend to the others.”
“Oh, of course. Go do your thing, rock star.”
Enzo walks away from me toward Maya and her werewolf friend, shaking his head and chuckling.
“You’re the only person in the world who dares tease him. I think he likes it,” Terrance says, joining me again. Thankfully, he seems to be back to his normal self now.
Nobody’s ready for me to leave yet, and I’m too weak from blood loss to get up, so I’m still sitting on the table/sacrificial altar. I have to look way up to see Terrance’s face, he’s so tall. That shiny head and face full of piercings should be frightening, but it’s so comforting I reach out and hug the massive troll. Terrance hugs me back and quickly lets me go, knowing I’m not big on touch.
“Why don’t people ever tease him?” I ask. “He seems like a sweet guy.”
Terrance glances toward the healer. “Respect, mostly. Shamans are revered in the underworld, especially the ones with strong healing abilities.”
“Oh. Crap. I hope I didn’t insult him.”
“No. Like I said, I think he likes it. Enzo isn’t a typical shaman. He’s not so stuffy. He prefers working for the Agency to sitting around in a temple all day. I think he would rather people treat him as a normal person, but he can’t quite shake the title.”
I watch Enzo heal Maya. The woman who was all sarcasm and spunk with me is being very demure with Enzo. “Huh.” I pull my attention back to Terrance. His face and hands are clean now, but the red stains on his shirt remind me I had a question for him. “So…Elijah’s dead, but what about the rest of his brotherhood?”
Terrance grimaces and lets out a sigh. “When Oliver called, I sort of lost it. He was wise to wait until he knew your location, or I may have rampaged through the entire city. The Agency kept me contained for the most part, but while we were trying to figure out how to get past the dark magic surrounding this place, three people exited the warehouse headed for that hideous yellow car. No one could hold me back from actual targets. To be honest, I’m not sure they wanted to hold me back.”
He’s not saying it, but I know he killed whoever the unlucky bastards were. I wonder if I should feel bad about that, but I just can’t seem to muster up any moral conscience over the fact that my kidnappers—who were seriously evil psychotics about to murder a dozen innocent people—are dead. The underworld is a dangerous place with a different set of rules. I’m not sure what it says about me that I seem to fit into this darker new world better than I ever fit into my own, but I’ll save that thought for another day. “And the rest?”
Terrance shakes his head. “I came straight here, so they live. The Agency raided their house and have all of them in custody.” He frowns. “Their futures look pretty grim. The Agency doesn’t take kindly to dark magic or humans who threaten our world. Some of those guys may end up wishing I’d gotten to them first.”
I shiver. No
te to self: don’t get on the Agency’s bad side. Or a troll’s. Terrance misinterprets my shudder. “Nora…I know I don’t always have control of my temper, but you will always be safe with me.”
I pat his big shoulder. “I know, T-man.”
This conversation reminds me that we still have something to talk about. “So what’s this claiming business Nick mentioned?”
Terrance sighs. “It’s not what you’re thinking. I have accepted you. I’ve taken you in as clan.”
When I wait for more, he shrugs awkwardly. “Trolls can’t control who they claim—as clan or as mates. When our protective instincts kick in, the way mine have with you, it’s for life. My instincts have forced me to claim you as my clan. I will always consider you mine to protect and care for; however, you don’t have to accept me.” He glances away and rubs the back of his flaming neck, as if nervous that I’ll refuse him.
“What does it mean?” I ask. “To be clan?”
He pierces me with a sure gaze. “Family.” Something warm lances my heart. I’ve never had real family before. “You are mine now,” Terrance says. “Here in Detroit, I have my own territory. It makes me head of my own clan. I’ve been alone for a long time. You’re the first I’ve taken in. You are my first family. You have my support and protection for life.” He swallows. “But again, you do not have to accept.”
My throat closes up. Every foster kid dreams of finding that perfect family where they fit in. We all dream of getting adopted. It never happened for me. And, in fact, because I was such a strange and troubled child, I bounced around to more homes than normal. I gave up on the dream of having a real family a long time ago. Terrance has no idea how much what he’s offering means to me. “Terrance…” I choke out the word. “Of course I’ll accept. You’re my first family, too. I’m honored to be part of your clan.”
We hug again and are interrupted by a loud, giddy squeal. I look toward the noise and notice four trolls. Two of them I recognize. Shandra looks groggy and like she might be in need of a puke bucket, but it’s good to see her conscious. She’s standing with two men who make Terrance look like a runt. They look like a grumpy lot, but I have a feeling that’s just how trolls always look. Terrance’s sister, however, has a wide smile plastered on her face. The squeal had come from her, and when we make eye contact, she can no longer contain herself. She bounds across the room toward us. The entire place thumps with each of her footsteps. Terrance blocks her before she can tackle me. “Little sister, she is human. Do not break her.”
