Sung joined us. “Harper would never do that. Never.”
Elias put a hand on Sasha’s arm. “Maybe she’s forgotten—”
“That I’m in charge and she follows my orders?” Sasha snapped.
“No,” Elias said. “That she isn’t afraid of flying.”
“This is crazy.” Sasha looked at his watch. “But we are running out of time. So fine. Stay here. Just tell us how to find the hotel, and we’ll do it on our own.”
That wasn’t possible. There was one minor detail I hadn’t told them. I wasn’t sure how to explain. So it was me or nothing. I stared at the jet. Also known as The Tin Can of Death. But if I didn’t get over myself and go, more death would follow. If I was serious about making amends, now was the time.
“No, I’ll go.” I could totally do this.
Xander helped me out of the car. I patted his chest with my palm, feeling the soft fabric and hard muscles underneath. Strong.
Green eyes twinkling, he smiled, took my hand, and kissed my knuckles. “You’ve got this. Nothing to it.” Then he put a gentle hand to my lower back and eased me forward.
“Finally,” Sasha said, exasperated. He stepped back with a sweep of his arm.
With a sneer in his direction, I took a deep breath and stepped forward. One foot at a time. “I’ve got this,” I muttered softly. “Totally.”
“Of course you do,” Xander whispered in my ear.
I saw the plane.
Yep, totally got this.
My heart rate accelerated. But I still had it.
The plane started to blur.
My step faltered. Xander’s hand on my back steadied me.
I pushed his hand away and motioned for him to stay back, determined to do this on my own. So I swallowed and kept moving forward.
Because I totally had this.
Then a face flashed in one of the windows. It opened its mouth to scream. I startled. Blinked several times. The face disappeared.
I blew out a breath because I totally had this completely under control. Totally and complete—
The face returned, along with others. In every window.
But I still had it…
They opened their mouths.
…totally…
Their screams pierced through my skull like hot spikes.
…not under control.
I turned and bolted.
“Guys,” Sasha said calmly.
Thomas and Sung caught me, turned me around, and shoved me back toward the plane. And the memory of screams.
“Careful,” Elias said. “Watch her head. And her shoulder. And her back. Ah, hell, watch everything!”
“She is much stronger than I remember,” Sung said, grunting with the effort of pushing me forward.
“Gee,” Thomas said, heavy on the sarcasm. “You mean compared to the last time we had to shove her in the jet?”
“What are you talking about?” Sung said. “We have never had to shove her in the jet before. Oh.” He nodded. “Yes, I see the point you are making. Do not worry Harper, we are here for you now.” He pushed with more vigor. “Fighting! Because you would never forgive me if I let you walk away from helping an innocent boy.”
With my anxiety this crazy? Yes I would, yes I would, yes I soooo would.
“Guys, just give me a minute,” I begged. Struggled harder. My elbow connected to someone’s nose.
“Sasha,” Xander said. “I think we should…”
“Agreed,” Sasha nodded. “Gentlemen, that’s enough.”
Thomas and Sung released me.
“Thank you!” I turned and ran, scrambling to stay on my feet.
Sasha caught my wrist, dropped down, then swooped me up onto his shoulder like a kill from his latest hunt.
Elias yelled. “She has brain damage!”
“Obviously.” Sasha stomped up the steps to the jet. “But we don’t have time to deal with it. Everyone inside. Xander—”
“I’ll get her favorite sedative,” Xander assured him.
I was so dead.
14
Sasha set me in a seat, more gently than I expected, but his tone was harsh. “What the hell is wrong with you? We are not the enemy!”
“Shows how much you know!” I shot back.
He paused. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing,” I muttered and tried to get up, but he put a firm hand on my shoulder and dumped me back down.
“Stay put,” he ordered.
I glared up at him. “Why do you hate me so much?”
“Hate you?” Something other than anger flickered in his cool grey eyes, but he closed them before I could make out the emotion. Then he squatted down in front of me, held my gaze, his expression neutral, and put his large hands on my thighs. “You need to calm down.”
“This will help.” Xander offered a highball glass with clear liquid.
My nostrils flared as I sneered up at him. “I’m not going to let you drug me.”
“Drugs?” Xander’s brow furrowed. “It’s your favorite vodka. Always calms your nerves.”
One corner of Sasha’s mouth lifted in a small smile. “It’s Russian. Shows you have at least a small amount of good taste.” When I still eyed them both with suspicion, Sasha grabbed the glass. “Fine then. I could use it.” He downed the contents in one swig, then handed the glass to Xander. “Another.”
Xander refilled the glass from a bottle in the galley, drank it himself, then refilled and brought it to Sasha, but I grabbed it out of his hand and gulped it down. The liquid burned my throat. In a good way.
I hadn’t had a drink in forever. Alcohol didn’t affect demons. Something about our non-human metabolism. I was hoping that being in a human body would let me enjoy it. With the warm feeling that spread over me, it seemed to be working. At least no more faces screamed at me.
The plane was already moving when Elias closed and locked the door.
Xander glanced at me and put a hand on Sasha’s shoulder. “It’s time to face it. Maybe we should give the mission to another team.”
“Great,” Elias moaned. “Now I need a drink.” He pulled a bottle of beer from the small fridge, popped the top, and took a long pull. “This is our first real chance we have had to beat the Psycho Squad.”
Psycho who?
While Thomas waited for his tea to brew, he wrapped ice in a towel. “It would be nice to beat those bastards,” he sighed and handed Sung the ice for his bloody nose. “And finally become Sicarius.”
Sasha turned around and sat on the floor in front of me, his back against my seat, his shoulders between my knees. “Let me think.”
I thought too. And it wasn’t good, because I knew about the Sicarius. They were the elite, most lethal level of Mandatum hunters. Assassins. Best of the best. And if these guys were a breath away from making the cut, they were a level of dangerous I had only been up against once. And lost.
Miserably.
I really had myself in the deep end of a death pool.
The airplane shuddered. Metal groaned.
“Oh get a grip,” Sasha said, digging an elbow into my leg. “I said I was thinking.”
“It’s not her.” Elias set down his beer, his eyes swirling white and flickering from side to side. “Someone does not want this plane to move.”
“Who?” I said.
The jet door rattled.
“Someone at least as strong as me.” Elias raised his arms, guns appearing in his fists.
Wind whistled through the cabin. Ruffling hair and clothes. The jet door opened.
A man slipped in. Younger than my crew of hunters. Skinny and gaunt, with a shaggy mop of hair, he hovered an inch above the ground, his clothes spattered with splotches of dark crusted blood.
Elias shot off a round.
Looking almost bored, the scrawny guy put a finger to his lips. Elias’s bullet froze a breath from the intruder’s face. The guy blew softly, and the bullet disappeared like a candle going out on a cake.
Sasha swore and shoved to his feet, flames bursting alive in his fists. Xander leapt to Sasha’s side. Tea splattered to the ground as thick spearheads shot from Thomas’s shirtsleeves and into his hands. Sung pulled me out of my chair and dropped me behind two others, then gestured for me to stay put as he stood guard, his fists opening and closing.
“You know,” the intruder continued on with a thick American cowboy drawl. “Someone of another ilk could take very unkindly to that sort of behavior. You’re lucky it’s me.”
From the crazy look of this fellow, didn’t seem like anyone would be lucky to be anywhere near him.
15
A deep voice came from outside. “I told you not to threaten them.”
“I haven’t,” the intruder said, raising blood-stained hands in a supplicating gesture. “I’ve been very friendly. Making conversation. Even offering compliments. Ain’t that right, fellas?”
A hulking figure lumbered into the jet, his size forcing him to duck his head low to get through the door. He wore a thick coat with a high collar that rose to just under his eyes hidden behind dark aviator sunglasses. A beanie covered his hair and, on top of that, a baseball cap was pulled low over his brow. An air of imminent danger suddenly filled the space.
“Who—?” I started to ask, but Sung cut me off with a cutting motion of his hand.
Sasha remained calm, but there was a hard edge to his voice. “We were not made aware that we would be getting assistance.”
“This is our mission now,” Xander spat. “You’re not getting it back.”
Sasha shot him a cold look and shook his head.
“Of course,” the mysterious man said, his voice muffled enough that I couldn’t place the accent. “I observe the misunderstanding. I assure you, we are not here to steal your glory.”
“Not that we couldn’t,” his scrawny sidekick muttered.
“Horus, please,” Mystery Man said quietly, then turned to Sasha. “The mission is yours alone, we are simply requesting transport.”
“Yeah,” Horus said. “We’re going on vacation. And you lucky sons get to help us out.” Horus flopped in the nearest seat.
Mystery Man snatched his friend’s baggy shirt and hauled him back up. “We hoped you would find it in your hearts to allows us to join your flight. You are heading West, no?”
“The Psycho Squad has its own transport,” Thomas said.
“Well, yeah.” Horus looked around. “You didn’t think we’d be riding in this tin can, did ya?”
“Thank you,” I said under my breath. Maybe this Horus guy wasn’t as crazy I thought.
Mystery Man cleared his throat. “What my esteemed colleague is trying to say is that, as a magnanimous inducement for your kind cooperation, you have generously been assigned another transport.” He pointed out the open door to the massive jet I’d seen earlier.
“Yes!” I started to rise.
Sung put a foot on my stomach and pinned me back down.
“Who you got back there?” Horus asked, his head craning around to see me as he took a step forward.
The guys tensed. But Mystery Man made an almost imperceptible movement, and Horus stayed put, a pout on his face.
“If I’m not mistaken, that’s your ride,” Sasha said, his chin motioning to the massive plane. “Why give it to us?”
“Because we would like to…‘tag along’ I believe is the term,” Mystery Man said.
A knowing smile slid onto Sasha’s full lips. “And I believe you would rather not be added to the manifest. Am I right?”
“Hey, partner.” Grinning, Horus snapped his fingers and pointed at Sasha. “You’re smarter than you look. Might be hope for you and your team yet.”
Mystery Man breathed deep through his nose and closed his eyes briefly. “Horus, let me handle this.”
Horus rolled his eyes. “What. Ever.”
Mystery Man gave Sasha a slight nod. “As for adding our names to the manifest I would consider such formalities unnecessary.”
“Vacation my ass,” Elias said. “You do not believe we are aware of why we got this mission over you? You are supposed to be detained.”
“Well, if he was,” Horus glanced down at his bloody clothes. “He ain’t now. And if y’all don’t want the same treatment—”
Mystery Man held up a hand toward Horus. “In exchange for the undocumented assistance, I would reward you most handsomely. This mission alone will not promote you to Sicarius.”
Sasha raised his brows. “You’d get us the recommendations we need?”
“As you are no doubt aware, I am…” Mystery Man bobbed his head side to side in thought. “More politically connected than most.”
“Or,” Horus beamed, “I could just kill y’all.”
“Horus,” Mystery Man groaned.
Horus winked. “It’s called negotiating. I got this.”
Silence hung heavy.
Mystery Man sighed. “Or you could report us, which would cause delay, a dreadful amount of administrative bureaucracy, and perhaps even the giving of this mission to others, causing you to miss out on the opportunities of your careers. And,” he added amiably, “a chance to have me as an ally and advocate on your behalf.” He turned to his slender friend. “That is negotiating.”
Horus looked unimpressed. “You threatened them with paperwork.”
Mystery Man pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Fine, fine,” Horus said then closed his mouth and mimicked the motion of locking his lips with a key.
Sasha glanced around at his team. Something unspoken passed between them. A moment later, the flames on his fists flickered out. “Looks like we got ourselves a deal.”
Fabulous. More hunters. Dangerous ones. Important ones. Just what I needed. But there was good news.
16
A bigger plane!
It didn’t take long for us to make the transfer. I may have led the charge out the door and across the tarmac. The plane took off quickly while everyone was still stowing their gear.
Mystery Man had taken Sasha in the back for a tour. In the kitchen Thomas brewed tea, and Xander cooked something on the stove that sizzled with a strong scent of garlic while he chopped a multitude of items to create a colorful salad. Sung had found a heavy looking barbell and did bicep curls with one hand while using the other to rummage the cupboards for board games or cards to help us pass the time.
Breathing easier, I flumped down into a seat.
“Hey, little lady.” Horus sat in a chair across from me. “Pleasure to meet you. I’m—”
“She does not care to know.” Elias came out of nowhere, took my hand, and led me to a seat far away.
Horus’ eyes followed us. “What’s wrong with her?”
Elias turned, his lips turned into a harsh frown. “Nothing.”
“No.” Horus shook his head. “I’ve been watching. It’s not just all the blood matted on the back of her head. She just seems,” he tapped a finger to his temple, “…off.”
I tensed.
Elias squeezed my hand reassuringly and gave Horus a tired look. “And that’s something you would know about.”
“Exactly,” Horus said, seeming to take no offense. “But I’m working on it. And why I know that formal introductions and meaningless small talk are socially normal ways to spend time with new acquaintances. I like the practice. So, let’s try this again.” He stood, smiled wide at me, and bowed slightly. “Hello, my name is—”
“You’re right,” Elias said. “She’s off because she had a hard day. She doesn’t need you making it worse.”
“Not my intention,” Horus said. “But can’t stop me from talking to her. It’s my plane and you know you can’t take me.”
“Maybe not,” Elias said, his blue eyes darkening. “But my mystic ancestors are pretty badass.”
Horus
’ face skewed in confusion. “What the hell are you talking about? “He let out a small laugh. “I have a mind to teach you a les—”
The air suddenly chilled. Horus’ smile faltered. He cleared his throat. Brought a hand up and rubbed his neck. He opened his mouth but could only utter a scratchy sounding wheeze. A cold fog sputtered and spilled over his lips.
Sasha walked in from the back with Mystery Man in his wake.
“Sung!” Sasha barked.
I noticed the fingers of Sung’s free hand undulating softly, and his eyes swirled a murky blue-green, his expression grim. At Sasha’s rebuke, Sung’s look remained forbidding and focused on Horus, but his fingers stilled, and his eyes returned to a deep brown.
Horus gasped a deep breath and coughed out shards of ice that pinged to the floor. After a moment, his breath stopped fogging from his lips. He flicked menacing and dangerous eyes on Sung.
“That was you?” he said.
“Stay away from Harper,” Sung said.
“Hot damn. While I am impressed, partner, I am not pleased.” He stood and reached under his coat to the back waistband of his jeans.
Xander gripped the knife he had been using to chop vegetables.
“Horus, no,” Mystery man said, his voice soft yet exuding an undeniable strength.
Horus pursed his lips. “But he—”
“No,” Mystery Man said again.
“But I didn’t even do anything,” Horus whined.
“Perhaps.”
“So I don’t get to—”
“No.”
“Not even a little bit?”
“Not even a little bit.” Mystery Man clasped his hands behind his back. “Make yourselves at home, gentlemen and lady.” He offered me a deferent nod. “For the duration, my colleague and I will be ensconced in the farthest bedroom. You have your choice of the others and complete run of the plane. A car will be waiting for you when we land. You need not see us again. Good luck with your mission. And you have my deepest gratitude.” He gave a slight bow of his well-covered head, turned on his heel, and strode down the hallway. “Come Horus.”
Horus narrowed his eyes at Sung, his expression so petulant, I thought he might stick out his tongue. But then with a final glare, he turned to follow Mystery Man.
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