From behind, the clap of footsteps reached a rising crescendo, the group of fae growing loud as thunder.
Even though her breaths slipped out ragged and her feet bled at this point, Danica ignored the throbbing to vault forward.
A familiar creak and groan sounded amidst the chatter from all the people wandering around. Danica glanced to the road. The Deuce approached from farther down, the double decker buses that flowed along the strip. The neon location scrolled across the top bar, and the bus veered ever closer. If they could just move fast enough.
“Catch the bus.” The command ripped from Danica’s lips as she rocketed forward, faster. They needed a second. Just a second.
Danica whipped around, lifting her hands as she faced the oncoming redcaps. She thrust every ounce of energy she could summon into crafting an illusion quick as a snap.
“Look, it’s Brad Pitt,” she called out, pointing to the redcaps who raced their way. “And George Clooney.” At once, the surrounding humans whipped their heads in the direction of the beasts rushing toward them.
The one thing she could count on was for humans to chase after celebrities. She pivoted around and bolted forward, even as the murmurs turned into excited shrieks behind her and the pounding of more and more footsteps echoed around them.
The bus pulled to the curbside, and the double doors opened with a creak. A couple of people stumbled out, and a few slipped in to board. Closer, closer. All six of them raced forward at top speed. They needed to be in the bus before it headed off. The familiar rumble echoed through the area, sending a jolt of panic through her.
“Wait,” Trevor called, racing past her as he almost vaulted for those steps. Growls lit the air from farther behind them—the redcaps.
Trevor reached the doors first, slamming his hands on either side as if that might stop them from closing. He leapt up the steps, and Danica launched herself in after him. They garnered an irritated look from the bus driver, a hunched over old guy who wanted to peel away before now. Ky fed a bill into the meter to pay for their fares.
Now, now, now.
The redcaps raced closer, the whole horde of them locked in on this bus. A growing crowd of humans rushed up to or around them, hopefuls looking for an autograph or to snap a selfie.
The bus driver let out a grunt and shut the doors. His brows furrowed, and he slammed on the gas, the Deuce bus groaning as it launched forward down the Strip. Danica grabbed hold of the nearest pole, almost sagging against it in relief when they glided by the approaching redcaps, who were already surrounded by their adoring ‘fans.’
Thank everything for surly bus drivers.
“Let’s find a seat,” Jett suggested, stepping in as the voice of reason amidst all of this madness.
Danica’s chest rose and fell with staggered breaths. She wanted to sleep for the next century, after she took a scorching shower. The other patrons on the bus looked away from them fast, no one wanting to make eye contact and have a seat-mate.
Danica slipped into the first open two-seater, but to her dismay, Trevor slid in beside her. Like they hadn’t gotten enough confusing signals from their time together in the cave. They were hopeless anyway—neither would ever be able to break the cycle of their paranoid survival tendencies to pursue anything real.
Jett and Renn hadn’t been seated for two minutes before Renn slumped against him. The satyr’s mouth hung open when he began to snore, and Jett let out a belabored sigh before he stared at the ceiling. Ky and Liz leaned against each other as well, their foreheads touching while they murmured together. The sight of how far they’d come since she first met them made her heart twist with envy.
Discomfort prickled her skin as she glanced to Trevor. Even though he was dirty and bedraggled from their time in the Otherworld, his sensuous lips, those soft, serious eyes that crinkled when he grinned, and the strands of his silver hair drifting across his forehead made her breath catch in her throat every time she glanced at him. His intense gaze settled on her, and she swallowed.
She wanted to hate him. She wanted the flare of attraction to have flickered out after the way she stung when he’d taken the mirror back, the one he now clutched tight to his chest.
“Hey, D,” he murmured, his silken voice ensnaring her. God, she hated and loved the nickname from his mouth. “I wanted to apologize. You’ve done everything to prove you can be trusted so far, and I should. I really should. It’s not your fault I’ve got years of damage fucking with my head.”
“You and me both, babe.” The words slipped from her lips. “Look, it’s better you guys have the mirror anyway. Strength in numbers and all that.”
Trevor cocked an eyebrow. “You don’t think after we escaped a pack of bloodthirsty redcaps you’re going to be heading off to the hotel by your lonesome?”
Danica bit her lip. His concern burrowed inside her cold, black heart, as if it hadn’t desiccated years ago. “Like your RV’s not crowded enough already? Who knows what travesties that couch of yours has seen.”
“Who said you’d be sleeping on the couch?” he responded, the heat in his voice flushing through her from the inside out. He needed to stop being so attractive. It had become a serious problem.
“I don’t want to hear your sex noises until the wee hours,” Kieran whined from behind them, poking through the seats to interrupt.
A laugh escaped Danica as Trevor shot him a glare. “Like I haven’t suffered on the bunk underneath while you and Liz don’t even wait for me to fall asleep before the creaking begins,” he responded.
“We could always turn it into a competition,” Liz shot back, a wan smile on her face. “See who comes first.”
Trevor tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling, letting out a groan. Not like she didn’t catch his slight grin. His fingers slipped through hers, and he gripped tight.
“You’re on, Obiwan,” Danica cracked back, an amused grin rising to her lips. The bus continued to chug along down the Strip, more people getting on and off as they went. She squeezed Trevor’s hand a little tighter. Despite the way they joked around, if they’d been in danger from Alberich before, it was nothing compared to now. And with the way her heart had begun to lurch every time she looked at Trevor, she wasn’t sure what terrified her more.
Those chains wrapping around her body, or her heart.
Chapter Fifteen
Trevor emerged from the shower a new man.
After the sheer amount of cave dirt and sludge that came off him, he felt like he’d shed his skin. Danica waited out with the rest of the band who gathered by their kitchenette and vinyl booth, putting the coffee machine through the motions again. Sleep wouldn’t come any time soon, no matter how thin he was stretched from insomnia. His gray tee clung to his chest with the layer of dampness lingering post-shower, and even his jeans glued themselves to his thighs.
Danica looked up at him first, and when their eyes met, he couldn’t dismiss how his chest tightened, like he’d tripped and hadn’t stopped falling. He didn’t know where they stood in the slightest or what their future held, if anything at all. However, he was done denying how he felt. She’d solidified a place in his heart, no matter how crumbling and fragmented it might be.
“Cast some mojo on the RV while you were drowning in the shower,” she said, leaning against the wall.
“Oh yeah?” He arched a brow as he stepped closer.
She grinned, one of those that made her green eyes light up like sunshine on a meadow. “I may not have a lot of useful abilities, but anyone coming with intent to harm is going to find themselves subtly distracted to look elsewhere.” She lifted her phone. “Sent Kincaid a text, too. The plan is to meet with him tomorrow, and then we’ll press the destruct button on Alberich.
Jett leaned over the surface of the mirror, continuing to scan it over. “I should know what this is,” he murmured. “But every time I veer close, my brain keeps skipping like a scratched album.”
Trevor let out a breath. “So, we’ve got to
survive a day with this nuclear bomb on our hands, right?” As someone who’d experienced Alberich’s persistence, he didn’t trust leaving the mirror alone for a second.
“I need grease in my system if we’re going to be taking shifts with this thing,” Ky muttered, running a hand through his dark hair.
Liz hopped down from her perch on the countertop. “Well, it’s five in the morning. Perfect time to hit up Mo’s.” She didn’t wait for the others, taking the first steps toward the front of the RV.
Trevor reached out to offer a hand up to Danica who pursed her lips.
“What’s with the gentleman routine?” she asked, cocking a brow. “Are you planning on slitting my throat later?”
He rolled his eyes. “Heaven forbid anyone show a bit of decency with you.” He glanced to her feet, which were no longer bare. “New shoes?”
Danica flaunted the black pumps she now wore with a band tee and black skirt. “Obiwan let me raid her wardrobe. Apparently, we’re a similar size, which is information she should’ve never given me.”
The rest of the band already launched themselves out of the RV by the time she and Trevor locked up. They lingered paces behind the others who tromped across the lot to Mo’s, the nearby diner with even more red neons added to the mix. This time of day, the first streaks of magenta sprawled across the horizon. No matter how jaded he’d become and no matter how much futility he’d drowned in over the years, he couldn’t resist the pinpricks of hope infiltrating with the new dawn.
For the first time since he escaped, Alberich wasn’t this looming, impenetrable force. They now possessed the button to cause his destruction, and he still found himself barely able to believe they’d accomplished as much as they had. And it was all due to Danica Maslanka.
She strode next to him, her gaze focused on the diner ahead. Strands of her still-damp hair glued to her neck, even with the way she’d pulled it back into a loose bun. He couldn’t forget how her long legs wrapped around him, but even deeper burrowed the vulnerability in her emerald eyes when she’d told him about her past with her sister. She’d been as isolated as him—at least, until he’d met Kieran and they formed Discord’s Desire.
“So, how long do we want to tango around this?” Trevor asked. He knew the way she’d respond, how she’d find some diversion to slip into, but he needed to at least try. Even if she shattered him in the end, he’d already been broken beyond repair anyway.
Danica gave him the side-eye. “Around the fact you’ll never be able to trust me? Or that all this A+ chemistry is going to waste on two perpetual avoidance cases?”
He blinked. That hadn’t been what he’d expected, but something shifted between them in the cave, like the rocks descending from the ceiling—when one began to fall, the others were soon to follow.
“Look, what happened between us in the past is that. My trust issues were a problem before you ever entered the picture,” he murmured. “I spent so many years locked away, a mere object to that monster, so my reflex response is to run. To escape at any cost. Yet, for the first time in my life, I might be able to learn something new. If we succeed in taking Alberich down, there’s no one I’d rather try with than you.” He was fully clothed, but in the moment he may as well have stripped bare. Trevor avoided Danica’s eyes, unwilling to deal with the surefire rejection he’d find there.
She’d made her point clear—neither of them could swing something like a real relationship. Yet Danica unlocked a part of him he had believed buried forever. She’d unearthed the battered footlocker where he’d kept what little hope remained, and no matter where their tour ended, he would always be grateful for that.
“You’re assuming I’m capable of more than surface.” Danica kept her voice light, but an underlying fragility dwelled there, like her attempt would crack at any moment. He met her eyes, and for a moment he caught the fleeting gleam there of the girl she’d buried away the day she escaped with her sister. “You’d have better luck romancing a Terminator.”
His throat tightened. She was distancing again, and he only had himself to blame. He’d seen the way she’d begun to unfurl, yet when he implied she couldn’t be trusted by asking for the mirror, a winter frost snapped in overnight.
They lagged behind the others who’d already reached the front door of the diner. He caught the nod Ky gave him before the band leader stepped inside, gesturing for the others to follow.
“Then let’s at least indulge in this A+ chemistry while it lasts,” he murmured, reaching down to twine his fingers through hers. Words might never convince her—she’d used them as weapons for far too long—however, he couldn’t deny their skin sparked at a simple touch. He tugged her forward, and she came willingly, pressing her palms against his chest. She smelled fresh and clean, the pure, intoxicating scent of lemongrass.
When Danica looked up at him at last, her evergreen eyes were vivid, clear, like the real woman existed there beneath all her deflection and hurt. He leaned down to capture her lips in his. The kiss was sweet, a heady swirl of desire and longing as he sank into it. Her fingers curled into his shirt. He wrapped his hands around her waist, drawing her in tight. Even with the desire she sparked in him and how he’d love to take her here in the parking lot, an ache had grown in his chest every time they came together, like it might be their last.
Maybe he was delusional in believing he’d ever be able to hold onto any real sort of relationship. He’d spent his life being used like an object, whether in Alberich’s grasp or the dozens of beds he bounced into. With them, he was numb, safe, and he didn’t have to feel this desperate yearning. This pain.
He pulled away from the kiss, but neither of them moved. They stared at each other in the hush of early dawn, their chests rising and falling in tandem.
Danica glanced to his chest, as if she’d burn a hole through it. “When this is all over, I think I might be wanting to take a road trip. See how a band operates firsthand, you know?”
His heart caught in his chest. Trevor ran his fingers through her hair, and a slow grin rolled to his lips. “You know, I was saying to Liz we could use a bit of a PR boost. Think you know anyone who’d fit the bill?”
Danica gave him one of her blinder smiles, but this time, her eyes twinkled too. She took a step away from him even though she left her hand twined in his. “I happen to know the perfect person to help. Now let’s get some grub.” She took the first steps toward Mo’s to follow the rest of the band and brought him along with her. “After fighting off sharks, dodging stalactites, and a vigorous fuck, I need sustenance.”
As if on cue, Trevor’s stomach rumbled. She wasn’t wrong—even though the exhaustion stretched him thinner, his appetite had reached a pulsing point. He grinned, following her up the steps and toward the glass doors. Even if they couldn’t admit anything out loud, something had shifted between them. Something real.
****
Playing this show tonight was either their worst or best idea.
Liz had booked them another big venue at Park Theater but on a low traffic night and opening for a small-time band. Not like that would stop the hunters swarming the city or Alberich’s endless cavalcade of henchmen. With any luck, maybe the two groups would take each other out in the process and leave them alone. Trevor stood on the stage, tuning his guitar as the band rolled through sound checks. Danica and Liz waited for them in the audience. Their spot in the upper rows gave them a good vantage point, and they’d have extra security watching out for them.
He plucked a few strings, listening to them hum beneath his fingers. Ky stood at the mic, rocking back and forth with the stand as he gave it a test. Jett strummed at his bass, the strokes reverberating through the room despite the heavy curtain in front of them. Renn did a drumroll, moving fast for the hell of it while he burned the energy that coursed through all of them.
They took a massive risk betting on Alberich’s unwillingness to try anything too public. However, if they waited at the RV, no matter what flimsy glamour Danica
had cast, eventually creatures smarter than the redcaps would wise up. For that reason, they hadn’t tucked away the mirror anywhere back there. No, they’d brought it right on stage, hiding the mirror beneath Renn’s drum rig. If Alberich wanted to snag the item from them, he’d have to breach all sorts of Court etiquette and go for a publicized grab.
Besides, after the incident at their last show, venues as a whole had tightened security throughout the city. They were banking on that today, since they still hadn’t figured out the mirror’s significance. If Kincaid gave Danica the information, she wasn’t divulging it.
Trevor skimmed his fingers over the strings. Not like he could ignore the tension if he wanted to.
“So, what’s with the moon eyes you’ve been making at Danica?” Jett asked from behind him.
“Forget moon eyes, they’re already getting down and dirty.” Ky stepped in, his eyes gleaming in amusement. This was punishment for the grief they’d all given him over Liz. Trevor heaved a weary sigh despite the warmth flaring in his chest.
“At least someone’s getting action here,” Renn grumbled. “Since our last show got rudely interrupted, I’m surviving off of that threesome a couple of days back.”
“Poor baby,” Jett drawled. “Like you don’t get laid enough on the regular.”
“I know I am,” Ky jumped in, amusement and a hint of pride in his voice.
“We all know you are, brother,” Trevor responded, strumming the strings of his guitar a little harder. “The RV isn’t big, and I drew the short end of the stick in being your bunkmate. Instead of prying into my sex life, why don’t we get ready for this show we’ve got to play.”
Hypnotizing Beat Page 13
