“No. We don’t split up,” I said. “Right now, we have the advantage and it will cut time if we go together. We can leave from your apartment.”
Her jaw twitched, a flash of anger there, defiance.
I held up my hands. “I’m not trying to control you. I used to be a cop. I bossed people around for a living.” I winked at her, softening what I was saying. I hoped.
She let out a sigh. “I hate that you’re right.”
“Don’t get used to it. My mate is right more than me.”
The three of us stepped onto the sidewalk. To my right, Levi’s stomach let out a growl that made my wolf twitch and whine with agreement. I paused at the door to the bakery.
“Give me two minutes.” I stepped in, and ordered up a mixed bag of pastries and three large coffees. The lady at the counter was quiet, her eyes downcast.
“Thanks,” I said as I took the bag and my change.
“Don’t hurt her,” she said.
Now that stopped my feet. “Excuse me?”
The woman looked up, brown eyes full of determination that I wouldn’t have expected from such a quiet mouse of a girl. “Mai is my friend. She’s been through a lot, losing her son and her husband going missing. Don’t hurt her. Please.”
I nodded, glad for the additional information. “I’m not going to hurt her. I’m going to get her out of this town.”
She let out a sigh of relief. “Then the breakfast is on me.” She handed me back my twenty-dollar bill. “Tell her Alena wishes her luck. I think things will get better for her if she goes with you.”
I reached across the counter and shook her hand. “You got it, Alena of Vanilla and Honey.”
She smiled, a blush spreading over her pale cheeks. “Thank you.”
I strode out of the shop and handed out the coffees. As we walked, I told Mai what Alena had said. She smiled, but it was sad. “She’s a nice girl, but I think she should keep the luck for herself. Her life is hardly an easy one.”
She continued to talk about her friend, but I zoned out, instead focusing on the situation around us. Mai didn’t notice, but we were slowly being surrounded by ogres. A bus pulled up to a stop about ten feet in front of us, and I hurried Mai and Levi forward. “Onto the bus, now.”
“It’s going the wrong direction,” Mai spluttered, and then she looked behind us and gasped. She leapt onto the bus and I shoved Levi on behind her. “Go. Levi, take her to where Ophelia dropped us when you get what you need. Get her back to Rylee, understand? No matter what.” I handed them the bag of weapons, taking only two out for myself. A short sword and an oversized curved skinning knife I could hold with a fist.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Levi yelled.
“Buying you time,” I said. “Keep her safe, Levi.”
The look on his face shifted from fear to determination and he nodded. “I will.”
The bus door shut behind them and the driver pulled away, maybe sensing it would be best for his vehicle to get its ass in gear.
“Well, well. A wolf in sheep’s clothing perhaps?”
I turned to face a black-skinned ogre who stood at least eight feet tall. “No, a wolf in wolf’s clothing.”
CHAPTER 5
“MY NAME IS Pic, and I am the leader of this territory.” The ogre that I’d pegged at eight feet took a few more steps in my direction. Make that nine feet tall and easily three feet across the shoulders. He pulled a large sword from his back, the blade splitting at the handle into two blades. He took a lazy swing with it in my direction but I didn’t move. I knew a bluff move when I saw one. “Are you not going to introduce yourself?”
I shrugged and did a lazy loop with my own weapon. “Nah. You win. Your sword is bigger than mine.”
The other ogres all laughed, guffawing. Dick humor, nothing new there.
Pic grinned. “I almost hate to kill you with a sense of humor like that. But you were with one of our females. That is not allowed. I would hate to see what a cross-species wolf/ogre would look like. Besides weak.”
I shrugged. “Accidental meeting. I wanted on the bus, she beat me to it. Besides, I thought you killed everything that moved in your territory?”
“We do. But we have uses for some supernaturals. As we have uses for some humans.” He snapped his fingers and several police officers slid between the ogre ranks, guns raised.
Shit running down my legs couldn’t have been more shocking. Rylee had told me the ogres had humans working for them, but it was still surprising.
He circled around me and I moved with him, keeping him in front of me. A part of my brain flat out revolted at what was happening. I mean, we were in Seattle, in broad daylight, humans walking past us like this wasn’t even happening. What the actual fuck was going on?
“You wouldn’t want to hurt the nice police officers, now, would you? You’re probably one of those supernaturals who tries to keep them alive, aren’t you?” Pic taunted and the other ogres laughed. But they backed off, giving the cops free rein to move in.
I didn’t get a chance to try and talk my way out of things.
The first cop squeezed off a round that slammed into my belly. I dropped to my knees, shock making me slow for two reasons.
One was the simple fact that the cops were so under the ogres’ control that they would shoot without just cause. Two, that the gun actually worked around this many supernaturals which took my brain to a place I didn’t want to go. What if the weapons Rylee and I thought we’d destroyed a while back had survived? If those guns were now in the hands of the ogre tribe here in Seattle, that would be bad on so, so many levels.
Three more shots ripped through the air before I could move, one hitting me in the heart, the second in the hip, the third . . . I blanked out before I could tell where it struck.
Lights out for Liam.
Darkness and pain were all my brain could register as I came around. That and I was folded over on myself, my head shoved between my knees like some sort of twisted yoga pose.
Praying for mercy.
Slowly my senses came back online. The smell of rotting food, shit, and vomit slithered up my nose and I sneezed, but that only cleared my sinuses for more of the scent. I groaned and my back cracked and popped, vertebrae aching as I sat up. Blinking, I looked around, tried to get my bearings as my nose took in the strong scent of ogre under all the other scents. That froze me where I was, stilling the breath in my lungs. Maybe they hadn’t seen me yet. Maybe I had a chance to get the drop on them. There were walls around me, dark blue and close enough that I could reach out and touch them if I’d wanted. My brain didn’t register, couldn’t seem to grasp where I was. Only that the smell of ogre meant danger.
I pulled myself up slowly and under my ass something shifted like sand and rocks giving way. I looked down at the back of the head of the ogre Mai had killed. Blood and gray matter had coagulated underneath me. I grimaced at the smell and the memories came back to me, the bits of the past few hours slipping back into place.
Pic and his mob had stuffed me in the same Dumpster as Buk, the bastard that had tried to become Mai’s pimp. Nice. I grabbed the edge of the Dumpster and heaved myself out. There were no other ogres besides the dead one, which was a small blessing. I gave myself a full body shake and three of the four bullets that had been shot into me fell to the cement with a tinny clatter. My head throbbed with a dull ache, like a hangover from ogre beer. I put a hand to my right temple, just as the bullet pushed its way out.
“Well, that answers that question,” I grumbled, staring at the bullet. So, apparently, I could take a hit to the head, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to repeat that particular experience.
I took a look at the skyline, but couldn’t see the sun past the buildings that rose around me. It didn’t feel like much time had passed, but that could just be the loss of time from the injury to my head.
I shook myself again and did a slow turn. Pic and his buddies had taken my two weapons, and I was covered in filth from the Dum
pster. Not just blood and brain matter from Buk’s wounds, but rotten food, and spoiled meat. I felt around for my back pocket, looking for my leather wallet. My fingers found nothing but empty space. I scrubbed both hands over my face despite the grime that covered both face and hands. I needed to think this through and fast. There weren’t a lot of choices left.
If I could shift into my wolf form, I could cover the distance to Redmond in no time, catch up to Levi and Mai and get the three of us the fuck out of here. Right now, Pic and his mob thought I was dead, which meant they wouldn’t be looking for me. As long as I could keep clear of them, I had the upper hand.
I closed my eyes and reluctantly tried to call my wolf forward. How the hell I was going to shift while I was using Faris’s body was beyond me. Would I be a white wolf now, instead of the black shaggy beast I’d been before? Would my eyes be bluer yet? Would I be smaller, like a leaner version of what I knew to be my wolf?
The questions flowed through me in rapid succession, over and over, making me sweat with the possibilities.
My wolf ignored me, essentially curling up in the corner of my mind and going to sleep. What the hell.
“Shithead,” I muttered. So much for calling on innate abilities.
Warily, I made my way to the edge of the alley and peered out. Not an ogre in sight, nor any scent on the wind. I didn’t even know anyone in Seattle, not even old FBI contacts that I could reach out to. See if I could get a little help.
To my right, the soft ding of a door being opened drew my attention to the bakery.
Maybe there was someone who could help me. I went into the bakery, the smell of sugar and fresh-baked bread making my stomach grumble loudly. The coffee had been too long ago between the fight, injuries, and healing. The three customers who stood in the store turned at the same time, but the reactions were a ripple effect. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirrored glass of the display cases. Yes, I could see why they would be concerned. I was covered in filth, blood smeared my white shirt in several places, and my head was sticky with blood. Not exactly the look you want in a guy around your baked goods. I looked past the gasps and surprised eyes to the brown-eyed, brown-haired cashier.
“You said you were Mai’s friend. Is that true?” I asked.
“What happened to you?” She came around the counter, her eyes as big and round as the customers’. Seriously, I was getting irritated with all the surprise. Then again, most of the people I was dealing with didn’t know much about the supernatural, so it made sense there would be a fair amount of shock around me. I suddenly felt bad for all the questions and shit I’d put Rylee through in the beginning. And for all the wide and rolled eyes I’d given her when I didn’t believe what had come out of her mouth.
I cleared my throat. “Can we speak in private?”
She waved a hand behind her. “Diana, can you come and run the cash register?”
Another woman who looked to be in her late thirties came out of the back, took one look at me and pointedly looked at the customers. I followed Mai’s friend into the back of the bakery. She pointed at a chair. “Sit. You look like you’re going to fall over.”
“Alena, right?”
She nodded. “Yes. What happened? Should I call the police? Or maybe an ambulance?”
“No. No police. They, the police that is, did this to me. Look, I need to get to Mai’s apartment, but . . .”
“You don’t know where it is?”
I nodded. “They took everything I had on me, including my wallet.” I had to grit my teeth over asking for help from a complete stranger. I knew what I sounded like. A scam artist. I lost my wallet, I just need to get to a friend’s and I’ll pay you back. Just loan me a few bucks, I’m getting paid later this week. I’d heard it all and then some from my own family as much as the people I’d dealt with on the job. I could only hope that Alena hadn’t been scammed in her short life, and that she was a bit naïve to the ways of the world.
Because there was no way I could get to Redmond and find Mai and Levi without her help. Not if I was going to stay ahead of Pic and his mob.
Biting back every ounce of pride I had, I spoke. “Can you give me a ride?”
Her eyebrows shot to her hairline. “No, my husband wouldn’t like that. It wouldn’t be proper.” She reached over the desk and grabbed a set of keys. “But because you are Mai’s friend . . . you can take my car.”
Okay, so beyond naïve? Was that even a thing? Or maybe she was just that kind. I chose to believe the latter. Kindness to that level was going to get her in trouble at some point. Mai had been right about that.
She gave me the keys. “Park it at the back of Mai’s apartment and leave the keys inside the muffler. I’ll get a ride out after work and pick it up.”
“Thank you,” I said, glad that Mai had at least one person looking out for her.
“Just help her. Obviously,” she waved a hand at me, “you are having a rough day and I can tell you are trying to help her. In your own way. I can sense these things, you know.” She scribbled something on a pad of paper and tore the top sheet off, handing it to me. “Mai’s address.”
I took the keys and paper, and she pointed to the back door. “Brown hatchback. It isn’t much, but it’ll get you there.”
“Again. Thank you.”
“Just help her. She deserves a little happiness,” she said softly. Like maybe Mai wasn’t the only one who deserved a little joy.
I wondered as I walked out the door at the kind of person who would hand over keys to their vehicle to a veritable stranger on their word that they were going to help one of their friends. I hoped that helping me didn’t get her into trouble with the ogre mob. And I hoped she managed to keep that willingness to help those around her. It would be a shame to see her lose that—the world needed more people like Alena.
I jogged to the hatchback and slid into the tiny, beat-up car. The age of the vehicle was in my favor. Anything newer and I wasn’t sure it would have started for me. Thankfully, the engine turned over and I was off and running. I followed the signs that directed me toward Redmond without a single ogre coming into view. Two cop cars passed me. But they didn’t so much as look in my direction, though I felt myself cringing as they went by. Which made me think of Levi and the way he cringed and hunched his back—afraid to be hurt.
I glanced several times at the piece of paper Mai’s friend had written on, making sure I had the directions right. The apartment building was on Heritage Street. Fourth floor up according to the instructions.
Thirty-five minutes later, I did a slow drive by the building with 6800 lettered on the side in fake gold. At the front doors were two ogres posing as doormen. They held the glass doors open for those going in and out, but I had no doubt they were there for an entirely different reason. As in keeping Mai and Levi either in or out.
Fuck it all. I smacked the steering wheel with one hand in a steady rhythm as I tried to formulate a plan that might actually work. But there was no way I could get past two ogres on my own without them alerting the rest of their group.
I did a loop around the block to get a look at the back of the building. There it was, a back door. Another ogre in front of it, but only one. That was going to be my best shot at things unless . . . I backed up and parked a half block away from the east side of the building. Balconies ran all the way up this side of the building and below them all . . . was a small service door.
The service door probably had an ogre lurking around somewhere. I wasn’t going to bank on them not covering all their bases. As Ophelia had pointed out, they weren’t stupid.
I scratched at my chin, knowing I had to look at this logically. The humans with the ogres had guns that could pin me down, that much I knew. And if they all figured out that I was a Guardian, I had no doubt they’d figure out that killing me would take a simple removing of my head from shoulders.
All that meant nothing at the moment. I needed to get in that damn apartment and either get Levi and Mai out,
or wait for them to show. No matter which plan it ended up being, it started with me being stealthy and quiet.
Rylee would have laughed her ass off at me for the situation I was in. Stealthy and quiet were not something either of us did well on a good day.
“Get moving,” I growled at myself, and stepped out of the hatchback. I shut it and slid around the back, placing the keys inside the half-rotted-out muffler. Actually, it wasn’t a bad hiding spot. Unless you were looking to fix the little car, you might not even notice the muffler, never mind the keys inside it. I approached the building, drawing in deep breaths, scenting the air with each step. Ogre, the musk was heavy on the cool breeze, but no scent of Mai or Levi. Of course, they probably went in the front door. Assuming they were already here and made it in before the cavalry showed up.
Going through the front door wasn’t something I had the luxury of doing. Small, tiny side door and hoping for a very light guard on it. As I drew closer to the service door, a cop stood from where he’d been sitting in the stairwell.
“Excuse me, I’m turned around here.” I used Levi’s excuse. The cop shook his head.
“Front door is around there.” He thumbed to one side and I kept closing the distance between us.
“Which way?” I tipped my head as if I hadn’t heard him, or was too stupid to understand a simple sentence. He let out an exasperated sigh.
“Fucking druggies. Get out of here.” He shooed at me with both hands, like a stray dog.
I grinned, and he went pale. I closed the distance between us in a single leap. His face drew a startled look and then he was under me as I thumped a fist into his jaw. The crack of bone didn’t bother me. I recognized him from my shooting on the street: he’d been the one to shoot me in the heart.
I yanked the gun from his belt and turned it over in my hand while I strangled him with the other. The gun was not exactly like the ones that Rylee and I had destroyed. But it was obvious there was magic about it. I flipped open the chamber with my thumb and peered in. There were small round balls of steel, and behind them was a glittering, rolling twist of green magic. It looked like bullets were propelled through the barrel by magic, not gunpowder. Fuck, it was brilliant and terrifying. Magical guns were not something this world needed in the state it was currently in. Or ever, for that matter. That being said, I wasn’t going to leave it behind.
LIAM (The Rylee Adamson Epilogues, Book 2) Page 7
