by Gray Holborn
I’ve never passed out from lack of oxygen before, but if I had to guess, I’d say I was nearly at that point. Luckily, with Ric focusing on me, Soren had enough time to do his whole gross panther thing and leave another supe without a throat. I wasn’t a fan of death, and I had no doubt in my mind that I’d freak out about this whole thing later. But right now? I was just happy I could inhale oxygen again. Air-manipulation was a bitch. Who would’ve thought that air could be scarier than fire?
The air ricocheted with the sound of a twig snapping. With all the crazy running through my mind, I found myself grasping towards the sound, trying to find something normal and isolated to focus on. Theonis was moving away from us slowly, his arms held up in the universal sign of surrender. It was pretty clear that with Eileene and Ric out of the picture, he didn’t stand much of a chance against us. Well, against Soren anyway.
Soren growled, low and deep.
“Look dude, I’m just going to leave. I didn’t want to attack you guys in the first place.” Theonis dragged his feet back a few steps through the leaves, his hand now covering the bloody hole Soren ripped into his shoulder that hadn’t yet healed. When neither of us made a move or sound of protest, Theonis turned his back and picked up his pace.
Two seconds later, he went from jogging into the horizon to dead.
Soren stood next to the final body, his gray eyes piercing into my own. I wondered what he saw in them. Fear? Shock? Disgust? Maybe when he shifted back he could let me know, because I sure as hell had no idea what emotions were running through my head. Or heart? Where did emotions hypothetically even run in the first place?
A low growl pulled me back to reality. Soren’s large silver-white paws were drawing closer and closer. The look in his eyes was clear: he was still in attack mode.
“Soren, calm down. The fight is over. It’s me. Odessa. You can shift back now,” I cooed like I was speaking to a puppy and not a giant, mythical man-cat.
I closed my eyes as he edged closer, another growl ripping dangerously from him.
When he reached me, he took several steps past me. I opened first one eye, then the second. His attention was directed towards a new presence at least twenty feet away.
This figure was tall, like most supes, with shoulder-length black hair and bright green eyes. More striking than his rugged good looks was the intense white glow bathing him in power, so bright I couldn’t tell if he was a feeder or a manipulator. Or something else altogether.
Soren growled another warning. While I expected the man to cower in terror, his lips turned up into a smile instead, amusement dancing in his eyes.
“Chill out, old friend. I won’t hurt her. No need to continue your unnecessary bloodbath.” The stranger’s voice was deep and smooth, not revealing any signs of fear or threat. If anything, he sounded legitimately intrigued. He cocked his head slightly to the side, not unlike a dog, and met my eyes.
When Soren growled in response, the stranger merely chuckled. Ignoring the giant panther, he walked over to the backpack Soren always brought on our trips. After a few seconds of digging through the contents, he pulled out a pair of gym shorts and tossed them in our direction. “Glad you came prepared, I have better things to do with my time than stare at your junk. Get changed and we’ll talk.”
I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks. I hadn’t thought about the fact that when Soren shifted back, he’d be naked. Instead of taking the shorts and shifting behind a tree, Soren padded a few steps towards the clothing and kept the stranger in his line of sight. A few moments later, I was no longer staring at a beautiful, slightly terrifying panther, but a super naked backside. I covered my eyes to give him some privacy while he put on the gym shorts. Of course, I let myself take a nice long peek before my hands made their way over my face. I was after all, only human.
I had seen some dude butts in my day, but Soren’s looked like it was carved from marble. And that wasn’t the only aesthetically pleasing sight. His back muscles were tensed and shifted as he took the last couple of steps to meet his spare shorts. An intricate tattoo laced itself down part of his shoulder and spine, but my eyes were primarily drawn to a series of scars along his left shoulder blade. Did he get them the same time he got the scar near his eye? Or was he just frequently throwing himself in the way of danger?
While he was back to looking like Soren, he was also back to acting like him. Without even sparing me a word or a glance he dipped his head slightly to the stranger. “Raifus.”
Chapter Seventeen
“Soren,” Raifus nodded, “I’d say it’s good to see you, but really I was hoping you’d eventually get the message and stop showing up here every day.”
“So you sent those three?” The muscles in Soren’s back were tight, his voice still laced with the remaining anger and growl that better suited his panther.
“Those three?” Raifus took several steps closer, a disappointed yet teasing gleam in his eye. “No, I’ve never seen the lot of them. Not enough power for me to find interesting or entertaining. I assumed they were after you. Then again,” he paused, his gaze dancing towards the sky, “maybe they were stalking me like you have been. I guess we’ll never know, since you had to go and murder them all.”
“I had no choice.” Soren’s words were quiet but clipped.
“There’s always a choice, as you are well aware. It’s okay Soren, we all know you’re bloodthirsty, but feel free to blame it on the panther instincts if it helps you sleep better at night.” Raifus stepped around Soren, leaving him shaking in a barely contained rage. “Now, who do we have here?” Emerald green eyes met my own, the startling shade made even more stunning by the surrounding mass of black hair.
He was a striking sight from far away, but even more so up close. His face was angled and masculine, his square jaw was peppered with dark hair—more than a shadow, but less than a beard. His shoulders were wide and muscled, but he was lean. While his hair was down to his shoulders and slightly unkempt, it gave him the practiced look of danger, edge. He was dressed in dark jeans and a white button-up, the sleeves casually rolled to his elbows. The clothes fit his every curve so well that they had to be designer or custom made. He was older than Soren, probably closer to Sam’s age. Catching my perusal, Raifus lifted one eyebrow and lowered his gaze. “You’re wearing my necklace, I see. But you are most certainly not Elliana.”
“I’m Odessa. Odessa Black.” I wasn’t comfortable on the ground before Raifus, so I pulled myself up with one too many grunts of discomfort to match his height. Sort of. The guy was just as tall as Soren. “If you knew we were here this whole time, why’d you wait so long? Kind of convenient to show up right after we’d been attacked, no?”
“Black,” Soren’s harsh whisper issued a warning. I knew that Jax was uneasy around Raifus, but it surprised me to hear the fear in Soren’s voice.
Emerald eyes began their second appraisal, and I had the strange feeling that Raifus was peeling away layers of my mind to read my thoughts. After several tense moments, he barked out a loud, deep laugh. “I like her, Soren. If I had known your friend would so be entertaining, I’d have answered your desperate call days ago. Weeks maybe.” He lifted a piece of hair off my shoulder, studying the dark strands between his thumb and finger.
I tried not to be overwhelmed by him, but Raifus had an undeniable presence. The white-gold glow was at least as intimidatingly powerful as Soren’s was when I had first seen him, but somehow Raifus seemed like he was operating on a different plane. Almost as if we were all examining individual pieces and he alone was capable of looking at the entire puzzle.
“We need...we need your help. Soren mentioned you might be able to track someone for us.” My voice was much shakier than I wanted it to be. If Soren’s lessons with El taught me anything, it was that animals sense fear as a weakness, a vulnerability. Judging by the predatory amusement in Raifus’s eyes, I was every bit playing the role of prey in this scenario.
“I told Soren many years ago th
at I couldn’t afford to help him again. I stay out of Veil politics,” Raifus said, his gaze steady and curious.
Frustration bubbled in my blood and pooled in my stomach. We had wasted so much time. This was our only lead.
“But,” he started, letting my hair fall back along my shoulder. “I never told you I wouldn’t help. So tell me, Ms. Black. Who is it you need tracked?”
“My old neighbor, Charlotte Veln. And...and an old friend, Michael Saber.” I met his eyes briefly. “But that may not be his real name. He’s a space-manipulator and he’s after my friend. He’s after El.” I looked up at him. “Elliana, I mean.”
Raifus smiled, finding a joke somewhere in my statement. After a moment, he tempered his facial expressions and snapped around to Soren. “Is this all you both seek?”
Soren nodded once, his jaw tight.
“Well, I can’t give you the whereabouts of those two individuals. Usually, I require an object close to them in order to track their energy, something that’s absorbed some of their energy if I don’t already have a register on it. You’ve given me two names, one of which might not even be real. That’s not a lot to go on.” Raifus’s amusement grew with each word. I found myself wanting to slap the smirk off his face. When he saw the anger lining my features, his smile only grew bigger. “I can tell you something more important, however. For a price, of course.”
“What price?” Soren asked.
“Not something you can pay, Soren. This fee lies on Odessa’s shoulders.” He circled around me, assessing me from all angles. Not like a man checking out a woman, but like a collector who’d found a new piece to add to his storage room.
“What do you want from me? I don’t have much money.” I blinked my eyes against the sun and tried not to let on how badly my back was hurting from the fight. Kidney hits hurt like a mother.
“First, tell me. This space-manipulator, was he truly after Elliana?” Raifus leaned against a large tree, either oblivious or ambivalent to the bloody splatters surrounding him from where Soren had pinned the feeder. He crossed one leg casually across the other in a pose that belonged on a magazine cover, not amidst a slaughter.
“He thought he was after me, but really I think he wanted Elliana.” I sat down on a rotted log. Not because I wanted to but because my body was screaming in anguish. The pain was no longer worth the power position of standing. I wasn’t kidding anybody; we weren’t on an equal playing field, pretending otherwise wouldn’t make him weaker or me stronger.
“Actually,” Soren started pacing between us, “he seemed pretty adamant that it was you, Black. Maybe we had it wrong.”
“What would a supe want with me though? If not to use me to get to El?” I ripped long strands of grass into smaller pieces, eager for something simple to focus on and control. I couldn’t intimidate someone like Raifus, but I could totally intimidate a lawn.
“Well, you have the sight, don’t you?” Raifus was staring at me again, with that all-seeing, all-knowing power only he seemed capable of wielding. Soren stilled instantly. For several long moments, there was no sound, but for the soft noises of the clearing and surrounding forest.
“What sight?” My voice was hitched, tight. I was so not an actress.
“Don’t play stupid, Ms. Black, it’s below you. You can see the energy auras. I could tell as soon as I came close to you. The way you reacted to me. You could sense my power. While you disguise your fear well, microexpressions are more difficult to control.”
“Fine. So what? I see energy clouds or auras or whatever. It’s not a real power. I can’t do anything with it except spot a supe. And honestly, even that is patchy sometimes. There’s no reason Michael would be after me, my ability serves no purpose.” I rubbed a knot out of my shoulder, my body aching from the training and fight. Movies always made fighting seem so glamorous. The heroes took a few hits but were always back up and running within a scene or two. They never highlighted the fatigue that comes after an adrenaline high; the kind of tired that seeps into your bones, deep and heavy.
Raifus’s lips twitched and he arched a dark brow. “We’ll talk another time about why he might have been after you. In the meantime, I’m willing to offer a trade. Information for a price.”
“What price?” Soren’s deep voice punctured the stillness of the clearing.
“I will help you obtain an energy neutralizer.” Raifus plucked a loose thread off his shirt with a look of disgust. How he was upset about a single missed stitch when he was two inches away from lining his shirt in blood was beyond me.
“Those don’t exist.” It was a statement, but the slight inflection in Soren’s voice told me he was willing to be persuaded otherwise. Soren was intrigued. And Soren was a hard man to intrigue.
“It will take work, but I can assure you that there is exactly one that exists. If you get it and bring it to me, it will ensure that no energy-user abilities will work against the person holding it. Give it to Elliana, and she will be protected from her kind. She will be hidden, her own energy disguised.” He scratched the short scruff lining his jaw and shrugged. “Or don’t, and move onto your next plan.”
“And in return, for helping us find it?” Something told me as soon as I asked the question that I wouldn’t like the answer.
“To be determined at a later date, Ms. Black.” Raifus turned back towards me, ignoring Soren’s scowl completely.
“Absolutely not, we can’t just write you a blank check.” Soren stepped towards Raifus, the muscles in his back tensing with each move.
“What other option do you have?” Raifus asked. “Tell me, Soren. Do you have a plan B? You’ve been out here waiting for the slim chance I’d answer your call everyday for weeks. It’s clear you need a lead. I’m offering you one. And you don’t even have to pay the price for it. You should be thrilled. And who knows, if you prove useful and can actually bring me the neutralizer, I might even offer you some information you don’t even know to look for yet.”
“It’s a deal.” At my words, Soren’s head whipped back at me. The glare on his face would have had me running away in fear a month ago. Now, coming from him, it was almost endearing. “I’ll agree to a reasonable payment of your choice after you help us. By reasonable, I mean that the favor can’t bring harm to anyone, human or supe...ernatural, and I won’t do anything illegal.” I paused, waiting for his nod of agreement. “Good, now where can we find the neutralizer?”
Raifus clapped his hands together once, a huge smile lighting up his face. The knowledge in that smile was somehow more frightening than the sheer power of his aura. What was I getting myself into? If it were for anyone other than El, I don’t know if I’d have the courage to willingly partner with someone like Raifus. Or the death wish.
“Excellent. I knew I liked you, Odessa Black. This will mark the beginning of a very symbiotic relationship.”
“Just tell us where to find it, Raifus.” I was surprised by the conviction in my own voice. Soren moved to stand next to me, angling his body so that he was a few steps in front. I cleared my throat. “Um, please?”
Raifus chuckled, a deep throaty sound that was as appealing as it was terrifying. “You’ll need to steal it from the pendant’s current owner. He lives in San Francisco. There’ll be a cocktail party this Saturday. He has them a couple of times a month, but this one will be a masquerade, in celebration of his birthday. I know, I know, it’s all a bit cliche—relying on a fancy party to pull off a robbery. But that’s your best chance to get in and grab it. The stones are black, three. They were set into a dangling necklace last I saw it. He’ll keep it protected, but I can help you sense it out once you are in.”
The timing was conspicuous, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Raifus made us wait weeks for him to show up so that when he did, we wouldn’t have much time to back down from the offer. Not when a masquerade offered such an opportune cover for theft.
“Why can’t you just go there and steal it yourself then?” Soren asked.
&nb
sp; I just kept thinking about how we were going after another magical necklace. These supes sure liked their jewelry. I was with Charlotte though, magical cookies seemed like the better way to go. I was hungry.
“Because I don’t get involved with Veil politics. And I’m not interested in getting on the birthday boy’s bad side at the moment. If I were so much as in the city at the time, Rennix would know it was me. You know him, always paranoid. A girl who, for all intents and purposes, appears human? And a rebellious shifter who’s usually only interested in picking fights? He won’t suspect you even know about the neutralizer, let alone are after it.” Raifus stood straighter and took a step towards us.
“Rennix? You’ve got to be kidding me?” Soren’s hand went through his hair and scratched the back of his neck. Never a good sign.
Great, Soren was nervous. Rennix sounded awesome. This didn’t seem ominous at all.
“That’s the deal, Soren.” Raifus closed the distance between us and held his hand out to me after pulling a small blade along his palm. “Once you have it, I’ll help activate the neutralizer. And then you can use it to help Elliana, and blah blah blah. Do we have a deal?”
I lifted my right hand, holding back a wince as Raifus sliced through my skin more gently than I thought he would. Then I latched my hand onto his, ignoring Soren’s soft growl that punctured the truce. Gods, this couldn’t be sanitary.
“Deal. Will we meet you back here when it’s through? And if you aren’t coming to the party, or even to the city that’s housing the party, how can you help me sense this necklace? Also, what’s with all the necklaces? Can’t you supes come up with anything a little more superhero-ish? Like a warrior blade? Or a mystical chalice?” I snapped my lips shut after sensing Soren’s annoyance and Raifus’s barely-disguised amusement. I really needed to get a handle on this whole mental filter thing I heard so much about.
