by Gray Holborn
Soren snorted, shaking his head in disbelief, until El shoved his shoulder.
I looked up at Luis. “So how long are you going to visit for?”
He looked back at me like I slapped him. “Um, I’m not visiting. I let you guys leave once before and was too in shock to chase after you in time. Not happening again. I’m in this for the long hall, so no trying to ditch me. Plus not to get all googly-eyed like El with the we-all-belong-together bit, but I somehow found you guys and that’s as close to destiny or fate or whatever that I think anyone can reasonably get. Plus, now that I know the big secret, there’s no reason I can’t stay. It’s not like I can go back to Seattle knowing you two might be in danger. What kind of friend would I be then?”
“Doesn’t matter. Let him stay here.” Soren leaned back into his chair, distancing himself from his newly cleaned and now empty plate while he eyed the platter of turkey in front him, ready for another helping. With the excitement of Luis’s arrival settling, I realized with a laugh that Jax had made a Thanksgiving dinner...in spring. “We’re leaving tonight anyway.”
“Leaving? What are you talking about Soren? Did Raifus finally show up?” Jax’s tone slowly went from confused to horrified when he started cataloguing the splashes of blood and splotches of dirt still left on me since I had yet to shower. “Did he hurt you guys?” I couldn’t blame Jax for the look of terror on his face—Raifus clearly had that sort of effect on people. Though with all the craziness, I’d sort of forgotten about the whole Raifus encounter.
“Raifus? Really? Who names their kid Raifus. That’s just asking them to turn out a little wonky.” Luis tried to lighten the somber mood that settled over the dinner table, but I didn’t miss the look of concern on his face as his eyes traced my torn and dirty shirt.
“Raifus didn’t hurt us. We were attacked by the three supes who were at Inferno the night Michael’s roommate played,” I said.
“What?” Jax asked, his scowl darkening in an expression of fury I’d never seen from him before.
I scooped up a heaping spoon of now-cold potatoes, hoping that a full mouth would give Soren the nudge to fill them in on the rest. He raised an eyebrow at me, the scar running through it emphasized by the arch. After a few agonizingly slow seconds during which Soren made it clear I’d have to continue, I swallowed my food, rolled my eyes, and did—apparently he was still pouting about not getting his way with Luis. “They attacked while we were training, before Raifus showed up.”
“What did they want? Were they after you guys, me, or Raifus?” El picked at invisible split ends, a nervous habit I’d long made fun of her for.
I offered Soren one more opportunity to finish the story, but he remained still and silent. Fine. If he wanted to throw me under the bus, it was my duty to reciprocate. “I don’t know. Soren killed them all before we had a chance to interrogate them.” I paused, turning to him with a tight smirk, arching my own eyebrow to mirror his. “Raifus showed up after the fight.”
It was hard to tell who was fuming more—Luis or Jax. Both were now standing and pacing around the room, like mismatched shadows of each other. If the room wasn’t filled with so much tension, I would’ve laughed.
“He murdered people?” Luis asked, and when his eyes found mine, they flashed a deep, dark blue. “Did he hurt you?”
“No. He saved me,” I said reluctantly, my eyes finding Soren. He was studying me with an unreadable expression on his face.
“Did Raifus tell you where Charlotte and Michael are, at least?” El’s eyes traced the distance between me and Soren, back and forth like a pendulum.
I shook my head, feeling an odd sort of shame, like Raifus’s inability to trace them was my own fault. “No. He couldn’t trace them, but he did help. We’ll actually need to leave tomorrow most likely, to give us some time.” I looked at Soren, to see if he agreed.
Soren had announced earlier that we were leaving tonight, but that seemed a bit unnecessary. It was Thursday night and the party was late Saturday night. It was probably best to drive to San Francisco early to give us time to prepare for the event, but I didn’t think we needed to be there right away. And selfishly I wanted a long, luxurious sleep in my bed before we went all out for our superhero roadtrip.
“We’re leaving tonight.” Soren’s tone was even, calm, his eyes following Luis’s every move. “If the human was able to locate us here, there’s no telling who else might be able to as well. He could’ve been followed for all we know. The sooner we leave, the better. He can keep an eye on the cabin or else circle back towards Seattle.”
“No way. I’m not staying behind. If El and Odie are leaving tonight, I’m leaving with them. That’s not open for discussion,” Luis said. I wasn’t used to him being so firm. He was always the one in our group to keep things light and funny, and the latter not always on purpose. I didn’t know if it was being left behind that signalled this new change, or just the gravity of El’s history and situation sinking in; but I knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t be left behind again unless it was his idea.
“I think he should come, Soren. He can come to Rennix’s party with me while you guys keep an eye on El.” I nodded my head in Soren’s direction. “Based on your reaction to Rennix’s name when Raifus mentioned it, and based on Jax’s now—” his face had paled several shades from its usually warm brown, “it seems pretty clear. El shouldn’t be anywhere near that address on Saturday night. If you guys can keep her out of the city, that’d be even better. Maybe Luis and I can just drive down by ourselves while you and Jax take El to a new safehouse?”
The thought of walking into a lion’s den without another supe present definitely terrified me, but I knew in my gut that the party wouldn’t be a safe place for El.
El started picking up empty plates and walking them over to the kitchen. I let out a little whimper when she stole mine away when there was still a small lump of potatoes. Wasting mashed potatoes was a special kind of sin. “Serves you right for trying to place my safety above yours. I’m not letting you go off on some stealth mission while I sit in another cabin waiting for something exciting to happen. I have cabin fever, so I’m with Luis. Leaving me out of the recon is out of the discussion.”
“Black is right.”
My jaw fell open. Soren actually agreed with me?
“El, you definitely can’t go to the party—” he held up a hand as soon as she opened her mouth to fight back. “Just hang on. I also agree with you that Black and the human shouldn’t be left to fend for themselves. That doesn’t sit right either. We’ll all drive down to California tonight, then the night of the party, Black and I will grab the neutralizer while Jax and Luis drive you in the opposite direction. We’ll meet up at a rendezvous after. That way, everyone is happy,” he paused, his eyes finding mine, “well, happyish anyway.”
Jax dropped his newly-opened bottle of beer on the table, probably more forcefully than he’d intended to. “Neutralizer? Are you barking mad? Those are from fairy tales. I don’t know anyone who actually thinks that they are real. Or if they were real, noone that thinks they exist anymore.”
“Raifus seemed sure and he seemed sure that Rennix had it. He made a deal with Black, so he had to at the very least believe he was telling the truth.” Soren’s voice grew increasingly gravelly.
“So what?” I didn’t see the big deal. Yeah, Raifus and I had an agreement, but he could have been lying just to send us on a wild goose chase. The guy didn’t seem to be completely all there in the head as it was, I wouldn’t put it past him to get amusement from sending us on some ridiculous mission that’d likely get us killed.
“Supes don’t enter into a deal on false pretenses, Dess.” El’s voice was quiet, with an edge of fear I hadn’t heard in all the time she’d been literally running for her life. “Why did Raifus make a deal with Dess and not you, Soren?”
“Honestly, who knows? He isn’t someone I can try to fully understand. His motivations are usually very much his own. He defini
tely seemed intrigued by her, and wasn’t subtle about letting on that he knew more about her involvement in all of this than any of us do. Either way, she made the deal and it’s done. He’s delivered half of his deal by giving us the location of the neutralizer and our best chance at grabbing it. The second half will be activating it.” Soren rubbed a hand over his face, the exhaustion from the day making itself known.
I didn’t blame him. To be honest, I was surprised I was still functioning at all. It was so hard to believe that the fight, Raifus, and Luis had all happened within a few hours.
“Can one of you slow down and explain to me what the hell a neutralizer is and why it’s so damn important that Odie is getting involved with supernaturals who sound like they bring more danger than they’re worth?” Luis plopped back down into his seat, his eyes locked onto mine, even though he seemed to address the question to everyone but me. I was selfishly pleased that I was no longer the only one out of the loop during these discussions.
Before anyone could answer him, El slammed her hand against the table. “Hang on, someone tell me now—what the hell did Dess agree to? You were supposed to be keeping her safe on these trips, Soren. The way you talk about Raifus makes me think no one’s safe around him. Going to him in the first place was a terrible idea. First she’s almost set on fire in a club, then she gets beat up by supes, and now she’s entered into a deal with the devil.”
“You guys can stop having a conversation like I’m not sitting right here in the room with you all.” I let my frustration sink into my voice before I turned towards Luis. “A neutralizer can be used to prevent a supe from using their power. If El wears it, it means that whoever is after her will be in for a rude awakening when they try anything. Remember when we mentioned earlier that Michael is a supe and that he has the ability to basically transport himself wherever he wants?” I paused, waiting for Luis to nod in acknowledgement. “Well, if El has that on, it means that he can’t just zip in and out to steal her from us. Having a neutralizer will give us an advantage we can’t afford not to have. Especially since we have no idea what or who is even after her.” I turned towards El. “And nobody put me in this situation. I chose to go with Soren and I chose to make a deal with Raifus. I’m willing to do whatever I can to help keep you safe. Not to mention that it’d be really nice to figure out what Charlotte and Michael have to do with all of this and why Raifus seemed to know more about my ability to sense supes than I do.”
Luis and El both started to argue before I stood up and glared, my body tense and exhausted. “We aren’t arguing over this. It’s done. You’ve both pointed out that neither of you wants to be left behind or sheltered, well extend that desire to me as well. We’re a group and it’s clear our attempts to shelter each other are futile.”
“Desi, what did you offer?” I turned and found Jax’s calm, dark eyes focused on me.
“I don’t know yet,” I mumbled, fully expecting it was an answer nobody wanted to hear.
“You don’t know? How do you make a deal with a supe without knowing what your end of the bargain is?” El glared daggers at her brother again. “Dess, you don’t know how seriously deals and bargains are taken amongst supes, but you do Soren. How could you just let this happen? If it’s an open-ended bargain, who knows what he’s going to want from her and we’ll all be practically powerless to stop it. Especially if he’s as powerful as you say he is.”
Jax, usually the one ready with a snarky comment to lighten the mood, seemed deflated when he walked over to El and grabbed her shoulder to offer some comfort. “It’s alright El, as long as it wasn’t a blood barg—”
“It was,” Soren said, cutting him off crisply like he was ripping off a bandaid.
“Jesus, Soren. The fuc—”
“What the hell—”
“Thinki—”
“How did you—”
“This happen?”
Jax and El’s complaints battled each other until they morphed into one loud and confusing chorus.
Soren stood up and slammed his chair forcefully into the table. “I didn’t let this happen. I tried to talk her out of it. She’s her own person, I’m not her keeper. Black chose to make the bargain. And, honestly, it’s the only break we have right now. Raifus is our only lead unless you want to just keep hiding out indefinitely? The bottom line is, it’s done. We all need to pack the essentials and be prepared to leave within the next half hour. We’ve stayed too long as it is. Who knows how Luis found us or who’s been tracking him? Black and I both need to clean ourselves up first. I’ve already showered once, but I can still smell the charred skin from the energy users. I’m sick of this stink and there’s no way in hell I’m sitting in a car with it for hours.”
He turned away from us and started to walk towards the bathroom. He paused briefly without looking back, his parting words so quiet I wasn’t sure whether or not he intended us to hear them. “For what it’s worth, Raifus seemed unusually interested in Black. I don’t think he intends on causing her harm.”
Chapter Nineteen
I spent the next twenty minutes showering which left only ten for packing. Even though I’d have to rush through the cabin trying to find last minute things, it was worth it to spend time ridding myself of the dirt and blood from our fight. Not to mention that I still felt like I had been hit by a truck—literally and figuratively. While I watched the water droplets fall down the tiled walls I realized that while I was upset about seeing Soren kill those three supes, I wasn’t as affected as I should’ve been. If anything, my reaction was an odd sort of apathetic numbness. And realistically, we didn’t have time to dwell on that or on Raifus if we wanted to take action—we could sit here forever and wait for something to happen, or we could go make something happen.
I followed Luis into the mom van I was slowly growing attached to. Though I’d die before admitting that to anyone. Jax was driving for the first leg of the trip. Surprisingly, Soren followed me into the back of the car, leaving El in the passenger seat. I knew it was ridiculous to think he would drive his bike for the whole sixteen-hour trip, but I was still shocked he was willing to leave it behind. He was almost as attached to it as El was to her convertible. It must be in their blood. I reached for my seatbelt when strong fingers wrapped around my wrist and stopped me.
“Sit in the back, Black. You’re exhausted and I can share the middle row for now.” Soren’s gray eyes were locked on my own and I tried not to be affected by the way his wet hair dripped water droplets along his neck. I felt a momentary pang of regret, realizing that my long shower meant that Soren had practically no time to take his. Then again, it was his second since the bloodbath so I didn’t feel too bad.
I blinked my eyes, that thought leaving me with unwanted images of Soren in the shower. When I didn’t move or respond, his thumb worked a small circle against the inside of my wrist.
“You need to sleep. Just lie down across the backseat and try to at least rest your eyes and your body. You took a few too many hits today.”
I appreciated the gesture, and there was no denying that I was completely exhausted, but I took a fraction of the hits Soren did. The image of him being slammed by the air-manipulator had been replaying in my mind all evening. “You took way more hits than I did, Soren. Why don’t you rest up the first few hours and then we can switch?”
The left side of his mouth twitched up, as if he found my reciprocated concern amusing. “I shift into a panther, Black. My body is way better equipped to handle intense physical altercations.” The lifted brow and deep purr in his voice made his double meaning abundantly clear. Luis cleared his throat awkwardly, his leg tensing next to mine. I hopped over the seat and landed in the back, ungraceful but successful. If Soren wanted to give up the extra room I wouldn’t fight him again on it.
I never fell asleep easily in moving vehicles, but I found myself drifting much more quickly than usual.
When I peeled back my eyelids, which felt heavier than they ever had, I couldn
’t see anything beyond my reflection against the darkness of the night. I cringed, realizing I slept much longer than I planned to. I moved to sit up, unable to stifle the groan as my muscles screamed.
“Worse after sleeping, isn’t it?” Jax’s light brown eyes were peering back at me from the middle seat. A quick glance around showed me that Luis was driving this shift and Soren was dozing softly with his head pressed against the window.
“I feel like I’ve been hit by a plane to be honest,” I said. I fluffed the pillow a bit and nodded towards Soren. “Why don’t you nudge him awake. He can take my spot and get a proper rest. After that fight, he definitely needs it, no matter how much he protests.”
“I wouldn’t bother with it, Dess.” El’s voice chimed softly from the front seat. I was surprised she was awake. Usually an hour or two in the passenger seat was enough to knock El out until the car stopped. “According to the map, we’ll be on the southern edge of Oregon in half an hour. That’s our halfway point. We’ll stop at a small motel or hotel that’s willing to take cash so we aren’t electronically tracked and then we can grab some sleep.” She craned her neck around the headrest, her blue eyes glistening with reflected moonlight. “Catch” She tossed back a small object, but Jax halted its progress.”
“Really, El? You think she had a chance of catching that with anything other than her face? Have you met Desi?” Jax looked briefly back, assessing me with scrunched brows before turning back to Ellie and shaking his head. “I mean, honestly, you say she’s your best friend.” He chuckled and opened up the small pill bottle, rattling out two capsules. He passed them back to me with a soft smile. “We should have given you these before you slept, but take them now. They should help some with the muscle aches. Trust me, we’ve all been there,” he winced.
