by Sarah Piper
“What shit?”
Ash closed his eyes, shaking his head. “He showed up in her realm, Ronan. Held her against her will. She had to bust out on her own.”
“He fucking what?” I slammed the van into park. “How the hell did he get in?”
“It’s a long story—one she needs to tell you herself—but he’s definitely upping his game.”
“Motherfucker.” No wonder Ash pushed her so hard. If the hunter could reach her there, where else could he reach her? What other help—or powers—did he have?
“She’s a sitting damn duck.” He slammed his hand on the dashboard, his rage continuing to build. I could feel it emanating from him, as hot as sunbaked pavement. “You think I like hurting her? You think I get off on watching her heart break into a thousand pieces because of shit that I said? Fuck you, Ronan. Fuck. You.”
He threw himself out of the van and went to the back, hauling open the cargo doors and yanking out the hand truck.
I let him have five minutes to cool off before joining him out there.
“I get it,” I said, shoving my hands into my pockets, not wanting to get too close. A pissed off incubus wasn’t someone you wanted to snuggle with. “I don’t blame you for trying to help her learn how to defend herself.”
“No, you just blame me for making her cry. Right? Because that’s my thing. Biting people’s heads off. Being a grade-A dick.” He slammed the van door shut, and I took a risk, reaching for his shoulder while his back was still turned.
Mistake.
He whirled on me fast, punching me hard in the shoulder. He hadn’t done it to hurt me—he could’ve easily cold-cocked me in the face if he’d wanted to cause serious pain—but it still pissed me off.
I grabbed the front of his—my—jacket and shoved him back against the van, bracing a forearm across his throat. “You really wanna do this, asshole?”
His black eyes bore into mine, but I felt his body relax, his fury receding as quickly as it had risen.
“I don’t know what the fuck is going on with you and Gray,” I said, releasing him and smoothing out the jacket. “But you need to make it right with her. And with yourself.”
When he looked up at me again, his eyes were back to blue. He nodded.
“We good?” I asked, squeezing his shoulder.
He returned the gesture and nodded once, then pulled me in for a hug. I hugged him right back; I wasn’t sure which one of us needed it more.
“We’re good,” he said.
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” a voice said.
I turned around and caught a wiry, sniveling vamp slithering out from behind the other side of the van.
Ash and I exchanged a quick glance that basically said, this motherfucker is going down in about three seconds…
“I hope you brought your friends,” I said, turning toward him. He was maybe five foot four, a hundred and ten pounds on a good day.
“And your lunch,” Asher said, joining me at my side and folding his arms across his chest. “You look a little… malnourished.”
“In that case,” I said, “better bring your friends’ lunch, too.”
Ash scratched his head. “Pretty sure his friends are his lunch.”
“That poses a problem when one is about to get his ass handed to him. Still, I don’t see anyone else jumping to his defense, so…” I whipped the stake out from the back of my waistband and shoved the guy up against the van, pressing the pointy end to his chest.
He didn’t resist. Didn’t even try.
“I’m not here to fight,” he said, raising his hands in surrender. “Just delivering a message.”
“Try the post office,” Ash said, offering a helpful smile. “They’re the most reliable. Texting also works, especially if your solar sensitivity prevents you from accessing postal services during normal business hours.”
His mask of calm detachment shattered, his lips curling back in a sneer. “Darius won’t be able to protect you forever, hellspawn.”
“Wait, was that… Was that the message?” Ash cupped a hand around his ear and leaned in close. “Or just you talking shit?”
“If you’re smart,” the vamp said, “you’ll disassociate from him now.”
“Damn,” Ash said. “I’d hate to be your friend.”
“Oh, you think you’re his friends?” the vampire spat. “Beaumont’s already betrayed his own kind. How long until he decides demonic company is no longer worth the trouble?”
I pressed the stake a little harder. “You don’t know shit, bloodsucker.”
“I know your friend is no more than a witch’s lapdog.”
“And you think you know something about her?” I tightened my grip on the stake, shifting it up to his throat. His Adam’s apple bobbed nervously, but that was the only indication that he was remotely concerned about it.
“Dude.” Ash faked a yawn. “I’m tired. And bored. I say we ice this asshole.”
“Good call. You got a match?”
Asher patted down his pockets. “Picked a hell of a time to quit smoking.”
“Now that’s a damn shame,” I said, knowing Ash had never smoked a day in his life. “Guess we’ll just have to stake him and leave him for some other poor son of a bitch to find.”
“Hope it’s one of his friends,” Ash said, “and not one of ours. Gosh, I’d really hate to think what a witch’s lapdog could do to this piece of shit.”
“Or the witch herself,” Ronan said. “I hear she’s pretty brutal when provoked.”
The vampire hissed. “Fuck you, d—”
He might’ve meant to say dick, or dude, or devilish demon dickbags, but Ash and I would never know. I’d shoved the hawthorn stake clear through his voice box.
Blood oozed out over my hand and down my arm, soaking my sweatshirt.
The vamp dropped like a bag of rocks.
“That was… bloodier than I expected.” I tried to shake the gore from my arm, but it was pretty well soaked.
Asher wrinkled his nose. “Dude. Nasty.”
“Shut him up, didn’t it?” I shook the blood from my hand. “If only I had another one for you.”
“Make it a dozen,” another voice said, “and you might stand a chance.”
“Guess he brought a friend after all,” I said to Ash, rolling my eyes as the two of us whipped around to face the latest bullshit threat.
Only this time, the threat was real.
Fuck.
At least a dozen vamps stood in formation, ranging in stature from small and willowy like our messenger there, to one guy roughly the size of a dump truck.
All of them were poised to attack.
One scrawny vamp we could take. But a whole damn platoon?
My stake was currently embedded in someone’s voice box. Asher wasn’t packing. And we were seriously outnumbered.
“This is gonna suck,” Asher said to me out of the corner of his mouth.
“Understatement.”
“Alright, let’s do it,” he said. “You go left, I’ll go—”
“Ash,” I sucked in a breath, taking a closer look at the crowd. “They’re not all bloodsuckers. Half of them are humans.”
“What the serious fuck?” he whispered.
I couldn’t decide whether that upped the odds in our favor or not. Chances are, we were going to die anyway.
“Just… try not to kill any of them,” I said. If humans died on Beaumont’s turf—at the hands of two demons who were known associates of his—the Council would be up his ass in a heartbeat.
Asher flicked his gaze over to me and grinned, his eyes two smoldering black pits, and I knew any chance at getting out of this cleanly was long gone. “No promises, Vacarro.”
Sixteen
GRAY
“I hate that this is your path,” Darius said, holding out a hand to help me up.
It was the night after my disastrous battle with Asher, yet I’d made Darius promise he wouldn’t go easy on me. I needed to learn how
to fight; treating me with kid gloves wasn’t going to cut it.
As much as I would’ve loved to take another shot at Asher, he and Ronan were lying low at Ronan’s apartment in the Bay, giving me a couple days to recoup.
It sounded nice in theory, but recoup time felt like a luxury none of us had earned—least of all me.
I blinked away the pain and sucked in a breath of cool air, preparing myself for another round.
Respect was the only ground rule Darius and I had set—a concept as foreign to Asher as wearing a shirt.
Ignoring the vampire’s outstretched hand, I pushed myself off the ground and got to my feet, spitting out a mouthful of dirt and blood. “Doesn’t change the fact that it is my path.”
“No, I suppose not.” Darius slid out of view, but this time I anticipated his appearance behind me, throwing my elbow back just in time to catch him in the ribs. It didn’t hurt him, of course, but it bought me just enough time to spin around and duck down low, dodging his next blow.
“Good,” he said, sliding away again.
Figuring he wouldn’t make the same move twice, I tucked myself into a tight ball and rolled to the side, then swept out my leg, catching him in the shins just as he reappeared in front of me.
He stumbled a bit, but quickly recovered, lunging straight for me before I had a chance to get back on my feet. He came at me hard and fast, barreling into me and knocking me flat on my back. He pinned me down, his lean, powerful body smothering every square inch of mine.
Desperately I tried to roll over, to cover my head, to knee him in the groin, but I couldn’t get an inch of leverage.
“And this is how you die, little brawler.” He nipped at my neck, making me yelp.
“Take it easy, Darius,” Emilio warned from the sidelines. “She’s had a rough first day.”
“Not as rough as the hunter’s planning to give me,” I countered, getting to my feet and shaking off the pain. “Kid gloves aren’t going to help, guys. Until I can get a better handle on my magic, hand-to-hand combat is my best shot.”
No, I might not be able to immobilize a vampire or shifter without a stake, a blade, or a gun and silver bullets, but if I’d learned anything from the last few weeks I’d spent in the Bay, it was that weapons and book smarts were only as good as the one who wielded them.
This month alone, I’d been jumped by a human while packing a hunting knife in my boot, unable to get to it until it was too late. I’d brought a stake to a vampire club, only to have it taken away by the very vampire trying to teach me a lesson now.
Lucky for me, Darius had turned out to be one of the good ones.
But luck was a poor strategy to rely on, and I wasn’t taking any more chances. Not when Reva, Haley, and the others were depending on me.
I cracked my neck and nodded at Darius. “Let’s go again.”
“I’ll take this one,” Emilio called from behind me. “Will you talk her through it?”
“If you insist on showing off,” Darius said to him, “then I suppose I have no choice in the matter.”
“She needs every advantage she can get.”
“What advantage?” I turned around to ask Emilio what he was talking about, but he didn’t need words to answer me.
He loomed before me, naked, as stunning as a sculpture and just as silent. I hadn’t even heard him approach, or strip for that matter, but now he was here, close enough to touch. To smell.
I still hadn’t spent a lot of time with him—not up close—and for a moment I closed my eyes, letting his scent wash over me. It was a heady mix that reminded me of everything I loved about being outside—earthy and woodsy, underscored with a touch of something sweet, like vanilla.
It was lovely and warm and comforting, just like Emilio himself.
I opened my eyes, marveling at him. Not even caring that I probably looked like a crazy fangirl.
The biggest of the guys in all ways, his well-defined muscles rippled in the moonlight, sleek and powerful beneath his golden skin.
Despite his playful smile and the kindness in his eyes, standing here in all his chiseled perfection, Emilio Alvarez was downright frightening. The raw power locked away in his body gave me chills.
And he hadn’t even shifted yet.
Wordlessly he pointed toward the other end of the yard, gesturing for me to walk in that direction. He was so beautiful it almost hurt to tear my eyes away, but somehow I managed, heading out to the edge of the grass that bordered the woods.
“Is this far enough?” I turned around, simultaneously nervous and excited to see him shift again. I’d only seen it the one other time—the night we’d infiltrated Norah’s place to save Asher—and there hadn’t been much time to appreciate it.
But I’d already missed my chance tonight, because charging across the lawn, heading right for me, was a very fast, very large wolf.
Out here in the moonlight, clearly in his element, the jet-black wolf ignited a primal fear inside me. My heart hammered against my chest, my mouth turning as dry as sand.
“Tuck and roll, Gray!” Darius shouted. “Do it now!”
The urgency of his command snapped me out of my paralysis. Shoving aside my fear, I dropped to the ground and covered my head with my arms.
There was no time to roll.
Emilio crashed into me like a freight train, sending me sprawling onto my back. Like Darius had earlier, Emilio pinned me down, baring his fangs. I blinked rapidly, sucking in air to try to calm my heartbeat.
I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, but holy shit those fangs were scary.
“It’s a show of dominance,” Darius explained. “He’s testing you to see if you’ll submit or challenge him.”
“I’m not exactly in a position to challenge him,” I said, trying to squirm out from beneath him.
Emilio growled, a quiet but menacing warning meant just for me. Every hair on my body stood on end.
He really was magnificent.
And clearly the alpha in this situation.
I closed my eyes, indicating my total submission.
After a beat, I felt him lower his head, nudging my cheek with his snout. He was still on top of me, but he’d taken his paws off my arms, relieving the pressure.
“What’s he doing now?” I asked Darius, opening my eyes.
“I believe the big softy wants you to pet him.”
I let out a shaky laugh, my body still humming with fear and adrenaline. “That I can definitely do.”
Slowly, I reached up to touch his head, stroking his coarse fur. It was thicker than I remembered, coated with an oily sheen. I grabbed a fistful, giving him a gentle tug, working my way over to his ears.
Emilio just kept on panting, his eyes no longer holding a challenge.
“Well now he’s just taking advantage,” Darius said, and I laughed again, reaching up with my other hand and rubbing the tips of his ears.
“Remember our purpose, El Lobo,” Darius teased. “Everyone loves a good stroke, but we’ve got a lesson to teach.”
Emilio turned his head toward Darius and growled, then tipped his head up, exposing his throat.
“He’s showing you his vulnerable spots,” Darius said, continuing with the lesson. “His throat, his belly. If you’re attacked by a shifter in his animal form, your best chance is to inflict damage where he’s got the least protection. Unfortunately, that requires getting close to him. In a situation like that, you’d better be packing magic. Most animals won’t give you the option of submitting—they’ll simply go for the jugular.”
I swallowed hard, remembering Emilio’s sharp fangs.
I touched my fingers to my throat, feeling very human, and very breakable.
Emilio finally retreated, and I got to my feet, refusing to take my eyes off him. He’d cheated me out of seeing him shift into wolf form; no way was I missing the change back to human.
He loped back over to the other side of the yard, stopping by the tree where he’d left his clothes. His wolf form elongated
and thickened, bones snapping and reshaping, the thick coat of hair fading.
Moments later he stood before us, all man once again.
“You might want to close your mouth, love,” Darius said, helpful as always.
“As long as I don’t have to close my eyes.” I smirked, fully enjoying the view while Emilio put his clothes back on.
“Not too bad for your first shifter attack,” Emilio said, grinning at me as we regrouped at the center of the lawn. “We’ll try again tomorrow. I just wanted to give you an introduction.”
“Thank you,” I said, lowering my eyes. Heat rose to my cheeks. I’d just seen the man naked—twice—and all wolfed out, but suddenly I felt shy. Humbled. In a small, quiet voice, I said, “You really are amazing, Emilio.”
“You’re not so bad yourself, bruja bonita.”
“Hey!” I finally met his eyes again. “What happened to querida?”
Emilio smiled. Like me, he was blushing. “Just trying a new one on for size.”
“What does it mean?” I asked, though I was pretty sure bonita meant pretty.
Before he could answer, Darius was there with another helpful suggestion. “If you two are planning to spend more time rolling around on the ground together, you should probably get over this bashful thing.”
“Does it bother you, vampire?” I asked playfully.
“It’s sickeningly sweet,” he said. “My fangs are getting cavities just being in the vicinity.”
“Don’t listen to him, bruja. He’s just jealous that I never gave him a nickname.”
“Preposterous,” Darius said, but he was grinning, the mood among us lighter and happier than it had been all day.
I rolled my shoulders, still feeling pretty good. Feeling like I could go another round.
“You ready to call it a night?” Darius asked.
Emilio headed back to his spot at the side of the yard, but I shook my head. “Not while I’ve still got some blood left in me.”
He didn’t ask me if I was certain, didn’t nod to let me know he was ready. He simply launched himself at me.
I turned just in time to partially block him, but my shoulder took the brunt of the impact. The pain was intense, reverberating down my arm and my back, making my fingers go numb.
