by Eva Chase
“Go, now—go!” Omen yelled at Ruse.
More sirens were screeching nearby. The roar of the RV’s engine couldn’t drown them out, but it could carry us away from them. The vehicle heaved forward and tore down the street.
Sorsha’s gaze followed Thorn and Bow as they rushed Gisele’s battered form into the main bedroom. “Is there anything—”
“We’ll do what we can, which might not be much,” Omen snapped, barging past. “Too many hands will only make more confusion.”
I guessed that applied to me too. I watched the door slam behind them and glanced down at Sorsha. Her face drawn, she slumped onto the sofa with the dragon. She was bleeding too in her human way from a cut partly visible through her slashed shirt. Her nerves had apparently calmed enough that her wound wasn’t smoking, if it even had been before, like that time on the roof. It’d been hard to make out details in the dusk—and I’d been so caught up…
I wavered, wanting to reach out to her, afraid she’d cringe away from me.
Before I’d decided what to do, Sorsha extended her hand to grasp mine. She tugged me down onto the sofa next to her and rested her head against my shoulder. “Thank you,” she said. “For— That guy would have killed me.”
Even with her saying that and with a pang of longing radiating through me to absorb even more of her warmth, I couldn’t bring myself to put my arm around her. I’d saved her, yes, like I’d meant to do, but the way I’d done it— And there’d been a piece of me that had wanted to inflict the same torment on her for my own satisfaction.
She’d looked at me like I was a monster because I was one.
That thought filled my head, blotting out everything else. I’d tried so very hard to exorcise the ferociously hungry side of myself. The one time it had happened before, I hadn’t known where the instinct would lead. I could have believed it was a mistake. Now I knew that wasn’t true.
I was a devourer. I couldn’t stop being one, no matter how long or thoroughly I denied the hunger. Sorsha was in danger while she stayed with us, yes, but not because of our enemies. Because of us.
Because of me.
I could hurt anyone around me if I was pushed the wrong way at the wrong time. Not just her but her friends, her colleagues… Maybe even my own companions. I had no idea how my power would work on a shadowkind, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t.
The windows darkened as we left the brighter streets of downtown behind. Omen and Thorn emerged from the bedroom, and Sorsha straightened up.
“She’s not well, but she seems to have stabilized there,” Omen said before she had to ask about Gisele. “We stemmed the bleeding. She hasn’t regained consciousness yet. I’m not sure if she will.”
As Sorsha muttered several colorful swear words under her breath, our leader’s gaze shifted to me. Before he’d even spoken, the cool glint in them told me he’d seen my performance of my full powers.
“This might not have been a total catastrophe, thanks to Snap. Did you get anything useful from the one you devoured?”
I’d taken in so much. My mouth opened and closed again with the rush of memory and the sickening mix of relish and guilt it stirred up. I wanted to lick my lips and also to vomit.
“I think he was someone fairly close to the important people in the Company,” I ventured. “It seemed as if he was there for meetings, hearing about some of their plans… something they’re going to do to take away our powers, maybe?”
Sorsha’s head jerked around. “That could be what the experiments are for—to figure out if they can destroy your abilities somehow.”
“There was something else they said…” It was all a jumble now, and it hadn’t totally made sense to me even as it was careening through my head. “Something they wanted to spread and ‘claim’—but maybe that wasn’t about us. I don’t know.” I paused. “I saw one building a few times that he was honored to have the chance to guard. Big with gray bricks and a turret on the right side, a lot of grass around it. I think a tall fence?”
“We didn’t see anything like that when we looked at the places connected to the shell company,” Ruse said, clearly following our conversation from where he sat behind the wheel.
“I don’t know how it fits in,” I said. “There might be more I’ll piece together. It all comes so fast.”
Omen squeezed my shoulder. “Let me know if anything else comes to you that stands out. More of it might make sense as we make additional discoveries via other avenues.” He folded his arms over his chest. “They knew we were coming. They knew what bus to look for.”
Sorsha tipped her head back against the sofa with a groan. “It was Leland—my ex, from the Fund. Ellen tried to warn me, but it was too late.”
Thorn’s expression managed to darken even more. “He told the Company our plans? I should have—He was listening at the hospital. He must have heard you tell the other woman we were making a move tonight. And then we were talking in the other room after. If he came over to the door, he might have heard some of that too.”
“I think I mentioned the lot where we’d been staying with the bus. Shit.” Sorsha’s mouth pulled tight. “From the things Leland was saying at the last meeting, he figured we were the real villains, beating up on innocent humans. He must have decided he had to protect the Company from us.”
“Mostly because he resented you caring what anyone other than him wanted with you, not out of the goodness of his heart, I’d imagine,” Ruse said in a disdainful tone.
A fiery sheen had lit in Omen’s eyes. “Mortals,” he spat out, and then raised his chin, his posture rigid. “We won’t return to the same lot, then. What else did—”
“Sorsha’s wounded too,” I broke in. “Before you ask her any more questions, someone should see to that.”
Not me. Someone who posed less of a threat.
While Thorn sprang to inspect her and grab bandaging supplies, Omen paced, and Ruse shouted suggestions from the front, I slipped away into the shadows. The mishmash of voices from the devouring still jostled in my head, but one fragment pealed clearer than the rest.
Hollow the danger out of those beasts.
My focus curled around the words as if they formed a lifeline. Could the Company do that? Could they carve out the pieces of me that made me truly a monster?
If they could, wouldn’t it be worth the torture that came with it? It wasn’t as if I didn’t deserve to face the same agony I’d inflicted on my victims.
I pulled deeper into the darkness, stitching together a path through the impressions I’d devoured that might take me someplace where I wouldn’t be a threat to anyone.
26
Sorsha
I woke up to a spray of grit pattering against my cheek. As I swiped it away, the morning sun seared my eyes through the broken window above me.
I’d fallen asleep on the RV’s sofa, one arm cradling my head and the other tucked against my bandaged belly. I couldn’t remember deciding to forego the actual bed—everything after the ramming of the armored truck into the Everymobile had turned into a blur.
Birds were chirping outside, and the next gust of wind brought a wash of pleasant warmth along with more grit. I sat up and squinted at the scene outside.
Right. Somewhere during our hasty flight last night, Ruse had switched the RV to its school bus setting. We’d parked in the lot outside a sprawling rural elementary school well outside the city limits. A stretch of trees beyond the lot blocked any view of the nearest buildings. On a Sunday, no one would be bothering us here.
At least, that should be the case. Leland might have overheard us talking about the city bus lot, but I didn’t see how he could have figured out what glamours the RV held unless he’d developed some unexpected supernatural power too. The best we could figure, he’d directed the Company to keep an eye on the Lincoln Road lot last night, and they’d tracked what would have looked to them like a city bus until they’d been able to get into a suitable position to ambush us.
Lord
only knew what the people around the square had thought of the chaos afterward.
Pickle leapt up from the floor and tucked himself close to me, resting his chin on my thigh. As I scratched between his ears, three of my higher shadowkind companions materialized in the living space around me. Ruse took a glance into the kitchen cupboards and appeared disappointed with his findings. Thorn surveyed the inside of the RV as thoroughly as I suspected he’d just been investigating the grounds outside, his expression typically grim.
Omen brushed his hands together. “We appear to have evaded any additional assaults for the time being, but I don’t think we should count on that luck holding.”
If you could even call what we’d experienced so far “luck.” My gaze darted to the door to the master bedroom. “How’s Gisele?”
Thorn grimaced. “Still unconscious. I’ve seen shadowkind in a similar coma a few times before when they’re badly wounded… Sometimes they manage to regain enough energy to restore themselves, and sometimes they fade utterly into smoke in a couple of days.”
“At least we had the RV to drive off in before the mortals ended her completely.” Omen patted the wall. “You managed not to get one of our vehicles destroyed, Disaster. So far, anyway.”
I wasn’t in the mood to return his snark with more of the same. Bow must still be in the bedroom watching over his—friend? Wife? They’d never really clarified their relationship.
Shadowkind didn’t tend to pair up in a romantic sense in their own realm, but for mortal-side enthusiasts, who knew what human customs they might have gone in for beyond the horse feed and the other kind of grass. Whatever the case, the centaur and the unicorn shifter clearly cared about each other a lot.
My stomach clenched at the thought that next time it might be one of my trio who drew the short straw in facing off against the Company. And speaking of that trio…
I glanced around. “Where’s Snap?”
“Dozing in the shadows to sleep off that big meal, apparently,” Ruse said with amusement. “Hey, devourer, time to rejoin the physical realm!”
No slim figure emerged to answer his call. Ruse cocked his head and vanished into the dark patches himself. When he returned several seconds later, still alone, the clenching sensation crept up to the base of my throat.
“He wouldn’t have gone far,” the incubus said. “He’s always stuck close to the rest of us before. And we’ve all seen he’s particularly stuck on you.” He shot me a smile, but it was tense along the edges.
Thorn was frowning. “I didn’t encounter him during my sweeps of the area around the school. Where would he go?”
“Perhaps he heard there was a country fruit stand nearby,” Omen muttered, but his cool eyes betrayed more concern.
I got up to check the view from the windshield as if the others might have somehow missed him shooting hoops in the school yard. “When was the last time anyone saw him? I know he was in the RV with us when we took off from the square.”
I’d held onto him briefly then, confirming to myself that he was still the same passionately gentle man I’d found myself welcoming into my bed and my heart—and doing my best to reassure him that I knew it. I might have been startled by seeing his full shadowkind powers in action, and what he’d done to that guy hadn’t been pleasant to watch, but he hadn’t used them lightly. His regret over taking that step had been written all over his beautiful face afterward.
Ruse’s brow furrowed as he thought back to the previous night. “We talked about what he saw during his devouring. Then you two started patching up Sorsha’s wound, and I don’t think I heard anything from him after that. When we parked here for the night, I assumed he’d taken to the shadows to get some rest.”
“We were focused on helping Sorsha and finding somewhere safe to pass the night.” Thorn rubbed his chiseled jaw. His frown deepened. “I don’t recall taking note of him after that initial conversation either. It never occurred to me that he might leave.”
Fucking hell. A lump rose in my throat, almost choking me. “He was so ashamed of his power. You all saw the way he would react when it came up. He was so adamant that he’d never use it again, and then for him to feel like he had to…” Because of me.
It was all because of me, wasn’t it? Leland had tipped off the Company because of his grudge against me. The shadowkind had stayed by the RV instead of escaping into the shadows to protect me. I should have been paying more attention to Snap after—I should have noticed he was slipping away from us.
I dropped my head into my hands. Pickle nuzzled my arm as if sensing my distress, but the gesture didn’t give me much comfort. “Where would he have gone?” I asked the RV at large.
“I don’t know,” Ruse said. “I don’t think he’s been mortal-side long enough to have regular haunts.”
Omen’s voice had turned even flatter than usual. “If he isn’t in his right mind enough to stay with us, he’ll be easy pickings for any Company hunters prowling around. Let’s hope we find him—or he finds his way back to us—before they do.” His shoes scraped the floor as he swiveled. “You two take my bike back into the city. Try to follow the same route we took and watch for him. We also need to check the Wharf Street building so we know whether it’s still a valid target.”
I glanced up at him. “You’re letting Ruse drive ‘Charlotte’? What are you going to do?”
As Ruse and Thorn tramped out to detach the motorcycle from where Omen had clamped it to the back of the RV yesterday, hidden under the glamour, the hellhound shifter fixed his narrow gaze on me. “I’ve got to see how much more power we can drag out of you, mortal. If we’ve lost the element of surprise and Snap, we’re going to need you outright blazing to take the Company down and get him back.”
The last thing I felt like doing at this particular moment was tap dancing to Bossypants’s tune, but the look he gave me warned off any arguments. And he might have a point. It wasn’t as if I’d be doing Snap any good by sitting around and moping.
I marched after him out into the parking lot. He ushered me toward the school yard. Chalk marks from the previous week’s recesses colored the pavement in pastels: creamy hopscotch boxes, jagged pink and purple flowers, a mint-green abomination of a kitten. That kid better not have any dreams of art school.
The yard gave us plenty of space to work with. The sprawl of pavement stretched all around the brick school building and out to a larger stretch of grass, where football goal posts jutted toward the clear blue sky. I rolled my shoulders and shook out my arms, trying to shed the guilt twisting through my innards.
“Okay, here we are. What crap are you going to put me through this time?”
Omen had turned to face me. His eyes flashed. “I hardly think you can call it ‘crap’ when it’s gotten you this far. You could barely summon a spark to save yourself before, and last night you started a bonfire. It’d just be ideal if next time you could light up our enemies instead of random civic sculptures.”
He motioned to a piece of blue construction paper the breeze was nudging across the ground, doodled with gawky stick figures. “Let’s see if you can get a blaze started now without an immediate crisis hanging over you.”
He didn’t think Snap’s disappearance was a crisis? Maybe I should try setting his shirt on fire again. But as much as my emotions were churning inside me, it wasn’t the sort of distress that got my heart thumping. I glared at the shifter and then the paper, but no heat stirred beneath the gloomy funk that had come over me.
“What does this even matter?” I demanded. “We should be out there looking for Snap too—covering as much ground as we can.”
“It appears he’s been gone all night. He’s got too great a head start if we head out on foot, and we only have one vehicle I feel comfortable sending back into the city to simply meander around, thanks to this friend of yours and his loose lips.”
That provoked a flare, but of my temper rather than any voodoo. “He’s not my friend. He’s fucking nothing to me.” Wh
ich was exactly what had pissed Leland off. How had I ever been attracted to anything about him?
He’d seemed normal. Safe, as long as there were no strings attached. Look how wrong I’d proven to be about that.
“Nonetheless, my point stands.” Omen jerked his head toward the field. “Let’s at least get your pulse going, then, and see if that’s enough to jump-start your inner fire. Sprint between the goal posts a few times.”
To my irritation, my feet started to move automatically. I caught myself and planted them on the pavement. “No.”
The ice in Omen’s gaze hardened. “No?”
“You heard me, Luce. N. O. You ran me ragged at the fairgrounds, and that got us diddly squat. The only thing you’ve actually tried that worked was dragging me around on your motorcycle, which you’ve already sent off with someone else—oh, and getting all houndish up in my face, if you want to see if I’ll light you up again.”
He sneered. “I’d like to see you try. Is that what you need—for me to get in your face? Rain a little hellfire down on you and see what catches?”
He stalked toward me, all controlled aggression, everything from his stance to his predatory expression setting off a clang of warning bells in my head. Maybe I should have taken the sprint while I had the chance.
Fuck that regret to Fiji and back. I wasn’t letting him terrorize me, no matter what kind of deadly beast he was.
I backed up, but slowly, my hands rising as they clenched. “What do you think you’re going to do to me, huh? Take a few swipes with those puppy-dog claws? Gnash your great big fangs? Somehow I’m not shaking in my boots yet.”
“You should be,” he snapped with a hint of a snarl that chilled my blood. Then he socked me right in the shoulder.
His fist wasn’t chilly—it slammed into my body with a blast of otherworldly heat. Apparently he could blaze just fine even in human form.
