That was the statement that greeted him when he stepped in Dylan’s office to state his version of the mission, fully expecting Robin and Jake to be there. But to his shock, he’d been the only one in the office, with Dylan explaining that Jake had already stated his part and Robin would just send hers over. Emotions surged inside him at the thought of her leaving so abruptly—hell, of her not stepping inside headquarters at all with him none the wiser—but he pushed it down and did his best to be as professional as possible. Then, when he got out of the office, he immediately went to the training room to vent whatever energy he had left until exhaustion took over and had him crashing right into bed for a deep, undisturbed sleep.
He did his best to mingle. He did his best to get back into routine, knowing calling Robin to ask how she was was out of the question. He even visited his sister, Francesca, when his routine at headquarters threatened to make him go insane—and when it came to his sister, he had to handle her incessant worry over him with a joke and a grin. She worried too much, which was why he never visited her right after a mission when she was bound to coddle him.
“I don’t want my brother almost dying because he acts before he thinks,” was Francesca’s latest speech to him as she served him takeout Chinese food, the scent wafting in the air and making his mouth water. “I want my brother to be cool-thinking and rational and all those qualities that could save his life one day.”
He almost pointed out that Francesca had actually been the reckless one in the family for running away years before, but her case was different. Besides, he didn’t think she’d appreciate the barb. Instead, he turned his gaze towards Charlie, who was eating his portion of vegetables and trying not to smile.
“Is she like this to you, too, after every mission?” he grumbled.
Charlie’s mouth quirked, a smirk more than a smile. “I’m always coolheaded on missions, so no.”
Simon shot the man an accusatory look, but the twinkle in Charlie’s eyes showed his humor in the matter. Simon wasn’t even sure he’d seen humor in the man before he met Simon’s sister, and as for Francesca…well, his sister had always had an unstable life, only for Charlie to give it reason. Their father had been a cruel man, and Simon was glad he was out of that life. They may have come from a wealthy family, but he’d gladly traded it all when he was at the proper age to leave because wealth was nothing if there was no happiness.
And shifter life and shifter missions gave him happiness. It made him feel fulfilled, somehow.
Francesca and Charlie were complete opposites when it came to personality, but they meshed perfectly, and Simon had to admit that he couldn’t see Francesca with anyone else. He’d have thought Charlie would go for a fellow shifter or a quiet woman considering how he was. Instead, he fell for Francesca, who was as loud and bubbly as they came.
Unable to help it, he thought of Robin. He and Robin had different personalities, too, but they meshed together as well. He wouldn’t exactly call them complete opposites, and he couldn’t call the bond they had as falling in love. They were friends who cared about each other, had sex because of too much unresolved tension…and now it was over, and they were both trying to move on. She mattered to him more than any other woman had ever mattered to him, and he was going to do his best to salvage whatever friendship they had left because it was too precious to lose.
Not even sex could change that.
But the sex had been so good—mind-blowing, in fact—that sometimes, when he wasn’t too exhausted at night, it was all he could think about. His thoughts would often drift to how she kissed him so sweetly, before it all turned urgent and hot and had him losing every bit of control he had inside that cave. Hell, even when he was tired, he would dream about it—and in his dream, she was naked and moaning out his name as he drove into her and touched her at the same time. It was glorious, and he would wake up with the scent of lemons and honey fresh in his mind and a hard-on that would stay inside his pants all day long.
He deduced this was just a phase—this sexual frustration for a woman he had once and still wanted, but couldn’t have anymore. Maybe time would make him forget how good it was with her, how intense, or maybe another woman could help ease it off. But he wasn’t even in the mood for any other woman, and he’d rather leave that alone than hurt someone else in the process. Time was his only ally now, and he was going to wait it out so that when he saw her again, everything would be good and comfortable between them.
In a few years to come, he was going to mate with a fellow shifter, and that was that.
A week after their mission, Dylan called him into the office again to ask if he wanted to volunteer for a standard checkup mission, mostly involving cleanup of some rowdy doings of shifters that drank too much booze and got away with their control. Simon had done this a hundred times before, and usually, it really was more of a cover-up so as not to alert the police and keep the shifter community still secret. He couldn’t figure out why some shifters were too reckless for their own good, but he supposed that’s just how it was. Simon tuned Dylan out for most of the briefing, already intending to take it. It would help him get his mind off things, and he knew the change of environment would be good for him.
Then Dylan mentioned something about the previous mission that had Simon’s attention snapping back up.
“I was wondering if you met someone in the compound other than Jin and his guards or his servants? I have intel here that says Jin had a younger sister—a child, really, who’d been missing for a while now. We tried to interrogate Yugoshi about it, but all he could tell us was that his daughter went missing around the time Jin had taken a trip abroad. The witch who helped with the interrogation confirmed he was speaking the truth, and we deduced that Jin’s trip was also the time he was probably replaced by a demon.”
Simon’s senses instantly went on alert. “We haven’t seen anyone.”
“Hmm, that’s too bad. I’m going to have to look into it further.” Dylan eyed Simon. “So are you in for the checkup mission?”
He was going to say yes. He was about to. But Simon remembered the demon Robin had summoned, and the demon’s words about how there were others in that compound like him—not just one. He supposed Dylan had already been informed about this and would look into it, but at the moment, it wasn’t their priority.
And instinct was telling Simon that it should be.
He shook his head. “I think Jake would fit this mission better.”
Dylan raised a brow. “What makes you say so?”
“He’s hardworking, and he handled the mission with us well. Another shifter could keep him in line, too, if he gets too impatient. The kid’s not bad, but he does need more experience.”
“Hmm. Alright. I’ll check on him, then.”
Simon nodded. “If it’s not much problem, I would like to request another mission.”
Now Dylan raised two brows. It wasn’t exactly common to request missions that weren’t created yet, but it wasn’t that rare, either. Still, Simon had always been the obedient kind who said yes to everything he was handed, so this was a new thing. “Yes?”
“I would like to trail Robin Chesley on her next mission.”
There was a beat of silence before Dylan finally asked, “Why?”
Simon looked at him grimly. “Because I have a feeling this demon thing isn’t over yet, and she may be the next target.”
Actually, it wasn’t just a feeling.
Somehow, in some way, he was pretty sure of it.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
When Red said Robin’s next mission was going to be deadly, she hadn’t been kidding.
Robin stared the witches in the eye—three witches, to be exact, who looked like they were ready to take her on so they could go ahead with their plan. Unfortunately, this plan included taking over the world, and that was just a bad thing altogether considering their belief of purging this world of humans so all supernatural creatures could reign supreme. She’d have laughed if she were i
n a laughing mood.
Except Robin hadn’t been in a laughing mood for quite a while now.
She certainly wasn’t in the mood when they tried attacking her without preamble, then bragged about their plan before trying to kill her. Were they complete idiots?
In retaliation, she attacked back—and so went the start of a long back and forth of attacks that used more magic than she expected. They weren’t exactly stronger than her, but together, they were a force to be reckoned with, and she needed to be more careful than ever. Robin had been confident she didn’t need a partner for this mission and had informed Red so, but now she was sorely regretting that decision. Had she had someone with her, like maybe a fellow witch…or Simon…
She shut down thoughts of him right away and did her best to focus on the task at hand. Witches were good at reading others, and if they pictured Simon in their minds, they would end up finding out who he was and using that as bait. Now, she couldn’t have that, because that was dirty play. Idiot witches like these three liked playing dirty.
Robin was just going to have to play dirty first.
The headache came when they decided to trek up a mountain where they could find a field to open up some circle and call out demons. She realized that they were the dangerous kind of idiots because no witch in their right mind called out those creatures with the expectation of them staying in line. Naturally, the first wave of demons that came weren’t very inclined to do their working, saving Robin the trouble by killing one of the witches before the other two tried to subdue them. She supposed it made her job easier, but then there was the cleanup of demons to think about which only served to piss her off.
By the fourth day of trying to close all the demon pathways they created—and succeeding—Robin had also managed to kill the second witch, who didn’t want to surrender and instead tried to slash her throat with some magical knife. This only served to piss Robin off more, who was tired and hungry and just wanted this over before more damage was done. She didn’t mind dangerous missions, but now this was turning more dumb than dangerous, especially with the way the last witch was acting.
Because he was the only one left, he panicked—and in his panic, he released all the demons he’d managed to capture so far, intending to let them loose on her.
Except, given how demons were, they let loose on him instead.
It had been difficult to watch them tear his limbs apart, then eat all the parts left behind. It had also been difficult to remain invisible during that short period of time, considering how they celebrated their freedom by tearing their way towards the nearest town. With no choice in the matter, Robin dropped her cover and taunted them to get her instead.
They took the bait easily, and what followed was an extreme tag game that almost ended up with her foot being cut off.
By the end of the week, she’d managed to kill all the demons there and use most of her energy up, resulting in every bone in her body being exhausted. Robin took her time going back down the mountains, knowing creating a portal without resting up first was suicide.
It was only when she got to the small village in Spain that she knew it wasn’t over yet. An ominous feeling settled in the air—similar to the one she got back in Japan, though she couldn’t determine if this was exactly the same. But a niggling feeling settled at the back of her neck when she checked into the nearest motel, then went out to get something to eat. It remained when she walked back to the motel, growing more persistent that she realized she had no choice but to get her magic ready despite her exhaustion.
Robin rounded the corner of the street, intending to stay in her room and keep all protective charms up.
“Hello.”
She stopped at the sight of the little girl in the middle of the street. It was a normal looking girl, with black silky hair and almond-shaped eyes that looked at her innocently—almost cheerfully. The girl had clear ivory skin and was wearing a yellow dress, and she looked like your average lost person, innocent and maybe helpless.
Except it was almost midnight.
And the little girl looked exactly like a younger version of Jin.
“You were the other demon,” Robin murmured without preamble. “The one in the compound that we couldn’t find.”
The girl’s eyes lit up, excitement filling them. There was a hint of approval in her tone when she spoke. “You’re very perceptive. My brother should have been more cautious of you.”
“Except he’s not really your brother, is he?” Robin shot back.
A tinkling laugh came from the girl—or rather, the little demon, whom Robin suspected wasn’t that little in her actual form. She felt something freezing her feet, but Robin refused to look down, instead facing the demon head-on.
“So what’s this? Some freezing thing demons use? You’re going to keep me in place while you spout off some speech before fighting me?”
There was that laugh again, although it was smugger this time. “Actually, no. You see, I’ve been tracking you for quite a while now. Imagine my luck when you wasted all your magic on all those witches and lesser demons. I was supposed to fight really hard with you, but it looks like you’re going to be easy to kill.”
Robin cursed inside her mind, realizing the terrible timing. Outwardly, she shrugged. “Go ahead, then. Do your worst.”
If she used her last reserves, she would faint on the spot—or probably worse, because this kind of exhaustion was higher than the one she experienced in the cave when fighting just one demon. She realized now that the ominous feeling in the air was seeping away her magic, too.
But what was she to do?
“Oh, I will. You’ll be first, and your wolf friend will be next.”
The mention of her wolf friend had something inside Robin snapping, and she realized again that the demon had been expecting the reaction—and enjoying it. She glared at the demon as her little girl eyes glowed black, those pearly white teeth replaced by sharp ones in an instant. Blue veins ran down her skin. Fear echoed inside Robin, knowing if she didn’t use her magic, she was going to die on the spot.
And if she did use it, she wasn’t even sure she could fully kill this demon. She would also burn herself out, giving the demon full freedom to kill her.
Rock and a hard place.
She closed her eyes, Simon’s face floating in her mind.
She had to try for him because he was the next target.
In the split of a second, Robin made her decision. At the same time, she felt pain on her ankles, and the demon disappeared in front of her—only to latch on to her legs. Robin pulled with all her might at her last reserves, calling out a spell that blasted the demon to the ground with a hard shake. The demon struggled, but Robin held on, pushing with her invisible force until the ground quaked.
A few minutes later, it was no longer the ground quaking, but her body. She closed her eyes once more, chanted a bit…then she pushed one last time, feeling the magic leave her body. It felt like her soul left her, too, leaving only hollowness behind. Her vision blurred. Her body gave up on her, falling before she could control herself.
A voice sounded in her head. Voices, actually.
“Goodbye, little witch.”
“Goodbye, little girl.”
Her eyes widened at the familiar voice. Her vision cleared for a little bit, allowing her to see the demon charge at her, then stop. Then Simon was there in his wolf form, glorious and large and locking gray eyes with her before tearing at the already injured demon with all his might. She wanted to call out to him, to tell him what she hadn’t had the courage to tell him back in that cave.
I love you.
Stay safe.
So she said it in her mind. Then Robin closed her eyes, wanting to rest more than anything else.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Seeing Robin almost die in front of him was the last straw for Simon, lending to his anger as he attacked the demon with all his strength and power, leaving nothing behind. By the time he was done, the demon�
�s head was severely detached from the rest of its body and said body was no better as it scattered all over the ground in a bloody mess. A part of him knew he was going to need to clean it up, but he shut off that part of him to prioritize the one thing that needed his attention the most.
Robin.
He scooped her up, fear on the surface at the gray pallor already forming on her skin. He ran for the place he checked in, which was just a room away from hers. He’d been tracking her for the whole week now, had lost her in the mountains, only sensing her again when she got back down.
Simon deposited her in bed and stripped her of her clothes as clinically as he could, leaving her in her underwear. He quickly checked her body for any serious damage, finding only minor injuries. He treated them as carefully as he could, then gave her a sponge wash before dressing her up in clean clothes. By the time he was done, half an hour had passed.
Robin didn’t move at all.
He tucked her in bed to keep her warm and comfortable, then went back out to take care of the demon he left behind. Simon braced himself for the odor and the dark feeling that passed through him as he picked up the pieces and threw them properly. They were strong enough to make him want to retch, which only confirmed the thought that this was a greater demon just like Jin.
And Robin had beaten it fair and square.
He supposed he should be happy that she was not dead. But happiness was the farthest thing from his mind as he worried over her condition, remembering the last time she’d been like this. Before, he’d been helpless.
Now, hopefully, he was more prepared.
She slept through the night. He checked her temperature and pulse from time to time, barely sleeping in his concern that she might need immediate care when she woke up. He settled for sitting in bed beside her and taking power naps every now and then, going out only to recharge himself with food. He tried to contact Dylan, but the man didn’t respond yet, and he couldn’t exactly leave Robin alone.
Simon (The Clan Legacy Series) Page 9
