by Brianna Jean
I held back a growl at the thought of either Cabe or Quint being the ones alone with her. No. No way.
“You just said it. I’m boss man. Now shut up and listen to me, because we’re almost there,” I snapped. I couldn’t let her see the lie. I didn’t choose to take her here because I was in charge of our little group. I did it because I wanted to be the one to do this with her.
After all, it was going to hurt both of us.
When she shifted into her Angel form for the first time since her Transition, she would be in more pain than she was when it first happened. Her body had formed scar tissue in the spot that her wings first broke skin. She would be in pain, and she would definitely be angry.
Quint wouldn’t know what to do, he didn’t have wings. Cabe would try and soothe her with warm words and feelings.
No, she needed someone to push her through it. Slam her through the pain and hold her firmly on the other side. No pity, no sympathy. I planned to be her rock, her steady hand, and I selfishly wanted to take that opportunity away from my brothers.
“No!” she yelled. “I’m not going to fucking shut up. Tell me why you act like you hate me! Is that it? Do you hate me? I don’t want to be here anymore than you, so let’s just have this out now.”
I must have been better than I thought at masking my feelings, because Anna clearly had no idea that I didn’t hate her. I couldn’t. I wanted to hate her more than I wanted to breathe, but in reality, my steadily growing feelings for her made me breathe easier. That was the biggest pill to swallow.
Even still, I held that mask to my face as I replied, “I hate you because I have to babysit you instead of living my fucking life. My mate hasn’t come, so I’m stuck following orders, and those orders happen to be making sure your annoying ass doesn’t get killed. So, as I politely told you before, shut the fuck up and let me teach you how to not get killed.”
I lied, not wanting to admit that I was ninety-nine percent sure that I was already looking at my mate—it made our connection too serious, too real.
I thought she’d be hurt and move on, leave me alone for a while, but instead, she laughed hysterically in my passenger seat. She laughed so hard that tears ran down over her sharp cheekbones and landed on the seductive curve of her lips. “You’re so full of shit, Lanier. This situation is crazy as hell, but you’re a liar.” She was still laughing.
I glared at her, not sensing the joke.
“Oh, I’m sorry, did you think that you could simply say, ‘I have to follow orders,’ and I’d be like, ‘Oh sure, that makes perfect sense. Of course, I’d hate me too’? Or are you just dumb?” She watched me, her violet eyes flaring in amusement as she walked her way through my lie. I’d misjudged her, and she baited me into lying. She did it effortlessly. It didn’t even take her a moment to think it over. No, this girl saw right the fuck through me. “Is that what you’re telling me? Or would you like to rethink your answer and give me the real reason?”
She crossed her arms over her chest and stared me down, those lilac pools rolling slowly—like a brewing storm.
She knew why, at the very least she had an idea. This bond, my beast’s connection to her, seemed to be living. The need to protect and care for her was hard to resist. I didn’t need to explain, but she wasn’t going to let this go until I told her the truth. “For fuck’s sake, Annalise. Fine, I didn’t want their fucking hands on you. I wanted to be the one to do this for you. I wanted to be here. I wanted to help you through the excruciating pain you’re about to endure. I think you know all of that though, and you want to talk about something else. What is it that you want to know, Annalise?”
She glared at me with no amusement on her pretty face. Yeah, she could read me, but I could read her too. She wanted me to explain our feelings. She wanted me to tell her that I understood her feelings for me, but I couldn’t do that.
“I want out of this fucking car,” she spat, her tone making my dick twitch.
“Ditto, baby.”
Alright, so this was going to hurt.
That sucked major balls to hear, but I appreciated the warning. I spent the next ten minutes going back and forth, contemplating begging Lanier to tell me what was going on with me and preparing myself mentally for the physical pain I was about to be in. If I told myself how bad it would be, I would hopefully be surprised when it wasn’t as bad as I imagined.
However, it was hard to do when my body was on fire. My brain was short circuiting, and the fucking traitor between my legs throbbed against my will.
Our little argument sent me spiraling.
I wanted him. I craved him as badly as I craved my next breath, and I started thinking about the last forty-eight hours and all the shit that had gone down. All because of my fucking birthday.
Lanier’s flames inched toward mine the whole car ride. I felt them licking the leather between us, slithering over the folds of my clothing, setting fire to the ticking time bomb within our souls. I wanted him. And not just in the fuck-me-dirty kind of way. I wanted to know him—so bad that my chest hurt, like I was missing something important and I wouldn’t be complete until he gave it back.
I wanted him to want me.
“We’re here, Annalise,” he grumbled, turning off the engine.
Sure enough, we were parked on an empty street, surrounded by woods.
“Where the hell is here?” I asked him. It was just past dawn now, and my limbs had grown achy over the two-hour drive.
“We’re going to walk about a mile to a clearing. Then I’m going to teach you to push out your wings.” He got out and slammed his door with more force than necessary, proving that he was also on edge.
I unbuckled my seatbelt with a sigh and pushed my door open. As I set my sneaker-covered feet on the ground, I wondered briefly where the hell they came from and when I put them on.
“Where did these come from?” I asked, pointing to the all-white Nikes. They fit perfectly.
“Cabe went out to buy them while you slept yesterday, knowing you didn’t have anything besides those heels,” he replied absently, voice distracted.
“And he didn’t think to get me a new outfit that actually fit?” I questioned, confused about why I was still in Lanier’s clothes.
“I told him not to.” He shrugged his big shoulders and tried to distract me from the question. “Watch out for little creatures; this area is dense.”
It worked. I looked up at the mention of our surroundings, mouth dropping open. Sure as shit, we were parked just outside a small clearing that was surrounded in a U-shape by massive trees. The dark green woods stood out like a giant shadow against the rising sun.
“We’re going to walk through that?” I asked, my voice a little too squeaky for my liking.
“How else do you expect to get there? Fly?” Lanier snapped, moving toward the tree line.
I didn’t move. “Oh hell no, Stony. I’m not walking into the fucking woods with you. We’re in the middle of nowhere, and you could easily slaughter me out here and no one would have any idea. Where are we anyway? New York has nothing like this…”
He laughed a bitter sound, pinching the bridge of his nose before running a hand down his face. His arm muscles flexed under the material of his hoodie. “Annalise, I’m not going to kill you. I’m in charge of protecting you, for fuck’s sake. Can we just get this over with? We have a long drive back, and I’m one hundred percent positive that you’re going to come up with more questions than I have patience. The longer we stand here, the less and less fun I’m going to be.”
“Oh sure, because you’re a total fucking delight right now,” I argued, still not moving.
He stormed toward me, slamming my body against the side of his car. I drew in a shocked breath and bit down on my bottom lip to stop the moan that threatened to come out.
He was so fucking hot.
“You’re coming into the woods with me, Annalise. I’m going to teach you how to push your wings out so that if you do decide to run, at leas
t you’ll know what the fuck to do if you’re ever approached. Which, by the way, you would be. Probably before you even left the parking garage.” He was breathing hard, his threat settling in the back of my brain. He truly believed that something or someone wanted me dead, but I didn’t understand why. Even if I was Nephilim, why would anyone want to kill me for it? Did he even know? I didn’t have time to ask because he kept going, “But if you fucking have to, I’ll let you risk it, but only if you let me help you with this. You can be on your way, and I won’t intervene.”
I thought about telling him to fuck off. If he was going to kill me in the woods, then his promise to let me escape wouldn’t be relevant, so he clearly thought I was an idiot, but in the end, I had absolutely nothing to lose. I had no one, besides Joey—who I’m sure was freaking out in my absence—but even he had a life to live. He was on the search for his girl since I couldn’t fill the role. He wouldn’t miss me.
I had nothing stopping me from jumping in with both feet and seeing what all this was about. If Lanier was going to show me how to…push my wings out as a form of protection…then fine. I’d do it.
I put my hands on his chest, ignored the searing heat that flared between us, and shoved him off of me. I stood rooted in place, horrified, as he flew at least twenty feet away from me, landing on the ground with a hard smack.
He was up and in front of me again before I could blink.
I snarled.
He growled.
I felt Bestia stir, waking up to the commotion. I couldn’t find her, but I felt her.
She rose within me, those razor-sharp hairs on her body tickled and stung my insides as she shook off the remnants of sleep.
I was terrified of her for the first time. She brought me pain two nights ago, she nearly killed me, and I was scared as fuck to go through that again.
Panic raced in, stalling my heated session with Lanier and turning it into something else. I looked up at him and pleaded with my eyes, not wanting to admit that I was totally out of control.
“Close your eyes and feel her, Anna,” he whispered, the nickname rolling off his tongue. This one was different, more intimate, because it was my real name. I didn’t hate it.
The fight never left his eyes. Instead, they seemed to pulse and rage against the power I felt slowly creeping into my veins. The use of my nickname, one that was different from the names they’d given me, had my heart warming.
I obeyed.
One second at a time, my body changed. My core temperature dropped below freezing, my head cleared, my heartbeat slowed and changed its rhythm.
I felt it and understood, finally, that I was something new. No longer just a Human. That last little delicate part of me was put to the side as my strongest version came to the front and took over.
I was new—I was completely fucking changed.
I didn’t need to see my wings to understand. The power flooding my veins was too hard to ignore, too strong to deny.
My legs felt steadier, my arms and hands felt just a little bit longer, slimmer, more graceful. My muscles were tight and packed with new strength, my vision was twice as clear, my hearing twice as receptive.
“Hello, Annalise.” I heard her musical voice inside my head, and my eyes flew open to see Lanier watching me with rapt attention. He nodded in encouragement.
“Hello,” I mentally answered, unsure of what to do.
“Do you want to see what we look like together?” she asked. I felt a million little shards of light fall on my skin, like baby patches of sun. I looked down seeing that my skin had changed color—now my flesh was pale, almost gray.
I looked up at Lanier, unsure of how to answer. Was I ready?
No, I didn’t think I was.
“Annalise,” Lanier spoke, using his index finger to bring my face to his. I wanted to close my eyes against the intensity in his own.
“It’s going to hurt,” I whispered to him, letting him see that I wasn’t scared of what I might be, but I was scared of the pain. I had endured a lot during my twenty-one years of life, but I had never experienced the agony that I did the night before.
“It is, but you’re strong. It won’t last forever, just a few moments. And I’ll be right here,” he answered in a soft voice, completely different than the tone he usually used with me. That connection between us grew stronger until his scent was enough to wrap me up in confidence. I could do this. “You’ve already started taking on the change, but it’s different than I’ve ever seen it before. Your skin color has changed, your hair is somehow even darker.”
I blinked, remembering that I wanted to know the truth, I wanted proof that I was what they accused me of being.
This would be the only way to get it.
Though I almost called the whole thing off because I already knew.
The buzzing in my veins, the call I felt toward a new kind of power, was proof in and of itself. The skin tone, the strength, those things just put the nail in my coffin.
“Is it supposed to feel…” I started but couldn’t quite explain it. There was lightness in the power I felt, but I caught a lingering scent of something else.
Lanier’s eyebrows rose in shock before schooling into interrogation mode, “Is it supposed to feel what, Annalise?”
I hesitated, unsure of what I was feeling.
Something about this just didn’t feel right.
“Dark,” I whispered. “Is it supposed to feel dark?”
As soon the words left my mouth, I regretted them. It’s as if I gave the evil swimming through me some sort of permission. A black shadow flew from the corner of my brain and dug its roots in my power. I let out a broken scream through my teeth.
“Annalise!” Lanier yelled, not understanding what was happening to me.
I looked at him with changed eyes and tilted my head as I saw a vein pulsing in his neck and couldn’t look away.
I felt the massive swarm of needles as they stabbed into my gums, but I didn’t care about the pain this time, not as I focused on that fucking vein, the blood flowing through it.
My fangs dropped, changing the game.
“Annalise, you have to explain to him what’s happening, or he won’t be prepared,” Bestia said in my head.
Like I was in a trance, I said to Lanier, “Your blood.”
He paused, going still with shock.
“Wha—” he began just before his eyes clouded over, the seafoam green now completely replaced with silver circles. His breath came out choppy as he glared in my direction. “What are you doing to me?”
His voice was suddenly deeper and multilayered. Like he was more than one person. I watched, fascinated, as his skin tone jumped a few shades and lost its brightness, matching mine in a light gray.
I smiled, genuinely enjoying the fact that he was somehow in this mess with me. He seemed surprised by the change in skin tone, so I assumed this was new for him too.
A random gust of wind blew in our direction, bringing with it a new scent. I stopped, turned, and sniffed the air.
No.
No way.
“Did you cut yourself?” I turned back and asked Lanier, my own voice sounding strange. Seductive and husky. Sexy.
“When you threw me, I landed on my hands,” he replied with narrowed eyes. He held up a large hand for me to see, and when I noticed the small scrapes lining his palm, I almost blacked out.
“I…” I started but couldn’t find the words. “Lanier…”
He didn’t reply but instead tilted his head to look at me as I had done to him a minute ago. His nostrils flared as an idea formed in his head.
“Sorry about this, Vix,” he said slowly before he lifted one of his scraped hands and wrapped it around my throat.
I barely had time to take a breath before I was flying through the air and then landing hard in the same spot I threw him just a few minutes ago.
I tucked as best I could when I landed, but my shoulder still smashed into the grass covered ground. The mornin
g dew spread across Quint’s hoodie, leaving me damp and annoyed as hell.
“What the fuck?” I screamed, getting back to my feet.
Anger pulsed through me, while this new power felt totally foreign and completely unwelcome since I had no idea what to do with it or what it meant. I hadn’t even gotten to the wings part yet.
I had a feeling this wasn’t normal.
The power within me was dark and sinister, and it spiked, getting louder, meaner, as I scented blood, the tangy sweetness like a drug to my heightened senses. I licked my lip in anticipation and realized that I was bleeding. My fangs had bit through my bottom lip when Lanier threw me across the open field.
“You fucking asshole!” I yelled, ready for round two.
His eyes blazed as he watched me from across the distance.
I ran, and it wasn’t a normal sprint but rather like a burst of winter wind. I flew forward and landed solidly against his chest, nearly knocking me on my ass again. He shoved me off but held onto my shoulders.
“What the fuck? Did I—” I couldn’t finish that sentence.
I just…flew to him?
“You used your new strength. You’re faster than a Human now,” he said absently. His eyes zeroed in on my bleeding lip, hunger flaring in his hot gaze.
Wait, was he feeling the same thing I was?
“This power…Lanier—” I was scared out of my mind. Half of me wanted to sink my fangs into the throbbing vein in his neck, and the other half wanted to run like hell away from it all.
“This,” he began, pulling me toward him. We were now chest to chest, and it was a struggle to stay focused. The need to get closer was strong, like he was pulling me to him with an invisible thread. “This feeling is new.”
I looked up at him, seeing him not really there. He was somewhere else, someone else. He spoke in a distracted, haunted kind of voice. “Something is happening to me, Annalise, and I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t feel safe.”
Safe. Safe for who?
“What do I do?” I whispered, starting to panic again.
