To Catch A Bandit

by Emma Dean

  The small bit of skin touching his felt electric. Emily looked up at Jace and admired his shaggy brown hair and those sharp eyes. He always looked a little mean, even when he was smiling at her and she secretly loved it.

  “You’re assuming I couldn’t afford it,” she whispered, trying to figure out if she wanted to pull back or press forward.

  Those brown eyes turned silver and they glittered at her when he smiled slowly. “I suppose I was, but the offer still stands. The real world is expensive, and humans are worse than the fae with their lies and laws.”

  “I don’t need you to take care of me.” Emily yanked her hand out of his and glared up at him. Why did she have to have such a weakness for tall males with mean streaks? “I’ve spent enough time in the human world to know how to manage.”

  Jace looked unbothered as he reached out to place his hand on her waist instead, thumb skimming the small bit of skin showing between her shirt and leather pants. “Alone? I’m sure you’re aware it’s always a good idea to have a backup plan.”

  No shit.

  Emily placed her hands on his chest to push him away, but that breathtaking speed shocked her again when suddenly his fingers wrapped around her wrists. Jace pulled them up and placed them around his neck with that crafty grin that made her stomach flutter.

  “I’m not unaware of the complications between us, but will you do me a favor?” He pressed both hands against her lower back and pushed her until she was flush against him. “Give it some time before you decide. We’ll finish saving the world, and you can deny or accept. Not one of us will mention it until then.”

  That should give her a decent amount of time to think about it, but considering the hard length pressing against her…

  “Sex makes it worse,” she warned him. “Does that offer include no sex?”

  Jace chuckled and slipped his hand inside her pants to grab her ass and squeeze. Emily bit her lip so as not to encourage him by moaning like she wanted to.

  “I think at this point we’re kind of fucked,” he admitted, squeezing again. “You’ve slept with most of us twice. I don’t think it’ll make it any better if we abstain.” With that, Jace leaned down and kissed her.

  A real kiss.

  It was surprisingly soft and gentle. It made her sigh and relax into him. The hard length pressing against her stomach though made her needy and achy. Emily hated how much she wanted him—them. It made everything more complicated.

  “This is a bad idea,” she murmured against his lips, hands tightening on his neck despite her reluctance. “We don’t know what’s out here and we have that meeting to go to.”

  Jace gave her a dark chuckle full of promise and lifted her up. Her legs wrapped around him instinctually and he carried her into the dark forest. “I like to live dangerously,” he whispered, kissing her neck as he navigated the forest fraught with unknowns and threats.

  “What if I don’t want to have sex here in this forest with the Morrigan knows what watching?” she asked, one eyebrow raised.

  “Then I’ll take you right back.” He stopped in a small clearing and eyed the environment. “What do your raven eyes see?”

  Emily inspected their surroundings, searching for auras as well as creatures or dangers.

  Then his hands slid up the back of her shirt. Jace smiled as he waited for her answer, lifting her sports bra up and over her breasts. “Well?” he asked, pinching one of her nipples.

  Emily bit her tongue to keep from groaning, but she arched into him, wanting more and wanting it now. “There are a few monsters, about three kilometers out. Then there are some rebel scouts around. They know we’re here and they’re keeping an eye on us.”

  Jace pinched her other nipple. “We should give them a show.”

  This time she couldn’t bite back her gasp. “You’re nuts.”

  “I am,” he admitted, licking the column of her throat. “Let me take you.”

  Emily gripped his hair and yanked back. They eyed each other – silver and ruby. “No.”

  Without another word Jace pulled her bra down and released her, hands up with that crafty grin of his as she slid down the entire length of his body. “You want me to. I can feel it.”

  “Another gift?” she asked, fixing her clothes. A noise made her glance over her shoulder. Something was scenting them.

  “I may have left out that raccoons are empaths. We don’t have to smell your emotions to know what you’re feeling.”

  “And I can see your aura,” Emily snapped, yanking her hair back into a ponytail. “So, it goes both ways. We need to get back.”

  “Whatever you want, my dark raven.”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  Jace followed after her and his huff of laughter grated on her nerves because now, she knew…she knew that he was aware every time her anger covered up what she really felt. Emily wanted to fuck his brains out, but not here and now.

  Being responsible was so overrated.

  20

  Emily

  Alice gave them the intel that she’d gathered from her spies. It looked like it would be easy enough to infiltrate the red castle, Kalorsia, once the sun set. They had orders to stay inside the base until nightfall.

  Since there was no safe place in Wonderland.

  Emily was kneeling on the floor of their assigned room and going through her pack for the third time. She had everything she needed for the mission, including her facemask that filtered out smoke and gas.

  She wasn’t taking any risks when it came to Madness.

  “Let’s go over it again,” Jace commanded. There was really no other word for the tone of voice he used. He had a stick in one hand and pointed at the drawings in the dirt like they were hatchlings in the forest planning to raid another group's supplies.

  The flashback was strange, but not unfamiliar. Instead of Corbin, and the other hatchlings, she had the raccoons.

  Emily didn’t even remember those hatchlings’ names anymore and she’d spent a year with them in that forest, surviving. It had been one of the best years of her life thanks to the freedom. That was, until she’d had to make that first kill.

  “Emily, are you listening?” Jace demanded, no trace of the vicious gentleness he’d had earlier.

  “Jack of Hearts and I go in first by way of the shadow realm,” she murmured, pulling everything out of her pack again. “We open one of the side doors to let the rest of you in. Then we all make our way to the treasure room. Jack and I taking out the posted guards ahead of you. We take the crown and the sword and leave through the window.”

  Emily had her med kit, her extra ammo, her extra guns and poisons and antidotes.

  “Easy enough,” she said, looking up to find all four of them watching her carefully, like she might just snap again.

  “Too easy,” Chance muttered. “I’ve read the reports on what exactly lies between that first wall and the castle. The monster we ran into the first fucking breath we took here? That’s just the tip of the iceberg. If we can’t sneak through, we’re going to have to fight through.”

  She counted her magazines and nodded. “Should be fine.” If she ran out of bullets, she still had her knives.

  Emily herself was a weapon.

  “I don’t think you get it,” Chance insisted, sounding aggravated. He stood and started pacing, watching her closely. “There are hundreds of them.”

  Each and every movement was precise as she repacked her gear for the last time. Emily stood and crossed her arms over her chest to watch Chance. He looked nervous.

  They all did, in their own ways.

  Clearly it wasn’t because of each other. They’d done this kind of thing a million times from what she’d gathered. No, she and Jack were the wild cards and they didn’t know exactly what she was capable of.

  They had no idea that being a raven wasn’t just being able to sneak through the world and slit throats, disappearing before anyone was the wiser.

  Twenty years of training and she hadn�
�t started getting jobs until she was eighteen. And those had been closely monitored and approved.

  She studied each one of the raccoons with narrowed eyes. There was no easy way to convince them she could do this mission with her eyes closed.

  Only one quick and dirty enough.

  “Attack me,” she told them. “All of you.”

  Ben and Jace shared a look like she was being extra crazy again.

  Emily sighed and dropped her arms to her side. “You don’t trust me, you don’t know what to expect from me, and you know nothing about ravens other than what I’ve told you. Attack me.”

  And they did. Almost as if they’d been waiting for this moment.

  They were fast. Emily had expected it to some degree, but she grinned in feral anticipation as all four of them flew at her.

  She clasped her hands behind her back as she breathed. Time slowed ever so slightly, and she watched as Jace made it to her first.

  A simple sidestep and he missed her completely. Ducking as she swung her head down and up, spreading her legs wider to lower her center of gravity and Chance missed her too.

  If Chance was the right arm, Ben was the left and together they were a brutal one-two punch.

  But Emily had been trained to watch every single move an enemy made and to plot twenty steps ahead, simultaneously planning for every eventuality. She hadn’t been doing nothing this past week. No, she’d been learning them – cataloguing their strengths and weakness whether she was consciously aware of it or not.

  Ben’s immediate follow up nearly took her head off but she kept moving as her head came up out of the duck and simply bent over backward, watching as his fist flew past her nose. Sliding her left foot at the same time, she went to one knee and whipped her other leg around.

  Aiden tripped and landed right on his ass with a surprised noise.

  Emily grinned at them, those first attacks barely taking a fraction of a second. “You’re not even trying,” she taunted.

  Ben’s slow grin made her toes curl and Chance yanked his fist out of the dirt wall with a chuckle.

  “Don’t hold back,” she told Jace. “It won’t be as much fun if you do.”

  Jace’s answering snarl made her laugh and she spun in the opposite direction, his fingers just barely missing the ends of her ponytail.

  Emily flipped backward from her knees, landing on her hands and pushed up and into a back handspring through the door. One, two, three, and she stopped – eyeing the space between her and the raccoons as she viciously tied her ponytail up in a bun.

  There was no way she was going to allow Jace to get his hands on her hair unless he was fucking her.

  All four of them stood in the doorway of their room and stared at her with matching grins and silver eyes. The rebels scrambled out of their way, not sure what to make of them.

  “Come play,” Emily taunted, curling her fingers in a come here gesture.

  Fuck, they were fast. And they definitely weren’t holding back anymore.

  They moved as one. And they were a sight to see.

  Four completely different-looking males with distinctive skills and strengths and sizes. It took two blinks before they were in front of her, and then she was surrounded.

  Emily grinned as she gripped Jace’s wrist when he tried to reach for her hair again. Twisting, she ducked and kicked upward at the same time, dodging Aiden’s punch and hitting Chance right in the jaw with her foot.

  She was a lot stronger than she looked too, dragging Jace around with her as she moved made him grin in surprise and delight. Then she shifted, placing Jace in front of her as Ben struck. Her shield grunted in pain and Ben actually looked shocked.

  Laughing, she used Jace as leverage to jump up and wrap her legs around Chance’s neck. She released and swung down, using the momentum to slam Chance into the floor. Her arm came up to block Aiden just in time.

  This had always been her favorite game, and Emily had excelled at it.

  One raven against many opponents.

  Her training had taught her how to catalog all motion and assess it for threat level, find the path of least resistance, and to use any exerted energy. No movement was wasted. Nothing was forced. She used every kick and punch they threw at her against themselves and each other.

  That familiar peace settled over her and all she could hear was her controlled breathing.

  Emily could see every move before it happened, every idea that lit their eyes, and she was small. It was so easy to slip through their guards, duck and sway, and avoid them completely if she wanted.

  But they were wicked fast. They were well trained considering they weren’t ravens, and they knew how to work as a team.

  If she’d used any of her guns or knives, they’d already be dead, but that wasn’t the point of this game. That wasn’t what they didn’t trust. No, she could hit targets with her guns or knives as they’d seen. But they’d never seen a raven actually fight. Not when they were barely more than mists and shadows.

  They needed to be sure she could have their back when shit hit the fan.

  Emily gave them the credit their skill deserved. Every hit and punch was fast enough she had to spend a bit of concentration on keeping her breathing as even as possible. Sweat ran down her spine, down her face, and between her breasts. But she’d once done this game against ten other ravens for twelve hours.

  She had Chance in a headlock, and she kicked back to hit Jace in the chest, giving her more breathing room. Chance was nearly passed out, but Ben yanked his foot and she lost her grip while blocking Aiden’s attack from behind.

  Aiden was the one she struggled with the most. Not only was he fast, he was shorter and much closer to her center of gravity. It made it difficult to avoid him with the other three herding her into one spot.

  Then suddenly Aiden had her in a chokehold and she slammed her feet into Ben’s chest to push them both backward. Aiden hit their door and he knocked her onto the ground, right on top of that pretty map Jace had made.

  Somehow, they’d moved so much they’d herded her back into their room.

  Emily snarled when she realized why and bit down as hard as she could on Aiden’s arm. He yelped in pain and surprise but didn’t let go.

  If they were going to fight dirty, then so was she.

  Emily grabbed dirt from the floor and flung it into his eyes.

  He cursed and released her right as Ben and Chance came forward. Emily had lost track of Jace and when his hand wrapped around her ankle and yanked, she scowled. Ben grabbed one arm and Chance the other.

  They were so much stronger than she felt raccoons had a right to be. With teamwork and leverage they’d managed to contain her. Emily’s mind ran a thousand escape scenarios as she struggled against them.

  She didn’t know how to get away without slipping into the shadow realm, and with them touching her there was a good chance they’d be pulled into it as well. Emily had done it before and then left her enemy in that place where hungry monsters dwelled in the never-ending darkness.

  Emily closed her eyes and went completely limp. Her back smacked the floor as the three of them grunted, adjusting to the change in weight. Jace’s hands on her feet loosened ever so slightly and she pulled.

  The alpha raccoon lurched forward which gave her the leverage she needed. Emily spread her legs and clamped her thighs around Jace’s head, squeezing with every bit of strength she had. Ben and Chance tried to pull her off of him, but Jace was dragged along with her as he gripped her thighs hard, face turning red.

  Aiden was still cursing, trying to get the dirt out of his eyes.

  Now for her hands.

  Leaning to the left put her right hand in position and she gripped Chance’s balls tight. His yelp of pain warned her and his grip on her wrist loosened, allowing her to slip through his fingers.

  Swaying to the left dropped her at Ben’s feet and she punched upward. He avoided the hit to his balls and twisted her arm. Emily gritted her teeth against the pain
. If he broke her hand or wrist she’d be in a heap of trouble.

  Releasing Jace was a risk, but a necessary one.

  Using Ben’s grip as leverage she spun herself around on her butt to face him and then kicked up, right into his stomach. It took the pressure off her wrist and Ben lurched forward in pain. Emily struck with her free hand right into his nose.

  It didn’t break but it would make his eyes water which would make it difficult to see. The pain might not distract him, based on what Jace had told her about raccoon gifts.

  Chance was back on his feet and so was Aiden. Jace was getting up and Ben was recovering faster than she’d like.

  Emily used her feet and flipped into a crouching position, eyeing all four of them with a critical eye, planning her next moves like a complicated game of chess.

  Every sound was distinct. From the common area outside their room to the beat of each of their hearts. Every single breath they took was loud and filed away to assess their exhaustion and pain. Each move of their body rippled through the world and translated intention to her brain.

  Then there were the auras. Each of them showed pain from her attacks, but also excitement, interest, and…pride.

  It was strange to feel that these four were proud of her.

  Emily didn’t think anyone in her flock had ever felt such a thing for her, not when it had been anticipated for her to constantly exceed their expectations.

  “I want to play,” Jace murmured, watching her closely – no doubt seeing the way she viewed them, the world, their surroundings…he was insanely perceptive for someone with shitty eyesight—an empath. “What about you Ben?”

  How much could they anticipate her attacks thanks to that empathy? Emily wondered if that’s why ravens had started keeping their emotions off. It made it harder for other shifters to guess what they were going to do if there were no smells or emotions attached to any of their decisions.

  “I want to play,” Ben growled. “But I’m done with this game.”

  “We get the idea, Emily,” Chance murmured, eyeing her from head to toe. “You’re the best.”