by Kim Faulks
“I’m not going to hurt you,” she whispered.
I took a step backwards, wrenched my gaze to the others. “I know that, Neon. Why are you acting strange?”
“Do you feel it?” she murmured and closed her eyes. Her fists unfurled, leaving her palms for the sky. “Creatures are stirring. Dark beginnings, dangerous beginnings. These are turbulent times, Lorn. Very turbulent.”
“I want the wolf, Neon. I have to take him in, you know the rules.”
“It wasn’t his fault,” the Alpha growled. “You should know that.”
I should, should I? I reached behind me to the silver chain in my pocket. “He either comes quietly, or I use the snare. Don’t make me trap him,” I moved forward. “I don’t want to hurt him.”
“He’s gone, Lorn, running with a new pack,” Neon murmured.
I felt the truth in her words. “Where?”
“Not here,” she answered and turned to glance at the pack. “We don’t want their kind here.”
“The drug, Sigil. What do you know?”
She flinched with the words. The bright glow of her skin dulled, golden eyes darkened to amber, and then to brown. The wind whipped up, turning colder. The shirt stuck to my back and turned cold. I’d never seen a fae turn cold. “He wants to come back, Lorn. Don’t let him. You have the power...only you.”
“Who…who wants to come back?”
That bitter wind howled, like a thousand wolves all hungry, all savage…all hunting, as she answered. “Your father.”
Shadows slunk back into the forest. The Alpha watched me and followed, stepping over the thick, mossy rocks as he slipped backwards through the palms. You watched a beast like that, eyes front, never turning around. You watched a beast you feared.
It was me…both of them were afraid. I took a step toward the woman I’d known my entire life. “I don’t understand, Neon. Help me understand. My father is dead.”
But there was no more talk from the fae, no more secrets spilled.
“I want the wolf…I want Jeremy.”
She shook her head, the vibrant orb now fading…as did the woman.
Heavy breaths filled the space, and they weren’t mine.
“What the fuck just happened?” Titus muttered. “What the fuck was that?”
I stared at the spot where she'd disappeared. “That was Neon; a half mortal, half fae, and Queen of Ruba.”
“The Queen…that was The Queen?”
I nodded, unable to share in his excitement. Your father…your father…your father… “Lying sonofabitch.”
I spun on my heel and lunged. The ground slipped away beneath me, I left it all behind; the light, the human…but I brought all my anger, every fucking lash of fire.
“Hey! Lorn!”
Titus called me, still, I couldn’t stop, couldn’t slow as I lunged over the fallen log and raced for the cobblestone path.
“Gabriel!” I screamed as I raced for the gate. “I know you can hear me. Get down here!”
There was no answer from the sky, no flap of wings, no thunder of his arrival. “If you don’t get here now, I’ll hunt you down, and pluck you like a damn chicken!”
“Pluck me like a chicken?” The deep growl came from behind me. “Pluck me like a chicken?”
I spun at the sound. The thunder of boots echoed in the distance as Titus raced to catch up. But I couldn’t focus on that. “You lied! You lied to me! I want the truth, you sniveling toad!”
“Sniveling toad? Man, you are full of compliments today, aren’t you, Lorn? What’s got you all twisted up, hmm?” He leaned closer, spearing me with his eyes.
He was a bad liar. A really bad liar. He shook his head, hiding the damn flinch like a rookie. “I have zero clue what you’re talking about.”
My gaze drifted up, and up, as I closed in. Massive wings engulfed me…blue eyes. God, those blue eyes brought me undone. “My father, tell me again…and this time, make it the goddamn truth.”
“Is gone, and has been for a long time,” he murmured. “I’ve told you the truth, Lorn. I’ve always told you the truth. I promised him—”
“Hey!” Titus gasped. “Did you not hear me back there?”
Gabriel yanked his gaze high, crystal clear blue eyes hardened to steel. “And you are?”
“Titus…Titus Banks. Inspector at Harbor Met.”
I glanced at Titus and found the same star-struck gaze that every other human had when meeting the archangel.
“A human…really, Lorn? I leave you alone for a few hours and you bring home…this?”
“This? Now…listen here, buddy…” Titus growled.
A damn pissing match, right when I needed…what did I need? This hole inside to not ache so damn much? Yeah, that’d be a good start. No mother. No father. You know how much that hurt growing up?
I had Alma. That’s what I clung to, on those nights when I craved for a voice, or a touch…or just something. I had Alma.
She told me stories, stories of a naive human woman who'd fallen in love. But my father was always missing. There was barely any information, and sure as hell no stories about him. By the time Alma found out my mother had fallen in love with a supe, he was already gone.
Wasn’t made to be a dad, I was told. Didn’t deserve either of us. So I guess that’s when they started running, and that’s when Mom became sick.
I was too young; snatches of memories were all I had, of a woman with blazing red hair and a perfect smile. And sometimes when I’m lying in bed, drifting off to sleep, I can hear her voice. I wake, trying to hold onto that sound, to embed it all the way down to my soul, so I can remember—but it’s always gone, slipping through my fingers as my eyes open.
He left us…those were the words that Alma used. He left, and now he’s dead. But only two people know the truth. Him and the Man upstairs, and this overpriced, unplucked, walking peacock was the closest thing I had to the truth.
“Tell me, Gabriel. I want to know everything this time. Neon wouldn’t lie, and she wouldn’t hurt me.”
“And you think I would?”
His voice deepened in that husky, gravel-wearing, sex-filled tone. I wanted to dive into that voice, I wanted to wrap it around my body like silk. He took a step closer, until the long feathers of his wings brushed my arms. So white, so pure…that means he always tells the truth, right?
That means he’s my friend…my confidant. My everything…
I wrenched from the thought and shook the fog from my head. “Stop it, Gabriel. Get out of my damn head. I don’t need your mind games, not now.”
“Has she told you she kissed me?” he snarled toward Titus, and lifted those piercing eyes.
Oh no…no…no…no.
There was a silence, until a cold, curt reply. “That’s really none of my—”
“He’s right, it is none of his business. And none of yours.” I stabbed him in the chest with a finger. “You’re the one who shut me down, remember? So you don’t get to do this…you don’t get to do a damn thing. You call yourself my friend and, yet, clearly you aren’t. You lie, you manipulate, and then you act like some jealous fucking jock when I’m working. Stay out of my business, Gabriel.” I dropped my hand and held his gaze. “Actually, do one better and stay out of my life.”
“You don’t mean that,” he whispered.
But I was already turning, already finding Titus’ stony stare, and making for the car. “Mean what I say, say what I mean. It’s my motto, right? I’m a cold-hearted bitch, Gabriel. It’s about time you got with the program.”
“You don’t mean that!”
Gravel crunched under my boots. I went in there looking for answers, and I ended up with a knife in my damn heart. How the fuck did that even happen?
My damn hands shook as I reached the car. Actually, not just my hands, my entire fucking body.
“You okay?” Titus called over the roof of his ride.
The locks snapped open, and I fumbled, fighting like hell to not turn my head and look
for him. The hinges squealed as I yanked the door open and climbed inside. My teeth chattered, filling the damn space with the clicking sound. What the hell just happened? What the hell just happened?
The engine started with a growl. I leaned toward the vents as the gust of warm air came, fists clenched so hard my knuckles popped under the strain.
“Here,” Titus fumbled with the damn lever, trying to point the air my way.
Still my teeth gnashed and ground. “I-Is the b-bastard g-gone?”
There was a second where I thought my heart would falter until he answered. “Yeah, he’s gone.”
Only then was I strong enough to lift my gaze and find the open gates to Ruba. The trees blurred, blending green and brown into one goddamn mess. Bastard. Damn bastard. Was I overreacting? Was I wrong?
“If you want, I can…”
His hand brushed my shoulders. I almost leaned into him, almost felt myself need. Until I straightened, cleared my throat, and answered. “I’m good, just got a bit of a chill is all. Damn forest, always hits me.”
“Yeah, sure. It was a little cool in here. But if you want to talk…”
I turned and yanked my seatbelt. I didn’t even wear the damn thing…still, the buckle snapped into place. “So we know what? That our biter is Jeremy, was running with the Ruba pack wolves, and is now running with God knows which pack.”
“If he’s on the run, I might know someone who can help. A CI I had in the day. If he’s still out here, he’ll know the word on the street.”
A supernatural confidential informant? Seemed crazy they’d snitch on another of their kind. But if there was anything I'd learned in this gig, it was always to expect the unexpected. “He might have some news about your dealer.”
I rubbed my hands together and motioned toward the folder lying on the back seat. He glanced down, jaw locked and clenching, before he muttered. “Yeah, he just might.”
Something twinged in my gut as Titus shoved the car into gear and pulled away. There was something he wasn’t telling me…I lifted my gaze to the damn sky; him and everyone else, so it seemed.
Chapter Six
If the darkness of Ruba’s supernatural world was my domain, then Harbor’s seedy city streets was Titus'. He handled the car with ease, turning down one-way streets, and slowed.
Gangs littered the corners here, most stood there watching us creep past. East side was mostly off limits to supes. We tried to be respectful, tried to give the humans who hated our kind some space.
It was another world out here…another world altogether. Spray-painted buildings carried the slogan Night is mine. Bangers owned these corners, peddled their drugs to anyone with the cash to spend. If you wanted it, you could buy it here. Guns, drugs, sex, information. All for a price.
“You’re okay with me,” Titus murmured, eyeing a guy standing on the street. Tattoos lined his face, running in a line along each temple. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
And as much as I wanted to shut him down with the brave bullshit that usually spilled from my lips, I couldn’t. My lungs ached, sending a lick of heat through my chest until I released my breath. “Exactly how long has it been since you worked these streets?”
He never turned his head, looked each one of the bangers straight in the eye as we passed. One lifted his hand, fingers pointed like a gun, and aimed it at Titus. “Five years, give or take.”
“And you think your CI is still alive?”
“If he’s alive, he’s here. Gremlin is a spineless piece of shit. I caught him peddling arsenic to some young schoolgirls under the guise of cocaine. They didn’t know any better, stupid goddamn kids. Almost killed one of them, landed her in the hospital for a month. Said he didn’t know. Said it’d been sold to him by a dark witch named Shade. I dragged his ass to that hospital every damn day for a week to look at that kid.”
Man…that’s brutal.
He swung the car around and into a parking lot under a row of cheap-as-hell- looking apartments. “You can handle yourself, right?” He leaned across my lap to punch the button on the glove compartment.
A second Sig was strapped to the top, hidden from sight unless you bent down.
“I’m good,” I muttered. “Just don’t get yourself shot, okay? I’m not a damn healer.”
He gave a snigger and drew back across the seat. “I’ll remember that. Your list is growing of the things you can do; take down a demon, consume drugs and not wake up with a hangover, face off with a pack of wolves and the Queen of Ruba, and take on a fucking archangel. And all that in less than twenty-four hours.”
I cut my gaze toward him as he leaned forward and glanced at the bank of run-down apartments. “Impressed, huh?”
“Very,” he murmured and then sat upright. “You ready?”
My jaw eased as I reached for the door handle. I needed this; movement, action, the rush. But as much as I wanted to forget those words, they haunted me as I stepped out of the car….
Your father…
Titus checked the one-way street behind us and then moved toward the rusted set of exposed stairs. I didn’t like this, not these streets, not these apartments. We were blocked in, closed off from any damn help. Still, I kept moving, following Titus as he gripped the flaking railing and climbed. Timber moaned, the whole thing felt like it swayed as I followed.
One quick glance and Titus was heading left, slowing outside apartment number three. He raised his hand, gave a hard knock on the busted screen door and yelled. “Gremlin, Titus Banks, open up.”
A shuffle came from inside. I stepped backwards and turned, gritting my teeth, and waited for the blast of the gunshot.
“You can either open up, or I’m kicking the door down.”
A voice, muttering…hate…hate…they found me…found me.
“Watch out!” I howled, took one quick step, and dove as the blast echoed.
I hit a wall…that’s what it felt like…a human goddamn wall. My feet left the floor, and air wasn’t the comfort I thought it should be as we hit the floor with a hard thud.
I rolled and scurried to my feet as a dark blur cut across my field of vision and hit the stairs.
“Goddam it,” Titus roared.
And then he was after it. Boots thundered, the stairs howled and swayed. I shoved up from the ground and moved. The blast came again, tearing through the air.
“Call the police!” I screamed as I raced forward, taking the stairs three at a time in lunges. “Someone call the damn police!”
Yet no one answered, no one even came to the doors to see if we needed help. No one cared…that’s why. No one cared.
I lifted my hand and sprinted, the air changed, moving and bending at my will. But the laws…the goddamn laws. A roar ripped from my lips as I dropped the power. I wanted to decimate this damn place, tearing brick from brick, as Titus raced past his car and back along the one-way street.
I felt every step like a damn blow, felt the warm air in my lungs, heard every beat of my heart, and yet, all I could see was him. Head down, arms pumping, he tore along the street like a bull on the loose.
“Gremlin!” Titus roared. “I’m not going to hurt you!’
The darkness shifted once more, only a blur as something lunged from a crack in the wall to hit him side-on. I dug deeper, lunging forward with everything I had, and raised my hand as the beast reared backwards, teeth bared, ready to take out a piece of meat, and struck.
Teeth scraped the inspector, and he shouted before they both fell backwards. The creature's screams were piercing, rebounding off the brick walls to cleave my head.
“Enough,” the thing hissed, and grabbed it’s head. “Make it stop…make it stop!”
Titus rolled, eyes wide, staring blankly as I neared. I looked at his torn shirt and searched for blood. “You hurt?”
He stared at the creature, and then me, and slowly shook his head. “You?”
The creature wailed and thrashed, green skin stuck to bony ribs, and then curved hard to its
sunken belly. “Please…please, mistress. Enough…enough!”
It was pathetic, and small, and helpless under the power of pain—just like all other creatures. I closed my hand, ending the surge, and watched the creature collapse against the concrete.
“Goddamn it. I told you who I was,” Titus snarled and rolled again. He pushed up, moving slower now, taking his time.
I stepped to the side, sucked in a breath, and waited. Pain was a double-edged sword, and, if anyone knew that, it was me.
With it came the terror, with it came the fear, as the creature whimpered and turned its head. “You…you hurt me. Witch of Night. Witch of Pain. Cruel witch…Gremlin did nothing to you…”
“You shot at us, you piece of turd,” I answered. “If you'd run, it would be one thing, but you shot at us.”
“Not at 'us'…at you!” the beast snapped.
It was ugly, gremlin, by name, gremlin by nature. Its head was too big for its body, misshapen and too long, ending with big ears that almost flapped when it shook its head.
It wore cut-off shorts and filthy sneakers…kid's size.
“Did world a favor, did Titus a favor. Better you dead. Better no reason to come.”
“What the fuck does any of that even mean?” Steel links clattered as Titus reached over and, in one swift move, clasped the cuffs around its wrists.
But it was useless, scrawny arms and tiny hands slipped straight out. The gremlin smiled, raised its hand, and lifted its middle finger. “Sit on it and rotate.”
Jesus, and I thought I had a foul mouth. Titus snagged the crested neck and dragged the gremlin to his feet. “Rotate, huh? How about we discuss that downtown. I’m sure there’s space in the supe lockup. Maybe bunk with your old pal, Cutnick? I’m sure he’s just dying to see you again.”
Gremlin shook its head, fearful for a different reason now. “No. Why you say something like that? Not funny…not funny.”
Concrete chips fell from his trousers as Titus straightened. “Then how about you show a little respect. Now, let’s go back to the beginning. We need some intel on a wolf shifter called Jeremy, bit some humans, one will turn the next full moon.”
