Embrace the Night

by Crystal Jordan

  He. Didn’t. Know.

  Fuck.

  Pinching the bridge of his nose, he suppressed the frustration that roared within him. There was nothing he could do about this now. His precognition was unreliable in this situation. He could only be as prepared as he could be. It was ironic that he normally had to have a stranglehold on his sight, and now that he’d give anything to call it up, it had abandoned him to the same blind fate that most people dealt with all the time.

  “Hey.” Chloe’s softness pressed to his back, her arms wrapping around his waist from behind. “You want to tell me about it?”

  He sighed and let his hand drop away from his face. The lake stretched before him, as smooth and unruffled on the surface as he usually was. The thought didn’t reassure him at all. “There’s nothing to tell. I don’t know anything. I can’t see.”

  “You’re doing the best you can.” She pressed her forehead between his shoulder blades, her fingers moving in soothing circles on his stomach.

  He caught her hand in his, flattening it to his belly. Much more of her stroking and his body would respond with embarrassing enthusiasm. “It might not be enough.”

  “I know that.” She slipped around until she leaned against his front. Tipping her head back, she met his gaze. “Alex knows that. There aren’t any guarantees.”

  “If anything happened—” He choked off the sentence, unable to finish it, but he forced the words to grate out. “I can’t watch you die, Chloe. I can’t.”

  “You won’t have to.” She propped her chin against his chest, cuddling closer. “I know you’ll get us through this. We’re going to be fine.”

  He snorted to cover the depth of his reaction to her trust in him. He’d wanted it, and now he had it. “Did the voices tell you that?”

  She pinched his butt. “No, my precognition isn’t really strong enough for that. I just know that I trust you, and I have faith that we’ll come out of this okay. I have to believe that.”

  “Why?”

  A sigh flattened his T-shirt against his chest before she dropped her arms and stepped away from him. “Because you and Alex don’t. So, that’s my job.”

  He caught her hand, keeping her close. She gave him a soft smile when he lifted her fingers to his lips and kissed them. “Thank you.”

  She shook her head. “Thank you. For everything.”

  For coming along on this case with her and Alex? For last night? The words hovered on the tip of his tongue. He wanted to know if her gratitude was specific to her, to them, or just for his being a cop. Why he was making that distinction now, when he normally thought of himself as a cop first and foremost, was beyond him.

  He was saved from making a bumbling ass of himself by Alex. “The moon’s going to rise in about ten minutes. You guys need anything from me before I shift? I like to Change before the moon goes up. I don’t know if that makes my chances any better because I can already feel how it pulls at my bones, but . . .”

  The kid trailed to a babbling close, his fingers clenching and unclenching, his eyes red-rimmed, his body twitching with all the signs of a junkie just off a bender.

  Merek nodded. “Do what you have to do. We’ll be here when you get back. I want to head out at first light, so you can crash in the car on the drive.”

  “Sounds good.” Alex nodded with the speed and elasticity of one of those wobbly-headed dolls. “I’ll be back as soon as the moon starts to set.”

  “Take care of yourself.” Chloe stepped forward, lifted up on tiptoe, and popped a kiss on his cheek. “Try not to get in any trouble.”

  He flashed a quick grin, which bared his long, curved fangs. “I never do.”

  “I know.” She stepped back while he paced in a restless circle. “You’re an awesome kid. Young man. Whatever.”

  “Thanks.” That wild smile shone again, then a shudder rippled through him as the last rays of the sun began to fade from the horizon. “Gotta go.”

  Spinning, he all but flowed into the tepee, his body so primed to Change it’d probably taken all his control to stay in human form as long as he had.

  Merek tensed as he heard the kid shifting, and held his breath, waiting to see if Alex made it over or if they lost him right there. Chloe reached back for his hand blindly. He took her hand, hauled her to his side, and felt her flinch at each sound of a bone breaking. Sweat popped out on his forehead, trickling down his temple and sticking his shirt to his back. His gut churned as the silence stretched on for long, long moments and there was no sign of Alex.

  Somehow, this hadn’t occurred to him as a possibility, that they might lose the contained young wolf just because he was a wolf. Merek’s jaw clenched. He should have seen it coming. The boy’s mother had died the same way, Chloe had told him so. He let go of her hand, met her haunted gaze for a fleeting moment, and then strode toward the tepee. “I’ll check on him.”

  Check and see if he’d made it through, but the eerie silence was damning. Every footfall rang too loudly in his ears. He didn’t want to go in, didn’t want to see, didn’t want to know. His heart pounded in slow, painful thuds. Sucking in a deep breath, he braced himself as he reached the tepee’s opening.

  I’m here. Alex’s telepathic voice sounded in Merek’s mind, and relief hit him with the subtle force of a freight train. The wolf stepped outside, but ugly memories lurked in the pale eyes as they met Merek’s. It’s always . . . harder at first at full moon. And then it’s way too easy.

  “I understand.” He laid a hand on the wolf’s back, one of the few times he’d deliberately touched the wary boy. The muscles twitched beneath his hand.

  Do you? The question was sharp edged, brittle.

  “I have my own powers that are a bitch to control. They don’t threaten my life, but I can relate to some of what you go through.” Leaving his hand where it was, he sent a wave of soothing calm to the vibrating young wolf. Full moon fever wasn’t easy for a wolf to fight, and with his pack in Seattle, Alex wouldn’t have had to work as hard, would have had older wolves to help and guide him. He’d have had the protection and freedom of running on pack land.

  The muzzle dipped in a nod. Maybe you do get it.

  He kept up the stream of discipline and control that flowed from his hand to the wolf, knew from the way Alex quivered that he felt the magic, but didn’t try to escape it. Good. Anything Merek could do to help, he would, and he wanted the werewolf to know it. “Chloe and I can never understand exactly what you go through, but we’re here if and when you need us. Believe that, if nothing else.”

  The wolf’s eyes closed, and he finally leaped sideways and shook. I believe you, but I have to go. Now. The need to run is ripping me up inside.

  “Go. We’ll be here.”

  Alex shot forward, passed Chloe, and slid to a stop at the lake’s shore to fling back his head and bay at the moon.

  The lonesome sound ended in a howl of agony when the lupine body jerked sideways as though struck by an invisible sledgehammer. The report of a rifle came a split second later, followed by the reverberating gut-punch of Merek’s warding spell being breached, and then time assumed the elastic quality of battle.

  Merek launched himself forward, knocking Chloe to the ground in the same motion as he pulled his weapon from his concealed holster and fired into the stand of trees north of their campsite, just beyond the stretch of his warding spells.

  “Fuck,” he snarled. How many of Smith’s men were there? He stretched his senses, found four distinct energies lurking beyond the line of trees. Not good.

  “Alex!” Chloe screamed; terror and rage rang clear in her voice. Well, at least she wasn’t going hysterical on him. Then again, it was Chloe.

  She tried to crawl out from under him, and he shoved her back to the ground. Bullets slapped into the dirt around them, made it spray in their faces. “Stay down, damn it!”

  “Alex was shot, damn it,” she retorted, flinching as he returned fire on the terrorists.

  “I’d like for him to
be the only one, so stay where you are.” He felt the bullets exploding through his shields, then the hot slicing blade of the Magickals combining their abilities to rupture the warding spell entirely. They were powerful; he could feel the strength that only came with age.

  Sweat filmed his skin, made his clothes cling to his flesh. He ignored it, shoved the discomfort away. That didn’t matter now. Only Chloe and Alex mattered. He could see the kid convulsing on the beach, his lupine body jerking spasmodically in the flickering firelight. Fear coated Merek’s tongue, but then he locked any emotion away until there was nothing left but the heightened senses and intensified magic of battle fever.

  The overwhelming silence pounded against his ears. Gunfire had ceased, but he knew they were moving, separating. He waited, every muscle tense, and he leaned more heavily on Chloe, silently telling her to be still. Alex’s harsh groans made her quiver, but exposing themselves on the beach would be suicide. Merek prayed harder than he ever had in his life to any deity who would listen that the kid hung on until Merek could get to him.

  A twig snapped, far too close for Merek’s comfort. He threw out his free hand, and a ball of flames exploded outward. It hit a man, highlighting him and the deadly rifle he carried. This was the one who’d shot Alex. Cold rage coalesced inside Merek, and he blasted another stream of fire into the Magickal. The scent of cooking meat made his stomach jolt, but the flaming corpse hit the ground before the guttural scream finished echoing against the surrounding mountains.

  Something moved between Merek and the fire, a shadow almost too fast to be anything but another flicker of dancing firelight. It was an enemy, he could feel the magic, taste it in his mouth. Vampire. Half-shifted, so it had enormous bat wings stretching from its back. Meaning they didn’t give a shit that a Normal might catch a glimpse. Anyone that careless was especially dangerous. Even most Magickal criminals obeyed the laws against Normal interactions because if you fucked that law in a big enough way, it carried an automatic death sentence.

  They needed to get out of here. Now.

  The vampire swished through the air above them, dropping something large on the far side of the fire. Another terrorist? He couldn’t tell. The bloodsucker came back, sweeping forward to hover right over them, and Merek knew they were caught. He flipped over, weapon extended, aiming for the wings. A few shots hit, the explosive ammunition designed for Magickals lighting up the night. Blood rained down on him in hot torrents, drenching his clothes. Shock showed in the red eyes that gleamed like embers in a pale face. The vampire screeched, its broken wing contorting so he dropped to flop like a great wounded bird on the ground.

  Snapping a fresh clip into his gun, Merek rolled into a crouch. He wrapped an arm around Chloe’s waist and hauled her up next to him. He scuttled to the far side of the tepee, dragging her in his wake. The cover was pretty fucking feeble, but vampires could see in the dark, and he couldn’t. He kept his senses open as wide as possible, trying to pinpoint the other terrorists.

  Fishing in his pocket, he jerked out his keys. He shoved them into Chloe’s hand and leaned close to breathe in her ear. “Get to the car, and I’ll get Alex.”

  He could hear her swallow, feel her turn her head away from the fire and toward the pitch blackness that swallowed up the SUV. Tension screamed through her, and he waited for her to master her terror, knowing that she would. “I—I don’t . . .” She shuddered. “Okay.”

  “That’s my girl.” He squeezed her hand, curling her fingers over the keys. “If we’re not there in five minutes, I want you to get out of here. Contact Luca and Millie.”

  “No.” She jerked her head around to stare up at him, her pupils huge. “I won’t do that.”

  His fingers clenched over hers. “Chloe—”

  “I won’t leave you alone in the dark.” Another shudder went through her, but she dropped his hand and moved away. Toward the SUV, as he’d told her. “I can’t. Don’t even ask it.”

  He knew that was the best he would get, so he didn’t say anything else. Not allowing himself a last look at her, he forced himself to focus on getting to Alex. He could only hope the kid was as stubborn a survivor as Merek had always taken him for. Tonight, it would mean the difference between living or dying.

  Merek could feel his power flowing hot and wild through his body, and he tried to rein it in, bury it until he needed to use it. Find the balance between awareness of other Magickals, and hiding his own presence from their awareness. Too bad he sucked at invisibility spells.

  He slid from behind the tepee, ghosting into the few trees near their campsite to try to avoid casting shadows for them to see. The underbrush to his left moved, the noise created by something far too big to be an animal. His heartbeat slowed to a dull thud in his chest, and he lifted his weapon as he slid forward to look.

  Whatever was moving through the bushes wasn’t trying to be quiet. He could hear the breath whistling out of a pair of lungs. The scent of blood came to him, but the energy was that of neither of the Magickals he’d dealt with so far. It seemed familiar somehow, but he didn’t know why.

  Then he knew. His pistol was trained on the elf who’d rented the campsite to them the day before. And the man was dying, slow and bloody, just as Merek had seen in his vision the moment he’d looked at the elf. Shit. He sighed softly and knelt beside the pathetic specimen crawling forward on his belly. A single glance, even in the semidarkness, told Merek the other man wasn’t going to make it.

  “I’m sorry,” the man choked. He met Merek’s gaze, reaching out to fist his fingers in the leg of Merek’s pants. “Reward . . . for people matching your description. I called last night. Sorry. Didn’t know.”

  His grip went slack as he began coughing up dark liquid. Merek shook off his hand and stood, knowing there was nothing he could do for the elf now. Part of him was glad he didn’t have to. The man had turned them over for money, and Merek had little pity for the fate that had befallen him.

  “He broke so easily.” The dispassionate, almost regretful, voice sounded from his left, but whoever was there already had him. “But his blood was sweet. We brought him along as a snack for later. Pity.”

  Merek turned only his head to see what he was dealing with. Vampire, from the fangs and the blood-tasting comment—different from the one he’d shot from the sky. A wolf would have had to shift at full moon, so only one fanged race was in human form tonight. One look at his face, and a fresh explosion of adrenaline raced through Merek’s veins. He knew this man, whose red hair gleamed like a copper penny. “Gregor.”

  “Good to see you again, Kingston.” His tone was pleasant, bland enough to be discussing the weather. Then again, murder was everyday business for the vampire, so this might be just that boring for him. This was no recruit for Smith’s cause, but a mercenary who whored his deadly skills out to the highest bidder.

  Merek shrugged, easing one hand off the butt of his weapon to try to angle his fingers in the bloodsucker’s direction. “I wish I could say the same, but my day is never good when I run into you.”

  Gregor laughed easily. “I’m flattered, Detective, I really am. Now, are you going to try to use that hand to cast or are you going to be reasonable?”

  As usual, the vampire carried no weapons. He didn’t need them. Merek didn’t want to think about what he’d do to Chloe or Alex if he got his hands on them.

  That wouldn’t happen. Merek wouldn’t let it. Playing in his favor was the fact that Gregor couldn’t know Merek’s best weapon—his precognition—was toast in this situation. He’d take any advantage he could get, even one based on a false assumption.

  He let a knife-thin smile curve his lips. “When have I ever been reasonable?”

  The vampire grinned, anticipation flashing in his gaze. His eyes burned red around the edges. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

  Instead of moving his hands as Gregor expected, Merek slammed his toe into the ribs of the dying elf at his feet. The shriek that ripped through the air made the vam
pire flinch, but before Merek could launch a spell at him, Gregor had used his superhuman speed to disappear. The underbrush didn’t even rustle with his passing.

  A wolf’s howl roared from the lakeshore, the sound of a cornered, angry animal.

  Alex.

  Pivoting on his heel, Merek bolted out of the trees and toward the beach. His pistol was up and ready, but he kept one hand free for casting. The vampire with the broken wing hunched over Alex, the tip of one wing dragging in the sand behind him. His talons were bared, arching with deadly purpose toward the young wolf’s throat.

  He couldn’t get a shot off. The vampire was too close to Alex. Flicking his fingers, he fired a percussive boom into the air. The vampire slammed his hands over his sensitive ears, crying out hoarsely. Alex writhed on the ground, one half-Changed arm covering his head to block the noise. Gregor’s enraged bellow sounded in the distance behind Merek.

  Not even pausing in his movements, Merek launched himself forward to catch the vampire around the waist and roll him away from the wolf. Fleshy wings tangled around them, and Merek tore at the skin trying to get loose. The vampire screeched, slashing his talons down Merek’s bicep, and Merek lost his weapon as his arm spasmed.

  Pain.

  It exploded into his body, reverberated through his skull until he thought it would split. Black spots spun in front of his eyes, and the need to vomit cut through the adrenaline pumping through his system.

  The vampire hissed, and only the thought of those talons biting into him again cleared his head enough to react. He swung blindly, slamming his fist into the vampire’s mouth. The fangs ripped through his knuckles.

  Hard bones from the top of one massive wing clipped him in the jaw. He swayed, caught the top of the wing near the shoulder and blasted through the flesh, bone, and cartilage with a fireball. When the vampire shrieked and bucked under him, Merek was ready, rolling toward the severed wing to escape being entangled again.

  Staggering to his feet, he opened his hand. “Gun,” he ordered, and the universe obeyed. His weapon whooshed through the air and smacked into his palm.