by Jamie Magee
Gwinn glanced away feeling scorching jealously ripple in her gut. “I don’t care why he does it, it’s not my business. King is teaching me how to sense this energy I feed on, and for some reason when it comes from Shade’s direction, it tastes like shit so I stop it.”
Reveca bit her lip so she wouldn’t laugh as she swayed her head to the side before she spoke. “It tastes like shit because you’re jealous, and that’s fine.” Reveca breathed out as she glanced over her little witchling. She had to agree with King. The girl was starving before and now that she wasn’t she was becoming fierce, and that was a good thing.
It would help her thrive at the Boneyard, help her deal with her past when it surfaced in her mind. “He was there, though,” Reveca said, “from the second I brought you here until your last downfall. At the very least you can tell him thanks for that, tell ‘em that you’re working on control. He’ll understand that.”
Right then Knight came up beside Gwinn and asked for a beer. “Did you find anything out?” Reveca asked, wondering if he had dug up the history she asked him to work on. “Still digging. I was going through the other stuff with Newberry and trying to keep Talon from burning that police station down.”
“Just hold off a second—make this a priority—figure out where that girl is that named me. I want to know everything.”
As Knight and Reveca went back and forth about what he knew already of the witness, Gwinn slipped away from the bar.
Reveca’s words had hit her hard. Gwinn had no idea what was going on with her. She remembered waking up in a bed with Reveca watching over her, how she never left her side that first while. She remembered her lessons in the garden, King teaching her about the candles, and the next thing she remembered was coming out of the shower and finding King and Reveca, along with Shade, waiting on her.
She’d been with King almost constantly since Reveca was taken. They didn’t say much, but he would nod or smile, tell her to breathe in. He showed her how to feed, and when she would feel that rush he’d talk her through the high of it.
Shade hadn’t been around much, and when he was, he’d toss a glare her way. Then next thing she knew, she felt like she was going to puke as she felt exaltation coming from his direction. It never came from him, but the girl near him. That infuriated her for no reason.
Now, though, knowing he was nice to her made her think that he had a reason to be mad, she didn’t know about. At the same time, she wanted to thank him before her jacked mind decided to make her forget more. Too many people had come in and out of her life within the blink of an eye. As a kid she learned you either say how you feel or you might not ever get the chance again.
The lot was full of people. It would be over stimulating to anyone who wasn’t used to this crowd. She didn’t have to move through it to find Shade, though. She always knew were he was. She wasn’t sure how or why, didn’t understand that odd tingle or hum that would rise or fall depending on the distance between them.
He was in the garage. Most of the doors were pulled halfway down, giving the silent message that it was off limits, but she walked along it anyway. Right before she reached the last bay, she ducked under and made her way into the dim garage.
Shade had had about all he could take of just about anything and everything there was. He didn’t like that somebody was fucking with his Club, and that somebody was surely the foul ass Devil’s Den crew that lived up to their name. He was over the fact that every time he looked up there was someone new brought into the life. Well, that wasn’t really true. He had no issue with the kid. King, who the fuck was he? Comes out of nowhere and bonds with the other newbies.
Then there was Gwinn. That girl had jacked with his head from first sight. He got past his aversion to actually using words and spoke to her, even told her about how the transition would get easier. Then she acts like she doesn’t know him.
No, wait, she acknowledges him, every time he gets a girl in a tight spot, has a way to take a timeout and think shit through, that’s when she breaks doors. But before she breaks doors, she lifts whatever girl he’s with to the ceiling and pins her there. If there’s enough room, she’ll spin her. One time she even put the girl’s clothes back on. Then she drops them and they run off thinking some ghost has issues with them.
The only other way to get his head nice and numb was building his next ride, and that was exactly what he was doing when her bare, dark legs surfaced just before the bay. She came in, wearing nothing but a white sun dress that was too big but managed to cling to her body in all the right places. Enough so, that in Shade’s mind, she might as well be as nude as she was all those hours he watched her lifeless body in that tub.
Her eyes seemed lighter, more hazel each day, with breaks of bright orange that the sun would catch. She had braided her hair which made it longer somehow. It was pulled over her shoulder, which was torture to Shade because the other side of her neck was bare, asking to be touched.
“King’s in the Boneyard with the kid. I’m sure you guys have a picnic planned,” Shade said as he went back to what he was doing on his bike.
It hit him hard when she moved closer, that crazy hum—the one that reminded him of how his bike felt when it found open road and lingered near ninety. But it was more than that, more power than that, and he hated it. Couldn’t figure out what this girl was doing to him. Girls were girls before, even as a mortal. He never had to say much to get one where he wanted them. Most times it was just a nod.
She stopped just beside him. “I’m sorry.”
Her voice was like silk sliding down him, too pure to be anywhere near him as far as he was concerned.
“For?” he bit out.
“I didn’t mean to scare your date away.”
Shade laughed. It was a dark laugh, categorically sinful. “That was a fuck. A date…never had one of those.” The cold remark was his defense. He sensed anger swell in her, even breathed it in. The taste was similar to her jealously—he liked it. Not that she felt that way, but that it meant she cared. It meant he didn’t imagine all the time he spent with her.
When he sensed her fear, her confusion, he looked up. He hated the taste of that, hated that what he did see when he tasted it showed him his image.
She was wringing her hands, breathing a bit too hard. “Look,” she said. “I don’t know who I am, who I was, or who I’m becoming. I’m alone here. I’ve always been alone so that is nothing new, but what is new is that I don’t know who gets this and who doesn’t.” Her lip trembled. “I don’t remember you at my bedside. I’m sorry. You just had that mad look on your face when you looked my way and I didn’t know why. Then I hated the taste those girls had. I hated it because you were making them feel that way—look, I’m sorry.”
Shade’s hands froze. His entire body was stock-still. That look on his face was because when the house went nuts after Reveca was taken away, she nestled under King’s arm like he was her protector. Then each time he saw her after that the pair of them were together, really close, talking nice and quiet. Shade felt downright used and jealous as shit, enough so that he was trying to figure out how to kill a dead man, or whatever the hell King was.
“Stop,” he said when she went to leave.
She hesitated, but didn’t turn. He stood, towered over her in height, was twice her body width. She was so fragile to him, and he knew he didn’t do well with fragile things.
“You don’t remember,” his voice was deep, gravely, laced with emotions this girl drew out of him just by existing in his presence.
She shook her head still looking away from him.
Pain. A ripping burn tore through his chest. He felt guilty as hell for being an ass to her. For at least not asking what the fuck her problem was—why she was ignoring him. “I know what you’re going through. It can suck—it can be good, too. This is a beginning, not an end.”
“I’m scared of my last end,” she said with a trembling voice. He couldn’t see it, even though he tasted her fear, he coul
dn’t see what was causing it because she didn’t know—it was just an unknown. That’s how it was when she was passed out, too, when her body would reenact what she went through, all a black abyss when he tried to understand what happened to her.
“Whatever it was…I’m not going to let it hurt you. I’ll be your redemption.” When she didn’t say anything or move, he let out a curse. “Don’t you trust me? Why would you trust King more? Who is he to you?”
Gwinn slowly turned around and took her time raising her eyes to him, taking in the brute power before her.
When she reached up for his glasses and her fingertips grazed his cheekbones, he let out a hiss, closed his eyes.
“Let me see your soul…the eyes. King is a friend that I trust because I see a reflection in his soul that reminds me of my battle.”
Shade clenched his jaw, hating King all the more now, even though he had no right to.
Shade knew his soul was laying a claim on this girl, and that was wrong, so wrong.
When he felt her hands cup his face, touch him in a way he had never been touched before, the anger vanished. Her thumbs grazing his eyes made the rumble within erupt, nearly made him sway.
Slowly he opened his eyes and stared down at her. In most cases his eyes were a rich blue, the kind that seemed to glow, but when he felt a raw emotion violet would wave within them. The stronger the emotion the more defined that color was. He was sure that she was not seeing any blue just then.
He starting wearing sunglasses after his transition, thought until he could handle his emotions it was a weakness—a way for others to read him. He didn’t want anyone to read him, ever.
“Beautiful,” Gwinn said with a shy smile. The rush of excitement she let off was mixed with a nervous energy and had never tasted sweeter to Shade.
Chapter Three
Reveca had gotten all she could out of Knight, which wasn’t much, and settled in to listen to Star sing. She made it a point to say hi to all those who had come a long way to see her, support her. That is what she loved about her life, you never felt alone when your back was against the wall. Loyalty was not suggested, it was expected, and each and every time her Club, her friends, even friends of friends were there, she felt it.
When Thrash came in—looking murderous as usual—and claimed his spot at the edge of the bar, reality came crashing back into focus for Reveca. She felt bad for Bastion. The kid had been through hell, then thanks to the lawmen, he was left with a host of men that didn’t have a clue as to how to deal with a kid, much less one that had looked into the eyes of hell.
Talon had said King was in charge of Bastion, so she slipped out and made her way to where he always was. It took her a while because even more friends outside stopped her often.
The last bay was completely closed, so she stepped into the one next to it and stopped short. Gwinn was sitting on a stool, apparently taking in a lesson on how to build a bike. Shade was next to her, his glasses off. When he saw Reveca that violet glow dimmed and more blue emerged.
Reveca grinned, lifted her brow when she realized they both seemed nervous that they were caught alone. “I was looking for King,” she said, nodding to his empty bay.
“Boneyard,” Shade said.
“Kid with him?”
“Usually not too far away.”
Reveca nodded then looked over them once more before she ducked under the door.
The sun was blazing down and most of the actual Boneyard sat on red dirt that was washed out from the last hard rain so it was near blinding. It felt like you were walking into a desert with shells of cars and bikes all around you.
Looking for anyone in that yard would not be an easy task, but that wasn’t an issue. She just followed the connection, that power, King seemed to have over her.
Not far in, she found him under one of the sheds where smaller parts, which had already been pulled from bikes, were stored. He was staring forward into the Boneyard.
“Hi,” she said, looking up at him.
“Hi,” his deep voice repeated as his stare seemed to inhale her.
Not knowing what to say was never an issue with Reveca. She was the master of sharp words, even knew how to play nice when she needed to. But right now King’s arm was across his chest, his other elbow was perched on it and his thumb was tracing his lip like he was in deep thought. All Reveca could think about was how her body reacted to that hand not long ago and what he was capable of making her feel without taking anything in return.
She watched as he breathed in, as his eyes glinted with a playful guilt as the memory in her mind birthed reminiscence of that emotion once again. That act backed up the truth that she didn’t want to believe: he was a First to a powerful Sovereign God and he fed off that emotion she was feeling.
King let his arms fall, leaned against the frame of the shed, and looked down at her. “Sorry.”
“For?” she asked as she felt her skin blush. She fanned her hand before her face, trying to give the sun credit for the heat that he was surely seeing spread across her.
“Taking advantage of your demands.” He stared at her for a second before he went on. “What we talked about before that—how it was us again—made me forget my boundaries.”
“We saved her. That’s what happened.”
King looked stoic as he stared down at her, but his eyes held the mischief she knew him to have when he was her Kenson. “That’s what it was to you. A spell.”
“Apparently it was regrettable to you so—”
“So you have to make it seem like it was necessary so neither one of us have to deal with it.”
“Deal with what?”
“Us.”
Reveca looked down at her feet then squinted across the Boneyard. “What do you want from me, King?”
“Always direct.”
“And I like to argue at all times,” she shot back with a weak smile.
A boyish grin made its way to King’s lips. That fight in her, how she questioned rules and beliefs that were sacred and didn’t care that it shamed her family, was one of a million things that drew him to her. And hearing her dare to argue with him the other night, as she came undone under his touch, did nothing but turn him on.
Reveca was a woman that saw reality as it was. She took what she needed from it then went on her way, and she didn’t give a damn if anyone followed or not. She told him once when she was just a girl that if people wanted to be in misery that was their choice. She was chasing the thrill of life until the end, unapologetic all the way.
“It’s the faith that’s stopping you from believing me,” King said after a moment.
A defensive anger came over Reveca. It was natural for it to emerge so easily. She fought her faith from the first time it was explained to her, didn’t understand it. Honestly, she didn’t respect it until Kenson came along and made her see it in a different way. He took away the idea that there were these Sovereign Gods that controlled their life, their emotions, and instead birthed the idea that we were all one, that our emotion, our energy, is power. He still had awe, respect, for the Sovereigns, though. Unquestionably, he honored their supremacy.
At first, when Kenson was taken, she thought she was being punished by the faith she had never claimed until Kenson came into her life. That was easy to believe with a sister and coven saying they were all chosen but cursed, that the omens had said as much. It didn’t take Reveca long to grasp anger and walk away from what her coven not only believed in, but predicted.
All that was going on around her now would be a challenge without the element of Reveca questioning her faith once again. Having her first love return with this outlandish story was almost too much; too much irony to say the least.
Reveca stared at him as she let out a deep breath. “Something powerful took you from me. You call it a God, that’s fine. I’ll roll with that. But you landed with Crass. I want to know what happened between point A and B.” Her gray stare moved over him. “You think you’re going to be slain.
”
His calm stare told her he not only believed it, but also had made peace with it.
“Well, this is what I think. I’ve seen men fight to rip each other into shreds one minute, and have a beer together the next. All issues, all indifferences, with time can be resolved, or at the very least tolerated. Something happened to land you with Crass, something severe enough to allow your mind to take myths from your birth faith and come up with the conclusions you have given me. I’m going to figure out what that was.”
King’s memories were building daily. The flashes were lasting longer, the emotions behind those scenes in his life were latching onto him. He was feeling them raw, as raw as the original memories of Reveca that came to him. He knew that Reveca didn’t want to find those answers she was after, that those answers would make this all the worse. But he couldn’t tell her that, wasn’t ready to burn this bridge once again.
“And my mind, my birth faith, just happened to school me to the point where I can recognize another Escort, help you save her?”
Reveca broke her stare with him. She was fighting a losing battle and she knew it. Outside of King’s words, she had Thelma Ray mentioning that Escorts had brought Gwinn to GranDee. She had her sister’s dauntless faith which promised the change Reveca could sense on the horizon.
She dropped her gaze, bit her lip when it started to tremble. “I refuse to believe you’re going to be slain and there is nothing I can do to stop it.”
