Shadow Soldier

by Kali Argent

  “Something is going on in Trinity Grove,” he concluded. “I don’t know what yet, but until I can figure it out, I have to play by the rules.”

  “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted Nevah. We were all suspicious of her, but there are so few of us now…”

  She trailed off, and Deke didn’t encourage her. In fact, the selfish part of him hoped she’d drop the subject entirely. Roux toed the line, navigating closer to questions he couldn’t so easily answer. She wasn’t ready to hear the truth about the genocide of her race, and maybe, she never would be.

  “I’ve seen the people in this town.” She spoke quietly, staring at a point just over his shoulder. “Humans are treated with at least a measure of respect, but they’re still watched over like criminals.” Finally, she met his gaze, but her lips turned down at the corners. “We’re not slaves, but no one is allowed to leave, so tell me. What am I missing?”

  Of course she’d bring up the very thing he’d just been hoping to avoid. As before, he found he couldn’t lie to her. She probably wouldn’t believe him, and worse, she might even hate him, but he couldn’t hide the reality of it from her forever.

  “Do you know how the Purge started?”

  Roux shrugged. “Not really. I figured it was part of the Coalition’s plan.” Before she’d even finished speaking, she started shaking her head. “I guess it doesn’t matter much to the other Gemini, but why would the vampires kill off their food source?”

  They wouldn’t.

  Deke didn’t know how many Gemini had been captured, or how many officials in the human government had known about the paranormal world, but it had been enough. To prevent widespread panic, they’d kept the knowledge from the masses while their scientists had hidden away in underground labs to perform their experiments.

  The Revenant had freed as many of the Gemini as they could, but with facilities all around the world, their efforts had little impact to impede the governments’ research. Humans hadn’t just experimented, either. They’d tortured the vampires and shifters for information, mostly about how many Gemini existed and where they could be found.

  Eventually, after they’d pieced together all the information, they’d estimated that every one in five thousand people on the planet was some manner of paranormal creature. Then, the panic began. Governments in North America and Europe began to blame all manner of violent crimes and large-scale attacks on the Gemini, labeling them as terrorists and murders, and it hadn’t stopped there.

  Searching for a way to eliminate the threat, scientists worked around the clock to develop a serum that attacked a gene sequence exclusive to the Gemini. The serum had worked, but they needed a faster, more effective way to administer the drug than individual injections.

  An airborne biological weapon had been their solution. They’d pumped the virus into the air filtration systems of several international flights, and sent crop dusting planes to more remote regions. Deke didn’t know what had gone wrong from there. Within a week, the infection had mutated and spread, decimating more than three-quarters of the human population and altering the Gemini in unexpected ways.

  “We did this,” Roux whispered when he’d finished. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, and her lower lip began to tremble. “We did this.”

  “I’m so sorry, Roux.”

  “You said the Gemini had been altered. What does that mean?”

  “I told you earlier that vampires are sensitive to sunlight, but what I didn’t tell you is that it’s a side effect of the virus.” He spoke quickly, eager to rid himself of the secrets. “The virus makes it painful for all shifters to transform, but whatever part of us it attacked, the wolves got it the worst. Other than teeth and claws, they can’t shift at all.”

  “Is that why they’re so aggressive?”

  Deke rubbed the back of his neck and nodded. “Think of it like a person who holds everything in, never complains or fights back. Then one day, the pressure becomes too much, and they explode into a violent rage. It’s the same with shifters who don’t transform often enough.”

  “Oh, my god,” Roux whispered, pressing her fingertips to her lips.

  Keeping his expression impassive, Deke nodded again. “The wolves fight and fuck a lot to keep their rage in check, but in the beginning, a lot of them turned feral.”

  Unable to bear the pained expression on Roux’s face, he held his arms open, beckoning her to him. To his surprise and relief, she didn’t argue or hesitate before crawling into his lap and burying her face against the side of his neck. She didn’t cry, nor did she speak. They just sat in silence, Roux curled in his arms while he stroked her silky hair.

  “I’d like to go the Bastille today,” she whispered long minutes later.

  “You’re registered now, kitten. You can go anywhere you want as long as you don’t leave the city.”

  “I know.” Arching her neck, Roux placed a soft, lingering kiss against the corner of his mouth. “I want you to come with me. Will you take me?”

  Closing his eyes, Deke rubbed his cheek over the top of her head, inhaling her sweet, intoxicating scent. If there was anything he wouldn’t do for her, he hadn’t found it yet.

  “Anywhere you want to go, kitten.”

  “And I want you to stay this time.”

  He smiled into her hair. “Always.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  It had taken Roux a few days to sort through all of her feelings after learning the truth about the Purge. The knowledge had forced her to reevaluate all the anger, pain, resentment, and bitterness she’d been bottling up inside and confront the cause of it.

  For the longest time, she’d placed herself and her kind on a moral pedestal, convinced that humans were the superior and righteous beings. The Gemini had taken everything from them. Her people had been murdered, brutalized, and enslaved for the pure entertainment of a savage race.

  Abby had said during Roux’s first day in Trinity Grove that the world wasn’t black and white, and now, she finally understood what the woman had meant. Good and bad existed, not just in every race, but also within every being. Roux had done things she’d rather forget, and while not exactly evil, she wouldn’t classify them as “good” either.

  The Gemini hadn’t destroyed the world. They hadn’t asked for the tragedies that had befallen them any more than she had. A small, quiet part of her even sympathized with the werewolves. Not all of them had been crazed killers before the Purge, and she couldn’t imagine the agony they still endured from the infection.

  As clichéd as it sounded, in essence, the truth had set her free. When she’d thought the Gemini had caused the Purge, she’d been prepared to slaughter them all without exception. Humans had condemned the vampires and shifters just for existing. So, as much as it pained her, she had to admit the Gemini had handled things much better than she had. Hell, humans had nearly destroyed the planet and caused the extinction of their own race. Maybe it was time for a revolution.

  Roux had some changes of her own to make, starting with letting go of the past and taking back her life—or some semblance of it anyway.

  “I want to get a job,” she announced as she entered the kitchen.

  Deke paused in the middle of reaching into the refrigerator, and though she couldn’t see his face, she could practically feel the tension rolling off him. Abandoning his search, he straightened slowly and closed the door.

  “I’m not sure that’s the best idea, kitten.”

  Okay, she’d been prepared for this. “Three days ago, you said I could go to the Bastille alone.” She grabbed the chain around her neck and rattled her dog tags. “That’s why I have this registration thingy, right?”

  “Going to the Bastille for a couple of hours is different than going to a job every day.”

  “Abby has a job. I could work with her.”

  Deke was trying to keep his cool, but she could see the storm brewing in his eyes. “Yes, she does, and Peter works right across
the street.”

  “Exactly. Peter likes me. Kind of.” She’d met him exactly twice, but the second time had gone much better than the first. “Look, I can’t just stay locked up in the house twenty-four-seven. I’m going to lose it.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest, stretching the fabric of his gray T-shirt to its limits. “No.”

  “Excuse me?” Roux took a deep breath and reminded herself to stay calm. “Deke, I appreciate that you want to protect me, but I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time. I’m not asking to join the guard and go on patrols.”

  A deep rumbling growl started in his chest, gradually moving up his throat and finally through his snarling mouth. When his face began to turn an interesting shade of purple, Roux rushed across the kitchen and grabbed his face, cradling it in both hands, while she tried not to laugh.

  “Deke, breathe. Not joining the guard. I mean, I would totally kick ass as a—Deke!” She did laugh at him then. “I’m joking.”

  “You’re hilarious,” he answered tightly, but he closed his eyes and nuzzled against her palm. “I just need you to be safe.”

  “I did manage to survive for over a year on my own.”

  “You did, but you don’t have to anymore.”

  Recently, they’d spent more and more time together, cooking, talking, watching old movies, or just strolling through the Square. Every day, Roux felt the link between them growing stronger, more urgent, but they hadn’t shared a kiss or done more than hold hands since that night on the sofa.

  Sometimes, insecurity crept in, and she couldn’t help but wonder if Deke only wanted her because of the mating bond. At other times, old prejudices had her pushing him away, afraid of what it would mean to give into the things she felt for him. The barriers she’d constructed to keep people out had begun to deteriorate, crumbling at their foundations, and she didn’t know how to survive without them.

  Gathering her wrists into one hand, Deke held them lightly while he traced a fingertip across her forehead. “Always so busy in there. What are you thinking now, kitten?”

  “Nothing.” She tried to pull away, but he held tighter to her wrists, jerking her in closer.

  With exaggerated slowness, he bent his head, leaning in closer until his lips hovered just a breath away from hers. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “You’ll tell me when you’re ready.” Light and easy, he brushed their mouths together in a chaste kiss. “I can wait.”

  His head slanted, the tip of his tongue teased the seam of her lips, and Roux forgot how to breathe. Her legs trembled, the muscles in her thighs quivering as she struggled to stay upright. The room tilted and spun, the dizziness forcing her to close her eyes, and she opened for him with a quiet gasp.

  A charge in the air around them seeped into her, tingling her skin and raising the hairs on the back of her neck. Each slide and tangle of their tongues tightened her nipples and sent pulses of pleasure throughout her body until she trembled from the onslaught. Kissing Deke was like trying to hold on to a bolt of lightning. Her whole body responded to his touch, to his taste, and desires she’d nearly forgotten awakened with fierce, demanding need.

  When she tried to pry her wrists out of his grasp again, he let her, but she didn’t pull away this time. Sliding her hands beneath the hem of his cotton T-shirt, she flattened her palms against the hard bricks of muscle and splayed her fingers. His skin was so warm, softer than she’d expected, and she wanted more of it. Gripping the hem of his shirt, she pushed it up his stomach and over his broad chest, thankful when Deke broke the kiss to jerk the fabric off over his head.

  “Your turn,” he panted.

  He fisted the collar of her tank top in both hands and ripped it right down the middle. The chilled, conditioned air in the kitchen swept over her exposed skin, and her nipples tightened into hard, tingling buds as scraps of blue cloth fell to the floor. With his hands buried in her hair, Deke attacked her mouth, walking her backwards until her hip collided with the kitchen table.

  The white, porcelain saltshaker tipped over and rolled across the tabletop, falling to the floor to shatter at her feet. Water from an overturned plastic cup splashed against her back and seeped into the waistband of her jeans. Deke removed one hand from her hair and coiled his arm around her waist, holding her in an iron grasp, pressing against her hard enough to slide the wooden table across the floor.

  “Tell me you don’t want this, and I’ll stop.” Deke claimed her mouth again, delving his tongue between her lips. Then he pulled away, trailing his lips along the curve of her jaw to the hollow behind her ear. “Tell me what you want, Roux.” His arm tightened around her waist, and he rocked his trapped erection against her lower belly. “Tell me, and it’s yours. Tell me.”

  She could say no. She could push him away like she always did and lock herself in her room like a fucking coward. Her body wanted everything he had to offer, overruling her brain, but her heart wouldn’t be so easily swayed. At twenty-eight, Roux knew the difference between casual sex and real intimacy. If she broke down her walls, if she risked letting him in, there would be consequences. Good or bad, she couldn’t say, and not knowing scared her more than anything.

  “It’s okay,” Deke whispered when she didn’t answer him right away. He still held her against his chest, but his touch had turned more comforting than passionate. “I can wait, kitten. However long you need, whatever demons you’re fighting, I can wait.”

  When he started to pull away, Roux grabbed his arms, digging her fingers into his biceps, and swallowed hard. She was tired of trying to resist him, tired of fighting herself and the ache that had been building inside her.

  “You,” she forced out around the lump in her throat, her pounding heart making her lightheaded. “I want you.”

  With a fierce growl, Deke cupped her ass and lifted her off the floor. Shutting down her brain, Roux simply reacted, grabbing the back of his neck and locking her legs around his waist. Sweet heavens, he was big, a solid wall of packed muscle and golden skin. The smell of soap from his recent shower mingled with his natural, earthy scent, and Roux inhaled deeply, shivering with renewed desire as he carried her from the kitchen.

  Their mouths locked together once more, and their tongues dueled all the way down the hall to his bedroom. Sunlight filtered in through the thin curtains, illuminating the room in golden light that gleamed off the hardwood floor. Gently, almost reverently, he lowered her to the nest of tangled gray sheets on the mattress and unbuttoned her jeans to slide them down her legs. Then he nibbled and kissed along the inside of her thigh and over her bare hip.

  Naked and vulnerable, Roux tilted her head back on the pillow and arched her spine, needing more of him—his lips, his tongue, his teeth. Wet heat slicked her pussy, and her clit throbbed in time with the rapid beat of her pulse. Her extremities had gone numb, too heavy for her to move them, but at the same time, she felt wound tight, stretched thin, as though the lightest touch would make her shatter.

  Deke skimmed his nose over her mound and flicked his tongue against the top of her cleft, but he didn’t linger. Kissing a line of liquid fire from her belly button to her sternum, he cupped the swell of her breasts and kneaded the flesh with his fingers. Roux shuddered, bowing up from the mattress in an attempt to get closer to his mouth. He didn’t disappoint, closing his lips around her pebbled nipple and sucking until she writhed beneath him.

  “Mmm,” he purred, “you like that.”

  Capturing the hardened bud between his teeth, he tugged hard, grinning wickedly when she gasped and moaned. Once he’d finished teasing and torturing, he turned his attentions to her other breast, squeezing, biting, and licking, until she trembled and panted beneath him, hovering on the brink of release.

  “I think…just…” Trailing off, he reached between her thighs, parting her folds with his thumb and pressing it hard against her swollen clitoris. “Right there,” he breathed.

  Pure, intense pleasure ripped through her, tig
htening every muscle in her body. Roux thrashed and moaned, coming apart at the seams as she rode out the waves of orgasm. When the falling sensation faded, she pried her lids open and blinked up at Deke, strangely unsurprised to find his eyes a bright, glowing blue.

  Still trying to catch her breath, she didn’t argue when he pushed away, rolling off the mattress to stand at the foot of the bed. He stripped out of his shorts quickly, shoving them down his legs to the floor, and crawled back onto the bed, insinuating himself between her splayed thighs. Forcing her arms to work, she held them up, twining them around his neck as she welcomed him into the cradle of her hips.

  Hooking his elbow beneath her knee, he opened her wider, positioning the crown of his cock at her slick entrance. His shoulders tensed, the cords in his neck popped, and she could hear his teeth grinding together as he took his time, entering her in controlled increments. Even now, he needed to protect her, but Roux didn’t want his restraint.

  “Don’t hold back.” Arching her neck, she nipped at his earlobe. “You won’t hurt me, Deke.”

  His growl vibrated against her chest, and he snapped his hips, stretching her inner walls as he invaded her clenching depths. Crying out his name, Roux bucked beneath him, clawing at his back while lights danced behind her closed eyelids. He pressed their cheeks together, blanketing her as he thrust hard and deep, filling her completely with every stroke.

  The muscles in his back bunched and flexed beneath her palms, his skin damp with perspiration. His warm breath fanned over her neck, the sensation sending currents of electricity racing down her spine. When her second orgasm barreled down on her, everything faded away except for the man in her arms. Deke surrounded her, filled her…consumed every part of her.