by Maya Daniels
“I knew you had it in you, Franky.” I recoil from Andrius’s voice a second before he steps through the portal.
Dark energy comes off him in waves, darkness dancing like a living cloak around his shoulders. Moving closer to where they hold Zoltan, his gaze traces my body slowly up and down, lingering on the exposed glimpse of my breasts. Bile rises in the back of my throat.
Another hunter inches closer from my side. My arm shoots out, my fingers gripping his throat and my nails digging into his windpipe. My hand curls, sinking into flesh, blood drenching it to my wrist. I open my fingers, releasing the blob in my hand to follow the crumbling body of the gurgling hunter to the ground.
“She is magnificent.” Andrius claps his hands in glee, his eyes glittering with madness. “Isn’t she?”
“It’s me you want, Roberti.” Taking a step closer, I ignore Zoltan’s glare. “Let him go.”
“Why should I do that?” He sounds like we are discussing the price of potatoes at the market. Anger bubbles in my chest. “When I can have you both?”
“You’ll have a lot of dead hunters and might even lose your useless life if you don’t let him go.” Sliding my feet on the floor, I inch closer. “If you think I’ll come willingly after you hurt him, you are crazier than I thought.”
“I won’t hurt him.” Andrius, in his right mind, slaps Zoltan’s face good-naturedly. My chest vibrates from the vampire’s growl. “He is leverage.”
“Why are you doing this?” I think I see Leo’s tail slinking on the side, but I can’t be sure. I slide closer. “What is it you want?”
“It’s not what I want, Drake.” His face twists in anger. “It’s what everyone wants. Don’t you see?” Spreading his arm around, he points at the people around us. “Who decided that vampires are the top of the food chain, that the rest of us should crawl at their feet? You think the shifters and the demons don’t loathe being guards. Being treated like the dirt under their shoe. Well”—He grins with no humor—“let’s see them now. There is a bigger power in town.”
“That’s it? You are doing this for your ego, you stupid fuck?” I see a hunter creeping closer from the corner of my eye, but I’m too angry to care. “You are killing innocents in Sienna, and in the Academy, so you can feel important. You really are a moron, you know that right?”
“You’ll see things my way soon enough, Drake,” Andrius snarls. “Now get your ass through the portal, or it’ll go down. Alex was smart enough to get enough of your blood to bring all the portals down. Let’s see how you feel knowing it’s you that is responsible for so many deaths.”
“You will not pin this on me.” But his words stab me in the chest. What the shifter said to me in the dining room rings in my ears. “It’s all her fault.”
“Don’t listen to him.” Fenrir materializes next to me, his power holding by a thin thread that’s ready to explode and knock us all over. “He is full of shit.”
“Should I kill him now, and we fight?” Andrius leans forward in anticipation. “What do you say, Fenrir? With Zoltan dead, you can have her all to yourself.” He leers at me, making my skin crawl.
“He won’t kill him,” a woman’s voice hisses to my right and I stiffen when I catch a glimpse of white clothing. “He’s bluffing, don’t be stupid. Let him take him; you can get him out.” It sounds so familiar it takes a moment to place it.
“What the fuck?” hissing under my breath, I’m grateful Andrius is focused on the Fae at the moment. “Myst?”
“I got you, chicca. That asshat manipulated me, as well. I knew Alex was up to something.” She inches closer, raising all the red flags in my head. Fenrir says something I don’t hear.
“And I should trust you, why?” Everything is so messed up right now I want to scream until my throat is raw.
“You shouldn’t.” She snickers like a nutcase. “But the enemy of my enemy is my friend. He won’t kill the hunk. But he can bring the portals down.”
“Fuck me.” I breathe and she snorts.
“You’re hot and all, but I don’t swing that way.” When Fenrir fidgets next to me, I know he can hear us and that my time is up.
“What will it be, Drake?” Andrius glows in glee. “The Daywalker or Sienna?”
“Zoltan!”
The scream is ripped from my chest when I bolt up straight in bed, drenched in cold sweat. Tears stream down my cheeks, soaking my hair and pillow. Every night is the same thing. Every time I close my eyes, I relive that horrible scene over and over with the same result.
They always take him away.
The door is nearly ripped off the hinges, banging loudly off the opposite wall before swinging back and almost hitting Fenrir in the face. He lifts his arm, palm slapping it away as he rushes to my side. I want to laugh, but breathing is such a struggle at the moment that I can’t. My heart hammers my ribcage with a vengeance. The Fae whirls around, knees bending as if he expects to find someone attacking me. He’s been patrolling every night, but I think this is the first time he has witnessed my nightmares.
“I’m fine, Fenrir. No one is there.” Gasping the words out, I pull the sheet up to my neck. The white tank top I’m wearing is see through from the wet patches all over it. The last thing I need is to flash my nipples at the Fae.
Fenrir turns around slowly and straightens. His gaze searches my face and a line forms between his arched eyebrows. Not wanting him to see how unsettled the dreams make me, I glance around the room, my eyes landing on random things just so I don’t look at him. My fingers hurt from how hard I’m squeezing the sheets at my chest.
“I didn’t know you were having nightmares.” With a sigh, he lowers to the edge of the bed, the mattress dipping under his weight while his eyes remain glued on me. “I should’ve known.”
“You’re not my mother, Fae, nor am I a child. We all relive our failures when you do what we do.” I hate that I sound defensive, and I hate even more that he has a sad look plastered on his face. “I don’t need you to feel sorry for me, Fenrir. Or responsible, for that matter.” Offering him a smile I don’t feel, I try to take the sting away from my words. “I’m a big girl. I can handle a few nightmares.”
“You know you can trust me, right?” He tugs on my hand a few times before I allow him to take it in his. His thumb rubs soothing circles over the back of it, and I feel my shoulders lower slightly. They were up to my ears from tension.
A harsh snort through my nose is his answer.
“I’m not your enemy, Hellion …”
“Neither are you a friend.”
“I know you’ve been left on your own your entire life but that doesn’t have to be the case anymore.” He watches me intently, ignoring my previous comment. ”You don’t have to talk to me about it, but you let Astara in. She is your friend so talk to her.”
“About what? That because of me her brother might be dead already? I’m sure that conversation will go well.” Yanking my hand back, I curl my knees and wear my arms around them. “I don’t need therapy, Fenrir, or to talk things through. That’s what humans do. We go kill the fuckers that won’t let us sleep.” When he keeps staring at me and says nothing, I sigh, deflating. “What?”
“I was going to talk to you about it tomorrow at breakfast”—Swinging his legs up, he gets comfortable by stretching out on my bed, his feet crossing at the ankles next to my hips—“but since we both can’t sleep let’s make the most of it.”
My face twists in a grimace to show him how ecstatic I am about his idea, but I wiggle sideways to give him more room. One cheek jumping in a barely contained smile, he slides closer and leans on one elbow, making himself at home. I have a feeling this is going to be a long night.
“Well? Out with it and maybe I’ll get an hour of sleep before everyone starts making noise around here.”
“Let me see your finger.” Lifting his palm up, his fingers wiggle in expectation for me to do what he asked.
“It healed, I wasn’t stabbed in the kidney. Just a stupid
splinter.” But I do place my fingers in his, letting him turn the said finger this way and that to inspect it. “See? I’ll live, unfortunately.”
“Hmmm.” Shaking his head, his platinum strands slide over his shoulders like silk as he offers me a grim look. “I’m not sure anyone can survive this, Drake. It was, after all, a vicious splinter bred to kill.”
I try.
I try with everything in me not to laugh but after a few snorts, bursts of laughter have me clutching my stomach from the serious expression on his face. The corners of his lips twitch a few times too before he joins me, chuckling as well.
“You are such a goof, Fae.” Gasping for air, I straighten as a few more giggles pass my lips. “Now that we settled my impending doom named death by a splinter, can I hear what you want to talk about?”
Leaning back, he runs his fingers through his hair, pushing it back over his shoulders. I can see he is thinking how to phrase whatever it is he wants to say. I’ve been more hotheaded than usual lately because fear for Zoltan’s life, for the portals, and everything else is making my head spin. I don’t blame him for walking on eggshells around me. I would slap some sense into my own head if I was in his shoes.
Good thing he knows better than to try.
“I’ve been observing you ever since I saw you in the bar in Sienna.” Referring to the night when I visited my friend Daren’s bar in hopes to get drunk and drown my sorrows, Fenrir brings back memories I’d rather forget.
I was suspended from the Special forces for the Accord where I worked as an agent under Roberti. Fenrir apparently was there to check out who he would be dealing with in person. I brushed him off, storming out of the bar and spending a good amount of time that night riding my bike through Sienna aimlessly to clear my head. It was the night I was assigned to infiltrate the Academy. It was also when everything went to shit.
“It’s nice to have time to sit back and observe while the rest of us are fighting for our lives.” I flinch at my comment because I said it out of spite and to shake off the feelings that came with thinking about how naïve I was. “I didn’t mean that.”
“I know you didn’t.” Scratching his jaw, he eyes me contemplatively. “That just supports my observations actually. You see we know now that Roberti was playing the long game, especially with you. While we were too busy with distractions, which I have no doubt he orchestrated, he was placing all the chess pieces on the board. Lucky for us, and very unfortunate for him, he underestimated you just like everyone else.”
“I have no idea what that means,” I tell him honestly, pointing a finger at his face. “I will never be a pawn as long as I breathe.”
“No, you were never meant as a pawn.” I almost thank him, but he ruins it with his next words. “In his game of chess, you are meant as the queen.” A grin spreads across his face at my scowl. “What he didn’t expect was for the queen to start kicking like the knight, tracking him like the bishop, and blasting him like the rook.”
“I don’t play chess, Fenrir. I’m too busy surviving. Get to your point.”
“That’s exactly it, Drake.” His hand flicks at me as he speaks, all the muscles in his arm jumping under his skin and distracting me for a second. The Fae needs to be less attractive if he wants anyone to actually pay attention to what he is saying. By the knowing grin he shoots me, he is aware of my exact thoughts in this moment, too. The jerk.
“Roberti thought by giving you his protection he would mold you into an obedient solder for his cause. He never expected your trust issues to be so rooted that what you showed him would only be a small facet of who and what you really were. A mask, albeit a real part of Francesca Drake. His arrogance will be his downfall.”
“And what? You think you know the real Francesca?” A sharp ping of fear spears through me but I don’t show it, instead keeping my face impassive. “I don’t even know who or what I am.”
“Far from it, but I’m slowly learning. Before you try to bite my head off, let me finish.” I press my lips closed hard because I almost tell him what I think about his learning. “As I said, I think that played well for us to even tweak his plans as much as we have so far. But it’s not enough and I think you’ll do much better—we will all do much better if we train you properly on how to use your powers. You do astoundingly well by acting on instinct and impulse. I must say I’m impressed, but you lack discipline. I’m worried that it’ll cost you in the long run.”
“I …” His eyes turn into slits when I open my mouth, knowing before I do that I am going to talk shit just for the sake of pissing him off. My mouth closes with an audible click, my nostrils flaring.
“I’m not going to say you’re not right in your observation because we both know you excel in your stalker tendencies. Stop smiling, though. It’s creepy as fuck.” No amount of glaring can wipe the smirk off his pretty face. “Anyway, we don’t have time to train or whatever else you have in mind, Fenrir. Thanks to that asshole Alex, they have a lot of my blood to mess with the portals, plus they have Zoltan. We can’t sit behind these walls playing training camp. Not now.”
“True.” Giving me a very royal=like incline of his head, I can see the wheels turning behind his eyes. “That’s why I have an offer for you, Hellion. One I think you will like.” He rushes to assure me when I fill my lungs to speak.
“What kind of an offer, Fenrir? If I know anything about the Fae, that’s to never make a deal with one. You’ll always get screwed at the end.” After I realize what word I just used, I stab a finger at his nose. “Don’t even go there. There will be no screwing with anyone.”
“Such a prude.” But he laughs, proving he loves pissing me off as much as I love doing it to him. “I will not cage you inside these walls. That was never my intention. But instead of aimlessly searching for leads and sneaking around, we can use that time to strengthen your powers while looking for Zoltan. I will train you myself. Leo offered as well.”
We look at each other with our gazes locked for a long time. On one hand, I know he is right. All this time I’ve been winging it, using whatever comes to me on its own to survive the situations I am thrown in. On the other, urgency is stabbing like the claws of a beast in my chest to get to Zoltan because time is running out. My head is spinning with indecision, and I want to say “let’s do it” at the same time as I tell him “no way am I training now.” Fenrir startles my by jumping off the bed and striding to the door before I can realize what he is doing.
“We start right after breakfast. Sleep well.” Throwing it over his shoulder, he closes the door before I can protest, leaving me with my mouth open and a million curses I don’t get to say.
3
“You are not even trying, Drake!” Fenrir barks at me for the fifth time.
He is lucky I don’t have the power to shoot daggers from my eyes, otherwise he will be in trouble. Grinding my teeth, I hold my tongue, not because I don’t want to tell him where to stick his attitude, but because the damn shifter is prowling circles around me looking for an opening while the Fae is distracting me.
“Leash your dog, and then let’s see how tough you are Fenrir,” Leo snarls, saliva dripping from his long canines at my jab.
“Less talking. You haven’t even chipped the illusion.” Ignoring both of us, Fenrir paces in front of me with his hands folded behind him on his lower back.
Trees stretch high all around us. The clearing where the three of us stand has a shimmering portal to the right, winking in and out of existence just enough to keep pulling my attention to it. Moonlight streams through the treetops, so at least I’m not fighting blind. It catches on Fenrir’s platinum hair and Leo’s fur from time to time giving away their position. Occasional snarls and hoots of owls and other birds add to the mystery of the night where predators roam in search of their next meal. Predators like the three of us.
No, we are not outside in the woods surrounding the Academy. We are in one of the training halls inside the building where the Fae can unleash his power
unchecked. Even the scent of uprooted soil and wet grass mixing with the stench of decaying plant life is so real I have to force myself not to look impressed. He really doesn’t need anything to increase the size of his arrogance.
“I might like keeping you here in the dark, Fae. Better to toy with both of you this way.” I’m hoping he can’t see me wiping the sweat out of my eyes or squinting like an idiot in hopes to see through the thick shadows.
“You are too focused on things you can’t do rather than the things you can,” Fenrir lectures, undeterred by my bullshit.
The air stirs at my back and I twist around just in time to see the large wolf sailing high at me. Adrenaline punches my stomach like the hooves of a horse, my breath getting stuck in my throat at the razor-sharp jaws coming for my neck. My instincts take over, and spinning around on bent knees, I tuck my shoulder under the massive beast. Flinging him over my head, his body smacks one of the three trunks on the opposite side of us. My entire being vibrates in sync with the thundering of my heart.
“Like going for and grabbing everything you can physically touch instead of what you can mentally break.” The Fae is insufferable. “Leo just proved my point.”
“Leo might need a minute to lick his balls now that I cracked him in half.” Gasping for air, I grin when the shifter growls menacingly from the shadows. “Aww, it’s okay buddy, all dogs think they are wolves until they meet an alpha.”
The shifter comes out of nowhere, ramming me from the side. All air leaves my lungs in a hard whoosh when I hit the ground, the back of my head slamming with a hollow thump. If I was human, my skull would have splattered like a melon. Dark spots take over most of my vision, my mind spinning so fast bile rises at the back of my throat. The monstrosity I hide inside me wakes up, poking its head out for the first time. I can feel how eager it is to come out and show what it can do. As usual, I clench my teeth and push it down while holding Leo’s jaw open with both hands, stretching it as wide is it can go without breaking it in the process. The shifter keeps snarling, drooling all over my face and neck.
