by A. Vers
“I can put on my shoes and—”
He glared, halting my protests. “I can flit you out faster than you can walk.”
I nibbled at my bottom lip. “But Ryder—”
“Can carry you too,” Ryder said. My gaze snapped to his. “Your choice. But you’re getting out of here one way or another.”
I peered between them.
They were both stone faced, all humor or teasing gone. On this, neither male would give. I could see it in their eyes.
Giving Ames a small nod, I walked to Ryder.
His eyes widened a bit, but he merely crouched as Ames had done. I placed my hands on his shoulders and gingerly settled my weight over the heat of his spine.
My body thawed like I had climbed into a warm bath.
He rose easily, hands finding the underside of my thighs. I tried not to feel the flex of his shoulder muscles under my palms. Or how his back rippled against me as he leaned forward a bit.
Ames stalked up beside us, his eyes almost amber now. I reached out and snared his arm, forcing Ryder closer to him as well.
“Giroux is strong, Ames,” I said, trying to temper the anger and disappointment I could see in his gaze. To get him to understand why I had not wanted to burden him with my weight too. “I could not fight him.” My lip quivered before I could make it still.
Maybe it was the speeding of my heart or the sudden quickening of my breathing, but some of the darker light in his eyes faded.
He nodded. “Run, human,” Ames said gruffly, turning from my flushed face to Ryder. “If Giroux appears, do not stop. He is mine alone.”
Though Ryder stiffened under my hands, he didn’t say another word. Merely set off at an easy jog back the way they had come.
Ames kept pace, slowing his vampire speed only marginally. For a human, Ryder was fast and his endurance seemed endless. But I was beginning to understand that Ryder was far from normal for a human.
We moved easily through the tunnels as Ames’ gold eyes kept up a steady pulse of light to see by. At the base of a set of long stairs, I peered up at a dim, but otherwise open doorway. My heart pattered and my stomach gave a fell swoop. I squeezed Ryder’s shoulders. He peered back at me, one dark brow raised.
“I can walk from here,” I said.
He followed my line of sight. Lowering himself a bit, he let me slide from his back. I hurriedly adjusted my ruined tank top, but his residual heat remained in my skin.
I didn’t bother to wait. I clamored up the steps like the hounds of the Seven Hells were behind me.
Bursting through the narrow opening, I stumbled a bit and was met with a soft feminine frame.
My head whipped up.
Riki stared at me, her pale blue eyes nearly translucent with her worry. “Morgan?”
For a moment, I considered pulling away.
Then I clung to her arms. With a small sob, she enfolded me in her embrace. Her grip on me was nearly as fierce as mine on her.
“I’m so sorry, Mor,” she whispered in a croaking tremble near my ear. “I am the worst friend in the history of friends.”
I shook my head. “I shouldn’t have pushed you away, Riki. I’m sorry too.”
“I deserved it,” she told me, pulling back with tears shimmering in her eyes. “I should have had faith in you. Like Ames. Like he has through all of this.”
I eased to the side as both males stepped out from under the low overhang. My gaze dipped to Ames. In the brighter light of the small hall, his irises had dimmed, but they were rooted on me with familiar focus.
Riki was right.
He had been a staunch ally since this mess started. But so had Ryder.
Ames had not left my side since I left the colony house almost five years ago. He followed me here. Watched over me, and has fed me in ways even Ryder could not. He knew of my past. All the horror that I left behind.
And yet, I had braved the sun. I had felt its heat upon my skin after so many years of staying in the dark.
And it did not burn me.
Giroux knew that. He had suggested it.
But why?
Why even mention such an old, unused practice? Did he hope I would burn? Did he believe that my fiery demise would have been true justice?
And why harm the humans in order to make it happen?
I didn’t know the answer to any of it.
There was a loud bang from outside and Ryder went rigid next to me, his head whipping over.
I peered at him and then at the wall he was trying so hard to see through. “Ryder?”
His jaw flexed. “Ames, get her to Harrington.”
Slim fingers closed over my upper arm.
I pulled against the hold. “Ames.” His eyes pulsed, and his mouth formed a pale mottled line. But he kept a steady grip and started urging me away from the other male.
“Ryder, what—”
His hazel eyes tracked to me, the expression on his face more empty than the day he arrived at Lokworth. “Go, Morgan.”
My stomach gave an anxious flip. It was so like the junkyard. So like his last plea for me to leave him to whatever fate he felt he had to deal with on his own. My hands balled into fists.
Something must have shown on my face because he moved toward me, one warm hand slid over my cheek to cup the base of my head. Ames fingers flexed on my arm, but I barely felt it as Ryder’s hot breath teased my lips.
The light press of his mouth to mine was like the sweetest forbidden fruit. I could not stop the catch in my heartbeat, or how my stomach somersaulted, but I managed not to lean into him. “Go, Morgan,” he whispered. “I’ll be fine.”
My eyes fluttered, and I stared into irises flecked through with gold, green, and amber. “Swear it.”
His gaze widened. Then his lips caressed mine in a glide that shot all the way to my toes, making them curl into the hardwood. A soft moan spilled from me. He pulled back, his shoulders rising and falling quicker as I peered at him in a daze.
The warmth of his palm fell away from my neck. “I know you want to deck me again, Ames,” Ryder said mildly, and my eyes shot wide as he started backward down the hall. “But get her out of here first.” He turned on his heel and sprinted off without another word.
There was a noncommittal grunt from behind me, and my face scalded. I peered almost shyly over my shoulder. Ames was like a statue, his features hardened to stone as he looked anywhere but at me. Some of the heat left my cheeks.
When he tugged on my arm, I allowed it, my mind still swirling from Ryder’s kiss. Riki gripped my hand. She gave me a mild smile, and I could see the wealth of questions in her gaze. More questions I had no answers to.
So, I gave her fingers a tight squeeze and let them usher me into the main part of the school.
Chapter 39
Ryder
I slung open the front doors and skidded out onto the brick walkway as the second boom echoed into the dark. Distant shouts were audible back the way I came, and I could only hope Ames had listened and gotten Morgan away.
Not that I would have been surprised if he hadn’t. Oh, he would get Morgan to safety. But he would do it his way.
I had been asking for the vampire male to clock me again with that kiss. But there was something about Morgan, something that I couldn’t resist. Even knowing how dangerous it was to want her.
For both of us.
Sprinting around the side of the school, I scanned every tree line that was visible. There were no flashlight beams, no movement visible to my weaker sight. But they were out there. I knew it.
I also knew Dad. He wouldn’t come up the drive. Wouldn’t even give the supes a hint of his exact location. He was going to disorient them first. And then, when they were panicking like a rabbit in a trap, he would take them out.
It didn’t matter that the human government had given him a contract to kill Eliza’s killer only. Dad didn’t hate just vamps anymore. It was all supes.
I didn’t know when it happened. When his vendetta
for losing Mom turned into … this. But I knew I couldn’t let him kill a whole school of kids.
And I damn sure couldn’t let him kill Morgan.
Walking out past the courtyard prior, I felt exposed. Too open. There was no shelter, but I was banking everything on the hope he wouldn’t kill me for spite. “I know you’re out there,” I called loud enough my voice carried into the trees. “This is over. Now.”
No answer.
“You come for them, you come for me too.” My eyes tracked over the shrubs situated like dark blobs beneath the trees. “This isn’t right and you know it. They’re just kids.”
“They are monsters, Ryder. And once upon a time, you knew that too.” Dad’s voice was barely more than a growl as his shadow detached itself from a cluster of thin saplings. He stopped a few steps behind the bushes, his face cast in dimness. “I raised you better than this. I—”
“Taught me to hate?” I snapped, hands curling into fists at my sides.
His face contorted. “A bloodsucker killed your mother. Have you forgotten that? Or the fact it is our job to kill every last one of them?”
There was a barely audible gasp from behind me, and I whirled.
Morgan stood feet away, her pale lilac eyes glittering in the low light. She stared at me. “Ryder? What is he talking about?”
I cast behind her lithe frame.
Ames waited near Lokworth’s walls. Riki, Roman, and Harrington were but a few of the faces I could see with him. My teeth ground.
Damn the vampire male.
I forced out an exhale. “Morgan, I—”
“So that’s her?” Dad’s voice was cutting. “That’s the fanger you would sell us out for?”
“I didn’t sell you out,” I said loudly as my frustration grew. “I’m trying to get you to see the truth. Not all supes are evil. Morgan’s not. She saved me by giving me her blood. If she hadn’t, I would have bled out.”
Harrington and several of the others took shocked steps back. “Morgan?” Harrington demanded. “Is that true?”
Shit.
Morgan’s porcelain complexion flushed in the low light. “They cut him with a knife. I didn’t know what else to do.” Her small hands rung before her, and I wanted to clasp them in my own. Even with Dad standing there. Even with the threat he posed screaming down my neck. I wanted to comfort her.
Harrington grew pensive. “I see.” Her head turned to me. “I will ask you all to leave Lokworth grounds only once. You are trespassing. Mr. Hanlon, that goes for you too.”
A vein freezing click pierced the night. One I would know even in my sleep. The sound of a gun being cocked. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
I turned.
Dad had his sidearm up, the dark barrel sweeping from one vampire to the next. “I have a team surrounding the school,” he snarled. “Any false moves, and they open fire. Some of you may survive, but I guarantee it won’t be until half of you crumble.”
Every word he spoke fell into the silence like a bomb going off.
The vamp’s eyes began to glow and even Morgan took a cautious step back.
Dad tsked. “Not so fast, fang girl.” His tone was wry. “I got a special bullet just for you.” The gun drew level over her heart and everything around me slowed. His finger inched toward the trigger.
I felt my feet move, felt the air tighten in my lungs. One second I was stationary, the next I was lunging for his arm.
His head whipped over as I shoved his arm up, and the gunshot echoed in my ears from so close. I bared my teeth as I fought the still enormous strength of his older body. His free hand bunched into a fist and it hurtled toward my face.
I ducked and rolled sideways. Coming to my feet, I drew his focus to me and away from the vamps.
My body remained in a low crouch, keeping my torso locked tight and my hands up. “I won’t let you hurt her. Or any of them.”
The rage on his face was hard to see. The betrayal. “You should have died instead of her,” he spat at me. “I’ve thought it for years. If she hadn’t been protecting you … And now look at you. Whoring yourself out to one of them instead of supporting the family.”
I gritted my teeth as his words cut through me.
I had known for years he resented my being alive. But hearing him say it so simply…
The night the vamps broke in, it had just been Mom and myself. I was too young to do anything. Too young to stop them. She forced me into the cubby in the closet and begged me to stay there even as tears tracked her tan cheeks.
I had heard it all past the blood pounding in my ears. Through the terror. And when I came out, when I saw the ruin they had left of her … I spewed my dinner all over the bloodstained carpet.
That was how Dad found me. Sick, shaking, and covered in bile and blood.
There were no hugs. No comfort for the little boy I had been. It was swearing and shoving me away again and again. Then he found Aunt Joe, and we became hunters.
I had more than just my mother taken from me that day. I had my father taken from me too. He died the night she did. The man staring at me with such unbridled disgust and hate was not the one who helped raised me.
He was the one that turned me into his own killing machine. His perfect soldier.
“And you died the same day she did,” I said tightly. “You’ve been dead for years, and I couldn’t accept it. Couldn’t understand it. But now I do.”
His lips twisted.
“I was orphaned the day Mom died.” My head raised, and I met his gaze dead on. “As far as I’m concerned, I have no family.”
Then I dove for his waist and tackled him to the grass.
Chapter 40
Morgan
I watched Ryder leap across the narrow distance, plowing his father off his feet. The gun went sliding over the lawn. I jolted forward as they rolled.
Strong hands gripped my upper arms, hauling back into a now familiar chest. Ames began to pull me back toward the doors.
I bucked in his hold. “What are you doing?” I demanded. “We can’t just leave him to fight them alone.”
If possible, his fingers tightened. “He’s a hunter, Mor. Just like they are.” His tone was clipped. Tight. “And there are more. I can hear their heartbeats. We have to get inside.”
“I don’t care if he is a …” The word was wrong on my tongue. So wrong I couldn’t even bring myself to utter it. “It’s Ryder. We can’t leave him out—”
The words died on my lips as the trees all around us seemed to shift with slowly moving shadows. Each one was oddly shaped and as the distant lights of the school fell over them, I could see why.
The hunters had come more than prepared to fight as every body bristled with sheathed blades, handguns, and several long rifles I had no name for. My blood turned to ice and my mouth went dry. This was not a simple killing.
It was an assassination.
I shuddered in Ames’ hold, suddenly grateful for his grip keeping me upright because I was sure my knees had buckled.
These were Ryder’s kin? His family?
I stared into eyes so lifeless that they might as well have been stone. As one, the hunters took a step forward, the motion seamless and almost robotic in its execution. Another shiver went down my spine.
“Master Treymore.” Harrington’s voice was terse from behind us. “Get her inside. Now.”
Ames pressed one arm around my waist and the other around my shoulders like a vise. He lifted me clean off my feet and flitted me along the side of the school.
We passed teachers whose faces were little more than resolute blurs as they ran back the way we came, and witches who held orbs of fire and light in their hands. The surrounding night lit up like the dawn as they let the magick balls fly. The grass grew red and orange as flames erupted, driving the hunters back.
Trees swayed ominously. Their branches stretched long under the guidance of several Fae who stood clustered together.
At the corner of the great stone bu
ilding, Ames drew to a stop. I peered past his shoulder. Dead center of the fighting was a familiar mane of hair.
Ryder’s father backhanded him, sending him sprawling to the Earth, and I could not stop my soft cry of dismay. The hunter advanced on his child, death written in garish lines across his seemingly unfeeling facade.
“Protecting her still, Amesilo?” The voice sent a chill down my spine.
Ames turned us fast and shoved me behind him as Giroux pushed from one of the stone columns. Stumbling from the abruptness of the movement, I dug my fingers into the silk of his shirt, feeling the lean muscle of his back. “You were a teacher here,” Ames muttered. “How could you?”
Giroux smiled coldly. “I see she has not told you who I am.” His dark eyes flicked to me. “How … quaint.”
My fingers tightened in Ames’ body. He never made a sound.
Harrington found us in the hallway to her office, and in the mad dash to find the source of the heavy bangs, I had not had a chance to tell any of them who Giroux really was.
Staring into his dark eyes now, there was an odd emptiness inside me.
I had not meant to hurt Lady Nancy, let alone kill her. She had been more than my nanny. She had been like a surrogate mother when my own remained distant in the eyes of the court.
That was something Ryder and I had in common. Parents who were present but not.
A twinge of sympathy flared in me before I could stop it. Before I could chide it for its terrible timing.
I still could not wrap my mind around the fact Ryder was a hunter, but, in a strange way, it made sense.
“What do you want, Giroux?” Ames said, jarring me out of my reverie.
The older male did not shift or twitch a single muscle. “In order for you to know that, you must first know who I am.” His voice had gone lower than a graveyard whisper. “Ms. Read?”
I trembled against Ames, feeling every syllable in my name like knives through my skin. “He’s Lady Nancy’s husband.”
Ames went rigid against me, and his dark head whipped to Giroux. “Why are you here?”
Giroux gave a cold smile. “For the reason I can see in your eyes, Master Treymore,” he all but crooned. “So, perhaps, now is not the time to continue protecting your beloved.”
