by Trina M. Lee
He picked out the riff of a Molly’s Chamber song, one that usually tumbled out hard and fast, loud and electric. On the acoustic it transformed into something softer, slower but just as powerful. I was sure that Rowen could play just about anything, even elevator music, and it would sound fantastic.
Captivated by the beauty of him, I relaxed in the big, cushy chair and let the music calm me. I was almost able to pretend Arrow wasn’t there.
Then he opened his mouth. “How long til that pizza gets here?”
So much for my happy chill moment. I stifled a sigh, choosing instead to answer him without as much snark as I wanted to inject into my tone. “It gets here when it gets here. Why? Are you in a rush? Got a big date?”
Arrow eyed me before leaning in to snort another line. “I could, but instead I’m stuck here with my brother and his girlfriend. This is punishment, isn’t it? For pissing off Jett about that song.”
“She’s not the only one you’re pissing off about that.” I smiled sweetly, sipping from my beer. Oh yeah, this was going to be a long evening. Lucky for me, I got to leave soon.
Rowen stopped playing and pinned his brother with a simmering glare. “Arrow, we’re here to help you. Instead of punishing us for caring by being a royal pain in the ass, you could try showing some gratitude.”
Arrow considered this and immediately dismissed it. “Whatever, dude. I get it. You’re doing your angelic duty. Don’t pretend this is how you really want to spend your night.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’re here, so let’s make the best of it.”
“Let’s go party, Rowen.” Arrow flopped back on the couch and put his feet up on the table, almost upsetting the remaining few lines. “You can babysit me at The Spirit Room.”
I met Rowen’s gaze, finding irritation in his amber eyes. He’d been picking up after Arrow for years. It was a wonder he hadn’t blown his top by now.
The buzzer announced the arrival of the pizza. Hopefully that would keep Arrow’s mouth busy for a while.
“No Spirit Room,” I said as I went to the door with cash to pay the delivery guy. “Not every night has to be a party. Sometimes you need to settle down and spend some time with yourself.”
Though he didn’t say anything, I could feel Arrow’s glare on my back. I retrieved the pizza and dropped it on the kitchen counter. Pizza, beer, and cocaine. And Arrow still wanted more. His focus was in serious need of redirection.
Setting the guitar aside, Rowen stood and stretched. “I’m going to jump in the shower. Don’t let him escape. I won’t be long.”
Arrow muttered something involving more than one F-bomb beneath his breath. After Rowen had closed the bathroom door and started the water, he said, “You could never keep me here if I really wanted to leave.”
I understood that he was trying to project hostility to cover up the fear he must have felt at being controlled by Dash. So I bit back the retort I wanted to fling at him. Instead I grabbed a piece of pizza and shoved it at him, ready to mash it into his face if I had to. He jerked back before I could and swiped the slice from my hand.
“Arrow, I’m here because, in some demented way, it’s my duty to watch out for you. If you insist on making this more difficult than it has to be by challenging me, don’t be surprised when I fight back.” Engaging in conflict with him was not what I wanted, but it might be what he needed. I perched on the arm of the chair with arms crossed, trying to be both kind and firm.
He munched on the pizza, watching me the whole time like he thought if he stared long enough it would get under my skin. Well, he was right. The weight of his stare made me uneasy, but it wasn’t intimidating me into backing down.
Several minutes passed with the two of us staring at each other in tense silence. Bite after bite until the pizza slice was gone and Arrow had yet to budge. Had to hand it to him, he had strong, silent antagonism down pat.
I let out my breath in a huff, annoyed that he wanted to make this a game. But that was what demons did. They played a lot of games. Though Arrow was reluctant to admit it, he was dark and, therefore, half demon.
“So, is that it?” Unable to hold my tongue any longer, I broke the silence. “We just try to out stare one another all night? That’s going to get boring.”
Arrow finished his beer, still quietly contemplating. A small smile teased the edges of his mouth. I didn’t like that smile. Something about it felt… off.
A chill descended, filling the room with a frigid breeze. The windows were all closed. I stiffened. Something unseen moved around me, a force that spoke of bad things.
“You know what your problem is, white lighter? You never know when to shut up.” Arrow blinked, and his hazel eyes gleamed solid black. He swung the empty bottle at my face so fast I never saw it coming.
It cracked against my cheekbone just beneath my eye, hard enough to knock me off the chair arm. Adrenaline slammed through every cell of my being as I hit the floor. The training I’d been doing with Cinder kicked in, instinct guiding me as I flung an arm up to stop the next blow.
I clutched Arrow’s forearm, stopping the bottle from connecting a second time. With my free hand I threw a ball of fire into his face, driving him back so I could get up. There was no time to puzzle out what had just happened. A mass of shadows engulfed Arrow, snuffing out the flames.
He came at me again, but his movements were slow, calculated, like a snake preparing to strike. The shadows moved around him like they too were snakes, separate tendrils that darted about, waiting for his command.
“Arrow, stop,” I shouted, hoping that some part of him was still in there. Was this it? The blackout that drove him to murder? “You don’t want to do this. I just want to help you.”
“Help me?” He eased around the coffee table, gliding with an inhuman gait. He snapped his fingers, and one of the shadows lashed out at me, thrusting me into the armchair hard enough to make me topple over the back of it. “You’ve done nothing but cause problems since the first day Rowen laid eyes on you.”
I scrambled to my feet, shoving away from him as he drew closer. He drove me into the kitchen where I was trapped. Another fireball forced him back a few feet but didn’t keep him from approaching. I didn’t want to hurt Arrow nor did I want to risk burning the building down, but he wasn’t giving me much time to weigh my options.
Arrow seemed oblivious to his injuries as he came at me. He threw the bottle aside before raising both hands to freeze me in place. I braced. His gift was disturbing to see in use, and I certainly didn’t want to be the victim of it. Then the power hit me, and my entire body seized. Every muscle went tense, frozen, and the urge to scream was locked inside me.
I fought against it, knowing that, if he came at me now, I was finished. A scream tore from me as I broke free of his hold. Gasping for air, I braced myself, taking a fighting stance. Without waiting for his next move, I swung a mean right hook, hoping I could knock him out, a small addition to his already expansive injuries. To my surprise, he took the punch and held up a hand to invite another.
“You’re the one that keeps Rowen tied to the light,” Arrow said, his words a guttural snarl. “It’s you who fucked this all up. The dark wants him, and they will never stop until they have him. If that means having to take you out of the equation, then so be it. We will find a way to make him ours.”
The ugly things he said sank deep into me, penetrating into a place of dread. I’d feared this would happen. That being with me would only endanger Rowen further.
Though I wasn’t sure it would work, I grabbed hold of Arrow’s arm, feeling for the power within. My new ability to steal and replicate the power of another was a short-lived and limited gift, but it had its perks.
As Arrow’s power slipped into me, I had the strange sensation of being covered in dirt. I threw my hands up, releasing what I’d just taken and freezing him in place. Without hesitation I shoved by him and fled the kitchen, rushing to the bathroom door to pound my fists and shout Rowen’s nam
e.
A glance back over my shoulder revealed an angry Arrow. He broke free and came after me, fast this time, no calculated movements. Grabbing hold of my hair, he slammed my head against the bathroom door.
Pain shot through my skull. I whirled around to face him, shrieking when a handful of hair tore from my scalp. “Dammit, I’m not the enemy, Arrow.” I caught him off guard with a throat punch. As he struggled to breathe, I took the chance to try to speak sense into him. “Don’t you see what’s happening here? You’re being used. Controlled. The dark is not your friend. They don’t care about you. Me and Rowen, we care.”
Though he fought for a breath of air, Arrow’s black eyes gleamed with malevolence. It chilled me. With a twirl of his wrist, a shadow darted toward me, wrapping tight around my neck. I grabbed at it like an idiot, my fingers clawing at nothing.
Desperate and afraid, I rushed him, both hands ablaze. Unable to take him down, I had to settle for shoving him into the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room.
We struggled to gain some kind of control. Arrow made the mistake of spinning me so that he was behind me; I knew how to get out of the move, thanks to Cinder. Grasping his forearm I twisted my body, using the momentum of his motion to haul Arrow off his feet and slam him onto the floor. The impact jolted him, breaking his concentration, and the shadows choking me disappeared.
Rowen burst out of the bathroom. His hair dripped water down his back as he hastily slung a towel around his waist. His amber eyes flashed wide with alarm. “What the hell is going on?”
I was fully prepared to step on Arrow’s throat to hold him down if needed, but he ceased fighting. Blinking confused hazel eyes up at me, he sounded like he’d swallowed gravel. “Spike? What happened?”
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Ouch.” I winced as Rowen pressed a towel-wrapped bundle of ice to my swollen face. “Shit that hurts.”
I took the towel from him with a grateful smile that turned into a wince. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, the pain was setting in. My cheek beneath my eye throbbed. It felt puffy, and though I hadn’t looked in a mirror yet, Rowen’s expression said enough.
“Are you sure you’re ok?” he asked for the third time. “Maybe you should stay in tonight.”
“No.” I shook my head, wincing again when that caused the throbbing to intensify. “I can’t. The girls are expecting me, and I don’t want to lose this gig. It’s good for us.”
He frowned and sat on the coffee table, across from the armchair I huddled in. “It’s ok to miss one gig, Spike. Shit happens. This is serious. What if you have a concussion or something? It looks like he hit you pretty hard.”
The longer the ice sat on my injured face, the more it seemed to hurt. Easing up on the ice hurt too when the heat came rushing back into my bruised cheek. “It feels like he did too. But I’m fine. Really. Nothing an Advil can’t take care of.”
My gaze strayed to the balcony door. Arrow was out there, smoking and staring off down the street. He’d been quiet and detached since coming back to himself. He didn’t remember smacking me with the bottle or anything that followed. I believed him. I’d seen his eyes, and it was obvious to me that he was under some kind of spell.
Once I accepted his apology, he’d retreated to the balcony. Arrow wasn’t the most caring guy, but I could see that he felt like crap about the whole thing. As many despicable things as I’d seen him do, random attacks on people hadn’t been one of them.
“Maybe you guys should come with me,” I suggested. “It might be safer to have him in public than to leave you here alone with him.”
Rowen stared at his brother, storm clouds moving through his eyes of fire. “I’m not afraid of him.”
“Neither was I, but he still clubbed me in the face with a glass bottle. He’s unpredictable, Rowen. We can’t underestimate him.”
“I know. I’ll be fine though. Really.” He scrubbed a hand over his face and swore. His damp mohawk flopped to one side, dripping the occasional drop down his neck. “If you insist on going, then go. But be careful, and call me if you need anything or if your head starts to hurt worse.”
I had just over an hour to get ready and be at The Wicked Kiss. Leaving Rowen alone with Arrow didn’t feel right. Of course, the dark didn’t want Rowen dead; they wanted me dead. So Rowen should be relatively safe. However, the dark had too many tricks up their sleeves. We had to be on our guard.
I pulled the ice away from my face. “How bad is it?”
Rowen grimaced and shook his head. “Go look.”
I rose too fast, and the room spun twice before settling back into place. Hoping Rowen didn’t notice my moment of disorientation, I went to the bathroom and braved a glimpse in the mirror. I gasped. My entire cheekbone was bruised a mottled blue. The bruise spread up under my eye. The swelling made my cheek puff out twice the size of the other one. I had a lot of makeup in my arsenal, but no amount of concealer would completely hide this. Damn.
Picking through my cover up and foundation, I knew this was going to be futile. Human healing speed, one of the not so great aspects of being a nephilim. Our angelic gifts were dampened by our human weakness.
Rowen appeared in the doorway. He met my eyes through the mirror and sighed. “I can’t believe he did that.”
“It’s cool.” I began dabbing some cover up on the bruise, flinching and wincing with every touch. “I can take it. It really could’ve been worse.”
Shrugging it off was my way of making light of a horribly heavy situation. The dark wanted me dead. Arrow would have killed me. My mind refused to wrap around the concept that demons had a target on my back.
“He was going to kill you, Spike. You’re in danger, if not from him, then from someone else. I see what they’re doing. They’re targeting you and Arrow to drive me to the bargaining table. Dash doesn’t care about Arrow. He made that clear. Tonight Arrow showed us that you’re a target too.” Rowen leaned his head against the doorframe, weary and watchful. “I can’t lose you guys. Both of you, you’re all I have.”
The vulnerability he exhibited worried me. Dash wanted to get inside Rowen’s head. Judging from the defeated expression he wore, it was working.
I turned to face him, a compact of concealer forgotten in one hand. “Rowen, don’t go down that path. I can see it on your face. Dash wants you to be afraid. He wants to make you feel like you have no choice here. Do not let him get inside your head. That’s what they do. They worm their way into your mind, and they will stay forever if you let them. You can’t let Dash in, no matter what he does to Arrow or to me. Do you hear me?”
Dropping the concealer on the counter, I captured his face in my hands, forcing him to look into my eyes. With a brow raised, I waited for his nod, but when it came it was halfhearted.
“Why do I get the feeling your mind is elsewhere? What are you thinking, Rowen?”
He put his hands over mine, stroking a finger over the back of my hand. “I can’t stand by, doing nothing while Dash goes after the two of you.”
“We have to be careful. All three of us.” I kissed him, ignoring the pain in my face, focusing on the soft warmth of his lips on mine.
“Which is exactly why you shouldn’t go tonight,” he said between kisses. “The three of us should stay together.”
“So tie Arrow up and come with me,” I joked, though the idea of restraining Arrow had seriously flitted through my mind.
Rowen laughed and pulled me into a hug. “You’re stubborn, you know that?”
“I can’t let the girls down. Anyway, demons don’t like The Wicked Kiss. I’ll be safe there. And I’ll come home right after.”
The sound of the balcony door opening drew our attention. Rowen kissed me once more, a tender lingering of lips that got me tingling. He drifted out of the bathroom to check on Arrow, and I turned back to the mirror to examine the challenge laid out before me.
I busied myself with getting ready. There was little choice but to accept the bru
ise, live with it until it faded. Cover up paled the blueness, but there was no hiding the swelling.
Dark eye shadow and deep red lipstick did little to distract from my injury. I imagined the many things people would assume upon seeing it. Sure, Jett had shown up for many a gig with a shiner from scrapping with other wolves, and she always wore it proudly, like a badge of victory. I couldn’t relate.
After tousling my hair just enough to make it appear windblown, I spritzed on some perfume made of strawberry and vanilla essential oils and turned to go to my bedroom to get dressed.
I jerked back with a silent gasp when I almost ran into Arrow who lurked outside the door.
His expression was blank, but his cheek twitched, as if he was forcing neutrality when he wanted to smirk. “Spike, I’m sorry. I know I said this already, but you’ve got to know I’d never hurt you.”
“I do. I know.” But I didn’t. Arrow wasn’t the overtly violent type, and he’d never given me reason to believe he wished me harm. Though I wanted to believe the best in him, I had to tread carefully until we knew more about what he’d been going through.
“You think I’m full of shit,” he said, but there was no accusation in the words.
“No, it’s not like that. I don’t know what to think right now. I saw your eyes, Arrow. They were black. Demon black. Whatever’s going on with you, it’s serious, and we need to get to the bottom of it.” Reluctant to touch him, I patted his arm the way one might pat the head of a dog with the potential to bite. “It’s ok. We’ll figure it out.”
Arrow glanced back to the living room where Rowen sat, watching us. Lowering his voice, Arrow whispered, “I won’t let them have Rowen.”
Because there was nothing I could say, I nodded and pushed by him to go to my bedroom. Once I’d closed the door, I let out the breath I’d been holding. My shoulders shook with the strain of what had just happened and the burden of not knowing what was yet to come.
