“Are they both shifting now?” I asked.
“Izzy can fully shift and hold it, but Drake can only partially shift so far,” their mother answered as the girl twisted in her mother’s arms toward me. “Izzy prefers to be in her Warden form.”
“Drake just overthinks it, isn’t that right?” Danika ruffled the little boy’s hair and he lifted his head, sharing a tiny grin before shoving his face back down. “Izzy doesn’t think twice about anything. She wants to do something, she just does it.”
“My kind of girl,” I said, playing with Izzy’s hand as she reached for me again.
“Ours, too.” Danika and her sister shared a look. “But she gives her daddy a heart attack about every five seconds.”
Laughing, I glanced at Zayne and saw that he was leaning against the wall, ankles crossed and hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans. There was a faint smile on his face, a softness to the normally hard line of his jaw. I was struck by how much it reminded me of the day at Roth and Layla’s place.
Zayne was here, but he wasn’t a part of this.
My smile faltered as he tilted his head toward me.
The sound of male voices came from one of the closed rooms and then a door opened. A male Warden stepped out down the hall, and he was too far for me to see his face, but I recognized Dez’s voice when he spoke. “Did Isabella attack someone again?”
“No.” Jasmine laughed. “She was just overly happy to see Trinity.”
“Is that so?” Dez swaggered down the hall and stopped to pluck his son out of Danika’s arms. “Hey there,” he said to me as he shifted Drake into the nook of one arm.
“Hi.” I waved Izzy’s hand at Dez, and Izzy cackled.
“How’ve things been?” He asked this of Zayne.
“Good. Nothing to share other than what I’ve already reported,” Zayne replied, pushing off the wall. “How’ve things been here?”
“Normal, but we do have some news for you.” Dez glanced at me. “This is something Trinity’s going to want to hear, so I’m glad you brought her. Let’s go visit Nicolai.”
Zayne glanced at me, and I disentangled my fingers from Izzy’s while Danika took Drake from his father. I walked over to join them.
“Remind Nicolai that he has thirty minutes,” Danika said. “Or I’m leaving without him.”
Dez shot his sister-in-law a look but she simply smiled back at him, and two things struck me as odd. One being the whole leaving without the clan leader part, which I hadn’t even heard a male Warden threaten to do, and second, she was leaving? Like, the compound? By herself?
Danika’s gaze met mine, and what I was thinking must’ve been written across my face. “Izzy takes after her aunt,” she said, and Jasmine nodded. “I do what I want.”
The corners of my lips tipped up. “I like you.”
Danika winked.
“Come on.” Dez motioned us. “Before you and Danika start chatting, because I feel like really bad things will come from that.”
“Now I really want to talk to her,” Danika called out.
“I’m not sure who would be the worse influence,” Zayne commented, and I shot him an arched look. “You or Danika.”
“Throw in Layla, and the entire house will be burning down around us,” Dez commented.
“I heard that!” Danika shouted from the foyer.
I glanced at Zayne, but he showed no reaction to Layla’s name or the fact that one of the clansmen had brought her up. I didn’t know the details surrounding who had turned against her and who hadn’t.
Dez opened the door, and I immediately smelled the faint scent of rich tobacco. I walked in, spying Nicolai behind a wide, large desk. He looked up from whatever papers he was flipping through as I inched into the room. Dez walked ahead, over a brightly woven throw rug.
“Danika wanted me to remind you that if you’re not ready in thirty minutes, she’s leaving without you.”
Nicolai sighed, but when he spoke, his voice was laden with fondness. “Of course she will.” He sat back. “Well, let’s get the ball moving so I’m not chasing Danika through the streets of DC.”
I opened my mouth to ask if she really was allowed to roam around the city, but I realized Zayne wasn’t with us. I looked behind me and saw that he had stopped at the entry to the office. He seemed paler than normal as he slowly looked around the room, seeming to take everything in.
Then it struck me.
This had been his father’s office.
My heart went out to him, and I started to turn toward him, but then he finally strode forward, those pale eyes focused on me. I waited until he was beside me and then I whispered, “Are you okay?”
“Always,” he repeated, and then turned to Nicolai. “You have an update for us?”
If Nicolai or Dez had noticed his hesitation, they didn’t acknowledge it, but then Nicolai dropped the bomb. “Bael was sighted last night.”
“What?” I gasped as Zayne stepped forward. “When? Where?”
“Cal saw him on patrol around eight last night, near Franklin Square,” Nicolai answered.
My heart started racing. This was huge news—news I hadn’t been expecting.
“Cal is sure he saw Bael? Positive?” Zayne asked.
Dez nodded as he leaned back and picked something up off the desk. “Cal was able to snap a pic of him with his phone. We had the image printed out.” He handed it to Zayne. “You think that’s him?”
I darted to Zayne’s side and peered down at the somewhat grainy image of a tall, dark-haired man standing outside a black town car. He was dressed in a gray suit and his black hair was slicked back. He was looking up, and even I could see the weird yellow light that had reflected off his eyes.
“That’s him,” I said, hope sparking alive. “That’s Bael.”
“It is.” Zayne looked up as I all but snatched the photo from him. “Do we know who’s in the car?”
I squinted. There was...someone in the backseat.
“Not sure yet, but we reached out to our contacts at the police department to get the tags run. The vehicle is registered to a local car service company. We’re waiting to find out who the driver was and who they were transporting. As soon as we hear, we’ll let you know.”
Bael was in the city.
“This is good news,” I said, looking up at Zayne. “Right? Once we find out who he’s with, we can hopefully find him.”
He nodded. “Not just that. Now we know where to start patrolling.”
28
“Are you sure you’re safe up here?” Zayne asked, offering me a hand as I reached the top of the fire escape of the building overlooking Franklin Square.
Staring up at him, I raised an eyebrow. He was in his Warden form, a beautiful, primal sight with his blond hair parted by his fierce horns. I placed my hand in his warm, hard one. “You sound like Misha.”
“In other words, I sound like I’m asking reasonable questions?” He hauled me up with one arm, and I don’t even know what happened.
Zayne either underestimated how strong he was or overestimated how much effort it took to lift me, but I ended up clearing the ledge and then some. My feet nowhere near the cement rooftop, I toppled forward, into Zayne. He dropped my hand and caught me with his arms around my waist.
“Whoa,” he said, laughing as he sat me down on my feet. “And I’m supposed to not be worried about you up here?”
“That wasn’t my fault.” I tipped my head back. Silvery moonlight sliced across his face. “You’re like the Incredible Hulk.”
“I don’t know about that.”
I expected Zayne to let me go and step back, keeping a respectable distance like he always did, but when he didn’t, I wished I could see his eyes and I wished I knew what he was thinking. We weren’t as close as we had been on the subway, but I could feel the warmth of his body.
/> I took a quick, shallow breath as I placed my hands on his arms. “You don’t have to worry about me up here. For real, though.”
“I can’t help but worry about you, when we’re over two hundred feet in the air.” His arms loosened, and his hands slid to my lower back. “You’re badass, Trinity, but I don’t think you’ll do well if you slip and fall.”
“I’m not going to slip and fall,” I told him. “And I can make some pretty awesome jumps.” I pulled away, breaking his now-loose hold. “I can show you—”
“Yeah, no.” He caught my hand, pulling me back toward him. “I don’t need a demonstration. We’re up here patrolling, not showing off.”
“But I want to show off,” I said, tugging on my hand, but his grip tightened. “I can clear the alley and go from roof to roof. Probably even over the street if I get a good running start.”
“I really do not suggest that you attempt that.”
“And what am I supposed to do if we see a demon or Bael down below? You’ll just jump and I’m supposed to slowly make my way to the fire escape and climb down it?”
Zayne pulled me toward the center of the roof, his wings tucked back. “You can quickly make your way down the fire escape.”
“That will make me very useful if you need help.” I rolled my eyes.
“I’d rather have you alive than useful.” Zayne let go of my hand then. “Besides, it’s been quiet the last couple of nights.”
Zayne was right about that.
But tonight felt different because we now knew Bael had been here.
As I moseyed away from the center of the building, Zayne was right behind me, like a shadow...like Misha. My heart squeezed as I reached up, rubbing at the center of my chest.
I missed Misha so badly it was a physical ache that I wondered how Zayne could be so distant from his clan. I spun toward him. “Can I ask you something?”
“You know, I would think something was wrong with you if you didn’t have a question to ask me,” he replied.
I snorted. “Well, you’ll be able to tell if I ever get possessed.”
“True.” His wings spread out behind him, nearly blocking out the moon. “What is your question?”
“How often do you see your clan?”
There was a beat of silence. “Why?”
“Just curious.”
“Weird thing to be curious about.”
“So? Just answer the question.”
“I check in with them often.”
I inched closer to him. “Based on the way Danika and Jasmine acted, it seemed like it had been weeks, if not longer.”
“Well, it has been a while since I saw them, and sometimes I check in with Nicolai or Dez over the phone or out here, in the city.”
“So, how long has it been since you’ve been home?” I asked, and Zayne’s wings snapped back, tucking close to him. I crossed my arms. “What? That is your home, Zayne.”
“It doesn’t feel like it. Not with my father gone and—” He cut himself off and then he turned, stalking toward the ledge. “It’s been a while since I’ve gone there.”
“Don’t you... Don’t you miss them?” I asked. “I mean, I haven’t been gone that long and I miss everyone so much it hurts.”
“It’s not the same.” He hopped up on the ledge, perched there as he overlooked the city down below. “My clan is still here, in this city, and I can see them whenever I want.”
“Yeah, you can,” I said, hands curling into fists. “It must be nice to have that privilege.”
His head turned to the side and a long moment passed. “You don’t understand. Going back there...all I can think about is my father and how I wasn’t able to save him and how I wasn’t able to stop...stop Layla from being hurt. That place used to hold good memories. Great ones, but now...not so much.”
I stared at the shape of him. “I know how that feels, Zayne, or have you forgot that?”
Zayne cursed. “No, I haven’t. I’m sorry—”
“Don’t apologize. Just...just listen to me,” I said. “You told me that I wasn’t responsible for my mother’s death, and not to sound like an arrogant tool, but I am stronger than you. I could’ve ended Ryker’s life in a heartbeat, but I didn’t. You couldn’t save your father—”
“It’s not the same.”
“How?”
Zayne rose fluidly and turned. “I was distracted with personal shit, Trinity. My head wasn’t in the game. If it was, I could’ve stopped the attack.”
I didn’t know if that was true or not, but I had a feeling it wasn’t that simple. “So, were you just moping around and doing nothing when he died?”
“No. I was fighting a wraith.”
I threw my hands up. “Look, maybe you were distracted, but it wasn’t like you were doing nothing. His death wasn’t your fault, and I have no idea what happened with Layla, but I’m sure that wasn’t on you, either.”
“Oh, that was entirely my fault.” He came down to the roof. “I nearly got her killed, but it’s not just that. It’s more.” He sighed, looking over his shoulder at the street. “I miss them. I do. I just need my space. That’s why I moved out. It’s why I didn’t take over the clan.”
“Because you feel like you failed your father?”
“Because I’m not sure if I...if I can do it.” He was in front of me, wings outstretched. “I don’t know whether I could lead the clan when I no longer believe that what they’re doing is correct.”
My eyes widened at the admission. “The whole killing demons indiscriminately thing?”
He nodded. “Just because we are told something is right doesn’t mean it is.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. The fact that Zayne was questioning the whole all demons are bad thing would be considered bad enough, but this was something I imagined the Alphas would be very, very unhappy to hear.
So would my father.
But after meeting Roth, Layla and, yeah, even Cayman, I thought Zayne had a point. They were helping me when my own clan had originally wanted me to just...move on.
“That’s admirable,” I said finally.
“What?”
“You,” I said, nodding. “It’s admirable that you’re allowing yourself to see what probably less than one percent of Wardens see.”
He cocked his head. “And what do Trueborns think?”
I lifted my shoulders. “I think... I think there’s a lot for me to learn about, well, everything.”
“Yeah.”
“But—”
“I’m done with this conversation,” he said, and I opened my mouth. “Seriously.”
I snapped my mouth shut and then nodded. I was surprised he’d shared what he had. I felt like I’d scaled a fortress wall. As the warm breeze lifted the thin wisps of hair at the nape of my neck, I thought about the day Zayne and his clan had arrived.
“I used to climb the buildings back home when Misha would go atop one to rest. That’s where I was when I saw you guys show up—on the roof of the Great Hall. I don’t know if I told you that or not? Anyway, Misha hated it, always worried that someone would see me or I’d slip and fall,” I said as I walked over to the ledge. “But I loved it—being this high and so close to the stars. I can’t fly, so this is... This is the closest I can get to it.”
Zayne cursed under his breath as I hopped up on the ledge, and he swiftly landed beside me, his large body angled to catch me just in case I lost my balance.
I grinned as I pivoted on the ledge and walked away from him. My peripheral was nothing but shadows and my night vision was basically utter crap, but my balance was on point. Up ahead, I could see where the building ended. When I’d been in the alley before, the gap between the buildings had appeared to be about twenty feet.
Zayne stayed right behind me. “What is up with your fascination with
stars?”
Worrying my lower lip, I glanced back at him and then I lifted my gaze to the sky. “Can you see the stars? Right now?”
He didn’t answer immediately, and I imagined it was because that wasn’t a question he’d been expecting. “Yes. Why?”
“Because God has a messed-up sense of humor?” I exhaled heavily, about to talk about something that I talked about even less than I did my mother’s death. I didn’t want to, but I had gotten Zayne to open up just a little, so maybe it was... It was my turn. “My father is an angel—an archangel, Zayne. One so powerful and so...scary to most people that I don’t even like to say his name. His blood pumps through me—his DNA—but so does my mother’s and that of her family. Come to find out, they don’t have the best genetics, and some of those flawed genetics made it through the mix.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have what’s called retinitis pigmentosa, and no, don’t ask me to spell that. I’m probably not even pronouncing it correctly. It’s a...degenerative eye disease that usually ends in partial or total blindness,” I explained rather factually. “It’s usually hereditary but sometimes people can just develop it. A great-grandmother of mine had it and it skipped a couple of generations, and I ended up the lucky winner of crappy eyesight. I have little side vision. Like if I look forward, I can’t even see you. You’re nothing but a blob of shadows. It’s like having horse blinders on,” I said, lifting my hands to the sides of my head. “And my depth perception is pretty terrible.”
“Wait. Is that why I’ve seen you flinch if something gets close to your face?”
I nodded. “Yeah, if something comes at me from the side, I often can’t see it until it’s, like, right there, in my center vision. My eyes don’t adapt well from light to dark, and extremely bright light is just as bad as extremely dark areas. There are...tiny black spots in my vision, kind of like floaters, and they’re easy to ignore at this point, but I have cataracts already. It’s a side effect of these steroid eyedrops I had to take when I was younger.” I shrugged and started walking along the edge again. “Which is why the moon actually looks like two moons on top of one another until I close my right eye.”
Storm and Fury Page 32
