“Move.” Corban gave Jace’s quartz a warning squeeze.
Jace sucked in a breath and obeyed. The trek was less than a mile, but it seemed like hours, each step an agony, as if he were pushing through quicksand. The only thing that kept him going was a grim determination to reach Evie.
At last they stopped in a clearing. Jace scented both Evie and Tyrus. The wound on his throat was bleeding in earnest now. He licked dry lips and blinked woozily in the rising heat as Kane uncovered the entrance to an underground den.
Corban pushed Jace toward the ladder. “Down there.”
“Jace?” Evie peered up at him, her eyes huge.
“Coming, angel.” Jace started down the ladder, but his hands and feet felt like they belonged to some other man. His foot slipped off the rung and he tumbled the rest of the way down, banging his head against the side of the ladder before hitting the earth floor with a jarring thud.
He wavered for a moment and then crumpled to the ground.
The next thing he knew, Evie was running her hands over him, her breath coming in jagged sobs. He wanted to reassure her, but he couldn’t speak or even open his eyes, his whole being focused on simply breathing.
“Oh, God.” Evie patted his face. “Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead.”
Behind his eyes, the darkness shifted. He slit his lids. Evie was crouched next to him, her scent filling his head and bringing a measure of calm. On the other side of the small space, Tyrus and Corban were speaking in undertones, and he could hear Kane on the surface pacing agitatedly back and forth near the entrance.
The cat peeled its lip. Attack. Kill. Claws scored Jace from the inside.
Not yet, he told it.
The jaguar subsided, tail twitching angrily. It hadn’t given up, and Jace agreed. To save Evie, he’d shift even if it killed him, but first he needed more intel.
“Jace?” Cool fingers touched his cheek. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” He moistened dry lips. “You?”
A jerky nod. “I’m fine. And you’re going to be okay. Just hang on, got it?”
He forced his lids to open more fully. “Okay.”
Evie’s shoulders slumped in relief. She dragged off her T-shirt, leaving her clad only in a bra and pants, and dabbed at the blood on his throat and chest. Tyrus loomed behind her, watching them with avid eyes. Sick bastard.
Fresh blood welled from the wound on Jace’s throat; the fall must have ripped it open even further. Evie wadded up the shirt and pressed it to the wound. “Heal yourself, damn you.”
He pointed at his chest where his quartz should be. “Can’t.”
“They took it?” Evie twisted to glare up at Corban. Her eyes lit on the quartz and she lunged for it, but he jerked it away and backhanded her across the face. She stumbled and made a hurt sound that was like a blade to Jace’s heart, but came right back up.
Jace grabbed her arm. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.” She pressed a hand to her cheek and he realized she was holding the other hand to her stomach, favoring it. It was red and swollen.
Fury blazed through Jace. He shook with the need to take down both men. That they dared hurt his mate. But on its heels came a cold-eyed determination. He would bide his time, and wait for his chance—and then all three men would die.
“It’s okay,” he told Evie again and mouthed, “Trust me.”
She removed her hand from her face and gave a short nod.
Corban turned back to Tyrus. “Give me the diamonds. I’m outta here.”
The night fae’s gaze raked over Jace. “He’s damaged. I’ll be fortunate if he lasts the day.”
Evie snarled and Jace tightened his grip on her.
“Nothing in the contract said how long you get to play with him,” returned Corban. “He’s here, and my part is done. You’ve got his woman, anyway—that will make it even sweeter. Now, my payment?”
Tyrus tossed a small black pouch at Corban. He snatched it in mid-air and checked the contents. He frowned. “There’s one extra.” He removed a glittering stone from the bag and thrust it at Tyrus. “Don’t play your fucking fae games with me. You’ll pay what we agreed—no more and no less.”
The night fae regarded him coolly. “Consider it an advance.”
“For what?”
“I want you to lay down a false trail. I don’t want your alpha finding us.”
“Adric’s not my fucking alpha.”
“Pardon.” Tyrus inclined his head mockingly. “Lay down a false trail for the Baltimore alpha. I’ll leave at dusk—but I don’t want to be disturbed before then. I don’t care how you do it.”
“Or,” Corban returned with a smirk, “I could lead Adric here and let him drag you into the sunlight. How long would you last, I wonder?”
Tyrus struck. One moment he was eyeing Corban coldly, the next he had Corban up against the wall, a knife to his throat. Jace felt the dark hum of Tyrus’s energy, sucking at Corban. The whole thing was done in a creepy silence.
“What the fuck?” Kane started down the ladder, but Tyrus bared his teeth at him, and the other man froze.
The night fae turned his gaze back to Corban. “Do we have a deal?”
Corban glared back, hate in his eyes, but growled an assent.
Tyrus released him and stepped back, but kept the knife out. Corban shoved a few things into a backpack and headed for the ladder.
“You forgot something.” The night fae held out a hand. “The quartz?”
Corban shrugged, and then to Jace’s horror, tossed his quartz to Tyrus. The night fae’s cold fingers wrapped around it, and Jace felt an answering chill clear to his soul. Terror touched him, black and stark. Anyone who held his quartz could hurt him—but a fae who knew the secret could control him. It was the earth fada’s Achilles’ heel, the price exacted by the fae who’d created them. Those fae had feared the water fada’s independence and had ensured Jace’s people would have both greater power, and a greater weakness.
“You fucking S.O.B.” Jace struggled up on his forearms to glare at Corban. “You…give our secrets to a fae? This is the kind of alpha you’d be?”
Corban’s jaw worked. “Shut the fuck up.”
Kane was crouched at the surface, mouth slack with dismay. “Corban. Think about this, man. You’ll have every earth fada in the world gunning for you.”
Corban swung on him. “Only if they find out.”
Kane shook his head. “I don’t like this.”
“You don’t have to like it.”
Kane’s throat worked, but he nodded and backed away from the opening.
A shadow fell over Jace. Corban stared down at him, his face dark with loathing. “You’re just like your sister. Bringing mixed-bloods into the clan.”
“At least I didn’t betray my alpha and sell secrets to a fae.”
Corban’s heavy black brows snapped together. “Make sure you kill him for good this time,” he told Tyrus as he aimed a kick at Jace’s stomach. “I swear the fucking cat has nine lives.”
Evie threw herself forward to block the kick, but she was too late. It landed squarely on his still healing knife wounds. Jace grunted and fought to remain conscious as Corban swarmed up the ladder.
The rock dropped back over the entrance. He and Evie were alone with Tyrus.
32
Adric spent a precious few minutes tracking Tyrus. The night fae’s noxious scent covered Evie’s but he caught a hint of her as well.
“He’s headed north,” he told Marjani and Zuri.
The three of them jumped on the bikes, Marjani still behind Adric, and accelerated down the quiet street. He deliberately didn’t call any backup. Any more men and they’d risk spooking Tyrus, and then they’d never find Evie. The same applied to Corban and Jace.
As alpha, Adric could use Jace’s quartz to pinpoint his location to within a hundred yards. However, with the quartz removed, that ability was gone. Still, he had the sense the quartz—and possible Jace�
�were moving in the same general direction as Tyrus.
He refused to think about the fact that his friend had been bleeding right up until they’d apparently put him into a car. The only good thing was that if he was still leaving a trail of blood, Adric could follow the scent.
But Evie first.
“Faster,” Marjani said in his ear. “If he takes her out of the city, we’ll never find her.”
He shook his head. “Sun’s too high. He’ll have to go to ground until tonight.”
“You hope,” his sister returned.
Zuri zoomed up beside them, and they wove through the early morning traffic, ignoring red lights and stop signs. The trail led into Druid Hill Park.
They pulled into the nearest parking lot. Zuri inhaled. “Jace is here, too.”
Adric’s heart leapt. Maybe when they found Evie, they’d find Jace, too. “He said something to me early this morning about Corban having a lair in the park. Let’s spread out to search.”
The three of them loped into the woods to shift. They needed their animals’ heightened senses to track Evie and Jace.
Adric completed the shift first. He took off north without waiting for the other two, his Gift for tracking on hyperalert. It was like a sixth sense that let him know if he was on the right or wrong path, and it also sharpened his regular senses.
Behind him, he heard the other two finish their shifts and spread out to the east and west.
He crossed an asphalt path and scented the night fae. A few yards later, a drop of blood. Jace.
He changed back to man so he could alert Marjani and Zuri through his quartz, and then back again to his cougar to continue following the scent. When the trail left the path to go into the trees again, he overran it for few seconds, but his Gift soon alerted him.
Wrong.
He doubled back and met Marjani and Zuri arriving different directions. He jerked his head to the right and they all darted into the trees. Zuri had his nose to the ground, but Adric and Marjani were using their cougars’ sharp vision as much as their noses.
They were on the right track. There were multiple signs that men had come through these woods, and recently: a broken twig, a partial shoeprint, a short blue thread caught on a wild rosebush’s thorn.
He scented Jace’s blood and a hint of sweat—the acrid scent of a man pushed to his limits.
Where the fuck are you?
He drew on his quartz and frowned. The connection he had to Jace’s quartz was fainter, as if a barrier had been thrown up between the two of them. Then the connection broke.
Adric’s heart punched. Damn you, you’re not dead. You’re not.
He halted. His cougar couldn’t communicate in words, but he yowled a warning: Danger.
The scent trails split, with Tyrus’s going in one direction and Corban, Kane and Jace’s going in the other. Adric didn’t hesitate—the important thing was to find Tyrus, and hopefully, Evie. He loped after Tyrus.
Something was balled up on the ground. Adric’s breath caught, but it was just a bloody T-shirt covered with Jace’s scent. When he investigated more closely, he realized it wasn’t even Jace’s T-shirt.
He snarled. Corban was messing with him—trying to confuse the trail.
But that didn’t mean Jace wasn’t close. Adric slowed down, slipping from tree to tree, eyes peeled and ears pricked.
The woods went silent. The fur on his nape bristled. Zuri and Marjani sidled up to stand on either side of him.
A black wolf burst out of the trees. Corban.
Adric hissed a warning—Go! He could hold off Corban while they rescued Jace and Evie.
Marjani tore off. Zuri hesitated, torn between obeying his alpha and protecting him.
Adric had never demanded unquestioning obedience from his lieutenants—he wanted men who could think for themselves—but now he put all the force of his dominance behind his growl. “Go—now.”
Even then, Zuri might have stayed, but protect the vulnerable had been their creed since they were cubs, and Jace and Evie needed him more than Adric did. He turned and sprinted after Marjani.
Adric planted his paws and snarled at his cousin. Bring it on.
And then Kane slunk out of the shadows.
33
Evie crouched over Jace, instinctively trying to protect him as the tall, hard-eyed shifter—Corban—closed them into the darkness with Tyrus again.
Jace groaned. She ran her hands over him, furious tears pricking her eyes. What kind of coward kicked a man when he was down?
And what did Tyrus mean, Jace might not last the day? Icy shards pierced her chest.
No fucking way. She was not going to let Jace die.
She squeezed his hand. “You’re going to be all right—I promise.”
He muttered something unintelligible.
“Jace? Can you hear me?”
This time he didn’t even answer. Her fear spiked.
To her left, Tyrus rustled and she guessed he was sitting down. All she could see were his eyes, a strange blue-black glow in the gloom. Better than that terrifying red, but not much.
Gradually, her eyes grew accustomed to the dark and she could make out Tyrus’s outline. He’d settled onto his coat, his back against the wall. Jace’s quartz was suspended from his fingers, a weak green light at its heart.
If Jace had his quartz, he could heal himself. She had to get it back.
Black tendrils teased at her arms and face, but Tyrus seemed tired. The sun was fully up now—this must be when he slept. She slapped at them, but her hands went right through them. Then the tendrils brushed over her breasts.
Oh, no. Hell, no.
She sat on the floor with a thump and crossed her arms over her chest. “No sex,” she rasped. “That’s not part of the deal.”
“No? Not even if I tell you I can heal the fada?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m a healer in my clan.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding.”
“A fae can’t lie, Evie.” A cold smile curled his mouth. “Of course, a healer knows precisely the right places to cause pain, too.”
The tendrils snaked past her. Jace jerked and then whined, the sound of a hurt animal.
Evie’s heart clenched. “Stop it!” She lunged at Tyrus, only to realize too that that was what he’d wanted.
Strong hands clamped on her arms, forcing her to her knees between Tyrus’s thighs. She tried to strike at him, but he simply tightened his grip.
Her fingers curled helplessly at her sides, but she raised her chin and snapped, “Get your fucking hands off me.”
He trailed cool fingers down her throat, teasing her breasts above the bra. She shuddered and jerked back.
“Should I hurt him again?” A soft, malevolent murmur.
She briefly closed her eyes—and surrendered. “You heal him first,” she gritted. “Or I’ll—I’ll—” She stuttered to a halt, because she hadn’t a clue of what to threaten him with.
“Or you’ll what?” Tyrus nuzzled her ear. “Fight me, Evie.”
Her spine went rigid. Run, her brain screamed, but he had her trapped.
The darkness latched onto her like a many-armed octopus. Sucking at her…feeding on the fear and anger, and it hurt. Like no pain in the world. Icy-hot agony that slithered over her skin, drank from her soul, caressed her most secret parts—rape without the physical act.
“Fight me.” A dark breath against her throat.
She bared her teeth at him and he chuckled. She shouldn’t fight him, she knew she shouldn’t, but she couldn’t help it. It was instinct, a trapped butterfly battering its wings against the glass.
Her hands came to Tyrus’s chest. She dug her nails into him through the silky material of his shirt and his head dropped back, eyes slit with enjoyment.
Her stomach bottomed out. Whatever she did, she was fucked. Hopelessness swamped her. Her only consolation was that he’d forgotten Jace to focus on her.
Block
him.
But she couldn’t. It wasn’t like in the kitchen when she’d had Kyler to help her, and Jace had been intermittently shielding them as well. This time Tyrus was totally focused on her, and he was strong, relentless. All she could do was endure.
He fed on her for what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few minutes, and then released her. He sat back, replete.
She slumped on the dirt floor, breath scraping in and out of her lungs.
A bone-chilling growl filled the small space. “Let. Her. Go.”
She lifted her head to see Jace’s eyes glowing green with fury. He was struggling to sit up.
“It’s okay,” she whispered.
He didn’t seem to hear her. The growls continued, his cat pushed to its limit.
Evie forced herself to crawl the few feet to him. She felt old, wrung out, each movement of her arms and legs an effort. The whole time, she felt Tyrus’s gaze on her, but he said nothing.
When she reached Jace, she set her cheek against his, still on her hands and knees. Her breath shuddered out. She was shaking, her fingers and toes like ice. She inhaled and tried to calm herself.
“Don’t try to get up—please. It’s okay.”
His gaze swung to her. His jaguar stared out of his eyes. She touched his face. “I’m okay.”
His head tilted and he rubbed his cheek over hers, catlike. The prickles of his night-beard were comforting—a welcome antidote to the smooth, cold tentacles.
“Come. Here.” Guttural tones that she had to strain to understand.
She lay next to him, careful not to jar his injuries. He slid an arm under her, and she nestled her head into his shoulder. Seeking safety, even though she knew it was just an illusion. Tyrus wasn’t going to let them go.
Gradually, she grew warmer and she realized how cold Tyrus had left her. Her shivers ceased, and she sensed Jace calming.
When he spoke again, his voice was that of a human. “Kyler?”
“Back at your den. I made Tyrus leave him behind.”
He exhaled. “Thank the gods.”
Saving Jace Page 25
