Bethan jogged to keep pace and maintained a careful silence. We turned into my street and I slammed into my apartment. I threw my keys at the kitchen counter, my coat at the sofa and glared.
“Feel better?” Bethan asked.
“No,” I snapped. I pulled my jumper off, then came the shirt. I headed for the punch bag in the corner and began pounding the crap out of it. I heard Bethan moving around my home and wondered how the hell I’d keep her safe. Perhaps the monster would go after someone else but the Dvergar knew where I was, Marcus had led them to me and I knew they’d lead the monster here. We should leave. We should run. I’d tell Bethan everything and force her to save herself. I couldn’t fight this thing alone. We’d go to Scotland. Innocents would die but mortals were forever dying because of our interference and manipulations.
“Not that I don’t appreciate the view but what’s the problem?” Bethan asked. She leaned against the multi-gym with a cup of tea in her hands.
“I can’t stop them.” I continued to pound on the bag, the dent in the centre becoming deeper, the pain in my hands growing worse and the sweat making trails down my back. I switched to elbow and knee strikes, then bounced back for kicks.
“This isn’t your fault, Falcon. None of us can stop him,” Bethan said.
“You don’t understand, this is my fault. If I hadn’t come here, none of this would have happened,” I said, panting at last. I pushed it up a gear, switching between strikes and distances, fast and light.
Bethan studied me. I felt her eyes and suddenly I decided I needed to fuck more than fight. I stopped, my chest heaving, and looked at her.
Her expression changed from one of worry for me to one of wariness because of me. “Oh, no, big boy. I’m not here for that, remember the boyfriend?”
“Marcus isn’t here,” I said. I stepped toward her and she backed off.
“Don’t come the big predatory male with me, DI Grey,” she said, holding her tea out like a talisman.
“I can smell your desire,” I said, forgetting myself for a moment.
“Don’t be disgusting,” she snapped. “And if you don’t stop this I’ll give you something to fight rather than that innocent bag.” She sounded so like a nineteenth century nun I actually stopped.
“Sorry,” I said.
We stood looking at each other long enough for my breathing and pulse to return to normal. She smiled at me. “You stupid sod,” she said.
I grinned sheepishly. “Thanks for saying no.”
She threw a tea towel at me. “We need to think about dinner.”
“We need to leave the apartment,” I said.
She frowned. I gasped with the heat which burned through me and I watched her mouth move but the sound of her words couldn’t fight past the roaring of my own blood. I collapsed to my knees and puked. A sharp crash and scream replaced the surge of sound.
“Falcon!” Marcus’ voice hit me along with another wave of agony.
“Who the fuck are you?” DC Dar yelled and I saw her reach for her rucksack. A lethal black handgun slid out in moments. Her eyes were wide with fear but the gun was steady and it pointed at Marcus.
“No,” I croaked.
A crash came from behind Bethan and she turned, swinging the gun toward a new threat. Where the hell did she get a gun?
“Falcon, it’s here, we have to move.” Marcus’ strong arms were under mine and lifting. My limbs were like jelly. I swayed and another wave of pain made me cry out, tearing the sound from deep within my soul.
“What’s wrong with him?” Bethan cried out. “Who are you and what the fuck is that?”
“He’s reacting to the monster out there. It’s dark power fighting his own light. He’s a prince, a true prince and can’t be near the Underlings without the proper protections,” Marcus snapped, as if everyone should know the obvious.
I watched utter confusion cover the fear of moments before. Marcus began hauling me back the way he’d come, through one of the high windows. He always did know how to make an entrance.
“Can’t leave her,” I managed.
“Fal, don’t be mad. If we leave her the monster will feed before coming for us. We’ll have a chance to run,” Marcus said, still pulling. I pulled back, somewhat ineffectively but I made him stop.
“We take her with us,” I said slowly and clearly.
“Is it an order?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. His face closed down.
“As you wish, Highness,” he said and bowed slightly. He passed my shoulder and said, “We’re leaving, stop waving that thing about and follow me. If you don’t I’ll knock you out, tie you up and carry you out.”
“You’ll do no such bloody thing,” Bethan snapped.
Marcus let me go and I managed not to collapse. “My Prince gave me an order, you are coming,” he rumbled.
“Bethan, please, it’s Marcus. Help him,” I said before I groaned again. My nerves were on fire and my blood boiled. “Help me,” I said before darkness swept over my mind and I lost control.
CHAPTER SIX
The world rumbled and swayed. I groaned weakly. Sound brought voices. One male and one female, and they were in bitter disagreement.
“If you return to his police station you will kill us all,” Marcus shouted.
“I don’t care how long you fucked lover boy here, I have a duty to him and my colleagues, we are going to the station,” Bethan yelled back.
I opened my eyes and discovered my eyeballs hadn’t melted. Bethan was driving. We were in her Jeep, stupid car in the city considering how much she hated the countryside but I thanked her for it now, the size and weight would give us some protection. Marcus held my head in his lap. I liked that at least.
“No,” I said and tried again when they continued shouting. “No! No office. We run. North. Go north.”
The truck shuddered to a halt and horns blared. “You’re awake?” Bethan asked, twisting in her seat. It engulfed her completely, she was so small and vulnerable.
I tried to smile but couldn’t sit up yet. “No office. We need to draw it north. Make it follow us until dawn. When it fails we have a chance. We have to go to Scotland,” I said, with Marcus helping me upright. He silently handed me a bottle of water. I drank gratefully.
“Scotland?” she asked. “What the fuck are you talking about and how the hell did he smash through your windows and simply roll out of the fall as if he were a gymnast?”
I glanced at Marcus. Small cuts marked his face and neck. He shrugged. “The front door was unavailable,” he said.
I chuckled. “Marcus, meet DC Bethan Dar. Bethan, meet Marcus, the love of my life,” I said and felt my fingers lace between Marcus’.
“Great,” she snapped. “I’m so pleased for you both, but do you mind telling me what the hell is going on?”
“Only if you keep driving,” I said, placing my head back and closing my eyes.
I sensed her desire to rebel but I also knew she trusted me, poor girl, so she pulled out into the stream of cars and began weaving through London’s night traffic to head north.
Rush hour moved at its usual pace but my swirling thoughts begged for quiet and stillness. Not much chance of that happening.
“You alright?” Marcus asked, his voice a rumble through me.
“I had no idea it would make me feel like that,” I said, rubbing my eyes. “Just as well you turned up. I thought I’d be able to at least give Bethan time to run.”
Marcus didn’t say anything and I rolled my head to the side to look at him. He stared at the road. A hollowing feeling opened in my guts. “You were sent to meet the creature and come for me, weren’t you?” I asked.
“She enjoys setting me against you. She thinks she has enough leverage over me to keep me loyal to her,” he said, pulling his hand from mine.
I stared at him. He was weak, he’d not fed on anyone since he’d last seen me and it cost him dearly. “Does she?” I whispered.
He looked at me and ra
ised a small smile. “She doesn’t understand love, she never has and never will.”
My chest heaved and my eyes blurred. “Oh, Marcus...”
He moved and I watched him close the distance between us. I closed my eyes and for a brief moment his lips touched mine in a kiss.
Bethan’s voice cut through the tenderness. “There’s a pack of dirt bikes coming up on our tail and they don’t look friendly.” She spoke with a touch of hysteria. Marcus withdrew and I tried to remember how to think. I twisted in the back seat and peered through the rear window.
“Dvergar,” I said.
Marcus cursed. “If we don’t escape them, that thing is going to catch up with us.”
“What thing? What’s happening?” Bethan said.
“Can we go any faster?” I asked.
“Falcon, I need to know what’s going on,” she cried out. Her hands were white on the wheel.
“Stop the car,” I said. “I’ll drive.”
“Falcon –”
“Now, Bethan,” I shouted. The lights in front of us turned red. The truck stopped and I almost lifted her out of the driving seat. I struggled to move through the seats, my long limbs tangling with everything.
“Fal, they are coming for us,” Marcus said, the warning note clear in his voice.
I growled, knocked the truck into gear and drove away from traffic, swinging the steering wheel into full lock. We bounced onto the pavement among blaring horns. I heard the sound of bike engines revving behind us.
“Sir, I don’t think –” Bethan began, hanging onto her seatbelt as if it would help our odds of surviving my driving.
“Just hang on, both of you,” I snapped. I gunned the engine and scattered pedestrians. We bounced over the kerbs on the junction and I found a clear piece of road heading east. I accelerated quickly.
“They’re coming,” Marcus informed me. No sound of panic, just a warning.
I glanced in the mirror. Twelve, no fifteen bikes followed us, often more than one on the bike. “Fuck it,” I said. A wall of traffic faced us.
“We can’t outrun them in this,” Marcus said. “We need to be mobile.”
I made a decision and yanked up the handbrake, Bethan squeaking in surprise. I aimed the truck back in the opposite direction and almost immediately turned right into a high-rise car park. The barrier was down. I sped up and hit it, the truck shuddered, Bethan yelled in sympathy and the barrier bent allowing us entry. I drove into the first level of the car park and began to look for the ramp to the second level. I felt Marcus sitting close to my left shoulder.
“There,” he said, pointing. I didn’t need to tell him what I wanted. I followed his pointing finger and the tyres squealed as I made it up the next ramp. The hollow sound of revving engines echoed around the car park. I swung the truck around the next corner and the backend skidded out on the shiny surface, bouncing into a mini. The front of the mini crumbled.
“Oops,” I said.
“Fucking hell, Falcon, this is my car,” Dar said.
“Sorry,” I managed, concentrating on the next turn. “How close?” I asked. The mirrors were flashing the lights into my eyes, I couldn’t see the bikes clearly without taking my eyes off the prize.
“They aren’t pushing, more like herding,” Marcus said. “I think they know your plan and assume they can take us.”
“They might be right. You’re weak and I’m out of practice,” I said.
“You’ll never be that out of practice, Fal.” Marcus reassured me with his contempt for the Dvergar.
We tackled another three levels and hit the top layer of the car park, the sky our only barrier. I yanked the handbrake up once more and turned the wheel; the truck now faced the other direction. The bikes spewed out of the car park. I drove straight at them.
“What the hell are you doing?” Bethan screamed.
I didn’t speak, just tightened my grip on the wheel. I felt Marcus move back and heard him click the seatbelt into place. Three meters between me and the lead bike. I pulled the handbrake up once more, turned the wheel to force us ninety degrees from our current trajectory and slid into five of the bikes. Bodies and motorcycles made a cacophony of noise around us. The truck shuddered and metal screamed. My window smashed and I flinched as glass covered my face, chest and arms. For the first time I realised I didn’t wear my own clothes. Marcus must have wrapped me in his jacket when he dragged me from the apartment.
“Ready?” I asked, already popping my belt and opening the door.
“Always,” Marcus rumbled.
“They have guns, Bethan. Cover us,” I said calmly. I didn’t bother glancing in her direction. She thought she had problems now, wait until I tried to explain the truth.
I grabbed the nearest Dvergar and shoved his head into the truck’s door, it bent and so did the Dvergar’s skull. Next came what might have been a woman if she hadn’t been so bug ugly. Scarred skin, thick and mottled, almost snake-like and the eyes of the damned, yellow and hard. My elbow impacted with her face, I whipped my hips back and my forearm down, her head colliding with my knee a heartbeat before she hit the ground. The slaughter continued. Marcus and I remained in mortal form. He couldn’t change, the glamour he used to preserve himself after the skinning taking all other forms from him at the moment, and I just wanted to save Bethan any more nightmares.
Shots rang out and Bethan challenged the shooter, according to protocol.
I turned toward her. “Just fucking shoot,” I snapped.
She followed orders, so far out of her depth it was all she had left. I heard sirens and knew they were heading toward us. We had to leave and fast; the police wouldn’t be the only thing hunting us tonight.
“Falcon,” Marcus yelled and pointed.
I followed his indication. Two Dvergar were racing away and they’d manage it if I didn’t step this up a gear. I couldn’t ask Marcus to go after them. I cursed and blended effortless from one form to another, the power rocketing through me once I unleashed my Seelie body. The world became a blur and the Dvergar both died with my talons ripping their guts out and spreading them over the tarmac.
Once done I raised my head and screamed to the night sky, the cry a predator’s warning.
“Now you’ve stopped showing off, maybe you can help me with your woman,” Marcus called.
I shivered, as if cold water were being poured over me and jogged back to the truck. Marcus held Bethan from behind, lifting her struggling body clean off the ground.
She babbled incoherently. I reached for her but it just made it worse. I glanced at Marcus. “Sleep,” he said.
I nodded. I placed a hand on her head and pushed the concept into her – I think I pushed too hard because she went limp instantly.
“Thank you, she’s small but strong,” Marcus said.
“Get in the back, we need to leave the area before the police turn up,” I said.
He nodded and placed her gently on the back seat. I swept glass off the driver’s seat and climbed in, then wriggled the truck around until I freed the wheels from the bikes. The bodies of the Dvergar were already vanishing. It would be a confusing crime scene.
We drove calmly out of the car park and back into the traffic. I began to tremble slightly, the shock of events making my body betray me.
“You alright?” Marcus asked.
I glanced at him. The light from the shop windows and street lamps shone on his black skin. The high cheekbones and almond shaped green eyes were traced by licking fingers of colour from Christmas displays.
“Always,” I said smiling at him.
Marcus shook his head. “Falcon, you’re insane if you think this is alright.”
“Insanity runs in the family,” I said. “It’s almost guaranteed at some point.”
Marcus chuckled. “It was a good fight.”
“Always is when we’re on form.” I drove with one hand controlling the vehicle, the picture of casual efficiency. I wanted to touch him but knew I needed to wait until
invited. Unless there were life threatening circumstances I was not to touch him, it was one of our rules – a way he could control me without words. It brought him comfort.
Marcus glanced on the back seat. “She’s going to be a liability. You should hand her over to the creature.”
I looked at him. “Yeah, that’s a plan I’m likely to resort to.”
“Fal, things are changing so fast, your father is sick, really sick and I don’t just mean his madness. He’s dying and we only have your sister to give the orders. We need you to take the reins.”
“It’s not my job,” I said, tension already locking muscles in my back and arms.
Marcus sighed and shook his head. “Pull over, I have to go. I’m supposed to be following the monster and using it to find you, rather than the other way around.”
I glanced at him, shocked. “What? You’re going back?”
“I have no choice.”
“I told you I would find a way of retrieving your pelt,” I said.
“And what do I do in the meantime? Have you any idea of the power she has over me because of it?” Marcus snapped. “I’m a fucking liability to you. She can find you, she can make me hurt you if she knows I’m here. I can’t do this, Falcon. I cannot endanger you. I have to return.”
“She’ll hurt you,” I said, breathless with the thought.
“No more than she has already,” Marcus said darkly. “Just pull over and let me out. You need to keep driving if you are going to stay safe. I’ll do what I can to find you and let you know what’s happening our end. With luck the creature won’t kill again tonight because it has the true scent at last.”
“Marcus, no, you have to come with me.”
“Little Bird, pull over and let me out,” he said quietly.
I closed my eyes for a moment. He’d used the trigger. I had to pull over and let him leave me. I had my orders. “Fucking hell, Marcus, this isn’t fair.”
“When is the life of a slave ever fair?” he asked quietly. “You left me. I had no choice but be her creature.”
Seelie (The Falcon Grey Files Book 1) Page 5
