by K. N. Banet
I heard his breathing and could see his thermal readout under the door of the guest bedroom. Carefully, I reached up for the door handle and twisted around it until I heard the click of it opening. I had done this on numerous occasions, and it wasn’t too difficult. I was also certain it could give Raphael a fright, so as it swung open slowly, I fell to the ground to dodge any gunshots. I heard other doors opening; the fae and the witch must have followed us in. Sinclair was probably going to wait outside. That didn’t fit my plan, but I was certain once one of the assholes died, he would come running.
“Holy shit…Kaliya?” Raphael whispered, so quietly, I almost didn’t hear him. I bobbed my head and made my way to him, wrapping myself around his leg and moving upward. “What the fuck are you doing?” he asked, hissing it at me in a way that damn impressed me. I thought I was the only good hisser on this side of the Mississippi.
I continued up, ignoring the ache in my fangs as I flicked my tongue, picking up his scent. Still too human. He needed to get angry and fast if he wanted a chance to win. Carefully, I moved around his chest and perched my head on his shoulder. He was tall, very tall. I was guessing he had to be six foot six. He gave me a high vantage point.
Since I couldn’t speak, there was no way to tell him what I had planned.
Get moving, you damn whatever—you—are. We need to fight and get the hell out of here.
He didn’t move, looking at me with wide eyes as if he was still trying to comprehend it was me. I moved to duck my head into the back of his shirt, hoping in the darkness, I would be hidden for as long as I needed to be.
“There you are!” someone said. I heard the footsteps of someone approaching. “Come quietly. Kaliya can’t protect you, and she obviously isn’t going to try. She’s probably snaked off somewhere into a dark hole and won’t come out until we’re gone. She’s notoriously scared of witches.”
True and not true. This motherfucker knows way too much about me. Sinclair must have made sure they knew who they were dealing with because I’ve never seen them before.
“I’m not going anywhere. Mygi can’t have me back.”
“Mygi owns you,” the witch sneered.
Bad choice of words, stupid.
Beneath me, Raphael’s body heated up, and it felt comforting. I wanted to curl around him like a damn rock like Naksha did all the time.
“No one owns me,” he snarled.
Ah yeah, dumbass pissed him off. Good.
“You’re a piece of property with no more worth than any other human. They just made you a little special, but it doesn’t change what you are. They made you, they own you. Like any other animal in a lab.”
Raphael’s snarl made me shake. I felt him move, and there was a lot of banging. I moved around him as he connected with the witch. Gunshots caught my attention. They must have caught Raphael’s because he jumped back. Before he could get too far away from my target, I struck, coming out from his sleeve and nailing the witch on the arm.
“FUCK!” the man screamed, trying to bat me away as I pushed every bit of venom I had. Just enough to kill one man. It was all I needed.
He whacked me on the head, and I released, knowing my duty was done. Before the fae could retaliate, I shifted back into my human form and reached for his weapon. He and I glared at each other as he pulled the trigger, firing shots past my ribs. One grazed, and I hissed in pain and annoyance. Fighting dirty, I sent my right knee up and got him in the sweet spot. His grip loosened, but something knocked into me before I could pull the weapon away. Looking over my shoulder, I saw the witch stumbling around, his eyes wide as they started to bleed from their tear ducts.
“Yeah, it sucks, doesn’t it?” I hissed softly. I yanked the assault rifle hard from the fae, not caring to see what kind it was. It didn’t honestly matter. When I pulled the trigger, though, I cursed as I realized it was empty.
The fae recovered and jumped into action, tackling me to the ground. Something began to glow, and I felt what should have been a rope grab one of my ankles and yank it to the ground.
Shit, light binding. Of course. I don’t have any fucking iron on me.
“Sinclair! She got Jeremy!”
“Damn it!”
Sinclair sounded much closer than I expected.
“Raphael! The plan!” I roared, trying to hold off the fae from hitting me in the face. He got a binding on one of my wrists, and it was pulled away, but my free hand managed to work at keeping his blows from hitting me.
I didn’t know where the idiot had gone.
“Don’t worry about Raphael,” Sinclair said. I paused for just a moment too long, and the fae was able to land a solid hit to the left side of my jaw. He pulled back, wrapped a hand around my neck, and twisted my face to see something. Bindings grabbed my other wrist and ankle, yanking all my limbs down to the floor. Sinclair held a gun to the back of Raphael’s head. “While you were having fun, I just followed him. It wasn’t hard. Seriously, Kaliya. You know I like to take the most direct route to what I want.”
I did. The broken fucking window that Raphael had used would have been easy for Sinclair to get in. Why hadn’t I thought of it?
Raphael’s eyes were blood red, and the black on his face was spreading, growing past what I had seen before, but he didn’t move. I was tentatively certain he knew he couldn’t move before Sinclair fired one into the back of his skull. Whether that would be fatal, I didn’t know.
“Ok. You’ve got him,” I said, trying to sound defeated. “You can go now.”
“No, Kaliya, I think this is the last time I’m going to deal with you. I’m quite tired of this.” He nodded at his fae, who pulled a handgun from a holster at his waist. As he pulled it up, I took a deep breath.
Right as he pulled the trigger, aimed at my forehead, I shifted out of the bindings and moved to dry bite him. I had nothing to inject, but going into a strike was the easiest way for me to get those lightning fast reflexes.
I shifted back into my human form and kicked the fae away from me. It felt like everyone else was going in slow motion as I darted into the room. Sinclair moved back from Raphael, looking down at me. I tackled the vampire, and we rolled painfully across the wood floor.
“GO!” I screamed.
The sound of crunching glass as I struggled with Sinclair was all I heard as he tried to get his hands around my neck.
“GO GET HIM!” Sinclair roared at his fae before looking back down at me. “I can sell your body for a pretty fucking price, nagini,” he growled. “That can make up for the shit you’ve caused me this time.”
I hissed, my fangs down. I reached up and ran my nails across his face, making him scream. Outside, there was gunfire and creaking metal. I was certain Raphael was lifting something.
Sinclair didn’t let go, and I was beginning to have a hard time breathing. I didn’t shift because I would be vulnerable. Sinclair knew that trick and would have an answer for it. Probably keep his hands around me and beat me against a wall. The fae would have realized the bite was dry by now because he wasn’t dying. Sinclair would probably know it too.
I reached up to claw at Sinclair’s face again and realized I had learned this nice piece of self-defense when I was eight. With both hands, I slammed Sinclair on both sides of his head, right over his ears. He screamed and pulled away now, trying to cover his head. Something crashed outside. I didn’t bother trying to kill Sinclair—we couldn’t win this fight.As more guns went off, the thought resounded that I needed to find Raphael. One hit me in the shoulder, making me stagger. Looking over my shoulder as I ran down my hall, I saw Sinclair there, holding up the fae’s handgun.
I shifted this time, knowing my snake form was harder to hit, and made it to the garage before he could catch up. Shifting back, I grabbed the Aston Martin’s keys from their hook and jumped in, trying to ignore the damage. The key was still able to turn it on, even though the sound was garbled from the speakers, and none of the electronics on the dash worked.
I
went into reverse and pulled out as Sinclair staggered into the garage, the gun up. I ducked below the dash with my foot on the gas as he fired.
“RAPHAEL!” I screamed, twisting the wheel as I forced the car into drive. My BMW, I noticed, was not where I had left it, now twenty feet away, crushing the fae’s leg.
Raphael was near the SUV, the black veins going down his neck for the first time since I met him. With ease, I watched him shove the SUV off the road. Sinclair wasn’t firing anymore, but I wasn’t sure if it was because he was shocked or had run out of bullets.
I didn’t come to a complete stop, forcing Raphael to practically jump into the car. The moment he was seated, I slammed on the gas, the momentum slamming the door shut.
“Hold on,” I ordered, not bothering with headlights. I knew my road well enough, and adrenaline pumped through my veins. Unlike some people, I was so used to the feeling that it didn’t make me shaky. It gave me clarity, a sharpness that many couldn’t achieve. I was probably able to drive this road blindfolded. There was a time when I used to do timed runs of it, making sure I knew it in case I needed to make an escape.
Of course, if I needed to make an escape, and I didn’t have Raphael, it wouldn’t have been the madhouse it was. I would have gone into my snake form and let them search for me until I could sneak into my car and drive off.
Headlights blinded me near the end. I squinted and hit the gas harder.
“I knew I should have flipped it,” Raphael snarled. “Of course, it could handle the terrain.”
“Too late to worry about it now,” I hissed, turning hard onto the main road. “We can lose them.”
“Where are we going?” he asked as our speed climbed, and the headlights became more distant.
“I have an idea,” I answered. “Did you grab any of our things?” I asked.
“No, it all got left,” he answered. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine. If they’re following and trying to find us, they might not go back to steal everything I own.” I sighed. “It’s going to be a pain in the ass getting a new phone set up.”
“That’s what you’re fucking worried about? A new goddamn phone?”
I gave him a level look.
“Yes.” I thought about it for a second. “And Naksha. She doesn’t deserve to get hurt, but she’s safer where she is than getting dragged around by us.”
“A phone and a snake,” he muttered. “Your priorities…”
“Are just fine, fuck you very much,” I retorted, turning off my street and hitting a main road. We had left the SUV lights behind, but I kept up the speed. I knew where to go, even though I was pretty sure the owner of the place was going to hate me for it.
Cassius will understand. He has to.
16
Chapter Sixteen
I pulled into one of the nicest neighborhoods in Phoenix, La Place Du Sommet.
“Where the hell…” Raphael’s voice was an exact match for mine the first time I had driven through.
“Yeah, I have a friend who lives here. His house is as secure as mine, if not more, because he has a bit of magic on his side. We should be safe here.”
“How…”
“We live a long time and amass a lot of wealth,” I said softly, looking out my window to see the insane, mountain vista homes worth millions, built directly into the cliffs. I turned back to him, trying to keep things casual. “I love living out of the city, but I could afford a house here.”
His head whipped around to me so fast, I was certain my neck would have broken if I had done it.
“You have this kind of money?”
“Yeah. A lot of it’s inherited, but a solid portion is from my own work. I don’t need a house like these, though. Not worth it, too much to clean. My friend has a three-person staff. They’ll be able to get ahold of him when we show up.”
“Will they let us in?” He looked me over, then himself. When I narrowed my eyes on him, he gestured to the destroyed car we were in.
“Good point,” I conceded with a sigh. “Yeah, they’ll let us in and be nice about it. You’ll confuse the fuck out of them, but they know me really well.”
“That’s good,” he said softly. “You have a lot of friends?”
“Very few,” I answered. “Three off the top of my head, and one of them is more complicated than a friendship really has the right to be.”
My fault for fucking him, but Cassius is gorgeous. He doesn’t have Raphael’s realness, though. Or the big, killer body.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
I wanted to hit my head on a wall to knock the thoughts out. Now wasn’t the time or place to be comparing an ex-lover with…Raphael, who wasn’t a lover at all, and if I had my way, never would be.
I barely fucking know the man. Gods, if Adhar knew I was even remotely attracted to him, I would never hear the end of it.
I pulled into Cassius’ driveway and sighed as I waited for a gate halfway up to open.
“I hate this,” I mumbled as it opened. “Hate being here. Hate this fucking mess. Hate Sinclair. Hate being the last nagini.”
I wasn’t paying attention, just talking to myself, so when Raphael coughed in surprise, I wanted to curse.
“The last?” he asked.
“Yeah. Story for another time,” I said softly. “Sorry. I’m not used to people being in the car with me and I talk to myself sometimes.”
“Okay.” He dropped it quickly and looked away from me.
I eased through the gate when it was open enough. The magic of the gate had to recognize me, which always took a moment for anyone except Cassius. If he was in the car, it started to open before he was even close to it. He was the one who had made the fae spell, though.
I didn’t pull into his garage, parking my car in the drive at the front door. His Phoenix area butler, Leith, was already there, looking at my car in barely disguised shock.
“Madam Sahni,” he said, not quite covering up the shock in his voice as I got out of the car and waved at him. I was pretty certain there was glass and shit in my hair, but I hadn’t had time to worry about that an hour and a half ago when I raced away from my own house. “We weren’t expecting you.”
“Are you expecting anyone?” I asked, genuinely curious to see if Cassius was about to arrive, or if it was just me they were shocked by.
“No, madam. Lord Cassius hasn’t contacted us—”
“Lord?” Raphael sputtered as he got out of the car as well. “You don’t have many friends, but one of them is a Lord?” He was looking at me, not the butler, thank the gods. His eyes were still red, which would scare the poor man at the top of the stairs, waiting at the door.
“His parents were a lot more important than him, and his uncle is very important. He’s a Tribunal Investigator with a little more money than the rest of us. Calm down. You’re showing.” I motioned to my own eyes, hoping he understood. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes. It was like he was trying to meditate. When his eyes opened again, they were warm brown again. Looking above him at the butler, I gestured at my car. “As you can see, Leith, there’s been a bit of trouble.”
“Why don’t both of you come inside?” Leith’s face twitched a little, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of the state of us or my using his name. He preferred just being called Butler, but I was never going to do that. It felt strangely degrading and impersonal. Leith made him a living thing, a normal thing, a guy who just worked in the household—him and one maid, little miss Annie-Lyn. The cook, a cranky werewolf named Terry, only came in when Cassius was in residence.
I nodded, jumping up the steps in silence, letting Raphael decide whether he wanted to come in or not. The smart man decided he would and followed once I was at the top of the stairs. Leith held the door until we were both in, and I didn’t miss that he locked it the moment Raphael passed the threshold.
“You didn’t call ahead,” he said immediately. “Madam Sahni—”
“Sinclair and a couple of his friends
attacked my house looking for this one,” I explained, gesturing to Raphael. “Wasn’t able to grab any of my shit before leaving. We weren’t in the best position and had to get out.”
Something flashed in Leith’s eyes.
“The vampire, Sinclair, is in Arizona?” he asked softly. “Does Lord Cassius know?”
“I called him…yesterday morning before daybreak and explained everything to him. I think. The timeline is a little fuzzy right now, but he definitely knows. Hasn’t been twenty-four hours since I told him.”
“Good. I take it by not having your ‘shit,’ you don’t have a cellphone on you. No worry, I can have a line set up, and you can call Lord Cassius from the kitchen while I make you something. Tea…yes, tea is good.”
There was a reason I called Leith by his name. He had his own history with Sinclair. He, Annie-Lyn, and Terry were all once Las Vegas residents. Thirty years ago, Cassius and I had tangled with Sinclair, and Cassius had ended up taking both fae and the werewolf with him and brought them here. They were still in an environment they liked, the desert, but they were far away from Sinclair—until now.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, reaching for Leith. “I’m positive he won’t come here—”
“Vampires aren’t allowed on the premises,” Leith said, anger in his voice. “If he’s foolish enough to try to attack here, he will burn the moment he tries to cross the property line.”
“Good,” I said, patting the butler’s shoulder.
“Tea,” he snapped, then marched away. I grabbed Raphael’s shirt and shuffled after the man, knowing if I told him no thanks, Leith would just try to pour it down my throat.
“Are you okay with me leaving my car out there?” I asked.
“Yes. Lord Cassius will want to see it, and there’s no space in the garage currently. His…new fiancée likes nice things, especially cars, and we’re running out of space between his properties to put them all.” Leith sighed. “I always hated you and him, but she’s a spoiled fae Lady. I don’t know what he sees in her.”
