“Considering I was basically put on death row for no reason? Peachy,” I mumbled against his chest, clinging to him. I’d known Corb longer than anyone else in my new life, and the familiarity of his arms was comforting.
The other figure cleared his throat.
I turned, still in a half hug with Corb, to see Roderick throw his hood back. “The council does not know I’m helping you. And it has to remain that way. Understood?”
“So why are you here?” The question popped out before I could catch it. Roderick was a bit of a mystery, and I still wasn’t sure about his loyalties. He seemed intrigued by me—not in a romantic sense, more like a scientist trying to identify a new bug and wondering just what it was capable of.
And if he could make use of it.
“Because I do believe that Celia—your gran, that is—was on to something. She was killed for what she knew, and that means it was important. You are our best shot of finding out what that was, despite what the remainder of the council believes. You have ties to your gran that only come with blood.” He frowned and smoothed out his cravat. “A shift is happening in the shadow world. Change does not come easily for those of us who have lived a long time. We must be ready to deal with it.”
I stared at him. “How many are on my side in the council?”
“One short of the number you need to make this all go away,” Roderick said.
Well, hell. That was . . . good and bad. “Any chance I could convince them to come around?”
He shook his head. “There are political undercurrents in the council. People vying for more power. It’s a bad time to be on their radar.”
Awesome, just my luck.
The van careened around a few corners and then slid to a screeching stop. The door was yanked open, and the person who stood waiting beyond it was completely unexpected. I stared up into his gold-flecked blue eyes, one arm still around Corb’s waist. “Crash? I thought you were going to go all lawful to get me out of there. You know, play the lawyer card and find me a loophole.”
He stood there with my hip bag in hand, still dressed in his suit from earlier. “You need to get out of town for a while. Go with Corb and get somewhere you can hide out until Roderick and I figure out how deep this goes.” He took my hand and smoothed his fingers over the handcuffs, the metal dripping off my skin as if it were hot, but there was no pain. The cuffs were just gone.
Blacksmith indeed. Fae he might have been, but he had a knack for manipulating iron. I’d just had no idea it included melting it with his bare hands.
He slid the strap over my shoulder and pulled me in for a hug, which coincidently pulled me out of Corb’s arms. “Robert is in there, I made sure,” he said. “Keep him close.”
I hugged him back. “Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet. Nothing is as it seems, and even the fae are in on it, keeping me busy,” he mumbled into my hair. Then he tipped my face up and kissed me in front of everyone. I probably should have felt some embarrassment over the PDA (public display of affection, for those of you who aren’t up on the current lingo), but all I could feel was his touch.
The kiss wasn’t over the top, but I could feel the passion behind it—the promise that there would be another time, another kiss, that was less restrained. He pulled back just a little. “I’m sorry for earlier. We’ll talk when this is done. When you’re safe and we have a moment to breathe.”
I gave him what I thought was a wry twist of my lips and eyebrows but by the twinkle in his eyes I wasn’t doing a good job of it. Probably just looked like I was trying not to fart.
Again.
And that thought led me back to the memories of our shower together. The way his hands had glided over my soaped-up skin, the tremble that had started low in my belly and . . .
“We have to go.” Corb took my hand, snapping me out of the haze that Crash had put me into. Not that I’d gone there unwillingly—I’d gladly take a Crash-induced haze any day.
“Time is not on our side,” Corb pressed. His fingers tightened, pulling me away from Crash.
I let him drag me for a moment and then got my legs moving toward his Mustang. “Very inconspicuous if you ask me, not possessive at all.” I lifted both brows at him.
Kinkly burst out of the car’s open window and grinned. “Come on, the air conditioning is heaven! I love it!”
“Not with the window down!” Corb barked. “Fairies, they just don’t get the real world.”
Wow, that hadn’t been a shot at Crash, at all.
I let it slide for now. I could use some air conditioning after being stuck in that stifling hot jail cell. Oh, and surviving an explosion, kissing Crash, dealing with the reality that we were about to go on the run from the very human police who wanted my head on a pike, and the adrenaline load from all of the above. Sweat rolled down the sides of my face, between my boobs and, lucky me, into my ass crack.
I sighed and slid into the front passenger seat and shut the door, looking out the window. Roderick and Crash stood talking, Roderick shaking his head and Crash looking exasperated.
One word drifted to me, and I instantly wished it hadn’t. Roderick had said “undead.” I’d hoped the whole let’s-make-vampires plan had died with Davin, but I supposed I couldn’t be so lucky.
Kinkly flew down to sit on my knee, taking my attention from the two men. “How was it in the slammer? Did you get to be somebody’s bitch? I bet they loved those leathers!” She patted my knee for good measure, slapping it enough to make a good noise.
Turning my head back to watch Roderick and Crash, I caught them shaking hands and parting ways. I just smiled and shook my head. “Kinkly, I think you’ve been watching too much TV.”
The other door of the Mustang opened, letting in a wash of warm, muggy, Savannah air. Sarge hopped into the back seat, still in his wolf form, and lay down with a heavy sigh. Corb slid behind the wheel, and a woman who bore a resemblance to a fish got in directly behind him.
Feish smiled at me and I grinned back.
“Boss says I should come with you for now. Keep you safe.”
I leaned over the seat and hugged her, pulling her tightly to me. The lump in my chest and throat came as a surprise. When had this river nymph become a friend that could bring me to tears just by being here?
At first, she didn’t react, but then she hugged me back. “You missed me.”
“I think I was afraid I would never see any of you again.” I whispered the fear. “That I was going to die alone.”
She patted my back and gave a burble from her gills. “Bah, that’s ridiculous. Too many people like you now. You’ll die with a bunch of us.”
I laughed and let her go, but I found myself hanging on to her webbed hand. She might be one of the most unusual friends I had, but in my heart, I knew she was the truest next to Robert.
Corb started the engine. “There is a cabin about four hours from here, not tied to any of us. Roderick gave me a key and said we could go there. It’s hidden from human eyes with several layers of spells cast on it.”
Making myself let go of Feish, I put my seat belt on as I studied him. “Seriously, you’d trust him?” I’d seen Crash shake hands with the council member, but even so. Shaking hands with the guy was one thing, and putting our lives in his hand was another.