“One kiss,” he begged softly as he dipped his head.
One kiss would do me in, I knew it. I jerked away from him. “No.”
He laughed. “Ah, Lass, it does me body good to see you so affected. At least I know I’m not swinging for the fences for nothing.”
I twisted around and glared at him, then swept my hand toward his crotch and his obvious hard-on. “You aren’t exactly keeping things subtle either.”
He shrugged. “It’s been a long time since a woman has called to me like this. And never one who didn’t have Irish singing in her blood.”
I shook my head and went to the sink. I flicked on the cold water and splashed it on my face. “Where is the stash?” I had to get this back on the right path or we were going to end up fucking in the tub, in the shower, on the floor . . . I shook my head clear of those thoughts.
Later. We’d deal with this later.
“You weren’t far off when you said the stash was in the shitter.” Killian laughed as he walked to the toilet and lifted the lid on the back of the tank. I moved to see what he reached for. Inside the water tank was a handle that he gripped and twisted. A screeching groan rasped behind us and I spun around to see the tub slide to the side, revealing a set of stairs that disappeared into darkness.
“Fancy.”
“No one else here knows about it, at least, last I knew.” He put a hand to my back and gave me a push. “Hurry, it’s on a timer to close after us.”
“Abe.” I snapped my fingers at him and he heeled slowly to my side. It was only then that I realized he’d not been upset about the back-and-forth between Killian and me at all. Not a single peep out of him.
“You’re supposed to be protecting me, Abe,” I said as we hurried down the dimly lit stairs.
Behind us Killian laughed. “Maybe he’s not much into protecting your virtue.”
I snorted and shook my head. I had to agree, there were better things to protect than what was left of my virtue, if I’d ever even had it. More likely Abe was just exhausted. His panting breath echoed in the chambered space. ’Round and around we went, the air cooling as we dropped what had to be close to fifty feet.
When we stepped off the stairs, I couldn’t stop my eyes from widening at the sight in front of me. A stash was one thing, but this?
“What the hell? Are you Batman?”
3
Bear
My vision was foggy as I was carried from the airplane to the waiting vehicle. The hot, humid air of Nashville still clung to my skin even though that was hours ago, maybe even days. I felt like the leftover humidity should have warmed me, but it didn’t. I couldn’t stop the shivering, as my body shook beyond my control to the point of spasms. Rooster carried me easily, and he glanced down at me as we made our way across the tarmac and a hot wind blew over my face.
“Kid, you going to puke again?”
I closed my eyes but didn’t dare shake my head. “No.” I managed to whisper the word without biting my tongue. I wasn’t sick, though I wished I was. No, it was worse than that; I was poisoned.
And now I was dying. I could feel it happening as my body shut down around me.
Soon enough, I would be with my dad in Heaven. At least I wouldn’t be afraid anymore, or alone. Rooster grunted, then lowered me into whatever vehicle was next. I didn’t care. I couldn’t think about what might happen. I was too trapped inside my own head with what I’d seen and just lived through.
I could still see my mom fighting creatures that looked as if they’d been raised from the depths of my darkest nightmares. I could still see a man get eaten alive by wolf-hybrid dogs, could still see the Shadow as he grappled with my mother as she fought to get to me. I groaned and curled tighter around my middle as the horrors stuck themselves to my inner eyelids.
To save my mother from the monsters, I’d set off the sprinkler system. Which had been full of an antidote for the Ikimono drug, which had made the monsters in the first place. Some of the antidote had gotten into my body—how could it not with the water spraying everywhere?
Having the antidote without having been first injected with Ikimono was what was killing me, and every part of my body knew it. At least I’d saved my mom.
Rooster cleared his throat beside me. “Romano, the kid is getting worse.”
Luca Romano was my grandfather, and he’d not only stolen me from my parents, he’d tried to have them both killed. While my father was dead, my mother was not. She would come for me. I knew she would. She was the Phoenix, after all. Which meant I just had to hang on a little while longer. Maybe she would be able to fix what was wrong with me. My hopes were dashed only a moment later.
“There is nothing I can do about it. And I still have his mother coming, so I will use her to bargain with Shaitan. Pity, the boy had promise,” Luca said. I forced my eyes open, something ticking at my brain.
“Do you have any Ikimono?” I blinked at him, though it was an effort as were the words.
He frowned down at me. “Yes. I plan to get production going elsewhere. Why?”
“Give me the injection.” I whispered the words, not sure why I said them. It was like a part of me had taken over that I didn’t know.
His eyebrows shot up. “Actually, that’s quite brilliant.” He flipped open his suit coat and reached inside to pull out a vial of something. “Rooster, pass me the kit there.”
There was the shuffling of something and then a medical kit was handed to Luca. He opened it and pulled out a needle. “A survivor, I like that about you, Bear. A good trait to have in our world.”
My teeth chattered and my heart began to slow, the beat of it erratic, which made me gulp for air. “Hurry.”
He didn’t speed up at all, just kept up his monologue. “In our world, the strong are the survivors. The brutal are the kings, the powerful mold the world. I’d like to think I can show you how to be all three. Since you come with one of the traits I most desire, this should make the rest of your teaching easier.”
The vehicle hit a bump, and I rolled to my back, gasping for air, my heart slowing further, the blood in my veins sluggish. I closed my eyes and waited. There would be no hurrying Luca; he would either inject me in time or he wouldn’t.
Rooster’s big hand wrapped around my wrist. “Shit, give him the needle, boss. His heart is slowing.”
“You like him now?”
“He’s a damn tough kid. A sight tougher than I would have thought. But even he isn’t indestructible, no matter who his mother is.”
That was more words than I think he’d ever spoken in all the time I’d known him. Pain rocked through my middle, my muscles spasming, and my legs and arms flung out wide without any instruction from me. I tried to suck in a breath, to get air into my lungs, but there was nothing. My chest had contracted and there was no opening it.
This was it. I was going to die and my mom . . . tears leaked out the corners of my closed eyes. My mother would think I was dead again, only this time, it would be real. I was dying and the man who was my grandfather sat over me with something that could save me and he was doing nothing. Nothing at all.
A tiny spurt of anger flickered deep in my belly, a flame that curled and heated its way through my nerve endings. With my eyes closed and my heart stuttering to a stop, the flame grew larger, the heat waking me.