For the Power (For the Blood Book 2) Page 8

  The next Rising meeting wasn’t for another two weeks, but I’d need to get a message to my second before I left to find the key. Deana was working on something for Malcolm. A weapon. Something big. She’d never been good at hiding her smug pride, and her body language had screamed jackpot. I was in a race against time and failure was not an option because too many lives depended on me.

  Chapter Eleven

  The little boy, Benji, dozed on the floor, head pillowed on Logan’s backpack. The Fang had been surprisingly gentle with the boy, coaxing him to lie down and smoothing the hair off his brow until his eyelids had fluttered closed. His harsh features softened every time he looked at the child. This was not the Fang I’d come to know and despise. It was disconcerting.

  He looked up and caught me staring. “You were too harsh on the boy, you know that, right?”

  His words were bites. “I saved his life. You want to wrap him up in cotton wool then you might as well put a bullet between his eyes. If he wants to survive, he needs to learn how.”

  “She’s right.” Sage didn’t look up from his card game with Jace. Their hands were blurs as they laid cards faster than my eyes could track.

  “Yeah, you would say that,” Logan said in response to Sage, his attention still on me. “You do realize he wants to fuck you, right?”

  “Shut up, Logan,” Jace said. “Enough.”

  My neck heated but my face remained impassive. “And I’d love a cup of coffee. What has that got to do with anything?”

  Sage snorted. “She knows. I laid those cards right on the table straight off. I’m not the type to wrap my feelings in angst.”

  What did he mean by that?

  Silence descended on the group, and Logan stared daggers at Sage. The Fang’s pantherine body was wound tight, ready to lash out at the slightest provocation, but the djinn remained focused on his game, not giving Logan the prod he needed. There was something I was missing here, an undertone that didn’t quite make sense.

  I looked to Ash, propped against the wall opposite me. His eyes were closed, but there was an awareness about him that told me he was far from asleep. He was listening to it all, and he’d act if need be. The fact that he was still and silent was my cue to chill, that and the fact that Jace hadn’t even looked at his brother.

  Logan’s shoulders relaxed, and he dismissed the djinn in favor of the cracked plaster ceiling.

  We were all wound tight, that was all.

  The sun was making its way across the sky, eating away the hours, hours we could have been using to get to The Shack. This situation was less than ideal, but a journey without setbacks would have put me on edge and left me waiting for the other shoe to drop. At least this way the shit had hit the fan, and we could hopefully come out the other end unscathed. We’d been prepared for the possibility of a night run. Our packs held flashlights and we had our weapons. Hell, the Fangs were weapons, able to shift to Claw if needed. We’d be fine, but sitting here and doing nothing was going to drive me crazy. Best to kill time by scoping out the place. See if there was anything we could use outside of here.

  I pulled myself up and headed for the stairs behind the reception desk.

  “Where are you going?” Logan asked.

  “Scout the place out. See if there’s anything useful we can grab.”

  “Forever the scavenger, eh?”

  The words were insulting but his tone wasn’t, so I let it slide.

  I shrugged. “Missed opportunities aren’t something I like to cultivate.”

  He stood. “I’ll come with you.”

  My gaze went to Ash, but he remained unmoved, eyes still closed. Honestly, being alone with Logan was not on my to-do list, but telling him not to accompany me would be admitting that he fazed me, that there was a part of me that was terrified of the menace that he’d shown toward me. Fuck it, if he got grabby, he’d get a fist to the jaw. I was done with his negativity and judgment. I made to turn away, and the air shifted behind me.

  I glanced back to find Jace between Logan and me. It looked like Ash might not have any objections, but Logan’s brother did.

  “Get out of the way, Jace,” Logan said with a roll of his eyes.

  “No,” Jace said. “You can stay here. I’ll go with her.”

  Logan’s smile was part sneer. “What’s the matter, brother, don’t you trust me? Think I’m going to grab a quick snack?”

  “Nail on head,” Jace said.

  Logan’s expression smoothed out to iceberg-cold. “I wasn’t myself when I almost drained her, what’s your excuse? Liked the show, did you?” He leaned in. “You act all righteous and controlled when in reality you’re just as bad as me, except you get your kicks out of replaying the shit I do in your fucked-up head.”

  Jace made a grab for Logan’s shirt, hands fisting in the material threateningly. Logan’s laugh was derisive.

  Sage was on his feet now, ready to intervene if need be.

  But Jace released Logan abruptly and dropped his gaze, shoulders heaving. “You really think that.” It wasn’t a question; it was a desolate statement. “I’m sorry you feel that way.”

  The heat seeped out of Logan’s eyes. His mouth parted to speak, but Jace continued.

  “You’re wrong, Logan, I’m not like you, and I don’t want to be. I hate this craving. I hate this need.” His gaze flicked to me, apologetic. “I don’t revel in it like you do, and if I could make it go away then I would.”

  Something dark passed across Logan’s face and then his lip curled slightly. “Stop dreaming for the impossible and accept what you are, brother. We’re predators, and when we hunt, there is nothing to forgive.”

  Sage cleared his throat. “I think Ash would like a word?”

  Ash’s eyes were open and fixed on Logan. He signed something and Logan’s body tensed, but Jace nodded.

  He licked his lips, his eyes flicking up to the left as he formulated what to say. “Ash says that if you’re okay with Logan accompanying you then it’s fine.”

  I looked to Ash; his gray eyes met mine reassuringly. He was giving me control, telling me he trusted my judgment and giving me the opportunity to face the wolf. The last thing I wanted was to be alone with Logan, especially after our encounter in the storage room at bunker one. But there was a part of me that whispered that there was more to the arrogant Fang than met the eye. More to them all.

  I focused my attention on Logan, steely and firm. “We’ll be fine. And if Logan tries anything, his pretty face won’t be so pretty anymore.”

  Logan placed a hand to his chest. “Aw, she thinks I’m pretty.”

  I rolled my eyes and headed up the stairs, leaving him to follow if he wanted. The stairwell was too narrow for us to go up side by side, and having Logan right behind me, my butt at his eye level, was disconcerting.

  “What’s your plan?” he asked as we reached the first floor.

  “Plan?” I glanced over my shoulder at him.

  “Once you get your friend back? What are you going to do about Ash?”

  This again? I was so done with it. “Fuck off, Logan.”

  “Classy. But I need to know, seeing as I’ll be picking up the pieces when you hurt him.”

  “You have issues, you know that?” Issues … Wait a minute. “Is that what happened to you? Did someone hurt you?”

  His expression closed off, telling me I’d hit the proverbial nail on the head.

  “Fuck off, Eva,” he said.

  My smile was mirthless. “Classy.”

  Yes, that was it. He’d been hurt in love, and he was now transferring his issues onto Ash and me. I made to head down the corridor, but Logan grasped my elbow and drew me to a halt. His expression was somber and free from malice; it was the only reason I didn’t clock him one for touching me. He looked resigned more than anything else.

  “Be sure, Eva,” he said. “Be sure he’s what you want. You need to know …” He broke off and glanced down the stairs. When he spoke next his voice was low and consp
iratorial. “Ash feels things differently from others. He feels more intensely. He will commit himself to you, and he will be there for you regardless of what you decide, because ogres mate for life, and I think … I think Ash’s ogre genes have him seeing you as a mate.” He licked his lips and his voice dropped to a strange reverberating resonance. “I need to know what you’re really feeling. How do you see him? How do you see this working?”

  The world was suddenly soft around the edges. Safe and warm and my mind opened like a flower eager to taste the sun. Ash saw me as a mate? As in his one and only. Warmth bloomed in my chest at the word. Yes. That was it, the thing that I’d been trying to identify, the thing between Ash and me—an inexorable bond that had drawn me to him as if he and I were meant to be.

  My mouth was moving, and my thoughts spilled from my lips. “I think I feel it too. I don’t think I could leave Ash even if I wanted to. I’m hoping Tobias will understand how I feel. I’m hoping that by the time we get him back, I’ll have become comfortable with being able to love them both. I’ve never allowed myself to feel these things and it’s new and scary, but I want it. I want Ash and I want Tobias and I think … I think I may want Sage too.”

  He blinked sharply, and the spell was broken. The haze retreated, and reality smacked me in the face. My words hung in the air between us, stark and true, pulled from the deep recesses of my consciousness. Thoughts I hadn’t been fully aware of.

  He’d used his mojo on me.

  Anger reared its head, and my hands shot out to shove him away.

  “Stay the fuck out of my head, Logan, or I swear I will find a way to hurt you.” My voice shook with rage.

  He was staring at me with an unfathomable expression. Rage was still thrumming in my chest. I just couldn’t be around him right now. I strode off down the dusty corridor, which had several doors leading off it.

  “Eva, wait.”

  “Fuck you, Logan. You had no right to do that.”

  “To help you understand what you’re feeling? I’d say I did you a favor.”

  “And a foot up the arse would do you a favor, but I’ve refrained so far.”

  His low chuckle followed me into the first room, empty except for a couple of overturned chairs and a tool box. Bingo. I crouched and began to rifle through the tools.

  “Leave them. They’ll just add unnecessary weight to the packs,” Logan said.

  “Just like your existence adds unnecessary weight to the world.”

  “Wow, you really don’t like me, do you.”

  Was he serious? “Yep, and I’m pretty certain the feeling is mutual.”

  Silence greeted me, and then I was hauled up onto my feet and pulled up against his vanilla-scented chest. His brown eyes were light honey in the sunlight streaming into the room, captivating me into silence.

  “You think I hate you?” His voice was dangerously low.

  My throat tightened. “I know you do.”

  “Why? Because I didn’t want you to stay with us? Because I almost drained you, or because I warned you off Ash. Or is it because I refuse to hide what I am, that I remind you that you’re in the company of monsters. That I’m not afraid to admit that it’s your blood I want, that it’s fucking delicious.”

  My stomach quivered. “All of the above, actually.”

  His mouth twisted as if he was in pain and then his lips slanted down over mine. The connection short-circuited my brain and the world was suddenly focused on that point of contact. For a second, there was only the sweet taste of him, the delicious rasp of his tongue, and the questing clash of his teeth against mine. For a moment, my body reacted involuntarily to his, pushing into him, giving him what he needed and taking what it wanted in return. It was violent and sudden—hands fisted in his shirt, his thigh pressed between mine—and then sense came back online. I tore my mouth from his and stumbled away. Distance. I needed distance, because fuck, if I didn’t make a rift I’d lose myself in a contradiction of emotion. This was chaos and confusion and no, just no.

  “Why did you do that?” My voice was a breathless whisper that grated on my nerves. “Why?” Better. Stronger.

  His hand went to his mouth, warm brown eyes slightly unfocused, and then he smiled. “Just as I thought. Definitely not to my taste.”

  His words were a slap, the cold jet of water I needed to clear away the cobwebs, but I’d be damned if I’d flinch.

  I lifted my chin and clenched my fists to hide the tremor in my hands. “The feeling is entirely mutual.”

  He studied me for a long beat, his gaze speculative, and then he strode from the room. I sagged and pressed my shaking hand to my sensitized lips.

  That kiss.

  That fucking kiss.

  There was nothing of note in the other rooms, just dust bunnies and shadows, but I lingered longer than necessary, needing to replace Logan’s scent with the musty aroma of abandoned rooms, and his touch with the scrape of unsanded wood. It looked like this floor had been a redundant part of the hall of mirrors. There was no point heading into the maze. It would be a waste of time.

  If Tobias were here, he’d have coerced me into the maze regardless. He’d have pointed out that we had time to kill so why not have fun doing it. My chest ached with the loss of him. The sooner I got him back, the better. The world and my emotions were a rollercoaster without him to ground me. A change was taking place inside me, one that I didn’t fully understand. What if, when we were finally reunited, I wasn’t the same Eva as when we’d parted? What if he wasn’t the same Tobias? The thought was a vise around my heart.

  By the time I headed back down, my pulse and heart rate were steady and unaffected, and the foyer was bathed in hues of red and orange.

  Almost sunset.

  Ash greeted me with a smile when I returned to the ground floor. He was still seated against the wall, and he arched a questioning brow in my direction.

  “Nothing of use up there.” My tone was dry.

  Logan didn’t even look up to greet me. He was sitting beside a wide-awake Benji, his attention fixed on the ceiling once more. Why did that grate?

  Jace was by the window staring at the rapidly dimming world outside.

  I took a step toward him. “What’s it looking like out there?”

  “Quiet,” Jace said. “No movement.”

  “That’s good.”

  Benji lifted something off the floor and held it on his lap. A teddy bear? Something wasn’t right with this picture.

  “Benji … where did you get that bear?”

  Benji glanced down at the soft toy. “This is Pookie. Dad bought it for me.”

  Ice trickled down my spine. “You didn’t have it before …”

  Logan tensed and looked down at the bear. “Did you find it in the toilets?”

  Benji nodded. “I forgot it here when we left.”

  Oh, fuck. “Did you and your mum hide here?”

  He nodded. “Mum said it would be safe at night. The plant monsters wouldn’t get us in here.”

  “Shit,” Logan cursed. “The fuckers are active at night too.”

  “Not the same ones.” Sage pulled himself off the ground, towering over me. “Moon flowers, no doubt.” His jaw was tight. “Should have contemplated that possibility.”

  I ran a hand over my face as the sequence of events clicked into place. The Claw and her son must have come through the Wilds at night and been chased by nighttime plants. They’d hidden here, thinking that daytime would be safe, like it was from most Feral, but then they’d been attacked by daytime plant people. We’d wasted a whole day only to put ourselves in even more danger.

  “We have to go. Now.” Logan pulled Benji to his feet.

  Benji looked from me to Logan. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “No, kid, you did fine,” Logan said.

  “Everything is going to be okay,” Jace said, his voice calm and reassuring.

  The kid relaxed, obviously believing the lie. Heck, I almost believed it. But fact was, we were
in the shit, like wade-knee-deep in the shit, because now we had fucked-up Feral-human-plant things and the regular Feral monsters to worry about. If we went out there, the odds of us all making it were slim. I’d have to hustle. I’d have to leave them behind.

  Yes, Eva, survive. The key is all that matters.

  The room was suddenly plunged into darkness, just as a lightbulb went off in my mind.

  “We have to fight our way through,” Jace said.

  He was wrong. “No. We don’t. I have a better idea.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Tobias

  Eva’s face as she’d watched me drive away. Her wide gray eyes filled with devastation. Eva’s touch. Her fingers laced through mine at dawn as we fell asleep. Her scent, slightly musky with perspiration but with the undertone of a wild rose.

  My heart squeezed painfully.

  Hold on. Just hold on.

  Her laughter rising like a gentle breeze as we played tag in the halls of the compound. The serious frown on her forehead as she patched up my knee after I scraped it in the compound gardens.

  Darkness hovered on the edges of my memory.

  No. No. Hold on. Hold on.

  “Good, you’re doing good.” Deana’s voice filled my head, bringing me back to reality and flooding my vision with light.

  Her face stared at me through the glass between us. “Erasure is progressing smoothly. Could have you wiped in a few hours, but I think I can stretch it to another five sessions before we will have complete memory wipe.” She winced. “Sorry about that. It would be easier on you if we just got on with it, but I promised Elias.”

  Memory wipe? What? What had they taken? God, my head ached. Gray eyes … gray eyes …

  A door opened behind my tormentor and a man strolled in. Tall and wide-shouldered and silver-haired, he surveyed the lab with mild interest.

  Deana backed up and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Malcolm, what a surprise.”