“Yeah,” he croaks. “I’ve decided to sit this one out.”
“Kaye got you early?”
He nods.
I put a hand on his shoulder in what I hope is a reassuring way, and to his credit he doesn’t shudder. It’s always a gamble when I touch someone, never knowing how they’ll react. I hated it, seeing those looks of trepidation. Sometimes disgust. They know I’m dangerous, but it still hurts to see.
I look at Kaye and our eyes meet. Her face is lit from within, her lips curled into a smile. Though she is engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Agus and Fulton, her attention warms me like a sun’s ray across my shoulders.
Eko’s on his feet now, minor injuries healed by Milo, but they keep well away from the action. I watch as Eko takes off his shoe, pulling off his mostly clean white sock and waving it from atop a twig like a flag. A warm feeling builds inside my chest at the sight. Is this really what having allies—friends—is like?
A branch hits my shoulder, springy and new, covered in fresh leaves. I look up to see Vita among the thick branches of an oak tree, ready and waiting for her moment. Vita’s like a human super computer, absorbing and retaining information with little to no effort at all. People always knew she was bright, the kind of genius that had a perfect 4.0 average from kindergarten through high school, and trouble followed wherever she went. Early psychologists classified it as hyperthymesia. They were woefully underprepared.
It didn’t take long for Vita to figure out that there was plenty of money to be made for someone like her. We’re all really lucky that she’s a good person. Sure, she embraced a little chaos in her past, but who didn’t? She could have gone on to be a supervillain mastermind, and honestly, I don’t think any of us could have stopped her. Vita doesn’t talk about what she does for a living now—probablycan’ttalk about it without breaking about a dozen NDAs. She likes to say she’s a consultant.
Her work has also provided her unlimited training in hand-to-hand combat, making her as physically formidable as she is mentally. And she’s about to dive out of the trees like an ass-kicking flying squirrel.
I move slowly and fluidly toward the tree, keeping my attention glued on the figure above me. Vita’s preoccupied watching Kaye and Fulton tussle on the ground below her. She doesn’t notice when I approach the base of her perch. The bark is rough and textured beneath my fingertips, full of life. My power courses into the trunk. The tree is old and established, predating the manor by more than fifty years. The trunk is tall and thick, the roots deep and braided into and through the earth like a river.
New growth sprouts under my touch, curving and curling under my will.Up, I urge.Lock into place.
Crack. The branches creak as they tie themselves into intricate knots around Vita’s ankles. She lets out a ringing expletive as she sways and tips sideways, held aloft in the grasp of the newly formed wooden tangle.
Smirking, my eyes drift back to the clearing where Kaye and Fulton were, but it’s empty. The hair raise on the back of my neck as my awareness heightens, drawn as always toward Kaye. Something moves in the corner of my eye and I turn just in time as she launches at me. Her foot misses me as I slide underneath her.
My momentum pivots and the tables have turned. I wrap my arms around her as we fall together, laughing while rolling through the grass. She straddles me, her core pushing against me in the most delicious friction. Her palms press into my chest, and I know she could slow my heart, pull the energy from my body to power her arsenal, but as I look into the deep pools of her honey brown eyes, I know she won’t.
I trust her.
My hand moves from its place at the nape of her neck to cradle the velvet curve of her cheek while its twin steadies her where it rests on her hip. She sucks in a breath as the pad of my thumb traces the swell of her full bottom lip. Her eyes darken, and she leans into me, her hair falling to curtain us.
“It’s a wonder you’re both still alive.”
And the moment is broken. I glare at Fulton as she menaces over us, arms covered in a blaze of flames waiting to be put to use. She extinguishes them as Kaye reaches for her, and then her warm weight is gone and I’m struck with the urge to do anything I can to get it back and finish what we started.
“Hot though,” Jaspar falls dramatically to the ground beside me.
A low rumble builds in my chest, but before I can as much as scowl, the feeling is soothed away.
“Easy there, tiger.” Adeon winks as he places two stuffed picnic baskets and a bundle of blankets on the ground.
The rest of the group sit in a loose ring, called by the promise of food. Sandwiches and fruit pass hands while Jaspar lazily tosses popcorn kernels at Eko’s open mouth.
It’s nice. Peaceful.
My attention turns to Kaye, how her eyes light up as she laughs at something Fulton just whispered in her ear. How the sun glints off the golden-brown natural highlights in her hair. So beautiful.
“What are you two giggling about over there?” Jaspar asks them, though I feel his eyes on me like a weight. Vita throws a pretzel piece and it catches in his hair. I nod my gratitude as Jaspar scowls.
Fulton grins, pulling her food into her lap. “Just saying that C seems to have gotten very good at disappearing. And also trying to settle an argument: since you’re technically undead, Zane, are you more a zombie or vampire type of guy?”
“Ha. Ha,” I respond. “That man tried to kill me. He almost succeeded. So. Funny.”
“We caught his trail a couple months ago. Tracked a Rose shipment to a warehouse in the business district, but that trail kind ofburned up.” Eko leans back, his elbows sinking into the plush grass beneath him. “I guess you know all about how that ended.”
Kaye’s cheeks flush at the memory. “So you didn’t know what you’d find when you went there?”
I shake my head. “After one look, I knew what it was though—parts of our old files. C told me they were leads for the voluntary trials of our compound.”
