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Cormac screamed overhead, and then so did Adam behind him. “Icarus!”
Icarus spun only to see the jetty fall away, Adam falling with it.
“No!” Diving, he slid on his belly across the crumbling, silty earth, arm outstretched, hand reaching for the scrambling one that was fast disappearing over the edge. The waves below raged on as giant chunks of earth fell into the cold, dark water.
Icarus couldn’t let Adam join them. Couldn’t lose what he’d only just found.
He clasped Adam’s trailing wrist, curled his fingers around bone and skin, and dug his nails in deep, holding on with everything he had. The momentum pulled at him. He spread his legs, the toes of his boots dragging the ground, the claws of his other hand shoved into a crevice of creased and buckled earth. Icarus irrationally thought about those old action movies, how this moment was always in slow motion, how the speed at which his future was falling off a cliff was the polar opposite—too fucking fast.
They caught a break. The earth shook again, pushing up the ground they were hanging from and slowing their momentum. But for how long? It would be seconds at most, Icarus guessed, before another shake would plunge them into the Bay below.
In such a predicament, the very fucked kind he was known for, Icarus didn’t expect to look down and see the Devil grinning up at him, didn’t expect the words that came out of his mouth to be just this side of gleeful. “What are you waiting for, vampire?” Adam said, confirming what Icarus had suspected all along. Adam knew exactly what he was. “Get us the fuck out of here.”
Pride swelled inside him. This he could do right, after all—kidnap the Devil—and Adam trusted him to do it. He firmed up his grip, detached his claws from the earth, and using his toes for leverage, he dove off the cliff with the Devil.
PARTTWO
THE DEVIL
EIGHTEEN
Free fall.
Countless seconds where Adam’s only tether to reality was Icarus’s hand clasped around his wrist, his nails—his vampire’s claws—digging into Adam’s skin.
Despite his law enforcement training, despite the sun poking through the fog, despite his “death wish” that his ex-partner had correctly called, Adam couldn’t stop the bile from rushing up his throat as he struggled to catch his breath and take in the crumbling landscape racing past his eyes.
Cliffs splitting in two and exposing pre-Rift foundations, rusted metal piles, and broken wires. A new canyon forming, mystical green sparks emanating from its core, a deep dark crevice the fog and water rushed into.
All of it flashed by too fast for Adam to fully comprehend.
And then he was yanked up and flung into the air. Icarus released his wrist, and the free fall from before was nothing compared to floating on fear, on the certainty that he would hit the water at any moment, break his back, and that would be the end. He’d only felt such fear once before as fiery walls had collapsed around him and his family. Loved ones he’d see again soon. And while yes, he did have a death wish and no, he didn’t fear the after, he dreaded the impending moment of death. Been there. Done that. Didn’t look forward to the repeat. Not like this. At least this time, death would be quick. At the rate he was falling again, he’d hit the water any—
Pink flashed by him, Icarus diving, and the next thing Adam knew, he landed in Icarus’s arms just as the spray of crashing waves soaked his back.
The water never touched him again.
They were flying. There was no other way to describe it. It wasn’t exactly like Cormac sailing above in raven form, but the vampire carrying him was practically walking on water, pushing off this or that shoal, leaping miles at a time. Two leaps to the peak of Pelican Island. Four leaps to the Huimen Enclave. A giant leap over the swaying light rail bridge that spanned the Bay. On and on Icarus skipped, banking right as Cormac did overhead, toward the more stable ground across the Bay, but never too far inland. He stayed to the shoreline, heading north into the giant estuary and on farther, the fog breaking over the fields of Talahalusi, the fall colors showing off on the rows of vines and packed late harvest fields.
With the threat of death passed, Adam kicked his brain into tactical mode. They were exposed, unlikely to be perceived by human eyes, but other paranormals would notice them. They would wonder where they were headed in such a hurry and why. And if they realized Icarus was a vampire, traipsing through Talahalusi in broad daylight, they’d either consider him a threat or consider how to steal his supply of Daylight. How large a dose had Icarus ingested? Enough to make it to Monte Corvo at the north end of the valley? Would the bullet Icarus had taken for him dampen the magic’s effect? Until Adam had the answers to those questions, they needed to take cover.
He shifted in Icarus’s arms, enough to survey the surrounding area. Familiar with the environs, he knew exactly where they could hide while they assessed maneuverability. He stretched an arm toward the east. “Two vineyards over, at the foot of the ridge, there’s a farm. Head for the sunchoke fields. Should be tall enough to hide us.”
Nodding, Icarus veered right, and Cormac screeched in protest overhead. It was clear the shifter’s primary focus was getting Adam to the mountain. Adam, however, was focused on the man who’d saved his life. “Ignore the angry bird,” he added, and Icarus’s chuckle rumbled against his side.
Adam remembered the way that laughter had felt against his front last night, right before Icarus had slapped his ass and told him to bend over the couch. His ass still ached from how hard and rough Icarus had fucked him. He’d desperately missed that ache, a good kind of ache.
They reached the edge of the Deere farm, and Icarus shortened his strides, slowing as they neared the plot of eight-foot-tall stalks. His last leap landed them three rows in, and Icarus covered him in a protective crouch. Cormac made two circular passes overhead to scout the area before descending several rows beyond them.
Adam patted Icarus’s chest. “You can let me down now. We’re safe.”
Icarus lowered him to the ground feetfirst. “We’re gonna have a conversation about your definition ofsafe.”
Cormac came crashing through the stalks, naked as the day he was born. “Have it once we get to the mountain. Why the fuck did we stop?”
Icarus’s gaze shot to Cormac’s uncovered bits. Adam laughed at his savior’s perfectly arched brow, louder still at his teasing. “Impressive, raven.”
Cormac wasn’t in the mood. “Shut it, vampire.”Angry birdwas right. Detective Kelley was usually the most levelheaded of their crew, restrained and deliberate to the point of frustrating. Unless someone he cared about was in danger... or on his list of souls. Both were currently in play; his patience was shot.
