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“What about the others?” Edward asked, walking toward me with Olaf at his back like an oversized shadow.
“Dead, all dead,” I said, smiling and looking like I meant it, while inside I was trying to stop myself from lying.
“You slew all the other vampires before we arrived?” Olaf asked in his deep voice that sounded sinister or sexy depending on if youwere into voices and if you knew his idea of sex was only survivable by him.
I tried not to say it, but it came out anyway: “Yes.” I turned to Goran, trying to tell him to say it was a lie, to help me, but he looked at me and shook his head. He was my bear to call and if I wasn’t master enough to stand up against Deimos there was nothing he could do. Shit!
“What about the rogue shapeshifters?” Edward asked, which meant he’d spoken to someone in St. Louis who knew more details.
I shook my head.
Edward was staring at me from inches away now. His blue eyes had gone almost completely gray like they did when he killed, or he was in the head space for it. We were standing outside the closed door to the room with the vampires in it. I’d woken up in the fucking coffin with Deimos. Damn it, if he got away he’d be able to call me to him. I did not want to wake up in a coffin with him tomorrow. We had to kill him now.
“Who is this?” Olaf asked, and even behind the full tac gear with his face hidden I could feel the animosity at finding me holding hands with yet another man that wasn’t him.
“This is Goran, he’s with us now.”
“Anita saved me from my master’s death taking me to the grave with him.” It seemed a strange thing to say, but I realized he was trying to tell me that if Deimos died then so did I.
“We found some body armor withU.S. Marshalon it,” one of the SWAT guys said. The voice told me it was Hill, but in full gear that was the only hint I had besides height.
“Thanks, Hill, it would be good to get back into my gear.”
“How did you kill them without your gear?” Edward asked.
“Luck, and unexpected help.” I actually bobbled Goran’s hand in mine as if making it clear he’d helped. Kane and Scaramouche were here somewhere. SWAT would kill Kane; we wouldn’t even need Edward or Olaf to help. I prayed that Asher didn’t die with him, butI wasn’t worried about Kane. Scaramouche on the other hand would be in full gear with all his weapons. If they believed my lie, then he’d help Rodina move all the coffins to a new location and I would still belong to Deimos. If I managed to tell them Deimos was in the room beside us, Scaramouche would attack and he was more than human fast, unlike the local SWAT guys. Of the group only Edward and Olaf were faster than human normal. Hell, Olaf was a werelion, but even they weren’t Harlequin that had trained with us. He’d kill the humans before they could react. Damn it.
Deimos breathed through me, “Leave now, take them with you to safety. Scaramouche will hide and they will never know how close they came to his sword.”
Hill was handing me my body armor. I tucked my T-shirt into my pants, refastening the belt, and put it on. It felt good to strap it into place, more like me again. He handed me the Springfield Range Master that he knew rode on the front of the vest when I was in full gear. I knew that if I had a gun, Deimos could make me shoot them.
“No one else need die, Anita. Leave and take them with you, and no more harm need come to anyone this day.” It seemed so reasonable; in a way itwasreasonable. If we all left right now, no one else would die today, but what about tonight?
Hill asked, “What’s wrong? You got another gun you carry as your main now?” He was still holding out the Range Master. Deimos told me to take the gun.
“Are you okay?” Edward asked.
“Sure,” I said, and even managed a smile. I reached for the gun and the moment it was in my hand it felt more like me. It was like the gun was a comfort object and I guess in a way it was. I fell into the rhythm of putting my weapons where they belonged, and it was as if with each piece of gear that went into place, I rebuilt a part of myself that Deimos had compromised. I knew I was more dangerous armed if Deimos owned me, but it was also a way of shielding myself. I had never realized before that I didn’t just feel safer from bulletsand criminals in full tactical gear, but it somehow strengthened my metaphysical protections, too. Weird what you learn in the middle of a crisis, because this was one and we weren’t out of it yet.
“Let’s get out of here; I need some fresh air and sunlight,” I said. I tried to tell Edward with my eyes that it was safer to leave. Once we were outside, we could regroup; I could fight harder to not be Deimos’s puppet, but if I broke free now some of the men would die. Hill’s wife had just had their first baby. Hermes had two kids about the same age I was when my mother died. It wasn’t just them dying, it was all the damage it would do to their families. I’d survived some of that kind of trauma, and I didn’t want that for anyone else. And because I cared about the people in the hallway and was worried about what would happen to them, it gave Deimos more power over me.Just leave, he whispered,just leave and they will all be safe.
I felt another piece of me walking up behind us; my wolf woke, sniffing the air, but I already knew it was Richard. I could feel him like a warm wind at my back, with an edge of storm so I could smell rain, and lightning was so close it made the hair on my body stand up as if when it struck it would be close enough to hit us, injure us, kill us.
My bear turned her white-and-black face to me; it helped chase back some more of Deimos. Mama Bear had started with me to help me come back home, and she wasn’t finished yet. I turned to see Richard carrying Rodina over one shoulder, unconscious, with Ru using his other arm as a crutch. His limp was bad enough that I wasn’t sure he could have walked unaided. “Richard, Wyatt,” Edward said, remembering a different identity that Ru had used in public on one trip. I’d have never remembered it, but I wasn’t Edward.
“Is that your sister?”
“Yes.” And there was strain in his voice, which meant he was in serious pain.
“Where’s Demolition Man?” I asked.
“He’s been demolished,” Ru said, and he laughed, enjoying the joke, or maybe humor was how he dealt with the pain.
I smelled pie baking, the blackberry pie that Nathaniel had experimented with for years until Jean-Claude declared it perfect. He still preferred it with cream poured over it instead of ice cream. We’d won him over to homemade whipped cream flavored with vanilla, or even a little cinnamon. Vanilla was what Nathaniel always smelled like to me, his hair and skin, I was never sure why since he was one of the least vanilla people I’d ever met, and Micah, who was closer to it, reminded me of cinnamon. Sweet with a bite to it, a flavor that would dominate if you used too much, but used sparingly it was just right. By the time I finished thinking and tasting my thoughts, Richard had caught up with us. I grabbed Ru’s other arm, and a second black shape moved inside me. This one slicker, sleeker, and smaller than my bear. My leopard guiding us out because we needed outside. Sunlight would be better, it would help. Mama Bear gave me the visual of coming out of the dark cave and that first kiss of warm sunlight on our faces, warming our fur and chasing the last edge of cold and darkness away. It was time for sunlight and to get the hell out of this dark place. This wasn’t our cave, it was his cave, and we had no business here. It was a trap in so many ways.
Edward said, “I ask again, Anita, are you okay?”
“Yes, and no, get us out of here and into the sunlight. I’ve had enough dark, dim shit for a while.”
