Indigo was here. He would protect me, and gods, I needed the rest.

  Chapter 26

  “He’s still furry, she’s still unconscious, and Neil is flipping out about that wisp.”

  “Stephan.”

  “I’m just saying.”

  “You will restrain yourself around civilians.”

  Hmm, so they were part of the government or something close to that. Strong arms still had a hold on me, but the shoulder in my gut was gone. The skin on my back felt tight, and I wondered if Indigo had allowed someone close enough to bandage me up. The rough tightness moved, going up my back, and I flinched.

  “I think your beauty is awake there, beast.”

  “You got it backward. It’s his beast, and he’s my beauty,” I muttered. A quiet rumble came from behind me as if agreeing.

  “You’re an odd girl,” the one called Stephan said.

  “About as odd as you can get I suppose.” I opened my eyes only to be blinded by my own hair. I shifted, which caused Indigo to make a noise behind me again. I gripped hairy, muscular thighs and tried to lift myself. Indigo held my waist and kept me close. The tightness on my back moved again.

  “Please tell me he isn’t licking my wounds.”

  “Werewolf saliva has some healing properties,” Nix’s authoritative voice said.

  “Doesn’t matter. I don’t really like someone licking my back.”

  “Then you get him to stop,” Nix chuckled. Easier said than done, and I was pretty sure Nix knew that. Werewolves in this state rarely listened to reason, acting on impulse, desire, and instincts instead. Shoving my hair out of my way, I tried to turn to glare at Indigo, but the sight I met stopped me.

  As much as I’d like to admit that I hadn’t cried at the sight of the wide-open night, I couldn’t. It was a disgustingly ugly cry too. There was a sense of utter freedom that came with seeing the world laid out in front of me again. That the stone walls that had kept me close and locked in no longer ruled me. This had been freedom. A beautiful thing.

  Looking up, I saw the darkened sky was covered with clouds. Energy buzzed under my skin.

  Whatever material they’d used to hamper my powers dwindled away. Relief swelled inside of me; to not have my powers made me feel incomplete, broken. Indigo snuffled and nuzzled his snout into my hair. He probably scented the rapid shifts in my emotions and didn’t quite know what to do with them. I still had yet to figure it out myself.

  One moment, I felt elation, then worry slammed me in the gut, and then undeniable anger. Everything seemed to be hitting all at once, and I was powerless to control any of it.

  Indigo wrapped his arms around me, his fur brushing gently against my wounds. They didn’t sting as badly anymore, and I had to guess that was the result of his licking. I repressed my shudder at the thought. His wolf had tried to do that when we were kids, but I always pushed him away.

  Tears still poured down my cheeks even though I tried to slow the flow. I had no idea where we were, if they had gotten Willow out, or if she would be free from her situation. Abel was lost in the wind again. I was running out of options for finding him. But I was free. Safe.

  I had never felt anything but safe in the arms of the werewolf holding me. He might’ve been considered one of the most dangerous Mystics out there, but he had never, and would never, hurt me. It was a certainty that I would take to the grave.

  “Neil contacted me. He’s on his way to the meeting point with the wisp. The others have already arrived. What do you want to do here, boss?” Stephan asked.

  “Indigo won’t let her out of his sight. Call and change the meeting point,” Nix said. He paced, obviously annoyed, but I didn’t care that we were unnecessary complications. I was just happy to be alive and out of that cell.

  The clouds parted and the bright moonlight shone through. My eyes widened as large as the full moon that hung in the sky. I glanced over my shoulder at Indigo. His eyes were brighter than usual. How he had been remaining so calm in the light of the full moon, I didn’t understand. Instead of focusing on the fact that Indigo should be out hunting, losing himself to his animal side, I tried to focus on the here and now.

  ****

  Nix and Stephan tried to usher Indigo into the back of a van, but he wasn’t having any of it. It seemed like he’d rather run next to it, but he also didn’t want to leave my side. In the end, I had to grab a hold of his claw-tipped paw and encourage him into the van. He had to fold himself over in order to fit and looked extremely uncomfortable.

  Once the van started to move, he became twitchy. I laid my hand on his arm, which prompted him to grab me and hold me close. Indigo started to pet my head, his elongated and bony fingers combing through my hair. The tips of his claws scraped my skull and lulled me into a peaceful state.

  As we drove on, I drifted further and further into sleep. Nightmares crept into my mind, those last moments before Indigo appeared coming back to me.

  The scent of burnt flesh filled my nostrils, and heat burned at my back. I squirmed while hands clamped down harder on my shoulders. Their words trickled in from the back of my head. Branding. My skin. I lashed out, screaming, terrified. The scent of burning skin trickled at the back of my nose. Anticipating the pain of the branding rod, I tried to escape the arms holding me.

  “Rrrowan,” a brutal voice called out to me. Instead of causing more panic, it soothed my frayed nerves, grounding me, bringing me back to the present and out of my dreams. I blinked a couple times before reality settled in. Course fur retreated under my hands, replaced by warm skin.

  Muscles shifted underneath me, and hot breath fanned over my cheek.

  “Rowan.” Human hands brushed up and down my arms, careful of my back. Indigo nuzzled against my cheek, breathing in my scent. I couldn’t help but breathe his in as well. Everything about it reminded me of home. Safety and security.

  “You’re safe. I promise,” Indigo kept whispering until I actually believed it. My shaking had slowed, and I breathed a little easier. A shred of disappointment went through me before I could stop it. I should be stronger than this, stronger than my nightmares.

  “You have nothing to be ashamed of, Rowan. The things you went through… most people wouldn’t come out alive. You are strong and brave.” Indigo’s voice still had a beastly sound to it. Talking probably hurt this throat, but I needed to hear him. I needed him to keep me in the present.

  “They didn’t have Abel.” That brought me back to reality. Something solid to focus on would help me. I shifted in Indigo’s arms, and my back screamed with pain. Ignoring it, I tried to focus on the fact that Abel was still missing. “We need to find him.”

  “We will, but first we have to take care of you. Stephan, how much longer?”

  “Glad to see you’re back, big bad. We got another fifteen.”

  “Don’t call me that. Will there be medical attention when we arrive?”

  “Kayana will be there with a first aid kit suitable for this sort of mission. We’re going to the second meeting place.”

  “Nix won’t let me take her home first? Get her cleaned up?”

  I listened, allowing them to hold the conversation as I breathed through the pain that had been lessened by adrenaline.

  “Not with the unexpected developments,” Stephan hedged.

  Indigo didn’t answer, just snorted loudly. Obviously, he still planned to keep his secret job a secret.

  At that point, I’d given up any will to care about anything other than finding my brother. If he had to go through half of the torture I did, we needed to find him. He would handle it, but I refused to make him suffer any longer.

  My number one suspect had been crossed off the list though, and the possibilities seemed endless. Any necromancer family would want to possess a Curse Breaker, and apparently our secret was out. I didn’t know how, but I thought back to the first advice I received there.

  Our world was incredibly small, yet at the moment, it felt endless, vacant, and like a black hole.

  Before I could allow my fears and depression to drag me under, I shifted my back. Pain flared to life, demanding attention.

  “Whatever you’re doing, stop it,” Indigo snarled at me, his eyes glowing bright with his animal. I tried to glance out the windshield to see if night had passed. I hadn’t ever seen Ibrahim shift back during a full moon.

  “Rowan.”

  “I’m fine, Indigo.”

  “You are not. Now stop moving. We’ll get you some painkillers when we arrive.”

  I gritted my teeth. I wanted painkillers. Needed them. I leaned forward, pressing my head against Indigo’s shoulder. His skin burned underneath mine, and I rested my cold fingers on him. He flinched but placed his hands over mine.

  “You’re freezing.” Indigo looked frustrated like he wanted to wrap me in his embrace and keep me warm, but he couldn’t. Not without hurting me.

  I kissed his collarbone. “You’re helping,” I told him.

  The rest of the drive remained quiet, the only sounds between us the rumble of the van. Stephan and Nix didn’t speak in the front, and I wondered if they decided to remain quiet because I was sitting in the back.

  Every bump or pothole we hit shot right up my back. As the pain intensified, I tried to find a less agonizing position to sit in. Eventually I ended up straddling Indigo as he tried to anticipate every bump and lift me first. It worked for a while, but I worried that he was too tired to lift me anymore.

  The van finally slowed to a stop, and Indigo somehow maneuvered us out the door. As soon as we were outside, he set me on my feet then reached into the van and pulled out a blanket, wrapping it around my shoulders. The soft fabric brushed against my wounds and I cringed, holding it away from my shoulders.

  The small building in front of us looked like a little café. I scrunched my nose. “This is the super-secret meeting spot?”

  Nix appeared out of nowhere, ushering us toward the closed café. “No, it’s just the secret meeting spot. Now let’s get you inside so we can properly attend to your back.”

  Someone came to a side door and opened it for us from the inside. The woman smiled brightly. Her dark chestnut hair hung to her waist in weaving braids. If I had to peg her, I’d say wood nymph. And that immediately put me on the defensive. Wood nymphs didn’t like necromancers because of what our magic represented. The last thing I needed was for these people who’d helped me to get kicked out of their hideout… or one of their hideouts, at least. But I also felt so at the end of my rope that I wasn’t willing to play nice either.

  “Ah, so you’re the infamous Rowan?” the woman with sparkling yellow eyes said.

  I smiled at her. “I suppose I’d have to be,” I replied blandly.

  “Come on,” she said with a smile, ignoring my tone. I appreciated it because I didn’t mean to come off so short, so fast. Pain did funny things to people.

  “We need a medical kit, Kayana,” Nix told her.

  Her eyes flashed as she glanced over at their boss. Before she left the room, she nodded once. Indigo steered me to a chair and had me straddle it backward. I released my hold on the blanket, fresh air brushing against my back again.

  A loud gasp and the clatter of a plastic box hitting the ground sounded behind me. I twisted in my seat and immediately regretted the decision. Not only had the pain been terrible, but the look of horror on Kayana’s face said it all.

  My back would be grotesque. It would heal that way, and I would have to live the rest of my life like that. Unless…

  I let that thought go as soon as it started to form. I wouldn’t sign away my life just for vanity’s sake.

  “You’ve been—”

  “Kayana,” Indigo snapped, his eyes glowing as he stared at my back.

  “Been whipped,” I finished for her. “I am well aware of that fact, Indigo.”

  “Oh dear, sweetie.”

  As much as I knew I would regret asking, I needed to know.

  “What?”

  Kayana glanced to Indigo before looking back at me with tears in her eyes. I cringed, knowing I wouldn’t like anything she was about to say to me.

  “You’ve been branded.”

  Ringing filled my ears and I closed my eyes, turning away from everyone.

  “Please bandage me up,” I muttered. I couldn’t focus on what would be seared into my back for the rest of my life. Suddenly the idea of calling Balthazar to get some blood from him didn’t seem so insane anymore. But he would demand too much in return; I was sure of it. The brand could be hidden.

  “Ro—”

  “Please, just let’s get this done. I want to talk about the next steps in finding Abel.”

  “Patch her up,” Nix ordered. “Cornelius and the wisp will be arriving soon. Indigo, a word.”

  Kayana stepped forward and whispered quietly under her breath. I could hear her own sort of prayers and comforting words for me and, I suspected, for herself.

  Indigo and Nix left the room. I tried to stay focused on what Kayana was doing to my back, but my mind wandered to the two men. Every instinct in my body screamed that whatever conversation they were having, it would not bode well for me.

  I had to hold back my cringes and flinches whenever Kayana hit particularly sensitive areas. She’d only been halfway through taping up bandages when the side door swung open.

  “Rowan!” a familiar voice called out from behind me. A moment later came the scampering of footsteps, and then Willow stood in front of me. Her chest heaved, but she smiled as she looked me over. “You made it out alive!”

  “So did you.” I was genuinely pleased that she had. I worried about her well-being, but I didn’t doubt that she would make it out alive with Cornelius going after her. Gargoyles weren’t a Mystic people fucked with.

  “Willow,” a deep rumbling voice called.

  She rolled her eyes dramatically at me.

  “My new bodyguard. Why did you send him after me?” she asked with a smile.

  More footsteps sounded, and the door shut once more. “Come, let’s give them some privacy,” Nix said.

  Kayana came around me, kneeling to my level. “You’ll want someone to wash and change the bandages in a couple hours. Depending on how it looks after that, you’ll need to change them at least every eight to twelve hours.” Kayana squeezed my arm before she left me with a sad smile.

  Cornelius came around and steered Willow away. She glared up at Cornelius as if she wanted to argue against leaving. She peeked over her shoulder at me. A sadness crossed her features. She turned back to Cornelius, dancing away as if it had been her idea to go where he led.

  “When someone asks everyone to leave the room, you know they don’t have any good news for you,” I said. Indigo didn’t come around, so I lifted myself to face him.

  The look of defeat on his face said it all for me.

  “He doesn’t want to go after Abel, does he? You won’t be able to help me anymore?”

  “Not with the resources of my job. But as your friend, as his friend, I will. Always.”

  Chapter 27

  Indigo took me back to the apartment afterward. There hadn’t been much to say, and if his merry gang of secret society members didn’t want to help me find my brother, then I had no use for them. Seattle was too big a city to send a werewolf out sniffing for a trail. With only the two of us? Nothing would get accomplished. And it felt wrong asking Indigo to go against his boss’s direct orders even if Nix seemed to understand the bond between Abel and him.

  Indigo said Nix hadn’t been willing to completely toss out Abel’s case, but it would no longer be top priority, and they had to focus on new information they’d learned when raiding the vampire coven’s domain.

  Willow had been a big part of that. She came home with Cornelius, much to his dismay, and tried to sit with me for a while. I hadn’t exactly been chatty. I wanted a real shower, but because of the various wounds on my back, the best I could hope for was a sponging off.

  Indigo offered to wash my hair for me though I denied him. There was so much I needed to ask him, so many questions I still needed answers to, but my mind was stuck on the brand on my back. And Abel. Those two thoughts swirled together, reminding me that my twin had limited time. According to Indigo, the vampire coven only had me for a couple days. And in that time, they had decided to brand me.

  Whoever took Abel had held him for at least a week. Was he already bound to another family? Stripped down to nothing but his bare bones and pure will? I wondered how my brother would fair against torture. It hadn’t been a thought that ever occurred to me, nor was it something I would wish upon another human being. The thought broke me, thinking of him enduring the same pain as me.

  After Indigo set me up in his room, lightly washed, even lighter fed, I laid on my stomach, staring at the burner phone I bought. Still not a word from Abel, but at that point, I’d given up hope on that front. Instead, I thought of my options.

  Call home, tell my parents what happened, and have my entire family come down and help search? Surely after hearing what I’d gone through, they would. But they would also want to put me on the sidelines. While part of me desperately wanted that, wanted someone else to take the reins, I didn’t think it would be an option for me anymore.

  The other option that had taunted me since I’d realized the extent of my injuries lingered in the back of my mind. It would be so simple. Pick up the phone and call him. It would mean signing my life away, but it couldn’t have been worse than what I’d already experienced. If anything, it would save me from future incidents.

  Plus, I could make my own terms. Demand they find Abel.

  My hand reached for the phone before I’d consciously made my decision.

  Clicking down to Balthazar’s number, my finger hovered over it. If I hit Send, would I be signing away my entire future?

  Breathing in deeply, I knew the answer. I’d do what I had to. Whatever it took to save Abel. Especially knowing the pain he could be in. All because of my mistake.

  “Lovely to hear from you, deehire. It has been a couple days. I could not pick up your scent. I had hoped you had returned home and to your senses.”

 

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