21 Shades of Night, page 293
Garret, who was sprawled on the couch, sat up slowly when they all entered the room. “What’s going on?”
Shay moved to the center of the large area rug. “Jackson Fairweather has them, and he’s holding them hostage.” She swallowed hard. “He’ll let them all go, in return for me.”
No one spoke as she told them about her dream, every gritty detail, and by the time she was done, she looked exhausted and terrified, like she was waiting for them all to start screaming at her.
Instead, Leith shook his head. “I’ll get the weapons.”
Deacon nodded, looking as unstable as Tyler felt. “I’ll start making phone calls. There’s only a few barns around here.”
Glancing between them all, Garret straightened his shoulders. “I’ll go help the big guy with weapons and, uh, leave you two alone for a minute.”
When everyone had filed out of the house, Shay stood where she was, staring at his chest, and refused to meet his gaze. He didn’t blame her. He knew what she’d see if she glanced up, and the last thing he needed was to terrify her even more. But holy fuck, he was losing it.
A kid. They had a kid, and this fucktard thought she was selfish enough to give up her friends to have that future. “You told me— “
“I’m sorry.” She sniffled and lifted her hand, but instead of touching him, she let it fall uselessly to her side. “I know I should have just left, should have snuck out to go save them, and instead, I’m putting all of you at risk.”
“No, gypsy.” Her head snapped up at his low bellow. “You did the right thing, all right?” Leaning down, he kissed her with all the desperation and gratefulness he had inside him. “We’ll get them back and kill this douche lord, and nothing else is going to get near you ever again.”
“Wade. We’re ready,” Leith said from the doorway.
Tyler closed his eyes, and pressed his brow to hers. “I’ll be back, gypsy.”
Without another word, refusing to let her be afraid or in danger for another second, he turned and walked out.
Chapter 20
TYLER MADE IT to Leith’s Suburban before he changed his mind. With a quick stop at his truck to grab for the special guns and knives he wanted for the hunt, he ignored the nagging worry about letting Shay out of his sight long enough to rescue Mal and the other women, and tossed his duffle into the back of his partner’s SUV. He even managed to climb into the back seat and rest his head as he stretched out, before he cursed. Giving up any pretense of not being about to crawl out of his godforsaken skin, he exited the vehicle and started toward her house.
It didn’t surprise him any that she was already halfway to him, a look of furious determination on her beautiful face.
“If you think I’m staying—.” She grunted as he threw her over his shoulder. She braced her hands against his back and tried to lever herself up. “What are you doing?”
Leith held the back passenger door open for him so he could toss Shay into the seat. Tyler followed her in, crowding her space.
Twisting in her seat as Leith closed the door before rounding the vehicle to get behind the wheel, she blinked up at Tyler. “I thought you were leaving without me.”
“I was.” Less than amused by her surprise, he hooked his arm around her waist and lifted her onto his lap. “Decided better of it. Knowing you, I’d get back home to find the place swarmed by zombies.”
She stilled in the act of settling against him, her eyes widening. “Home?”
Christ. He hadn’t even realized what he’d said. But no way was he leaving this girl. She’d stormed into his life like a goddamn hurricane, blowing apart everything he thought he wanted, and putting it all back together in a way that made sense, finally.
She was fucking perfect for him.
She was also glaring at him.
“None of what happened yesterday was my fault.” She shifted on his lap so she could poke his chest. “You can’t blame me for it all.”
He snorted.
“Watch me.” When her eyes narrowed with temper, he blew out a low breath. “I’ve had enough scares for a while, gypsy. I don’t know if I’ll survive anymore. Not where you’re concerned.”
The indignation melted out of her. Curling up against his chest, she pulled his arm tighter around her waist. “About my dream…?”
A scowl furrowed his brow. “What about it?”
“His name was Noah,” she whispered, her eyes fluttering closed. “And when Jackson appeared, he knew. He knew I’d sacrifice anything to have that future with you. To have you.”
“Ah, baby.” He wrapped his fingers around the back of her neck and put just enough pressure to have her looking up at him. “Is that what you’re worried about? That you’d sacrifice your friends to have a future that may not ever happen?’
She didn’t look thrilled with him for putting it that way. Sitting up on his lap, she crossed her arms over her magnificent chest. “I don’t mind being selfish, Ty, or fighting for what I want. But it wasn’t about my needs. It was about us. About you needing me just as desperately as I needed you. That’s what I want.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her just how crazy he was about her. To tell her she wasn’t getting rid of his grumpy, slightly psychotic ass without a crowbar and banishing spell. But Leith chose that moment to slow the Suburban down and pull over. In the far back seat, Garret leaned forward, while Deacon twisted in the passenger seat.
“It’s not a barn.” Deacon said.
“All right.” Tyler was vaguely aware of Shay’s hand wrapping around his. “So, what is it?”
Without breaking eye contact, Deke rattled off the address of the last house Tyler had lived in with his mother. “Jackson’s owned it for thirty years. He’s the one who rented it to your mother.”
It should have surprised him. He sure as hell didn’t believe in coincidences, but three more disappearances and Jackson’s own mention of Gemma had destroyed any misconception about what had happened to her back then.
Shay squeezed his hand. “Ty— “
“It’s fine.” He nodded as he cut her off, squeezing her waist in apology. “It explains the scorched earth of the yard.”
Only black death magic could leave a yard that decimated.
Because they were still a quarter mile from the house, they unloaded the SUV, and gathered around the hood. Unable let her go, Shay stood in front of him, his arm still wrapped possessively around her waist. His chin alternated between resting on her shoulder, and on the top of her head.
Deacon folded his arms on the hood and concentrated on Shay. “You said they’re all in one cage?” His voice was measured, almost calm, but there was a time bomb behind his eyes just waiting to be shown the target, and Tyler was worried if they didn’t point him in that direction soon, he’d self-destruct and they’d lose him.
Shay bobbed her head. “I think it was the basement, because it was one giant, dark room.” She glanced at all of them, before tilting her head back to look up at Tyler. “Jackson needs them to maintain his strength, but that doesn’t make him weak. He’s not going to give up his immortality easy.”
Tyler nodded. “They never do.” On the other side of the truck, Leith was meticulously checking weapons before strapping them on. “I’ll go in through the front door. Cause enough chaos to distract whatever demons are guarding the place.”
Garret crossed his arms over his chest. “Give me some weapons, and I’ll cover the garage.” When they all just blinked at him, he braced his hands on the hood and leaned forward, snarling. “They have Ivy. I’m not fucking sitting this one out and twiddling my fucking thumbs. You brought me because you need me, so use me. And we don’t have time to argue about it, so get the hell over it.”
Deacon scrubbed both hands over his face before he nodded. “Then the three of us—me, Tyler and Shay—will go in through the back. Use the distractions to get us to the basement. Shay can get them out while Tyler and I take care of any stragglers.”
A low, vicious sound rumbled in Tyler’s chest. “And just so there’s no question about it, that fucktard Jackson is mine. Unless he’s getting ready to poof into thin fucking air, no one touches him. Got it?” He waited while they all nodded, before stepping back. “Alright, let’s do this.”
* * *
AS THEY CUT through the neighborhood, Shay couldn’t stop staring up at Tyler. Despite his complete and utter focus on the houses and shadows around them, he was constantly touching her somehow. A brush of his leg on hers, a quick squeeze of her fingertips, and a gentle nudging of his body against hers.
Everything inside of her wanted to launch at him, tackle him to the ground, and let him fill her up again right there in the middle of the road, not because she was wet and achy, but because she was afraid. For her, and for him. When he wrapped that powerful body around her, she knew she was the safest she could ever be.
“Shay.” Leith’s cold voice pulled her out of her thoughts, and she realized for the first time that they were just a house over from Tyler’s old one. “When you and the women are clear, get them the fuck out of here. Go straight to the hospital. We’ll meet you there.”
Tyler pressed a set of keys into her palm. “There’s enough cars around here. If we need to, we’ll boost one and worry about getting it back to the owner tomorrow. Just get to the hospital and stay together until we find you.”
Tyler squeezed her hand once, before they all turned as a unit toward the house and moving off into their separate directions.
Leith tossed a hornet’s nest grenade into the front window, lighting up the rundown neighborhood and shattering the stillness of the pre-dawn night. Screams of pain and rage echoed the small distance.
Men poured out of the house, weapons at the ready and trained on Leith, who grinned like a madman. “Evening, gentlemen.” He raised his hands slowly. “Who’s ready to party? We’ll provide the bonfire…”
In the shadows at the far side of the house, Garret tossed a match. The ramshackle, detached garage went up like tinder, flames licking skyward.
. Drawn by the noise and fire, good Samaritan neighbors rushed out of their houses. Using the roar of the fire to cover the sound, Deacon broke through the back door. Three men were waiting, charging them like mindless beasts, their eyes glowing red.
Knives at the ready, Tyler disposed of two of them with barely a flick of his wrist, and without making a sound. As they dropped, Tyler spun on his heel, grasping the third man by the shoulders. Deacon’s knife rammed home in his gut, slicing upward.
As the man crumpled, Deacon moved in front of Shay while Tyler took up position right at her back, covering her from both sides. They headed for the basement door in the kitchen. Anxiety tightened her skin as they made their way down the stairs, dread settling like concrete in her belly. This was too easy. She felt it in her bones.
Hoping it was just worry for her friends instead of a premonition, she held her breath. Deacon kicked open the door at the bottom of the stairs. When all that greeted them was absolute silence, he looked at them over his shoulder with what the fuck? written all over his face.
Pulling the sawed-off shotgun he had strapped to his back over his shoulder, he took a breath and started into the dank space.
Tyler wrapped his hand around her shoulder. His body pressed up to her back as he slipped a knife into her hand. “Put your back to the wall and stay here. Stab anything that gets close.”
She glared at him as he physically moved her to where he wanted her, but she gripped his hand before he could follow Deacon.
“Don’t go. Just wait.” Unable to help the distress in her voice, she swallowed hard. “Something isn’t right.”
Wrapping his hand around the back of her neck, under her hair, he pulled her to him and kissed her. Hard. “I know. I feel it, too.”
She should have relaxed a little knowing he was on alert, but it didn’t. This was wrong.
She knew the layout of the space from her dream. The stairs were on the far right side of the house and there was a wall at the bottom, which left only one way to go—left. The space opened, then, and the cage with her friends should be on the farthest wall from where she stood, with the altar between them.
Realizing she should have told them about the layout, she took a step forward, prepared to yell for Tyler. Everything went dark. She couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face.
Then the soul-destroying screaming started, a low, humming chanting pulsing underneath it.
It came from everywhere, as if the sound filled the air itself, pressing down on her shoulders like a physical presence. Tyler shouted for her, but her name cut out on a roar, as if something had silenced him.
Terror weakening her bones, she did the only thing she could think of—she started toward the room where Ty and Deke had entered. She didn’t know what she planned to do, just that she couldn’t stand there and wait for someone else to save her. Not when everyone she cared about was in this room, in danger.
“See?” Jackson’s satisfied voice drifted over the screams. “I told you she’d come rescue you.”
There was a low sound that could only be Tyler cursing, before he growled. “Goddamn it, Shay. Run.”
She shook her head, not caring that no one could see her in the absolute darkness. “Let him go, Jack. It’s me you want, right?”
“It was, yes. But then you went and fucked this bottom-feeding hunter, so now I have to make him pay for sticking his dick in what’s mine.”
Tyler snarled. “Oh, fuckhead, you are so goddamn dead.”
Jackson’s laugh wasn’t tinged with madness—the insanity ran through it, twisting the sound into something horrific. “That’s original. And stupid, considering how vulnerable Shay and the other women are, and that I hold you and your little cop buddy’s hearts in my hands.”
Hearts. Shay stopped her forward momentum. The reminder of her earlier dream about holding Tyler’s heart in her hand invaded her memory. Bile choked her.
He was going to die because of her, and she had no power to stop it from happening.
Her knees went weak. She started to drop to the floor and beg Jackson to let him go and do what he wanted to her. A blast of cold air hit her, so frigid her breath froze in her lungs.
Her chin lifted. She stepped forward, her gaze finally adjusting to the blackness, just enough she could see the cage, and Deacon chained next to the wall next to it. “It’s me you want, Jackson. Let them all go, and I’ll stay with you forever. As long as you want me.”
“The fuck you—” Tyler’s bellow cut off on a groan as the sound of flesh hitting flesh reverberated through the air.
“It’s too late,” Jackson snapped. “You have nothing to bargain with. So I’m going to kill them all while you watch, and then I’ll live forever. And I’m going to start with your little fuck toy here.”
He flicked his hand out, illuminating the space.
Tyler spun on his heel and jammed both his knives into Jackson’s throat. Robed fingers came out of the shadows.
Shay ran toward the cage.
The robed figures swarmed Tyler. With a desperate glance at her friends huddled in the cage, Shay changed direction and went to help Deacon.
One side of his face was swollen, his eye purple, but he grunted when she started tugging on his shackles. “Blood magic.”
She blinked up at him as she tried uselessly to yank the iron from the wall. “What?”
He dropped his head down as if it was too heavy for his neck to hold up. “He used blood to seal it.”
Blood. Of course.
Using the knife Tyler had given her, she cut into her palm and spread the blood over the runes scratched into the chains themselves. The chains snapped open. Deacon grabbed her knife and barreled past her to where Tyler took on the robed men.
Hoping the same blood magic would work on the cage, she found the lock and smeared the sticky substance over it. She nearly shouted in victory as it snicked open.
Instead of rushing out, Ivy looked up at Shay with tears in her eyes. “Come on, Malia’s hurt. Help us get her out.”
In the back corner, Malia was crumpled on the floor, unconscious. Blood dripped slowly from a gash in her hairline, and her face was way too pale.
Despite Malia’s small, delicate size, none of them were big enough to lift her, let alone carry her out. But with the sounds of battle still echoing through the basement, they didn’t have any other choice.
“We have to carry her.” Swallowing hard, Shay grabbed her feet and nodded at Ivy and Hayden. “Hold her under the arms.”
When her friends were in position, she nodded. They lifted her. Hunched in an awkward position, Shay backed out of the cage.
They’d only taken a couple steps when Leith was suddenly there. His face was stricken as he gently lifted Malia into his arms, before he jerked his head toward the stairs. “Stay with me,” he snapped at them.
Just as they reached the top of the stairs, Garret bellowed. “Wade, Stone, behind you!”
Shay spun around. Gemma stood in the middle of the basement, between Tyler and the robed figures. Her arms were outstretched, but her eyes were locked on her son. The ground began to quake beneath their feet.
Gemma nodded at Tyler, her eyes sad. “I love you. Now run!”
They ran. Tyler swept Shay off her feet as he ran up the stairs, their friends on their heels. They’d barely made it over the threshold before the explosion rocked the foundation, sending them all flying.
Chapter 21
“ALL RIGHT, ASSHOLE, look.” Bracing his hands against the desk, Tyler leaned into the young doctor’s face and bared his teeth. “Tell me where she is, or I will start tearing down doors until I find her myself.”
The charge nurse, who couldn’t have been more than twenty-five, took a step back, staring at him through fear-filled eyes. “You’re not a relative or spouse. I can’t release that information.”
