My head is screaming from the crack against the asphalt, the rumbling vibrations and honking horns coaxing me upright. Seeing double, I watch the cars fly past, pebbles pelting my skin and wind plastering my shirt to my body.
Groaning, I get to my feet, the muscles in my back screaming in protest. A blaring horn has my face jerking to the side, watching the semi barreling right for Arson, and my body moves before my brain can catch up. The air is knocked from my lungs as I tackle him, gravel biting into my skin as we roll out of the way just in time to see one of his crutches reduced to splinters under the eighteen-wheeler. The wind as it sails by inches from us has my auburn hair flying into my face, and a rock flying up to pelt my glasses, cracking the lens.
I barely know which way is up when Ledger hauls us both off the pavement and sprints to the short, cement barrier dividing the center of the highway a split-second before we become roadkill, pinning us against it and shielding us with his body. As soon as the wave of traffic passes, he tosses us on top of the median, the cement digging into my thighs as I awkwardly straddle it. But even though the wind from passing cars barreling past threatens to knock me off and back into the road, I’malive,which is nothing short of a miracle.
Arson gives me a funny look. “You saved me.”
Uncomfortable, I offer a half-hearted shrug. “You’re my brother.”
His throat bobs, and he gives me a sharp nod. “You need someone killed, you let me know. I owe you one.”
“Arson isn’t a threat to either of us… you know that right?”The memory of Ever’s voice whispers through my mind, making me feel like a complete asshole.
He killed my birth parents.Ourparents. He literally grew up in an assassin’s guild killing people for profit.
Arson’s a monster.
But… he also left the family that raised him behind to find me once he found out I existed. He puts all of that deadly energy into protecting our mate. Instead of slitting my throat to keep her to himself, he watched over us both and stepped into the older brother role like he’s been waiting to play it his entire life.
He’s trying, as much as a socially-stunted shadow demon is capable of. And isn’t that really all I can ask?
“How about you get our girl back and we call it even?”
Arson’s eyes darken, shadows enveloping his irises until he looks like something straight out of my nightmares. “That one’s on the house.”
Ledger’s hand is partially shifted as he grabs Arson’s arm. “What happened? Are we close? Did she steal your abilities?”
Knocking that theory out of the water, Arson uses one of his shadow tendrils to smack Ledger’s hand off of him with a warning glare. “It felt more like the neutral zone outside of Mercy Ridge; where I couldn’t access my abilities until crossing the town line. There, but inaccessible, instead of gone completely.”
I mull it over, recalling the way Arson didn’t just duck into the shadow realm to save himself when the semi nearly crushed him, but can use his abilities now just fine. “A neutralizer, maybe? When we got close enough, your abilities were canceled out, but since they’re traveling on the highway, as soon as they got out of range, you were fine again.”
Testing that theory, Arson snatches both of us again, following the median this time. And low and behold, fiveminutes later, we’re crashing back to reality, leaving Ledger cursing in pain as he racks his balls on the cement. By the tiny smirk Arson quickly hides, I’m betting it was intentional; payback for manhandling him earlier.
Ledger punches the barrier hard enough to knock a chunk off, shouting his frustrations into the wind. “So what the fuck do we do then? Keep this up until they stop for more than five minutes so we can run the rest of the way if I can’t shift?”
Guilt twists my stomach, but I shove it down, trying to think about the situation from an outside perspective instead of a man panicking that his mate and bond-brother were kidnapped and making reckless decisions.
“We go home.” When they both turn to glare at me, I rush out, “Think about it. We can keep this up all day, getting jerked out of the shadow realm every five minutes, or we can go back to Mercy Ridge, stock up on any weapons and supplies we may need, and watch the tracker until it stops for the night. Arson shadow walks us as close as he can get, then we hike the rest of the way on foot. But if we storm in without a plan, they’re just going to use Ever and Bellamy as hostages to get us to stand down. Maybe even hurt them to make a point if we piss them off enough.”
Ledger scrubs a hand over the scruff of his beard. “The only weapons we have are whatever we can shake the demon down for. And he’s always carrying a small armory. Don’t need supplies if we aren’t staying. So what could we possibly need that isn’t just a huge waste of time hiking back into the city?”
Exhaling heavily, I let it take my fear with it, emotionally removing myself from the situation as much as I can manage to think about things tactically. “I have a prototype that should protect them during the fight and give us the upperhand… if you’re willing to be bait.”
Chapter 2
Bellamy
Peeling my eyelids open, pain lances through my skull and I groan.
How much did I drink last night?
The creak of hinges has me reluctantly pushing up from my pillow, confused as hell when I see Gage waltzing through the doorway with a loaded-up tray.
“Boss! You’re finally awake.” A grin splits his face, and I have to shake my fuzzy head before responding.
“Why are you bringing me breakfast?”
He chuckles. “YouandMrs. Boss.” Waggling his eyebrows, Gage tilts his head, and I follow it to see Ever asleep beside me, my confusion growing with every passing second.
