Beyond the Shadows Read online

  Silence.

  “It’s not about needing me necessarily. You need me for other reasons. It’s more about not wanting to push you away with my knee jerk impulse to protect you instead of giving you credit for the badass you’ve become.” He forced a smile at me, but it was tainted by the sadness he felt. It somehow made me feel worse.

  “I’m not a badass all the time,” I kidded, hoping to lift his spirits a bit. He let out a tiny laugh, then shook his head.

  “You probably could have gotten away with that argument before, but now? No way. Not after what you did to the fey queen. I mean, c’mon Piper, you ripped a hole in the veil between the worlds and snatched Jagger away from that psycho bitch. If that isn’t unadulterated power, then I don’t know what is… and I’m old as hell. I’ve seen a lot in my time.”

  I opened my mouth to argue, ready to cite the other powerful things I’d done before that, but then I remembered that Knox hadn’t witnessed them. He’d been unconscious and dying when I buried the warlocks, and he’d been leading our crew toward the portal back to Earth when I killed the fey queen’s men. Until the night I’d saved Jagger, Knox had only seen my more rudimentary magic at work.

  “You helped give me the power to save Jagger,” I argued.

  He shrugged off the credit with a shake of his head.

  “I amplify what you can do, Piper. But that power… it’s all you. And it’s more impressive than you’ll ever know.”

  “Are you saying I could kick your ass in a showdown, Knox?” I mused, quirking a brow at him.

  That earned me a real laugh, the kind that lit up his blue eyes so bright they almost glowed.

  “I’d put my money on you, I think.”

  “So you’re really not going to get mad at me about this plan?”

  “I’m not mad about it. I’m not willing to concede to it, though. We have plans to go out as a group, and we’ll keep them.” I opened my mouth to argue, but he shut me down. “For tonight. With any luck we’ll be rid of him tonight, and your plan will be moot.”

  “And if we aren’t?”

  “Then we’ll do it your way.” I tried not to smile at my small victory. “Let me be clear, Piper; I want to be the one to kill this thing. I want to be there when he takes his last strangled breath. And I think I could be of use to you in the hunt, if for no other reason than to amplify your abilities. But the last thing I want is to be a distraction to you—something that makes you lose your focus and gets you hurt somehow…” The unspoken ‘or killed’ hung heavy in the air between us. “Whether I like it or not, you’re far more my equal than someone I need to protect now. And though there will always be a part of me that wants to lock you up somewhere that harm can never find you, the other part—the one that has always craved someone to stand by my side—relishes the idea of you being what you’ve become.”

  “Your equal…”

  “My better half,” he corrected, taking my chin gently in his hand. His thumb brushed back and forth across my lips, lulling me into a state of calm I hadn’t felt since I’d rescued Jagger from the fey queen. “Just know that I am trying, Piper.” He leaned in close, his breath warm on my mouth. “For both our sakes.”

  “I appreciate that,” I replied, my words barely a whisper.

  “I’m glad to hear it,” he said before nipping my earlobe. “I’ve always wanted a woman that could teach me some new tricks.”

  “Happy to help,” I breathed, my body betraying me. I needed to go, but damned if my hormones weren’t telling me to stay.

  Then Kat burst into the kitchen, snapping my hormones into line.

  “Oh for fuck’s sake, you two. This is hardly the time.”

  Jagger, Foust, Grizz, and Brunton filed in behind her to fan out across the kitchen.

  “There’s always time for a quickie,” Jagger said, grabbing an apple out of the bowl on the counter.

  “That’s because it’s all you’re capable of,” Brunton countered, snatching it out of his hand. Jagger let out a warning growl, which only made Brunton laugh. “Not my fault that you can’t last, my friend.” He shot a sideward glance at Kat before taking a massive bite of the apple. “Some of us are just gifted.”

  “I’m amazed you’ve managed to get women in bed with you at all,” Kat replied. “Did you have to drug them first? Maybe knock them unconscious and then drag them into your cave to have your way with them?”

  “Sounds about right,” Foust deadpanned.

  “Humans are easy,” Brunton replied unapologetically.

  “And not at all discerning,” Kat added just to drive the knife in a little deeper. Brunton only smiled at her slight.

  “Sometimes I’m not in the mood for a challenge.”

  The implied ‘but sometimes I am’ hung so heavy in the air around us that I actually started coughing.

  “And sometimes I’m in the mood for a quickie,” Kat replied, winking at Jagger, who turned nearly as red as his hair. He smiled as he walked past Brunton, lifting his hand to mic drop as he headed for the fridge. He reached in a grabbed a peach out of the drawer.

  “That’s what I call an upgrade,” he said, taking a big old bite out of it and chewing it slowly. Brunton sneered back at him.

  “So should we start getting ready for tonight’s festivities?” Kat asked, ignoring the shenanigans going on around her. Kat was practically immune to things like that, unless she wanted to partake, of course. In that case, they’d go on until she decided it was time to be done. Her years at the bar had taught her a lot about how to toy with men.

  “Is it that time already?” I asked, my eyes darting to the clock on the wall.

  Yep. It was.

  “Brunton,” Knox said, drawing his attention away from Jagger, who was still grinning like an idiot with a cheek full of peach. “Go round up the boys. I’ll be out front in a few.” He looked back at me and smiled, raking his fingers through his tousled blond hair. “As for your plan, Piper, I have to admit it has merit. I don’t like it, but it has merit nonetheless. Let’s talk to the brothers about it and see what they think.”

  For the first time since the fey queen’s attack, the pain in my chest totally subsided. My pure joy eclipsed it in a heartbeat.

  “Okay!” I replied, shimmying off the counter in front of him. The way my escape forced me to rub against him elicited a mischievous expression from the alpha wolf.

  “I should let you have your way more often, I think,” he muttered to himself.

  “I literally can’t with you two,” Kat scoffed. “Grizz, let’s get out of here before they taint every marble surface in this room… which we don’t have time for, by the way.” Her words echoed behind her as she exited the kitchen, Grizz following her lead. He stopped just long enough to pin disapproving eyes on me before he too disappeared into the hallway. I tried to stifle my laugh but couldn’t. Instead, I let it out—allowing all sorts of tension I’d been holding out with it. The purge felt amazing. Necessary. And sorely overdue.

  “We should go,” I said, slinking away from Knox’s body and heated stare.

  I heard him let out a breath as I walked away.

  “We should,” he finally said, following behind me. “But damn I wish we didn’t have to.”

  Chapter Seven

  Our search led us to a part of the city I didn’t recognize. What I did recognize was the supernatural energy coming from an alley between two massive old buildings. We were all out and running down there the second the SUV was parked. As we neared, I could sense what we were coming upon. Werewolves. Lots of them.

  “Is our assassin among them?” Kat mused as she cracked her knuckles. The wolves, having heard our approach, scattered. The few that remained behind didn’t look very friendly.

  “What the fuck do you want?” one shouted to us as we neared.

  “We’re looking for something,” Knox said, slowing before we reached the others.

  “Like what?” the unknown wolf replied.

  “Trouble,” Kat said
with a wink, flashing a wide smile.

  “Looks like you found it, bitch,” he said, his boys coming out of the shadows to join him. “You’re in our part of the city. And I didn’t say you could be.”

  “I go wherever the fuck I want,” Kat replied, stepping toward him. Knox blocked her with an outstretched arm.

  “Around here you go where Mack lets you.”

  “Where is he?” Knox asked with a growl, his attention now on the wolf that had sold Jagger out instead of on the assassin. There would be a heavy price to pay for that mistake.

  Before the wolf could reply, he was cast aside by a blur of motion. Then all hell broke loose.

  It was inconceivable how fast the attacker moved. In the blink of an eye, he shot through the crowd and dropped two of Knox’s wolves in a growing pool of blood. One second, they were poised for a fight; the next, they were dead on the ground, heads severed from their bodies.

  As the other pack bolted from the scene, I worked to locate the assassin. Tamping down my fear, I called my magic to cage the beast, drawing on the rage I felt as I looked upon the two corpses. There would be no more. Not if I had any say in it.

  “Stop him!” I shouted, firing the words out like I would flame from my hands. For a moment, I thought it had worked. The blur of motion ceased somewhere far from where the melee had started. I ran toward him, but before I got there, a hand shot forth out of the air and dragged him through a slice in the veil just like the one I had created to save Jagger.

  “I’ll see you soon,” a male voice called to me right before the killer disappeared.

  “DAMMIT!” I yelled as the din of the chaos died off. Knox and Foust were at the sides of their fallen pack members and I joined them, if only to confirm what I already knew.

  They were beyond saving.

  “Did you catch him?” Jagger asked, his tone hopeful as he looked around at the mob, hoping to see an unfamiliar face. But there wasn’t one to find.

  “No, he got away. I was able to stop him, but he had help from across the veil.”

  “The fey king,” Brunton growled as he approached. “I can smell his stench all around here.”

  Knox was eerily quiet, and with every passing second, it made me more anxious. He should have been a growling, howling ball of anger. But he wasn’t. He was too quiet. Too still.

  “Knox?” I called to him softly, not wanting to be the one to cause him to snap. But even my coaxing didn’t draw him out. He just sat there, his hands on the chests of his fallen boys, not speaking.

  Foust looked up at Brunton and then me. Apparently he didn’t know what to do either.

  “We need to go,” Jase said from behind me, taking my arm in his hand. “The wolves—the other ones—we’ve dealt with most, but some got away. We’re in no position to fight right now if they come with reinforcements.”

  “They’re part of the largest pack in the city,” Dean added, looking around as though we might be ambushed at any moment. Given our track record, it was a smart move.

  “Okay. Get the vehicles and drive them back here.” I looked down at where Knox still knelt beside the bodies. “We can’t leave them here.”

  Jase looked like he wanted to argue but didn’t, ghosting away with his brother to do as I’d asked. I cast a wary look at Brunton and Foust, their expressions reflecting the concern I felt for Knox in that moment. Something was wrong with him. Something that scared me. Grizz, feeling my anxiety, was at my side in a second, hovering over me like his body alone could shelter me from whatever was to come.

  “Knox,” I said softly, putting my hand on his shoulder. It tensed the moment I made contact, so I yanked my arm away. Apparently my touch wasn’t helping things.

  The rumble of the caravan arriving was a welcome distraction. Jase and Dean pulled two of the SUVs up close, hopping out to see if there was anything to help with. But when they got too close to the fallen werewolves, Knox snapped. Big time.

  He shot to his feet, golden eyes blazing at them. He lunged for Jase, clawed hand drawn back to strike. Dean drew his blades from the holster at his back, prepared to fight alongside his brother. But Foust, ever the diplomat, grabbed Knox’s arm, prepared to face his wrath rather than start a war with the enforcers. He seemed to understand that that was the last thing we needed—that we were stronger together.

  Stronger as one big pack.

  Jase never flinched at Knox’s advance. He stood strong, prepared to weather the alpha’s outburst. I loved him so much in that moment; loved how someone born to fight could have such compassion. He knew it had nothing to do with him—that Knox was lashing out because of guilt—but he let him do it nonetheless. And as Foust and Brunton held back their leader, Jase just stood before him, calm as could be.

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” he said. I could feel the sincerity in his words, and they drew a tear from my eye. Grizz put his hands on my shoulders, grounding me. I saw the fight leave Knox, the tension in his strong, lean frame melting away to defeat. Foust and Brunton clapped him on his back, trying to help bolster his mood, but they couldn’t. He walked down the alley, past the parked vehicles, and disappeared into the night.

  “He’ll be okay,” Foust said, as if reading my mind. I wasn’t so sure he was right. In fact, it looked like Knox would be anything but.

  “We have to go,” Jase said, the urgency in his voice plain.

  Brunton and Foust picked up the fallen boys and carried them to the back of the lead SUV. Dean opened the doors for them and stepped back to give them access. As he looked over them to me, I could see the concern in the set of his brow. And Dean didn’t let much, if anything, get to him.

  Another ominous sign.

  Kat, who had remained quiet the whole time, slid up beside me, startling me. I jumped, grabbing my chest as I stifled a tiny scream.

  “Jesus!” I said, exhaling hard.

  “Sorry. I forget that your hearing isn’t like mine.”

  “I’m going to need you to start remembering that. Like soon.”

  “No problem.” She was quiet for a second, which was unlike her. I turned to see her strained profile. She was looking at something down the alley. She took off in a flash, running down something I hadn’t seen. Worried it was the killer, I squealed and took off after her. Foust, Brunton, and Jagger passed me without effort, and Jase and Dean appeared out of nowhere at her side. Pumping my arms and legs as fast as I could, I finally caught up to where the rest of them stood, circled around someone I couldn’t yet see.

  Or something.

  “Well, well, well… what have we here?” Kat said, her words a terrifying purr.

  I struggled to push my way through the wall of massive bodies, but once I succeeded, I was met with an unexpected sight—or feeling, as the case seemed to be. At first, it looked like they were all staring at nothing; just the brick wall of whatever building we stood behind. But when I looked closer—leaned toward it—I felt the pull of magic. Fey magic.

  “Son of a bitch,” I muttered, the words spilling out through my disbelief. “Another portal.”

  “Bingo,” Kat said, stepping closer. I threw out an arm to keep her back. The last thing we needed was for her to be taken to Faerie by whomever was lingering on the other side. “I thought you told Jagger he had help escaping. How did he get away?”

  “Someone ripped a hole in the air out of nowhere and snatched that asshole back to safety.”

  Which, of course, made no sense when there was another means of escape maybe another hundred yards down the alley.

  “So why is this here?” she asked, pressing the issue. I wished I had answers for her.

  “I don’t know.”

  The group looked frustrated by the dead end. All except for Jagger. He looked terrified.

  “Jagger? What’s wrong?” I asked, stepping closer to him. I put my hand on his arm, hoping he’d feel better from the contact. But all it seemed to do was make him more tense.

  “I smell Mack,” he said. “I smelled hi
m on some of the wolves, but here… I smell him here too.”

  “Shit,” Foust bit out, walking back down the alley toward the SUVs. “How deep is that guy in with the fey?”

  “I don’t know,” Jagger said, frustration in his tone. He was desperate to make up for the wrong he’d done, and the fact that he couldn’t was weighing on him.

  “Can you close this?” Jase asked, thinking of the implications.

  “I’ll try,” I said. “It feels different than the others.”

  “That’s because it doesn’t go to the queen,” Brunton offered, confirming what I feared; that the fey king also had ties to our side of the veil, and that maybe Mack was one of them.

  “We need to get out of here,” Dean said, heading back toward the vehicles. All but Kat and Grizz followed suit, leaving us behind to try to shut down the portal looming in the alley. I called forth my magic and uttered a command to seal the portal under my breath. It was met with resistance at first, like the portal was fighting back. But the more I pressed, putting my hand on the amulet hiding under my shirt, I felt the door start to close, blocking the king’s gateway to our side. With a loud pop, it snapped closed.

  There was no remnant of its power left behind.

  “Well done,” Kat said, nodding in approval. “Now let’s do what the vamp said and get the fuck out of here.”

  We walked toward the caravan, a weight over us—a nagging sensation that I couldn’t shake. The fey king’s killer was after something. Something specific. Something he wouldn’t give up on. It made me wonder how many more of Knox’s boys would be lost in our attempt to bring down the faceless assassin.

  I wondered if Knox could survive another.

  Chapter Eight

  Not surprisingly, Merc was furious when we arrived back at the mansion. He was not happy that I’d accompanied the search party that night. Though I understood that his anger was driven by fear, it still stung. Since I’d returned to the city, he’d never been mad at me. Never raised his voice, not even when I’d nearly destroyed our bond by attempting to kill the vampire king. Since he was normally so calm, his reactions were starting to concern me, especially given our past.