Page 95 of The Thief

“A woman brought us here to see the Relic. She drove by and saw we needed help. I wanted to give her money and thank her.”

“No need,” Archer said with a sly grin. “I already paid her in full.”

“What the fuck?” Bear growled. “You’re nothing but a dirty dog.”

Archer climbed into the back passenger seat. “Maybe so, but it was the best sex I’ve ever had. And I’ve had a lot of sex to compare it to.”

“It better not have been in my car.”

Lucian hopped in next to Archer. “Did you at least get the female’s name?”

“What for? She was just passing through town.”

“Maybe for the sake of you looking like less of a slut,” Lucian suggested.

Bear helped me into the front passenger seat. My legs were like jelly.

Before I could get myself situated, I passed out from exhaustion.

* * *

Hours earlier

“See you later, Calvin!” I called out from the doorway.

The Texas night air smothered me like a weighted blanket. Some days the humidity soared along with the temperatures. I didn’t mind, especially on beautiful nights like these when the stars were twinkling like diamonds and the crickets trilled like songbirds in the grass.

Bear was so busy that I didn’t want to bother him with goodbyes. The sooner I got home, the better.

When I reached my Vespa, I lifted the seat and stared in disbelief. I always put my helmet in the storage compartment.

I mashed my lips together in frustration and anger. Maybe karma was giving me a taste of my own medicine little by little.

“It’s only a helmet,” I said, tamping down the fire burning in my stomach. “That’s what I get for not locking the seat. You gotta lock the seat, Mercy.”

Foregoing the goggles, I started up the bike. I usually wore them on the dirt roads, but I didn’t want anything covering my eyes at night.

After turning onto Juniper Road, I drove around the gate instead of lifting it—one of the perks of having a scooter. Evening wind blew through my hair and felt five degrees cooler when I passed by a creek. The downside of riding at night was the occasional bug smacking into my face or chest. There were too many creepy-crawlies in the country. Grasshoppers were the worst. I’d had one scare the living daylights out of me the other night when it sprang out of nowhere onto my neck.

My headlamp reflected off a shiny vehicle in the distance, parked on the left side of the road where I needed to turn. Noticing Argento standing behind it, his gloved hands clenched into fists, I grappled with a rising panic. As I drew closer, menace burned in his eyes.

Ambush.

When he stepped onto the road, I hit the gas and weaved around him. My scooter sped in a direction I’d never gone before, and a sinking feeling washed over me. I glanced over my shoulder, and my heart leaped into my throat. Argento was flashing so close behind that I could see my taillights in his eyes.

My first instinct was to accelerate. His fingers touched my back as he flashed beside me, becoming nothing but a blur.

When I kicked my foot out and struck him, Argento hit the ground, but the force of the kick threw my bike off-balance, and I wobbled. While I was braking, my Vespa swerved off the road. The bumpy ground rattled the bike, making it difficult to maintain my grip. Everything happened so fast as I steered right to avoid a tree. The front wheel hit a deep hole with a bang.

Then I was soaring through the darkness like an eagle. My life flashed before my eyes, and I barely had time to grieve for my own death before my body slammed into the ground at an angle. The force knocked the wind out of my lungs, my hands and arms scraping against the ground as I rolled like a stone in a tumbler.

My thoughts switched off when my head struck a hard object. Disoriented, I glanced up at the stars spinning like a carnival ride. Then the pain registered, and it stunned me. My skin burned, my head throbbed, and a sharp twinge in my back made it difficult to move.

A shadow loomed over me, and I thought it was death.

As it drew closer and knelt, I noticed faint glitters of light in the Mage’s eyes.

“Give me what is mine,” he snarled, “or I will bring terror to your life. I will destroy everything you cherish, and you will never know when I might strike next. It would be a shame if that bar were to burn to the ground. So many grass fires in the country. Who might you love? There is nowhere you can hide, Mercy. No one who can protect you! Not your pack, not anyone.”

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