Page 38 of Never Run from an Immortal

“It looked real to me.”

She filed that understupid shit that’s come out of Bax’s mouthand chose to ignore it. Aidan had his reasons just as much as she did; being his Odalik only worked in their favour if it looked real, but the way Bax was looking at her, that was something she couldn’t ignore.

He reached out and touched her face, but she smacked him away, putting space between them. “I think you should go. I can handle this from here.”

“My offer stands if you change your mind. Be careful with him, Rae.” He didn’t start the engine, but he didn’t move from the bike either. Fine. If he wouldn’t leave, she would.

Rae took off without another word, waiting for the sound of the engine roaring to life behind her, but it never came. She’d already rounded the first corner when she finally heard it, casting aside Baxter’s strange behaviour to pick apart later.

The buildings changed to the metal-fronted hardware units, and incense clung to her clothes from passing the temple. Her skin prickled. The air was thick, and she knew if she could see the sky beyond the city lights, it would be heavy with clouds.

A storm was coming. Wonderful. Rae hated storms even more than she hated being Aidan’s Odalik, but if a little thunder meant getting her one step closer to finding Nim, she’d endure it.

Chapter nineteen

Rae kept her footsteps light and even as she made her way to the meeting point to find Reed. She hadn’t expected Baxter to accompany her—he knew she could look after herself—but even she could admit to herself as she walked down the narrow alleyway, it had been a mistake to come alone.

Her PAD buzzed in her pocket, but she didn’t want to risk being distracted by it. The first crack of thunder rumbled in the distance as a figure stepped out of the shadows, and Rae hurried over as she realised it was Reed.

“Nim?” Rae asked, catching the Fae’s weight as he stumbled. He didn’t look injured, but that didn’t mean anything. His clothes were crumpled and dirty, and he didn’t make eye contact. Wouldn’t. Fresh panic sliced through her as she helped the Fae to balance.

“Alive,” was all he managed to say, his voice thin and raspy.

Rae took in his empty gaze, the shallow rise and fall of his shoulders, the ashen tone to his usually sun-kissed skin. Shockor not, her patience was wearing thin. “Where is she? What happened?” Her PAD was buzzing like crazy now, message after message, but she didn’t dare take her hands off Reed, not until she got some answers about her friend.

Dark green eyes finally snapped up to meet hers. “It all happened so fast.” He swallowed, eyes darting around at the next clap of thunder. “Need to get her out.” The Fae stumbled again, and this time Rae couldn’t hold his weight as he fell to his knees.

“We,” she hissed, tugging at his shirt, desperation stealing her breath. “You’re going to show me. Tell me where she is.”

“I…” Reed closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. “You don’t understand. What they’re doing down there… it’s… unnatural.” He shuddered and dragged his hands through his hair as fat drops of rain began to fall around them. They needed to move, to get inside. Rae swallowed down the lump in her throat and willed the nausea washing over her to ease, silently working through options of where to take him. Thunder boomed again, and Reed flinched as if struck.

Rae was impatient but not unkind. “Why don’t we go somewhere and talk about this?” She had a good idea of what he’d seen, what he might have endured, memories of the cells she’d witnessed with Aidan flooding her thoughts. “Somewhere warm and dry.” At the back of her mind, in the space she’d allowed just for the Vampire Lord, she felt his presence, as if he were trying to get in. She couldn’t give him access to Reed, not like this—the Fae would be dead within seconds. So she kept Aidan locked out, opting to deal with him later. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“I can’t.” The Fae swallowed, his throat bobbing. “Nim… I can’t leave her. And the others…” His voice broke. “I need to warn my friends. Everyone.” Reed’s hair was already plasteredto his face, unblinking eyes staring at the way the rain ran over his hands, puncture marks and bruises marring both of them.

Rae shivered. “We will,” she told him, her voice as soothing as she could manage despite the fear that had wrapped around her heart. “We’ll warn them all. Come on, come with me.”

Something flickered on the Fae’s chest as he shook his head. A red light. Rae didn’t hesitate—she slammed her weight into him, pulling him down in time to see a bullet impact the wet ground behind them. “Move!” She tugged him into the nearest doorway and murmured a spell to crack open the lock. “Can you speak when you shift?” The door swung open as more bullets hit the ground beside them with dull thuds. Reed snarled, snapping out of his stupor and pulling Rae through with him. She muttered another spell to seal the door shut, listening for movement on the other side and waiting for his response.

“A few words, the teeth get in the way,” Reed snapped as another bullet hit the door behind them. “I can’t shift in here anyway, there’s not enough space.”

“Then get talking and follow me.” Rae darted off through the building, knowing that where there was one human with a gun, there were no doubt more. “Tell me everything, now.”

Another door opened up into a room full of long, narrow machines stretching its length, fabric pooling at their base. This part of Second District was full of clothing factories, all human-designed. Rae could barely see over the machines, but that was good; if they stayed low, they could remain out of sight.

Reed said nothing, just kept close, listening for approaching footsteps, Rae presumed, but over the noise of the machines, he’d have little chance of that. He wore no jacket, his shirt already soaked through from the rain, patches of what she’d thought to be dirt before now unmistakable as blood. And Nim had been left behind. But there was no time to dwell on her friend’s circumstances. She unlocked another door, steppinginto a room full of rows of sewing machines, stacks of waiting scraps of fabric piled beside each of them, the space dark and silent. Above, a metal walkway led to another level. Rae didn’t like any of it, but the only way out was through.

They made it halfway amongst the grid of machines before shots sunk into a stack of fabric beside them, a bullet grazing Rae’s arm. “Fuck,” she hissed, already murmuring another spell. The scraps of fabric and half-sewn garments beside each machine launched into the air, a flurry of material dancing about them like flapping birds as more bullets pinged off the machinery.

Another brush against her thoughts, her PAD buzzing furiously in her back pocket, but there was no time to stop and gaze at a screen; she needed to focus. Blood ran freely down her arm, and there was no doubt a crimson trail streaked the floor behind them. Reed seemed to notice at the same time she did, snatching a scrap of fabric from the air and handing it to her as they made it to the next door. Rae murmured again, the flurry of garments becoming more frantic, but this time Reed shouldered the door open, pulling her through with him.

“Out is this way. I can smell the rain,” he said gruffly.

Thank the Goddess for that. Rae barely registered the final dark corridor Reed all but dragged her through, the door he slammed open out into the pouring rain, or the second he took to leap through it, one moment a male, the next a wild cat bigger than anything she’d ever seen. Not a lion, a sabre cat, with canines as long as her forearm and twice as thick as her fingers. He wasn’t exaggerating when he said they’d interfere with his speech.

A bullet sank into the doorframe beside her, and Rae remembered herself, darting out into the rain after him. He was an easy target, but he was also her only cover on this side of the warehouse. They’d come outside to what must have been adelivery entrance, a wide empty quad flanked by buildings, and they still needed a way out.

Rae didn’t possess advanced eyesight, and no amount of spells would make it so. A spear of lightning split the sky and illuminated two humans crouched behind crates, the scopes of their weapons flashing in the light as Rae ran. Reed had spotted them too, and the Fae wasted no time barrelling into them both, a roar escaping him as he flung them in the air.

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