Page 15 of Black Hand
“Lead the way, Brooklyn,” he snarled, and my shoulders lifted all the way to my ears from the deep sigh rushing past my lips.
“It’s going to be a long night,” I murmured, and then I led the way, doing exactly as he asked.
Hopefully Alice had some catnip at her place. Otherwise, I might’ve just throttled the shifter before I killed him.
8
It should’ve been weird to have my back turned while a shifter was prowling right behind me, but the one keeping me in his sights at all times somehow put me at ease. It could be the fact that he did get me out when I was surely going to die, but I had a nagging feeling it was more than that. There was just something about him. I couldn’t even get myself to use my voice to get him off my ass. Maybe it was the way he bravely walked inside the mansion full of Atua when most of us that lived there wanted to do nothing but get the hell out. Or the way he actually looked insulted when I got him out of Johnathan’s way and made him run.
Whatever it was, I had every intention of figuring it out.
He intrigued me.
“Where are we going?” This was the third time he’d asked the same.
He also annoyed me a little, too.
On the second trip around the same block, I could practically hear the cogs in his mind churning with everything he was fighting not to say. There was not a force in this world that could’ve kept the small smile off my face. The poor guy was brimming so much with unasked questions that the air around him felt charged. Light mist started sprinkling from the sky, which did nothing to help my unlikely companion. Apparently, what they said was true and cats and water didn’t mix well. I, on the other hand, did not mind it, or the sharp bite in the air nipping at my skin. I had too many emotions still waiting to erupt like a volcano at any moment, so the cold kind of helped keep my mind off of them.
“Why are we walking around the same block again?” He couldn’t keep his question to himself anymore.
“I thought shifters liked being taken out for a walk around the block.” Keeping him at my back so he didn’t see the grin I was fighting, I shrugged a shoulder and made sure my tone was conversational. “Should I have leashed you to make it more appealing to you?”
My back hit the wall of the building hard enough for the structure to tremble for a second, and my teeth rattled from the force of the hit. My heartbeat sped up when he pressed his body to mine and pinned me between brick and a wall of muscle. I kept my gaze steady on his eyes, which were turned into slits and spitting venom.
“Do not play games with me, female.” The threat was unmistakable in the words that were spoken softly over my lips. The hand around my throat tightened, not cutting off my air completely but enough to make me fight for a breath.
“Let me guess. Or you’ll kill me,” I deadpanned.
“Do you wish to die?”
“No, but I do wish you could keep your mouth shut.” And just because I thought his arrogance needed a little wakeup call, I had us in a reverse position before he could see it coming, and this time it was his back hitting the wall. I didn’t have a hand around his neck. The tips of my fangs made dents on his throat, and I knew he barely felt it, but it was enough to pierce his skin. “Not knowing who you are attacking can cost you your life, kitty.”
His body shivered and goosebumps erupted on the skin where my breath puffed up with each word. I could feel his heart kicking into a faster rhythm, and the barely audible growl deep in his chest did not escape me. His jaw clenched and a muscle jumped in it when he realized his body’s reaction. It must’ve chipped at his pride, no doubt. I actually knew it did because he was fighting not to shift.
“Either bite or back off.” His voice was rough, the rasp in it doing stupid things to my girly parts, so I pushed away from him.
“I just want to make sure no one is following us,” I answered his question from a while ago after we stared at each other for way too long, our fast breaths curling like smoke from our mouths and nostrils in the cold night. “You can think of me anything you want, but I’m not trying to get my friends killed.” Unable to understand the slight frown between his eyebrows or the confusion blanketing his face, I didn’t even try.
Spinning on my heel, I started down the sidewalk again, grateful that this part of town was mostly abandoned and empty. Pages of old newspapers were dancing in the breeze curling and flopping like dying butterflies in the cast of the yellow streetlights. A few wrecked cars were parked on the side of the road, their wheels missing and bricks propped under them to hold their weight. Broken widows stared at us like gaping holes and doors leaned tipped to the side after being ripped off their hinges. Faint light met my gaze from time to time from a depleted tiny home with peeled-off paint and drying grass in the front yard. The stench of urine and who knew what else was soaked into the asphalt, and no amount rain or washing would ever take it off. It suited me just fine for what I was doing, but I never understood why Alice lived here.
For that reason, I never asked.
The shifter stayed silent and deep in thought until we reached the rectangular gray building with a flat roof and boarded double doors. The glass was smashed a long time ago, Alice told me, but plywood apparently did wonders to keep the place safe. It didn’t look safe at all to me, but I never understood humans in general. She might be right. Pushing the gate of the thigh-high wooden fence I was across the small pathway and up the two steps in no time, the shifter right behind me. My hard rap on the door made the plywood rattle, so I yanked my hand back not wanting to break it.
Silence met me, apart from the few barks and the screech of a bird.
The shifter shuffled his feet impatiently behind me, but I stayed staring at the doors willing them to open. Veronica’s bruised and bloody face floated to the front of my mind as she mouthed“I love you, Bee,”and dread spread through me like a wave. My whole body tingled and cold sweat trickled down my spine.Come on, Alice. Open the door,I chanted in my head, but I was too afraid to open it myself because I was terrified of what I might find inside. I made sure no one followed us when I accompanied her here. There was no way anyone in the Syndicate knew where she was.
“We can go from the back.” The shifter made me jump when he spoke from the side of the building. I didn’t even hear him move.
“You don’t have to kill me, kitty. You can just scare me to death.” I glared, and then was left with my mouth hanging open when he smiled.
It brightened his entire face. Straight white teeth blinked in the light of the streetlamp in the corner, stretching his full lips up his cheeks. His eyes lifted at the corners and humor made them brighter somehow. The harsh lines of his face softened, which gave him a boyish appeal and also shaved away the sternness I was used to seeing there.
“Little jumpy, are we?” Chuckling, he kept grinning and I couldn’t help but join him.
At least he wasn’t glaring at me.
