34. Dane
Chapter thirty-four
Dane
“What’s taking him so long? He’s twenty fucking feet away,” I snap, jumping to my feet in preparation to storm over there and drag him out. I’d say do the plan without Reid, but he plays a key role. Particularly with me.
Kellan steps between me and the door with a stupid grin. “Relax, Rapunzel. We’ve got time.”
I don’t get what he’s so excited about. He’s fought with Thorne twice before, but since finding out his zombie status, it’s like he’s been itching for a rematch.
I’m the opposite.
I’m secretly dreading the fight with the undead wind master. I know it needs to be done, though. I just want to get it over with already.
“What time did your buddy agree to meet with him? Isn’t it in five minutes?” I argue back.
If we miss this window, what are the chances Thorne will take the bait again? This is our chance to make a bigger move on GE. I’ve been waiting for this moment since Raegan told us about Royce and Jackson started following the wind psycho again.
Kell shrugs, smirking.
“It’s all right, Dane,” Aiden intervenes, as he always does. Normally, his involvement would mollify me enough to keep my mouth shut. He’s done more for me than anyone—aside from Rae, now that I know about it.
She’s sitting in one of the sofa chairs, practicing twirling and catching her knives. Jackson pinches a blade mid-spin between his finger and thumb, and she cranes her head back to look at him. He’s sitting on the back of her chair with his boots perched on the arms, his head leaning into one fist as he smiles at her. They exchange words in a hushed conversation, completely oblivious to the rest of the room.
It’s fine.
This burning in my chest won’t kill me.
Drama king.
Fucking Kellan.
“Thorne isn’t going to leave just because this guy he’s meeting is a few minutes late. It works in our favor to be late so he drops his guard,” Aiden continues, and I force my stare away from Raegan and back to him. “He’s the one who bumped the meeting time up with short notice, so he can’t expect punctuality.”
I’m not looking for reasoning or logic right now.
I want action.
I glare at Kellan, debating throwing a fist at that smirk, but the asshole would take it like a brick wall and wind up grinning more.
Even if I muted his gift first.
Prick.
Turning away from him to fight that temptation seems like the best option, so that’s what I do. I stalk over to the wall and press my head and forearm against it to cool down.
I know I’m getting too worked up. If I let my emotions run wild, I’ll fuck this up, and the only person I can blame will be myself. I take a long, slow breath.
This is going to work .
Another breath.
We’re going to capture him and get answers on Royce. On GE’s president.
Another breath.
We’re going to end this war once and for all.
“Hey. You, okay?” Raegan pokes her head under mine at an angle, her blonde hair tumbling behind her to expose every line, every soft curve of her face. Her vibrant blue eyes swim with concern, and my gut reaction is to reassure her.
“Yeah.” I lift my head and turn to her, scratching the back of my head out of nerves to keep my hands occupied. “But I’ll be better once we’ve got the cuffs on him.”
She reaches tentatively for my hand. I don’t move it. As much as I want to reach out and take it, I’m still doing my best not to push anything between us. I’ve already admitted what I want. What happens next is up to her.
And she wound up sleeping with Aiden instead , a dark part of me snarks.
She takes my hand, and I squeeze it gently. She smiles, and it takes all my willpower to keep from tugging her into my chest, from wrapping her in my arms and holding tight. I want to feel her strength, and I want to share mine.
There’s knocking at the door, and her hand drops. Aiden opens it to let Reid inside.
“Sorry I’m late,” he speaks evenly, without an ounce of actual apology in his tone. He scans the room, stops on Raegan, and then shifts to me right beside her. It hasn’t passed my notice, or the others’, how he seems to watch her.
“Here’s your comm. Make sure you get somewhere close but out of sight until one of us gives the signal.” Aiden hands Reid the earpiece. He looks to me, and I offer him a short nod.
I’m ready.
Reid brings us to a rooftop in the heart of the city. We’re a couple blocks away from the meeting location in case Thorne plans to scope out the area first. Jackson does just that as soon as we arrive to make sure Thorne doesn’t have backup of his own hanging around.
The rest, aside from Reid and I, head out to meet Thorne first.
Waiting is the worst.
I’d rather be walking with them or doing any-fucking-thing else than pacing this rooftop and trying to be patient. Reid’s settled himself against something, his eyes closed and arms crossed as if this isn’t the worst time to fall asleep. We have to be ready to move at a moment’s notice because, with Thorne, every second matters.
“Hey!” I shout at him. “You can sleep when we get back.”
His eyes open and lock on me, but he doesn’t say anything.
As usual, the guy’s harder to read than anyone I’ve ever met.
“What’s this?” Thorne’s voice echoes through the earpiece, and I stop moving. He gives a sinister laugh. “I’d asked for information, but having you appear instead is a surprise.”
“I heard you’ve been asking around about me,” Jackson replies.
I move to Reid’s side and grip the open bracelet, which is more like a handcuff, in one hand, and hold his shoulder with the other.
“Oh, I have. There’re orders to kill you on sight, but I think you and I can work something out.”
“I think we’ve proven neither of us can be trusted.”
“Now!” Aiden orders.
I barely have time to bend my knees before Reid transports us to the meeting location. He does a double jump. Once to assess everyone’s positions and then again to put us at Thorne’s back. My fingers dig into his shoulder to hold on as I fight the wave of nausea at the extreme disorientation.
We land behind him while he’s focused on the others who’ve now joined Jack to act as a distraction. My body threatens to fall forward, but I take a step and use it to launch myself at him. I grab the arm he’s raised to attack and choke when his stench hits me.
“Ah, fuck!”
My already uneasy stomach clenches.
“Get off!” Thorne growls, jerking his arm and moving me with it.
My hand clings to his arm as tight as I can. I hold my breath, for whatever good it’ll do now, and scramble to reach the open bracelet. The psycho apparently has the same idea because he cuts off my oxygen.
That’s fine. I didn’t want to breathe near him anyway.
I snap the bracelet around his wrist so we’re now linked together with the other ring around me. The others are fighting him at his front, forcing him to defend himself rather than attack me, and it gives me the time to concentrate on my gift. A soft white glow encompasses my hand as my gift activates and I press my power over his, smothering it like a lid over a fire to cut off its oxygen.
Air rushes back into my lungs, and I curse at the foul smell. I keep pushing my gift until his is completely muted, then hold it there. “It’s done!” I yell.
The others rush at him, but I’m too preoccupied keeping my grip on him as he fights to get me off to pay them any attention.
“Let go, you little shit!” Thorne bellows.
I plant my feet and lean back as he tries to pull his arm free from me. Even if it does slip, the bracelet won’t let me get far, and I’ll just grab him again.
“It’s on. Get his other wrist,” Aiden directs.
Thorne curses and fights against us, but his strength lies in his gift, not his rotting body. With six of us against him, it doesn’t take long for us to restrain him.
Kellan grabs the arm I’m holding and brings it forward to click the other cuff to his wrist. I undo the bracelet on him as soon as that’s done, ready to put some distance between me and this fucking corpse.
I’m going to need a scalding hot shower after I get back just to cleanse the odor from my lungs.
Thorne’s voice raises to a higher pitch just before Reid teleports us to the butcher shop Jackson and Aiden had prepared. “—die!” He stops and licks his bloodless lips, hunched over and heaving deep breaths as he acclimatizes from the jump. His one good eye seeks out Jackson and he grabs him by the front of his hoodie.
“You have to let me go. If I don’t check in, if he thinks I’ve been compromised—”
Jack holds a blade to his wrist. “Let go, or I’ll cut off your hands.”
Thorne’s lips stretch to a creepy smirk. “Do it.”
Fucker.
I grab his upper arm and cover his gift with mine. I hate that I have to touch him again, but if we have to move the cuff to his ankle just so Jackson can make a point, then let’s get it over with. “You asked for it.”
Thorne grabs for the knife, but Jackson flips it just out of reach. The zombie curses and glares at me. I raise my eyebrows at him. I’m not fucking excited to have any contact with him, either.
“Oh, shit!” Raegan exclaims.
My attention snaps to her to see what I missed. She’s staring at Thorne’s chest. Where Jackson’s embedded his knife in to its hilt.
“Fuck! What did you do?!” We haven’t asked him anything yet! I shove Jack back, and he takes the knife with him with a smirk.
“Dane, wait,” Aiden says, placing a hand on my arm. I pause and look back at where Thorne had been stabbed. “There’s hardly any blood.”
Thorne sneers and I realize he hadn’t even noticed being stabbed. He looks more annoyed that Jackson did it than by the hole in his chest.
Jack holds the knife up before him, canting his head as he studies the thin streaks of red. His gaze falls back on Thorne. “Do you feel pain?”
Raegan’s eyes widen.
Kellan gives a dark chuckle. “Well, that’s damn inconvenient.”
How are we supposed to get information out of him if that’s the case? Ask nicely?
Thorne smirks at Jackson. “You can’t hurt me. You can’t kill me. And there’s no reason for me to share anything with you. This was a daring move, but a foolish one.”
Fuck.
Aiden steps forward, drawing his attention. “Was it?” Thorne frowns, his brows pinching as he turns his attention to Aiden. “Or are you doing exactly what we want?” he mocks in a slow croon. “Because the second you realized you were being taken hostage, you freaked out. You’re more scared of being here, held captive, than of anything else we might do to you.”
Thorne’s lips thin.
“So, that’s exactly what we’ll do. We’ll keep you here. So long as you refuse to share any information, we’ll let you sit here another few hours. Another day. A week. It doesn’t matter to us. How long do you think your master will let you sit here without reporting in before he comes to retrieve his lost puppet?”
“You’re using me as bait ?” Thorne spits out.
“Or…” Aiden leans forward, ignoring Thorne and dropping his voice to a threatening tone. “You could answer our questions, and we may let you be on your way. You’re not the one we’re after. You’re just an annoying pebble caught in our shoe.” He smiles at Thorne and straightens. “We’ll let you think it over.” A loud clank echoes through the freezer—that’s no longer cold—and a heavy chain rattles from the cuffs on Thorne to the metal loop bolted to the floor at his feet. Aiden walks out, and we all take that as our cue to leave and follow him.