Chapter Forty-Three
Nicole
NICOLE HAD WONDERED ALL THOSE MONTHS AGO WHEN she’d first met Kyan, what it would be like if he ever had to run after her.
She hadn’t expected herself to be near intoxicated with adrenaline, gratitude, and desire when he did.
He didn’t hold back. He’d warned her he wouldn’t. Couldn’t, to keep them both safe. And when he almost caught her a few times, the snatch of the hem of her dress and the brush of his fingers had her reciting that core rule of her mother’s.
What do you do if an Empyreal finds you?
You run.
Yet, even having kicked off her heels, grabbing one as a makeshift weapon, then racing through the night with Kyan chasing her, Nicole felt alive.
She allowed her senses free rein and her body to take her, allowing her true speed to be unleashed, because the Wake knew.
They knew, and she had to run like she fucking meant it.
But beyond that exhilaration, there was a lash of fear. To be so exposed, to feel so triggered. Her only saving grace was that it was Kyan chasing her.
They planned to run right past where the Wake could see. Kyan had explained that in certain supernatural hotspots in the city, the Wake had cameras set up that were attuned to supernaturals.
Most creatures knew what an Empyreal’s black tactical gear meant – they were on a hunt, and were not to be disturbed.
The gear also had a varnish in the weave that deflected human attention, which meant they wouldn’t even glance unless they were interacted with.
Usually, the chasing Empyreal Influenced their appearance enough that no one would stop them.
Creatures would think Nicole was dangerous, a killer maybe.
She supposed they were right. She still had the death of the Wight on her hands, but she didn’t, couldn’t, regret it. That death had saved countless people.
It still set all her fears blazing as they raced past a few supernaturals.
Now came the tricky moment. The part that would buy them the most credibility.
The part when he caught her, and she got away.
Dylan and Remi would have left the Speakeasy by now, Lawna tailing them for safety so Remi could split off and get back to the house. Then Callum could reunite with Dylan where they’d stashed a change of clothes for Nicole so they could follow back to the townhouse.
All was going to plan but her heart still launched into her throat when Kyan’s hands wrapped around her waist and the floor disappeared from under her. Her stomach nearly did too when he threw her over his shoulder.
‘Let go,’ she snarled.
‘The Wake want to speak with you.’ He used that tone he first had in Estwood – no-nonsense. Patient, diplomatic.
‘Who the—’
One word cut through their dialogue like a knife.
‘DYLAN!’
It was a scream. A real, true scream.
It was Remi.
The sound lashed through Nicole like a transformation.
Suddenly, she was abandoning their plan, their route. Kyan froze beneath her. She didn’t want any more pain, she didn’t want to hurt him. But the game was up.
Nicole reached, twisting to arc her body against the hard curve of his shoulder, and fought every instinct to protect him, so she could bring the heel of her shoe down towards his neck.
It didn’t puncture in reality. They had drawn blood from him earlier today and put it in a fake pack at his neck, so that when he reported to the Wake tonight, it would match his own blood and verify his story.
She hit the bag and twisted, getting her legs around him and swinging her weight to tip them.
They hit the floor, and she ran at a dead sprint to the sound of her family.
Dylan
DYLAN AND REMI HAD JUST MET LAWNA SO THEY COULD take alternative routes back to the townhouse when he stilled.
He turned to find a giant form in black tactical gear at the end of the alley instead.
Kyan?
Remi turned too.
Kyan and Nicole had told everyone of their plan – to stage a fake hunt to make sure the Wake stayed off their back long enough that they could get to Ireland. But what was he doing here? They weren’t supposed to meet until they’d all taken separate routes back to the house.
‘Hey,’ Dylan said. ‘What—’
It was his gait that gave it away.
This hulking assassin was not Kyan.
Lawna positioned herself in front of her daughter.
Dylan glanced back to the other end of the alley to make sure there were no others, his senses soaring up and out. He hadn’t felt the stranger, they’d moved too quietly, and he knew Remi hadn’t either, or she would have said something.
The stranger didn’t stop his determined approach.
‘Back off,’ Lawna ordered.
They didn’t stop.
Dylan waited a second more for his body to transform, to feel that shimmer of Empyrean power at the approaching menace. This was it, he thought. The first transformation—
But nothing happened.
The creature didn’t want to kill them, so it wasn’t giving off the kill scent.
No, it was—
It was an Empyreal.
But it didn’t feel like an Empyreal. Kyan did. And while they had a similar echo, there was something else …
‘Remi,’ Dylan said, backing up. ‘Run.’
He couldn’t get a good read, and they had seconds. There was only a slash of skin around the stranger’s eyes, enough to show his light skin.
There wasn’t a flicker of humanity in their gaze.
Only a mission.
‘I’m not leaving,’ Remi said, inhaling deeply.
‘Dylan, move!’ Lawna shouted.
He veered backwards as Remi blasted out a tunnel of sound, something that would buy them a minute to run, that should have someone clutching their head in pain.
The assassin was thrown backwards a few steps, but not as far as Remi seemed to expect.
Then, his attention zeroed in on her.
‘No!’ Lawna shouted.
Dylan moved as Remi shouted in warning, but too late. The Empyreal charged towards them and changed his centre of gravity. He brought up his left arm, not in a defensive position, but to slam into Dylan’s throat with such a crushing blow to his jugular he felt something snap.
He barely felt the brick wall at his back or the bolt of panic at the sheer strength.
He just heard Remi scream his name and saw the flash of Lawna’s knife.
Nicole
THE STRANGER WAS HUGE. PERHAPS IT WAS JUST HIS BULK, made more intimidating by the fact he was dressed in the same tactical gear and mask Kyan had been.
But Nicole’s mind blanked for a moment as she ran closer to the alley where the stranger had her brother pinned against a wall. She’d taken the escape route Kyan had showed her to avoid cameras when she broke free of him, and yet she couldn’t help but wonder if this was a trap.
If the Wake knew she and Kyan had planned something just like this, had they done this to intervene?
By the sheer size of the attacker, he should have broken her brother’s neck.
And maybe he would have if Lawna hadn’t kicked, hard, at the backs of the Empyreal’s knees to take some of the force.
Usually that would interrupt anyone, but he barely moved, and the brick wall behind her brother cracked as he looked close to unconsciousness.
The Empyreal backhanded Lawna and she went flying into the opposite wall.
‘Mum!’ Remi screamed.
Nicole’s dread, oily and slick, didn’t have time to form completely. Instead, she threw herself at the assassin, legs around his waist and arm around his neck.
One swift crack and it would break.
No one hurt her loved ones.
No one.
But he wasn’t moving an inch. It was like she was a damned fly.
He backed up with enough speed that Nicole realised he planned to slam her into the opposing wall. With the bulk of him in front of her, she’d be crushed.
She let go and dropped into a ball, hoping he’d trip over her. Bone splintered as the backs of his boots hit her side, but before he could turn or lift a leg to kick her—
‘I think that’s quite enough,’ came Callum’s dark drawl.
The assassin turned to where the other Empyreal stalked down the alley, then surged forward.
Where Kyan fought rough yet economically, Callum was elegant, with an undercurrent of lethal power. There was a speed and fluidity to his movements that revealed he was far more experienced than Kyan. Here, Callum’s usually concealed danger gleamed like a painting beneath varnish.
He was the most incredible fighter she’d ever seen. For some reason, he must hide it. Whether to make people drop their guard or because he knew he’d have no problem in any type of fight.
Though a smile almost flickered on Callum’s face, unease rippled across his features at the brutality the stranger fought with.
While the assassin was busy and Remi had run to her mother, Nicole reached Dylan, wincing at the sharp pain in her ribs. He was dazed, his eyes red and his throat quickly bruising.
Nicole searched for something to help.
Lawna’s knife had skidded off somewhere, but on the shadowed wall were a series of pipes. Nicole brought her leg up to kick the edge of one and rip it off, the metal tearing with a shriek as Callum slammed the stranger into the wall.
‘What the fuck did they do to you, hm?’ Callum asked, inches from the assassin’s face.
But the assassin wrenched himself free, crashing Callum into the wall instead, so Nicole dived. She’d realised the gear was practically armoured when Lawna’s knife had done no damage, so brought the metal pipe up under the assassin’s outstretched arm.
She would have winced at the wet sound if the sight of her brother and Lawna’s half-crumpled form weren’t burned in her mind like the Empyrean itself.
The assassin stilled and she was hit by a crush of relief.
It was over.
‘Nicole!’
Dylan got up and shoved her aside just as the Empyreal jerked his elbow back, resulting in a crunch as it met Dylan’s face.
Nicole staggered backwards, reeling as Callum shoved the Empyreal away and followed it with a hard, bone-cracking punch and strong kick that sent the assassin blasting back out into the street and falling right onto the pipe still jammed beneath their arm.
It shot upwards through the Empyreal’s underarm and speared out at the collarbone like a savage stalk of blood and metal.
Callum prowled over and crouched before the stranger.
‘You won’t remember us,’ he began, Influence limning his words with power that, even from several feet away, Nicole could feel. ‘You fought off some people protecting the Siren girl, but they got away because you were surprised.’
Nicole moved closer warily, as Callum asked, ‘Who made you?’
But the Empyreal didn’t answer, and a flicker of worry danced in her stomach.
Was the Influence not working? Callum must have thought the same, because he reached for the Empyreal’s mask to rip it off, but the Empyreal jerked away, tearing out the bloody pipe with a grunt and spatter of blood on the pavement.
He flung it free, before shoving up, and running.
‘What the fuck was that?’ Dylan rasped, clamping his nose tightly against a rush of blood.
‘That, was likely what the Wake have been up to,’ Callum said.
‘The Empyreal they experimented on?’ Nicole asked, pressing her tender side.
‘Now, I have no doubt,’ Callum said, wiping his face and seeming surprised to find blood on his mouth.
Fury razored the light in his eyes. ‘I didn’t recognise his scent.
And I certainly haven’t seen anyone his size in a long time.
Come on.’ He reached down to help Dylan up. ‘You think I’d let you get killed?’
Dylan’s breath was heaving. He winced as his cheek bloomed with a dark bruise. ‘I don’t know what to think,’ he said, honestly.
‘Then you’re an idiot.’ There was no real barb in Callum’s eyes, his words.
Only an offering. He held his hand out, and Dylan took it.
Nicole rushed over to Remi. Lawna clutched her head, still slumped with Remi’s arms around her.
‘Are you okay?’ Nicole asked, her heart twisting when Lawna’s fingers came away to reveal the blood at her temple.
Lawna nodded slightly.
‘Will he come back? Did the Influence work?’ Dylan asked.
‘It worked,’ Callum said.
Nicole twisted. ‘Then why didn’t he answer you?’
‘I don’t think he can speak,’ Callum said. ‘But I’ll get that bloodied pipe back to Verin to match the sample.’
Nicole glanced down to the spray of dark blood reflecting the moon.
‘You’re not coming with us?’ Dylan asked.
To Ireland.
Callum smirked. ‘Not now. I have some things to investigate. But first, let’s get you all back.’ He reached for Lawna to help, if not carry her.
But as she glanced up, looking ashen and haunted in the streetlamp’s glow, she said, ‘That was him. I recognised the look in his eyes. The size and strength. That’s the Empyreal that tried to kill my husband ten years ago.’
It was the last thing she said before she went unconscious.