Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Iended two more slowies, taking a moment to think about my next moves as their blood ran past my boots.
The problem with being at this point along the river was the lack of bridges. With no idea how far until the next one—possibly Tower Bridge—I pulled out my London A to Z. The mild beam of my penlight helped me make out the map a little.
South was an option.
Maybe south would also help me let go any false hopes of ever opening the Faery gates.
I don’t think so!
Okay, so not completely south. Somewhere on the fringes of London in case Alpha Assbug did find a solution to Dawn.
Another slowie lumbered out of the bushes to my left. She went down quickly to join the other two corpses beside her.
Stuffing my A to Z in my backpack, I carried on. Turning left away from the river, I examined the buildings around me. Blocks of flats, an ice cream shop, all dark and quiet and all possible shelters.
I’d make my own Haven for One.
Hurried footsteps from behind me got me braced for a speedie.
It was Miko.
I kept my axe out.
He glided to a stop, not out of breath, but clearly a little rattled.
Good!
“Go away,” I said.
“Where are you going?”
“None of your business.”
“Come back.”
“Leave me alone. I’m not your business.”
There went the folding of those big arms. “You are my business.”
“Just go away.”
“You’re part of my pack, Orion. I can’t let you run into danger.”
The fifth slowie of the night staggered from the shadows. Miko growled, drawing a dagger from a holster at his hip and drove it into the zombie’s temple, then both of its eyes.
“Fuck off!” he barked, kicking the man to the ground.
Regardless of wanting to put miles between us, his moves were impressive.
And hot.
Which triggered a rant. “You did this to me. I’ve survived two years, fighting every day, never needing anyone but myself.
I was wrong to want a community. I’m my best company.
” I thumped at my chest. “Alone is safer.” Tears ran free again, my body longing for him to hold me.
“Look at what you’ve done to my life! I’m running around at night, yelling, crying, a complete mess.
I can’t stand it! I don’t want it!” My throat burned, everything aching. “Leave me alone!”
His irises seemed to flare in the moonlight. “I won’t let you kill yourself.”
I wiped my eyes. “Don’t intend to. I just want to be away from you.”
Two speedies launched themselves over the hood of a car, tumbling over each other, leaping back up to come for us with hisses.
Miko charged. He leaped through the air, delivering a brutal kick to the jaw of the first zombie, the other just out of range.
I got ready with my axe, pesky tears still running wild.
“Come on,” I muttered, ready to end it.
Miko got there first, grabbing the man with half a face by his gore-splattered jacket and flipped him over his head onto his back, then brought his boot down on the speedie’s head.
The alpha came back over to me having not broken a sweat.
“I had him,” I said.
“You’re welcome.”
I sighed, still crying. “Just leave me alone.”
“Do you really want to leave Haven?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Go away.”
“Me being a prick shouldn’t stop you from being safe.”
“At least you admit you’re a prick.”
He moved forward a step. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”
“I don’t care.”
“Yet here you are, running away.”
I threw him my best sneer. “I’ll do what I want. I’m good on my own. I don’t need you or anyone. I can look after myself.”
“Please come back.”
“This is too much. It’s all been too much.
You don’t want to be bonded to me, and the feeling is mutual.
Let me go my way, you go yours. I wish you well in your search for a cure.
A pity I couldn’t help, but never mind. Tell…
” I choked up harder. “Tell Trev thank you for finding me. Tell the others… Tell them thanks, too.” I turned away from him, heart hurting so much.
The first drops of rain began to fall.
Miko moved around to face me, closer than before. “No.”
“I’m tired. Go. I have to find shelter.”
“No.”
The rain fell heavier.
I tried to turn away again.
He grabbed me by the shoulders, rain running down his face, eyes hot in the dark.
“Let go of me.” I shrugged him off, bringing the axe up. “We’re done here.”
Miko didn’t so much as flinch at the weapon so close to his face. “No.”
“Is that all you have to say?”
“No.”
Before this nightmare, I never got this angry. Sure, I lost my temper, ranted, whined even, but this anger was something else. This burned deeply, like salt on open wounds.
“I’m warning you, Miko. Get away from me. I don’t want to see your face anymore.”
The rain came down in heavy sheets now, pounding us and the city. Soaked me to the bone in an instant, some of it getting in my mouth.
I jumped back, sheathing the axe. Poor Wendy would be soggy in my pocket. She and I required distance and drying time.
“Goodbye, Miko,” I said. “Thanks for everything.”
Moderating my boiling fury, I attempted another break from him. This didn’t need to be difficult. All he had to do was return to Haven, let me go in the opposite direction.
He cut me off. “No.”
“If you say no again, I’ll…” I closed my eyes, trying to hold myself together. “I’m not doing this with you. You have no right to make me feel so messy. I’m better than this. I’m stronger than my heart and desires. Leave me alone. Let me get back to me.”
“No.”
The sound, the constant repeating of that word, broke me. I roared into the night as if channeling his inner beast, falling into crimson mist.
Wind rushed me, becoming a vortex, trapping me in a cocoon of coldness. It stole my breath, pushing into me, under my boots.
“Orion?” the alpha questioned.
The air. The air had come to tell me something, offering help. Different this time, wanting to take me upward.
I checked my watch. A second button had appeared above the usual one.
I’d upgraded. Actually upgraded.
Wow.
Trying not to faint, I opened up the mechanism and pushed the new button.
The air moved under my arms, taking hold of my waist, pushing up beneath my feet. I lifted into the air, letting out a squeak of fear.
“Orion!” Miko yelled.
Hissing responded to him, the pounding rush of speedies.
Up and up and up, moving in an arc toward the closest building.
“Orion!” the alpha roared.
I heard crunching, a growl, then the squelch of popping heads followed my ascent to the roof. Once up there, the air released me, dissipating.
Hunching over, I allowed the shock to pass.
Floating ascent. A new part of my power. Mother was right about a latent gift waiting to come out. Teleportation would’ve been wonderful, but I never looked a gift unicorn in the mouth.
I never expected to be like everyone else and have more than one button on my watch.
Go me!
Quickly refocusing, I investigated the roof top. Three routes off—the open doorway leading inside the building, an emergency ladder to the street, or a jump to the next building.
“Orion!” the wolf howled.
I opted to jump, lining myself up for a run across the clear roof.
Go to him…
Making the dash, I leaped through the air, landing easily on the other roof. An array of clutter littered this one, a roof hatch open. The ladder to the street was broken halfway down, and the next roof was too high. I’d have to get inside and hide or float to the higher roof.
How did you hide from a werewolf’s acute sense of smell?
Speaking of Miko, he called my name, too close for comfort.
Crap.
He stood on the other roof, watching me. I made for the hatch, cautiously yet quickly scrambling inside. Water gushed down the wooden stairs, each one swollen and too soft under foot.
I heard the wolf land on the roof, his boots rushing closer.
Curse him!
Taking the steps with care, keeping my feet on the edges, I made it down to the flooded floor of a cramped room. I waded through knee-deep water, reaching a barricaded door.
Chairs, boxes, and two bookcases blocked my escape.
“Orion!”
Already too late to begin shifting the barricade, my hands not really up to the challenge anyway, I returned to the bottom of the stairs to face Miko looming at the hatch.
“Why won’t you let me go?” Stars, the defeat hung around me as an anvil on a rusty chain.
“I want you to be safe.” He moved onto the top step, disturbing the waterfall of cascading rain.
“You’re toxic.”
“I’m not toxic.” Step two, step three.
“Then let me go. Stop trying to—”
A creak, a mighty crack, and the stairwell collapsed under him. He disappeared, the floodwater draining away after him. He landed with a crash and a booming roar of rage.
“Miko!”
Only three steps remained on my end of the staircase, water gushing into the new hole. I approached cautiously, leaning to peer over the edge.
“Fuck it,” he growled, on his back with a shard of metal sticking out of his left thigh.
Water crashed down on him, broken furniture scattered in a circle like an explosion zone, him the epicenter.
“Are you okay?” Stupid question.
He growled, eyes finding me without an answer.
“I’m…” I was what? Going down to help? What happened to getting away from him. “I’m coming down.”
He growled again. “Fucking, fuck, fuck, fuck.” He spat water, shook his head furiously under the torturous deluge.
I stepped up to the edge of the stairs, teetering on the edge, the wood creaking.
A lesser person would’ve taken this opportunity to get away, if running from hunky werewolves trumped all empathy. Not me, which undermined my flight from the tower.
Seeing him down there, so big yet so helpless, pushed my compassion to the top of the emotional pile. My heart thrummed, calling to him, begging for him to be okay.
I opened my watch and stepped off the edge, floating through the water, landing in a crouch beside him.
Hands on a soggy Miko, I plotted my next move as water poured on my head. “Curse this rain. Okay, we need to get that metal out of you before I get to work.”
“On what?” he asked through gritted teeth.