38. Threx Lightning Crashes
thirty-eight
Threx: Lightning Crashes
The rain slanted hard, blurring my vision as I swerved down the narrow passageway to the clubhouse.
Jessie had already been instructed to leave.
His pissy tone told me something was wrong, but I shoved it aside.
Driving to Madison Park at one in the morning would piss off anyone, and Jess was the poster boy for suffering in silence.
Still, he was hiding something from me; I could tell.
My tires screeched as they came to a stop, catching in the grooves of the pavement.
I hated the way the house looked when we went black, like a fucking graveyard waiting to happen.
Ghosts with guns. It was a stupid way to go, really.
Dying in the dark. It didn't scare me as much as the thought of leaving Daphne.
And the idea of going with my dick between my legs made me sick.
Speaking of Daphne.
I checked my phone, but she had stopped shouting at me to save Wolfe hours ago.
I knew she didn't love him the same way she loved me, but watching her go ballistic over the possibility of losing him put the world into perspective.
It wasn't like Daphne to turn off her love.
Her heart… that beautiful fucking blood pump would never make that choice.
It would grow. Create room. Turn Wolfe into something new and me into forever.
Fuck. She was perfect. So goddamn perfect.
Aware that hundreds of Marianne's men might be lying in the shadows to smoke me out, I moved quickly, taking the steps two at a time to the keylock and flipped it open.
I was nearly at the last number when a shot fired behind the door, my mind splitting between the sound and the silver glint starlighting in my periphery.
"What the fuck?" I mouthed, squinting at the suitcase drowning in the rain. I reached for it, recognizing the Maine flight tags, and stilled. "No," I fought against what this meant. "No!"
My eyes snapped to the door in a bloodless panic, the taste of metal flooding my mouth, sliding down into my lungs.
"She isn't supposed to be here," I raged, punching in the numbers, fucking it up, and having to start again. "Daphne?" I cried out, then clamped my lips shut before whatever was watching me took note.
It took me three tries before the door became loose and my boots slipped on the ledge.
"Where the fuck is she?" I shouted, stumbling over Nathem, who was just inside. "And who fired that shot?"
"One recruit got spooked. Shot a damn blanket! Have you heard from Wolfe?" Nathem's anxiety was blood-thick, and the way the newbies clung to the walls like children to their mother's skirts made my stomach wrench.
"Where the fuck is she, Nathem?" I snarled, grabbing him by the shirt and hauling the behemoth to my eyes.
"Wolfe?" he ground out. "Did he give us the clear?"
No, we weren't fucking clear. The asshole wasn't responding, and the house felt off when I left. But there was no use shoving my unease into Nathem's already imploding chest.
"I don't know. He went silent and isn't answering shit. Try Jessie. Now tell me where she is, Nate."
"Upstairs with Blade. You said she was in Maine."
I launched up the staircase, my mind in such a fog that I was unaware of my body moving until I punched straight through Blade's door.
"Daphne?" I searched the pitch black until I found her, shaking in the red glow of Blade's heart monitor.
"Thay?" she whispered, squinting at me in the dead light.
I didn't have to speak. Daphne's body already knew. And it was mere seconds before the warmth of her chest flew into my arms, and I squeezed.
"What is going on, Threx?" Blade rasped, the sleep still heavy in his throat. "I heard gunfire."
"Yeah, that's what happens when you give babies guns. A damn recruit shot a blanket."
"Fuck," Blade groaned, dragging in a breath. "What's the word with Wolfe? Is Marianne off our back?"
Daphne winced at the mention of her name. Of all the kings and queens in the Underworld, this one was the most real to her. It's really too bad Blade didn't know how to keep his damn mouth shut.
"Honestly," I swallowed, throwing my weight over her shoulder until it anchored, "I am unsure. The house was quiet when I left, but you know him. There's no telling what he chose."
"Fucking hell," Blade coughed. "You need to get Daphne out."
It was too dangerous to leave with her now. Especially knowing she was one of Marianne's targets.
"Thay?" her voice cracked as I led her into the hallway. I wanted to yell at her, teach her a goddamn lesson about not listening, but she'd been through enough, and the night was far from over.
"Come on." I pulled her into my room, the alley lights catching the fire escape outside. She paused in the dark, inhaling the scent of me before dropping her head.
"Is he dead, Thay?"
"I honestly don't know."
"Are they coming for all of you?"
I hated the way her shoulders sagged, the sadness in her limbs carving her out. It took everything in me not to touch her, but her body hadn't called for me yet. So I stayed by the door and watched her in the pretend moonlight.
"Maybe. You're supposed to be in Maine."
She turned, the lines in her face harder than I'd ever seen them.
"And your plan was what, to die?"
Life moved too fast down here. You didn't get the luxury of goodbyes.
And if I were being honest, there was no fucking way I would ever give her one.
Leave her with some sobbing message or the sound of me choking on my last breath?
Alone in that shitty cabin? She might think I was being an asshole.
But I knew her. Every heartbeat. All the colors of her soul. She wouldn't survive it.
"Answer me, Thay."
The muscle in my neck twitched.
"Was this your plan all along? Marry me and then keep me in Maine, so I could what, come back and find you dead? What the actual fuck, Thayor?" she snapped.
Oh shit. She was using my big boy name now.
"Or should I say, Threx?"
Fuck that.
I reached for her, knowing she'd fight me until I got her where she belonged: caged and perfect between my ribs.
"No. The plan was to marry you and keep you forever. But the Underworld doesn't give a shit about my plans, pretty girl. I told you on that fucking beach. The world would never let us have this."
She pounded against my chest until whatever was left in her broke into me.
"How are you not sad? Or freaking the fuck out? Why didn't you stop him?"
I blinked, filling my lungs and letting the air settle into her.
"Sad? I am not sad, Daphne." I admitted. "I am angry. The only thing I feel is red, hot, fucking rage."
She breathed, digging her fingers into the center of my spine. But the pain did not bother me. I was happy to absorb it.
"And you forget, I have spent every moment of my life about to die. This is nothing new. And as for stopping Wolfe… It's his job to do what's right by the club. To keep you safe. How could I prevent him from doing that?"
She did not answer, and I let the silence stretch. This was a truth she had to explore in her body. That, and there was nothing I could do to make this easy for her.
"I hate all of this," she whimpered.
"Good," I breathed, trying like hell to pretend that life with me wouldn't always be this way. But it would. "You're supposed to."
Maybe it was fucked up, but I wanted to kiss her. Lift her by the ass and press her against the wall. Make her feel anything but the emotions she was drowning in.
I lifted her chin to meet my eyes.
"Do you regret marrying me?" I asked, keeping her caged.
Daphne's breath pulsed, crashing out in an erratic sputter.
"No." She ran her fingers along the slope of my neck until she found my hairline. "Never." She tugged me closer. "Yours. Always. I'm just afraid."
I knew she was. In all our talks of scary monsters and things that go bump in the night, she'd never known it beyond the fable. We warned her, and she smiled, but it hits differently when those realities become true.
"I love you, Thayor Milo Gavros," she murmured against my lips, her words brushing across my tongue, and I tasted their sweetness. The inevitable weight of them against my teeth. "And I guess I feel guilty that I am okay with only being yours. Even though I'll always love him."
And that's when she got it: the entire philosophy behind Wolfe's feelings stitching inside her chest. Wolfe never cared that she loved me, although he loved her.
His ten was admitting it. Hers was accepting it.
And we truly were all in this together. The cage. The beast. And the woman who made them.
Daphne's face tensed in realization while she pressed her hand to her ribs.
"Oh." She took a breath, clamping her eyelids shut… then opening them again, softly. "Oh no," she exhaled.
I let her break. Breathing around her. My room had felt empty without her in it, and though we were hiding in the dark, I wanted to keep her with me forever, in the calm, in the hush of this moment.
"Daphne." My fingers fell to her hips and slid over her ass. Her wild eyes met mine when I lifted her, the breath in her mouth breaking as I pulled her into my arms. "I am sorry you came all this way for Wolfe," I mumbled against her lips, gently pressing her back to the wall.
"I didn't," she breathed, rolling forward as my touch snaked along her waistband, yanking down her leggings just enough to get to her. "I was already on my way to…" Her mouth fell open when I slid aside the edge of her panties and placed myself at her entrance. "You. I was coming home to you."
I ran my fingers through her hair and tugged, studying her eyes while she uttered the words.
Damn, I needed to hear her say that. If it made me small, I didn't fucking care.
There would always be a part of me that craved her entirely.
Even in the uncertainty, I knew she was the only vessel capable of keeping me.
Safe. Endless. Mine.
"I love you," I mouthed, easing in, taking her body slow and steady.
Daphne's breath shortened, the edges of her fingertips burning into my neck, violet-hot bubbles anchoring into my tension.
"I love you, too," she moaned, wanting me deeper, needing me harder. But I wanted to savor this moment, feel every bit of her as she folded around me and took me under.
Making love to her was like being caught in a jar full of stars tumbling into the never.
Fucking her, a storm of crimson slicing down the center of a moody sky.
Loving her was safe, in the way you knew she was all that mattered, and being her husband made her my altar, a throne for my creature, the crux of my creation.
"Fuck," I angled higher, feeling her pussy flutter and cry, wanting more of her skin against me. She bucked, the weight of her crashing into my thighs.
"Kiss me," she begged, and my mouth moved from her windpipe to her lips, where our breaths collided. "Harder," she cried out, clawing for more.
I stepped in, adding tension, pushing deeper, when my hand fell softly to her throat, applying just enough pressure as I rode her higher.
And higher.
And…
"Thay." She melted, the tremble in her legs winding into my core.
"Fuck," I burned, the burst of her quake dragging me under until I let go, losing myself inside her.
Daphne wrapped around me, pulling me into a hug that was almost better than the sex.
Almost.
"You're the only place I ever want to be," I whispered into her ear, brushing her hair from her neck. "I love you so goddamn much."
Tears trickled from her eyes onto my shirt. "I love you, too," she breathed, holding me tighter, keeping me there.
I lost what I was about to say next when the lights flickered on. I blinked, unsure what that meant. All Clears were pretty loud, but this was not.
Daphne lifted her head from my collarbone, searching my face. "Does that mean everything is okay?" she questioned, hopeful, when a strange sound came from the roof.
Our eyes shot upward, and I set her down, tugging her leggings back into place. Despite being on the lower level, the windows amplified everything outside.
"Thay?" Daph asked as I moved to the window, glimpsing Jessie's car sitting quietly at the edge of the building.
That's weird.
I swallowed, pulling my phone free, wondering if a text from Wolfe or Jessie had come through.
Wait.
I stopped when an alert went out over the hive.
The queen is dead.
Holy shit.
Wolfe did it.
He motherfucking did it.
He killed Marianne, and I did not have to venture far into my thoughts to figure out why.
Wolfe would have attempted to broker a deal that would save as many lives as possible, but if it came down to Daphne, then the answer was no.
Just fucking no.
My heartbeat crawled into my ears before every tether in my body snapped back to my wife, whom he thought was in Maine.
"We have to go," I said, taking hold of her arm, when another hit shook the plaster above us, and I halted, my eyes bouncing between the fire escape and the bedroom door. If they were on the roof, they would have a clear shot at us when we tried to break free.
A muffled scream died in the distance when the sound of boots came stomping up the staircase.
"Stay here," I said calmly, keeping my voice under control. "I need to make sure it is safe."
"But what if it's not?"
A door flew open across the hall. Blade.
"Daphne. Stay! I fucking mean it."
Daph's eyes narrowed, but she nodded, allowing her touch to drop slowly from my skin. I glanced at the freckle on her neck. The way her fingers curled into her palms and shot her a grin before heading for the door.
"I love you," she said again through an uneven breath, and I paused. "And if you see Wolfe, tell him I love him, too. I mean, tell him I am pissed, but I love him."
My chest bent, the curve of my ribs piercing my insides.
"Forever," I winked, turning the doorknob.
"For always," she repeated, and I caught it in my lungs… letting the door close behind me.