Chapter 33
Nyxeris
I’m almost finished packing my stuff.
I’ve been living in this room for years, and the thought of leaving is both strange and exciting. I never expected to leave unless I’d been sold to a nation for the purposes of war.
Instead, this move is a happy thing.
The room is vacated for newcomers who arrive of their own free will, and I get to live with my pack, sleeping in a big bed with them every night.
Well, sort of big. We still haven’t gotten the new mattress yet.
There’s a knock at the door, and I open it to find Erich in the hall. A little lopsided smile plays on his lips as he looks down at me, his raven-wing hair falling into one of his eyes. “Thought you might need some help with your stuff.”
I laugh and step back, allowing him to enter.
“I finished packing, but feel free to help lug this stuff upstairs.” I close the door and turn to him, his back to me as he absently runs his fingers on top of the backpack I’d just set on the bed.
Frowning, I move beside him, feeling his heavy aura as I do.
“What’s up?”
He pivots on one heel to face me, his hands rising to my face where he gently tilts my head back and presses his parted lips to mine.
The intensity behind his gentle movements makes my toes curl in my sneakers, and I sigh into his mouth, letting him take control.
His tongue dips inside and flicks against mine, slow, making me moan.
“I love you,” he breathes against my lips. “We all do.” Kiss. “We’d do anything for you.”
My body turns to stone, panic rising from my feet to my head. Alarm bells blaring in my mind, I take a step back from him, brow furrowed. “What’s going on, Erich?”
He blinks with surprise, his own dark brows drawing tight as his icy eyes bore into me. He grips my face with his hands once more, still gentle but firm.
“Nyx,” he whispers. “I can’t tell you just how deeply in love with you I am. Words don’t do my feelings justice.”
What is this pain in my chest? The way my heart pounds hard, the whine I swallow is not one of heat but fear.
Why do I feel like Erich is saying goodbye?
I haven’t been on a plane in about a decade, and now I’ve just disembarked my second in under twelve hours. Last time I took a flight before today was my transport to Iceland from New York.
This trip was the reverse.
I haven’t even brought up to anyone, my pack or the resistance leaders, that I was born and raised in New York, and I know the city like the back of my hand. Long Island, too, because my affluent parents had a summer home in the Hamptons.
I wonder if my mom kept the house after Dad was killed? I never thought to look it up.
My pack has been code-named “Team Ashur,” while Mira’s pack is now “Team Bau.” Once my pack makes it to the facility on Long Island, our goal is clear enough: Rescue Teams Enki and Marduk, along with all the other Cursed being held there, kill anyone who gets in our way, then destroy the facility.
My designer clothing makes me itchy and uncomfortable, and can feel Erich fidget beside me at baggage claim, readjusting his collar for the millionth time.
As strange as it is to dress this way for a covert mission, I have to admit, he looks hot as fuck.
I turn to him with a genuine smile, run my fingers along the collar of his button-down shirt beneath his suit jacket and pop the top button through the hole to open it before giving his neck a little rub.
We’re married, after all. A couple from an affluent bloodline vacationing with another couple from a different affluent bloodline. Something that happens every day in this world.
Only the other couples who do this sort of thing aren’t Cursed hiding in plain sight.
“If we didn’t have things to do, I’d be doing you right now,” I tell Erich with a saucy wink.
He chokes on a laugh, kisses my forehead. “Trouble-maker.”
I give an affirmative hum before turning to Andrew and Zephyr who walk hand-in-hand over to us, wheeling suitcases behind them.
Andrew looks completely at ease in his perfectly tailored gray suit, black shirt, no tie. Zeph looks like a man who just walked off the runway in his dark violet turtleneck and gray pants, the same color as Andrew’s suit.
They put my outfit to shame, I think. Cropped black pants with loose legs, sleeveless green top with a nearly plunging neckline.
The light jacket hanging on my arm matches my pants.
I’m wearing jewelry for the first time since I’d been taken away, and the cold metal feels strange against my skin, especially where our explosive collars had once been.
“Here are our bags,” Erich says before lunging forward and taking his, then mine, off the carousel belt. When I reach for mine, he sends me a “Yeah, right” look and ignores me.
“Let’s head to the tube so we can check our bags at the hotel. I want to see what the city has to offer,” Andrew lies with ease.
The four of us exit the airport, and I can’t help but gawk at the scene before us.
Things have changed a lot in ten years.
Everything is clean, the buildings shine in the sunlight, most of them, near and far, have enormous screens on them displaying everything from advertisements to news broadcasts with captions. The vehicles all around are nearly silent, many looking like they were right out of a sci-fi movie.
How has technology advanced so quickly right under our noses?
“This is wild,” Erich mutters quiet enough that only we can hear him.
We need to pretend like it’s nothing we haven’t seen before, no matter how tough that is going to be.
We walk the few blocks beyond the airport to get to our destination, the nearest subway entrance. But we walk past it, as instructed, and tuck behind one of the smaller buildings nearby. In the alley, we hustle to a small metal container beside several trash receptacles.
Even the dumpsters don’t smell. This is… weird.
I pull one of my earrings off and hand it to Erich who breaks it apart to pull out a small key which he uses to open the container. He then pulls from the container new clothing and divvies them between the four of us.
After changing into far more comfortable clothes and shoes, we dump our expensive things on top of our piled decoy luggage.
While Erich envelopes it all in fire, Andrew pulls some more items from the container and nods at Zephyr.
A dark bubble forms around the box, then disappears, taking the box with it.
Next, Erich extinguishes his flames, and Zeph sends the ashes away with another bubble.
Andrew passes small devices to each of us, no larger than simple calculators, which we stick in our pockets.
Barely able to take a breath, we’re off again. This time it’s me with Andrew, Erich with Zeph, as we split up.
We don’t acknowledge Erich and Zephyr as they disappear down the stairs and into the subway.
Instead, we walk back to the sidewalk together and I link my arm through Andrew’s as we maintain the pace of everyone else around us for the next few blocks, weaving around haphazardly until we reach another subway entrance.
This is the one we descend into, my arm dropping away from Andrew’s as we weave through more droves of travelers.
Andrew uses his little device to get us through the turnstiles. Once inside, there’s already a train waiting. We move parallel to the flow of people boarding the train, and make our way to the station’s seats closest to the dividing wall.
Andrew takes my hand and speaks inside my mind. “Once this train leaves, I’ll ensure no one looks at us.”
I trust you, I think at him, and he squeezes my hand in response.
When the train takes off down the tunnel, there are only a couple people left behind with us, and already none of them are looking our way.
Still, Andrew shields his eyes from any security cameras, the green glow reflecting off his palm as he uses his power to do whatever it is he planned, then drops his hand and looks down at me with a nod.
Cameras seeing our next move doesn’t mean much when we’re about to disappear.
We drop down to the tracks, rush past the dividing wall until we reach the maintenance ladder that brings workers back up.
We ignore it, using our physical prowess to leap upward, then run deeper into the tunnel until we find a door where Andrew holds his hand out to me.
I place my device in his hand which he taps above the knob.
The lock clicks loudly, and he hands my device back to me, then opens the door for us to pass through.
A motion sensor light kicks on to reveal a small maintenance closet, filled with cleaning chemicals, a few lockers on the wall, and one small table with two chairs. It isn’t a beat later when a vent in the ceiling pops open, swinging on its hinges.
Zeph’s head pops down from the opening. “Hello, darlin’,” he says with a cheeky grin before reaching for me.
My heart flutters at the sight of him, his hair waving as he hangs upside down. When I grip his hand, he negates gravity, levitates me off the ground and through the vent, into the large metal shaft. Then, he does the same for Andrew, who secures the vent behind him.
“This way,” Zeph whispers before taking the lead, crawling along the shaft as quiet as possible, me and Andrew following suit.
It takes longer than I expect, and more pain in my knees than I’d like on the hard metal surface, but we eventually reach an open vent.
Zeph turns back to us and motions for us to get closer when his eyes begin to swirl with his deep purple energy, and his body levitates to the opening, then slowly lowers beyond view.
In a blink, my body rises, held steady, and I’m positioned so that I can be lowered to the ground below and into Erich’s waiting arms.
It’s only a moment later that Andrew joins us, breathing a bit heavier than he should be. I raise a brow at him and he waves me off.
I think his control freak is showing.
Peering around Erich at our surroundings, I notice the bare furnishings all around in the dim light. A small but clean-looking couch, a coffee table, small kitchenette with a mini fridge and a microwave.
As I start to walk around and examine everything close, Zeph spreads his arms wide. “Welcome to our home away from home.”