Chapter 32
I left Angel at the front desk to return his key and got Ivan into the car.
The fact that he was coming over settled some of my worry over our fast-growing relationship.
The few hours of play had really helped the growing anxiety over my variance, the new job, and the relationship between Angel and me.
Running around like a kid among a bunch of shifters had lightened the unease.
Angel gave us an hour and fifteen minutes to get home and settled before he’d be there with dinner.
While I enjoyed the anticipation, my chest hurt as soon as I got in the car, as if the distance from him actually caused pain.
I rubbed it absently as I pulled on my belt and made sure Ivan put his on. I was falling fast and hard. Fuck.
“Did you call Grandpa today?” I asked Ivan.
“No,” Ivan said.
“Can you call him while I drive? I texted him earlier, and he sounded okay. I bet he’d be happy to hear from you.” I hoped he hadn’t given away all his food again as I wouldn’t be able to visit until Sunday.
Ivan unlocked his phone and dialed Grandpa, who greeted him happily. I let the two chat as I guided the car through the Veil on my own with my hands gripping the wheel and heart pounding in my ears. The section of the highway stretching through part of the Veil was empty and silent.
Once out of the Veil and on the highway, I took a deep breath and navigated us toward home, the traffic knotting up the roads almost immediately. At least we only had a few miles of bumper-to-bumper before getting off on a side road that would take us to our place.
“Tell us about the online school thing?” I asked.
“Oh, that sounds good. You kids like online stuff, right?” Grandpa asked.
Ivan sighed. “Yeah, it’s just school. Xavier helped me register for classes today. I had to do a test.”
“You have classes every day, then?” I wished I’d had that option when I was his age.
“Mostly. It’s like college, I think,” Ivan said as I navigated us off the highway.
We still had a good twenty minutes until we got to the apartment building, but the backroads were a lot less jammed.
“I have English two days a week. Math three days. History, language, science, and all that. A couple of hours a day instead of all day.”
“Nice,” I said.
“What language are you taking?” Grandpa asked.
“Mandarin,” Ivan said.
“That’s a hard one, isn’t it?”
I tuned them out as headlights rolled up a little closer than I’d like at a stop sign.
As a cop, I knew better than to do the rolling stop at a sign.
I waited, watching them, then took my turn keeping an eye on the vehicle.
It looked like an SUV. Not Angel, that much I knew, and my chest ached the more I thought about him.
The sixth sign and third turn, my internal alarm bells screamed. We were being followed. Was it one of Xavier’s guys? Maybe they were being assholes as they made sure I brought Ivan home safe?
My gut said no. I gripped the steering wheel, and began to guide the car through the next intersection and past a long, open field that overlooked the highway. Lights flicked on behind me.
Police lights. Fuck. The sick feeling that payback was coming made panic rise in my gut.
“Hang up with Grandpa,” I told Ivan. “Can you change and hide under the seat?”
“What’s wrong?” Grandpa asked.
Ivan stared at me with wide eyes as he glanced back at the lights.
“Just a friendly chat with my fellow civil servants. I’m sure it’s about my excellent driving, or stellar taste in automobiles,” I said, my voice tight.
“Please, Ivan. I’ll lock the door with the keys inside.
Do not open it, and stay hidden.” I guided the car a few feet ahead to the side of the road, not thrilled about the lack of lighting overhead or any movement from the row of houses a few blocks down.
Ivan released his seatbelt and slid down into the front wheel well.
I left my keys in the ignition and put on the brake as Ivan’s magic swelled, signaling his change.
He crawled under the seat, tugging his discarded clothes into a pile in front of the seat, and I carefully put up my hands and rolled the window down a few inches.
A cop I didn’t know shined his light into the car. It was too dark for me to read his badge number. “Turn off the engine.”
“Is something wrong, Officer?” I asked, trying to be respectful. “I can get you my ID and registration, but the latter is in the glove box.”
“Turn off the car,” he instructed again.
Not procedure at all. Dammit. My heart pounded in fear over Ivan more than me.
The cop shined his light at me and the other side of the car. “You alone?”
“Yes, sir.” I said and turned the key, fumbling it intentionally to drop the keys at my feet. “Oops, sorry. Let me grab those.”
“Don’t bother. Get out.”
“Have I done something wrong, sir?” I asked, not moving. Legally, I could be a total dick and refuse altogether, but that might also get me shot, or tased.
“You were weaving a little back there. You been drinking?”
“No, sir.” I hadn’t been weaving either.
“Get out.”
That’s how we were playing this? Okay. I slowly lowered my left hand to open the door, my other raised. He stepped back, keeping the door between himself and me, but one hand on his flashlight, the other on the butt of his gun, which was unclipped and ready to pull. Gun before taser. Fuck.
I got out, mind screaming that this was all wrong and I was in trouble, but what could I do that would keep Ivan safe?
So far, the cop seemed to have taken my word for there being no one else in the car.
I pretended to stumble, and hit the lock for the door as I stood and closed it.
He shined the light in my face, blinding me to his features. Fuck.
“Head toward the back of the car. Keep your hands where I can see them.”
While I hated turning my back on him, I did as he said, walking toward the flashing lights, the blaze burning spots into my vision. Was there more than one car? Why the fuck would they need more than one car?
“You armed?”
I got to the back of my car. He shoved me into the hatch door. I grunted, but stopped my face from hitting the glass with my hands.
“No,” I said.
“Any needles on you?”
“No.”
He grabbed one of my wrists, pulling it back to be cuffed.
“No,” I said, and tugged my hand away. He gripped it hard, twisting my arm until I feared it would break. “You have no reason to cuff me.”
“Are you resisting arrest?”
“You have nothing to arrest me for and haven’t read me my rights,” I said.
He snapped a cuff around one wrist and shoved me hard into the back of the car, yanking my other around to cuff it too. He pressed his hand on the back of my neck, pinning me to the hatchback.
“Rough foreplay, Cassidy. Didn’t realize you were into this sort of thing.
We should negotiate safewords before attempting this again,” I complained, my face pressed against the cold glass.
I sucked in air and tried to calm my racing heart as I heard another set of footsteps approach from behind.
Not the first time this had happened to me.
Probably not the last, at this rate. I swallowed hard, keeping still as the second man approached.
The first man handed his grip on me over to the second, this one larger. The second man slammed me into the back with his erection digging into my ass. I swallowed hard. It had to be Cassidy.
“Let me go, Cassidy.”
He huffed a breath near my ear and I smelled alcohol. Was he on duty and drinking? He ground his hips into my ass.
“Get off me, you fucking pervert.”
“Who’s the pervert, Holt?” Cassidy whispered. “Fraternizing with animals. I offered you an out.”
“What? Your date on Friday? I don’t think being fucked in the nasty bathroom of a bar is much of a date.”
“We have stuff to talk about. You could be useful. I could have gotten you transferred back.”
“I’m not a warm hole for your convenience.”
“You are, actually,” he said as he grabbed me by the collar, yanked me back, and then slammed me into the car hard enough to shake it.
I gasped for air, lungs stinging, and my chest ached.
He turned me around and slammed a fist into my gut, doubling me over as I fought the need to hurl, and I gagged, falling to my knees.
My body warred between the need to breathe and the need to vomit.
“Maybe it’s time to remind you of your place? ”
“Fuck you,” I gasped.
He grabbed a fistful of my hair and threw me backward, off the road and into the field.
With my hands cuffed behind me, I landed at an awkward angle and rolled onto my side, my shoulder taking the brunt of the impact and screaming instantly with pain as it jolted out of place.
I curled up into a ball, determined to protect my core and head as much as possible.
Cassidy was there a moment later, boot aimed for my gut.
His blow glanced off my knees, making him curse.
With my hands cuffed behind me, there wasn’t much else I could do.
His next two kicks aimed for my back, landing hard enough to crack something that made me cry out even as I tried to use my cuffed arms to block the worst of it.
I swallowed back my cries, fearing they’d draw Ivan from the car. Please let him be safe.
“He locked the keys in the car,” the first cop said as Cassidy kicked me in the thighs, back, and ass a few more times.
I tasted blood, metallic and sharp, and refused to comment.
“Window isn’t cracked enough for me to get my hand in.
I could throw something through it to plant, but it would look suspicious if it’s just on the seat. ”
“We can break the windows and make it look like vandals,” Cassidy said.
“Either put him in the back of your cruiser, or let’s go. It’s still rush hour.”
Cassidy grabbed the back of my neck and shoved me into the dirt, his hips grinding against my thigh. “You say anything and this will be a fond memory instead of a warning.”
“Sorry, my fond memories usually involve less dirt and more consent. Not something you seem all that familiar with. Should I spell it for you? C-O-N-S-E-N-T,” I spat, my vision narrowing, tilting heavily to the left as I tried to see beyond the lights in the distance and Cassidy’s shadowed face.
He slammed my face into the ground and my nose burst. Pain exploded like a firework behind my eyes, but beneath it, something else stirred—something cold and sharp, like a blade of ice sliding through my veins, alive, and hungry.
It leapt free before I could stop it, digging into the ground beneath me like roots seeking water.
The earth shuddered, and a fierce chill rose, wrapping around me like a second skin.
The air grew heavy, thick with the scent of decay.
Shadows pooled around us, deeper and darker than they should have been, and the ground churned.
“What the fuck is that?” the first cop asked, his voice tight with unease.
“He’s variant,” Cassidy said, his tone suddenly wary.
The first cop cursed. Had he missed the blazing glow of my armband? Even with my vision swimming, the mark lingered on the edge of my sight, pulsing faintly like a heartbeat.
I tried to focus on the presence awakening in my mind like a whisper. The ground beneath me felt alive, restless, as if it were waiting for my command. A slew of sluggish heartbeats rippled through the distance as if waiting for my call. What the fuck?
My mind raced with anxiety over the rising cold wind even as my body screamed in pain. I didn’t know how to control it, didn’t even know what it was doing, but it was there, growing like a tide, cold and relentless.
“Fuckin’ creeper,” Cassidy cursed. The toe of his boot slammed into my gut, and the world vanished as I blacked out, pain overtaking me. But even as consciousness slipped away, I felt the magic, the chill, the whisper all coil around me like a shield.
All I could do was pray Ivan was safe, and I didn’t die on the side of the road, lying in some vacant lot. But as the darkness took me, I wondered if death was something I needed to fear anymore.