Chapter 49 #2
His limbs elongated, fingers tapering into clawed talons. His jaw unhinged, stretching too wide, to reveal teeth sharpened into needle points. Shadows pooled in the hollows of his sunken eyes, and his voice warped into a guttural rasp.
“You think walls hold me? He wants you, Jude Alexander Holt. What reward will he give me for this gift?”
The lights flickered. The wards on the walls flared red, then dimmed.
An alarm pierced the silence, and I took an unconscious step back as the changeling swiped at me.
Angel’s arms locked like steel around me, yanking me out of its reach as sparks skittered with a pop of color where the creature’s fingertips barely missed my throat, the attack hitting an invisible barrier instead.
Was that some part of the prison defense?
The cell door opened. Angel and I were yanked out, Kerry and Victor slamming it shut, and Galen appeared at their side like he’d been summoned.
Shadows climbed the walls of the cell, and the noise dug like a chisel into my brain.
The alarm silenced a moment later as the creature’s laughter echoed, distorted, lost beneath the wave of darkness oozing from the cell.
“Jude, Jude, Jude,” it hissed, then the shadows vanished as fast as they’d appeared, leaving only the stench of ozone and the echo of its cackle hanging in the air. The changeling was gone, the cell empty, as if the creature had never been there at all.
“I think, in this case,” Victor said after a long moment and the lights stabilizing, “there might actually be justification for hellhounds.”
“So many hellhounds,” Angel said, wrapped around me.
“Can they at least be house-trained? I’m hoping to get my security deposit back.”
“The building and the cells are warded by dozens of species and practitioners,” Kerry said. “How the fuck did it get out?”
“We’ll have to search the building,” Victor said with a long sigh. “But I suspect it’s gone.” He eyed me. “Your shield is better than our wards.”
“Huh?”
Angel tugged me away. “He needs training.”
What shield? I glanced back at Angel, but he put himself between me and Victor.
“Why do you smell like fae?” Victor asked.
“Is that him?” Kerry wondered, leaning in as if to sniff me.
I’d forgotten about the creature I’d rescued, but if he was still attached, I couldn’t sense him at all.
“No one is SV, DV, and FV all at once. It’s not possible. They cancel each other out,” Victor said.
“Any questions you have can be directed to Sergeant Hanna,” Angel said. He tugged me backward; glanced at Wade, then Galen. “Can we get some hellhounds on request?”
I sighed. “If I have to have hellhounds, please make sure they are cat friendly. Are they flammable? Because they sound flammable. Maybe hellhounds aren’t a good idea.”
Galen grunted and lumbered away.
“I’m taking Jude home,” Angel said.
“We should ward his apartment,” Wade said.
“I’m taking him to my place.”
He was?
Angel grabbed my hand and tugged me out.
“Are Ivan and Grandpa safe if this thing comes looking for me?”
“The twins are there, remember?”
“And they are stronger than whatever that was?” I asked as I pointed behind us.
“Yes.”
“Someday, you’re all going to have to explain everything to me. This need-to-know BS is not sitting well.”
“But will you sleep if I tell you a lot of scary shit tonight? Or can I take you to my place, which is heavily warded, and wait to unload everything until you’ve had proper rest?”
When he put it like that… “Okay.”
I fell asleep on the drive, only rousing when Angel parked in an underground parking garage and tugged me inside.
The building really looked like a mall, inside and out, with a huge, open courtyard in the middle and two floors.
Angel’s place was on the second, though from what I could tell, no one else was around or awake, and that was fine with me.
The building might have echoed the appearance of an indoor mall, but it was tomb quiet at this hour.
The carpeted walkways muted our steps, and unlike most apartments, when we walked by, we weren’t even close enough to jiggle doors with the air pressure.
The long section that used to be small shops popped with only a handful of doors.
The rest of the place had been rebuilt into walls with painted murals on the outsides of them.
I stared at the one outside Angel’s place while he unlocked the door, thinking it looked a lot like a forest, or maybe a jungle.
“Welcome to my humble abode,” he said as he dragged me inside.
Any vibe that it had been a store at one time was gone.
In its place was an industrial, high-end apartment.
It was long and narrow, stretching back to reveal a window with a huge set of blackout curtains, but it wasn’t much more than a studio.
A big studio. But he had a good-size kitchen, a small, round dining table, and a living area that doubled as a bedroom as his couch was pulled out into a made bed.
I got the impression that he didn’t spend a lot of time lounging in the living room as he didn’t have a television or any sign of other electronics beyond his work computer, an alarm clock, and a tablet plugged in beside the bed.
“Nice,” I said, peering around the apartment. The bathroom itself could have been in a spa, with a giant soaking tub separate from the oversized walk-in shower.
“I’ll give you a full tour later, if that works for you.” He tugged me into his arms. “Do you think you can rest now?”
“What if that thing comes for me?”
“It’s not getting through Xavier’s wards. And even if it did, it’d have to get through me.”
I sighed into his arms. Was it too soon to voice what I wanted?
I leaned into him, letting him wrap his arms around me.
It wasn’t fair to like him this much already, even if we were fated mates.
Shouldn’t it take longer? Usually, it took me a while to connect to people, but with Angel, he and I fit.
“I don’t want to lose you either.” I recalled those few minutes being separated from him across the Veil. If I’d ended up in one of those tubes, would he have found me? I shuddered at the idea. “I hate the idea of you facing scary things because I brought them into your life.”
“I faced a lot of scary things before we ever met. Now you give me a reason to win all those fights that isn’t only willpower.”
I gave him a goofy grin. “You like me.”
“I do,” he agreed. “In one piece. Come to bed.” He tugged me toward the giant sofa bed.
“I don’t have any pajamas here,” I said absently, but shucked off my shoes and jeans, unwilling to sleep in them.
“It’s okay.”
Was it? He picked up my stuff, folding it and putting it on a chair, stripping himself back down to boxers before he climbed into the bed. I copied him, taking off my shirt and folding it.
“Is it still there?” I asked, turning my back his way.
“Yes.”
Did he hate it? Was there someone to ask about it? “Should we be worried?”
“Maybe tomorrow. It hasn’t moved.” He held out a hand for me, and I took it, crawling in beside him.
“Oh, this is comfy,” I said, surprised that it was a firm pillow beneath us, and instantly sank into his arms.
“Good,” Angel said, painting soft kisses on my shoulder and cheek. “Sleep. Turn your brain off for a bit. Please.”
“You’re tired too,” I said, as if he needed that pointed out.
“I am.”
“You’ll be here when I wake up?”
“Yes,” he promised.
And that was enough for me. I closed my eyes and relaxed into him, the scent of him surrounding me, and I fell asleep.