OMARI HARU
TWENTY-NINE
This was frustrating.
Haru was not in the mood to be sneaky. Oh, he was very good at being sneaky when he wanted to be. No one could out-sneak him. Except for maybe his mate, but that was part of the reason he adored Adrian, why they were fated to be together.
But now was not the time to be sneaky.
As they ran through Bellcairn, darting through alleys and hiding in doorways from the people in the dark vans, Haru could only think that it was the perfect time to shift into his dragon form and burn them all.
There needed to be chaos and destruction to show them the error of their ways.
The evil people in power had bullied the innocent citizens of this country for far too long. It was time for retribution.
However, he’d promised Adrian he would behave.
No destruction.
No fiery retribution as if he had been sent by the great Goddess of Fire, Caris.
Really, what was the point of being a dragon if he couldn’t roar and scare people just a little?
They paused at the end of a quiet street. Jules peered around the corner of a building while he and Tyche hid themselves behind a bush. Sweat covered Tyche’s red face as he sucked in great gulps of air.
“Should you be so winded?” Haru asked. He thought gods should be impervious to things like getting tired from running.
Tyche glared at Haru as if he wanted to incinerate Haru on the spot.
“Shut up. And don’t tell Shey. He’ll get this crazy idea that I should get up at the crack ass of dawn to go running with him.
I’m not a running type of g—” Tyche caught himself at the last second and smirked. “I’m not the running type.”
Haru grinned. “You’re more than the lounging, sipping coffee, and reading a book type.”
A wicked look crossed his companion’s face. “I probably should have been born a dragon. I bet they’re champion-level loungers.”
Haru opened his mouth, prepared to brag about how no one lounged like dragons but shut it without making a sound.
Tyche snickered. He’d also caught Haru. His new friend was right.
Dragons enjoyed a good lounge, though they preferred to do it in their dragon form.
Just stretch out in a big fluffy bank of new snow or in a soft, grassy field near a stream. That was some great lounging there.
“Okay,” Jules started as he turned toward them. “We’re only a few blocks away from the town house. Things seem quiet here. If we hurry, we might be able to head straight there.”
Haru smiled at Jules. The young man had been sharp and resourceful, leading them deftly through the city. They’d had to dodge those roving groups of armed men twice, but Jules had handled it well. He’d remained calm the entire time. “I think Ty might have run out of quick.”
Jules’s brow furrowed. “Huh?”
“Ignore him. He’s an idiot,” Tyche muttered as he rose from where he’d been kneeling behind the bush. “I’ll be fine. Simply needed to catch my breath.”
The confusion smoothed from Jules’s face, and he sighed with relief. “Oh. Good. Don’t worry. We’re almost there.”
“Have your companions said whether my Adrian and Shey have arrived yet?”
He frowned and took off his glasses to clean them with the bottom of his shirt. “Nothing yet, but I’m sure they’re fine.”
Haru believed that as well. Adrian and Shey were resourceful and smart.
It was also reassuring that there hadn’t been a single roll of thunder in Bellcairn since they’d separated.
He was sure Shey would summon up a storm to help them escape if they were in real trouble.
Still, he worried when Adrian was out of his sight.
His mate was very excellent at attracting disaster.
Jules checked the next street again after putting his glasses back on and waved his left hand at them to accompany him out of their temporary hiding spot.
The streets of Bellcairn were eerily quiet.
There were few cars and even fewer pedestrians.
No one was out shopping. There were no children playing in the park they had passed through.
As they headed down the street, Haru’s steps slowed as he noticed several of the stores had big boards nailed to their fronts, covering their display windows and doors. People had come along at some point and spray-painted more graffiti across them, demanding New Rosanthe get out of Damardor.
This was in addition to all the streetlamp poles and building walls that were papered with missing signs.
Husbands, wives, sons, daughters—so many people missing.
So many faces in black and white. Smiling, happy faces.
Lost forever. And so many families would never know what had happened to their loved ones.
“Since it hasn’t been safe for people to go out, shop owners have boarded up their stores. Everyone is expecting looters and a riot during Chancellor Feng’s visit,” Jules explained as he caught Haru staring at another boarded-up shop.
“What about the grocery stores? How are people supposed to survive?” Tyche demanded.
“I’ve heard a lot of the grocers and little convenience stores are staying open.
However, getting supplies into the city has been difficult, and shelves are mostly bare now.
” Jules shrugged his slender shoulders. “I don’t know.
I haven’t been here in a year or two. Most recently, I’ve been working out of Olan.
This is just what I’ve been hearing from my compatriots based here. ”
“Hey! What are you doing out?”
They all stopped. A stout man with a shaved head stepped out of a shop wearing black tactical gear as if he were striding through a war zone and not an empty neighborhood.
A couple of seconds later, two more men stepped out of the shop wearing similar gear.
All of them were scowling, their hands resting on their weapons.
“Where are your papers?” another man demanded.
“Oh! We were searching for the local recruiting office. We heard that you’re paying big money to sign up to help keep the city safe from that nationalist scum,” Jules blurted out.
“Yeah, we want to help protect Bellcairn during Chancellor Feng’s visit,” Tyche chimed in.
Haru opted for nodding. He was struggling to follow all this strange political maneuvering, and he didn’t want to risk saying the wrong thing. It also didn’t help that he wasn’t good at matching the local accent. He sounded foreign every time he opened his mouth.
Unfortunately, silence wasn’t an option.
“What about him?” the leader of the thugs asked, pointing at Haru.
“Him? That’s my brother.” Tyche leaned in like he were sharing a secret. “Adopted. He doesn’t talk much.”
Haru nodded, more than happy to be Tyche’s adopted brother.
Baldy turned his head and spat. “I’m not buying it. Cuff them. We’ll take—”
“It was worth a try,” Jules muttered. The young man stepped forward and slammed the heel of his palm into the leader’s exposed throat, damaging his windpipe.
As the man gasped and choked, Jules grabbed the man’s handgun, lifted it in a single fluid motion, flicked the safety off, and fired three shots in quick succession.
Each one pierced a man in the face, killing them instantly.
“Holy shit!” Tyche gasped.
Jules stumbled back a few steps, his breathing ragged and his eyes impossibly wide. The gun he’d so expertly handled seconds ago fell with a noisy clatter from limp fingers to the sidewalk. “Wow. Shit. I-I-I took hand-to-hand combat classes, but I never expected to use them. Not like that.”
Haru snagged Tyche’s arm and then Jules’s, turning them and propelling them away from the dead. There was no telling who’d heard those shots or if any police would be called. It was smarter not to stand there gawking at the corpses.
“You did well, but we must flee.”
“Flee? Oh, yes, flee.” Jules’s brain was working again. He picked up his pace, and Haru released his companions so they could run.
“I’m impressed. You’re a secret badass,” Tyche crowed.
Jules flashed him a shy grin. “Not a badass. Just more afraid of being captured by those bastards.”
Haru completely agreed. He had been about to step in, but his handling wouldn’t have been as neat and tidy as Jules’s. The young man was proving to be quite useful.
They ran for several more blocks, Jules leading them to a town house in a slightly roundabout fashion to make sure they weren’t being followed. By the time they entered the tall, narrow brick building from a rear door, the sun had been set for more than an hour.
“Jules! We were getting worried!” They were met at the door by a group of people—two women and two men. The youngest of the women threw herself at Jules, wrapping her long, skinny arms around his neck so that she was nearly hanging on him.
“Case, we’re safe. No one was harmed,” Jules replied with a ragged chuckle as he untangled from the woman.
“Did you have any trouble?” an older man with short salt-and-pepper hair and a heavily wrinkled face inquired.
“Nothing too bad.”
“Have the others arrived yet?” Tyche cut in before anyone else could ask Jules more questions.
A middle-aged woman with short, curly hair shook her head. “Sorry, no. You’re the first to arrive.”
Jules rested a hand on Tyche’s shoulder. “I’m sure they’re fine. They’re probably less than an hour behind us. Let me introduce you to the key members of the team.”
Tyche glanced over his shoulder at Haru, and the dragon forced a reassuring smile he didn’t feel. He wasn’t sure if Yesuntei’s powers affected Tyche the same way they had him, but it was best not to let Tyche succumb to dark thoughts and worries about Shey.