CHAPTER EIGHT #2
“Remind me to send clothes the next time that’s a requirement,” he said, looking me over with a heavy gaze as I stood to face him. “This isn’t much of a departure from your usual uniform of tight black tees and questionably clean jeans.”
“I don’t have a lot to work with.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that, love.” His piercing green eyes slowly lifted to mine, and a shiver crept up my spine. “You have a lot to work with beyond that outfit.” That weighty gaze lingered for a beat longer than necessary, and I suppressed the visceral need to shake it off.
Instead, I crept a step closer and schooled my features to hide the nervousness coursing through me. “The plan?”
He bit his lip for a second as though he weren’t going to tell me, then released it and pulled away a little. “We’re going to The Lion’s Den to have a little chat with one of their security staff.”
I had to admit I hadn’t seen that one coming.
The Lion’s Den was a supernatural mafia outfit of sorts that had a hand in virtually every shady dealing within the greater Playground.
They employed every psychopathic degenerate they could find in our melting-pot neighborhood.
And we were about to waltz into the heart of their operation and magically interrogate one of their enforcers using a power I didn’t want anyone to know about for fear I’d be exploited for it—by people like them.
Fantastic.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” I hissed at him. “I thought you said you would do what you could to keep my ability secret, not broadcast it through a room filled with the most morally dubious supernaturals on the west coast!”
“I hadn’t planned to haul Damian up on the craps table and have you do it there—”
“Why is that not more comforting—”
“—but now I’m tempted to—”
“Except that would ruin your plan.”
His expression soured. “Yes, it would.” Silence fell between us for a beat as his gaze fell upon the old brick shipping warehouse.
“Damian keeps to the shadows around the perimeter of the room. Once we’re inside, I’ll find him and we can make our way toward him, but it’s imperative that we keep a low profile. ”
“No shit.”
His narrowed eyes snapped back to me, and I could have sworn I saw that strange darkness swimming in their depths again. “It’ll be easier if you approach him first and compel him to go to one of the private rooms downstairs.”
“That sounds ominous as fuck,” I muttered under my breath. “And what makes you think I can get close to him so easily?”
A hint of a smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth.
“Beautiful women are his greatest weakness.” He reached over and brushed my hair over my shoulder to better expose my low-cut tank.
“You shouldn’t have any problem cornering him and using your power on him, provided you can wield all this,” he said, gesturing to my body, “just as well.”
My heartbeat pounded in my chest as his eyes dropped to the deep vee of my top. This was it: my chance to force my way out of our fae bond. With him distracted, his defenses would be down enough to make him even more vulnerable to my suggestions.
I just had to keep him in that state a little longer.
“Oh, I can wield both,” I said, slowly closing the distance between us until my chest skimmed the lapels of his coat.
I tilted my head back so I could whisper against his jaw.
“What do you think, Yael? Will this be enough?” My fingers toyed with the buttons of his shirt gently before popping the top two free.
I let my nails graze his skin as I pushed the fabric aside, exposing an intricate tattoo sprawled across his chest like swirling shadows.
“Or do I need to do more to get his attention?” The pulse in his throat quickened ever so slightly as I pressed my hand to the bare skin near the hollow of his throat.
“Like this?” I leaned into him as I pushed up onto my tiptoes high enough that my lips brushed his earlobe, and I felt the Siren’s Song come alive inside me, begging to be released.
“You will break our agreement,” I said softly, pulling away just enough to stare into his wide eyes.
His body went rigid and the blood vessels in his neck bulged as he fought the compulsion magic—a fight he couldn't possibly win, but he fought regardless because he needed me.
“Don’t… do… this…” As he spoke, I could feel the press of something dark and powerful against my magic, battling for control, something I’d never encountered before.
For a moment, I wondered if it was because I’d grown weaker over my time on land, but I had successfully used the Siren’s Song a handful of desperate times since being cast out of the Deep and had never had someone fight it off before.
Instead of drawing back from this strange resistance, I dug in harder, clamping my free hand behind his head with a punishing grip and snarling, “Break. This. Bond!” Darkness flashed in his hate-filled stare as a prickling current of power began to build in my arms.
The second I pushed back against it, everything went to shit.
An explosion erupted between us, knocking me backward across the street until I collided with a metal-sided building at least twenty feet away.
I crashed to the ground, fighting for air as I looked to see what had happened to Yael.
Instead of being laid out by the crumbling fountain, he was stalking toward me, face contorted with anger.
“You fool,” he growled in a guttural tone as I scrambled to get to my feet to escape his wrath.
I made it two steps before his hands captured the collar of my jacket and he pressed me against the wall I’d just bounced off.
Even the shadows couldn’t hide the rage in his eyes as they bore through mine.
He was breathing harder than I was, and the silence that stretched out as a result was even scarier than whatever had just happened between us.
I tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but his hands dropped to my shoulders to hold me captive, his fingertips biting into my arms like a vise.
“Never do that again,” he said, as he struggled visibly to regain his composure.
Shaken by both what had happened and his reaction, I forced myself to straighten my spine, which seemed to only anger him more.
“I told you before you entered this covenant that it was binding until fulfilled, and I meant it. There is no way out.”
“And you would never lie, would you?” I replied in my most acerbic tone.
“I would, but I didn’t. So if you wish to be done with me, then I suggest you get your ass inside that building and do whatever you have to do to get the answers I need, or our fates will be tied like this for eternity—and you will never return home.”
His words scared me nearly as much as he did in that moment, and I clung to that fear until it fueled my rage, as I always did.
Once that fire began to stoke inside me, I leaned closer to him.
“If you’ll recall, I didn’t choose this bargain.
You took advantage of my drowning to serve your own purpose, so you can hardly blame me for trying to find a way out of this nightmare. ”
His grip on me abated ever so slightly. “And yet I do.”
“Of course you do,” I said, thrusting my face into his, “because you’re a privileged piece of shit. And I may have hated you when you worked at The Riff Raff, but at least I had a shred of respect for you then. But now? Now I see you for everything you are.”
He released me altogether and backed away a step, never breaking eye contact. “You know nothing about me or privilege if you think the two belong in the same sentence.” There was an edge to his tone born of anger long suppressed—something I understood all too well—and it gave me pause for a moment.
But only a moment.
“I know I can’t wait to be done with this bargain and back home where I’ll never have to see you again.”
That strange darkness seemed to swallow his irises for a fleeting moment before he straightened his shoulders, smoothed out his already flawless jacket, and gestured toward the building with a sweep of his arm. “After you, love.”