CHAPTER SEVEN #2
Shae stepped out the back doors and down the few steps and out into the Plaza.
The sun was not fully up yet, but the sky was coming alive.
He stopped and looked left, knowing the Coffee Beanery she spoke of was about three blocks up, so he headed that direction.
He hadn’t left the Plaza yet when a feeling of dread washed over him.
Shae stopped abruptly and looked around him.
The gardens of the Plaza loomed out of the shadows, making everything seem just a bit unsettling. He saw nothing untoward, but the heaviness of dread did not leave him. His steps slowed, and his decision to walk to the coffee shop seemed suddenly unwise.
He should tell someone. Shae turned and started walking back towards the entrance, and that's when shots rang out, and he was grabbed roughly and pushed to the ground. "Fuck!" He shouted as chaos ensued.
"Stay still." The man lying on top of him commanded. "I'm a guard, you're safe, but they haven't gotten the shooter, so stay where you are."
Shae didn't speak, he merely nodded. His heart was beating frantically, and fear had taken him. Shae listened, and he could hear the man breathing. He was holding him to the ground, covering him protectively with his own body, and Shae appreciated it, but he wanted Torin; he wanted him here, now.
There were lots of voices and people darting around, and he was hauled to his feet, rushed inside, and placed in a room behind the reception desk.
It was small with a table and three chairs.
It looked like an interrogation room, and that did not bode well.
He should have told someone about Lauren rather than taking off on his own.
The man, introduced as Josef, came into the room and closed the door behind him. He had a bottle of water with him, and he handed it to Shae. "Are you alright?" He asked as he sat down.
"Yes, just shook up." He asked many questions, and Shae answered them all honestly and thoroughly. "It was stupid, but I just wanted to help my friend."
"I understand, but if you'd said something to us first, we would have told you that your friend Lauren is indeed in Michigan right now with her family, and we have people watching over her. She is quite safe." Josef explained, and Shae felt all kinds of gullible.
“It was her number and her voice. Who called me?”
"I know that Torin has explained to you about our world." He said, and Shae nodded. "There are those with the capability to do what you have described. I'm sorry you were assaulted, and I'm asking you to not leave the Center again without speaking to someone first."
“Was anyone hurt?” Shae would feel awful if someone took a bullet for him.
"Everyone is fine, and the shooters, there were two of them, have been dealt with." He left it there, and Shae did not ask for further details.
“Torin is aware of the situation, and he will be here soon.”
“He’s going to think I’m fucking stupid.” He noticed a twitch as Josef fought a smile.
"He will not, I assure you," Josef told him. "He is your beloved, and he will be glad you're safe."
"Tell that guard thanks for saving my ass out there. I really appreciate it."
"I will." Josef patted him on the shoulder as he left the room.
Shae remained there, waiting for Torin. There were guards at the door he saw them when Josef was leaving.
He should have just stayed in the apartment and waited.
Whoever pretended to be Lauren did a damn good job; it sounded just like her.
He had a lot to learn about this new world he'd stumbled into.
The first thing he needed to learn was to recognize liars.
***
Torin received the message after he swept the Second Street apartment building in the lowlands. They'd rousted out a few low-level magics but hadn’t discovered any of the heavy hitters.
Massey's men were mostly on the run, but he had hired a few snipers who were still out there killing anyone who had been present that day. Massey had put a bounty on his head, although Massey didn't know who he was.
From all reports, Massey was currently held up in his office suite in the Arles building. It was a building he owned, and he occupied most of it with his business ventures. His office suite was on the tenth floor.
The more he fought, the more he lost, but the man was infuriated and decided that going all in was the way to handle this attack. He made a bad call, a very bad call, but he was too far in now to stop. His empire was crashing, and all he had left was to kill as many as possible.
It was a move made by losers, and Massey had been a loser his entire life, according to Killian. He was propped up by others, and those people had currently turned their backs on him. He was on his own, and although struggling, he was still inflicting a lot of pain and destruction.
After finishing with the apartment building he planned to head over to the business district of the lowlands.
They would finish the lowlands and then do an entire sweep of the city, making their position clear regarding Massey and ending anyone who thought differently.
They were saving Massey and his private guards for last. It seemed like a good plan.
A strange feeling of alarm struck him, and he did a quick survey of his surroundings. Then he recognized the source, and he grabbed his phone just as it began to ring.
"Your beloved Shae was in the Plaza and was targeted by Massey's men." Josef began. He explained the call, supposedly from his friend Lauren, and his attempt to leave and meet her at a nearby coffee shop. The shooters, two of them, were waiting for him in the Plaza.
"He's safe and unharmed, and the shooters have been dispatched. I have Shae waiting in the debriefing room off the lobby. He is fully guarded, and there are no windows." Josef assured.
“Tell him I will be there soon. I have something to take care of first.” Torin stated coldly.
"Take someone with you, Torin, don't storm that place alone," Josef interjected forcefully.
“I work better alone.” He said and then closed the call. He dared to attack his beloved, dared to harm what was his. Torin moved on the wind, and within a beat of a human heart, he was standing on the tenth floor of the Arles building.
He could smell the man and his guards, who were clustered around his office, inside and out. Jarod Massey was angry, flustered, and spitting orders that were killing his own men. There was no time for strategy, there was only time for death.
He stepped into the main office and saw Massey standing behind his desk as if using it as a barricade against the chaos he had instigated. "You." Massey shouted and looked around. "I'm going to kill you, take you apart, and watch you beg for death." Torin smiled.
"Where are your men, Massey? Where are those who do your fighting for you? You're alone here in your hidey hole." Torin kept his eyes on the man and slowly walked toward him.
There were no men in the outer room, in the hall, or in the elevators because they were all dead. Torin had ended them before they knew what was happening. The rage he felt upon hearing of Shae's attack had left him cold and focused on retribution, and that retribution was painted red.
The guards by the elevator had been wolf shifters they died in an instant, no time for fighting or distractions. He had one goal in mind, and that was to tear the heart from the man who dared to come after Shae.
The men in the hall were human and went down with three shots.
Torin didn't even have to break his stride.
The outer office was one man, the jackal from the woods.
He was surprised to see Torin and even more surprised when Torin called forth his demon and tore the man's head off. The shock on his face was delicious.
He didn’t usually deal in so much unreserved carnage, but this day seemed to call for it.
This man and his minions thought he could touch what belonged to Torin, and he was going to learn otherwise.
It was a lesson he would not live to contemplate, but, in the moment, he would understand his mistakes just as the jackal had understood his.
He could feel Shae; he could feel his uncertainty and his discomfort, and he reached out to him, channeling love and understanding.
None of this was his fault. His beloved had been caught in the crossfire of a battle he knew nothing about.
Torin vowed to protect him, and he was keeping that promise.
Massey moved to the corner of the room by the floor-to-ceiling windows and began negotiating. "I don't know who hired you, but I will pay you twice whatever they paid."
"We're beyond any negotiations you set assassins onto my beloved, and for that you will die and die painfully." Torin moved forward, and Massey pulled out a gun and started shooting. All the shots hit him in the chest, but nothing penetrated.
It would take more than a 9mm to penetrate the hide of a Shadow Demon. If he’d had a larger gun, it might have at least stung a bit, but Massey preferred the smaller caliber to not bother the cut of his suit. “You really are an embarrassment to your father.” Torin mocked.
Massey pulled out a knife from his vest and dove at Torin, a stupid and final move that resulted in him being thrown to the wall with Torin's forearm pressed against his neck. Torin held his right hand, the one with the knife, and twisted it until it was pointed at Massey's own heart.
It was a small knife, like the gun, hardly useful when the goal was true destruction.
He took it from his hand and threw it at the opposite wall, where it stuck.
Torin pulled out his own blade, one that was crafted and groomed for the kill.
He held Massey's eyes as he plunged it into his heart, going so deep it stuck into the wall behind him.
He then twisted it, making sure there would be no coming back for Massey this time.
Some of Hadden's men arrived as he was leaving, and no words were shared only a nod passed between them.
His rights were clear, and his right to protect his beloved would eclipse all else.
He moved between the shadow and the light, and in the next moment was standing outside the room where his beloved waited.
He opened the door and stepped inside, and Shae was instantly on his feet, rushing toward him.
“Torin.” He cried and wrapped him in his arms. Torin picked him up and buried his face against Shae’s throat and just breathed. Having him in his arms was a true release; he let go of the disquiet and anxiety that had begun to take him over.
The threat was gone for now, at least, and he would take care of any other that dared raise its head. He would protect and defend till the end and beyond. This man was his center, and his focus. His vampire, and his demon claimed this human as their own.
"I'm so sorry I left when you told me to stay put. It sounded like Lauren. I thought I was helping her." Shae rambled on, and Torin listened and kept kissing him on his shoulder, his throat, his jaw, and then his lips, those lovely, plump lips.
After several minutes of a kiss that bonded, claimed, and devastated Torin drew back and looked down into the lust-filled eyes of the sweetest man who ever lived. "You're safe now, and that's all that matters."
“I love you, Torin.”
"I love you too, Shae."
He said words that had never left his lips before and felt the softness of their relationship and the tenderness of their words sink into his soul.
Shae was one in a billion; he won the heart of a Shadow Demon, which was considered impossible.
Fate had brought him the one person who could touch his heart, and Torin would hold him and love him for a lifetime and more if the Gods permit.