Chapter 16
Ciara
Iran beside Jason. I’d seen him move faster than this—clearly, he was going slower for me. But instead of regretting my human nature, as I did usually, I didn’t care. Running along next to this man, helping him, was as natural as breathing.
I wouldn’t have done anything else. Instinct drove me to stay with him. Like I needed to be here. It was as natural as helping one of my pack.
As natural as helping Conri.
That thought almost gave me pause, but I didn’t have time to stop and think just now. I was helping Jason. That was all that mattered.
We turned the corner to the apartment and stopped abruptly, both of us coming to the sort of abrupt halt that jarred our forward momentum. A huge hole had been blown in the side of the building, revealing the rooms of people’s lives like they were in a child’s dollhouse.
“That’s mine.” Jason’s voice was grim, his finger raised and steady as he pointed to one of the exposed apartments.
Four men, their hair blond, their skin pale and papery-looking stood on the asphalt outside the building, their hands raised as they chanted. The air was hazy between them, their hair blowing in an unnatural breeze.
“But they’re…” How the hell did that sentence end? What could I say?
Vampires didn’t have powers like this. They weren’t witches. But they were clearly spell casting. Even I could see that.
“Ancients.” The word was a whisper from Jason’s mouth, but the closest vampire to us stiffened as if he’d heard it.
He turned, and the movement was in slow motion, adding to the horror of the spectacle before us.
He met my gaze, his eyes almost as pale as the rest of him, and the ice in those irises stole my breath, tightening my chest.
Jason’s arm was wrapped tightly around my waist, but it tightened farther as the vampire’s nostrils flared and he appeared to sniff the air.
Yet his eyes never left mine.
I couldn’t look away.
He held me in his power, and a small smirk lifted his lips.
“Ciara.” Jason moved at my side, but I couldn’t turn to him. “Shit. Hang on.”
He stepped backward, drawing me with him as he almost manhandled me into a shop door alcove where the vampire was no longer in my line of sight.
I shook my head and pushed my hair over my shoulder. “What the hell was that?”
“Compulsion.” Jason kept his voice low, but his face was tight with a quiet rage I’d never seen in him before. “He knows what you are. I need to keep you safe.”
I expected him to continue but his lips parted as he looked over my shoulder, and I turned to see what had captured his attention.
The mad prince was caught in midair, struggling like he was held by invisible bindings, and as I watched him, he descended slowly to where the four vampires had been standing and chanting.
“Enculés de vos mères!” Francois yelled and struggled more, shouting again as his first cry died away.
I had no idea what he was saying, but from the expression on his face, it wasn’t complimentary. His lips were drawn back in a snarl, and his cheekbones were prominent. But his vampire strength wasn’t helping him in his situation at all.
“Sweet fuck.” Jason’s voice was a whisper behind me. “Sweet, sweet fuck.”
“Why aren’t we doing something?” I hissed.
Even I could see that there were suddenly bad vampires and worse vampires. If Francois Ricard was bad, then the paper vampires were worse.
“Who are the paper vampires?” The question popped out before I thought it through, but luckily, I’d managed to ask it in a whisper.
Jason chucked drily. “Paper vampires?” His eyebrow started to quirk, but his expression lost all trace of humor before it truly took hold. “They’re the Ancients.”
“Why aren’t we fighting?”
Jason shook his head at my second question. “We aren’t enough.”
“But I can fight.” For fuck’s sake. Leon had taught me to fight.
“Maybe against shifters, but not against vampires, and not against these vampires.” Without using the words he could have used to tell me, Jason told me I couldn’t fight at all. In fact, he allowed me the illusion that maybe I still could—against shifters.
I shrank back a little, pulling away from Jason as I did. “I’ve always been able to take care of myself.”
“Vampires are much stronger than you might expect. In shifted form, maybe you…” He stopped and shook his head again, but it didn’t matter that he didn’t finish his sentence.
I knew what he’d been about to say, and I squashed down the hurt. I wasn’t a shifter. I’d never be strong enough. “But shouldn’t we at least try?” Not being able to fight didn’t mean we were capable of nothing. We could still try.
We could distract. We could…do something.
He sighed, the sound sad. “Not yet,” he whispered. “Not yet.”
When he reached and pulled me closer to him again, I didn’t resist. This man wanted to look after me, and something inexplicable drew me to him.
So I didn’t resist.
He fumbled in his pocket, and I leaned away just enough to allow him better access. His cellphone screen lit up as he started scrolling through the options almost before he could see them.
“There’s trouble.” His voice was the quietest I’d ever heard. Then he shook his head as whoever was at the other end replied. “No, I called you first. I’ll go to Nightfall next.”
Ah, so he was probably talking to the king, then. The man Jason called Nic.
“It’s Francois. The Ancients have him. They have some sort of magic.” Jason nodded. “Okay. If Leia finds anything let me know. I’ll tell Kayla.” He was speaking so low that if I hadn’t been pressed right against him, more secure than I’d ever been, I wouldn’t have known he was talking at all.
He hung up without saying goodbye—definitely a man conversation.
“Come on—we’ve got to go.” He tugged me with him, and we stepped from the alcove, crouching as we scurried past where I’d parked my car in the lot.
Then we ran quietly down a side alley, stopping only when we were tucked behind a selection of dumpsters and Jason could see out of the alley in both directions.
He gripped my upper arms, but his hold was gentle.
“You need to leave, Ciara.” The urgency in his voice was reflected in his eyes.
“Call your brother and have him come get you or send someone for you. Now that the Ancients are here, it’s not safe for anyone…
it’s not safe for you.” Worry claimed his features.
That worry took away my desire to ask questions.
The fact he was worried at all was scary in itself, and that he was worried for me, about me, was something different entirely.
No one outside the pack worried about me.
Hell, hardly anyone inside the pack worried about me, so I listened to Jason now.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I lifted onto my tiptoes and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “Thank you.”
Neither of us had tried to discuss what we were doing or what we were to each other, even though it was obvious there was something between us. I wanted to align my body with his and stand like we’d been molded together and cast in the same sculpture.
“We need to talk when all this is done,” I said as I rested my hand on his chest. “Don’t die before we do.” I patted him softly, my fingers beating gently on him above his heart, and he chuckled in response.
He didn’t say anything in reply, though, because I took my phone out of my pocket and scrolled through my contacts to Conri. Time to call my other knight in shining armor.