Chapter 7 #2
“We’ll go with you,” Blade offered, and Mace almost agreed, for no other reason than to get Scotty away from the other two males. But ultimately, they had a job to do, and he wasn’t going to let Kynan down.
“You guys handle the assignment,” he said, “I’ll be fine. There’s nothing you can do anyway.”
Scotty pressed a paper towel into her palm. “Bullshit. You’re the one who says that splitting up the team always ends badly.”
He gestured to his leg. “It already went bad.” He swallowed a little nausea and hoped they didn’t notice. “You know I’m right.”
Yeah, they did. The mission came first. Besides, if they went with him, they’d just end up hanging around a boring-ass hospital while Skoll and Jon got to do all the fun shit and get all the credit.
“We’ll check on you later,” Scotty promised.
“I know.” He popped Blade a fist bump, but Scotty bypassed his fist and went straight to a hug, clinging to him, her lips brushing his ear.
“Remember the blood on the floor when we first came inside?” she whispered. “You didn’t really know it was human, did you?”
He grinned. He should have known she’d call him out.
“No,” he whispered back. “But Jon’s an ass.”
Her laughter followed him into the Harrowgate, cutting off when the door closed and left him inside a black box with glowing symbols and a map on the wall.
Next to the map, Underworld General Hospital’s caduceus pulsed.
The moment he touched it, the box opened, and he limped into the demon hospital’s Emergency Department.
Chu-Hua, a Guai demon nurse he’d known since he was an infant, hurried over, her piglike feet clacking on the obsidian floor.
“Hey, Chu.” He braced himself on the corner of the reception desk before he fell over. Man, he felt like shit. He hadn’t felt this bad since his transition. “I need to see Eidolon.”
“Dr. E is off today,” she said in her high-pitched squeal.
“Lucky me,” came a familiar voice from behind him. Fuck. Groaning, Mace turned to see his half-brother sauntering over, looking as cocky as ever in black scrubs embroidered with the UG caduceus and Dr. Talon. “Today, you’re my problem.”
Yep. Splitting up the team always ended badly.
Blade didn’t like this. Didn’t like sending Mace to the hospital while he and Scotty remained behind. And judging by the expression on Scotty’s face, she didn’t like it, either. She was still pale and shaky from opening the gate, but the worry in her eyes was for Mace.
“You sure you guys don’t want to join him?” Skoll asked. “We can start the search without you.”
“We stay on mission.” Blade grabbed a long-sleeved tee from his pack. “Mace is in the best hands now. There’s nothing we can do.”
What he’d said was true, but Blade didn’t have to like it. Especially because, as Mace always pointed out, every time the team split up, bad shit happened.
It’s bad luck to separate us, man. You know it is.
He’d told Tayla and Kynan that a million times.
We’re a team. You can’t break up a team. It’s bad juju.
Skoll nodded and flicked his finger across his wrist comms. A glowing 3D map popped into the air. As Blade shrugged into his shirt, Skoll manipulated the image, zeroing in on the area surrounding the cabin.
“Sightings of the creature were reported here, here, and here,” he said, tapping red markers indicating multiple areas on the map.
He gestured at several spots tagged with black dots.
“And these are the last known locations of the men who went missing.” He flicked off the map.
“We should split up into two groups. Since Jon and I are both more familiar with this area and case than you two, I suggest that Jon pairs up with Blade, and I’ll take Scotty. ”
I’ll take Scotty.
That was a hard no.
“Kynan sent us because we work best as a team,” Blade said. “Scotty and I will pair up.”
“But—”
“We can communicate via the comms or handhelds if we have questions.” Scotty started toward the bathroom with an armful of clothes. “This isn’t about not wanting to work with you guys. It’s just that we’re a package deal. We operate as a unit.”
Skoll shrugged and let it go, but Jon shook his head and rolled his eyes, muttering something uncomplimentary under his breath.
“You got a problem?” Blade asked quietly.
“No problem.” Jon swung around to him, his broad shoulders blocking the view of the entire north wall. “Unless wondering how overrated your legendary team is happens to be a problem.”
Before Blade could put Jon on his ass, Scotty changed course and thrust herself between them like a pissed-off cat.
“Overrated?” She was at least a foot shorter than Jon, but she got all up in his grill, somehow seeming to tower over him. It was hot, and Blade couldn’t find it in him to feel shame about thinking that. “Wanna put our record up against yours?”
“Sure,” Jon said, baring his teeth in a cynical smile. “But you can’t count the times you got help from all your Horsemen and angel buddies.”
What a dick. “You think we need help to do our jobs?”
The dick shrugged. “Guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”
Fuck that guy. Scotty and Blade were going to locate every wendigo out there and put them out of commission before Skoll and Jon needed to take their next piss.
“Okay,” Scotty said, jamming her finger into Jon’s sternum. She could never let shit like this go. Also…hot. “Why do you think we’re overrated?”
Amused, Jon looked down at her finger. He wrapped his big hand around hers and gently pushed it away. But he didn’t release her. “Maybe not overrated. Privileged, I guess.”
Privileged? Scotty’s family history was one giant tragedy. Mace had a tricky history with two fathers, a mother who was once an angel, a grandfather who was the Grim Reaper, and a bitter half-brother.
And Blade…his insides ached just thinking about it.
His brother, Rade, had been traumatized as an infant by a psycho demon, and his baby brother, Chaos, had been slaughtered while in Stryke’s care.
Their family had been torn apart, and Stryke only made it worse by walking away from them all.
Now, he was back, and everyone acted as if nothing had happened.
Blade wasn’t ready to forgive and forget. So, naturally, now he was the bad guy. He was about to tell Jon where he could shove his opinion when the guy started blathering again.
“Let’s face it,” he said, “you guys grew up in palaces, with servants and guards. You were trained to fight from the day you were born. You’re like, blessed by angels and crap.”
“Not all of us.” Scotty jerked her hand away from his. “And fuck you. We’ve gone through some bad shit. Our lives haven’t all been privileged.”
“Really?” Jon snorted. “Ever gone hungry for days because one of your parents worked three jobs and the other was an addict? Ever been sold for drug money? Ever been hated just because someone in your family is the wrong color or wrong breed?”
“Seriously?” Scotty blinked, taken aback. “I can’t even imagine.”
“We have a sun bear in our lineage,” Jon said. “Sun bear shifters are small and considered cowardly and weak in the bear-shifter community. They’ve nearly been hunted to extinction. Soon, they’ll be as extinct as the pandas.”
“There were panda shifters?” Scotty got that look on her face, the one she got when she saw a kitten. “Aw, they must have been adorable.”
Jon’s gaze turned inward, his expression sad. “They were a gentle people.”
“That’s awful.” She moved one of the lanterns to the bathroom, gathering clothes and speaking as she went. “Is it rude to ask what bear species you are? Because whatever you turned into was huge. Bigger than any grizzly I’ve ever seen.”
“And shaggy,” Blade said. “I didn’t think grizzlies were that shaggy.”
“My family is from a rare, ancient line of prehistoric bears.” Jon started pulling stuff out of his pack and rearranging it.
“You mean, like a cave bear? Or a short-faced bear?” Scotty called out from where she was changing behind the curtain. “Aleka was always shoving pictures of dinosaurs and woolly mammoths and crap in my face during her paleontology phase.”
Blade remembered Aleka going through many phases before settling on demon archaeology.
Growing up, she’d been one of the few people who could hold a conversation with Stryke.
Hell, she’d been one of the very few who wanted to have a conversation with Stryke.
Having brainiac siblings was something he, Scotty, and Mace all had in common, and something that came up often, since all their siblings were huge pains in the ass.
No one denied that Blade had it the worst, though.
“Wouldn’t that make you royalty among bear shifters?” Blade asked.
Jon snorted. “And now you see why having a sun bear in the family would be a huge scandal. A dozen of my family members were run out of society and left penniless. But not before they sterilized us.”
“That’s insane, man,” Blade said. Now, he felt bad about hating the guy.
But he still didn’t want him sleeping with Scotty.
“Enough chin wagging,” Jon said, clearly wanting to change the subject. He gestured to the supplies they’d brought. “We’re wasting time.”
He was right, and they got to work putting together light packs containing various supplies, water, purification tablets, protein bars, and one first aid kit per team. Then, as twilight stretched across the forest, turning the distant mountains gray, they weaponed-up and headed out.
“Let’s take the main trail and then split up at the river,” Jon suggested as they stepped off the porch.
Sounded fine to Blade. Scotty, dressed identically in black tactical pants and a turtleneck reinforced with ensorcelled, puncture-resistant thread, gave an affirming nod, too, and they slipped into the forest.
Dark shadows grew darker as they navigated the worn trail. Day creatures gave way to night creatures, and silence descended, save the occasional hoot from an owl and the drone of nocturnal insects.