41. About That Extrication …
FORTY-ONE
ABOUT THAT EXTRICATION …
Jack
F uck off! the monster roared, and I bared my teeth and snarled at Blaire. Roman appeared from the trees and wrapped an arm around her waist.
“Get out of here,” I rumbled in warning, eyes blazing at the pair of them, angling my body so they couldn’t see any of Seven under me.
How fucking dare they interrupt this moment?
“Jack, I … we need to—”
“I said, get the fuck out of here!” I bellowed. Seven’s claws dug into my biceps, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Blaire and Roman. Couldn’t turn my back on the threat.
My breath scissored in and out of my lungs.
I tried to reason with myself. There is no threat, Jack. Calm the fuck down! But that primitive, animal part of me was seeing red.
I wanted to leap for them, to fucking choke the life out of them for being here, for seeing this moment. But that made no sense. Blaire was my oldest friend. I would never want to hurt her.
I fucking do , the monster promised, and I could feel him surging, trying to take over our body. I gritted my teeth, forcing him back.
“We need to go, Sweetest,” Roman murmured, urgency in his tone. “Let’s give him some time to calm down.”
“Listen to your fucking man, Blaire,” I warned, my teeth clenched against the urge to attack.
“Look at me, Jack,” Seven urged her palm on the side of my face. Something about that touch blunted the edge of the rage searing my insides.
“Not until they’re gone.”
Blaire blinked at me, confusion slackening her face. But Roman, clever Drinker that he was, tugged her back into the trees they’d appeared from.
“Please, Jack!” Blaire called out. “Come find me when you’ve … sorted yourself out.”
I couldn’t answer. If I opened my mouth, it would be to roar every fucking curse word under the sun at the pair of them.
“Jack,” Seven repeated. “We’re alone.”
Jaw tight, I turned back to her. She stroked my cheek, her eyes serious, calm.
“Breathe. Slow breaths,” she crooned. “I’m here. We’re both safe. You don’t need to hurt anyone.”
Her fingers were on my face, her soothing voice caressed me, and I breathed. Deep and even. My heart slowed, finding its sync with hers.
“Are you back?” she asked, pressing a hand to my chest. I sighed.
“I think so,” I mumbled. “That was … fucking intense.”
Seven nodded, her thumb tracing an arc against my collarbone. “You’re an Echo. Everything is more intense for you.”
I leaned down until my forehead touched hers. “It’s fucking lucky you know so much about this, or I’d be royally screwed.”
Seven laughed harshly. “Yes. It’s very lucky that I was trained in all the strengths and weaknesses of my own kind and taught the best ways to take them out.”
“Fuck,” I grunted, sucking on my teeth as the monster tried to wrest control from me again.
Let me out! His anger flooded our veins at the reminder of her past.
“I … he’s stronger tonight, and I’m …” I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing myself to breathe deeply. “I can’t let him out. Not when he’s this fucking angry. Not when he wants to hurt …”
I stopped myself before I said her name.
“Blaire,” Seven finished for me. “It’s okay to say her name. I knew I’d have to meet her, I mean, that’s been the plan we’ve been working towards, so if anything, her turning up here saves us a lot of time and energy.” Her mouth twisted into a wry smile. “It would have been nice to have a chance to work myself up for it, though. And … maybe to not have been naked, spread out with your cock hard inside me when it happened.”
I coughed. Then snorted. Then laughed. So fucking hard that I was shaking. My head fell into the crook of her shoulder, and I laughed until tears were streaming down my face.
“What’s so funny?” she asked when I’d finally calmed down enough to prop myself up and wipe my face.
“I think Blaire meant … well, I found out that she was Roman’s when I accidentally walked in on them in the middle of sex … well, actually, I climbed in her window and found them fucking. So, I guess she meant that we’re even now, because I caught her out, and now she’s caught us.”
Seven wrinkled her nose, and it was so fucking adorable I leaned down and pressed a kiss on the tip of it.
“Is climbing in windows something else humans do for fun?” she asked, mystified.
I chuckled. “More out of necessity than fun. Like, an avoiding getting sprung by the parentals creeping into the house past curfew type of situation.”
“Only about half of those words made any sense to me,” she muttered.
I smiled, sitting up, my half-mast dick slipping out of her. I reached for my T-shirt, passing it to her.
“We’ve got fucking forever for me to teach you all the words,” I told her. I leaned closer and, lifting her arms above her head, I helped her take off the sodden pink T-shirt and replace it with my much longer green one. It covered her ass … just.
I found my jeans, pulling them on, damp and uncomfortable.
“I suppose we need to go find out how the fuck they turned up here out of nowhere … and they’re going to be picturing my naked ass the entire time.”
That pulled a laugh out of Seven. She reached behind me, grabbing my backside. “As long as they know that this ass is Mine.”
“Fucking forever,” I mumbled into her hair.
“ A re you stable?”
Farida. I should have known she’d be here. And there, standing beside Blaire, smirking unashamedly at me, was Ellis.
“Good to see the whole gang managed to find their way back together while I took a bullet,” I muttered. Blaire flinched at my words.
Fuck, I was an asshole. But I’d been through some shit, so it was sort of warranted.
Seven’s fingers, warm in mine, reminded me what that shit had gotten me.
“Well?” Farida pressed. “Are you going to go all full-moon Shifter on us at a moment’s notice?”
Fuck she rubbed me up the wrong way. She’d always seemed … off … but there was something freakishly intense about her now. I glanced at Blaire, who was watching Farida, a wary expression on her face that freaked me the fuck out.
“The monster is contained,” I said tightly, deciding that maybe it was best to play by Farida’s rules.
If she so much as looks sideways at Blossom, she’ll find out how uncontained we can be , the monster snarled.
“Where have you been?” Blaire demanded, her nails digging into Roman’s arm. He stroked her hair like she was the one who needed to be calmed down.
“Hold on,” I said. “Where have I been? I was fucking shot protecting your mom, Bee! How about starting with, ‘Are you okay? Gee, thanks for saving Mom’s life.’”
Blaire’s expression hardened, the way it always did when she was getting ready to argue with me. “I didn’t know if you … or Mom, or anyone was alive, you jerk! I’ve spent weeks trying everything I could to work out where they’d taken you!” she snapped. “I almost got my face shot off, sneaking back into my own freaking house to see if Harvey had left something there that would lead me to wherever Baxter was. To wherever you were!”
She ripped herself away from Roman, storming up to me. Ellis made to follow, but Roman held her back, shaking his head.
“Don’t you dare act like I didn’t care what had happened to you,” she hissed, eyes blazing, “when all I’ve been doing is worrying about you! How do you think we even got here? Looking for you, you douche!”
“What the fuck? Why were they in your house?” I asked.
“Pretty sure they were hoping I’d show up there, and then they’d take me wherever they took you …” Her eyes darted to Seven, looking her up and down. “Were you in the … you look familiar …”
Seven’s fingers tightened around mine. “I was there the night that Jack was shot. I was in the cage. I saw you … I saw him.” She pointed at Roman, tilting her head to the side. “Except, I don’t think it was really you, was it? I was … not myself that night, so a lot of it is just a blur.”
“You’re …” Blaire mumbled, her eyes darting to Roman’s. “She’s one of the phase one hybrids.” Roman’s brows lifted, and he regarded Seven with new intensity.
A growl rumbled low in my throat. My fingertips tingled with partial shift. My gums burned as my teeth slid long.
“They’re Joined,” Farida said flatly. “And it’s still a full moon for another couple of hours. I’d be very careful what you say about her around Jack.”
Blaire blinked. “You … and her …”
“She’s Mine,” I bit out, cricking my neck, shaking out my hands against the wildness that screeched just under my skin.
“Was that … did you … tonight?”
Seven stepped around me. “We’re wasting time,” she said sharply. “When, or how, or why Jack and I Joined is none of your business. There are far more important things we need to discuss right now.”
“Oooh, I like her! Straight to the point, no fucking around,” Ellis said, winking at me as if I wasn’t on the verge of shifting into a fucking T-Rex and swallowing the lot of them whole for being so fucking annoying. For ruining my night with Seven.
“She’s right,” Farida added, her voice businesslike. “We have a rescue to plan, and by chance, or design, we’ve just stumbled across an insider with knowledge of the very place we need to infiltrate.”
She watched Seven with an assessing gleam in her eyes. I didn’t like that. Not at all. Not from Farida, who’d done nothing to gain our trust.
“Did they take you there—to the Operation’s base?” Blaire asked suddenly, eyes darting back to me. “Were our … parents there? Did you see them?”
Not trusting my voice, I gave a jerky nod. Blaire’s chest rose in a rough gasp, and she gripped tight to Roman’s hand.
“What about a Drinker, a male named Jude? Dark hair, brown eyes … looks a lot like Blaire,” Farida added tightly. I turned to her, wondering who the fuck she was talking about.
“If he’s there, whoever he is, I didn’t see him.”
Farida’s eyes slid shut for a split second, and when they opened again, they were so dark I thought we all might get sucked into them … like a pair of fucking black holes in her face. My chest went tight. For a second, I was sure my heart stopped beating. Seven’s eyes flitted to me, worry creasing her forehead.
Farida took a long, deep breath, and some of that darkness receded. The tightness eased.
What IS she? Seven’s voice asked.
Inside my brain.
What the fuck? Did you … how?
“… could be a good thing,” Farida muttered, and I shook myself, pushing down my shock and trying to focus. “With Jack out here, it means one less person we have to extricate.”
“Extricate?” I asked, stepping forward. “You lot were coming to get us out of there?”
Roman gave a nod. “You, your human parents, and the Drinker, Jude, who is important to us … if he’s there.”
I didn’t give two flying fucks about this Jude dude, but I was about to toss a spanner right into their current plans.
“Yeah … about that extrication …” I began.
“I’d like to hear more about this extrication, too.”
We all turned in unison.
Leaning against a tree, Clay regarded us all with arms folded over his chest. He looked from Seven to me. “You’re escapees from that government stronghold, aren’t you?”