Behind him, holding what appeared to be an elephant’s tusk, was Axel,
the old assassin. The lines on his face were hard and unforgiving as he
glanced from the fallen monster to me.
“A Basilisk can only be killed by an elephant’s tusk dipped in unicorn
blood,” he admitted nonchalantly, removing the weapon from the creature’s
body. He wiped the black blood on the hem of his shirt before finally meeting
my eyes. “Now, are you going to grab his scales before they completely
decompose, or do I have to do that too?”
“What?” Now that the adrenaline had worn off, I collapsed back to my
knees. Devlin was there in a second, one arm wrapped around my waist as his
hand hovered anxiously over my body as he helped me lie down on the
ground.
Axel sighed heavily as if I was purposefully being dense.
“A scale,” he repeated, rolling his dark eyes. “It’s the only known cure
for the poison.”
“How the fuck do you know that?” Bash demanded, moving to stand in
front of both me and Killian. Lupe remained in his Bear form, growling
threateningly. I knew he was only seconds away from slicing open Axel’s
throat with his paw.
When I tried to confront Axel, blood erupted from my mouth.
Was I dying?
Fuck, I wasn’t ready to die. Not yet. I hadn’t reached my orgasm quota
yet.
“Does it matter?” Devlin hissed, but his voice was muffled as if I was
hearing it through earplugs. My Genie stomped forward, magic crackling
around his skin like a purple mist, and removed a dagger from his waistband.
“This better fucking work!”
“It will,” Axel replied lazily as Devlin sliced at the Basilisk’s scales.
“No, Killian...” I murmured as Devlin knelt before me. Killian first.
Killian. First.
But the pain was excruciating, sweeping over my body like lightning, and
I was barely holding on to consciousness. I dragged in a lungful of air and
pushed myself onto my hands and knees. I had been broken and reborn in
pain my entire life. I knew it as intimately as an old friend. Pain? We went
way back. Exchanged Christmas cards and everything.
Devlin gently—but forcefully—opened my mouth and shoved the scale
inside. I only had a second to pray that it had been motherfucking sanitized
before darkness consumed me.
I WAS BACK inside the grimy cell, heart thundering as I took in my
surroundings.
Like before, there was only a single candle illuminating the gray walls
and compressed dirt floor. This time, however, Jax wasn’t hunched over in
the corner of the room.
Instead, he hung suspended from the wall. His arms and legs were tied to
wooden posts in an uncomfortable X position. Blood coated his chest and
arms like a second skin, the wound I had noticed before haphazardly
bandaged. His head lolled against his chest as he released crazed spurts of
laughter.
“Come back for more, bitch?” he hissed, fangs poking his bottom lip.
On closer inspection, I saw that he was naked, and horror filled me at the
sight. What had been done to him? I wanted to murder everyone who’d
played a hand in his torture. No, not just murder. Maim. I wanted to fucking
maim them all.
“Jax,” I cried in horror, immediately running to him. His wrists and
ankles were tied with rope, but my knife did quick work on releasing him.
“Who the hell did this to you? Do you know where you are? We’re coming
for you.”
He scoffed, collapsing to the ground when the final rope was cut. “Do
you expect me to believe you, Z ?” He said my name as if he didn’t believe it,
as if it was a dirty curse word. “Your illusions don’t work on me.”
“What illusions?” I begged, dropping to my knees before him. He
continued to eye me with obvious aversion and fear. Panic flitted through me
at the thought that my mate didn’t recognize me. “I’m Z, and you’re Jax.
You’re my mate.” Hesitantly, I reached forward to place my hand on his
chest, just above his heart. He flinched at the contact but didn’t immediately
pull away. Good. That was good. “You can feel me, can’t you?” I grabbed
his bloody hand and placed it over my own chest.
Silence engulfed us as our hearts beat as one.
His lower lip began to tremble as tears filled his eyes. Wonder and awe
brightened his haggard features. His hand shook as he moved it up my chest
and to my cheek. His palm was calloused and rough as he stroked patterns.
Heat exploded from where he touched me, traveling to the tips of my fingers
and the soles of my feet.
“Z?” he whispered. “Is that really you?”
I covered his hand with my own. “Of course, Vamp,” I said with a wobbly
smile. “And I’m going to bust you out of here.”
“You shouldn’t be here,” Jax continued. “It’s not safe.”
“Don’t worry about me,” I whispered, stroking his light brown hair with
my free hand. “I’m safe.”
He released a choked sob, body shaking, as he crawled onto my lap. I
was stunned into silence as he cuddled against me, his body shockingly cold
against my overheated one.
“Please don’t leave me,” he sobbed, clutching at my shirt. I stroked a
hand down his bare back, being extra careful not to touch the lacerations
zigzagging across his skin. Acid formed in my throat as I thought about all he
had endured and all he would continue to endure.
I had to get to him. Now.
There was no other alternative.
“I won’t leave you,” I vowed, kissing his forehead.
But karma was a twisted bitch who liked to fuck me in the asshole with no
lube.
Just as the promise left my lips, the cell around me began to
dematerialize. My surroundings became fuzzy and warped as if I was seeing
them through modified glasses.
The last thing I saw was Jax’s horrified, betrayed face and his lips
opened in an anguished cry.
I tried to run back to him, tried to hold him, but soon, he disappeared
from view too.
The last thing I heard was his agonized scream.
FOURTEEN
DEVLIN
Z shifted in the plush bed, allaying some of my worries and
fears. I’d been restless the past hour—unable to sleep, eat, or
even function until I knew she was alright. Axel had assured me
that the scale would work, but I needed to see it for myself before I could
believe it.
Fuck, I had almost lost her. We had almost lost her.
My eyes drifted to Killian lying beside her, his face serene in sleep. My
heart splintered down the center. Fissures cracked the organ open until it was
almost unrecognizable.
We had almost lost him too.
His face had been nearly gray before we had fed him the scale, but he still
managed to murmur Z’s name like a prayer.
“Thank you,” Lupe murmured softly behind me, extending a large hand
to the assassin. Axel eyed it cautiously, almost curiously, before accepting it.
The man didn’t smile. He didn’t even blink. His eyes were apathetic, hard
chips of
stone.
“They’ll be unconscious for the next hour or two,” he stated gruffly. He
folded his arms over his chest, turning away from the Shifter. His penetrating
gaze landed on Z, but I wasn’t able to read the expression in his eyes. He was
a blank fucking book, which only made me more uneasy. “We leave in the
morning.” With that declaration, he stomped out of the room.
“Did you hear the prick?” Bash snarled. He sat beside the bed, idly
playing with Z’s limp fingers. “He’s not the fucking boss.”
“I don’t trust him,” I said immediately, swallowing around the walnut-
sized lump in my throat.
“Me neither,” Lupe added. He moved to stand directly beside me,
scrubbing at his face. To Bash, he asked, “Can you do anything to speed up
the healing?”
Bash’s lips pushed out as an unreadable emotion flitted across his face.
His hand tightened over Z’s, veins popping, before he slowly relaxed.
“Did you know that I’m able to see an entire human body when I heal
someone?” Bash queried, almost conversationally. Despite his nonchalant
tone, I could hear an undercurrent of... of something. I couldn’t put my finger
on what.
“Huh?” Lupe asked, quirking a brow.
“I can see their organs, their blood. If they have a heart murmur, I can
sense that. If they have elevated white blood cells, I can sense that. If they
have been poisoned, I can sense that.” Bash trailed off, scrubbing his hand
through his blond hair. “Fuck, don’t listen to an old man’s...errr...young
man’s ramblings. I’m just stressed.”
I stared at my brother curiously but didn’t press. We all handled our
emotions differently. I bottled them in, sealed them, protected them from the
world. Bash, on the other hand, allowed them to run rampant, each word a
dagger hurling towards its target. Before Z, he would often hide his pain
behind booze and girls. Now, his pain, anger, and fear would emerge as
verbal assaults.
“I’m going to look over the map,” I murmured, unable to sit here and do
nothing. Fuck, I needed my girl and my brother to open their damn eyes
before I lost my mind.
Knowing that Lupe and Bash would look after them, I moved briskly to
the adjacent room. The door was still open from when we had all raced out.
I froze, staring at the hallway with unseeing eyes. My mind was
elsewhere, an hour back in time, when we had first stumbled onto the scene.
That... that creature had been threatening my mate, our mate. He would’ve
killed Killian and taken Z.
My mind swarmed with everything I knew about Aaliyah. Which was,
admittedly, nothing at all.
I knew that she was after my mate for reasons unknown. I knew that she
had an army at her disposal, tattoos etched on their shoulder blades
designating them as loyal followers.
But why? None of it made sense. Z worked for the Alphabet Resistance,
sure, but so did hundreds of other people. What made her the target?
I hadn’t told Z my theory: that Aaliyah was somehow behind Jax’s
disappearance. It was too much of a coincidence for me to think otherwise.
Jax disappeared...at the same time Z was being attacked by extinct
supernatural creatures. First the Fae, then the Ghoul, then the Gorgon, then
the Kraken, and now the Basilisk.
When will it end?
I moved into my room on quiet feet, eyes immediately fixating on my
golden lamp peeking through my backpack.
Lamps were the symbols of all Genies. As a descendant of Greed, we
relied religiously on deals and contracts. A person had three wishes... but
there was always a cost.
Usually, your soul.
A lamp was, essentially, a cage for trapped souls.
My own lamp was a color that was somewhere between yellow and gold.
Amber, almost, with a black bottom. Unlike a lot of other Genies, I had no
jewels encrusted on the sides. Instead, I kept it plain and simple.
The lamp wasn’t something I was proud of.
I had made a deal with a fellow Genie, Laurel, in exchange for my
previously missing lamp. A deal I still had yet to pay. If I failed to uphold my
end of the bargain, she would own my soul.
But, fuck, how could I do what she asked of me?
My heart hammered in my chest as I stared at the lamp. Despite being
tucked away in my pack, it seemed to glimmer with its own personal sheen.
Before I could change my mind, I grabbed the lamp and held it tenderly
to my chest.
As I did every day, I rubbed my hand down the side of it. I’d only
collected one soul in all my years of life. One soul trapped in a cage for all of
eternity. One soul who failed to uphold his end of the bargain. I hadn’t had a
choice.
I didn’t make the contract, and I consciously didn’t enforce it.
I scrubbed the sides erratically, but I knew no soul would make an
appearance. When Laurel had given me my lamp, she had failed to retrieve
the soul inside of it. Or—and this was the most likely scenario—someone had
stolen the soul.
I didn’t know how it could be done—hell, I didn’t think it had ever been
done before—but that was the only explanation I could come up with. What
else could explain the mysterious disappearance of first my lamp and then the
soul inside of it?
Someone wanted what was mine.
“You need to tell her.”
Ryland’s voice caused me to jump a foot in the air.
“Dammit it, Ry, wear a bell or something,” I snapped, immediately
shoving the lamp behind my back. The Shadow was always eerily quiet,
gliding across the room with inaudible footsteps. Normally, I didn’t mind his
voyeuristic tendencies, but I didn’t want him to see what I was doing.
knew more than the average person. Maybe because he saw everyone while
no one saw him.
“You need to tell her,” he repeated, the shadows curling around his body.
Despite the darkness obscuring his scarred features, I knew he would be
staring pointedly at the lamp.
“I... I don’t know what you mean,” I lied, tone scathing, as I bent down
and shoved the lamp back into my backpack.
Ryland continued to watch me, a silent, unwavering presence, and I
didn’t know if I wanted to punch him or...
Really, the only option was to punch him.
“You need to tell her,” he said one last time before he turned on his heel,
disappearing into the room next door.
I waited until he was completely gone before opening my mouth and
refilling my air supply. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Ryland knew.
But how could I tell Z?
How could I tell my mate, the love of my life, that I had the soul of her
ex-lover, S? That I had him... and then lost him?
FIFTEEN
JAX
S he left me. Again. After she promised she wouldn’t. There was
a fissure in my heart that was steadily growing and growing until
it encompassed an entire ocean. Pain obliterated my defenses until
I was nothing but a crying, weak man.
She.
&n
bsp; Left.
Me.
Alone.
So alone.
Always alone.
My mind conjured up images of Sasha.
She was twelve when I last saw her, a lanky human with a sheet of
auburn hair and thick, hipster glasses. I remembered that day almost vividly.
That dreadful, horrible day...
“Truth or dare, Lupe,” Maggie giggled, grabbing her cup of blood and
taking a long sip. She was a Vampire, like myself, with brunette ringlets and
a pretty smile.
I had a little crush on her, though I would never admit that to my
brothers. Besides, Maggie had a crush on Lupe, and I heard rumors he was
planning on giving her a box of chocolates. Damn him.
Lupe, even at ten, was a large boy. Looking at him, you knew he was
going to grow to be a real beast of a man. Heck, even his muscles had
muscles. Jealousy momentarily speared me at the smitten look Maggie was
giving him.
“Dare,” Lupe answered, flexing his muscles. Maggie chortled once more,
tapping her chin contemplatively.
“I dare you to...” She glanced around the circle with growing
amusement. There were a few other girls in attendance along with the rest of
my brothers. The oldest was Sasha at twelve, and the youngest was Atta.
“Kiss Killian.”
The entire circle broke into giggles as my Shifter brother glanced at the
Incubus. Killian had yet to grow into his powers. He was the smallest of all of
us with long limbs, tangled red hair, and glasses that continually slipped off
his nose.
“Ew, no,” Lupe grunted as Killian gave him a wide-eyed stare.
“Are you scared?” Maggie taunted wickedly.
“He’s practically my brother,” Lupe huffed.
Maggie frowned, lips pursing delicately, before she crossed her small
arms over her chest. “Fine. Be lame. Hmmm. I dare you to interrupt the
Kings’ meeting.”
At this, all of us froze. I exchanged an anxious look with Bash, who was
sitting directly beside me, before focusing on Lupe. The boy was pathetic,
especially when it came to females. He probably thought Maggie would hold
his hand if he agreed to her dare.
“Fine,” he snapped, getting to his feet and brushing dirt off his slacks.
“Before I leave, Jax, truth or dare?”
“Do you even have to ask?” I questioned, lips curling upwards. I had
always been the daredevil of my brothers. It was why Ryland and I were thick