Cloak of Deceit: An Alex Moore Novel (10 page)

He lowered his rough-hewn face until it hovered only a few inches away from mine. His breath smelled like a slaughterhouse floor and it was hard not to cringe away. “Don’t even think about trying anything with me. I won’t be charmed out of killing you if it comes to that.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but Julian was suddenly at my side, staring daggers at Derek. “This wasn’t part of the plan.”

Derek sneered. He took a step toward the door, pulling me with him. “My orders were to assess if she was an immediate threat, and if so, to eliminate her. If not, to detain her and take her back to base.”

Julian’s arm shot forward, lighting fast, and grabbed Derek’s wrist. Our arms crossed in a three-way stalemate. Both of their auras came roiling to the surface, a clash of crimson and black so vivid I couldn’t make out their faces. I had to shut my eyes until it passed.

“You’re not taking her anywhere.” Julian said that in the same tone of voice you would tell someone the sky is blue — plain, simple fact.

“You know the punishment for disobeying orders. I have to follow mine. Yours are to stay out of the way. She’s a spy, and she’s already compromised your judgment.”

“I am not a spy!” I tried to yank my arm away. Derek’s fingers dug into my flesh like the jaws of a bear-trap. Struggling only made it more painful. I turned to Julian, my eyes pleading. He believed me. Right?

Julian met my gaze for a fraction of a second, but I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. He spoke to Derek, not to me. “If they want her brought in, I’ll do it myself.”

Just great. It didn’t matter who did it, I was pretty sure I didn’t want to go back to their base. From the sounds of it, the Cloak would question me, maybe torture me for information I didn’t have, and eventually kill me. They didn’t care if Derek killed me now. If Julian would still hand me over to them, it meant he didn’t either. My heart dissolved and sank to my toes with that thought.

Unwelcome everywhere, safe nowhere
.

“Your orders are to stay here.” Derek stared at Julian, squeezing my arm harder.

My whimper of pain went ignored. Normally, I hate it when people talk about me like I’m not there, but just then, I was hoping they would both forget about me and I could sneak out the back while they settled their disagreement. Invisible sounded good.

A gun appeared in front of me, pointed at Derek’s face.

“You think that’s going to stop me?”

“Let go of her,” Julian said through gritted teeth. A menacing click came from the gun.

Derek’s grip on my arm slipped away.

“Alex, get back. Whatever happens, stay out of this.”

More than happy to follow Julian’s instructions, I backpedaled onto and over the sofa and crouched behind it as I watched the two of them locked in a silent staring competition. Derek’s fingers twitched, but Julian’s arm stayed stock-still.

“You know I won’t leave her without a fight.” Derek straightened his shoulders so he took up even more space.

Julian’s smile was grim. He didn’t move a muscle. “I’d be happy to oblige.”

“Why are you willing to risk everything for a stinking psychic?” Derek spat, looking at Julian like he was completely out of his mind.

I happened to be wondering the same thing just then.

“She’s an Undead under my protection.”

“You can’t sponsor her.” The larger man shifted slightly, and Julian pressed the barrel of the gun to his forehead.

“She’s innocent, and she doesn’t have anyone else.”

“They’ll have your head for this.” Derek’s voice was calm, but from my position I saw a trail of sweat trickle down the side of his broad temple.

Julian shrugged. “I’m sure you’d like to see that, but I would never give you the satisfaction.”

Derek shook his head, his blunt features twisted in a grimace. “I always knew you were a traitor at heart.”

The next part happened almost too fast for me to follow what was going on. Derek dodged away from Julian and spun more gracefully than someone his size should be able to. Julian anticipated and met him at the other side with an elbow to the ribs. They punched, kicked, blocked, and furniture tumbled. The small living room became a war arena. I huddled in my hiding place behind the couch, helpless to do anything but watch.

Derek drew a long switchblade, and stood up as the two of them toppled over the TV armoire.

A gunshot rang out.

I laid on the floor holding my ears, choking on my panic.

Julian cried out in pain. Two more shots fired. Tears sprang into my eyes. I crawled on my hands and knees to the end of the couch and peeked around the corner to see Derek getting up from the floor, covered in blood that oozed from several large gashes.

Julian stayed down.

“No.” I skittered away when Derek caught sight of me. He crossed the room in three long strides of his heavy-treaded boots. He loomed, a cloud of choking black rage bearing down on me.

I screamed, throwing my arms up to protect myself as his massive fist swooped towards my head in slow motion. The blow never landed.

Derek flew backwards, slamming first into Julian, who had risen to his feet, and then through the wall behind them and into the kitchen.

In those few seconds, two things happened: gunshots rang through the air in a steady staccato, and my vision went black.

My consciousness slid into that other place, carried on a tidal wave of dark whispers. I clamped my hands to my head and yelled again, as loud as I could, but the current of demanding voices pressed on my psyche. The Grigori drowned out even the sound of my own voice. I screamed, blinded by tears, struggling to stay there and not be pulled away into the endless abyss with them. I never wanted to go back there.

“Alex! Alex!” one familiar voice rang out over the din, close and clear among the hundreds of others. I focused on it, trying to block out everything else.

Warm hands encircled my wrists. I blinked my eyes open to see Julian, glowing bright and golden as the sun, a beacon to fight back the darkness.

“Alex,” he said again, and I heard only him. The light around him faded as the room came back into focus. The voices slowly drained away.

“Oh God!” I collapsed against him.

“
Oomph!”
he grunted as we fell onto a pile of books with him on the bottom, and hissed in pain as I pressed a hand to his side to push myself up.

“Sorry,” I eased off of him more gently and helped him sit up. His shirt was soaked through with blood. I couldn’t tell how much of it was his.

I started to lift it up to take a look, but he stopped me with one hand, still holding the gun in the other.

“I’ll be fine.” He glanced over his shoulder at the hole where his wall used to be, and the pile of rubble beyond. Derek lay there somewhere. Julian groaned, but stood without my help. “What part of
stay out of this
did you not understand?”

I sank back on my knees and laughed, just as more tears spilled out of my eyes. “I thought you were dead.” I wiped my face, and then added, “for real.”

My hands shook, and I was pretty sure my legs were too weak to stand on, so I didn’t try.

Julian barked out a laugh, then leaned against the doorframe, pressing his hand to his side. “It takes more than that to kill one of us. I was just biding my time.”

My eyes shot past him to the kitchen and he shook his head.

“Don’t worry, he’s out.” Julian tapped the gun against his temple lightly, a sinister smile on his face. “Headshots knock you out for a while. Good thing, too. They hurt like a son of a bitch.”

I just stared at him, slack-jawed as some of the smaller cuts on his arms and face closed and disappeared right before my eyes. This virtually-immortal thing was going to take some getting used to. It was impossible to override such a deeply engrained fear of death. He still felt pain, obviously. Some of it because of me.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

My initial response would have been
hell no
, but in a general sense, I was unharmed. Physically, at least. I pushed myself up from the floor and took a deep breath. The air was thick with dust, a smell like burnt charcoal and pepper, and under that, blood. My stomach rumbled. “I’m fine.”

“It was the Grigori that you were screaming at, wasn’t it?”

I looked down at the floor and nodded.

His voice flat, Julian said. “They felt you use your powers and homed in on it.”

“I’m sorry.” That didn’t convey how pathetic I felt. Julian had told me to stay out if it, and now it was clear why. We didn’t need enemies coming at us from both sides, and that’s exactly what we had, thanks to me. “I didn’t mean to.”

He placed a hand under my chin and tilted my face back. His rich brown eyes were swirling with emotions I couldn’t discern, but accusation wasn’t one of them. Some of the tension banding my chest eased.

“It’s all right.” The warm understanding in his voice was enough to settle me. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close, squeezing me in a tight hug. It was so unexpected I stood there woodenly for a few seconds before relaxing against him. He wasn’t even angry?

He held me a moment longer and then eased away. “It just means we have to get out of here fast. Go pack us some clothes.”

Chapter Seven

B
y the time I’d stuffed some clothes, toiletries, and my books in a bag, Julian had Derek’s Jeep idling and half full of what had to be the entire contents of his garage arsenal. I finished loading a cooler full of blood and warmed some up for the trip while Julian rinsed off and changed clothes. When he returned, he patted Derek down and took his cell phone. On our way out, he entered a code in his security control pad and shut down the power to the house. In less than ten minutes, we were on the road, leaving the unconscious Derek to walk the twenty miles to the nearest phone when he woke up.

I stayed in crisis autopilot mode until we’d been on the highway for some time. Julian seemed distant and quiet, and I didn’t know what to say to burst the bubble of stillness. The post fight-for-your-life buzz had drained out of both of us, and the first half hour of our drive was somber. I had the distinct feeling Julian was contemplating whether I was worth as much trouble as I’d caused. I would have dropped me off on the side of the road somewhere. So far, he’d come through for me, but sooner or later, I was destined to push him too far.

“Where are we going?” I finally asked, after talking myself out of several more personal questions.

“A place I know of that’s well protected.” The shiny black highway slid underneath us as we headed north up 101, which would wind up the coast and eventually spit us out in Seattle. Depending on where we stopped, of course.

“Is it far?” I checked Julian’s expression as a beam of light from a passing car angled over his face. Nadda. No hint of what he was thinking.

“A few hours from here.”

He obviously wasn’t in a conversational mood, but I was positive I couldn’t take even a few hours of this tense silence. What would happen after? I needed to make the most of those few hours and reassure him he’d made the right decision protecting me. “Julian, I’m so sorry.”

“This isn’t your fault.” His tone softened, but that actually made it worse.

I felt guilty already. I didn’t like feeling like a charity case, especially since that’s what I was. And I realized I had no clue how to act around a guy who actually treated me good. It had never happened before. I kept waiting for the rug to get swept out from under me. If I were really honest with myself, there was one big thing all of the guys I’d ever liked, including Cody, had in common — the only thing I could count on was them being undependable. It doesn’t hurt so much, getting dumped by a jerk. It’s halfway expected. After all, they’re the jerk. It’s them, not you. I sighed to myself and stared out the window.

It would hurt to lose Julian. It would hurt a lot, because it would definitely be because of me.

“What is it, Alex?”

“Just wondering when I’m going to wear out my welcome.”

Without warning, he jerked the wheel sideways and swerved across the other lane to pull over to the side of the road. Tires screeched. People behind us laid on their horns as they passed.

I eased my grip on the door as we slowed, my hands suddenly weak.
That didn’t take long
, I thought, attempting to hold back the tears. Uselessly.

Julian threw the Jeep into Park so violently I winced, turning my back to him, prepared to climb out and start hiking. My door locked before I could open it.

He jerked me around by the shoulder. “Haven’t you been paying attention?”

I kept my mouth shut. There was a wild look in his eyes, like he was teetering on the edge of an explosion. Any smartass comeback I would have said in that moment would have tipped him over.

“Do you really think I would risk my rank, leave my home, and put my neck on the line just to drop you on the side of the road somewhere?” His brows pulled together in a look that wrenched the knot in my chest tight.

Perfect, Alex. The first really great guy comes along, and you push him away.