Halflings (32 page)

So, if this gun-carrying dude knows Nikki’s parents, does he know Nikki?
If so, why didn’t she say she knew him after they tackled the guy at the art show? Vine remembered how quickly it all happened. Nikki probably hadn’t gotten a chance to see the guy’s face.

When another woman approached the table, Vine paused behind a wall separating the rows of booths and hoped no one would notice him loitering there.

“Are we on task?” His tone was gruff, making Vine dislike him all over again. The gun was there too. He could smell it.

“Yes, Mr. Vessler.” Fear drifted in the woman’s words.

“Betty, you’ve been with me for years. Why am I sensing fear in you?” Apparently, Vessler picked up on the woman’s attitude as well.

“Apprehension, sir. Not fear.” She swallowed. “And it’s only because I know how hard you’ve worked to get here.”

“Everything is moving forward. Is the lab being demolished?”

Vine nearly choked on his candy.

“The investigation will likely continue for another few weeks. My hope is that we can clear that land and have it ready to lease again in a matter of months. I’m terribly sorry for what the laboratory’s burning has cost you. I know you’d leased it at a very low price for them.”

“I have a soft spot for scientists.”

“Still, I feel for you,” she said, warmth in her tone, though it sounded forced.

“And I appreciate your loyalty. Who knows, maybe another group will lease the land. I’m still open to building-to-suit if necessary.”

Vine peeked around the wall in time to see Vessler point at the woman. “You.” He spun his fingertip in tiny circles. “Are overdue for a vacation.”

The fortyish woman’s eyes lit for a moment. “We’re much too busy right now.”

He lowered his hand. “Ah. Choosing work over vacation. One of your most redeeming qualities, Betty.”

“Thank you, sir,” she answered flatly.

“When this is all over, I’m giving you the keys to my beach house for a month. Fully staffed, naturally. Would that please you?”

“You’re far too kind, Mr. Vessler.”

He nodded, looked away from her, and focused his attention on the window and the street beyond. “Yes,” he echoed. “Yes, I am.”

“Doesn’t look like your parents are home. You want me to come in for a while?” Raven asked, touching down in Nikki’s backyard.

Her emerald-green dress clung to her, splotched by brownish dried blood. She absently brushed at it. “They were going to meet someone interested in the swords my dad recently purchased.”

Raven frowned and seemed to bristle. “At night?”

“It’s antiques.” She gave him a half smile.

When she did, he stepped closer and placed an arm gently around her shoulders.

She tried not to think about his skin, warm against hers. “Late-night deals are more common than you think. Some dealers have to handle business in the evening if they have shops that are open during the day. I know that’s what they were doing — I helped my dad load the weapons into the trunk.” She could sense, almost smell his doubt.

“So I’ll come in, help you get settled,” he said. “You’ve had a rough night.”

True. But her instincts told her to turn down the offer. “I’ll be fine, Raven.”

He looked unsure. Untrusting. “Well, I’ll hang around out here for a while. ‘Til your folks get back.”

He dropped his arm and turned to face her fully. He was beautiful. They all were: Mace, Vine, Raven. Even Will, though he was a stark contrast, with his linebacker shoulders and thick posture.
How could she have three — make that four — supernatural creatures protecting her and still end up in life-or-death fights? “Why do they want me?” she whispered, hoping for an answer she knew he couldn’t give.

Midnight-blue eyes trailed her face. Every inch, finally coming to rest on her lips. “I told you. You’re special.”

“Could I be a little less special?”

He flipped his hair back with one quick motion. When he did, the moonlight flashed in his eyes.

Nikki frowned. “Your eyes seem lighter.”

Embarrassment flickered, but he rushed it away with a wink. “Do they? It must be you.”

“What?”

“Up until recently, my irises have darkened on each journey.”

“What does that mean?” Nikki asked.

He shrugged. “If they darken completely, I’m given over to the other side.”

“Raven, no.” An ocean of panic rose within her. “That’s not … fair.”

He laughed, but without humor. “What’s fair about any of this?”

“If the journeys are making you turn —”

He spun away from her and she felt herself shiver. “It’s never the journey, Nikki. It’s the choices we make during. What we decide to do in the places where darkness meets light. Where hate clashes with love.”

She’d never pitied the Lost Boys, but right now her heart broke for the creature before her. She took a tentative step toward him and slowly reached up to touch his shoulder.

He flinched before she made contact. “Don’t,” he ordered.

Inches from him, she stopped. “Raven, let me see your wings again.”

He tossed a glance over his shoulder at her. Their eyes locked and held.

“Please, they’re so amazing.”

With one snap, dark-gray wings flew from side to side with such force her hair lifted from her face. As before, she couldn’t help digging her fingers through the cool, soft feathers. Reaching around him, a hand on each side of one wing, she slid the length from his powerful shoulders to the tip of his wing, where velvety feathers pointed sharply toward the ground.

“Raven,” she whispered. “I know you hear this a lot, but you’re stunning.”

His eyes landed on her, glowing like a night creature’s in the dark. A moment later his wings snapped shut and he crossed the ten-foot span to where she stood. She was suddenly, painfully aware he intended to kiss her.
Didn’t I know that could happen?
He licked his lips and bent close, then closer still, and her mind spun in an attempt to stop him. But the fight had left her.

His lips pressed against hers softly. And
that
surprised her. There’d been such burning intensity in his gaze, in the way he’d marched to her, but the kiss was sweet and soft. Very, very gently, he pulled away, and her eyes opened to find his dark gaze alive and sparkling, and bombarding her with a million unspoken questions.

She blinked, unable to find words. In answer, Raven snapped his wings open again, and she continued to examine them as if the last moments hadn’t happened.

M
ace watched Nikki and Raven from his high perch. The distance and wind carried her words away from him, making their conversation impossible to detect, but body language said it all. A fat tear trickled down his cheek. He swiped it with the back of his hand, leaving a stream of cold moisture across his face.

So it was true.

After leaving her in the parking lot, he’d thought maybe she’d been trying to push him away for his own protection, and that hope had fueled him. No way was she saying she’d chosen Raven, that he was her match. Then he watched them kiss while the shadow of clouds against moonlight captured them. Even then, Mace’s heart rumbled with hope. She could smack Raven, or turn away and march into her house, or anything.

But no, Nikki rewarded Raven by continuing to caress his gray wings. When she used the wing to push her face toward Raven’s again, Mace’s heart shattered. She planted a kiss on his
cheek, leaned back slowly, and offered a smile beautiful enough to melt stone. Mace’s hand fell against his chest in a fist. Pain, physical and powerful, clenched him in a vice.

Never had he hated himself for who and what he was. Never had he coveted another’s life. But right now, with the female he loved in the arms of a Halfling he despised, all Mace wanted was to be a normal, regular teenage guy. One with hopes and dreams of college, a job, and Nikki in his arms.

Not that hopes mattered — there was no choice for him. He’d have to soldier on. Dreams were like dust, sifted and strained by the hands of time. Time was one thing he had, though he’d trade it for normalcy in an instant.

Nikki disappeared into the house. The wind shifted, lifting the hair from his forehead.

“I can smell you, brother.” Raven said, destroying the silence and interrupting his pain. The twisted grin on the darker Halfling’s face sent spikes of anger through Mace’s gut.

Mace slid from the tree branch he’d occupied and landed silently on the ground. They crossed the distance to one another, both with hands fisted and ready for the fight.

“I am not your brother,” Mace growled.

Raven’s lip curled. “No, you’re too pure to have my tainted blood running through your veins.”

Mace shoved a finger into his chest. “Your blood is what you choose.”

“I choose Nikki,” Raven countered.

“That
isn’t
your choice to make. Raven, you have to stay away from her.”

“Why? I’d think you’d be glad.” He tsked. “You’ve worked so hard to keep your heart pure, labored so long to achieve goodness. But you forget your roots. We were born in rebellion.
And that rebellion floods our veins. Like a poison, it takes over, eating, devouring. With me it chose the path of anger. With you, it picked the path of forbidden love. Admit it, Mace. You’re falling.”

Mace shoved him. “
I will not fall
.” Pent-up energy released, he instantly regretted his outburst. It wasn’t Raven’s fault he’d opened his heart to Nikki. How could he resist her? Life, in its most beautiful form, filled the atmosphere around her. “You —
we
— don’t have to fall.”

Raven’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t bother to push me away from the cliff edge you dangle from yourself. Make no mistake,
brother
, eventually we will both fall.”

Mace grabbed his shoulders. “No,” he screamed, tears blurring his vision once he realized the depths of Raven’s resolve. One thing and one thing only kept Halflings trudging forward: Hope.

Suddenly, the battle became
for
his brother rather than
against
his brother.

Without hope, there could be no victory. Raven was giving up, giving in. “Fight it, Raven. Don’t let it take you. You’re stronger than that, better than that.”

He shook his head, eyes focusing on some distant spot far away. The muscle in his jaw went slack. “I’m sick of fighting, Mace. I’m tired of the battle. We win, and what? No accolades, no awards. We lick our wounds and get ready for another journey.”

“Reward awaits us at the end.”

“So we’re told. We have nothing to prove it, no written contract. Even the human’s have their covenant. They know their destiny and it’s sealed in blood. Ours is hazy, fuzzy. But I
could
have a life right now.” He gaze traveled to Nikki’s back door. “One where I choose what I do and when.”

Mace sighed, surprised by the love he held for this Halfling who hovered between spiritual life and death. “That’s the biggest lie of all, Raven. If you turn from the great army, you will be pushed into ser vice for the enemy. Don’t you see? The choice has already been made. You must fight — and keep fighting. There’s no other path for us.”

Several moments ticked by as the forest’s nocturnal creatures chattered around them. The sweet scent of honeysuckle drifted on the night’s breeze.

Raven’s expression melted with his resolve.
I did it, I broke through that hardened shell.
Deep down, Raven had to know there was no going back for Halflings. They simply had nowhere to go back to.

“If I thought Nikki would bring you true happiness, I’d walk away.” Mace choked a little on the last words, but they confirmed his honesty.

Raven’s eyes searched him, and had to know he spoke the truth.

“But she can’t bring happiness to either one of us.” Mace’s voice was stronger now.

And Raven was melting, practically sinking into the ground at the edge of Nikki’s yard. “I can’t do this anymore.” he whispered, eyes pleading with Mace.

Mace dropped beside him. “We’ll do this together, my brother. I’ll stand beside you. You have my word. You’re not alone.”

Mace’s arm fell around Raven’s shoulder as they both crouched on the ground. They couldn’t have her, but at least they had each other.