Shadowed Magic (The Enlightened Species Novella) (2 page)

The speaker jogged to catch up with her, his cohorts a step behind. “I asked you a question, sweet cheeks. You look like your ready to party and this is your lucky day. I know where one is just starting.”

“Not interested. Why don't you and your buddies go find someone else to pester.” Aymee knew better than to show weakness. If this guy were just puffing his chest to look cool to his buddies, he'd call her a bitch and fade away. If not...

The guy grabbed her arm, stopped her and turned her to face him.
Damn
it.
Aymee shoved his chest to gain the moment of freedom, leaned back in her boots, snapped the heels off and reached down to snatch one of the spikes off the ground. With her keys in one hand and the make-shift dagger in the other, she at least had a chance. One of the men tried to grab her. She attacked. Her keys sliced across the guy's cheek. He hissed, “Fucking cunt.”

The others looked at her with appreciation rather than fear. “Listen assholes, I'm not some simpering victim. I suggest you let me go on my way.”

The one who'd spoken first pulled out a butterfly knife and double flipped it open. Then all hell broke loose. Aymee fought with everything she had. She sent one to the ground with her heel plunged into his shoulder. The one she'd keyed in the face went down with a solid knee connect to his balls and a head butt, but she could feel herself losing ground.

One got a hold of her from behind. His hand firmly in her hair, he yanked downward forcing her chin up and leaving her vulnerable to the speaker with the knife. “Jake quit whining and get her arms.”

The one she kneed in the balls and head butted approached cautiously from the side to wrench one arm nearly out of socket and hold it behind her back as he clasped her other wrist. Blood trickled down his face.

The guy on the ground with her heel stabbed into the fleshy part of his shoulder struggled to his feet. “Jesus, Kade, we should just let her go. No fuck is worth this.”

“Oh? I think it makes it more fun.” The speaker she now knew as Kade leered at her and tucked his knife away. He leaned into her face spraying tobacco and booze scented breath. “I think she likes it rough.” He tore her blouse. The seams cut into her shoulders and the night air touched her breast. Vomit crept up her throat at the non-subtle insinuation. The small flicker of hope the men simply wanted to rob her sputtered and died.

Aymee spit in Kade's face. “Might as well kill me first, you fucking animal. That’s the only way I'll stop fighting.” Gritting her teeth against the pain, Aymee yanked her head from the man holding her hair enough to get some leverage despite the tearing pain at her scalp. She dove her head back in an effort to make contact with his face, but he dodged it and got a better grip on her hair.

She couldn’t tell whether Kade or the guy impaled with her heel hit her, but pain blasted through her cheekbone and her head rocked from the impact. Her vision blurred with tears and dizziness tried to drag her into darkness. Aymee struggled against it. Kade’s nasty breath hit her face as his hand viciously grabbed her exposed breast. She glared at him through her blurred vision refusing to give him the satisfaction of crying out while he pinched and twisted her breast. The foursome dragged her deeper into the alley they’d emerged from.

Since the club didn’t close for several more hours, her chances of being saved by a club-goer were slim to none. How many women had she trained in self-defense after having gone through exactly this scenario? It was obvious these men had done this before. How many times? There was zero doubt she’d be raped … or worse before this night was out. Proof. She needed to get evidence of these men for the authorities. If she couldn’t stop them from raping her, she had to at least try to make it so they paid for it and maybe she could save other women the same fate.

Aymee went completely limp, the pull on her tender scalp was excruciating, but she’d caught them by surprise. The men holding her lost just enough of their grip for her to get one final shot. This time, rather than trying to get away she focused on gouging each of them with her fingernails. Tearing hair from them. Anything. She’d gotten at least some licks in on three, the fourth one stayed clear of her. Hopefully the blood from her heel stab would be enough to identify him. Mid-frenzy Kade tackled her to the ground the others pinned her in place. He groped beneath her miniskirt, dirty hands ripped her panties and Aymee closed her eyes.

Suddenly the hand and weight of Kade was gone and she heard the
thud
of something heavy hitting against the brick wall to her right. She opened her eyes as her right wrist was freed to see the one named Jake flinging through the air his arms and legs flailing a mottled scream emitted from his lips before he too crushed against the brick with a crunch and slid down to the asphalt and the hair puller who’d taken her left wrist followed his buddy an instant later. The sound of pounding footsteps told her the man she’d stabbed got away.

Aymee sat up slowly and pushed her miniskirt back down her twisted bruised arm shielded her breast she looked around the empty silent alley. “Umbrae you can show yourself now.”

Since her friend Umbrae Sicarius was a Volaticus Hulven, a trained assassin and had the ability to shadow Aymee felt sure it was she who’d come to her rescue. Umbrae had delivered quadruplets three months ago. Not that you could tell Umbrae’d had children. The Volaticus species were able to heal their bodies on a cellular level using psychic energy. Umbrae looked like a twenty tree year old kid, but that didn't change the fact she could be deadly.

Aymee glanced behind her but no one appeared. “Umbrae …?”

Someone shimmered to view … but it wasn’t Umbrae. It was Eros Sicarius, Umbrae’s father and by far the most gorgeous guy Aymee had ever laid eyes on. If she could pick anyone in the world she’d least like to have seen what just happened, it would be him. Not that she didn’t appreciate not having to face the fate the men had in store for her, it was just that Eros already made her tongue tied.

He wore only faded blue jeans and military boots. The delicate membrane of his wings lay relaxed from his back. He faced the brick wall between Kade and the two crumpled bodies of the ones that had held her arms. Eros’s kept his chestnut brown hair pulled back and tied at his neck with a leather thong, but it had come loose and his hair now hung just below his shoulders. He leaned against the wall on his elbows and forehead. Though his eyes were closed, she knew them to be the color of stainless steel. So clear they reflected your image back at you. His breath hissed past the fully erupted fangs, or dentes, in his mouth that shone in the light of the streetlamp at the end of the alley. His hands clenched and released over and over, empathizing the defined muscles of his arms. He looked to be in agony. Had he been hurt?

Aymee struggled to her feet leaving flesh from her backside on the asphalt. Road rash sucked. Every part of her body ached already. She went to him and placed the hand not covering her breast to his bicep. He growled low and deadly in his chest. Maybe she should be afraid of a twelve thousand year old Volaticus Elven assassin. She might have been if she didn't know Eros was a male of honor. “Are you hurt?” She asked him. He snorted a laugh and pounded his forehead against the brick. “Eros?” He pinched his eyes tight and shook his head sharply. “Look at me. Did they hurt you?”

“Great Fates, Aymee, they didn’t hurt
me
.” His voiced growled out with a tone that would make most quake in fear. His nostrils flared slightly, “You’re bleeding.”

Aymee looked where her hand rested on his thick bicep. One of her nails had been torn nearly off and blood dripped from her finger down his large muscle to drip on the ground. “Oh.” She snatched her hand away. “You probably need blood and I’m making it worse.” She tried to duck the offending appendage behind her back … like that would make a difference. Elven were naturally anemic. The iron in human blood called to them on a primal level.

Eros pushed off his elbows, his hands still against the brick he leaned his head back and opened his eyes to the sky. The night bathed him in beauty. He drew in a long deep breath and roared loud and long. Her body’s sexual response to his feral side sent a flood of moisture between her legs, her knees nearly gave out. Eros dropped his chin and returned his forehead to the brick with his eyes closed again. “Call the police, Aymee. Quickly.”

Police. Right. Where had her purse gone? Limping, she retraced the assailant’s steps as her heelless shoes pressed awkwardly into the arch of her foot,. Her purse was against the opposite wall, maybe a foot from the sidewalk. Aymee grabbed it, and her eyes fell to a discarded snap front shirt. She exposed her breast long enough to pick it up and carry it back. Eros hadn’t moved, so she slung the shirt she figured belonged to him over his bicep and fished for her phone.

“911, what’s your emergency?” The nasal voice on the other end of the call sounded bored.

“Tell them you fought them off alone. A good roundhouse kick would have sent them flying the way I did.” Eros whispered from his position.

Aymee nodded even though he still refused to look at her. “I’ve been attacked. There were four of them. I … I knocked out three but one of them … got away.” She gave the 911 dispatcher her location and snapped the phone closed on the nasal voice asking her more questions. Eros peered at her from the corner of his eye, a streak of silver between long, nearly black lashes. “They’re on their way.” She lifted her hand to cover her breast again.

Eros stood back from the wall. Finally. If her heels were intact, she might reach his chin, but without them, her eyes met the middle of his chest. Aymee looked down.

Eros easily stood six five. Bulky thighs filled the slack of his jeans, deep ripples defined his stomach and guided her eyes to his heavy pecs. He handed her the shirt. “Put this on.” Aymee noticed he looked aside while she shrugged into it and did up a few snaps in the middle. Then he met her gaze. His dentes had yet to retract. “I cannot appear human right now, Aymee. I will shadow when the police arrive but know that I am with you.” He started to shimmer.

Aymee touched his arm before he vanished. “Wait. Why were you hurting? If you need blood, please … take mine.” She’d never offered blood to anyone before. Knew the Volaticus organized the Red Cross to acquire their blood needs and give back to humanity at the same time.

Eros solidified, looked from her hand on his arm to the upturned wrist of her other arm. He sighed. “I don’t need blood, Aymee. And, I wasn’t hurt." He gently brushed the back of his knuckles over the bruise on her cheek. "I couldn’t look on your pain and maintain my control at the same time. If I had seen this,” his thumb followed the trail his knuckles had just taken, “I would have torn these men apart limb by limb, fed on their entrails and pissed on their bones.”

Aymee felt his light touch all the way to her soul. Heat blossomed at the point of contact and radiated through her bloodstream. “That would have been okay with me.” She leaned into his touch only to pull back with a yelp as pain registered.

Approaching sirens had her looking over her shoulder to see the flash of blue and red getting brighter against the wall. She turned back to Eros, but he was gone. Then she felt the light brush of his knuckles on her cheek again.

“I can’t explain this,” Aymee took a deep breath and shrugged out of his shirt unconcerned that he could see her breast. She held it out and watched it disappear the second it transferred from her hand to his. Covering herself with her hand again, she turned, lifted her chin and walked awkwardly toward the officers exiting their cruiser at the entrance to the alley.

Eros landed silently on top of the ambulance. He could hear them examining Aymee inside. Heard her cry out when the paramedics touched a tender spot. He grit his teeth against the sound of her pain and watched the police assess the injuries of her assailants. He should have killed them and just hid the bodies. A few years ago, that’s exactly what he would have done. Declaring an oath to the Symbiosis of Species Council a few years ago had changed all that. Humans should handle human affairs unless it was a matter of life and death. If he’d gotten there a minute later … thank the Fates he’d been in time.

The darkening bruises surfacing on Aymee's delicate skin made him wish he’d followed his first thought and walked her out despite her assurance to his daughter, Umbrae, and Jess in the club that she was fine. Jess could see him shadowed but kept his secret. The female knew Eros or one of Umbrae’s brother were always with Umbrae. Tonight, he and his son Daniel had accompanied Umbrae and her friends. Daniel would see his sister got home to her bloodmate and babies safely.

Eros had made a point to send his sons when Aymee spent time with Umbrae. His attraction to her had grown to the point he avoided the human woman. Her tough as nails, sexually confident demeanor in combination with her Asian/American features, lean muscular curves and sweet spirit had captured his attention the first time he met her. Aymee had sat calmly in Jess’s kitchen surrounded by Eros's six sons with no humans around and held her own, making wisecracks that put his sons in line. Her black shoulder length hair shone in the sun while almond shaped blue eyes sparkled with a love of life. All his wives had been human women. His attraction to them, especially those that were genetically capable of bearing him young, was well known. Aymee didn’t have the line in her palm of a human designating her Elven-breeding compatible. The ‘heredity’ line was curiously absent from her soft palm. He found her attractive anyway. More than attractive. Once he became acutely aware of his attraction to her, he'd avoided her.