Burned In Shadows (Shadow Unit) (7 page)

“Dietrich was just out here fantasizing about you, but I was reminding him that you didn’t waste your time on assholes.”

Royce never would’ve anticipated the other man’s next move, hadn’t even seen it coming. Dietrich’s hand reached out and brought Bells to him while the other tangled in her long, beautiful raven hair, he tilted her head back as he smashed their lips together. It all happened so fast, he was sure he was dreaming. The kiss felt like it took hours, an entire scene of lips coming together one giving, the other rejecting. It was merely seconds before Belinda was pushing back with both her hands firmly planted on Dietrich’s chest. She pushed so hard she’d knocked into him, and it took every ounce of restraint not to go for the obvious kill. He could have ended Dietrich right there in the hall and not lose and ounce of sleep over it. He was sure someone had stabbed him in the eyes repeatedly from the pain he was feeling inside his head. And what was that incessant ringing between his ears? It dulled out everything and anyone around him.

Bells quickly righted herself and moved out of both their reach. She walked back to her suite slamming the door, leaving him and Dietrich in the hall to face each other.

“Stay away from her Watcher.” Royce growled. His claws were lengthening as he said the words. His bones aching for the change and his mind had turned into a sponge being wrung free of its memories. It hurt like a son of a bitch.

“Or what? You gonna eat my brain to?” D walked to his room and shut the door in his face. Anger surged like lava ready to crest over the mouth of a volcano spit
ting fire into his veins. He waited until he was calm before walking down the hall. Shit like this never happened. And it wouldn’t happen again. Bells would know exactly what she was dealing with.

With no thought to the woman tied up in his bed, Royce went
to wake up his brother. Two Ferals were better than one.

Chapter 7

J
es’ body ached in all the wrong places. She’d thought sex was a rigorous workout. Ronin on the mats was worse. He worked her over and under, tore her down, only to start again and build her up. Her legs felt like jelly, and her arms felt as if they weighed a ton. Her cheeks were burning from exerting so much energy. Hunched over, hands on her knees, she exhaled and then pulled the air back in again. She was seeing spots in her field of vision, and she felt light headed.
I need more energy, more strength
. When Ronin’s boots came into view, she used the top of his shoe as a focal point. She heard his knees crack as he bent and placed a warm hand on her back. It was a gesture meant to be soothing. But it was still awkward. He didn’t openly touch anyone, and was once again trying to be pleasant for her benefit.

“You’re gonna do just fine on this assignment.” He cleared his throat. Who would have thought Ronin could be so caring, he was always brash and straightforward
. He couldn’t read her thoughts, and she liked that a lot. Royce on the other hand, still could, which was just a pain in the ass. Warmth spread through her at the same place his hand rested on her back.

“This isn’t right.” Ronin took a few steps back, and she noticed she felt better, amazingly so. When she looked up into his eyes, Ronin arched a brow and took another step back.

“Your eyes are silver, and the fangs are back again.”

He was right the fangs were back, and she knew her eyes changed color, that wasn’t anything new. But damn she felt incredible like she could take on the entire team in one breath.

“I’m ready to go again.”

The power flowing through her was powerful and sharp, she knew then why he was staring at her. She was him, just like she’d done in the conference room. Royce was the only one that didn’t have a problem with her new super powers as he called it, but she could tell Ronin clearly had a problem with her looking like him.

“Take another form. Take the shape we’d agreed upon. I want to fight her.” He growled.

She took the
form that she would use when going on the assignment. She had short black hair, threaded through with golden threads that shimmered. Her body frame was taller and she kept the same brown, sugar skin, but more golden and her eyes were her only tribute to Draven. They were the same hunter green as his. She focused on her new form and slowly adjusted to the new height and size. She had sharp claws and razor sharp fangs. Royce called them elfin fangs, and yeah her ears were a bit pointy but not by much. She rotated her head from side to side to loosen her joints. She was ready for this. Her yoga pants were tighter, and her tank top stretched over fuller breasts. Holding her form was not hard and as long as she concentrated on the result, she could pull this off.

“Alright,” Ronin said smoothly. He was still standing in front of her, and she was still bouncing around like a bean bag when his hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck. Her legs were dangling, and he was snarling at her. His silver eyes drew to slits, and she could feel the muscles in his arm flex as he readied to throw her. She didn’t know if he was trying to be predictable or if he truly meant to toss her. But she relaxed under his grip and quickly brought her legs up to wrap around his waist to anchor herself. He grunted and tried to jostle her by gripping harder around her neck and twisting frantically from side to side to loosen her legs. His forehead was wet from sweat at his efforts to toss her, but Jes clutched tighter with her thighs. When he bent forward to drive her into the mat, she arched up into his chest and used her hips to tighten her grip. They fell to the mat with a loud smack. The plastic from the mat hurt like hell, but she kept her legs firmly wrapped around his waist. The little bit of air he was allowing her to have was now being cut off from his weight.

“He who controls the head,” he gave her neck another firm squeeze, cutting off more air and said, “controls the body. Now show me how you’re going to stop me from killing you.”

Jes went limp beneath Ronin and let her legs fall to the side. Her thoughts were getting in the way. Images of being held down by Marcus threatened to bubble to the surface. Her heart sped up, and she could feel the hard press of Ronin’s pelvic bone in the catch of her legs. They’d been training for days, and he’d told her something like this might happen. Said Draven could be the person to put her on her back or worse. He’d drilled into her head that she was faster, stronger, and could do anything as long as her mind was in the right place. Told her emotion was the quickest way to death. In order for her to be successful at this mission, she had to have no feelings, no regrets and no remorse. She’d have to kill, maim, and maybe even fuck her way out of a jam. The thought repulsed her.

Ann had told her something along those lines but in reverse. She’d told her to follow her instincts and to steer clear of situations that she might not be able to deal with later after the mission was complete. She’d told her to never forget her purpose and to remember that the man she loved was somewhere inside the person he came to be. She’d have to tear the new Draven down to build up the old Draven and then reshape their relationship. How was she going to do that? Could she take on an entire organization to retrieve the man that belonged to her for all eternity? Could she bring Faith’s father home?

Her mind was starting to go blank and black with all the chaos roaming around in her head. She needed a clear mind, a strong heart, and a strong will to see this done. Jes used her hips in a powerful thrust and pushed Ronin over. She was straddling him, and his hand was still on her throat, grip punishing. With her left leg, she pinned his other hand to the mat and with both her hands tried to twist off the hand currently cutting o
ff her air supply. He bucked and used his hold on her neck to toss her to the other side of the gym. He was back on his feet, coming towards her with a crazed looked in his eyes. But she was up and ready before he could grab her.

Jes crouched low on the balls of her feet and waited. The muscles in Ronin’s face were more defined, he was about to go Feral on her, and she didn’t know if that was a bad or good thing. He still hadn’t given her time to catch her breath, and she didn’t expect him to. Royce explained the worse thing to do when either he or his brother went Feral was to show fear and submit. Royce wouldn’t hurt her, but Ronin was a wild card she didn’t have time to read. As he stalked closer, she quickly changed tactics. Jes stood to her full height and backed into the wall which held several training weapons. She grabbed the daggers and tested the weight in her palms. She’d been thorough in her hand to hand training, but she still needed to work on her weapons.

Palming the daggers at her side, Jes and Ronin danced in a circle, him a hulking beast of a man now that he’d gone full Feral, and her in her work out gear and sweating from head to toe. At least her hair was shorter for this.

“I would have never figured you for a sore loser Ro.” Jes taunted.

Through a mouth full of teeth, he smiled at her. He didn’t give her a chance to move out of the way of his massive hand racing towards her body. He swatted her back like a fly and sent her sailing through the air on the opposite end of the gym where she landed on her chest with a thud. Oww. That hurt, her breasts were on fire, and the flimsy sports bra wasn’t doing anything now that she was bustier. She made the appropriate adjustments to her bust size compliments of her new skill and charged forward. Ronin didn’t charge back, he took a measured step to the left while she ran full force meeting nothing but air almost sliding across the mat. She dug her heels into the surface and turned just in time to miss the fist that was attempting to connect with the side of her face.

“I’m not going to go easy on you. Do you think the enemy will go easy on you Jes?” A quick swipe of his hand and he had her flat on her ass and was on top of her in a second caging her in.
Trying to take control from her. She tried to move, but he was too strong.

“I will show you how to get out of this, but first I want to see what you do, give me everything you got.” His voice was rough and dark as he put more pressure on her body, bearing down on her with all of his weight. She struggled and wiggled for a bit, and when she thought she couldn’t take any more he released her, only to attack her again.

They danced on the mat for another half hour, both sustaining damage to their bodies. She’d gotten in a few decent kidney punches, and he’d got in a couple of punches that knocked the air from her lungs. They were both dripping with sweat when Adam came into the training center.

“You’re ready.” Ronin grunted as he headed off in the opposite direction. Jes didn’t feel ready, but she had to trust what the other’s where telling her. This plan had to work. She wasn’t going to get another shot at bringing Draven home. It was a one
-time excursion and Dravaggio had already set a time limit on the operation.

Adam approached with a smile on his face, and Jes smiled back.

“Meet you downstairs for lunch in about an hour, that sound okay?”

She huffed out a breath and nodded. She needed to refuel. Next up, weapons with Gabe. She was looking forward to getting her hands on her new toys. She went over the last couple of hours in her head as she showered. He’d drilled her into the mat, and she was thankful for the lesson. He’d shown her how to counteract the move. She could do it again and again with no problems. She wouldn’t let her fear get in the way.

# # #

An hour later she was dressed and down in the cafeteria grabbing a steaming heap of pasta. There were others milling about, grabbing plates and sitting at their respective tables to eat. Jes was satisfied with the way her training was going and knew the twins were preparing her for the upcoming mission. She still needed to have a conversation with Gabe on some of the gadgets she was going to be outfitted with. She was especially looking forward to weapons that were specific
to her height and weight. The room was loud with conversation and the easy manner in which everyone carried on almost made her feel normal. Everyone was hanging out as if nothing vital was going to happen. It amazed her. If she strained hard enough, she could separate who was saying what to whom. Hawke was gearing up to go on his own mission. He was discussing the details with Dietrich, who looked less than interested, with his dark shades and lazy demeanor. It didn’t seem to bother Hawke who popped his gum and tossed his long inky hair back from his brow with a quick shake of his head. Bells hadn’t come down yet, and Royce had already grabbed their usual table. Faith would be down any moment with her personal escort, Gabe.

She only had a couple of days left until Mara and Antony came to take Faith back to their home in Shreveport.

“Hey,” Adam said as he fell into step next to her. She could always count on him to be polite and punctual.

“Adam.”

He walked her over to where Royce sat, and the sound of the metal chair scrapping against the floor made her ears ache as he pulled her chair out for her.

“Such the gentlemen,” Royce teased. He was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a tall glass of milk. They made almost anything in the cafeteria. PB & J seemed to be one of Royce's favorites, and the staff in the cafeteria made sure his sandwiches were fresh. Adam gave Royce the finger and Jes tried not to laugh, the two of them didn’t care for one another, and she could never figure out why.

“Maybe because he’s a panty snatcher or would be.” Royce responded out loud. He had a habit of doing that. She knew it was his way of trying to give her as much privacy as he could allow and for him that was saying something. The fact they were in each other’s head sometimes was more than annoying. 

“Tell me something I don’t know sista girl.”

“Could you stop aggravating me? Why don’t you two get along anyway?”
They had an entire conversation while she sat there preparing to eat her food.

“Wonder vamp over there wants to blood you. Seriously that’s just gross and wrong on so many levels.”
Royce visibly shuddered as he said the words in her mind.

Jes ignored him and popped the top on her juice and began pouring it into a glass. Ronin stepped through the elevator at the far end of the cafeteria with a doting Faith and quiet Gabe.
Faith was laughing, and Ronin was nodding his head in agreement. Her and Royce’s mental conversation was momentarily put on pause as everyone at the table watched as her daughter headed over to the vending machine. She didn’t need to be close to hear the conversation.

“Gabe, I want some skittles with dinner,” Faith said.

“Your mom said you can’t have skittles with dinner, and I’m not going to argue with that.” Gabe tried steering her over toward the isle that held salads and pasta, but Faith deflected his move and headed towards the vending machine anyway. Ronin didn’t follow them, he grabbed himself a slice of pizza and a soda before coming over to their table to sit down. Faith was pointing her finger at the glass telling Gabe how she wanted to taste the rainbow. Everyone at the table could hear the conversation and Jes was inwardly laughing her ass off. Her baby girl was trying to pull one over on Gabe.

“Ten dollars says the five year old gets the Skittles.” Royce said to the group at the table. Adam pulled a fifty from his wallet.

“Fifty, says Gabe’s got this under control.” He said as he slammed his money down on the table. This got everyone else’s attention as Faith and Gabe continued to go rounds about Skittles and dinner.