Frost Fire (Tortured Elements) (16 page)

Drake scrambled to his feet, and stepped back to observe his work. Conrad was covered in wine-red blood and multiple gashes. But then there was also Drake’s own black blood coating the Trident’s side. There was a lot of it. Drake wanted to look down at his ribs, to see how much blood was flowing out, but he didn’t. The wound was serious, and that was all he had to know. He could tend to it later.

Drake tried to take a deep breath, but his ribs got in the way. Another scream built in the back of his throat, and his vision clouded with dark spots. He gasped in a breath and forced the spots away. He had to fight through this. He had to survive. Because he had to protect the girl.

Conrad was on him. Drake didn’t know how that happened. But he felt the Trident’s weight crash into him, tossing him against the truck and then pinning him against the ground with two paws. Drake clawed at Conrad, then snarled and tried to slash at the Trident with his wings. But his claws couldn’t gain momentum in the close quarters, and his wings were trapped against the ground.

Conrad’s grin returned. He leaned back to avoid Drake’s claws, and gnashed his teeth together. The blackness returned to Drake’s vision, blocking out the image of the Trident. Drake tried breathe, but Conrad dug his paws deeper into his chest. Pain shot through Drake’s ribs, the shock of it clearing his vision for just a moment.

Conrad was leaning closer now, his muzzle just inches from Drake’s face. He was still grinning that disturbingly-human smile, and a low growl escaped from between his teeth.

The grin disappeared. Conrad’s expression went blank. Then pain twisted his face, and he snapped his neck straight back like he’d been electrocuted. Conrad let out a piercing shriek, the kind no natural wolf could ever make. Drake knew the sound: A Demon’s cry of pain.

The Trident stumbled to the side and off Drake’s chest. Drake’s lungs heaved for air, and the black vanished from his vision. He didn’t want to move. He didn’t even want to
think
. But he braced his palms against the dirt and shoved himself to his feet.

A scream struck his ears. But this one was higher, and more panicked than pained. The girl.

Drake whirled toward the sound, his hand clutching his side. Allai stood a few yards in front of him. When had she gotten out of the truck? He tried to remember, but he couldn’t. And that made a surge of rage course through him, because he should have been watching her more carefully. He should have been taking better care of her.

Allai’s eyes were wide with horror, and she slowly stumbled backward. At first Drake thought she was staring at him. But then he realized her shocked gaze was focused on her outstretched hand, which was covered in red liquid. Blood.

Drake felt his heart beat faster, which he hadn’t thought was possible. But somehow the girl had hurt her hand, and that was cause for alarm, and he wanted to just break down and panic. But his adrenaline wasn’t going to let him break down.

Another shriek pierced the air. It was Conrad this time, not the girl. Drake staggered in a half-circle until he faced the Trident. Conrad was stumbling to his feet, his paws flailing around like he was on ice. He panted heavily, bloody saliva dripping from his jowls.

A knife handle stuck out from between Conrad’s shoulder blades. Drake blinked, wondering if he was seeing things right. He was. The knife had been stabbed deep into Conrad, with only the handle still visible. The handle was black, with gold-inlaid designs.

The Hunter’s knife. Drake remembered tossing it back into the truck, next to Allai. He glanced back to Allai, examining the blood on her hand again. It was too dark to be hers.

Drake grinned. He knew he looked insane like that, all bloodied and injured and grinning. But the girl had just saved him. She’d stabbed the Trident.

So much for being innocent.

Conrad’s lip lifted into a snarl, and he took one clumsy step toward Allai. Then another. And as he took a third, Drake realized the Trident wasn’t about to give up. Drake charged toward the Beast, ignoring the pain, ignoring his clouded vision. Or at least trying to.

He slammed into the Trident. Not exactly the most elegant of moves, and painful as his chest rammed into Conrad. But it worked. The Trident toppled over, yelping and shrieking and flailing his paws.

One of the paws struck Drake in the chest before he could jump away. He vaguely registered his own flesh ripping as Conrad’s claws dug into his skin. That didn’t matter. Pain was nothing. He was used to pain. But he wasn’t used to gaining anything from the pain, and that was exactly what he was about to do.

He stepped forward and drew his claws back, aligning them with Conrad’s neck. The Trident’s eyes rolled around wildly, trying to focus on him.

“Quit moving,” Drake growled. He was shocked at his own ability to speak. It seared his ribs and scratched his throat, but somehow his voice still worked.

Conrad obeyed. He stilled. Even his eyes stopped rolling around and focused on Drake.

“Who sent you?” Drake asked. He already knew the answer to that. But he still had to hear it, just to make it feel real.

‘Rhaize,’
Conrad answered. He used the telepathic speech of his species, implanting the words into Drake’s mind. Drake shuddered, because he’d always hated that feeling. Having someone breech his mental barrier, invade his own mind… It was nerve-wracking and infuriating. But, right now, it was necessary.

“Why?” Drake asked. “What does my dad want?”

‘He wants that girl dead.’

Conrad’s voice had always been disturbing. It was flat and toneless, even when he discussed the most serious of topics. Drake had never liked Conrad’s voice. But then, Drake had never liked Conrad.

Conrad’s smile reappeared, more pained now, but still amused.
‘He won’t stop, Drake. I’m just the first. You kill me, and Rhaize will just send someone else to finish my job. This isn’t over. My death stops nothing.’

“Why does he want her dead?” Drake realized a moment too late that he was screaming. And then he didn’t care enough to stop. “She’s just a girl! She hasn’t done anything wrong, she didn’t even know what she was!”

Drake paused to refill his lungs, and then realized he didn’t have much time. He had to get answers out of Conrad. “Why does my dad want her dead? Tell me! Who’s her parent, what is going
on
?”

But then Conrad took a shuddering breath in, and never let it out. He stilled. Drake watched him, waiting for the Trident to move again, waiting for him to answer his questions. But he was dead. Conrad’s eyes still stared up at Drake, locked onto his gaze. But they were blank now.

Drake’s vision slowly faded back to the right color, the red receding and leaving him with pure exhaustion. He stumbled back a few steps, searing pain tearing through his ribs as he gulped in air. Then the black returned to his vision, and his knees collapsed. He caught himself with his hands. More pain shot up his wrists.

A delicate hand touched his shoulder. The girl. He took a deep breath, breathing in her sweet scent over the metallic smell of blood.

“Hey,” she murmured. Her voice was shaky.

Drake wished he could see her. Take in her delicate features, her soft expression. But there was too much black clouding his sight.

���Hey,” he replied, his voice cracking in the middle of the word. What kind of lame reply was that? But then, she hadn’t exactly started off the conversation at a fantastic level.

“You’re hurt,” she said.

“I’m going to black out pretty soon,” he mumbled. He winced at his own words. Now wasn’t the time to be unconscious. He had to figure out what Dad wanted with Allai, who he would send to attack next… And what the repercussions would be for killing Conrad.

“I’ll take care of you,” Allai promised.

Drake nodded. “Are you hurt?”

She didn’t answer right away, and his stomach clenched with fear. But then she took a shaky breath, and said, “No. No, I’m fine.”

His arms gave out, and he collapsed to the ground. “Just drive to Cleveland,” he whispered. “I’ll meet you there.”

There was another pause, and he could almost picture her biting her lip, frowning, trying to decide how to reply. “No,” she said. “I’m staying here. With you.”

It was getting cold when Drake woke up. He groaned, and instantly regretted it as pain shot through his ribs. The pain brought it all rushing back: Conrad’s attack, the girl stabbing the Trident, trying to pry answers from Conrad before death stole him away.

Drake gasped, but something constricted his chest. Probably bandages. He should be glad that the girl had taken the time to bandage him. He wasn’t. They hurt like hell.

“You’re awake.”

It was the girl’s voice. Sweet and pleasant, even though she sounded panicked. And she was close, probably only a foot or two away.

“I think you’re hurt pretty bad,” she said, her voice a little quieter now, and a little closer.

“Yeah.” His tongue felt thick, and he smacked it a couple times. “Yeah, I know.” Words hurt. Everything hurt.

Allai sighed. “I need to get you to a hospital.” She sounded so sincere. So serious. It was kind of adorable.

“Little Nox, you can’t take me to a hospital. I have wings. Remember?” He rustled his feathers a little, just to remind her. That hurt, too.

He could picture her frowning. “You could shift,” she suggested.

“And try to explain a hundred-and-nine degree temperature to some nurse? That’s not going to work.”

Allai went quiet. Well, not completely quiet, because he could still hear her heartbeat pounding out a frantic rhythm. If only he could do something to slow her heartbeat, to calm her down. He didn’t like hearing her so frightened.

He sighed. And almost screamed from the pain as it tore through his ribs. Maybe the girl was right. Maybe he did need a doctor.

Light filtered into his vision, surprising him. He’d forgotten that his eyes had been closed. And he didn’t remember wanting to open them.

The girl’s face hovered over his. When had she gotten so close? It didn’t matter. It was just nice to know that she was near. Near and safe.

For the moment.

“Hey,” he said. He looked down at his chest, peering at the blood-soaked bandages wrapped around him. “Thanks for…” He waved a hand at the mess that made up his chest. “For taking care of that.”

She smiled a little. It was a forced expression, but still a smile. He wished she’d smile more. She looked so pretty when she did.

“It’s not really taken care of,” she said, sounding almost guilty. “I think you broke a couple ribs.”

“I didn’t break a thing,” Drake muttered. “Conrad broke them.”

Allai frowned. He could actually see it this time, and he hated it. He watched as the frown pulled at her smile until she looked nothing but concerned and upset. It made his stomach hurt a little.

“You mean it… The Trident…” She trailed off before finding the right words. “You
know
him?”

Drake nodded. Which was a dumb thing to do, because apparently his collarbone was bruised as well. “Yeah. That is… Uh,
was
Conrad. He used to be my dad’s head assassin.”

Allai bit at her lip. She had a bad habit of doing that. But then he shouldn’t talk, because Dad had always been getting after him for the same habit.

“I thought he was just one of my father’s men,” she murmured.

If only she was right. That’d make things so much easier, if it was just Shieldak coming after them. But now Rhaize was after Allai again. First he’d sent Drake to kill her, then Silas, now his best assassin. Rhaize was getting more desperate to see the girl dead. Conrad had probably been right: His attack was only the beginning.

Drake thought back to what Luke had told him on the phone. That Shieldak had said ‘someone else’ would be coming after them. Rhaize must be that ‘someone else’. He must have coordinated this most recent attack with Shieldak. It was pretty much unheard of for the Keepers and Sentinel to work together, but Drake wouldn’t put it past Shieldak. He wouldn’t put anything past that man, after what he’d done to Allai.

Drake swallowed hard and realized he still had to answer Allai. “No. Allai, that definitely wasn’t one of Shieldak’s men. That was one of my father’s assassins. Rhaize is after you, too.”

Her eyes widened. He waited for her to scream or cry. But she just knelt there, hovering over him, her eyes wide with shock.

“Allai.” Drake looked right at her, and she stared back. He could probably stare into her eyes forever; they were so familiar and beautiful. But he managed to murmur, “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. Okay?”

She nodded a couple times. Then she quietly asked, “Can I give you a hug?”

He wanted to answer ‘no’. Because he’d learned over the years that physical contact usually came along with pain. But then he saw the pleading look in her eye, and the panic that was still in her expression, and he remembered the hugs she’d given him back at the Manor. Those hadn’t hurt. She hadn’t asked first, which had kind of pissed him off, but they still hadn’t hurt.

“Yeah,” he said. “You can give me a hug.”

She leaned over and wrapped her arms around his neck, careful to avoid his wounds. It was awkward, with him still lying on the ground, and for a moment he thought of pushing her away. Then she rested her cheek against his shoulder. And he could hear her heartbeat, so close, so damn precious. He wanted to hate how much the simple sound of it meant to him, because he knew caring about people only brought pain. But he couldn’t hate it, just like he couldn’t hate her.

Drake wrapped his arms around the girl. He’d almost forgotten how fragile she was, and how good it felt to be this close to her. He just stayed there for a moment, his arms around her, listening to her heartbeat, breathing in her sweet scent. Then he sighed and said, “We need to keep moving. If Conrad was here, then there will be more of Dad’s men close by.”

Allai drew away, and he almost protested. But he let her go.

“My dad’s men are probably nearby, too,” she said quietly.

“No, I don’t think any of Shieldak’s men are after us.”