Gravity (37 page)

the attack was on all of them, a realization struck Adam. There was something so deliberate about

this attack that he knew Sunny had been the target all along.

The Mage with the dark beard and dead eyes reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun.

A chilling roar shook the silence as Knox ran at them—his lips peeled back and the lines in his

face carved deeper from the agony of seeing what was about to unfold. The Mage stood astride

Sunny, slowly raising his arm until it was aimed at her chest. Knox had no time to knock him down

without causing the gun to go off.

Adam would replay the scene in his mind for years to come, and wonder how something that

happened so quickly seemed to take place in slow motion.

Knox threw himself on top of Sunny—the woman he cherished more than life itself. The woman

he carried a ring in his pocket for. The one Knox looked at like she hung the moon and stars.

A flash of light sparked as the gun fired three times.

***

That night—after Logan fed me Chinese food—I slept for hours. Nightmares of Tarek continued

to haunt me, and I’d wake up in a cold sweat with Logan at my side, lulling me back to sleep with

his purr.

“Sleep, female,” he said.

Around midnight, a tumultuous pounding coming from Logan’s front door woke us up. The

insistent knock made me want to crawl underneath the covers because I knew it meant trouble.

Logan hopped out of bed, lifting his nose in the air to concentrate on the scent.

“Open up!” a man bellowed as the thundering sound of his fist continued to strike the door.

Logan looked over his shoulder. “It’s Leo. Stay here or join me, but cover yourself up.”

I wrapped a thin blanket around me and followed close behind. As he unlatched the door, two

angry men flew in.

Leo’s face was redder than the highlights in his hair. “You better talk, little brother. Word is out

that Tarek is dead by your hand.” He shouldered past him into the living room, pacing angrily in a

circle.

“The rumor is true,” Logan confirmed.

Levi patted him on the shoulder with a wide grin, flashing the tattoo on his inside forearm that

read VERITAS.

Leo bared his teeth. “Tarek was a Lord. Do you realize what you’ve done? You cannot kill a

Lord; the Pride is already seeking justice. They’re all but lighting torches in the streets! I thought

we talked about this?”

Logan pulled me to his side and his upper canines slowly descended. “Tarek Thorn intended to

rape and murder my kindred spirit. He held her against her will, and every choice she made I was

forced to accept. But it was not her choice to be assaulted, and I would not stand idly by so my

female could be slaughtered at the hands of a lunatic.”

Leo’s voice softened. “Logan, you know it is impossible that she could be—”

“You are my brother, but do not ever… ever doubt me on this subject,” he bit out harshly. “I

challenged him as I had every right to, and he accepted that challenge.”

His brothers circled the room and Leo pulled in deep breaths of air, tasting the truth of Logan’s

words on his tongue.

Levi slammed his fist into the wall and leaned against it, lowering his head as every muscle in

his arms flexed. Curses tumbled out of his mouth, but they were merely whispers.

“I’ll face the consequences,” Logan said with bravery on his tongue.

“Logan,” I whispered, stroking my fingers along his neck. His angered demeanor switched to

one of adoration, and he hid his fangs behind closed lips. “Can they punish you for this? I want to

know the worst-case scenario.”

“Death,” Leo confirmed somberly. He sat down in a rust-colored chair with his elbows on his

knees. “If Logan is unable to prove his claim on you as kindred spirit, then he’ll pay for his crime

with his life.”

“Oh, Logan. Why did you do this?”

I sat on the sofa and covered my face with the blanket. Levi sat beside me and wrapped his

heavy arm around my shoulders.

“I swear, Leo, I tried to stop it,” I said, lowering the blanket. “I didn’t know he was going to

call Logan and make him listen to it over the phone.”

Leo snapped his head at Logan and his jaw clenched. “Is that true?”

Logan nodded. “Do you want me to describe my visceral reaction from hearing my female’s

screams at the hands of another male? I called her guard and he had the cop’s phone number and

address. I sincerely hope that neither of you ever have to endure the torment I suffered, thinking I

would be listening to the last moments of her life.” He raked his fingers through his messy hair. “I

knew the consequences, and if I had it to do over again, I would have killed him slower.”

Logan knelt before me and kissed my palm, placing it over his heart. I felt the sweet rhythm of

his life beneath my fingertips, suddenly aware that his heart could stop beating because of Tarek.

“What if I prove I have Chitah blood?” I asked Leo.

“Even the human children we give up for adoption do not have enough Chitah DNA to make

them a kindred spirit for a Chitah male.”

“How do you know that?” I asked. “You dump your children off at a stranger’s doorstep and

never see them again. They never get a chance to mingle within your society or attend your

Gatherings. They could very well be someone’s soul mate. Didn’t that ever occur to anyone?”

“It has,” he added. “But what use would it be? They could never bear Chitah young and even if

it were possible, they would be born human. Why would a male choose a female that would age

and die before his eyes and have children that would grow up and do the same?”

“Love? Nothing lasts forever, Leo. Why do you focus so much on preservation of your own kind

when it means denying someone happiness? No matter how brief. You know what I’m getting out

of this conversation? That you don’t approve of me because I’m not one of your kind. Logan’s

accepted me for who I am. Maybe he’s my kindred spirit and maybe he’s not, but does it matter?

We love each other. Isn’t that enough to justify him saving my life?”

“And if we can prove it?” Logan asked.

“If it can be proven, brother, then your challenge to the death was justified. Lord or not, no

one can deny a Chitah’s right to protect his life mate. They require evidence, and that’s something

you don’t have.”

His tone was heavy because Levi wasn’t in the loop. Leo had inside information now that he

worked for HALO. He knew that it meant going public with the genetic experimentation, something

we’d kept secret because of the unpredictable upheaval that could occur. This became a choice to

save either Logan or the Breed.

Logan stood up and leaned against the wall, uncharacteristically folding his arms. “I don’t need

proof that she has Chitah blood,” he said, turning his gaze to me. “That kind of revelation would

put us all in danger. They might lock you up and take you away from me,” he said pensively. “I

won’t have that on my conscience.”

“And I won’t have your death on mine,” I countered.

“God help us all,” Leo breathed.

We looked up and he stared at his phone with a ghostly expression.

“What is it?” Logan asked, lowering his arms and stepping forward. The change in Leo’s scent

must have been alarming by their reaction.

Leo rubbed his short beard and lifted his sullen eyes. “Knox is dead.”

Chapter 30

I couldn’t breathe. By the time we reached Novis’s front door, my chest was in spasms, sucking

in air so quickly that I came close to hyperventilating. Logan drove and as soon as Adam opened

the door, I fell into his arms.

“Is she hurt too?” I said in a high-pitched voice.

“Not that bad,” he replied in broken words, stroking the back of my hair.

“Who did this?” I looked up and Adam’s scarred face was stoic, as if the life had been drained

from his eyes.

“Nero.”

“What?” I gasped, adamantly shaking my head.

I backed away in disbelief, tears staining my cheeks. I suspected Tarek had given his guards

orders to carry out his plan if anything ever happened to him. Nero was the furthest thing from my

mind. Why the hell hadn’t I continued searching for him? Why had I let everyone convince me the

labs were more important? My eyes burned with guilt.

Logan held my shoulders from behind. My energy intensified and I had a sudden urge to throw

it into someone. As I stepped away from Logan, faint blue particles of light dripped from my

fingertips. My heart sliced in two as the image of Sunny and Knox holding hands flew into my

mind.

“I’m going to kill him, I’m going to kill him,” I chanted.

Adam caught my wrists and held my shaking hands. “Level it down, Silver. You can’t see her

like this.”

“Were you able to heal her? Is it bad?”

Adam shook his head and let go of my hands. “My gift doesn’t work on humans. I tried. I would

have stopped it,” he said in a pained breath. “The Mage thought he had put enough bullets in

them and came over to talk to me. I was the fucking messenger,” he bit out. “The witness. Novis

showed up a few minutes later and took out the last Mage. As soon as he pulled the stunner from

my chest, I rushed over to their side. I tried, dammit. Knox… that bastard was just too stubborn to

come back,” he said with glittering eyes. Adam blinked and looked down. Knox wasn’t just his

former partner, but his best friend.

“Are you okay?” I stepped out of Logan’s grip and touched Adam’s cheek. He flinched at first

and then pressed his lips into a thin line. Adam would never understand that despite his

imperfections, he was still the same Razor—unruly dark hair, dangerously sexy brows, and a smirk

that could melt hearts. A man who once saved my life and showed me how to laugh again. Time

was changing the both of us through our experiences. Our best friends were attacked that night.

Mine survived. His didn’t.

“Novis is making burial arrangements.” He struggled to keep his voice steady. Adam turned

away, folding his arms. “She’s upstairs if you want to see her.”

He barely had to finish his sentence. Logan remained behind and I flew up the stairs. Uncertain

of which room she was in, I opened all the doors. When I reached the last door at the end of the

hall, I hesitated before going in.

Novis sat in a chair at the foot of the bed, leaning on his knees with his hands clasped

together. When he looked over his shoulder, his mouth formed a grim line. It looked like he’d been

running his hands through his hair so much that it all simply fell flat over his face. I’d never seen

Novis this… emotional. Time had eroded the spark he had for life and he often appeared detached.

Until tonight.

“Close the door,” he said in a soft voice. “There’s a draft.”

I wiped my runny nose on the sleeve of a sweater I’d borrowed from Logan. I just stood there,

shaking my head at him in disbelief.

“Knox was brave.” He sat back in the chair and stretched out his legs. “Not many men die for

honor. By the time I got there, he was already gone. I believe one of the bullets pierced his lung

and caused it to collapse and bleed out, but I’m not a doctor. He took three bullets for her. One of

them ricocheted and hit her in the shoulder.”

I glanced up and Sunny’s left shoulder was in a sling.

“Is she sedated?”

“No,” Novis replied. “She refused. Adamantly refused. We called in a Relic who patched her up

and confirmed it wasn’t life threatening. She’ll have a scar, but the bullet went clean through.”

I cupped my elbows and looked at her sleeping in the bed.

“You can sit with her for a while. I’ll see to it she’s not left alone. She shouldn’t be,” he said,

rising from his chair and walking toward me. He stopped to my left and stood at my side. “Sunny

watched the man that she loves die in her arms. When we found them, she was so weakened from

the Mage having juiced her energy that she couldn’t even wrap her arms around him. That’s what

pained her when we brought her back—that she couldn’t hold him one last time.”

I lost it.

Tears burned my eyes like acid and I bent over with my hands on my knees, sobbing. Novis

closed the door behind me and silence filled the room as my tears spattered on the wood floor.

The pain was surreal, but I sucked it all in and blew out a few hard breaths. Guilt kept me from

approaching the bed.

This was all because of me. Damn Nero. I hated him to the core of my being. I swore in that

room that on my honor, I would kill him. Justus told me not to waste my life seeking revenge, but

Nero had taken the life of someone I cared about while attempting to murder my best friend.

Sunny was the nearest I had to a sister, and damn him if he thought I wouldn’t avenge this

senseless attack.

I crossed the room to the right side of the bed and sat on the edge. Sunny’s face was different.

It wasn’t just her puffy eyes and red nose from crying herself into a deep sleep, but the carefree

exuberance I once remembered had been extinguished. It was as if Knox took a piece of her heart

with him.

Maybe it would help him reach his destination.

Leaning forward, I kissed her cheek and pressed mine against hers. What I nearly experienced