Page 9 of All Out of Flux (Stolen Hearts #3)

9

LEON

T ired. Max was tired, and maybe a little grumpier than usual. That was fine. I wasn’t actually all that annoyed about the Just situation. I trusted Max enough to know that he wasn’t sneaking around my back kissing all these other cute boys.

Frankly, I was more worried about him sneaking around behind my back trying to pull off an investigation on his own. We were supposed to be partners, weren’t we? This was dangerous stuff. Tío Gustavo wasn’t just some bumbling old antiques dealer. The man was still, as Max warned me again and again, a Brillante through and through.

But again, Max was tired, and so was I, and these were all conversations we could save for the morning. The thump and boom of the music at Habibi faded and softened as we navigated the block. I followed him to the parking lot, his car keys jingling in his hand, studying the uncharacteristic slope in his shoulders.

Poor guy looked totally wiped out. Kind of odd, considering a beer at the bar wasn’t what I’d classify as harrowing, but with everything else that had added up throughout the day, who was I to judge? I stepped up the pace to catch up with him, meaning to give his shoulders a nice, solid rub, help him relax a little before the drive home.

“You okay there, tiger?” I asked, digging my fingers deep into the tight muscles of his shoulders, wondering whether this massage was meant to benefit him or me. “You’re so tense all of a sudden.”

He relaxed into my touch — a good sign — and gave me a little smile over his shoulder. “It’s nothing, really. I’m just tired. God, it’s been such a long day.”

I smiled, relieved that he wasn’t maybe all pissed off from me giving him a hard time over that Just guy. “Well, work’s over now. Which is funny to say knowing that I currently have a beer inside me, but hey. Perks of the job.”

Max swung around, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me close, so close our bellies were touching. Those rock-hard abs, those muscles at his pelvis — woof.

“A beer?” he purred. “Any thoughts on getting anything else inside you? Like my cock, maybe?”

Incredibly cheesy, but hell did it make my insides buttery and wet. I smacked at his chest, laughing and sputtering something incoherent, but he didn’t relax his grip. Were we even going to make it home at this point? Sex with Max was incredibly enjoyable, but I didn’t know if I was up for some action in the backseat.

“Well, well, well. Isn’t this sweet?”

My stomach twisted at the sound of mockery in that voice. A man stood in the parking lot, flanked by two others, all dressed in dark clothing. Each wielded some form of improvised weapon — a plank, a pipe, a baseball bat.

“You don’t want to start shit with us tonight, boys.” Max’s voice rumbled against my torso, like I wasn’t having a hard time controlling myself already. He peeled away from me and cracked his knuckles.

“Listen to the man,” I said, unclenching and flexing my fingers. “We’ve had a long night. And bigotry is so over, you guys. Homophobes, this close to a gay bar? Honestly.”

The man in the middle reddened. “Who said anything about homophobia? My little brother is gay. Love is love.”

I jabbed my finger at the air. “That’s right, love is love, motherfucker.”

Max gave me a puzzled look and shrugged. “But it still sounds to me like you’re looking for trouble, gentlemen. Let’s get this over with, already. You know who I am, and I know who sent you.”

He brought his thumbs and index fingers together, forming the familiar shape of the Brillante diamond, the clan sign. White light poured from his fingers, tracing the outline of the diamond. The tattoos that marked the three thugs gleamed under the arcane light, two on the neck, one on the forearm.

Oh. Brillante thugs. I should’ve guessed. Clever Max, always two steps ahead.

Max pointed at the man in the middle. “Why did Tío Gustavo send you?”

The men chuckled. The one in the middle answered for them all. “Your favorite uncle just wants to make sure that you don’t stick your handsome little nose where it doesn’t belong.”

So these guys were buddies with that one dude who Guillotina dropkicked at Unholy Grounds. A steady flow of Brillante thugs showing up at the coffee shop hadn’t been so surprising considering our previous misadventure with one Divina Brillante, but she had her own reasons for harassing Max.

“What does Gustavo want?” I blurted out, unable to contain my curiosity.

“This fucking kid,” the man said, gesturing at me. “He wants you to stop dancing around the subject, Maximo. You know you can always come to Tío Gustavo about a — what was it again? A statuette?”

I could hear Max growling deep within his chest. Why did he have to be so hot all the time? We had to focus on the fight, not that a fight had actually broken out yet. Clearly these guys had only come to scare us, to send a message.

“Tell Gustavo I can handle my own business,” Max said, slow and steely.

“That’s Tío Gustavo to you, Maximo. Respect your elders. See, this is why you were never going to get anywhere in the family. Can’t even be bothered to show a little respect to — ”

Max’s fist cracked into the side of the thug’s face. His bat clattered to the ground, but now Max was sandwiched between two armed thugs. Damn it. I sprinted forward, hand clenched in a fist, ready to slam a fear hex right into the left thug’s brain.

A horrible feeling in my stomach swelled as I saw the plank and lead pipe go up in the air. No. I couldn’t let them hurt him. I threw my hand out, prepared to unleash my dragon — but the impact didn’t come. The thugs were just standing there, staring at Max with their weapons held high.

The soles of my shoes scraped on asphalt as I came to a halt. Max rose to his full height and scratched the top of his head. The thug on the ground was too beefy to knock out in a single punch, but he was just lying there, too, frowning hard and staring up.

Max turned toward me. We exchanged shrugs. What the hell was going on?

Far behind us, a block away, the music thumped on at Habibi. From somewhere around the corner came the slurred voices of people just out to party. But here in the parking lot, me and Max and the frozen Brillante thugs — only silence.

“Well, that was too easy,” Max mumbled, his voice the only sound in a small radius. I could have sworn it was a cool night, a nice breeze blowing when we left the club. I looked at the trees. They weren’t moving, either, the leaves and branches frozen mid-rustle.

Oh, fuck.

“We need to get out of here,” I said urgently, grabbing Max’s wrist, straining as he resisted my pull.

“But we can question these thugs,” he said. “I mean, as soon as they break out of whatever this is. You sure it isn’t you hexing them?”

“Time anomaly,” I screamed. “They’re frozen in time, Max. Fucking move.”

He finally listened, the two of us sprinting out of the parking lot. A dull pulse thumped from the center of the space, a rush of nothing. From the edge of the parking lot we watched as the three thugs turned into dust.

“Holy shit,” I gasped. “Oh, shit, oh, fuck. Did you see that?”

“Show yourself,” Max shouted, turning in a circle, his face contorted in anger. “Brendan. We know you’re out here.”

I spun in a circle myself, my heart racing faster, scanning the block for any sign of the Quartz Spider.

“Nothing. Where the fuck is he? God, if he’s pulling this bullshit with the rewind and fast forward again, I — ”

The words froze in my throat as I completed my rotation, when I spotted the wiry figure standing just behind Max’s shoulder. Those crystal-lensed goggles, that strange, inky, iridescent black fabric — there was no mistaking him. Max hadn’t even noticed him yet, nor his outstretched hand, nor the dangerous crystal slivers in his palm.

No point warning Max. I could end Brendan Shum instead. I thrust my hand out.

“Emanate!”

Max’s eyes went huge as he followed where I pointed my hand. He sprang away at the sight of the Quartz Spider, muttering a spell word under his breath as he engaged his own crystalline weapons. From deep within my body came the initial rumbling of the ancient dragon, answering my call.

A swirl of desert sand scoured at my flesh from the inside. I clenched my teeth against the agony — no pain without power, and Bahamut was one of the most powerful of them all. Shattered rock and gritty earth twisted through my body, coursed through my veins. I aimed at the man who’d brought me and Max so close to mortal danger far too many times over.

The Quartz Spider flinched, falling back into a defensive stance, the seeds of deadly crystal in his hand forgotten. Beneath my feet, the ground seemed to tremble.

Something churned, twisted in my stomach. No, this wasn’t the usual dragon pain. Something was very, very wrong. I fell to my knees retching, but nothing came out. This sickness wasn’t in my body. It stemmed deeper, from the soul.

Something churned and twisted in my soul. I cried out from the agony of it, this horrific twin sensation as two distinct forms of pain twined and braided within me. One was jagged and sharp, like rock. The other burned and stung, like saltwater on an open wound.

I threw my head up, gazing at nothing, eyes wide in terrified understanding. Tiamat had lied right to my face. Bakunawa had never vacated the premises. That was him in there, struggling for dominance against Bahamut. Two dragons were clawing for control over my body, over my soul.

Was this a trial? Did they want to test my limits, how many dragons I could safely carry?

“They’re ripping me apart from the inside. Max. Help me.”

He reached for my face, his hand trembling. “I don’t know what to do. Leon, please. Tell me what to do.”

I’d never seen him so scared. I’d never heard him stutter like that. Tears spilled down my cheeks. I opened my mouth to scream, jaw straining to push anything out — my voice, my bile, the dragons themselves.

Could it work? By some twisted law of contractual magic, couldn’t there be some way to force these monsters out of my body? Vomit them into this reality if I had to, tear open my own skin. I clutched at my chest, fingernails digging into my flesh. Ripping myself apart would be worth it, if only it meant an end to the pain.

Then all at once the pain vanished, quickly as it had come. I sprawled flat on my back, relishing the sharp, solid cold of asphalt. I was alive. The dragons had gone dormant. But for how long?

I blinked hard, my vision regaining focus. Stars far above, tree branches rustling in the breeze, and Max’s worried face.

“Leon? Talk to me. What can I do?”

I rubbed at my face. “I think it’s over. For now, at least. Fuck. The Quartz Spider. Max, we could still be in danger.”

He helped me sit up, shaking his head. “He’s gone. Disappeared just as soon as you Emanated. You must have scared him off, but I gotta be honest. You scared me more.”

I wrapped my arms around him, held him tight. I couldn’t bring myself to tell him that I was scared, too.