Page 47 of Kingdom of Chaos (Creatures of Chaos #2)

Twenty-Nine

The look Kade gives me is incredulous. “Let me get this straight. You want us to give you the dragon shifter and then just, what? Trust that you’re going to take care of Kerrim for us?”

I nod. “Yes. Exactly that.”

Kade’s eyebrows shoot up. He glances at Ares seated next to him at the round bistro table of the all-night coffee shop where I asked them to meet me—a neutral location away from Order headquarters.

“Well, she has guts, I’ll give her that,” Ares says.

Kade shakes his head, a look of disappointment on his face. “Contact us when you’re serious. We’re done here,” he says as he pushes to his feet.

I sigh. I didn’t actually think they were going to give Becks over just because I asked nicely, but I was hoping they would.

“Actually, we’re not,” I say firmly. “If you want to stay on friendly terms, like you keep claiming, you’ll sit back down.”

Kade’s nostrils flare. “This isn’t a game?—”

“Oh, I’m well aware of that. But I want my friend back and that’s a non-negotiable for me. If you walk out that door, I promise you I’ll still get Becks back by the end of the night, but I won’t lift a finger to help you defeat Kerrim.”

It’s a tense thirty seconds before Kade reluctantly takes his seat again, his gaze sharp as he assesses me.

I have his attention now, and a bit of the knot of anxiety in my chest begins to loosen.

“I’ll be honest with you,” I say. “I don’t like the idea of Kerrim running around your world with unchecked power any more than you do. And even though he deceived and manipulated me, I still feel somewhat responsible for him being here. Even if the part I played was completely unintentional.”

I lean forward, meeting both Kade’s and Ares’ eyes.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to get Shadow Striker back from him the way your prophecy claims. But I’ll admit this much: I know him better than anyone else here. And with me, you may have a better chance of defeating him.”

Kade crosses his arms over his chest, a frown pulling at his mouth. “ We’ll have a better chance of defeating him?”

“That’s right,” I say. “I’ll agree to stay and help you with Kerrim, but I’m not going up against him alone.

That would be suicide. If you want my help, you’re going to release Becks, and we’ll all work together to bring Kerrim down.

No more blackmail. No more leverage hanging over my head to strong-arm me into doing what you want. After this, that ends.”

Kade starts to say something but I cut him off by holding a hand in the air.

“And I’ll tell you why you’re going to be so accommodating.

It’s because if you don’t agree to these terms, my friends, who I’m sure you’ve noticed by now are suspiciously missing from this meeting, are going to break Becks out of your headquarters and then destroy it on their way out.

We’ll leave the human world for good, and Kerrim will only be your problem then, not ours . ”

Kade’s face hardens to granite, his eyes boring into me as he tries to determine whether or not I’m lying.

I’m not.

Talon was right. It would be easier to break into the Order’s headquarters and free Becks than to go up against Kerrim.

But at the same time, Kerrim has to be stopped, and I don’t know that I can live with myself if I just leave.

I have to at least try to get Shadow Striker away from him, no matter how perilous it might be.

But I don’t want to be a sacrificial lamb either. Taking down Kerrim is going to take more than just one human or creature. It’s going to take a small army. And that’s exactly what the Order is.

But because of the prophecy, Kade believes I’m the only one who can defeat Kerrim, so he won’t go up against him. Not unless he’s forced to. Which means not until I’m either gone . . . or dead.

There are two things I need from Kade that he hasn’t been willing to give me: Becks, and backup against Kerrim.

So when Talon and I got back with dinner, we sat down with Ensley and Titus and came up with a plan.

While I meet with Kade, the others are already at the Order’s headquarters, including Imogen, who was practically vibrating with excitement at the chance for violence when we called to tell her—are already at the Order’s headquarters.

Their mission is simple: retrieve Becks peacefully if Kade agrees, or break him out if he doesn’t.

If we have to take Becks by force, we’ll return to the creature world immediately, leaving them to deal with Kerrim on their own. But if Kade agrees to release Becks and stand with us, we’ll stay and fight too.

“You’re bluffing,” Kade says.

“I’m not.”

His phone buzzes with a message, and I say, “That’ll be someone at your headquarters letting you know the power’s been cut. Go ahead and check it.”

Imogen and Talon are a strategic force on their own, but once Titus got involved, it took the three of them less than an hour to come up with a plan to cripple the Order and infiltrate the building.

We know exactly where Becks is being held, and with the combined powers of all four of them, it would take the entire NYC Order to stop them. But we also know the building isn’t fully staffed in the middle of the night.

The first phase starts with disabling their electrical systems. Not just to help us get in and move around undetected, but also to show Kade we’re serious.

Kade checks his phone like I suggested, then mutters a curse under his breath. Ares leans over to read the message and his eyes go wide.

Kade sets the phone face down on the table and looks up at me. “You’re really asking us to give up our leverage and just trust that you’re going to put your life on the line?”

“Yes,” I answer.

“Why? Because you’ll promise? I’m supposed to believe you’ll keep your word?”

I meet his stare, seeing the calculation behind his eyes. He’s considering it. He’d be smart to, because this is his only real option.

“I can do better than a promise,” I say.

His head tilts slightly, interest piqued. “How so?”

“I happen to know a vampire who can facilitate an unbreakable bond. I’ll swear that if you let Becks go and join forces with us, I’ll stay and fight to take down Kerrim. Once that bond is in place, I won’t be able to go back on my word.”

“And neither will I,” Kade says, and I nod.

Talon was the one I had to convince about this part. He didn’t want me entering into an unbreakable bond, which, honestly, surprised me considering he once tricked me into one. It was that very incident that gave me the idea.

I know Kade won’t release Becks based on my word alone.

He doesn’t truly know me, and as he already pointed out during this meeting, there’s nothing stopping me from walking away the moment Becks is safe.

On the flip side, I need a guarantee that if I stay, my friends and I won’t be left to face Kerrim alone.

The unbreakable bond makes sense, for both sides. Eventually, Talon relented, even if it was reluctantly.

Kade rubs a hand over his mouth, thinking.

“You have three more minutes to decide,” I say. “If I don’t message my friends, they’re going in. They’ll get Becks out, but some of your people are going to get hurt in the process.”

He lets the silence stretch between us, eating up precious seconds, starting a cold sweat prickling across my skin. I knew going into this that I had to be ready to follow through, no matter how Kade responded. But the longer he just stares at me, the more I worry he’s not going to agree.

Finally, he extends his hand. I glance down at it, then back up at his face, still a stoic mask.

“I’m just glad you’re on our side,” he says.

Relief sweeps through me so fast it makes my muscles weak.

“Call your friends off and get Imogen over here to seal the bond. You have a deal. The Order doesn’t back down from fights, and this one won’t be any different.”

I shake his hand, then pull out my phone and type a message to Talon. He agreed. Stand down.

His response comes quick and makes me laugh. Imogen will be disappointed.

I listen while Kade calls someone at headquarters and explains that Becks is to be prepped to be released to us. As we wait for Imogen to arrive so Kade and I can enter into an unbreakable bond, Ares catches me staring at his pointed ears and grins. “They are quite sexy, aren’t they?”

“No!” I blurt. “I mean, that’s not what I meant. Or rather . . .”

Ares laughs at my blundering.

“What I mean to say is: you don’t glamour your appearance?”

I’d noticed his ears back at their headquarters, but I assumed they were only visible because we were on their turf, where everyone already knew about creatures. So I was surprised to see them uncovered again when he and Kade showed up in such a public setting.

“There’s no need,” he says with a shrug. “There’s a lot of strange fads these days. Humans just assume I’m wearing a prosthetic or had my ears surgically shaped to look like this.”

I scrunch my nose. “Some humans do that to themselves?”

He nods. “Fae are in right now.” Then he lowers his voice and leans in conspiratorially. “If humans knew I was truly a fae, do you know how much action I’d?—”

Kade clears his throat and Ares grins over at him, not looking chastised at all.

Crossing his arms over his chest, he says, “Let’s just say I’m pretty popular with the human ladies.”

Yeah, okay. I didn’t need to know that.

When Imogen arrives a few minutes later, she scowls at Kade, but I don’t miss the way she takes a moment to check him out as we follow him into the alley behind the coffee shop.

The unbreakable bond only takes a moment to seal, and just like that, both Kade and I are sealed to our word. I try to convince myself that the sensation settling in my gut isn’t foreboding, but it certainly feels that way.

Once that’s done, we head back to Order headquarters, where the others are waiting, Becks included.

I should be ecstatic, but I’m a giant ball of nerves.

I can’t ignore how things were strained with Becks the last time I saw him.

Yes, he was glad to see me, or maybe shocked is a better word, but we’re in a weird place right now.

Given the circumstances, that shouldn’t matter. But for some reason it does.

When we turn the corner and the front of the Order’s headquarters comes into view, my stomach bottoms out. The broad back and blond hair of the guy hugging Ensley are unmistakable.

My steps slow, then stop entirely.

Imogen and the others don’t notice, and continue walking until they reach the group. When they join them, Becks looks around, scanning faces, until he spots me a little farther down the block.

Even from this distance, I see his gaze soften. That’s all it takes for me to break into a run.

Becks pushes past Kade and Ares, and when I reach him, he scoops me up in his strong arms and lifts me into the air.

“You did it,” he says into my ear as he hugs me.

The nerves from before are gone. No matter what happens from here on out, Becks is going to be with me, and that fills me with overwhelming happiness.

Still in his arms, I lean back so I can look into his eyes, my smile so wide it makes my cheeks hurt.

His face is clean shaven now, the stubble from the other day gone.

There’s color high on his cheeks, and rather than hospital scrubs, he’s wearing jeans; a T-shirt is stretched across his broad chest.

His chest.

“Becks, your injury. Let me down,” I say, squirming in his grasp. I don’t want to hurt him.

He laughs at me. “I just got you back. You think I’m going to let you go anytime soon?”

“But—”

“Lock, I’m fine. Better than I’ve been in a long time. Just give me a moment to really take you in.”

Becks’ gaze travels over my face like he’s trying to memorize it.

“Do you promise?” I ask, and he nods.

“Almost good as new,” he says, but then sadness fills his green eyes and I wonder if he’s thinking about his magic being gone. I don’t know what I could say to make that better for him.

“Okay, Becks!” Ensley shouts over to us. “Put her down. We get it. You’re happy to see one another. Now get back over here so we can talk about what to do next.”

Becks has his back to the group, and he twists just enough to glance over his shoulder at them. “Just as soon as I get a proper hello from her,” he calls back.

A proper hello?

As he looks back at me, there’s a sharp glint in his gaze that throws me. It almost looks . . . calculating.

Just as I’m about to ask what he meant by a proper hello , he leans forward and captures my mouth. The kiss takes me completely off guard, and I gasp. Becks uses the moment to deepen the kiss.

My mind spins, struggling to catch up as his mouth moves over mine in a way that feels unfamiliar. It still sends a thrill through my nerves and makes my stomach drop, but this kiss feels different. Almost possessive.

That’s not the Becks I know.

Kissing him has always made me feel alive, but also safe. Cherished. Becks has always been home to me. But this . . . this feels like I’m kissing a stranger.

I pull back, overwhelmed and confused, cheeks flushed and lips swollen. Instead of the warmth I usually feel, there’s only a lingering sense that something isn’t right.

And yet, when I look into his eyes, I see the creature I’ve always known.

The one who shielded me from school bullies, who held me during my most vulnerable moments.

The friend who always knew what to say to lift my mood, or when to say nothing at all.

The guy who nearly died protecting me from Kerrim, and ended up wounded, magicless, and lost in a strange new world because of it.

This is Becks. My Becks.

So if something feels off, maybe it’s not him. Maybe it’s me.

Becks smiles, completely unaware of my inner turmoil, and pulls me closer, burying his face in my hair as he whispers, “I missed you, Lock.”

I nod, because I can’t seem to find my voice right now.

Then I look up, and over Becks’ shoulder I watch Talon turn and walk away.