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Chapter twenty-two

“Farren.”

The Witch didn’t reply. “Farren.” From his upside-down perspective, Aidan took in the shattered windscreen, the single bullet hole in line with his chest, and released his seatbelt, one arm bracing himself from falling on his head.

He lowered himself to the ceiling with a grunt, his Provident abilities probing and pressing at Rae of their own accord as he slid closer.

Nothing was broken, but she was bleeding from her head, her arm, her body hanging loose against her seatbelt.

He knew enough about human physiology that moving her might be a mistake, but Witch physiology?

He knew even less. “Farren, I need your help here.” Her hair hung across her face, and without thinking, he brushed it away so she could see when she opened her eyes.

He reached out to the safety car, to the Vampires who had been inside it.

Dead. But there was a presence out in the rain, getting closer, and it had every one of Aidan’s senses screaming at him to move.

He tried to call out with his Provident abilities to Baelin and the other units, but only silence answered him. Fuck.

Whatever was out there, he’d have to draw it away from Rae until she woke up.

If she wakes up . He allowed himself a moment to listen to her heartbeat again before hauling himself out of the car, a harder task than he cared to admit.

He was too damn big to fit through the shattered window with ease, his jacket snagging on the shattered glass and the wound in his chest protesting at the angle.

The rain still came down thick and fast, the water soaking into his trousers where his knees pressed against the ground.

Whoever was out there, Aidan could feel them stoop down beside the upturned safety car.

At first, he thought it was a Fae, but as he pulled himself to his feet and put distance between him and Rae, he could see the male.

Horns jutted from his head, claws extended from his fingertips, but there was something off about him, something a little too put together. As Aidan took another step closer and bloodshot eyes met his, he knew. It was one of them, a test subject, and his Provident abilities were useless against it.

Something was blocking his abilities. He clutched at his chest where the bullet had hit, the movement feeling sluggish. The test subject approached slowly, head tipped to one side in a way that reminded Aidan of the Vampires drugged up on xion, the potent narcotic they favoured over weed.

“You’re all they sent?” Aidan called out over the rain.

The male’s shoulders moved in amusement, his mouth quirking up. “I’m all they needed to send.”

Aidan was arrogant, but he wasn’t stupid.

He reached for the gun inside his jacket, flicking off the safety and pulling the trigger before the male could come any closer.

The test subject held up a hand, and the three bullets Aidan had loosed simply fell to the ground at its feet.

The only Order he’d ever known to have that ability had been Vampires…

but the Thaumas, the Vampires who could alter physical reality to their will, had all been killed for their ability long ago.

He fired again, and this time the barrel twisted and crunched in his hand, the metal folding back on itself.

Aidan cast the weapon away, not taking his eyes off the creature before him as his canines extended.

Hands and teeth would have to be enough, though something told him this fucker had more than just Thaumas abilities.

As soon as the thought struck him, a wave of water snapped up like a rope, whipping in his direction, but Aidan dodged it easily. “You’ll have to do better than that. Do you have a name?” He shook away a wave of drowsiness, his heart beating fast like he’d been the one to take the narcotic.

“So you can utter it when you die?” the male asked, but Aidan waited, undeterred. “Daire.” Another whip of water and again Aidan dodged, using the opportunity to close the space between them.

“Tell me, Daire,” Aidan asked, wiping rainwater out of his eyes, “did they ask for your permission before they did this to you? Or did they pin you down like an animal and take what they felt was theirs?” He swung for Daire on the last word, too aware of those razor-sharp claws when he was already wounded.

The male sidestepped, but too slowly, and Aidan’s fist connected with Daire’s jaw. “They didn’t take anything,” he spat. “They gave.”

Daire lashed out, but Aidan caught his wrist, fingers bone-crushingly tight as he slammed them both into the ground. He had to keep away from those claws, had to keep the male, the hybrid , too occupied to use any augmented abilities, and with any luck, close enough to sink his teeth into him.

They grappled on the road, Daire’s talons raking against Aidan’s jacket, but he grabbed the thing by its horns and slammed its head back into the wet asphalt with a roar, his heart thumping against his chest. He wanted answers, but he wasn’t going to risk his life getting them tonight.

Aidan’s hands closed around the male’s throat, teeth bared, but Daire threw him off, slamming him into the rear end of his car, his breath leaving him in a whoosh of air.

The vehicle spun, Rae still inside it, metal scraping and whining against the wet asphalt.

The split second Aidan spared trying to feel her heartbeat was a mistake.

Daire crashed into him again, and this time Aidan sank his teeth deep into the male’s shoulder until he connected with bone.

The creature bellowed, claws shredding the flesh at his side, but Aidan didn’t let go. They collided again with the side of the car, and for the first time, Daire seemed to notice Rae, a grin splitting his face as he took in Aidan’s reaction. “What do we have here?”

Aidan didn’t think, just grabbed a horn, smashing the male against the metal hard enough to impale him into it, but Daire simply laughed, peeling the side panel away like it was paper as he freed himself.

The thing lunged towards Rae’s broken window, and Aidan moved for the hybrid at the same time, throwing his weight against the frame to shield Rae as best he could, hands wrapped around Daire’s horns to hold the creature back, his Provident abilities still inactive.

A blade slammed into Daire’s throat, dragging deep across the flesh, warm blood spilling over Aidan’s chest as the hybrid struggled and then stilled. Aidan shoved it away, chest heaving as he looked up at Rae, still hanging from her seat like she gave zero shits about the whole situation.

“Next time, Vampire, I’m driving.” She used the blade to cut her belt, hopping from her seat in a way that told him she’d been in this precise situation at least once before. He wheezed a quiet laugh, reaching a hand into his jacket for his vials of blood.

“Fuck,” he muttered. The vials he’d given to Baelin.

Rae nudged him aside to pull herself out of the window, shoving her switchblade back into her boot. The wound on her forehead wasn’t bleeding enough to be deep, but she tried to hide a wince when she stood. The Witch toed her boot against Daire’s body, rolling him over to look at his face.

“Test subject?” she asked, her attention taking in the road around them, the upturned safety vehicle, the buildings at the far side of the road.

She crouched beside Aidan, glancing up to wait for his nod of confirmation as she pulled her PAD from her pocket and waved it at him.

“Smashed during the explosion.” She cast it into the car. “You called your boys?”

“More of them will come,” Aidan spluttered, his hand pressed to his side as he flicked his chin at Daire’s lifeless body.

Rae raised an eyebrow, slipped a hand into her jacket, pulled out a vial of blood, snapped off the cork, and handed it to him.

She shook her head at his words, or maybe at the fact that he didn’t take the vial from her, Aidan wasn’t sure which.

“You think I’d agree to live with you without bringing more menu options?

” she said dryly, wrapping his fingers around the vial and bringing it to his mouth.

As he knocked back the contents, she slipped a hand into his jacket, her fingers covered in blood when she pulled out his PAD, completely destroyed from his tussle.

“What the fuck, Vale?” Rae breathed, discarding the PAD and pulling another vial from her jacket. This one Aidan took without hesitation, even though it tasted like shit.

“What is this, horse?”

Rae shrugged. “Squirrel. Maybe.” The smallest hint of a smirk tugged at her mouth, but there was concern there too. “That was all I had. Can you stand?”

Aidan nodded again. The blood would help him heal faster, but that first bullet he’d taken through the windshield was still lodged in his chest, the pain sharp, like it was scraping against something vital.

They were almost the entire city away from the manor, and with no vehicle, no PAD, minimal Provident abilities with whatever was coursing through his veins and dawn fast approaching, this night was turning into a monumental fuck up.

The drain on his abilities… had it started with Daire or before? Aidan pressed a hand to his chest as if it might tell him what kind of bullet was lodged there. “The night we met. Did they take my blood?”

Rae shook her head. “They only got you with the sedative. A tranquiliser, Zeke called it. A lot of it.”

A tranquiliser. Inside the bullet? There was only one way to find out. He followed Rae’s line of sight to the upturned safety vehicle. “They’re dead.”

“First Unit?”

Aidan shook his head. “Sixth.”

Something flickered in her expression that might have been regret, even though she’d shown nothing but disdain for his kind, Baelin the only exception. “How long until your teams start looking for you?”

He hadn’t told her he’d dismissed Beck from First Unit, and she hadn’t seemed to notice.

He wasn’t taking any chances on a Vampire that couldn’t control his bloodlust around her.

“They’ll already be on their way, but we can’t stay here.

” Daire was an asset, and whoever made him would come looking for him soon enough.

Aidan only hoped his team didn’t come at the same time they did.

The Witch glanced back down the road into the dark, and he knew she was weighing their options just as he had been. “It’ll be dawn in a few hours.”

“Then they’ll follow protocol. When they can’t find us here, they’ll return to the manor until nightfall.” He shifted his weight, the bullet scraping inside him, and he inhaled a ragged breath. “Enough talking. We need to get moving.”

“This way.” Rae didn’t wait for him, and Aidan wondered if she knew how badly he was injured, or if she just wanted to get out of the rain.

Her clothes were soaked through, her hair plastered to her face, and again he silently questioned what her natural shade was.

How much of herself she changed with spells.

The blood she’d given him had been weak, and as he moved, his body trying to heal itself, the bullet lodged deeper.

Sleep would be enough to expel whatever remained of the tranquiliser in his blood, but Rae would have to knock him out before that happened, and at this rate, he wasn’t certain he would wake.

He followed her through the dark in silence, the rain the only sound. He’d been trying to reach Baelin or anyone from First Unit to warn them to stay away. If more of those things were coming, they needed a strategy. Otherwise, they were walking into a massacre.

After a while of snaking through gaps between buildings and down dark alleyways, he felt the first stirrings in his Provident abilities. Not much movement in their proximity, but back the way they’d come, he could sense multiple bodies. Humans, mostly.

Baelin, he tried again.

Here.

Aidan’s chest twisted with relief. Wherever here is, stay there.

You and Rae? Baelin asked.

We’ll be fine. Our PADs are gone, the car, and the safety vehicle.

Unit Six?

Aidan paused, considering his reply. Gone. Don’t move until nightfall. I’ll send instructions. Understood?

Of course, my lord.

He was about to object to the use of his title, but then—“You brought us to a rutok kennel?” He slid through the door Rae had wedged open for him, the feeling of a thousand tiny heartbeats washing over him.

The Witch shrugged. “It’s unmanned. No one will find us here.”

Aidan didn’t have it in him to argue. Rutoks were considered vermin to Vampires, mostly because they multiplied like nobody’s business, but also because what little blood they possessed provided absolutely no sustenance whatsoever.

He knew some humans kept them as pets, probably just to piss the Vampires off.

Most rutoks were tiny, fluffy things, with pointed ears and multiple tails.

Some had more dog-like features than others, though Aidan had never paid much attention to them.

The kennels were all unmanned; some human-automated methods provided food and water.

What happened to their waste, Aidan didn’t particularly want to know, but the kennel didn’t stink as he followed Rae down a dimly lit corridor, so at least there was that.

“Anyone follow us?” Rae asked, glancing over her shoulder at him. The rutoks on the other side of the wall chittered and huffed as if they were talking excitedly to each other. They probably were. He wondered what Baelin made of them, but he didn’t know how much longer he could stand.

He followed Rae through another door, dimly aware that she’d asked him a question. His vision spotted as she turned to face him, darkness pressing in at the edges of his vision.

Whatever words she said were muffled and far away as Aidan slid to the floor, the bullet lodging deeper.