Page 62 of White Raven (Nevermore Duet #2)

Dawn was creeping in as she drove into town. Almost four-hundred miles between where she started, and where they now were. Pulling into an abandoned parking structure that looked every bit as if it would collapse, she fetched her burner phone and dialed a number.

“You’re late. Sun’s almost up. Unlike you, we’ve got to find somewhere to hide out.”

“I never took you for a guy that didn’t appreciate a challenge, Ansel.

” She stepped out of the car, popping the trunk, and checking in on Kane, who was still lifeless and pale, his head at a truly sickening angle, and dark bruising beginning to take from his collar bone, well up to his earlobe.

It was a nasty break, and she felt horrible about it.

“You can’t be fucking serious, Ryan. We’ve got less than an hour to get this done, or me and Quinn go up in flames. You were supposed to be here already.”

“I had to stop and get marshmallows to roast. Sue me.”

“Har-har, bitch. I’m being serious.”

“Ansel, he’s not gonna keep for the whole day. He’s too strong. I didn’t drive all this way for him to wake up in the trunk, and then kill us all.”

“Well, lucky for you, we’ve already moved the stone off. Figured it was a smart decision since you still haven’t figured out how to use a gas pedal.”

“You mean lucky for you? ”

“You’re wasting time. Get over here and bring me my marshmallows.”

“You’re such a fucking idiot. Bye.”

Ten minutes later, she watched the men unload Kane from the trunk.

The weight of all the carefully laid plans coming to fruition didn’t excite her as much as she initially believed it would.

The envelope she’d snatched from him lay open in the passenger seat of the car.

They were way too fucking close. Guilt started to gnaw at her, and it was an unfamiliar emotion.

One that she probably wouldn’t have had if she hadn’t softened up to a spunky young thing with hair the color of an Easter egg.

Quinn handled Athan’s shoulders, while Ansel took his legs.

Sarah’s handsome beau’s heavily tattooed arms hung from his sides, and his immaculate face rested against the crook of his shoulder as they carried him over to the waiting hole in a very public spot.

The sound of fluttering wings startled her, right before a large raven landed on her left shoulder, and Ryan jumped.

“Christ, bird,” she exhaled, shaking her head.

“What is that fucking smell?” Ansel bitched, drawing his face in disgust.

Ryan’s heels clacked against the concrete as she stepped closer to the monument, peering down at the darkness.

“ That …is the smell of good, old-fashioned lies, and deception. Hurry up. You’ve got twenty minutes until you’re barbecue.

” Kane’s lost pet ruffled his feathers and danced in frustration at the state of his former companion.

Ryan stroked his breast. “Calm down. He’s not gone forever. ”

Quinn helped lower Kane’s body into the hole, the finest example of the male species disappearing into darkness before the loud thud of centuries-old wood clanged shut.

Both her comrades glanced at the lightening sky as tendrils of dawn began to turn it from the darkest navy, to marbled deep gray and cerulean.

“Hurry up, dude,” Ansel urged, rushing to the end of the heavy stone they’d moved.

Quinn joined him on the opposite end, and they situated it over the grave, sealing it with a tube of ready-mixed concrete, and smoothing it into the cracks.

“Hey!” A loud voice called out from across the street. A flashlight shined, blinding them all before the outline of a man in uniform appeared behind it. “What the hell are you doing?!”

Poe flew off, and Quinn’s startled curses matched Ansel’s before they darted their heads towards the sky, no doubt trying to determine just how quick they’d need to be to outrun the cop, and the sunlight.

Amateurs.

“Get outta here,” she spat, waving them off. “I’ve got this.”

“When Athan Kane proved to be the sword that struck down the queen, the only surprise after watching him for so long was that my own daughter wielded the sword.”

She’d missed the water pressure in this shower.

Scalding water ran down her body, and John Allan’s words rang out in her clouded mind.

She missed those days with Athan more. The days when they first started figuring each other out.

The days that they spent putting these cracks in the tile of the shower she was now occupying.

Her finger trailed over those cracks, and she smiled to herself as she reflected back to the moment he’d been too blinded with the satisfaction of his need for her, that he didn’t consider his inhuman strength as he’d slammed her against the wall.

God, he’d claimed her so completely. There was always an unfamiliar lilt to his voice when he was lost inside her body.

It was as if that old-world part of him broke out when his cock branded her from the inside out.

A slight accent that had her legs shaking…

especially when that accent promised to ‘rip her tight cunt to shreds’ .

And he had. After that night at the cabin, it was like the floodgates opened, and he poured himself out completely.

He told her everything…gave her everything .

Every sinful part of himself that he spent half his eternity being ashamed of.

So many years he had been collected, and tortured, damning himself for something that had never been in his control.

How could she not have wielded the sword?

How could she not have helped him lock the Devil back in Hell?

He had suffered so much. They all had. The coven deserved to be free.

After meeting Decclan…Tony…even Devin, and his lively disregard for basic manners.

Maybe John was right. While she hadn’t been a member of the coven, she was most of the reason they were free.

She never wanted to be part of them, she only wanted to help.

But John had stolen the crown from Dahlia’s inflated head, and now …

now he was forcing her to come and claim it. A birthright. A fucking curse .

And he was using the one she loved to do it.

“Where are you?” Sarah whispered, tears following the steaming water as it pelted her face.

In all the times he’d claimed to fail her, she’d done worse this time.

Being a fucking girl and letting something as stupid and petty as jealousy fuel her anger to the point that she lost the one thing she needed most—her mate .

The sole individual created to fit her every purpose.

It killed her to think about what must have been done to take somebody like Athan Kane like a thief in the night.

And Rhaena…she hadn’t listened when Rhaena tried to tell her not to force that blood into her body.

She reacted poorly under pressure on both accounts, and both had cost her.

Tremendously. Her heart had betrayed her with its fragility, and faulty intentions.

Now she’d have to rely on her sharp mind and play both Athan and Rhaena’s parts to get them back.

The shudder of the apartment door closing on the other side of the bathroom wall reminded her that she wasn’t doing it alone.

Time to pull up the big girl panties, and fuck shit up.

She’d tear this world apart to find him, and to right whatever wrong she’d inflicted on Rhaena. And no matter what noble intentions John Allan had, he’d pay for whatever he’d done to Athan. Sarah toweled off and dressed, finding Brent—washing dishes?

“I knew Wren would probably ruin you…but I’ll admit. I didn’t expect it to be this way,” Sarah smirked, pulling a brush through her wet hair. Brent rinsed another plate, stacking it in the drainer.

“I’m just trying to make myself useful. Get my mind off what I’ve seen. It didn’t feel right to go home after all that.”

She’d effectively scared the shit out of him. It was obvious.

“I’m—Brent, I—”

“You don’t have to do that. There’s nothing to be sorry about.” He started scrubbing another plate with the sponge. “Seeing Rhaena was…fucking terrifying, but…”

“But?”

He sighed and began to rinse. “We were together for two years. I don’t pretend to know what it’s like to be a vampire.

I’d prefer not to know, if you want the truth.

But I guess it was a little more than jarring to see a woman whose body you memorized…

whose eyes held you captive…” He placed the plate into the rack and looked over at her, and somehow…

she felt so small. “I was still trying to convince myself that you were the same person, Sarah. But you’re not.

You’re completely different. You’re someone else entirely.

I saw Kane like that once. Not…hungry, just… his eyes. The way you looked.”

“Are you scared of me?” It was an honest question.

One she wasn’t sure she wanted the answer to.

At one time, she would have been happy to think he was afraid.

That he’d deserve it after what he had done to her.

But Brent wasn’t the same person he once was, either.

And it showed a little more every day. They stared at one another for a long, tense moment, and then he softly smiled.

“Not a chance. I acknowledged that Athan Kane was a lucky man the minute I saw the two of you stare at each other in that hospital, Sarah. But I think I accepted it the day you turned yourself in. He’s your person. I’m scared for whoever stands in your way.”

It was safe to say she saw him in a completely different light. And it had nothing to do with the sparkle of those fucking dishes in that rack. She reached around him and tugged him forward, resting her chin over his shoulder.

“Wren’s lucky too, you know?”

As if it were her cue, the door opened, and Wren paused in the kitchen doorway as she and Brent pulled away.