Authors: Layla Nash
"And if I ordered you to stay home, you would disobey. You would betray your family, your
brothers
, and your kind for this girl. You would turn your back on the life I built for us."
"Yes."
Cursing exploded on the other end of the phone, then grew muffled. An argument echoed and Benedict frowned, looking at his phone before holding it back to his ear. A heartbeat later, Natalia's cool voice reached him. "Benedict, do you love her?"
Still only one answer. "Yes."
"And does she love you?"
"I believe -- yes. She does." He thought of her asleep in his bed, the way she'd kissed him in the stairwell and melted into his arms. The way her hair tried to grab him and drag him closer.
Natalia said something sharp to Logan, and Benedict knew he had a chance. She sounded unruffled, as if they discussed the weather. "Then we'll be there. Where and when?"
His heart soared. Thank God. They wouldn't have to do this alone. Eloise would know she joined a family, a pride that protected each other. He told Natalia the time and place, and she thanked him politely and berated Logan for being an unromantic dick before the line went dead.
Benedict made a mental note to get Natalia a hell of a Christmas present.
He wanted to crawl in next to Eloise but instead called Ruby and Rafe to explain the threat to their friend. The wolves remained noncommittal about joining a fight, but from the irritation in Ruby's voice, he knew they would contribute in some way. He even called Miles Evershaw to suggest he might be able to make a point to Val Szdoka about using his territory for some dirty business.
Kaiser's phone rang several times before the bear picked up, sounding half asleep. "What's the news, Chase?"
Benedict debated only a moment before explaining the situation. The bears deserved a head's up in case Val had them on retainer. "I don't want you walking into something without knowing what it is. My brothers and I will be there to protect Eloise, and BloodMoon and SilverLine may also be in the area."
Kaiser made a deep humming noise in his chest. "That's good to know. I do not believe we will be nearby. Unless, of course, you need us to be."
"I won't ask you to start a feud with the hyenas, Kaiser. But Val Szdoka has been pitting both sides against the middle for too long. It's time the hyenas learned they aren't the king of this jungle."
The bear snorted. "True. We might be there. I cannot speak for the rest of the family. We have a great deal of work to do, turning the place into a gym. Thank you for the suggestion."
Benedict blinked. "You're welcome. Have a good one, Kaiser, and thanks for your help today."
"Not a problem." He yawned, then said, "You might talk to the coyotes and jackals. I know they were displeased with the hyenas earlier."
And the line cut off. Benedict paced through the kitchen as he searched for contacts in the other shifter communities. He wanted to bring every weapon to the fight again Val. He wouldn't fight fair. Eventually he called Atticus and asked him to reach out through some of the coyotes who worked the underground fights. He didn't want Harrison and the jackals up in arms about everyone, but knowing where they stood meant less worrying about wild cards in what would certainly be a tense standoff.
He slid back into bed next to her. She didn't wake but turned toward him, snuggled into his side and pressed her face against his shoulder. She sighed, content. Benedict lay awake, staring up at the ceiling. He would start a fucking war to keep her safe and next to him.
T
he pleasant ache
in my abs reminded me of why I would fight to live, as did Benedict's hand playing with my fingers on the console between our seats in the SUV. Love, or at least the possibility of it, was worth fighting for.
He didn't speak after we got in the car, and in the silence, I reviewed every possible argument and threat and outcome. Maybe Val would come out swinging. Maybe she would stage an ambush after lulling me into a false sense of security. She preferred mental games, though. Maybe she would try to have me volunteer my way into servitude.
The car rolled to a stop a few blocks from the meeting place. Benedict turned off the car and braced his hands on the steering wheel. "Are you ready?"
"No." I took off my sunglasses and attempted a smile. "But that doesn't matter."
"You'll be fine." He touched the tip of my nose. "And don't be afraid to zap her with your freaky eyes, either. Petrify the shit out of her if you want. We'll be behind you."
"It's not my behind I'm worried about," I said with a laugh. "Her daughters will charge me from the front."
He pretended to examine my rear in the seat, frowning as he tugged on a belt loop of my jeans. "I'm very concerned about your behind, frankly. I might need to check it again. Just to make sure."
I swatted his hand away and opened the door. "Enough, I have to --"
He tugged my arm and pulled me back, across the console, and kissed me, tongue plunging into my mouth as I drew breath to tell him I loved him. Heat seared through me as his lips crushed mine and his hand slid into my hair, gripping the back of my head to hold me close. I touched his face, stubble on his cheeks rough against my palms, and thought about climbing over the console to straddle his lap. He broke the kiss but pressed his forehead to mine until our noses bumped.
He said very quietly, "I love you, Eloise Deacon. You are not a monster. You are strong and capable and worthy, and you have an ass that doesn't quit. All admirable traits. Do not ever forget that."
My throat closed around an emotion I didn't recognize, though my eyes burned with tears. I broke away before he noticed my reaction, instead saying over my shoulder, "My ass is pretty admirable," as I jumped out of the car and walked away.
But my hands shook as I approached the abandoned lot, overgrown with weeds and a couple of automotive skeletons, where Val wanted to meet. A single streetlamp provided just enough light to create some terrifying shadows. I didn't have to wait long. Val approached, several of her people with her in human and animal form. I held back my rage, let it simmer in my heart as I searched her expression for any hint of remorse. Any hint of humanity at all.
Val's eyes narrowed as she looked at me. "You don't have my money or my daughter. And yet you showed up. I don't know if you're brave or just stupid."
"Both, probably." The scary mojo worked up my spine in icy tendrils, just waiting for the opportunity. Cold gathered around my eyes as soon as I saw her face, heard the disregard in her voice. The thought of Benedict and his brothers, watching from the darkness around the pool of light where I stood, gave me the courage to say more. "But I could say the same about you."
She rocked back on her heels, laughing. "What, you took the money you stole from me and invested in some bodyguards? That makes you brave? Cut the shit, Eloise. Give me my money, tell me where Lacey is, and I'll probably let you live."
"Ask Lorraine." My hands clenched into fists at my sides. I recognized one of the hyenas as Lorraine, but Heba stood in human form at Val's shoulder. "Or Heba there. Ask them where your money is. If you don't already know, that is."
A twitch of doubt made Val frown. Her upper lip curled in a snarl. "I don't like what you're implying, Eloise."
I forced a laugh through the terror and anger clogging my throat. "Implying? Please. I'll spell it out for you. Lorraine and Heba set this up, and maybe Lacey, too. They stole your money, they
killed
Cal Armstrong, and they're trying to set me up too. Well, I'm not going down without a fight."
Val's eyes went flat, emotionless. The vertebrae in her neck cracked as she rotated her head. She didn't take her eyes off me but snapped her fingers, her voice deceptively quiet. "Heba. Start talking."
The woman edged forward, glaring at me as she pulled her dark hair out of the way. "She's making shit up, highest. We didn't --"
"You're lying." The hyena queen's breathe rasped in her throat. "Tell me where Lacey is. Right. Now."
Heba swallowed as the hyena with Lorraine's coloring stalked from the darkness and fixed her with a yellow gaze. "She's chained up there," and Heba jerked her chin at a nearby abandoned building.
Val gestured and three of her people raced off into the night. The hyena queen still hadn't looked away from me, and the direct threat in her gaze set my heart racing and the ice coalescing in my head. When she went on, the blood froze in my veins as well. "We have a different problem now, Eloise. You've witnessed too much. You've seen Lorraine's disrespect, and Heba's disobedience. I should kill them for it, but I still have a use for them. You, on the other hand..." She shook her head, as if she regretted an unpleasant task. "Your utility has expired."
I drew breath to scream for Benedict as my hair flared out in a cloud and one of the hyenas barked a warning, and Val said, "Lorraine, go."
The growling mass of yellow and black fur leapt at me and I kicked, trying to keep her claws from me, but Lorraine's teeth sunk into my arm and wrenched. Flesh parted and an awful roaring filled the night. The pain of the bite sent cold through every part of me and I looked at Heba, watched unfeeling as she turned the blue-gray of new concrete. Frozen forever.
Something landed on the hyena, still chewing on me, and that freed me up to lurch toward Val, arms outstretched. She would pay. I would be free of her forever, and the pain in my head would fade eventually. The cold burst in my eyes, filled the world with ice and rage and power, and I saw the fear in her eyes. Saw the horror in her expression, the way her fingers shook as she held up -- a mirror.
A mirror.
And then it was my own face, devoid of emotion and framed by a cloud of black hair, staring at me. The cold snapped back, hit me in the gut, and everything stopped. Feeling disappeared, I couldn't blink, nothing worked. I felt as if I were falling but nothing else moved, and I tried to scream.
I tried to scream.
No sound escaped. A lion flew through the air in my peripheral vision and then Benedict's face appeared in front of me. Mouth open as he yelled, eyes wide and molten gold.
I love you
I tried to say, but not even my lips would move.
Everything went dark.
B
enedict saw her freeze
. He saw the mirror the hyena queen held and terror seized his lungs. Knocked the breath from him until he couldn't feel his hands and his vision spotted with dark blotches. His legs moved before he thought, even as Edgar tried to grab his arm and hold him back, but he had to save Eloise. Had to protect her as that fucking hyena tried to tear out her throat.
Ruby, Rafe, and a dozen other wolves descended on the hyena, driving it away and killing it in the dark, and a sleek lion with a peach fuzz mane crashed into Val Szdoka with a roar that shook his bones. Carter. Thank God for Carter.
But Benedict crouched by Eloise, patting her face. Yelling her name. Begging her to stay.
She just stared straight ahead, frozen. Frozen. Cool to the touch, a grainy texture to her skin. Like stone.
He snarled, roared his pain to the moon, and the wolves howled in response. The eerie sound floated into the night and set the hair on the back of his neck on end. His vision blurred and Benedict thumped Eloise's chest. "Damn it. Damn it. Wake up.
Look at me
."
Nothing. Not even a blink. Her hair didn't reach for him, just lay in stiff cords like a starfish around her head. He pulled her into his lap, didn't care that the blood from her injured arm coated his clothes. He stared around into the darkness. The sounds of conflict rose, no doubt his brothers taking care of the rest of Val's people, but that didn't help Eloise. Didn't bring her back. He rocked her. "A doctor. Please, I need a doctor. Anyone.
Someone
."
An eternity passed before a pair of bare feet shuffled into his field of vision, and Benedict looked up. Owen, the sleepy-eyed black bear from Kaiser's group, stood next to him, wearing only gym shorts. "I was a Navy Corpsman. Medic. Let me look at her."
Benedict stared at him, unwilling to release her. Guarding her.
Kaiser approached from the darkness. His voice was even, kind. "He might be able to help, Ben. Put the girl down."
His arms didn't work well, jerky and uncoordinated so he almost dropped her onto the broken concrete lot. Owen crouched next to her, quickly arranging her head and limbs to evaluate pulse and respiration and circulation as Benedict held his breath and didn't dare to hope. She looked so pale and cold. Vacant. Like an empty husk. The breath caught in his throat, too close to a cry.
Carter, still in lion form, stalked up and head-butted him, his muzzle coated with blood. Benedict barely noticed, looping his arm over Carter's shoulders so he wouldn't fall apart completely. She had to live. She had to.
He should have made her stay away from the meeting with Val. He'd wanted to go alone, but she argued. Said she had to take care of her own business, clean up her own messes. He should have locked her in the apartment to keep her safe. He couldn't swallow as grief welled up.
Owen anchored his fingers to her throat, searching for a pulse, and looked at Benedict. "What is she?"
"G-gorgon," he said, though the word caught in his throat and all he could think of was when he backed away from her at the hospital, when he feared her. The look in her eyes when she knew it... He grabbed handfuls of his own hair, wanting to tear his head apart. "She's part medusa."
"That explains it." Owen studied her arm, then bent to hover his cheek over her mouth. Checking for breath. He ran his knuckles across her sternum with enough force Benedict lurched forward to kill him for hurting her, but Eloise barely twitched. The bear's expression grew more guarded, less optimistic.
Benedict held his breath, staring at her chest so hard a white hot pain ignited behind his eyes. She had to be okay.
Owen sighed, sitting back on his heels. "I don't know much about gorgons, Ben. I think she's still alive. Thought I felt a pulse, but it's slow, sluggish."
"Will she wake up?" The words barely escaped in a whisper, and Carter grumbled his support, one massive paw landing on Benedict's leg.
"Depends on if her peepers were set to stun," Owen said, then held up his hands as the lion snarled. "I'm serious. She's not as bad as that chick," and he pointed at the statue that Eloise called 'Heba.' "So clearly something was different. Harrison said she paralyzed him at the hospital, right? Maybe it was that. Or maybe the mirror dilutes the effectiveness. There's no telling right now."
Benedict shook his head, kept shaking it, but nothing else would work. Eloise. His lion roared, raged. Cried out for her.
Edgar appeared from the shadows, wiping blood off his hands, and took in the scene with a grim expression. "Where to now, Owen? Hospital?"
"I don't think the humans are ready for this," the bear said. He frowned and picked up some of her hair, then shook his head. "There's another option, a makeshift place we use when someone is injured. We took Cal there at first, before it became clear he ... wouldn't wake up. It's not up to the Chase brothers standard of luxury, but it should be enough to get her through the next day or two."
"I've never heard of it," Edgar said.
"Believe it or not, but a lot goes on in this city that isn't on your radar." Kaiser folded his arms over his chest, frowning down at Eloise. "We can talk more about that later. Owen, get her stable and take her to the field hospital. I'll bring her mate."
Benedict lurched to his feet as Owen and another bear put Eloise on a stretcher and lifted her. Carter nudged him back but Benedict tried to reach her. Tried to touch her again, even though the chilly texture of her skin gave him the shivers. She would get better. She had to get better. He couldn't live without her.
Kaiser steered him toward a car, shoved him in the backseat, and let Edgar get in the front. Benedict kept his eyes on the car where they loaded Eloise and drove into the night, bumping across the broken ground, and he clenched his hands on his knees.
Eloise. Fight. Fight to live.
E
very chair
in the room was uncomfortable. Benedict tried every one of them, over and over, hoping for something that wouldn't feel like a torture device. After three days at the hospital, praying Eloise would open her eyes, any chair would have felt like something out of the Inquisition.
Looking at her unmoving face, seeing her vacant eyes -- that hurt worse than any physical pain.
Edgar sat near the grimy window, watching him watch Eloise. Benedict knew perfectly well why Logan sent Edgar to babysit him -- to make sure Benedict didn't lose his shit if Eloise died, and to put Benedict down if he went rogue. There was no other explanation for Edgar being there.
They remained at the makeshift hospital, which was actually nicer than Benedict expected, because all the staff were shifters or nonhuman of some kind. They didn't ask questions about what she was, although the doctors hemmed and hawed over what could cause that kind of paralysis. They ran test after test after test, and yet found no answers. She wasn't fully stone, but she didn't wake. Didn't blink. Didn't eat or drink. Didn't seem to breathe.
His throat closed if he thought about it too much, so he pushed it away. Got up to pace again before settling on another chair. Rested his elbows on the mattress next to her side and stared at her. Willed her to blink and sit up and laugh at him.
Someone knocked but he didn't move. Edgar got up, nodding gravely as he shook someone's hand. "Harrison. I heard about Cal. Damn shame."
Benedict looked away from Eloise long enough to see Harrison Armstrong, the new heir to the jackal clan, standing in the doorway with a bouquet of flowers. He edged inside and set the flowers on a side table. "Thank you, Edgar."
Dark bruises marked Harrison's eyes, and a purple knot decorated his chin. He stood at the foot of Eloise's bed and studied her. "My brother passed yesterday. The funeral is this weekend. It would be best if the lions did not roam south of the city until Tuesday. While I understand the role Eloise played in discovering who killed Cal, the rest of the clan is not quite to that point."
"Understood," Edgar said. "Thank you for the notice."
The jackal took a deep breath. "And we owe you thanks as well, for allowing us to get a little vengeance for Cal during the confrontation with the hyenas. While I would have liked to kill Val Szdoka myself; that a lion did was sufficient."
"You did okay for yourself," Edgar said, then nodded at the other man. "Since you killed a hyena with your bare hands."
Harrison winced a smile. "Doesn't help any, though." He took a deep breath. "They said she's still stunned. Hasn't woken up yet."
"She will." Benedict rested his chin on the mattress next to her cool hand, playing with her fingers. "She'll wake up."
A long silence behind him, and Benedict wanted to turn and scream at both of them. Doubters. That negativity was why Eloise still slept. He couldn't stand the pity in Edgar's eyes when his brother tried to convince him to go home and sleep or shower or eat. Bullshit. Edgar just wanted to distract him so they could make Eloise disappear. Take her away from him. A growl rumbled in his chest at the thought.
Harrison cleared his throat. "I know where you're at, Benedict. I was there with Cal. I hope she gets better, man, but hope is a dangerous thing. Just -- try to tell yourself she might not wake up."
"She'll wake up."
There wasn't any question. Benedict couldn't imagine any other future. She would get better, they would get married and have babies and life would be perfect. His eyes burned and he blinked rapidly to get rid of some moisture so he could see her face again.
The jackal retreated, headed for the door. "I'm sure she will. I'll see you at the council meeting next week, Edgar."
The door shut behind him but Benedict didn't move.
Edgar sat forward, elbows on his knees, and tried to get Benedict's attention. "Ben, you have got to go home. It's been three days. You need to sleep. Shower. Change your clothes. Get some food. Rest. Then you can come back. She'll be fine. We'll stay here with her."
"No." Benedict touched her hand again.
His brother sighed, then shoved to his feet. "Okay. Carter is on his way to sit with you. He's bringing food. If you don't eat something, I'll send Natalia over to force feed you. Got it?"
Benedict didn't blink or acknowledge his brother leaving. He couldn't look away from Eloise. Just in case she opened her eyes. He wanted her to see him when she woke up. Wanted her to know how much he loved her.