Shades of Darkness (Redemption Series) (21 page)

“It’s this shit with Olivia. It’s got me all fucked up. I can’t keep doing this, just sitting here. The waiting’s killing me. I’m hurting myself. I’m hurting my friends… It’s gotta stop. Oh yeah, and I had a visitor this morning.”

“Really? Who?”

Mitch arched his brow as if she should know. She shrugged to say “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”

“He didn’t tell me his name, said he was a friend of Liam’s.”

Ashley felt all the color drain from her face. A wave of dizziness washed over her and she reached out, grabbing onto the railing at her back to steady herself. “What… What did he say to you?” she whispered breathlessly. Oh Lord, she needed to sit down.

Mitch gave her a concerned scowl. “You all right? You don’t look so good.”

“Yes, I’m fine. What did he say to you, Mitch?”

“Well, he knew about last night. I thought maybe you’d said something to him. He was pretty pissed.”

Ashley covered her mouth with her hands, shaking her head in denial. “I didn’t say anything to anyone. Was he…tall, muscular, blond—very handsome?”

“I’m a guy, Ash. I don’t know about the handsome part. But he was tall, big, and blond. By the way he was acting, I thought maybe he was an old boyfriend or something.”

“He’s not my boyfriend, Mitch. That’s my guardian.”

“You’re what?”

“My guardian. His name is Balen—”

“You mean you’ve got one, too?”

“He’s Liam’s best friend. What did he say to you? You’re sure he knows about last night?” It was a stupid question. Of course he knew. She hadn’t tossed Mitch across the bedroom like a rag doll, and that black eye he was sporting had come from someone.

“Oh, he knows. He told me not to follow Olivia and to keep my hands off you, or the next time I was going ‘out the damn window,’” Mitch repeated, holding his hands in the air and gesturing the quotation of Balen’s exact words.

“Shit… He must be pretty upset if he just showed up on your front step like that. Why would he tell you not to follow Olivia?” she asked as an afterthought. “What are you planning to do, Mitch?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “I met a couple of guys at Waterworks last night. They said they knew Olivia, where she was, and they agreed to take me to her.”

“You’re not actually considering going, are you?” Alarms went off in her head like the bells of Notre Dame. This was bad… This was really, really bad.

“Oh, I’m gonna go,” Mitch replied determinedly. “That’s the other reason I came by. Other than to apologize for being such a douche bag, I wanted to let you know I was going to be out of town for a few days.”

“You can’t go, Mitch! You don’t know the first thing about those guys. If Balen’s warning you about them, then that means they’re probably not
guys,
they’re demons!
Think about it! How would they know who Liam was or where Olivia is? Why would they even care? What would they have to gain by offering to take you to her? It’s a trap. Surely you can see that!” With each passing second, her voice escalated to shrill. He winced as if it was painful to stand here listening to her shriek at him.

“I don’t care, Ashley. I can take care of myself. Olivia is what matters, and I need to get her back!”

Ashley reached out and took his hand, imploring him to listen to her. “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. Mitch, you’re making a deal with the devil here. Don’t go.”

“Honestly, Ashley, these guys didn’t look half as nasty as your ‘guardian.’ I think I’ll take my chances with them.” He pulled his hand out of hers and turned to leave.

Clearly, his mind was already made up. “When are you leaving?” she called after him.

“I don’t know yet. As soon as they come to get me, I guess.”

“All right then, I’m coming with you.”

He spun around and pinned her with a surprised glare. “The hell you are! You said it yourself, it’s not safe, and I don’t remember inviting you.”

“I don’t remember asking. You’re not going with them alone and that’s that. Give me thirty minutes and I’ll meet you at your house.” Before he could protest, she turned and ran back into the apartment.

After calling Nate and cancelling their run, she pulled her duffle bags out from under the bed. Jerking the top drawer open, she grabbed a couple bras and matching panties before moving to her closet. With any luck, they wouldn’t be gone longer than three or four days.

Packing her bags, she refused to acknowledge the little voice in her head screaming “What in the hell are you doing? This is crazy!” She knew it was stupid—and dangerous, but the way she figured, this was the only way to keep Mitch alive. She might be pissed that in a drunken lapse in judgment, he’d put moves on her. But he was still her friend, still her best friend’s fiancé, and she didn’t want to see him get killed over this.

 “I know what you’re doing, Ashley, and I don’t appreciate it.” The rich, smooth voice held a crisp tone of irritation.

Startled, she screamed, spinning around to face the voice. Her heart stuttered. Her breath seized up in her lungs as she momentarily forgot how to breathe. Her knees buckled and she took a step back, banging into the dresser behind her. Ashley reached out to clutch the wood top for balance.

Standing across the room with arms crossed over his chest, his gorgeous face pinched into a censorious scowl, was Balen. He looked exactly as she remembered him—tall, heavily muscled, strong square jaw, and a Nordic nose that now flared in anger. Dark violet eyes reflected sparks of amethyst and jade as they bore into her. His ash blond hair was a little longer than before. She liked it this way. It gave him a slightly wild, sexy as hell, disheveled look. He still had that matching tuft of hair veeing below his bottom lip—lips that were naturally full and temptingly kissable, but were now compressed into a thin, hard line of disapproval.

As she stood there staring at him in utter shock, his image blurred as tears filled her eyes. When they rolled down her cheeks, the furrow of skin between his brows softened. His imposing stance relaxed and with a defeated exhalation, he uncrossed his arms and held them out to her. “Come here,” he said, sounding defeated and a bit broken.

Without hesitation, she bolted across the bedroom and leapt into his arms. Crashing into him was like hitting a brick wall, except this wall hugged her back—hard. Her feet dangled in the air as he lifted her up. She clung to him in a death-tight grip and buried her face into the side of his neck, sobbing. She couldn’t tell if they were tears of heartache or tears of joy—probably both. “I missed you so much!” she cried.

“I missed you, too, Ashley.” His normal whiskey smooth voice was roughened and raw.

She wasn’t sure how long she stood there dangling in the air, refusing to let him go. After moments of soothing her, she finally managed to get herself back under control. He set her feet on the ground and gently unwound her arms from his neck, prying her off him. She couldn’t do it herself, couldn’t let go, because she knew the moment she did, it was only a matter of time before he’d disappear again.

 She could tell by the look on his face that it pained him to separate from her. For that reason, she didn’t kiss him as she so desperately wanted to right now. It would only make things harder on both of them.

“I don’t want you to leave with Mitch. You know it’s dangerous—”

“I don’t want to go. I have to, Balen. It’s the only way Mitch stands a chance at surviving this.”

“I’m not his guardian, Ashley, and I’m under no obligation to keep him alive. You’re using me and putting yourself in danger for him. I don’t like it.”

“I’m sorry. And you’re right, I am using you. Because I know that wherever I go, you go, and I also know that although you may not like Mitch, and you have every reason not to, you won’t let them kill him. You’re too good for that, too honorable, and that’s why I love you so much.”

“You give me too much credit. I almost killed him myself last night.”

She cringed. The memory was still too raw.

 “If he touches you again, I’ll not be so forgiving. He’s been warned once, and I won’t tell him again.”

“I think he got the message loud and clear this morning. And he’s sorry. I honestly don’t think he’ll ever do something like that again. He loves Olivia—”

Balen scoffed. “He doesn’t know the first thing about love, Ashley. He’s in lust with her.
Liam
loves Olivia. When you love someone, you put their needs above your own. You suffer for them. There isn’t anything you wouldn’t do for them. You don’t drink a bottle of Jack and try to get into their best friend’s pants.”

Okay, Balen was still
really
pissed off about that. Mitch probably didn’t realize how lucky he was to be walking right now. “I can’t stop him from going. I tried. So my only option is to go with him. He’s made mistakes, and no, he doesn’t deserve Olivia, especially after last night, but he doesn’t deserve to die over her, either. And that’s what’s going to happen if he leaves with those demons. I set Olivia and Mitch up, Balen. This is partly my fault, and I feel responsible for this mess. I’m going. I know you don’t want me to, but I hope you understand why I have to. I know that you’ll still love and protect me, despite my decision to go against you on this.”

The muscle beneath his eye ticked and a low, frustrated growl chortled in his throat. “I don’t agree with your decision to do this. If I wasn’t honor-bound to respect your free will, I’d stop you from leaving. But know this, if you get hurt because of this guy, or if he pulls anything like that again, I will kill him myself.”

Chapter Eighteen

“Give me another shot,” Haden commanded, sliding his empty glass over to the bartender.

The judgmental asshole behind the counter cocked his brow and glanced at the clock hanging above his head, then back at Haden. “Little early, ain’t it?”

“It ain’t too early for me to beat your ass if you don’t pour me another damn drink!” he snapped, in no mood to take this guy’s bullshit.

The bartender’s hand rested warily on the neck of the Tequila bottle. “You ain’t drivin’, are ya?”

With the speed of a serpent’s strike, Haden reached across the bar and snatched the bottle out of the guy’s hand. “Does it look like my reflexes are impaired?” he growled, grabbing his empty shot glass off the counter and turning to walk over to a secluded, stay-the-hell-away-from-me corner of the bar.

He could feel the bartender’s glare boring into his back, but apparently the guy liked his teeth, because he didn’t say another word to him as he slid into a recluse booth and propped his feet up on the opposite seat.

The place was empty, but then, it was still pretty early. Most people didn’t start tying one on at 9 a.m. Then again, “most people” weren’t haunted with the guilt of killing the only person they’d ever loved, nor were they saddled with an asshole demonic legion interfering with their only shot at vengeance. Maybe once Gahn had paid with his life and the Dark Court was nothing but ruins, he could find the peace his tarnished soul so desperately needed.

Now, all he needed to do was figure out how to kill two birds with one stone. He knew he couldn’t beat Liam. He was a Ronnin warrior and those bastards were tough. He could kill Rowen, but he’d take some damage doing it and that’d require recovery time he just didn’t have. He needed to act before dumb and dumber returned. The simple solution was to get Liam to kill Rowen. When the angel was otherwise occupied, he’d find Olivia and get the stone—quick and easy like. So the million dollar question was how in the hell was he going to get Liam to leave that female alone long enough to get to her?

For now, he’d just sit here and drink about it. Perhaps after a few more shots, the answer would come to him. Settling in, he helped himself to another glass full of the amber balm, folded his hands behind his head, and closed his eyes to relax a bit. Mulling over his options, it didn’t take long before he began to plot out a plan, and soon after that, his thoughts turned back to Anya. He didn’t know why she seemed to plague him day and night of late. Perhaps it was the knowledge of how close he was to finally reaping justice for his female that kept her so near to thought. Perhaps it was his refusal to let her go… After all these years, his mind could still carry him back to her like it was yesterday—to another time, another place, straight into Anya’s arms.

The balmy air clung to his sweat-soaked skin as he worked his passion and frustration out on his female lying beneath him. He could feel the rapid pounding of Anya’s pulse against his lips as he kissed her throat, her breasts crushed into his chest as she arched her back, her nails scoring the flesh on his shoulders as she sought her release.

This was his favorite memory of her—lost in him—wild—abandoned—free… It was the last time he’d see her alive, the last time he lived in the fallacy called hope that all would end well for them and that he could convince Gahn to release him from his bondage and allow him to disappear with his sighted wife and unborn child. She hadn’t even known she possessed the gift until the day hell had rained down upon her village, raping, pillaging, and burning it to the ground.

She’d been terrified—devastated, and he feared the grief alone would abort their child. But she hadn’t miscarried. One month later, her belly continued to swell. And after the very unpleasant task of telling her the truth—about what he was, about what she was, he’d needed to find a safe place for her to stay while he prepared to return to the Dark Court.

She had other family, an uncle who lived forty clicks east of her village. She wanted to stay with him, with her family, while he was away. He didn’t blame her for wanting to be around those she loved, but he questioned the wisdom of leaving her in another village. There were other places, more secure places, he could have hidden her, but she’d refused, insisting on not being alone, needing the comfort of her family.

Because he’d loved her, he’d recanted. Because he’d recanted, he’d killed her. He should have known she wasn’t safe—that they’d find her. Then again, that was the problem with love, it made a male weak, skewed his good judgment, deluded him into believing in lies like happily ever after…