Authors: Kali Argent
“Have you spoken to Cade yet?”
Looking up from the merchant license renewal she’d been completing, Roux arched an eyebrow at Abby. “No, but it’s only been three days. He knows where to find me.”
“You beat him to a bloody pulp in front of his friends. Boys are weird. They kind of take things like that personally.”
Shrugging, she returned to the paperwork. “Not my problem.”
She hadn’t meant to lose her mind and take it out of his face, but at the same time, she wouldn’t apologize for it. His words may have seemed innocent enough to everyone else, but they didn’t know Cade like she did. When he’d threatened Deke, something dark and cold had descended over her, and she’d reacted on a primitive level, prepared to defend her mate to the death.
Abby slid one hip onto Roux’s desk and crossed her bare legs at the ankles. “Does this mean you’ve made a decision about Deke?”
“No. Maybe. I don’t want to talk about it.” She scrolled down the screen on her computer, searching for the credit total to add to the merchant document. “Huh, that’s weird.”
Abby made a face, but she didn’t push the subject of Deke claiming her. “What’s weird?”
“Bethany, that girl that sells those pendants by the fountain? Have you seen her lately?”
“Hmm, I guess I haven’t really paid attention.” Sliding off the desk, Abby sauntered over to the window and peeked through the blinds. “She’s not there today.”
“Her credit numbers haven’t changed in four days. None in, none out.”
“It’s not that unusual for people in this town to disappear.”
Dropping back in her chair, Roux thumped the end of her pencil against the desk. “I thought residents weren’t allowed to leave the city limits without an escort.”
“We’re not.” Abby moved away from the window, an uncharacteristic somberness to her mood. “It started about six months ago, I guess. A person here, two people there. They just vanish one day, and no one ever hears from them again.”
“Have you told Deke?”
“They know about it. Deke’s guards are looking into it, but so far, they don’t have much. It’s sporadic, and so far, no one has found any connection.”
They didn’t speak about the Revenant in public places, but Roux understood which guards Abby meant. If the missing residents hadn’t been smuggled out of the city and sent on their way to the mountains in Washington, she wanted to know who had taken them and why.
“I know that look,” Abby warned, shaking her finger in Roux’s face. “Don’t start sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong. Let it go.”
“I’m not going to do anything stupid.” That didn’t mean she couldn’t quietly look into the matter, possibly find something Deke and the others had missed. “Aren’t you worried that you could be next?”
Abby picked her fingernails and shrugged. “Not really. No registered companions have gone missing. Besides…”
“What?”
“A lot of people say it’s the Others.”
Roux tilted her head to the side and snorted. “The who? What the fuck is an ‘Other?’”
Even Abby couldn’t keep her composure and began to giggle. “They’re like boogeymen in the Gemini world, cautionary tales to keep little brats in line. It’s just a story. Nobody has actually seen one, but a lot of them still believe the Others exist.”
Roux wasn’t smiling any longer. Not so long ago, she’d believed vampires and shapeshifters were just myths. “And they’re supposed to be worse than Ravagers?”
“Supposedly, they have magic.” Abby wiggled her eyebrows and fluttered her fingers. “Scary.”
“If these assholes actually exist, they can use their magic to fix some shit around here. I promise I won’t complain.” A myth hadn’t taken Bethany or any of the other residents of the town. “They’re all women?”
“The Others? No. The story goes that only two exist at a time, one male and one female.”
Roux rolled her eyes. “The missing people, Abby.”
“No.” The blonde glared at her. “Mostly, but a few men have been taken as well.”
“All merchants?”
Dropping her hands to her sides, Abby huffed. “No. A few merchants in the Square, a couple of store employees, handymen, a delivery truck driver…”
“Delivery truck?”
“Well, how did you think we stock the businesses? With Other magic?”
Roux sighed and gave her friend a half-hearted shrug. “I guess I never really thought about it. So, life still goes on pretty much how it always has. Factories?”
“Yes, there are factories, mostly owned by shifters.” Abby plopped down in her chair and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Can we stay on topic?”
Grinning, Roux made a mental note to discuss the subject in further detail later. With over a couple of million people still alive on the planet, and most of those being Gemini, it made sense. Before the Purge, she’d never given much thought to the effort it would take to keep things running smoothly. Electricity, sewers, clothing, food, medicine—she rather liked penicillin and not having smallpox—and the thousand other little things had to be controlled by someone.
“What about Europe? Asia? Do we still import goods from the East?”
“Roux!”
She’d never seen Abby so worked up, and it made her giggle. “Okay, okay, don’t pop a blood vessel, Barbie.”
The front door of the office swung open, bringing a gust of warm wind that shuffled the papers on Roux’s desk. The sunshine had persisted through the weekend and into the workweek, the sky dotted with only white, wispy clouds, and the temperatures holding in the upper seventies. The nights had been cooler, but still just as clear and lovely, perfect for sitting out on the deck with a batch of brownies and a glass of wine.
“Hey, kitten.” Deke crossed the small lobby and leaned over her desk for a chaste kiss. “Are you ready?”
“Almost.” She tapped the eraser of her pencil against the document in front of her and scowled. “Actually, never mind. I guess I don’t need to file a renewal license for someone who doesn’t exist anymore.”
Deke’s eyebrows shot toward his hairline, and Abby groaned quietly into her coffee mug. “What do you mean?” Deke asked. “Who’s missing now?”
“Bethany.”
Threading his fingers through his thick, dark hair, Deke exhaled harshly. “Damn it. I liked her, too.”
“In the past tense? So, you think she’s already dead?”
“Roux, please,” Abby hissed.
“She’s right.” Pushing away from her desk, Deke held a hand out to help her up from her seat. “This isn’t the place to discuss it. C’mon, kitten, let’s get you home.”
His tone brooked no argument, so Roux bit her tongue to hold back her sarcastic retort and took his hand. She’d barely risen from her seat when a blood-chilling shriek cut through the Square beyond the office windows. Another terrified scream followed, and then another, intermixed with the commanding shouts of the guards.
“What the…” Hurrying to the window, Abby opened the blinds and gaped. “What’s happening?”
Pandemonium reigned in the Square as people bolted through the streets, searching for the nearest shelter. A young mother with red hair and a harried look burst into the registration office, cradling her baby protectively to her chest.
“Ravagers,” she panted, stumbling toward the far corner of the lobby. “They’re everywhere.”
Thankfully, Roux had never encountered a Ravager up close, but she’d seen the destruction they left in their wake. “We have to do something.”
“No,” Deke snapped, grabbing her elbow when she started toward the door. “Stay here, lock the door.”
“You’re kidding. You want me to hide while people are dying in the street?”
“I want you to stay alive!” Growling, he pulled his handgun from its holster and chambered the first round. “Stay here.”
Abby followed him to the door, locking it behind him as he hurried out into the Square. The first shot rang out only a heartbeat later, followed by wild, vicious snarls.
Roux couldn’t just sit around and do nothing. Rounding her desk, she jerked open the bottom drawer and fumbled through the contents until she found her father’s military-issue knife. She curled her fingers around the leather-wrapped hilt, the weight of the blade familiar and comforting in her hand.
“Where did you get that?” Abby met her in the middle of the room, blocking her way to the door.
“My desk.”
“Yes, I can see that. Why do you have it here? Do you know what would happen if someone found it?”
“I’m mated to the captain of the guard.” Roux arched an eyebrow. “Who’s going to search my desk?” She tried to step around her, but Abby sidestepped with her. “Move, Barbie.”
“We’re supposed to stay here.”
Roux actually had to laugh at her. “Since when do I do what I’m supposed to?” She moved again, but Abby pushed her back. “I don’t want to hurt you, Abby.”
The redhead screamed, and her baby began to wail, his little fists shaking with the effort. Catching sight of the young woman from the corner of her eye, Roux followed her gaze to the front exit. Outlined by the silver frame of the door, standing just inches from the glass, a Ravager stared back at her, his cold, obsidian eyes tracking her as she pulled Abby behind her.
Dark shadows ringed the creature’s lids, standing out in a striking contrast against his sallow skin. Hair as dark as night trailed over his shoulders in a tangled, matted mess, and his blue lips parted in a terrifying grin. His sharp canines glistened with saliva, and he lifted a clawed index finger to tap tauntingly at the glass.
Dirt and blood stained the fabric of his shirt, and the cargo pants had been shredded up to the knee, but Roux recogn
ized the Coalition uniform easily enough. For a moment, she considered the possibility that he’d stolen the clothes, but a different, more horrifying theory tickled the fringes of her consciousness.
“…the wolves got it the worst. Other than teeth and claws, they can’t shift at all…in the beginning, a lot of them turned feral.”
Deke had never said what had happened to the wolves that had gone feral, and Roux hadn’t thought to ask. Really, she hadn’t thought much about them at all in the past couple of weeks. Staring at the Ravager—his sunken eyes, his sharp cheekbones, and the maze of blue veins that snaked up his neck—she would have never guessed he’d once been a shifter.
The redhead had stopped screaming, but she still cried along with her baby. Abby patted the girl’s arm awkwardly while offering generic and clichéd words of comfort, but most of her attention remained on the door. She didn’t appear as frightened as Roux would have expected, but then again, the beast was only toying with them at the moment.
The thought had barely crossed her mind when the Ravager threw himself against the door with a heavy thud. A spider web of fissures appeared in the glass and splintered outward toward the frame, but it didn’t break. Not yet. The…man—she had to remind herself that he’d once been a man—backed away several steps, preparing for his next attempt.
“Go!” Roux yelled, crouching into a fighting stance.
“What the hell are you doing?” Abby ushered the other woman toward the small room where they administered inoculations and birth control shots. “Roux, let’s go!”
The cheap, manufactured door and its flimsy lock wouldn’t keep the Ravager out of the clinic room. “Just go, Abby! Take the alley to the library. I’ll meet you there.”
She might not be able to stop the Ravager, but she could slow him down. He was bigger, stronger, and crazier, but she was smarter. The last time she’d gone up against a werewolf hadn’t ended so well, but she’d been rash and impulsive. She’d played to his strengths instead of her own, and she wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
Thankfully, Abby didn’t argue. When the Ravager slammed into the door again, breaking the lock and shattering the glass, the two women and the crying baby had already disappeared. With a little distraction and a lot of luck, they’d make it to the library’s basement untouched.
Adjusting her grip on the knife, Roux scissor-stepped to the right, staying out of his reach but keeping herself between him and the back exit. “Okay, big guy, it’s just you and me. No one has to get h—”
When the Ravager charged for her, Roux dropped to the ground, rolling into his legs and toppling him off balance. He stumbled a couple of steps, but unfortunately, he didn’t go down like she’d intended. With a high-pitched snarl, he swerved toward her, lunging again with his curved claws.
Crouching on the balls of her feet, Roux waited until the beast was practically on top of her. She gritted her teeth and exploded upward, driving her body into his sternum, using his own momentum to flip him over her shoulder. The Ravager landed on her desk, scattering the contents and knocking her computer to the ground where it smashed into jagged pieces.
If she bolted for the back door, he’d follow her, and she refused to lead him to the library. Even if she managed to lose him, he’d just go after someone else, and she couldn’t have that blood on her hands, either. Repositioning her grasp on the hilt, she ran toward him, slashing her dagger through the air. At the last minute, he rolled to the right, dropping off the edge of the desk, and the tip of her blade carved into the desktop instead.
He came at her again, his eyes wide and filled with rage. Clearly, he’d tired of toying with her. Still attempting to pry her knife out of the wood, Roux leaned into the table to steady her weight and kicked out behind her, landing a solid blow to his ribcage. Of course, the impact barely slowed him, but it did give her enough time to free the dagger and spin on her toes, driving the blade into the side of the Ravager’s neck.
Stumbling backwards as blood seeped out around the handle of the knife, Roux groaned when it became obvious that even a slashed throat wouldn’t keep the guy down. Pulling the dagger from his flesh, he tossed it to the floor and staggered toward her, his upper lip curling over his fangs.
“Oh, come on!” Roux groaned, calculating her chances of reaching the knife before the Ravager separated her head from her shoulders. She didn’t like her odds.
Grabbing one of the wooden, straight-back chairs they reserved for visitors, she used it as a battering ram, driving the legs into the Ravager’s chest. He slipped in a pool of his own blood, smearing crimson across the white tiles, and crashed to the floor. The guy just wouldn’t give up, though. His long fingers curled around Roux’s jean-clad calf, his dirty claws piercing her skin through the denim.