I carried Aran’s limp body down the abandoned side street. Rain slammed against us and the wind howled as I struggled to carry her.
We’d been told to follow our driver down the alley.
The main streets were full of shifters carrying dark umbrellas and running into buildings, but the alley was abandoned.
I wished I had a coat to protect myself. Compared to the warm temperatures in the fae realm, the rain was cold and biting. A powerful gust of wind tunneled between the skyscrapers and pushed me backward.
“Let me carry her,” Cobra growled at me for the fifth time and postured like he was going to take Aran from me.
“Stay the fuck away,” I snapped as I adjusted her clammy body in my arms.
I was too sleep-deprived and emotionally distraught to deal with his energy right now.
Aran was built lean but was still half a foot taller than me, and it wasn’t easy carrying her, but she was my best friend. She’d want me to be the one carrying her.
No one else.
Cobra’s eyes flickered to snake eyes, and the jewels embedded in his skin writhed. They flashed between gems and shadow snakes.
Now that he wasn’t wearing the enchanted collar, pure power emanated from him.
I was confused how I’d ever thought he was something other than his beast form. Cobra screamed danger.
My shadow snake zipped across my back and sent me images of love and happiness.
I glared at Cobra and didn’t let his snake distract me. I was onto him and his games.
“She won’t let me help her,” Cobra said to Jax, who was occupied spreading his arms out wide to shield his three sisters from the rain.
Jax rolled his eyes.
“You’re whining like a baby,” Jinx said sharply before Jax could say anything.
Cobra glared down at her. “How old are you?”
Jinx’s dark eyes flashed with annoyance as she sneered at Cobra, “I’ll have you know, I’m already twelve years old.” Her ire was highly amusing because she was not only Jax’s youngest sister, but she was also barely five feet tall.
Cobra was a giant compared to her.
With her small stature, pale skin, dark eyes, and midnight-black hair, Jinx looked like a little girl from a horror movie—right at home among rainy streets and towering steel buildings.
Cobra laughed. “I’m over a hundred. You’re actually a child, so you grow up.”
“The fact that you’re telling me to grow up is embarrassing for you.” Jinx huddled against Jax’s side as a sharp gust of wind slammed against us.
Jax had to grab onto her shirt to stop the wind from pushing her slight frame backward.
“I’m on her side,” Ascher said as he walked beside me, scanning for threats like he was my personal bodyguard. He looked the part, tattoos covering every exposed inch of his body besides his face and onyx horns jutting off his golden head.
“Same,” Xerxes said.
His long blond hair was plastered against his body as he stood in front of Lucinda. He also used his body to protect her from the worst of the rain, and I was grateful that he was helping my little sister.
Our driver walked ahead of us and looked back every few seconds. He didn’t even flinch at the torrential downpour and still wore sunglasses at night like a complete psychopath.
I could practically feel the judgment radiating off him.
Not cute.
Also, what kind of professional Mafia driver, who was allegedly bringing us to the don that ran the city, didn’t carry around a black umbrella?
I’d seen some bootleg human movies about gangs back in the shifter realm.
He was either shit at his job or a fraud, because they always had umbrellas. It added to the scary gang energy.
Everyone knew that.
Another gust tunneled through the buildings, and I tensed my thighs to steady us.
Would it be wrong to throw Aran’s limp body at the driver if he turned out to be a bad guy? Knowing Aran, she’d be honored to act as a battering ram.
I jostled my arms back and forth and tried blowing on her face. “Not the time for beauty sleep. Just so you know, right now, you’re a royal pain in my ass.”
Aran mumbled incoherently, but didn’t wake.
She was disguised as a boy again, but I didn’t care what features she wore. No matter what, she was Aran.
My bestie.
Cobra narrowed his snake eyes and shifted forward like he was about to rip her from my hands.
My arm cramped, and I tensed my core as I tried to radiate “I’m a competent woman” instead of grimacing like I was constipated.
Once again, I really needed to hit the gym and lift. Muscles would really come in handy in times like this.
Aran mumbled some nonsense about blood, but didn’t wake.
Great, my best friend was having a nightmare about me, just another thing to add to the therapy list.
I stumbled, and Ascher narrowed his eyes at me like he could tell I was struggling to carry her.
“There was a rock,” I mumbled.
Ascher raised a golden eyebrow and pointedly looked down at the smooth, paved sidewalk.
“Wake up. You’re embarrassing me,” I growled into Aran’s ear as another gust of stiff wind hit us, and I shivered.
Don’t ask me how I grew up in the negative freezing temperatures of the shifter realm, but a chilly breeze almost had me on my knees.
At that frigid moment, I really missed the two hot suns of the fae realm. Even though everyone had awkwardly tried to murder us, the climate was unbeatable.
I would definitely go back on a vacation.
Hopefully, they would forget about Aran eating the forbidden snack and me throwing my blood around like a parasite.
On second thought, maybe I’d vacation somewhere else.
“We’re here,” our driver said in a gruff voice. He had zero facial expressions, and his entire body stood unnaturally still in the rain.
It was freaky.
Was the driver gesturing to a creepy black door on the side of a random building that looked like someone might be murdered inside it? Yes.
Was I freezing from the rain and would rather fight off a murderer than stand in the cold for another second? Also yes.
At least now I could shift back into a saber-toothed tiger if the time called for it. Also, I could cut myself and throw my blood around and infect people.
What could I say? Power gave a girl confidence.
“Thank the sun god,” I said with relief and dropped my load as I walked through the door.
Aran sputtered on the black welcome mat and looked around as she came back to consciousness. “Did you just drop me? Also, why does this mat say, ‘Hell is paved with the bones of the disloyal’?”
I rolled my eyes. “First, I just carried your dramatic ass through the rain. A little gratitude would be nice. Second, because we’re being escorted into a creepy Mafia lair, in a creepy realm, by a creepy man in sunglasses.”
“Excuse me?” Sunglasses Man’s eyebrow twitched.
“Grow up,” I snapped back at him. “You know you’re creepy.”
My arms burned from carrying Aran’s muscular body, and I couldn’t tell if my thighs were trembling from the cold or exhaustion. Sister was not light. Something I was highly jealous of.
Sunglasses Man gaped at me like he’d never been told he was creepy before, which I highly doubted.
Now that we weren’t in the rain, his burned scent itched at my nose.
He was a beta.
Jess, Jax’s oldest sister, wrung out her sopping-wet long black hair that was streaked with electric-green highlights. They matched the bright green of her eyes. She smiled up at our driver. “Sorry, sir, but we were all thinking it.”
Jinx shivered uncontrollably, and Jax rubbed his hands along her arms to help warm her up. Poor thing looked like a drowned rat.
Jinx rolled her dark eyes at the driver and said, “W-We were also thinking that you have p-p-p-poor circulation, likely caused by a lifetime of fighting. You should get that checked out by a doctor.”
“What?” Lucinda asked, her white-blonde hair plastered against her gold face. She’d said what we all were thinking.
All eight of us turned to stare at Jinx in confusion.
Once again, Jinx sighed heavily, like it was painful dealing with dumb people. “His fingers are unnaturally white and show poor circulation. Also, he has a slight tweak in his gate. Likely his kneecap has been broken repeatedly. The circulation issue is probably causing complications in his joints. Anyone can see that.”
There was an awkward silence as everyone stared at Sunglasses Man’s unnaturally white knuckles and his slightly bent knee.
Jax shook his head. “Jinx, we’ve talked about this.”
“Amazing observation.” Xerxes smiled down at Jinx with a warmth that I’d yet to see from the omega. “I’ve trained soldiers for decades, and it’s rare to find a person so naturally observant.”
Jinx blushed and hid behind Jax.
“She still needs to grow up,” Cobra said under his breath.
“Are you threatening my sister?” Jala’s bubblegum-pink eyes flashed with anger, and she narrowed them with an attitude only a fourteen-year-old girl could muster. Her sweet disposition had completely disappeared.
Jess put her hand on Jala’s arm. “What have we talked about? Breathe through the rage.”
Ascher rolled his eyes. “Glad Cobra’s antagonizing young girls now.”
I couldn’t help myself. “Oh, so you think you have the moral high ground now that we’ve left the realm that your betraying ass got us almost murdered in?”
Ascher had the decency to look chagrined. A soft red blush tinted his golden cheeks as he raked his hand over his horn roughly. “That’s not what I meant.”
Aran randomly said, “I think I have this new thing where I pass out at the sight of blood.”
“Probably because you’re a cannibal,” Jinx replied.
Aran’s jaw dropped, and her pale face turned an unhealthy shade of green. She made an awful choking noise.
The noise Aran made triggered my gag reflex.
I puked a little into my mouth.
“Ew, did you just puke? You know I’m a sympathetic puker,” Lucinda said mid-retch.
Jax alpha-barked, “Everyone, silence!”
You could hear a pin drop.
I made one last gagging noise, and Jax looked down at me with exasperation. I shrugged.
My alpha form was a massive cat. What did he expect?
Jax turned his large body and addressed the creepy Sunglasses Man, who we now all knew suffered from poor circulation. “Are you taking us to the don or not? We’re all hungry and tired and need to bathe after the rain.”
For a moment, Sunglasses Man gaped at us like we were mythical creatures he’d never seen before.
To be fair, we were a sight.
Aran was pale, with bright-blue hair and matching turquoise eyes, and I had red eyes, pure-white hair, and deep-golden skin.
Cobra had dark hair, green eyes, and jewels embedded all over his pale flesh; Ascher was tattooed, golden, and horned; Jax was massive, had dark skin and striking gray eyes, and was covered in piercings and golden chains; Xerxes had olive skin and blond hair down to his butt, and his harsh purple eyes were intimidating, but still made him look like a pretty prince.
Plus, we had four teenage girls with us.
Lucinda looked like a curvier and prettier mini me. Jess had green eyes, copper-toned skin, and electric-green streaks through her black hair; Jala had pink eyes and bubblegum-pink hair that complemented her dark skin; Jinx looked like a small menace of pale darkness.
Besides Lucinda and I, no one looked remotely similar. We gave off big ragtag energy.
Add on to that the fact that we bickered like old ladies playing bingo, and I’m sure Sunglasses Man was very confused.
Still, my heart was full and heavy in my chest.
Yes, it was still slightly full of acid reflux, but it was mostly full of love because we were reunited with our sisters and still all together.
For the first time in a long time, the painful loneliness of missing my family didn’t weigh me down.
Sunglasses Man cleared his throat, like he remembered he had a job to do, and marched down the long hall.
He said nothing, just assumed we would all follow him.
Of course, because why not? Across the walls in big red letters read, Hell is paved with the bones of the disloyal.
Someone had even made the letters look like they dripped blood.
Very vibey.
“I’m gonna pass out again,” Aran whispered to me as we walked down the hall.
“No, you’re not.”
“Seriously.” Aran turned a sickly pale shade as she stared at the wall.
“You’re the weight of a small elephant. If you collapse, I’m not carrying you.”
“Please,” she scoffed. “You’re just jealous of my muscles.”
She paused to flex her impressively striated biceps and quad. When she went to lift her wet shirt to show off her abdominal lines, I slapped her hands away.
“It’s probably just the enchantment,” I grumbled with envy.
“Enchantment can’t glamour what wasn’t already there. We both know these muscles are all mine.” Aran smirked, but her smile fell as she glanced at the bloody words on the wall.
I took some deep breaths and reminded myself that it was not rational to be offended by the fact that my best friend passed out at the sight of blood, just because I had newfound blood powers.
The song of the hunt—which would always be the numb to me—had been revealed to be so much more and less than it was.
Relief lightened my chest.
The half warriors had said they could also hear it during battle, which meant I wasn’t going crazy and I wasn’t that special.
It was normal.
There was some mundane, half-breed explanation for the numb.
For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t drowning in circumstances I didn’t understand.
The big picture didn’t seem as complex.
It was all just chance and circumstances.
I was going to be fine.
“Should we be worried?” Lucinda asked as she grimaced at the wall.
I thought about it for a moment and shook my head. “We’ve literally survived the evil fae queen. How bad could the Mafia be? Plus, we’ve got Aran.”
The way my already pale best friend went white as a ghost let me know that we very much did not have Aran. She was stuck somewhere in the past and clearly needed a long nap and a bubble bath.
Sunglasses Man gestured for us to walk through another door.
“Everyone, stay behind me,” Cobra said to the group.
Jax scoffed and pushed past him, and everyone followed.
Cobra entered the room last, and his snake eyes flickered. I could practically see steam coming from his ears.
I couldn’t swallow down the manic giggle that bubbled up my throat. He was just so unwell. It was amusing.
Abruptly, Jax stopped walking, and I peered over his shoulder.
Nope, I took it back.
We were screwed.
