Page 19 of City of the Lost
“You need to mate. You need it like you need to breathe, and once you do, then this intensity will be gone. We can go back to being friends.”
Once he mated, he’d love someone else. He’d forget how this felt, but not me. I’d never forget, and the look in his eyes said that he understood this.
“I can’t hurt you either, Wila.”
“It hurts more like this.” I reached up to cup his cheek, and then, thinking better of it, dropped my hand to my side. “Promise me you’ll try.”
He exhaled through his nose.
“Promise me.”
He closed his eyes. “I promise.”
My heart cracked a fraction. “I’m gonna go get some air, and when I get back, we’re gonna put on some jaunty music and kick loose.”
Heart thudding painfully in my chest, and totally stone-cold sober, I headed back through the bar and toward the back exit.
Out in the alley behind the Hunter and Prey, I leaned back against the wall and took a deep, shuddering breath. God, why had that been so hard? Two years, we’d been friends. Two years of ups and downs, hanging out and sharing secrets, had forged a bond between the three of us, but whereas things with Mack had never even ventured into intimate waters, with Tay, the spark had bloomed into a flame. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I be normal and settle for one guy? Why did the thought of doing so feel hollow, as if I was giving up something vital? My freedom? No, that wasn’t it. Dammit, if only this feeling made sense.
The click and clank of metal scraping against slate killed all procrastination. My head whipped up just in time to see the spider thing launch itself off the roof toward me.
6
My body acted on instinct, throwing itself to the side. The metal thing hit the spot where I’d been a mere moment ago, spun, and launched itself at me again. Shit, it was fast. But I was no slowpoke. K was already launching an armor-piercing bolt. It hit its mark but glanced off the creature who was scuttling toward me like I was the center of gravity. The door back into the bar was behind it. No escape that way.
Fuck this shit. I turned and ran, metal at my back, the horrific clicks and clanks a promise of a neat slice and dice if it caught up to me, and no way was I being anyone’s shish kebab. The mouth of the alley loomed. If I could get around the building, I could call for help.
And then the clanks stopped. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end just before the thing slammed into my back, taking me down. The vise-like grip it had instituted in the old lady’s attic was back. Skull-crushing pressure ground the side of my face into gravel. Fuck. This. Shit. Hot, molten rage surged up my throat and exploded from my lips in a sonic blast that picked up the bins lined against the wall and flung them down the alley. How? What the heck? The creature’s grip loosened for a moment, and hope warred with shock at the godawful racket that had just shot out of my mouth, and then the grip was back, tighter than ever, followed by a whirring sound.
A familiar roar battered my eardrums and then the weight on my back was gone. I rolled, kicking out just in case, eyes taking in the scene. Metal was crushed to the wall by a huge, fucked-off hound, but in the next instant, the metal thing expanded. It wrapped itself around the hound and then smashed it into the ground.
“No!” I grabbed a dagger from the sheath on my thigh, knowing damn well it would do nothing but needing to try anyway. The hound let out an awful whimper, and my dagger did nothing but scrape off the metal creature’s hide.
“Motherfucker, it has someone!” a male voice exclaimed.
“Blast the bitch,” a sultry female voice commanded.
Something whooshed over my head and then a ball of blue flame hit the metal thing. Wait, not flame, electricity. The machine shuddered, and then released the hound. Another blast, but this time the spider creature was too fast; it leapt out of the way and up onto the roof.
The hound didn’t move. My knees met the pavement. “Hey, please be okay. Please.” No visible wounds, but he was out cold. Shit.
A shadow fell over me. Two cloaked figures toting the kind of weaponry I’d only ever seen on a sci-fi show.
“He’ll be fine. It was just an extraction,” the woman said.
The guy was too busy scanning the rooftop. “Hon, we need to jet.”
The woman, Hon, was busy studying me. “You’re okay? Did it probe you?”
Probe me? “What? No.”
“Okay, good.”
“Get on with it, Hon,” the male urged.
The woman grabbed my face. “You didn’t see anything. You were attacked by an unknown assailant and everything’s a blur. Your companion was knocked out. You want to get him home safely.” Her voice sliced through me, settling deep in my mind.
I blinked and stared up at the stars. What the fuck? Everything had happened so fast it had been a blur, and the hound ... Oh, shit. The poor hound. I had to get him home. Tay. I needed Tay and Azren.
