Page 88 of Awry
But my brother doesn’t do or accept gentle.With only one exception.He hasn’t since we were children.Reck might be older, but it was Rath who was always the steady, reliable one.Reck was wild and fierce and just a little terrifying, even back then.
Rath tears his gaze away from Zaya’s picture, twists away from Doc’s touch, and sits down on the stool.His focus fixes on me and what I’ve compiled on the central monitor.Doc hovers behind him for a moment, as if uncertain what to do with herself.
Rath and Doc Z have been fucking on and off for the last three years.I’ve gotten the sense that Zephyr chose to patch into the club about five years ago — medics are highly sought after — partly because she met Rath at university.But as best I know, she’s never tried to formalize their relationship.
Smart of her, because Rath can’t give her more.I’m honestly surprised he can even fuck her regularly in the first place.But then, he never got his teeth on Zaya, or hers on him.Not in the most significant way.
That’s all done now, though.
Even if Doc doesn’t know it yet.
No matter how deep Rath’s denial might run, no matter how much the human side of him might fight it, the creature that resides within his skin won’t allow him to bond with anyone but Zaya.
“Report,” Rath says.Weariness pours off him, though his back is straight and his shoulders squared.Nothing shakes the Outcast lieutenant that Rath has become, that he strives to be.I’ve seen him go a week on protein shakes and barely any sleep.I’ve seen him beaten and bleeding.I’ve seen him stabbed and shot.Nothing rattles him.
Except Zaya.
Zaya is always the exception.
For all three of us.
“Zaya?”I ask, disobeying the direct order implied in his demand.
Rath’s gaze flicks in Presh’s direction, though it’s unlikely he can see her all that well without turning his head.He doesn’t even acknowledge Doc peeling off the blood-crusted patch, then covering the weeping wound in his shoulder with some of that foam antiseptic cleanser that stings like fuck.
“Safe,” Rath says.“On Disa’s … on the ocean estate property.Cayley is still with her.Harlee as well.Grinder is tracking down Mack’s extended family, but we’re not sure anyone is still alive to give notice to.Not anyone who knew him well enough to worry about what to do with the body.Zaya wants him cremated and interred on the property.Ingrid as well.The combat mage is missing.He was a new addition since …” He trails off.
I finish the thought but don’t speak it.Since Zaya was murdered.
“Devlin,” I say.“I’ll add him to my searches, though I’ll have to dig up something more than just a first name.”
Rath nods stiffly.“Chains?”
“Got him.Hunkered down for the night just over the California border.”I gesture toward a live feed in the upper right of my screen.The vid rotates through a few different camera angles, all of which show sections of the exterior of a motel.“Other than a brief meet with one of the assholes Grinder brought in, he rode like hell to get out of Cascadia before nightfall.”
Out of our territory.Out of our reach.
“Fucker,” Rath snarls.“Who have you got on him?”
“Pepper and Piston are on their way.”The Outcast have certain privileges within our neighboring countries, California included.But those privileges are limited, and they certainly don’t include outright kidnapping Chains and hauling him back across the border.Pepper and Piston are fraternal twins, plus dual citizens.
“Why the fuck aren’t they there already?”
I don’t answer the asshole because the answer is obvious.First, I had to find Chains, then track him.Once I realized he’d made it over the California border, I had to track down the twins and get them moving.“About three hours out.What should be concerning you is why Chains and Breaker were in Cascadia in the first place.”
Rath snarls, seemingly at me— but Doc is also now actively poking around in his shoulder with tweezers of some sort.Black veins run out from the wound, etching through Rath’s tattoos.He was shot with an essence-imbued silver bullet.And it’s still embedded in him thirty-six hours later.
Fucking Rath.Everything else is always more important than him, right up to the moment he drops.And when he does, very few of us are strong enough to pick him up.
“They were tracking Presh,” Rath says, trying to keep us focused on the conversation.
Yeah, my brother is a fan of embracing denial until it becomes his truth.“Nope.She got away clean.”
Rath frowns.
I give him a moment.It’s always best to let my brother come to his own conclusions, or at least it’s less of an effort.But he’s tired, fighting off silver poisoning, and both Zaya’s return and Presh’s kidnapping— along with our baby sister’s purple eyes— have him rattled.Whether or not he’ll ever admit it.
Unaffiliated bikers don’t dump money or resources into essence-imbued silver bullets, black market or otherwise.Not unless someone is backing them, formal contract or not.“What are the chances you get silver-shot right around the time that Chains and Breaker lose Presh to Zaya?”I ask, as if I’m just casually posing a question.
