Shadowed (Fated) (15 page)

The warehouse was clearly a no-go zone from now on.
He wasn’t sure he minded that much. It had felt like living in a playboy
mansion – one that had been decorated by a pre-pubescent boy. Though,
granted, the notches in the bedpost had been kind of impressive. He just wished
he could remember any of the actual notching. It was Murphy’s law that he could
remember details about exit routes, Spanish tourist phrases and where he’d left
his keys, but he couldn’t remember anything he might want to remember, like
notching.

He couldn’t remember any girls. Except for Evie.
She was the only person who appeared clearly in the swamp fog that was his
brain. Despite what she’d said to him last night he knew something had happened
between them. Her lips looked just too damn tempting, but more than that, he
could remember exactly how they’d felt – exactly how she tasted.

‘Cyrus.’

He turned his head slightly and the bike swerved.

‘Cyrus,’ Evie said again. ‘Slow down. We’re clear.’

He eased off on the gas and slowed the bike,
marvelling at how it moved so fluidly beneath him. He
really
knew how to ride a bike. He was glad he could remember that
at least, even if he couldn’t remember the same experience with a girl.

He came to a stop at the side of a road and put the
kickstand down, helping Evie off. She fell forward, against his chest and for a
split second he held her there, feeling a rush of something that was way more
than the adrenaline dissipating through his body. But before he could savour it
she snatched her hands away as if he’d burnt her and crossed instead to Ash and
Vero who’d parked behind them.

He couldn’t figure Evie out. One minute she was so
vulnerable and broken – like she had been last night when she’d talked
about Lucas – and the next moment she was about as approachable as a
scorpion.

When he’d rushed in to wake her she’d been totally
out of it. Her hair pasted across her face, her body warm and floppy. He’d had
to shake her hard, and her head had fallen backwards exposing a pale stretch of
neck and flushed cheeks. She’d been smiling in her sleep, and the look of her,
the total tempting sultriness of her had almost made him forget why he was
coming in there to wake her up. But as soon as she snapped awake, the softness
vanished, the sultriness went completely AWOL and she was all business as
usual. Though, he had to admit, she couldn’t stop being sexy if she tried.

The only problem was that she was clearly still in
love with the dead guy. So why then did he remember kissing her? And why did it
feel so good when she wrapped her arms around his waist like she had done just
now? Hell, he’d wanted to keep driving all night. And why – this was
really the crux of it – why had he given his life for her? Well, not
given his life, because he was still alive, thank god, but he had intended to,
and that was what counted. He’d been ready to die for this girl. Had he really
done that for someone who didn’t give a rat’s ass about him? It was possible,
he supposed. But it didn’t sound like he’d been that sort of guy.

‘I cannot believe you had that escape route
planned. You could have shared it, you know,’ Ash said to him as he joined
them. ‘I mean, what if you’d never come back. What if they’d attacked when we
were there alone? It would have been good to know there was an exit route.’

‘I don’t remember,’ Cyrus said, shrugging
apologetically.

Vero grinned at him. ‘Nice bikes, by the way.’

‘How did they find us?’ Evie asked, glancing back
up the street in the direction they’d just come from.

‘Guess they followed one of us,’ he shrugged, ‘or
maybe they just lucked out.’

The four of them stood there in silence for a few
seconds, thinking about how close they’d just come to being wiped out.

‘Where are we going to go now?’ Vero suddenly
asked, wrapping her arms tight around herself. She was wearing only a thin
T-shirt over skimpy pyjama shorts and her bootlaces were undone.

‘We can’t go back,’ Cyrus said, pointing out the
obvious.

‘We lost all the weapons,’ Ash added grimly.

‘Except the blades,’ Vero said, holding hers up in
its sheath, and pointing at Evie’s. ‘Could be worse.’

Cyrus turned to look at Evie. She was clutching her
bag close to her chest as if it contained her soul or something equally
precious.

‘What about going to your mum’s?’

Vero was talking to him. It took him a few seconds
to process. To his mum’s? ‘Do you know where she lives?’ he asked her, ‘because
I don’t have a clue.’

‘No,’ Vero shook her head. ‘I only know the store.’

Cyrus glanced at Evie who was busy scowling at the
sidewalk. She was wearing a man’s T-shirt which, baggy though it was, still
couldn’t disguise the hotness of her body. Her hair was a windswept mess, her
eyes two blue streaks in the pale oval of her face.

‘Does anyone have any money?’ he asked.

‘You’re the one who had all the money,’ Ash
answered, wryly.

‘I did?’ Huh. He guessed that made sense, accounted
for the car and the bikes and the impressive wardrobe and the display of
grooming products in the bathroom. He didn’t have a wallet though anymore,
guessed it must have vanished into the ether along with his clothes on the
night whatever happened to him happened. But it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.
It wasn’t like he would have remembered the PIN.

‘I’ve got some money if we can get to an ATM,’ Evie
said suddenly. ‘It’s not much but it’ll pay for a motel for the night until we
figure out what we’re going to do.’

‘What about Victor?’ Ash asked suddenly. ‘What if
they’ve found him too?’

Cyrus stared at them all. Vero had explained to him
all about this other Hunter guy called Victor and what he’d done to Evie and
Lucas as well as to his own mum, and Cyrus had made a silent promise to himself
that, when Evie decided the time had come to kill Victor, he’d be right by her
side.

‘He has weapons too,’ Vero said quietly, ‘and we’re
all out.’

Cyrus stole a glance at Evie. Her body was pulsing
with anger; it was radiating off her in waves. He could hear her heartbeat
banging against her ribs hard enough to crack them. Having to see Victor and
collaborate with him – given all he’d done to her – must be killing
her.

Cyrus was on the point of suggesting that they
forget about checking on Victor and head to a motel as Evie had suggested, when
she huffed loudly and stormed over to the bike.

‘Fine,’ she growled. ‘Let’s just check he’s alive
and tool up.’

Cyrus paused before walking over to join her. He
swung his leg over the seat and when she wrapped her arms around his waist he
felt the same thrill rush through his body as before. He revved the engine,
taking off down the street so fast that he heard her inhale sharply and press
herself closer against his back.

Ash knocked on Victor’s door.

Evie was standing behind the others, her hand
clasped around the knife she was holding. It would be so easy to shove them
aside and plunge the tip of the blade into his chest the moment Victor appeared
in the doorway. She eased forward, pushing her way between Vero and Ash so that
she’d be in a better position to strike but, as if he could read her mind,
Cyrus turned around to face her, blocking the doorway with his broad shoulders.

His gaze fell to her hand – the one clutching
the knife – then lifted slowly to her face. She glared back at him
defiantly.

‘If he’s alive you’re not going to kill him, are
you?’ Cyrus asked.

She didn’t answer him.

‘I think Ash is right about us needing him,’ Cyrus
went on. ‘Can we try to work around that? When we’re done using him then I’m
right with the others. I’ll load your gun, I’ll sharpen your sword, I’ll hold
him down while you beat him to death, I’ll stand to one side and film it …
whatever you want, but right now I think we need to hold off.’

Evie chewed the inside of her cheek while he
continued giving her that look, the same look her principal had given her when
she was called to his office after she’d slammed Kaitlyn Rivers into the wall.
A look that said:
You know I’m right.
Don’t even try to argue with me.
Finally, Evie rolled her eyes, sighed and
made a loud and ostentatious show of sheathing the knife.

The door swung open just as she did this and Cyrus
turned around, keeping his eyes on Evie for as long as he could, making sure
she wasn’t calling his bluff. His hand hovered close to her waist, as if he
didn’t trust her not to make a move.

She edged around him, squaring her shoulders, and
did a double take when she saw that it wasn’t Victor standing in the doorway at
all – it was just some kid.

Evie blinked at him in shock. Who was he? And what
was he doing in Victor’s house? A sinking feeling in her stomach and a chemical
buzz flying through her bloodstream told her that she already knew the answer
to both questions.

‘Hey,’ the kid drawled in a bored voice, ‘you must
be the rogue Hunters.’

Evie’s eyebrows shot up another inch.

‘I’m RJ,’ he said. ‘Victor said you guys might show
up.’

‘Is he here?’ Ash asked, trying to peer over the
kid’s shoulder.

‘No, he’s out. On a mission. He told me to invite
you in if you came by.’ He stepped aside, letting the door swing open. ‘You’d
better come on in,’ he told them.

The four of them exchanged glances. Then,
shrugging, Ash and Vero walked into the house. Cyrus hung back, letting Evie go
ahead of him. She stomped over the threshold.

‘Yo, Selena,’ RJ bellowed up the stairs. ‘Come meet
the other dudes.’

Dudes? Evie looked the kid up and down. If she had
to peg him with a stereotype she’d say stoner. Baggy jeans, long-sleeved,
over-sized T-shirt with some surfing brand name stamped across it, dopey smile,
longish hair hanging in his face, bloodshot eyes.

‘Where did Victor find you?’ she asked.

RJ turned to her, smiling goofily. ‘In the arcade.
I was totally besting my score, and this dude turned up and …’

‘OK, I get it,’ Evie interrupted. She turned to the
others. ‘Victor’s recruiting new Hunters to the cause.’

It looked like the others had already figured it
out as well.

‘Who the hell are they?’

Evie looked up. A girl had appeared at the top of
the stairs, and was now sauntering down them, heavy lidded and pouting. She was
wearing a bandana, in what looked like gang colours, over her hair and Evie saw
a tattoo snaking across her abdomen where her top was riding up over her jeans.
Evie would place a bet that when the girl turned around they’d get an eyeful of
butt cleavage and thong.

‘They’re those rogue Hunters Victor was telling us
about – remember?’ RJ told her.

The girl sniffed, giving them all a once-over, her
gaze lingering on Cyrus just a moment longer than was necessary. She licked her
lips, which were so smothered in gloss, Evie wondered how her tongue didn’t get
stuck.

‘What’s your problem?’ the girl asked, rolling her
shoulders and placing her hands on her hips.

Evie realised the girl was talking to her.

I’m
just pondering the terrifying fact that we share genetic code
, Evie thought to herself.

‘Nothing,’ she said, eyeing the girl darkly.

‘So you two are the only two Victor’s recruited?’
Cyrus asked.

‘Yeah, though he said he was going to try to find
more tonight.’

‘Did he tell you why?’ Evie asked.

Selena glared at her. ‘What’s it to you?’

Evie studied her for a moment. ‘Nothing,’ she
answered with a shrug. ‘What do I care if two untrained fools go marching into
a fight with some unhumans and get themselves killed? So long as you don’t have
my back.’

‘Hey,’ the guy RJ spoke up, ‘we’re not untrained.
We’ve been like totally training the last two days.’

‘Have you ever actually been in a fight before?
With an unhuman, that is?’ Evie asked, casting a glance sideways at Selena. For
sure she’d been in fights before with a mouth that big, though Evie doubted
with an unhuman, because if the girl couldn’t see that Evie was in a dangerous
mood, then her instincts were clearly faulty.

‘How hard can it be if
your
pussy ass is still alive?’

Evie dropped her gaze to the ground. She sighed.
Really? She had to deal with this on top of Victor and everything else?

‘You might want to think twice before you speak
like that to her again.’

Evie looked up sharply. It was Cyrus who was
talking.

‘Why? You going to stop me?’ Selena asked, her eyes
taunting and inviting at the same time.

‘No,’ Cyrus answered calmly. ‘Just that that pussy
ass could whip you into next week. And I, for one, don’t enjoy watching fools
get whipped.’

The girl’s glossed mouth fell open for a moment
before she drew her lips together and sucked air noisily through her teeth. She
tossed her head back as if she couldn’t care less but Evie saw the spark of
wariness in her expression as she glanced in her direction.