Shadowed (Fated) (21 page)

‘Hunters approaching,’ Jamieson said suddenly,
sniffing the air like a bloodhound.

‘It’s Ash and Vero,’ Evie murmured, as the two of
them rounded the corner up ahead. Cyrus followed just a few paces behind them.
Their eyes caught for a few seconds and held before the sight of Victor
distracted her.

Evie heard Flic suck in a sharp breath beside her,
and then let forth a stream of colourful swear words.

‘Flic, cool it,’ Jamieson murmured to her.

‘No,’ Flic spat. ‘I want to kill the bastard.’

Evie wrapped her hand around Flic’s arm, hauling
her to a stop. ‘Flic,’ she said, turning to her, ‘I know how you feel, but we
need to do this. I gave them my word – no revenge until after this is
over. And if you take out your blade and start flashing it on these streets
it’ll be just seconds before we have private security on our backs, not to
mention the cops. We can’t afford to draw attention. Not right now. Afterwards,
I don’t care if we have an audience.’

Flic glared at Evie, her body vibrating like a
tuning fork. Then she took a deep breath. ‘I can’t do this,’ she finally said,
her voice breaking. ‘If I go anywhere near him, I’m going to kill him.’

Evie nodded in understanding, thinking again how
stupid it was to have brought Flic along. But Cyrus had insisted, thinking that
having some unhumans with them would help mask their scent.

‘You both stay here until you’re needed,’ Evie
said. ‘I’ll go.’

She headed down the street towards the others,
keeping her eyes on Cyrus and fighting the temptation to look at Victor,
knowing that if she did she’d only lose it like Flic had.

When she got close she saw the two new Hunters
hovering behind Victor. The boy looked like he was high on something, which
Evie hoped was sugar, and nothing that might dampen his senses, and the girl
Selena was still eyeballing her like she was something she’d stepped in.

Evie’s stomach clenched in response. How easy it
would be to put her in her place but what a total waste of energy.

‘You brought them?’ Evie asked Victor, nodding her
head in Selena and RJ’s direction.

‘Yes,’ he answered. ‘They need to see what they’re
up against.’

Evie failed to see how that was going to do
anything other than scare the crap out of them. Her own training had consisted
of being blindfolded and sent into a cornfield unarmed against three
weapon-toting Hunters, so she knew Victor’s training techniques were a little
extreme, but even so ...

‘I wanna see these mothers,’ Selena said, spitting
a glob of saliva onto the sidewalk.

‘Let’s hope they don’t see you first,’ Cyrus
answered her.

‘Are they like – unhumans?’ RJ asked, pointing
down the street at Flic and Jamieson.

‘Yes, they’re unhumans,’ Victor grimaced.

Anger raced like lava through her veins. Without
thinking, Evie brought her blade up to chest height and took a step towards
Victor, silently urging him to make a move for his gun so that she’d have the
excuse she needed to go for him.

But Cyrus was suddenly in the way, pushing his
chest into Victor’s.

‘Back off,’ he ordered. ‘These guys are helping us.
Every single person here, other than these two who are clueless,’ he jerked his
head in the direction of RJ and the girl, ‘wants to see you dead. The only
reason you’re still alive is because we might need you.’ He forced Victor back
a step. ‘And when I say
might
that’s
because it’s still up for debate. If you want to pick a fight with any of us,
there won’t be a debate. Neither should you debate who will win. Because it
will be me.’

Victor waited for him to finish, then he rolled his
shoulders back casually, revealing the gun holstered under his arm and the hilt
of a knife protruding from a sheath slung around his waist. ‘I have fifteen
years on you,’ he snarled.

‘Which makes you old,’ Cyrus answered, smiling
pleasantly. He paused, leaning into Victor and lowering his voice. ‘And even if
you were young and able, you’d still never beat me.’

‘Some day soon, your arrogance is going to get you
killed,’ Victor said, smiling back.

‘It already did,’ Cyrus laughed. ‘Didn’t you hear?
I’m still alive!’

‘Like, hello?’

Evie dragged her attention from Victor to RJ.

‘I thought you said unhumans were the bad guys. I
thought we were supposed to kill them all. Why are these guys on our side?’ RJ
asked, jerking his head in Flic and Jamieson’s direction.

‘Don’t worry yourself about the details, just be
glad they are,’ Cyrus told him.

‘What are they?’ Selena asked, squinting.

‘He’s a Shifter and she’s half Shadow Warrior,’
Victor answered. His eyes darted to Evie, a sly smile spreading across his
face. ‘But they’re easy enough to kill.’

Cyrus’s fingers closed instantly around Evie’s
wrist, the one holding the knife, just in time to stop her throwing it. With
his arm locked diagonally across her chest, Cyrus pressed all his body weight
against her, pushing her back. Evie fought him, glaring over her shoulder at
Victor who was smiling at her, taunting her.

She bared her teeth, a growl building in her
throat. But all of a sudden Cyrus’s hand was under her chin, distracting her,
forcing her to look at him. She scowled up at him, angry, still fighting his
hold of her. But he only smiled softly in response, his fingers gently stroking
up her jaw, his expression warm and so tender she felt her pulse quicken and
leap beneath his fingertips.

Evie frowned as she felt the anger dissipating just
as fast as it had come, confusion taking its place. Cyrus nodded at her, his
fingers still cupping her face. With one hand he stroked a stray strand of hair
out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear, then finally, he let her go.

He spun around to face Victor, all business again,
the smile nowhere in sight. ‘So tell us where you think the coven is,’ he
demanded.

‘Down the street,’ Victor answered. ‘Three hundred
metres. Left-hand side.’

‘Do you know how many there are?’ Cyrus asked.

‘Best estimate ten. I haven’t been able to get
close enough to confirm.’

Cyrus nodded, pulling out a map from his back
pocket. ‘OK, so Vero and Ash, go with Victor. Come at the house from the
south.’ He pointed to a spot on the map where he wanted them to go. ‘Ash, can
you create another diversion?’

‘How are we going to get near? Ash asked, looking
around nervously. ‘They’ll sense us. They’ve probably already sensed us.’

‘Use that to your advantage. Be ready to run. The
bikes are parked here.’ He pointed to a point on the map a good four hundred
metres from the house. ‘We’ll meet back at Victor’s.’

‘What are you going to do?’ Evie asked.

‘I’ll head with Jamieson and Flic around the side
of the house, wait until they’re distracted, then see if I can get a visual.
Hopefully Jamieson and Flic will mask my scent.’ He stopped talking and started
folding up the map.

Evie stared at him with her hands on her hips.
‘What about me?’

He kept folding the map, avoiding eye contact. ‘I
want you to stay here and keep an eye on these two,’ he said, nodding his head
at RJ and Selena. ‘Make sure they don’t get into trouble.’

‘You’re kidding?’ Evie spluttered. That wasn’t why
she was here – to be a glorified babysitter to two idiot kids.

Cyrus pushed the map into his pocket and strode forward,
edging her back towards the kerb, away from the others. ‘Evie,’ he said,
looking down on her, his hand hovering by her waist, ‘please, do as I ask.’

She looked up into his sea-coloured eyes and saw
the expression in them – the same expression he’d worn a few seconds ago
when he’d stroked his thumb along her jaw – and it made her fall
instantly silent.

There was an echo in the way he was staring at her.
It reminded her of the way Lucas had once looked at her, his gaze white-hot,
possessive, but also full of tenderness and…No. She pulled herself up short and
took a sharp step backwards. He couldn’t be in love with her. Could he?

As though he had heard the silent question she was
asking, Cyrus nodded at her, almost imperceptibly, and then he turned and started
jogging down the street with Flic and Jamieson.

‘You’re armed?’ Cyrus asked in a whisper as they ran.

‘No, I always choose to bare-knuckle fight with
Originals,’ Flic hissed back. ‘Of course I’m
armed
.’ She drew her jacket aside and he caught sight of a bluish
streak of metal at her hip.

‘Nice,’ he said. ‘I think I had one of those when
they found me.’

‘When they found you naked and wandering the
streets, you mean?’

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. ‘You
read the newspapers?’

‘I like to do my research,’ Flic answered, scanning
the street ahead.

Cyrus grinned at her as she moved past him. She was
fast, lithe, sleek as a panther – wearing tight black jeans and a black
tank top that caressed every contour. If he could shake Evie from out of his
head he might have even given Flic a second glance but unfortunately Evie
was
in his head, had taken up permanent
residence there, so he just admired Flic’s animal grace and tried to keep up.

He glanced over his shoulder at Evie, waiting at
the far end of the street. She’d better stay exactly where he’d left her. She
was standing with one hip jutted forward, hands on her hips, staring after
them, radiating fury, and maybe something else. He’d thought he’d seen a
flicker of confusion cross her face before, and when he’d stroked her jaw he’d
definitely felt her pulse speed up.

He hoped he hadn’t been too obvious when he told
her to do as he asked. He didn’t want to come over all controlling and
possessive but at the same time he didn’t want to put the mother of his child
in any danger. He mentally punched himself. Man, this whole thing was such a
headscrew. He focused back on Flic’s lithe form to distract himself.

‘Let’s come at it through this house,’ Cyrus said,
indicating the white-porticoed mansion they were just passing.

‘That’s going to be subtle,’ Flic hissed, tipping
her head at the security gate and the warning sign with a frothing Rottweiler
drawn on it.

‘I doubt very much the owners are home,’ Cyrus
answered, sliding his hand up the wall, looking for purchase.

Flic blinked at him. ‘You think they got eaten?’
she asked, her eyes growing round.

Cyrus shrugged. ‘We’ll soon find out.’ He braced
himself to climb.

‘What if someone sees? It’s broad daylight.’

‘Well, you’d better hurry up and get your ass over
this wall then,’ Cyrus answered.

‘Hang on,’ said Jamieson, vanishing in a dazzling
golden spray. A monkey appeared on the sidewalk in front of them.

‘No,
that’s
subtle,’ Cyrus remarked. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Wait,’ Flic shushed him.

In the next instant Jamieson – or rather the
monkey - had swung himself up onto the top of the wall. It then shimmered and
Jamieson reappeared, straddling the top of the wall, grinning at them
lopsidedly.

‘That was fun,’ he said, reaching a hand down to
Flic. She took it and he hauled her up.

Cyrus scaled the wall without help, his hands
finding grips as though he was born to climb sheer rock faces. He grinned
smugly as he joined them. Flic rolled her eyes at him, though Jamieson looked
ready to shoot him a high-five.

The three of them dropped in silence to the
flowerbed on the other side of the wall and started edging along the perimeter
of a garden.

‘Will they scent you, do you think?’ Jamieson asked
Cyrus.

‘Better start praying not,’ Cyrus whispered back,
all his senses prickling as though ice cubes were sliding over his skin. ‘What
you going to shift into,’ he asked Jamieson, ‘if they see us?’

‘Something that can run very fast,’ Jamieson
answered. ‘A cheetah probably.’

‘Go with a falcon. Originals can run but they sure
as hell can’t fly.’

If only they all had the flying option, Cyrus
thought to himself. These things were fast. If they sensed him beneath Flic and
Jamieson’s unhuman scent, he was in trouble. They were all in trouble. Even
monkey boy. Flic looked like she could handle herself and he’d heard she was a
good fighter, plus she had the whole invisibility thing working for her, but
against however many unhumans there were on the other side of the wall?

His plan, however, wasn’t to count them, wasn’t
even to go near them. That was all a ruse. Really he was here to verify what
his mum had said was true – that a new gateway had sprung up in the
garden of a mansion in Beverly Hills. Because if that was the case, then the
shit storm they thought they were facing was more like a shit hurricane.

And if that psycho Victor found out about the
gateway still being open for business he would undoubtedly leap to the
conclusion it was because Evie hadn’t been the one to walk through it, and that
would just create even more hassle for him to deal with. Which was why he’d
sent Victor to the front of the house with Vero and Ash.