Sterling (12 page)

“Don’t you have a car, Justus?”

“I do,” he replied. He caught the look I was throwing. “It would not be suitable for me to offer. A woman should be watchful of her safety; never ride in a strange man’s car.”

“Strange man, indeed,” I mumbled.

Wow, this guy I would have never expected to get the safety lecture from. I suspected if Justus caught Smokey the Bear lighting a match, he would probably beat him down with a cane.

We sank into the shadows of the dark road as the street lamps became fewer and dimmer. A long brick wall stretched out on our right, and across the street were dark shops—closed for business. Up ahead I heard voices and saw two men leaning up against the wall talking.

“It’s cooler here than I thought it would be,” I brushed the chill off my shoulders. “I should have worn something else.”

The heavyset man nodded at his friend in the red shirt, who hopped off the curb with an extra skip in his step. There was no reason to be concerned until the guy against the wall pushed off and began stalking towards us with dark eyes scoping my purse.

Before I could react, Justus flung his arm out in front of me so swiftly that I ran into it and gasped. He guided me protectively behind him while he positioned himself in a fighting stance. I couldn’t see anything but T-shirt.

A thick voice as sharp as a knife challenged him. “What’s up?”

Justus didn’t respond. I looked down and saw that my hands were trembling.

A cheap purse with $15 in singe bills was not worth my life. I already lost it once and I had no intention of losing it again. At least, not this soon.

I stepped left for a better view. They were toe-to-toe, and Justus bested him by at least four inches.

“Here,” I said holding my purse out, “I don’t have anything worth taking but you can have it.”

“Is that so honey pie?”

I snapped my head to the left and saw the second man in the red shirt closing in. He came out of nowhere and I grabbed Justus by the back of the shirt, twisting it nervously in my hands as my heart thundered.

We were in the worst possible area and completely alone. I thought about turning back and running in the opposite direction but the man in the red shirt was too close. He also had flashy white sneakers, the kind that you couldn’t outrun in a pair of flats. I tossed my purse to his feet as the contents spilled out.

“Check out the honey,” he said edging closer. “She’s sweet, look at her blushing. She knows what’s waiting for her.” He made a wide step over my purse and smiled wolfishly.

“Tell your pawn to back off,” Justus growled.

The man in front of him lifted his chin. “Do we have a problem here,
motherfucker
?”

“Back. The. Fuck. Off. And we won’t.”

Tension: sharp as a blade, thin as a hair and acidic on the tongue. That’s when I let go and stepped back. Heat flared off of Justus like a fever and the moment I heard metal click, I jumped.

Someone had a knife.

Justus stood like a powder keg—legs in an open stance, arms hovering inches from his body, as if he were ready to combust with some ass kicking. Alarm ran up my spine, latched on, gripped tightly, and clawed with a dull tooth.

“Leave us alone,” I said meekly. “Just let us go.”

Red shirt guy snatched my skirt in a tight fist—leaning forward as if he were bowing to me. The tip of his tongue swept against the corner of his mouth. He looked like a wolf on the hunt with his crooked teeth—I his prey.

“Justus,” I started to whisper.

I cried out when my skirt was yanked hard and I flew out, stumbling over my feet.

That’s when all hell broke loose.

I heard grunts from behind, shoes sliding on concrete, flesh and knuckles hitting bone—but I didn’t see a thing. I landed in his arms and when he pushed his nose in my hair drawing in a deep breath I shuddered. Without a thought, I punched his jaw upward and there was an audible click of his teeth cracking together.

He flashed those canines at me and scowled. “Goddammit, you stupid bitch!”

I didn’t even see his arm swing out, but he hit me in the face with a solid fist.

The concrete broke my fall, but I was by no means defeated. Livid might be a better word.

While he distracted himself flexing his jaw, I kicked him in the shin with everything I had. At the same time there was a shout from behind and something heavy hit the ground.

I pushed myself up ready for a fight when he rushed at me, but never made it—Justus launched himself between us and cracked his nose so hard I involuntarily cringed at the deformity.

He roared out in pain, pivoting around and nearly falling over as he took off running. Justus hauled ass after him and got in a few good punches. His friend was splayed out on the ground unconscious. There was no trace of blood.

The attacker sprinted off as if his life depended on it, becoming nothing more than a vanishing silhouette. Justus lingered in the center of the road as if he had a mind to chase him but instead he turned back, stalking towards me with a control and confidence that was distinctly territorial.

He said nothing when he knelt down before me.

“Are you okay?” My voice was husky and out of breath.

“You first,” he mumbled, focusing in on my face with an intimate stare. His expression tightened when it settled on my throbbing cheek. The next sentence was spoken slowly, through clenched teeth.

“Had I known he hit you I would have hunted him down and snapped a few more bones.”

One minute I felt flattered by his statement, and when he spoke the next I only felt the sting of annoyance. “You have a fearless heart, shame that you are weakened by your words.”

“Sorry if begging for my life seemed like a good idea.”

A strange sensation came over me, like poison was pumping through my veins—hot, numbing, and full of adrenaline. I licked my parched lips and searched for a calming breath. Justus reached around touching the back of my neck and that’s when it happened.

His touch. That touch was pulling something from me as if I had an internal magnet that was rising to the surface to meet its match. It was that power I had, that unexplainable thing living inside of me, buzzing in my fingertips. Leaning in—as close as two people could get without an exchange of lips and tongue—he tilted his head and searched my eyes.

“Look at me, Zoë.”

The smooth command of his voice lifted my eyes. A current of energy was bubbling in every nerve ending, snapping at the ends like a hungry dragon. Realizing that I was coming very close to that same sensation that threw a volt of electricity into Adam, I pushed him away. Justus leveled me with his eyes, pulled me close, and put his thumb on my forehead.

“
Mage
,” he breathed. There was nothing sensual in his tone. In fact, his lips curled as if he were staring at the enemy.

My lips parted, confused by his statement. Mage? Maybe this guy was crazy after all.

Justus gripped my arm and shook it—he was angry. Angry? I just got clocked in the face in the middle of the street by a man wearing hubcaps on his teeth and he had the nerve to be angry with me?

“Why did you conceal from me?”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t have a weapon.” I huffed, pulling from his grip but he did not let go.

“Tell me why you concealed, Mage!”

“Don’t touch me, let GO of me!” I pushed my hand against his chest but it merely absorbed my efforts.

Tires screeching in the street pulled my attention away. A door swung open from a beat up Land Rover and I was so relieved to see Adam. That is, until I saw the violence in his eyes.

Adam didn’t just walk over, he charged. With alarming speed he ran at Justus, armed to the teeth with fist and fury and a big knuckle sandwich.

“Wait Razor, no!” I leapt up and crashed into him—but he was an unstoppable force and I wasn’t strong enough. I never really tried to control a hurricane, but hell, it was worth a shot.

Justus was still crouched over when he pivoted his head around to look at Adam. His eyes were blazing with anticipation as he rose to his feet. “You must be the
friend
.” He didn’t have to say it like that—teasingly—but it was laced with all kinds of insinuations.

“Razor, it’s not what you think. Look at me!” My legs anchored to the concrete pushing him with all the strength I had.

“So you’re the kind who hides behind a woman?”

“Shut up!” I screamed at Justus, putting more of my shoulder against Adam.

Adam looked past me as if I weren’t even there. “Who the fuck are you? No one puts their hands on Zoë. Feel me?”

“No, I’m not feeling you. And neither is she, from what I understand.”

Adam lunged and spit out a profanity when I fell off balance and hurtled towards the cement. I squeezed my eyes shut holding my arm out when I was caught.

It was Justus.

“How the hell did you just do that?” Adam said with his jaw nearly unhinged. I looked up and knew exactly what he meant. Justus was at least 10 feet from where we were standing, there was no way he could have caught me that fast.

Shock wore off Adam long enough for him to pull me into his arms and give Justus a hard shove. “You okay?”

“Too late for hero Adam, can you calm down?” I wriggled free deciding not to be anyone’s claim.

Justus looked between us. “We need to talk.”

Chapter 11

Somehow, we made it back to the hotel without Justus and Adam killing each other.
After Justus made a player’s catch, he divulged a little information that was convincing enough for us to talk with him privately. I was pretty surprised that Adam was agreeable to this, but maybe Justus had some answers I was looking for.

“Get out,” Justus barked at Adam. “This does not involve humans.”

“He stays or you go,” I said. Justus narrowed his eyes and tried to burn a hole in my head with them. I drew the line at excluding Adam.

Reluctantly, Justus found a chair, took a seat, and changed my life with a single word—Mage.

The very first thing he explained was that the word Mage did not have the same definition among Breed as the one I associated with it. Breed—meaning there were actually other species out there that were non-human.

According to Mr. De Gradi, a Mage was a type of Breed that could harness and manipulate energy in various ways. They didn’t work magic or spells, nor were they sorcerers. The simple truth was that a Mage was created from a human upon special selection. The reason he caught me so fast is that a Mage could ride a current of energy and move at impossible speeds at short distances. Some called them lightwalkers, but the common term was Mage and it was an honor to be made.

Some honor
. I got the short end of the honor stick, or got beat by it.

“We live among humans, but we are not bound by human laws. Each Breed has its own social order, and we must abide by it. There are consequences for breaking laws, and the one universal rule we never break is to reveal ourselves to humans.” A deliberate glare fell on Adam.

“Why?” I asked. Seemed like a reasonable question, after all we were civilized now.

“Humans fear what they cannot have, and that is not a cliché. It has become much easier in today’s world to not be noticed. Despite their obsession with the paranormal: Vampire bars, animal pattern tattoos or altering their eyes with special contacts—humans want to feel safe. They want to be tucked in each night and know that there are really no monsters under the bed. It is safer to remain as we do and you’ll find there are many cities which are thick with Breed.”

“Like the middle of nowhere Tennessee?” I mocked.

“I travel.”

“Whatever.”

Adam stayed quiet on the sidelines listening as his fingers worried his chin.

“There are rogues who live among Mage, they live outside the laws and most of them are juicers.” He gave me a pensive stare. “Juicing is stealing someone’s light…stealing their energy. They do it as a high, it becomes addictive. They prefer other Mage because our light is so strong, but finding an unprotected Learner is not easy. But they’re out there…looking for them. The rogues usually attack humans and kill them in the process; their energy is too weak to satisfy a Mage who would take it all. We hunt them, track them down and bring them to justice.”

“No pun intended, huh?”

“You’ve got quite a mouth on you.”

Adam lifted a finger. “And you better watch yours.”

I held my hand out before Adam started up again. “So what tipped you off that I was like you…a Mage?

Adam scraped his teeth over his bottom lip and I could tell despite the drive he was still pissed off. “Was it when you grabbed her?”

“No” Justus replied. “I saw it in her eyes. The light was there and it is unmistakable. Do not question my intentions, human. You do not play by the same set of rules we do.”

“I’ve never seen anything with her eyes. When she was emotionally charged there was an incident, but that’s all.” Adam shifted in his chair and worked his jaw to the side.