The Lord of Near and Nigh: Shifter MC Novel (Pureblood Predator MC Book 2) (27 page)

The black chick takes a run at Lily, slams into her, screams, collapses to her knees. I smell burning skin and singed hair.
 

“What the fuck…what the fuck…” the black chick says, over and over.
 

There’s a shrill animal scream from the alley, followed by a barking laugh. That’d be Nash getting his kill on with the Stricken I dropped in the dirt.

There’s a Stricken corpse lying charred in the yard, and another monkey-faced asshole limping down the steps from the burning townhouse.
 

I scream a warning to Lily.
 

She looks at me and smiles, then a pair of wings unfold from her back, long, thin wings, the feathers glittering silver and metallic blue-green, and she lifts a few feet into the air as the injured Stricken pauses on the steps of the townhouse, then glances back into the raging inferno as if he’s deciding whether to run back inside.

Might be a smart move.

Lily flies at him, her hands becoming long black hooks, and when she hits him she brings the hooks down and across in an ‘x’ shape, tearing the Stricken's chest wide open. Then the wings and hooks are gone and it’s only Lily AKA Sparkles, standing in front of the Stricken, his black beating heart visible in his ruined chest.
 

Lily pluck’s the Stricken's heart out like she’s picking a ripe plum from a tree.
 

The Stricken falls dead at her feet.
 

Lily brings the black heart to her lips and feeds.

I scent the endless hunger in her, and the sight of my bloodmate feeding makes me lift my head into the early morning light and howl, and I hear Nash howling with me and Mia shrieking and there’s Tate in full animal, the Komodo dragon motherfucker, walking around from the side of the house, roaring along with us in raging triumph because there’s never been a power like this, a power born of the earth’s molten core and now I know what it means to want to die for someone, know how death can be a gift one offers and more than anything I know what it means to have
purpose
.

The Skin chick Lily called Trish watches in horror as Lily consumes the beating black heart. I’d have killed her already if there wasn’t something telling me she’s important to Lily.
 

“What…what are you?” Trish says to Lily, and good on her for finding the fucking courage to speak.

Lily’s returning to her human self. I feel her animal fading, satiated for now, and then Lily wavers like she’s going to fall over and I see how tired she looks, how drained, and I know that this is when she needs me and my crew, not during but after, when the animal’s fled and the human in her returns weak and broken and alone.
 

“It’s me, Trish,” Lily stammers. “It’s still me. Your friend Lily. Only…more.” Lily looks at me, then back at Trish and says, “You should go. The cops’ll be here soon. Run, Trish. I’m sorry.”
 

The black chick pauses. All right, it’s a lot to absorb. She’s got a choice now, though. Run like a Skin bitch should or reach down, grab her nuts and step forward.
 

“There’s more of them animal assholes?” Trish says.

Lily nods. “A lot more.”

“And you…you’re one of them?” Trish gestures at me and the MC. “And these biker douchebags? They’re animals like them too, am I right?”

“Yes and yes.”

“They murdered those girls?”

“I think so, yeah,” Lily says.

“And those…things…they wanna kill you, right?”

“They want to kill everything.”

Nash strolls into the yard and gives me a look like: what now Prez? I hold a hand up, telling the twitchy bastard to wait it out.
 

Trish straightens, pops the empty clip from her Glock and reloads, then rolls her head to stretch her neck. Her hands are shaking, but not badly. “You fucking evaporated my bullets, bitch,” Trish says with a smile.

Lily smiles back. “I did. Yeah.”

“You know what I hate about cop work?” Trish says. “Donuts. I hate donuts.”

Lily smiles again. Tears stream down her cheeks. She’s gorgeous.

“And the paperwork. Fucking
hate
the paperwork. Hey biker douche. You got paperwork in your fucked-up redneck posse?”

“No.”

Trish nods. “Then lets get the fuck outta here.”

Tate’s animal is gone.
 

Dude’s looking all starry-eyed for Trish. Shit.

The siren’s are close and coming in hot. A lot of them. I hear a muffled cry and look to my left, over the fence to the neighbor’s house. There’s an entire Skin family leaning against a patio railing, staring down at us. Mom and dad and two snotty Skin kids.
 

I glare at them and growl, drop a little fang.
 

“Don’t you fucking dare, you asshole,” Lily says, and there’s not a speck in me that feels like not listening.
 

The Skin dad’s eyes roll in his head. He faints, tumbles over the railing and lands face-first in a cedar hedge.
 

“Get in the van,” I tell Tate and Trish as Lily walks to me. “And stay there.”

Now, I’ve been slapped before. Several times, oddly enough. Mostly I see it coming and it’s no big deal. But Lily’s slap? It hits me so hard and fast I’m on my ass before I even know what’s happening.

“You lousy skid shit-head,” she screams.

I stagger to my feet, touching my tender cheek.
 

All right. I deserved that.

“You lousy, dirtbag, white trash, asshole!”

“It was the wrong thing to do. I’m sorry.”

“Bet your ass it was the wrong thing to do,” she shrieks. “You fucking
left
me. Alone! In the street! In the pouring
rain
!”

“I wasn’t…you know? I wasn’t thinking straight. I was all fucked up after—”

“All fucked up? All fucked up? Did
your
house burn down?”

“Well, uh, as a matter of fact—”

“Did your
son’s
house burn down? Did it? Did they
take
your son?”
 

Another slap. Again on my ass. Shit.

The Skin mom on the balcony claps.
 

I look over my shoulder. The entire MC’s watching. Well, fuck them. This is between me and my woman. And besides, she’s making my cock hard as stone.
 

“We’ll get him, Sparkles. I swear. We’ll find your boy.”

“Fuck you. I know that. I know
I’ll
find him. Understand? There is no ‘we’. You made that abundantly clear. So what the fuck are you here for, One-Eight-Seven? Come to rescue little Lily again?” She laughs, points to the Stricken corpses scattered around the yard. “Because I think your days of playing hero are done.”

“Yeah. I think they are.”

“So what do you
want
?”

“It’s Sorry…he’s hurt. Real bad.”

A flicker of concern passes across Lily’s face. “He’ll heal.”

“I don’t think…not this time. He’s cut up real bad. Heart pierced. Poisoned. Bleeding out.”

“What happened?”

“He betray—. He’s hurt. The Stricken…fuck it, Lil. It doesn’t matter! He’s hurt is all.”

“Why me? What can I do?”

“I think…you remember…the other night?”

“I remember you fucking and dumping.”

“No. In the mountains. The spirit-eater? I woke up, and you were leaning over me, and I felt…I
knew
it was you, Sparkles. You brought me back. I don’t know how. But you did. Please? Fuck sakes, Lil! It’s my brother. You liked him. He’s dying…”

Lily crosses her arms. She looks right pissed. And more…she looks afraid. Terrified. “Stop calling me Sparkles, Aaron. Or should I say…One-Eight-Seven?”

“Yeah, I don’t like that much either.”

“You’re an asshole,” Lily says, her voice real soft and deadly. “I knew you were an asshole the moment I saw you ripping by on that ridiculous bike.”

“Yeah. I’m an assh—”

“Uh, kids,” Mia says, stepping out of the van. “As much as I’m enjoying seeing you get bitch slapped, Aaron, could we maybe continue the domestic fun somewhere that’s not gunna be swarmed by pigs in like, ten fucking seconds?”

“Be quiet, Mia,” Lily says.

Mia shuts her mouth, but she looks pissed doing it.
 

Bitch always looks pissed, though.
 

“I’ll help him,” Lily says. “But first I need you to do something for
me
, Aaron.”

“Anything.”

“I need you to bleed.”

“What?”

“Bleed red. All the fucker’s who’ve come to kill me bleed black. I want to see what you really are.”

I take my hunting knife from my belt and slide it across my palm, then watch my red blood pool and spill from my cupped hand.
 

“That red enough?” I ask as my wound heals over.
 

Lily gives me a quick flicker of a smile that makes my heart thrum.

“Yeah. That’s plenty red.”

S
ORRY
’
S
IN
WORSE
shape than I’d hoped.
 

The back of the van is slick with blood. Mia has his head cradled on her lap, one hand caressing his forehead and the other pressed hard over the gaping wound in his chest. He’s barely breathing, and so pale I’d think he was already dead except every now and then his eyes fly open and he stares at me and whispers “All Encompassing,” in a thin, rattly voice.
 

Aaron and Nash are debating about where to take us. “Bar’s gone,” Aaron says. “Safe house too. Can bet they’re on the clubhouse in Renton, so that’s out.”

“I got a place,” Tate says.
 

I don’t mind the new guy. He’s built stocky and muscular, but his face is cute in a boyish way, and the wild mop of dreadlocks is damn hot.

“Oh yeah?” Nash says suspiciously. “Where’s this place of yours, prospect?”

“I ain’t a prospect,” Tate says, pointing to the patches sewn on his cut. “Been in for over ten years.”

“Yeah,” Aaron says, clearly unimpressed. “Rolled with that motherfucker Soren for a decade, though, didn’t ya? Doesn’t say much about your character.”

Tate blinks, then seems to decide to let it slide. “My place is up in the Wenatchee Mountains. Nothing palatial. Just a quiet spot in the woods. But it sits high on a ridge, overlooking the road leading up the valley. It’s safe.”

Safe
. I almost laugh.

Aaron and Nash share a glance, then Nash says, “Sure. Whatever. Rasta’s dope-shack it is.”

Trish is sitting at the back of the van, pressed close to the rear doors, knees hugged to her chest, staring at us with an odd mix of horror and disbelief. I recognize the look. Saw it on my face in the bathroom mirror when I stole that wallet.
 

It takes a while for things to sink in.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I say to Trish.

“No shit. Neither should you.”

“Then fuck off, Skin,” Mia says to Trish. “That’s a suggestion and a warning.”

Trish looks to me. I know she shouldn’t stay.
 

But I don’t have the strength to ask her to leave.
 

“If you’ve changed your mind…” I say to her while looking at Sorry.

“If I’ve changed my mind
what
, exactly?” Trish says, sounding bitter and pissed off. “Just hop on out and forget it ever happened? Head down to the station, say hey what’s up guys guess what Lily the fugitive stopped by, I was about to bring her in when my townhouse got stormed by a pack of bloodthirsty animal men…and then oh yeah Lily blew the fucking place up and walked through the flames. Then I shot her nine times in the chest, except she fucking
evaporated
the bullets, killed the animal-men and…right, her outlaw biker boyfriend showed up and we drove off happy as pigs in shit.”

“Pigs in shit, all right,” Mia says.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I say.
 

Mia and Trish both give me a look like:
Uh-huh, girl.
 

“You could try forgetting it happened,” Mia says to Trish, “but I have a feeling the Stricken hunting Lily won’t forget. They’ll hunt you down too, make you tell them everything you know before they rip your heart from your chest.”

“She always a ray of sunshine?” Trish says to me.

“Trish, meet Mia. Mia, Trish. Trish and I trained together.”

“Little piglet sisters. Isn’t that cute?”

Trish ignores Mia, looks at me and says, “You want me to leave?”

“No.”
 

“Then I’m not going anywhere. I don’t give a fuck what these things are. You’re not alone with them, girl.”

“See boys?” Mia says. “There is loyalty among pigs. I got yer back, babe. We’re all in this together.” Mia laughs, gestures at Sorry. “We’ll see how deep that loyalty runs when you see the thing that can do this.”
 

I could murder her. I know it for a fact, and I think Mia has a pretty good idea now as well. And because of that I let it go. Mia can’t get under my skin anymore.
 

She isn’t important enough.

“You’re a Nubian Queen,” Tate says, eyeing Trish.

Trish rolls her eyes. “Enough of that shit, Stoney. Go suck on a blunt.”

“Matter of fact I will,” Tate says, reaching inside his cut and pulling out a cigar-sized blunt. “Saved the best for last.”

“Well, don’t worry about dulling your wit,” Trish says. “That ship sailed long ago.”

Nash and Aaron cackle from the front of the van.

“This Skin chick, Mia, she’s got a tongue sharper than yours,” Nash laughs.

“Not quite,” Mia says, flicking her long, forked tongue into the air.

“Oh,” Trish says, cringing. “Gross. That is just…gross.”

We ride in silence for a while, each absorbed in our own worries, then Nash hits the 90 and we veer eastward.
 

“Speed limit, brother,” Aaron warns. “Last thing we need is more heat.”

We reach the farmland before the Wenatchee's, and after a while Nash sucks in his breath and says, “What in the fuck? Would you look at that?”