Fractured (2 page)

Raphael wiped his mouth with his napkin. “I saw the news report. The footage was so grainy that it could have even been a rabid dog.”

Diane looked at Raphael like he’d betrayed her. “A dog wearing jeans and sneakers?” She took a bite of pasta, her jaw working harder than necessary. When she swallowed, she said, “I’m not saying it’s a werewolf or something. I’m not crazy. But a guy running around on all fours? Probably a meth head. Take it from me: those people are unpredictable. Either way, these two are staying away.”

“The theater is here in Warwick, Ms. Jeffries,” Malachi offered, earning him a nod from Diane. We’d rehearsed this part, and he looked relieved that he’d gotten it right.

“What are you seeing?” she asked, finally relaxing.

“
Night Huntress
,” he recited. “It’s received great reviews.”

“I heard it was a gore fest,” she grumbled as she began to clear the table.

I held in my half-hysterical giggles as I helped get the dishes into the sink. “Thanks for dinner. And for being cool.”

She shrugged and
hmph
ed. “You’ve earned my trust, baby. Keep it, all right?”

“No problem,” I said. “You don’t have to wait up.”

“Nice try. It’s a
school
night. You’re lucky I’m letting you out at all. Be back by ten.” Diane leaned out of the kitchen and fixed Malachi with a suspicious look. “You’d better take care of this girl, young man.”

Malachi closed the distance between us and took my hand. “Ms. Jeffries, I swear to you, I will protect her with my life.”

Diane laughed. If she only knew he’d already done exactly that at least a dozen times.

She let us go with a minimum of fuss, even though she wouldn’t let Raphael escape without a hug, which he seemed happy enough to give her. No matter what she thought of Malachi, it was obvious she thought Raphael was all right, which would help a lot. As soon as we were a safe distance away, Raphael turned to us and said, “Mission accomplished. Have fun tonight, you two. I’m needed elsewhere. Summon me if you require my assistance.”

“We won’t,” said Malachi, squeezing my hand. “But thank you.”

“Actually,” I said, “can you help me out with Diane? I’m lucky she’s letting me out at all, but this curfew …”

Raphael nodded. “When she’s not on the night shift, which should suit your patrol schedule nicely, Ms. Jeffries will be sleeping very soundly.”

I bit my lip. I hated to do this to Diane, but I didn’t have a choice. “Thanks.”

As soon as Raphael pulled his generic gray sedan away from the curb, Malachi and I got into my beat-up, old Corolla. I sat there for a second, my heart skipping, unable to believe I was in a car with Malachi, overwhelmed by the complete ordinariness of the moment, no matter how bizarre the circumstances. I glanced over to gauge his reaction, only to find him staring at me.

“What’s wrong?”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “I want to kiss you.”

And with those simple words, the temperature inside the car rose by about a thousand degrees. “Yeah?” I asked, stupidly breathless.

He leaned forward slowly. “May I?”

“We shouldn’t … we should go … and maybe Diane is—”

Then his fingertips skimmed along my jawline, destroying my resistance.

“Just one,” I whispered.

I didn’t have time to say anything else before his lips met mine, setting me on fire, making me feel like the earth was falling out from under me. My hand slid up to his neck, to the smooth, silver-swirled scar that was a souvenir from Juri, a deadly Mazikin and the first person—no,
thing
—I’d ever killed. Malachi’s tongue traced mine as our kiss deepened and my thoughts scattered, leaving me with only the taste of him, the halting rhythm of our breaths, and a bone-melting hunger. His fingers tangled in my unruly curls as he scooted closer. I put my hand on his chest to feel the thunder of his heart against my palm. But when my fingers drifted to his stomach, they did not find the hard ridges of muscle I’d expected. Malachi felt the tremble of laughter run through me and pulled back from my mouth. “I had to put them somewhere.”

I looked toward the front of the house, expecting to see Diane peeking at us through the curtains, but there was no sign of her. Plus, the sun had already dipped below the horizon, so I figured it was dark enough. I tugged his hoodie up, revealing the six throwing knives holstered against his torso.

“I knew you’d come prepared,” I said.

“I brought you some as well.” He pulled a pack from the backseat. “Michael dropped these off for us this afternoon, and Raphael tucked them in here when we arrived this evening.”

I unzipped the pack a few inches and peered inside, taking in the knives, two batons, and—good God: “He gave us
grenades
?”

“It will be up to you whether we use them or not. You are the Captain, after all,” he said as he moved back to his side of the car and watched me take a few shaky breaths. “You’re going to be fine, Lela. I’m here to help you.”

I jammed my keys into the ignition. “My first real patrol as a Guard,” I said quietly, wishing that saying it out loud would make it sound real instead of crazy. Wishing it made me feel brave instead of petrified, proud instead of furious at the Judge of the Sanctum, who I was pretty sure had coldly manipulated me into leading her “field unit” here on Earth. Worse than that, she’d demoted Malachi and sent him along instead of giving him what he’d earned through decades in her service: a peaceful eternity in the Countryside. Of course, I wasn’t totally mad he was on the mission—I got to be with him—but I still felt guilty. He’d done it all for me.

Malachi set the pack at his feet, and then leaned back and smiled at me. Like he didn’t regret his circumstances in the slightest. “Let’s go hunting.”

TWO

I LEFT MY NEIGHBORHOOD
and drove toward the highway. Malachi shifted in his seat as I accelerated along West Shore Road. “Are you all right?” I asked.

“Yes. It’s just … fast.”

I glanced over at him. He was holding the
oh shit
handle with a white-knuckled grip. “Still not used to riding in cars?”

“Not yet. I did a few times in Bratislava, but they were not like this.” He scanned the road, the sidewalks and stores, the gas stations and office buildings. “Nothing was like this.”

“I’m sorry.” I touched his hand as I stopped at a red light. “It’s easy to forget how new and different everything must be for you. You’ve done really well so far.”

He rewarded me with a sexy smile. “Because I’ve got you to show me around. Speaking of—where are we going?”

My grip tightened on the steering wheel. “To the East Side of Providence. The camera that caught the Mazikin on video was north of the Brown University campus, and the two people who saw it were students.” If anything happened to a Brown student, it would be national news, so the police would be out in force. It made our job that much harder.

Malachi nodded. “It’s a densely populated area?”

“Providence is more urban than Warwick, but not as crowded as the dark city. You’ve seen that the land of the living is different, though. People notice things—and each other. They don’t wander around with their heads down, absorbed completely with themselves.” My gaze drifted to the sidewalk, where several people were walking along, faces lit from the glow of their cell phones. “Okay; they do sometimes, but not all the time.”

The light turned green, and I accelerated again, this time a bit more slowly, and turned onto the ramp to I-95 North. “It’s strange,” Malachi said as he watched the scenery go by, “that this is the exact place you lived before, and it happens to be where the Mazikin arrived.”

“No kidding. Figures that the portal from hell would open up in Rhode Island.” I hesitated, and then decided to say aloud what had been bugging me. “I think the Judge knew where they would pop out once they went through the wall next to the Sanctum. I think she might have …” I stopped, feeling stupid and paranoid.

“You think the Judge intentionally lured you to the dark city, to be pressed into service.” He didn’t sound like he thought it was a ridiculous idea.

“Yeah. If it’s true, she has funny ideas about what makes a good Guard.”

Malachi chuckled. “You sell yourself short, Lela.”

“Let’s hope so,” I muttered as the lights of Providence came into view.

I exited the highway and headed up Wickenden, past the tattoo parlor where I’d gotten Nadia’s face inked onto my skin as a memorial. I made my way up the narrow street and turned left, onto the road that would take us deep into the East Side. Malachi squinted out the window, inspecting the shadows. I found a place to park off the main road, beneath the low-hanging branches of a tree and out of the glow of the streetlights. Malachi immediately pulled the pack into his lap.

“We’re going to have to talk about this weapons thing,” I said.

He gave me a puzzled look.

“You can’t stroll down the street with a couple of grenades strapped to your chest. Besides … I’m not so keen on carrying that stuff.”

Malachi nodded. “Because you’re not comfortable with them yet. You will be, once you’re properly trained.”

“I know, but—”

He reached into the pack and pulled out a familiar-looking belt. It was part of the set of armor, black leather and badass, that Michael had made for me when I was behind the Suicide Gates.

“Wear this, and take one knife.” He held one to the light. It had a subtle curve instead of a straight edge. “This one isn’t meant for throwing,” he explained. “It has a forward drop, better for slicing than a straight blade, but not curved enough to interfere with stabbing. I had Michael make it for you.”

“Um, thank you.” I took the belt but eyed the knife in his hand. I could just as easily stab myself as anyone else. “But we might not find anyone—”

“There is no reason not to be cautious.” He clipped the knife, complete with a sheath, onto the belt, and then tipped my chin up with his fingers. “If the Mazikin ever did catch you, it would be quite a prize for them. Even before Sil and Juri knew how much you mean to me, even before you were appointed our Captain, they wanted you. And I don’t want to think about how they might celebrate if they did get you.
Please
.”

Without further argument, I wrapped the belt around my waist, pulled my fleece jacket over it, and got out of the car to join Malachi on the sidewalk. “So …” Now that the moment had arrived, I didn’t have any idea how to actually patrol.

Malachi swung the backpack onto his shoulders. His attention was already traveling up and down the street; his body was already tense with awareness. “It’s all right, Lela. In the dark city, we often had to roam the streets, looking for suspicious activity. Sometimes we went days without seeing anything. This is as good a lead as any.”

“Should we split up?” I knew he’d often patrolled by himself, and I didn’t want to be deadweight.

Malachi sighed. “As Captain, you will make this decision. We could cover more ground separately. However,” he said, stepping close enough to touch, close enough to make my heart speed, “I’d feel much better if you let me stay with you.” He kissed my forehead, the feel of his lips on my skin causing heavy warmth to curl low in my belly. “And as your suitor, I’d appreciate being able to keep my promise to your foster mother.”

“My …
suitor
?” I couldn’t hold back a giggle.

Malachi looked really confused and kind of embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I know I’m your Lieutenant, but I—I just thought we were—”

“No! No. That’s not what I meant. Malachi, are you saying you want to be my boyfriend?” I’d never had one before. But … I kind of liked the idea.

“
Boyfriend?
” His WTF look only intensified. “I would never presume … but we haven’t … I wouldn’t want people to think you were a …” He cleared his throat and stared at the sidewalk, and I realized we might be having a bit of a translation problem. Or a growing-up-in-different-centuries problem.

“That I’m a what? I don’t know what you’re thinking, but ‘boyfriend’ just means we’re …” Crap. This was like the blind leading the blind. “It means we’re together. That we’re, um, going out. With each other. And … not anyone else. But not seriously,” I added quickly, my cheeks hot.

Malachi gave me a smile laced with uncertainty. “You can call me anything you’d like, as long as it means I can touch you.” He brushed my cheek with the backs of his fingers.

“Okay.” I had to tear my eyes away from his mouth.
Focus, Lela. This is your job now
. “The sightings were about six blocks that way,” I blurted, pointing toward Hope Street. My body temperature dropped to a slow burn.

“So what do the Mazikin want?” I asked Malachi as we set out. “If we know that, we might be able to predict what they’ll do here, right?”

“I don’t think their desires are very complicated,” he replied. “In my interrogations of the Mazikin we captured in the dark city, they all said the same thing: they wanted out of their realm. All of them. They consider their homeland a prison.”

“You think they’re trying to relocate their entire population?” The shudder that rolled through me wasn’t caused by the cold, but I hugged myself anyway. “How many of them do you think there are, in all?”

“I asked Raphael once. He said that there were originally only two, so it’s clear they are breeding, and by now there could be hundreds of thousands of them. Maybe a million. And that was many years ago. He wouldn’t tell me much else.”

“Huh. He’s usually so forthcoming.”

“Indeed,” Malachi said with a laugh. He gave me a sidelong glance as his smile fell away. “Lela, in the dark city they were still enclosed by the city walls. But here—”

“They have the whole world,” I said, the idea sitting in my stomach like a boulder. “They could split up and go anywhere. The only thing stopping them from stealing the bodies of a million living humans … is us.”

Malachi took my hand as we walked by a group of guys coming out of the Brown athletic facility. As he stroked his thumb over my fingers, I had to force myself to focus on his words instead of on his touch.