From Burning Ashes (Collector Series #4) (18 page)

“I’m warning you, Viking. The stone stays
with me.”

“Oh really?” He licked his lips. “Stop
me.”

My body came alive, understanding the moment
before someone is about to strike. This was something I knew. I
understood. And I wanted it. I wanted his blood.

His hand shot out for my wrist, going for the
weapon. My arm blocked it, my leg kicking out for his stomach. He
dodged out of the way, giving me more room to spring back and to
stab my knife out for him. He dipped to the side, my blade nicking
his shirt. I sprang forward, twisting back around, and swiped the
back of his leg. The knife cut a line through his jeans; the edge
of my blade came back red. Ryker snarled, ramming his elbow into my
ribs, his power flinging me to the side.

He was huge and I was tiny. But I knew how to
fight men far bigger than me and still win.

Bring. It
. Adrenaline and fury pumped
in my veins. The stone rang with energy, salivating at every punch
that met its mark.

That’s right, Zoey. Don’t let him take us
away from each other
, the stone taunted in my head.

I danced in closer, my fist cutting up into
his Adam’s apple. Ryker cracked his head forward, knocking into my
face. Blood instantly gushed from my nose. I howled, punching
directly into his kidney. He gasped, stepping back.

Keeping low, I jabbed the knife into the side
of his knee. He snapped his jaw and grabbed the weapon, ripping it
from his leg and tossing it on the floor. His eyes blazed with
light, his shoulders rolled back, and a snarl curled his lips. He
raced for me, grabbing my arms. He yanked me into him, aligning our
bodies. Heat, rage, and violence throbbed between us. We both
froze, breaths heavy. His grasp on my wrists constricted. He licked
his lips, his gaze wild.

Fuck. I was so angry and turned on.

“Give it to me.” His voice thick and
rough.

Wrong thing to say.

My knee went up, colliding brutally with his
groin. Dropping him to his knees with a groan. I shoved him back
and pounced on top of him, leaning in, I grabbed the knife off the
floor and held it to his throat. “
It’s
mine
…
mmiiinnee
,” I growled. Rage I couldn’t contain
vibrated my muscles.

The door swung open.

“Holy shit!” I heard Croygen exclaim and
bolted into the room. “Stop. Now.” Croygen grabbed me, tearing me
off Ryker, dragging me back against the far wall. Ryker sprang up,
his pupils dilated, a twisted smile on his face. “Ryker…stay back.”
Croygen kept hold of me, but put himself between me and the
Wanderer. “Don’t let it control you. Take a moment and realize what
you are doing. You too.” He gripped the front of my arm firmer.
“What the hell has gotten into you?”

My throat let out a rumble as I wiped the
blood from my nose.

“
Bhean?
” Sprig scrambled into the
room, followed by Amara. “What in the honey-fried frog nuggets is
going on?”

“Uh-oh, relationship trouble already?” Amara
clicked her tongue. I ignored her. Seeing Sprig felt like getting
electrocuted. I came hurling out of the cloud I was in, seeing
everything in color.

“Oh my god.” I put a hand over my mouth. I
was about to stab the man I loved over a rock. Embarrassment and
guilt coated my cheeks, turning my head to the ground in shame.

A string of swear words spouted from Ryker. I
watched his boots start to pace the room.

“Seriously, you two need a timeout,” Croygen
huffed. “Isn’t it enough everyone else is trying to kill us?”

“It’s. The. Syndrome,” Sprig fake whispered
to Croygen. “They need food.”

“They need a kick in the ass,” Croygen
grumbled. “Ryker, take a walk and cool off.”

“Let us have a moment.” Ryker’s words jerked
up my head. His expression a mix of frustration and sorrow.

“Not a good idea.” Croygen shook his
head.

“I will stay on my side. I swear.” He planted
his feet. “Please. I need a moment alone with Zoey.”

“Shit. If I have to come in and pull you guys
off each other…” Croygen folded his arms.

“I’ll be referee!” Sprig raised his hand. “We
can play honey-wrestling wars!”

“No,” Ryker responded.

“Actually...” Croygen tilted his head in
thought.

“Go. All of you,” Ryker demanded, nodding to
the door.

Croygen begrudgingly agreed, tugging Amara
and Sprig out with him. Amara’s smug expression slipped into one of
exasperation and irritation.

Croygen shut the door, leaving only the two
of us. The room was crowded with an uncomfortable strain.

Ryker ran his hand over the top of his head,
letting out air. “You know I’m right about the stone.” He stared at
the floor. “I won’t take it now…but I will. When I go… I won’t let
it consume you any more than it already has. I should have never
let you have it. It is my burden; I won’t let it be yours.”

When he goes
.

“Well, aren’t you the self-sacrificing hero,”
I whispered, acid dripping in my tone.

“Don’t.” He ground his teeth. “Right now all
I want to be is the villain. Take what I want. Fuck. Fight. Kill.
Steal. Do everything I’m good at.”

Heartbreak threatened to crawl from my eyes.
I shoved it back, covering my grief with bitterness. “Fine. Go.
It’s what you’re good at. Probably wouldn’t have been long before
you left me anyway.”

“Fuck, Zoey! What do you want from me?” He
held his head between his palms, like he had a pounding headache.
“You think this is easy? That I’m fine with leaving you?” Anguish
rolled through his eyes. The torment I saw there shut me up, the
ire ebbing away. “I am fighting for control every second. We have
so many battles outside us, and I can barely keep it together. All
of me wants to stay. To be with you. Only one tiny piece of my
brain is trying to be logical. To be safe. And I am holding on to
that by my fingers. Please don’t push me.”

My shoulders drooped with overwhelming
sadness, and I inhaled a trembling breath.

“I will make sure you are settled before I
go.” He rubbed a hand over his mouth. “Tomorrow when we go to
Vadik’s warehouse, it will be more of a surveillance night to get
the lay of the land. We need to understand what we are getting into
first. The night after we can go after her.”

I lifted my chin, acknowledging his plan.

He observed me for a few moments before he
headed to the door. “At the end of this week, I will be gone.” He
left, shutting the door.

I stood for a while, drenched in grief and
shame. The stone was turning me into this. Changing me into a
monster.
How could I let myself attack him?
What was worse
and disgusting me further, I knew I would do it again. I would
fight him when he came to claim the stone again.

Itching to move, I walked to the counter, my
finger running over the gouges he had created. The flame of the
candle flickered, and I was tempted to touch it so I could match
the pain inside. I blew out the ember, enveloping myself in
darkness like a shield, giving me freedom to feel. My knees
crumpled to the floor. I clutched desperately onto the broken
tabletop, my head leaning against the lower cabinets.

I sobbed silently, keeping my pain contained
inside my fragmented chest.

The night was rough. Ryker and Amara kept
sentry as Croygen and I took turns with Lexie. When she did sleep
it was fitful. Each time we got water in her or a tiny piece of
bread, it came back up. We kept a bucket by her head after the
second time she rejected the nourishment.

Every time she threw up, I felt a piece of
hope go into the bucket with it. I had pushed away Ryker’s future
departure the moment I walked out of the room. But I felt cracked.
Bleeding. Watching my little sister, someone I loved more than
anything, diminish in front of my eyes ripped open my already
feeble heart, tearing at the strong façade I tried to keep up. It
only made me push firmer against the truth. Deny it even
harder.

Finally a Tylenol PM calmed her down and
reduced her fever just enough for her to sleep a couple of hours.
Croygen forced me to sleep in the breakroom, assuring me he’d stay
near her. As I moved I heard Sprig’s snores come from one of the
gutted cars. He had passed out in the auto’s glove box wrapped
around Pam.

With pads and blankets found around the shop,
I assembled a bed in the corner of the breakroom and curled into it
like a kitten. It seemed as if my lids closed just for a moment
when the door opened, and daylight streamed in. I didn’t have to
look. I could feel him like a breeze over my skin. I parted my
lashes, glancing over at the entrance. The Wanderer filled the
doorway, his body rigid like an iceberg. A blank slate of
blue-white eyes watched me.

“I need to get a few hours of sleep if you
still want to go tonight. Amara’s agreed to show us the
location.”

“Of course I do.” I pushed myself up. “What
time is it?”

He stepped into the room, setting his weapons
on the table. “I think it’s around two.”

“In the afternoon?” I blurted. It wasn’t
really a question, just shock at how long I slept. I rose to my
feet, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

“You don’t have to leave.” He kept his back
to me, leaning over the table as he kicked off his boots. “I’ll
sleep over here.” He nodded to the opposite corner.

“No.”
Yes. I’ll stay
. “I should check
on Lexie, and I’m sure Amara also needs some sleep.” I made for the
door, pausing close to him.
Leave, Zoey. Walk out now
.

“She’s passed out in the bed of a truck in
the other room. I let her go to sleep hours ago.” He reached over
his head and tugged his shirt off.

Oh. Holy. Hell.
The sight of his back
muscles came with an enormous amount of sadness. I stared at the
lines of his tattoo curling down his shoulder blade, and my
intimate knowledge of how far down it went on his thigh, what they
felt like against my fingertips. My hands had a mind of their own
and reached up to lightly trace the black ink. He sucked in a sharp
breath, his muscles constricting. I barely made contact, but the
electricity sizzled under my palm.

“Zoey.” He breathed out my name, telling me
both to stop and to keep going. I went with the latter, causing his
chest to move in and out rapidly. “Zoey. Stop.”

The sorrow and hunger I held quickly
metamorphosed into fury. My hand jerked away from him, and I
stepped back.

He glanced over his shoulder.

“I’ll wake you up when it gets dark.” I
looked away from his intrusive gaze. “We need to go over our plan
before we head out.”

He nodded as he turned back to the table.

I swallowed the paralyzing scream and walked
out the door and shut it behind me. This was why I never let people
in. The pain of their loss seemed too much to endure. Was this how
normal people felt, or had I been made different? You’d think being
created in a lab I’d be less emotional in order to function.
Perhaps they stuffed me with extra feelings. The need to fight and
love with the same ferocity .

####

Croygen sat on a cushy bench with his head
back, mouth open, sound asleep. Lexie’s head used his leg as a
pillow. I bent down in front of her to feel her forehead. Her skin
seared under my touch. Her fever was back and worse than
before.

“How is she doing?” Croygen’s voice
whispered. I glanced up at him as he rubbed his face.

“Not good.” I patted the sweat off Lexie’s
head. “She feels hotter.”

Croygen watched Lexie, worry flickering over
his face.

“Tonight Amara’s going to show me where
Annabeth is. We need to check it out and get the layout.”

“And you want me to stay?” he responded.
“With Lexie.”

My gaze went up to his. “I know it’s a lot to
ask. And it’s probably the last thing you want to do. But there’s
no one else and…” I motioned to the sleeping form on his lap. “She
clearly feels safe with you. I don’t trust anyone else to watch
her.”

His head jolted back, eyes widening in
surprise. “You trust me with your sister’s life?”

“Yes.” I didn’t hesitate. “And mine.”

“Wow.” Croygen rubbed his neck, glancing
away. “Don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that to me.”

“Well, I do. Unequivocally.”

Sprig jumped on the back of the bench seat.
“That means absolutely, in case you were wondering.”

“Thanks, ass-licker. I got it.” Croygen
batted at him, but Sprig leaped out of his grasp.

“Sprig, I want you to stay here too.”

“What?” His mouth fell open. “No way,
Bhean
. You need me.”

“This is just a scouting mission.” I rubbed
Lexie’s leg. “You would be great comfort for her. Please,
Sprig.”

His eyes narrowed on me.