31. Chapter Thirty-One

Guilt weighed heavily on Cortana's shoulders. She'd lashed out at Riaz even though he hadn't deserved it. He'd toed the line, and her automatic reaction had been to strike back, no matter how hard. Every venomous word had been a double-edged sword—what hurt him was cast back on her.

Riaz threatened to undo centuries of building a structure to contain the wildness within her. Scheduling everything in her life meant she had control. He'd shown her how to step free of that rigid, dark prison—and she'd had fun for the first time in centuries. It scared her.

Shewas the coward.

Regardless of her earlier conversation with Toni, she had been overcome with fear over tying herself to someone she could hurt. She had never expected someone to enter her life that could rock the very structure of her existence, like he did. While trying to avoid future pain, she had caused him present suffering. It was clear how much her words had affected him.

It'd be a wonder if he ever agreed to speak to her again.

Cortana's tears tracked down her face. When Remmus had left her, she'd been alone in her quarters. The silence, full of broken promises, was the loudest it had ever been. The moment she'd opened her laptop, hundreds of emails, missed appointments, and tasks leapt out at her. Where she anticipated finding solace in her strict control once more, she found only a stifling, honor-bound duty.

Her heart was no longer in it, and she knew it. Cortana belonged in a picturesque mountain town, running alongside wolves, and wrapped in the arms of an alpha that challenged her, understood her—and loved her.

She'd slipped out of the House and disappeared into the city streets, walking the now-crowded sidewalks. Before she returned, she'd have to make sure the emotions wouldn't breach the mask she wore.

By all rights, professionalism demanded she seek an audience with Drake and update him on her failed mission, but weariness had rifled through her bones and her mind was an ambiguous haze.

Tonight, when she'd have her wits about her, she would explain the shameful breech of protocol and where she'd gone so disastrously wrong.

Cortana would explain that the werewolf alpha had welcomed her with open arms, stirred feelings thought long-dead within her, and attempted to woo her with endearing tokens of affection. And then, at every turn, she'd calmly justify why she lashed out at him with sarcasm and spite, throwing his every kindness back in his face, and eventually blowing up at him when he happened to pick up her comb.

Yep. Definitely a malevolent character, that alpha.

Fingernails biting into her palms, a sob escaped her, the sound as desperate as it was pitiful. Thankfully, the bustle of the city swallowed the noise, the crowds none the wiser to her uncharacteristic lack of control.

Who was she to cry over such trivial matters? The man was only … her mate.

The worst part of it was that Cortana had seen who he was. Underneath the pride and nonchalance, he was a truly magnanimous alpha, kind and gentle. A man who bore the burden of leadership with grace and benevolence, and who'd put his life on the line to save those of his pack with no hesitation.

For hours now, the apology she'd been brewing was heavy on her tongue, the words carefully crafted to express her regret and true feelings. It'd always been difficult to admit defeat, verbalize an apology, or confess she was wrong, simply because her pride allowed little room for leeway.

As the morning sun painted the sky a dusky red, she gave in to the pull of enervation in her soul and returned to the House. It rose before her, scraping the sky in all its impending glory.

She hovered her black card over the invisible entry pad, unlocking one door. After sunrise, no one except members of the House could enter the air-conditioned chill through the front doors.

Given the early morning hour, none of her Housemates remained in the foyer, all having retired to their rooms to sleep away the sunlight. At nine in the morning, few of her breed could withstand the pull of sleep.

Just as she made it to her floor, her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. Frowning, she plucked it out and gazed at the caller. The display of her phone showed the hasty picture she'd snapped of him.

Beaming from ear to ear, the wolfish grin was devilishly handsome on the man. His flawless skin gleamed mahogany in the poor lighting, his eyes fixated on one of the den's children as they made grabby hands at whatever he was gifting them.

Riaz.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

She stared at the phone, each ring making her more and more uneasy. Deep within her, Cortana could sense his building desperation—an effect of the mating bond—and with it, she knew something was wrong. Pressing the answer button on her phone, she lifted it to her ear.

"Riaz?"

"Cortana." His brusqueness made her flinch. "We've got movement at the warehouse here in Estes; everything was cleared out in a matter of hours."

As she unlocked her apartment door, she asked, "Where did it go?"

"We don't know."

Eyes narrowing, she struggled to understand why he'd felt the need to reach out to her of all people. When he asked her to leave the den, her involvement in the mission had come to an end—a failure that mirrored what'd happened between the two of them on a personal level. When she sucked in a breath to reply, a cough lingered on her tongue.

"Why are you calling me?"

"I—" He cleared his throat. "I have a bad feeling about this, Cortana. They cleared out and took everything with them—and we have no idea where it went."

When she tried to reply, her words strangled in her throat. Her answer was a mumbled cough, then another. And another. Her lungs burned and her eyes watered, her knees going weak as black skirted the edges of her vision.

"Cortana?"

The string of progressively worsening coughs made her reply impossible. Falling to her knees, her balance compromised, left her splayed against the marble floor with her phone still clutched in her hand. Across the line, she heard Riaz's panicked voice.

"We need to get to Drake's House," he shouted. "Something's wrong with Cortana."

"Don't have her signature to ‘port to, Skipper," Remmus replied. "Best I can do is Drake."

A near-feral growl—Riaz—preceded his gravelly voice yelling, "Then take us!" Moments later, his voice was on the phone, yelling across the line, "We're coming, Cortana, just hold on!"

Shuddering against the cool wood flooring of her apartment, she hung on to his words. Each breath burned in her lungs, the sensation akin to aspirating shards of microscopic glass. She clung to the sounds on the other end of the line as strength left her.

Instead of Riaz's voice, she heard Toni shriek, "Drake!"

"Toni."

"Baby, what's wrong?" Her voice was a desperate plea, echoed by Drake's pained cough in the background.

"Liquid sunlight. They've infused the air," Riaz growled. "You have to get Jeremiah here, Remmus—he's the only one who can fix this!" In another breath, he shouted, "Where is Cortana!"

"Floor eighteen," Toni answered. "Second door on the left!"

With a clattering sound, the phone went dead, and it was all Cortana could do to cling to the hope Riaz would find her. Blood had slowly begun to seep from her mouth, pooling on the floor below her, and her fingers and feet had begun to tingle.

Moments later, the sound of her front door splintering inward met her ears, and she'd never heard anything so beautiful.

Riaz.

Because of the way she was lying facedown in her entryway, the only thing she could see through half-closed eyes was her brunette braid, dipped in a growing pool of red from her mouth. Gasping, Riaz skidded to her side, dragging her into his arms and clutching her against his chest.

"Rise and shine, Cort. Wake up, baby."

Sputtering, she inhaled, her eyes flying open. He covered her mouth, eyes intense as he fervently shook his head. "Don't inhale deeply, Pet. Sunlight in the air."

Wide eyes, the color of burnt orange, looked back at her as he carried her to big window, opening it as far as it would go to let fresh air in. Tears misted in her gaze as she looked at him, knowing there was so much left unsaid between them.

"Later." He pushed his wrist against her mouth. "Drink."

Grimacing at him, Cortana fervently shook her head, pushing his wrist away weakly while tightening her bloodied lips. Growling, he brought it to back to her mouth.

"Please, Cort, drink!" And then, knowing how to gain her acquiescence, he barked, "You're wounded; no good to your people if you can't remain awake!"

It was the truth, and determination filled her anew. After a pregnant pause, her fangs sunk into his wrist. The splash of his powerful blood against her tongue helped to sate the hunger radiating from her gut, the influx combating the sunlight poisoning. When she'd taken enough that she no longer felt dizzy, she sealed the wounds on his wrist.

"I need to get you out of here. Is the outside safe for you—with the sun out?"

She nodded weakly, and Riaz scooped her up and held her against his chest. A second later, they were flying. Faster on foot, he bolted into the stairwell, racing down the stairs and toward the relative safety of the outdoors.

Bursting into the lobby, they found several other vampires being herded by a visibly distraught Drake and his wife. All of them wore something over their mouths, but many trails of blood had dripped over the flooring.

Riaz didn't stop until he was outside. Vampires were already converging on the opposite side of the street, looking exhausted—some even collapsing on the sidewalk.

Gently, he set Cortana down, his eyes racing over her form to ensure she wasn't suffering from any other type of injury. Assured of it, he turned to go back inside—just as an explosion and accompanying mushroom cloud flamed above the roof, billowing towards the heavens.

In that moment, Cortana felt his response through their mating bond: terror. Debilitating, incapacitating, bone-deep terror.

It funneled like a tidal wave through their unfinalized link, with a potency that all but drowned her in its wake. Gasping at the strength of it, her hand reached out to grip his wrist, locking him to her as involuntary tremors wracked her frame.

"Don't, Riaz," she whispered, not yet trusting her voice. "You don't have to go back in there."

When he turned, his russet eyes betrayed the all-encompassing assault of dread that beat against his psyche. "They're your pack, Cortana. Your family. I won't stand here and be the coward when I can rescue them."

The memory of the words she'd lashed at him was poison, her vitriol spewing back at herself. Her proud, amazing wolf was going to risk his life to save people he didn't even know. And while another version of herself would've allowed him to go back for the people she so desperately loved, the selfish voice within her warned not to let him go out of her sight.

"Riaz, you're not vaccinated!" Desperation deepened her voice, her grip weak on his wrist. "The sunlight could turn you rabid!"

And then, quietly, he whispered back, "Nothing scares me as much as losing you, Cortana."

When he pivoted and pulled out of her grip, her devastated cry tore across the street after him. By that time, the masses of vampires in the streets had blocked the flow of traffic. Cortana, too weak to help her people, could only sit idly by as they bumbled out of the now burning skyscraper.

One increasingly dangerous trip after another, Riaz exited the building with more and more of her people. Some conscious, some not. And yet, he kept going back in, though she could feel the dregs of his fear eating him alive as he returned, again and again, into the heavily smoking structure.

Riaz.

With every person he saved, he was putting his life on the line for people he didn't know—a selfless act that she'd never dreamed of asking him to do and would never have expected. While she was resting, trying to wring the last bit of sunlight from her system, she entrusted her people's safety in his hands. Because her mate didn't abandon those in need, no matter what; he had come for her, even after everything she'd said to him—putting two and two together and trusting his gut that something didn't feel right when the Citizens emptied the warehouse.

Riaz was no coward: he'd faced his own demons saving her, and then again, every time he went in to save her people.

The Elementals and Raeths showed up only minutes later. Remmus led the charge, with the red-haired air Elemental Jeremiah quickly on his heels. Out of nowhere, tour buses arrived on the scene, ushering bleeding vampires into their shadowed confines.

Cortana stumbled upright, needing to confirm that her people weren't in danger. She swiftly cut through the crowds to the first bus that'd appeared on their curb.

Gideon, the monarch of the Elemental race, leapt from the doors and locked eyes with her. "Get them inside. The Raeths will teleport them to the safe house in Lexington from there."

Nodding quickly, she began to move her injured Housemates into the waiting buses. True to his words, multiple Raeths were waiting inside. In a mess of bodies and flares of energy that had her spine tingling, her people were moved out of danger.

On the other side of the street, she saw her sire continuing to carry his people out of the House, his white shirt stained with soot and blood. His wife was nowhere to be found, but, knowing her, she'd be where the fire was, attempting to control it and keep the skyscraper from further damage.

As the buses slowly became ‘filled' with vampires in need of teleport, the crowd on the streets thinned, finally parting to allow firetrucks and police cars through to assist. Cortana went to the doorway to direct the crews, but she found Nina already there, giving instructions.

Each comment from her grandsire was heavily laden with suggestion to assure none of the humans discovered the true culprit or motives behind the attack.

Relieved, she glanced around to ensure no one had been left behind on the streets. Every vampire that exited the House was now ushered directly into a waiting bus, and when Drake finally came to a halt, fatigue wore on his face.

"All of our House is accounted for," came his tired pronouncement. "We've counted twice in Lexington."

Nina frowned, gazing up at the fa?ade of the imposing onyx building. "There are still several minds in the building, Drake. Remmus, two Elementals, and a wolf."

Cortana's chest constricted painfully.

Riaz.