18. Darius

18

DARIUS

W ith every shift away from The Lodge, I felt more like myself.

And with Max wrapped in my arms, I felt loose, giddy even. Which was maybe strange seeing as we were about to confront another building filled with protectors.

"You alright?" Max whispered. The dark knowing in her eyes always seemed to see further into the depths of my own than I often wanted her to.

"Right as rain." I cracked my face into a wide smile that had her brother Rowan taking a few steps back, whether in repulsion or fear, I wasn't sure.

He'd insisted on being part of this mission. Something Max had fought him on for days.

She wanted him safe.

He wanted to come because he wanted to help keep her safe.

It was all very…saccharine. Familial.

Still, I couldn't help but like him more for it. There was a warmth to their sibling connection that I'd never had with my own brother .

Claude did everything he could to keep me alive, but it was usually done while simultaneously threatening to kill me.

I grinned. I needed to check in on that fucker once all of this was through. Maybe we could pare our sibling rivalry back to something a little more tender, rather than simply beelining for each other's tender parts with barbed steel.

The thought of Claude and I embracing with affection ripped a soft bark from my lips, startling the otherwise silent surroundings.

Haley, the vampire from The Lodge's council, was also with us for this mission. She shot me a dark look, eyes narrowed and brow arched, like she could sense the shift in my mood.

She wasn't interested enough to ask. And she also didn't seem to have a death wish. Vampires knew better than to shove their way into another vampire's business. Especially where they weren't wanted.

I flashed fang at her, then licked my lips and stretched my smile further until my cheeks started to hurt.

She grunted and turned away, losing interest in my antics quickly.

I'd learned almost instantly that she had little patience for, well, much of anything or anyone outside of her work at The Lodge. Bishop was the only person she seemed to share any joviality with, and even that was measured and restrained.

Made sense, he was also a bit of a prick with a god complex.

She studied the grassy forest where we were biding our time, vigilant as ever. We'd been training with her for days, preparing for this. She never once engaged in small talk, never once showed any interest in any of us beyond the larger goals.

That served me fine. I didn't want extra eyes on me.

Not when I'd been using all of my spare energy to keep Max and the others out of my head and away from the mess growing darker and encroaching closer each day. It was like a bottle of black ink had spilled, and it was now slowly blotting away any neat lines and boundaries I'd managed to draw on the page.

As far as Haley could tell, I was just another feral vampire excited for a kill and fresh burst of blood over my tongue.

She didn't know that I had my fill of Max daily. That all other blood was like sewage water in comparison.

Which was good. I didn't want to explain myself. Didn't want to get into the fact that I was just happy to be away from The Lodge for a bit.

That place had me on the edge of cracking. It was like the ghosts of my past had hooked into my stomach, slowly tugging, tugging, tugging, until the darkness that I could usually push down, hide in the cracks and crevices of my psyche, the ones that I'd learned to cordon off, were right at the surface. Screaming into a void I couldn't escape.

I was losing time. Waking up in the middle of the night, alone and outside in patches of the overgrown landscape I didn't remember walking to.

It wasn't like the sort of sleepwalking Max was experiencing. It didn't always even happen at night. Sometimes, I'd blackout full hours of the day, my happenings and actions a mystery even to me.

There were full group conversations and inside jokes that I had no recollection of, even though the impish glances from the others suggested that I'd been there for them.

Declan had made some teasing remark before we left, the corners of her mouth sinking down into a frown when I wasn't instantly responsive to it. I feigned a laugh after a beat, because for some reason I didn't like seeing her sad, and I definitely didn't want her going off into war with anything less than fond memories of me.

But still, it was wild for others to know your memories better than you did. I'd been spending less time with the group, the few moments we weren't training, a sort of reprieve from the act.

I knew it was nothing more than The Lodge, Charlie, and Bishop—they were relics from one of the darkest periods in my life. When I was lost to the twisted, relentless consequences of abandoning my post. I didn't need a therapist to tell me that they were dredging up memories I'd long tried to forget.

Max narrowed her eyes, took a step closer. She squeezed my hands, concern clear.

I'd avoided that look, that silent question for days. Brushed it off with a joke when I could, or ignored it altogether when I couldn't.

"I'm fine." And, for the first time in a long time, it was the truth. I could breathe here. Expand my lungs. My skin no longer felt too tight for my body, my thoughts no longer felt like they weren't my own. And I didn't feel quite as much like a ticking time bomb, just on the edge of explosion. "Promise."

"Are you sure?" She took a step closer, her stare darting through me, like she could sense the darkness lurking in shadows beneath my skin, more noticeable by its sudden departure. I'd done a decent job of keeping her out of my head when I didn't want her there, but she was smart, and she read me better than anyone. She knew things had been a little…off lately, but she'd given me the space I needed, when I needed it, letting me come to her when I was ready. I would be. As soon as we finished this fucking mission and got this magic mystery rock. "If not, we can go back. Tell the others. Regroup."

"The only thing," I tilted her chin up towards me, then bent down until my lips ghosted over hers, "that I want to do more than rip this council member's spine from his skull, is take you right now up against that tree, and bury myself so far inside of you that I'm the only thing in this world you feel." I nodded to the thick tree in question, relishing the blush creeping across her neck and cheeks. "Though I don't think it's quite strong enough to withstand all the things I want to do to you"

"Fucking hell," Rowan grumbled, turning green and pale in the same places Max was pink. "I don't need to hear this shit."

I shrugged. "You signed up to be on this mission with me."

Haley rolled her eyes, giving no other sign that she was witness to this conversation.

"To be on this mission with Max," he clarified, lip curled in disgust. "Now, I'm almost hoping someone comes running out of there and decapitates me."

"Your misery isn't allowed to end today, Rowan. My girl would miss you too much. For some reason." I pressed a kiss to her soft lips, momentarily tuning the others out. "Ready to go drench another campus in fire and blood, Little Protector?"

She fought it, but I tasted her excitement in the kiss. The bloodlust.

I'd been more or less teasing about the tree fucking—I'd planned on saving that for after the mission. A little post-battle reward. Fucking her while she was coated in the blood of her enemies was incentive enough for me to stick to the rules that Bishop and the others had outlined. But now, I truly was wondering if we had time for a first round before the battle started.

Something about the feral greed in her eyes was damn near irresistible. Especially now that I was feeling more myself than I had in weeks.

I stole one more kiss, brushing my tongue against hers, until all I could focus on was the minty sweetness of her.

With a groan, I pulled back. "Right, what's the plan?"

Haley snorted. "You know the plan. We all do."

Get in, get out. As quickly as possible.

"You feel anything yet?" Rowan took a few steps closer to Max, his dramatic disgust dissipating now that I'd chained my libido to an afterparty with Max and that tree .

Max took a deep breath, closing her eyes.

I did the same, knowing she'd feel the connection to the stone far more readily than I would. Nothing. When I dug deeper, all I could feel was the impending darkness, growing restless now that it had been caged after so much free time. I opened one eye, making sure no one else—specifically, Max—could somehow see that darkness leaking out of me.

Max sighed, shaking her head. "Not yet." She opened her eyes and scanned the thick trees.

We were in southern Brazil, inside a lush, almost absurdly beautiful forest. It was a shame protectors had hidden one of The Guild Headquarters here. Always difficult to parse evil up against such a beautiful backdrop. Maybe when all of this was done, I'd take Max here sometime. A honeymoon. Or a Congratulations-For-Saving-The-World surprise-sex vacation.

I could tell she liked it here. Her shoulders were tense in anticipation of what was coming, but when she looked at the tangles of trees surrounding us, it was like she was trying to commit each one to memory. Like she was afraid she'd never see them again.

"The Guild has a way of finding beautiful places to hide their insidiousness," Rowan said, following her gaze, as if he'd plucked the thought from my head. "Suppose it was naive of us to think there was a chance you'd be able to tell if the stone was here this far out. Guess we're going in."

"And no holding back," Haley glanced between the siblings, knowing full well I didn't need telling twice. I was more than happy to spill as much blood as Max was comfortable with on this little mission. "Don't let your conscience get in the way of the bigger picture, understood?"

Ro tensed, but Max simply nodded, less openly phased by the threat of violence than I thought she might be in present company.

"You'll get no argument from me. The Guild council is quite literally threatening to destroy the world. They tortured Darius, Atlas, Sarah, and countless others. All in the name of their own greed. Their lives are forfeit as far as I'm concerned. I'll happily paint the room with their blood before they take another thing from us. Don't worry."

She glanced sheepishly at her brother, like she expected him to fight her on this.

He studied her for a long moment, jaw hard, but not with disgust. Pride, maybe?

He nodded once to her, something passing between the two of them, then glanced south, where the campus opened through the trees less than a quarter mile away. "Lead the way," his fingers flexed over his blade, "I won't flinch away from gutting anyone who attacks us."

Blood Bath Bentleys.

Maybe they weren't so unlike my brother and I.

Haley met my eyes, confusion and surprise written across her features.

I clapped my hands together before twining my hand with Max's. "Let's go kill some council members."

The halls of the main building were bustling, drenched with the stench of sweaty protectors, mobilized by their lust for blood. They clustered together in packs, their reek stifling as we split up slightly, winding between and through them, trying to blend in.

Easier said than done, perhaps, but there was no escaping it. We had to use Max's powers with discretion now, all three attacks were rolling at once and we didn't have time to waste.

Still, hiding in plain sight wasn't the worst idea. I doubted any of these protectors expected several of the bodies on their most-wanted list to voluntarily pop into their halls, ready for capture or death.

I had Max's hand grasped tightly in mine, her fingers trembling slightly with adrenaline or fear—maybe both. It was her only tell that she didn't quite belong here, that something big was brewing in these blood-stained halls, and I kept her hand protected in mine, steadying it as we moved.

If I was honest though, having her close, feeling her skin against mine, helped steady my nerves as well. There were no guarantees of success here.

And voluntarily entering a vicinity owned by the very people who'd kept me captive for years wasn't exactly my idea of a relaxing afternoon.

Rowan and Haley were a few feet behind us. The boy's fingers kept twitching toward the blade in his holster, like he was fighting every instinct in his body telling him to reach for it.

Fastest way to get found out—shoving a blade in the face of the enemy as we moved through their nest.

I clenched my teeth, hoping like hell he'd manage restraint. Truthfully though, it was kind of nice to know that I was the one most visibly in control. Not counting Haley—she never betrayed even the slightest emotion.

And it was also rather sweet to see the blood-thirsty side of Max's brother.

I was liking him more each day.

Nameless faces scattered in my peripherals as Max moved forward with purpose, her eyes open but unfocused. I knew she was searching for it, the stone. Hunting. I dug inside of myself, tried to do the same, but all I could focus on, all that I felt, was her.

She was a beacon that my body stayed constantly attuned to. It took great effort to focus on anything else .

Max took a deep breath, shook her head once, before glancing quickly behind her at her brother.

Nothing.

Did that mean it wasn't here or did that mean that it was protected, shielded somehow? Were we simply too far from wherever it was kept? I wasn't sure what the radius on Max's radar was but?—

"Bentley?" A stocky, pale boy with reddish hair stopped in front of us. The only word I could think of to describe his face was punchable. "You've got to be fucking kidding me. You're here? Fucking hell, you have to have the mental capacity of an acorn to show your face here." He snorted, then pulled out a phone as he turned back to a friend, equally punchable looking, ready to sound the alarm. "Tell Jarr?—"

The boys neck snapped with a smooth crack as I held his head between my hands. He dropped in a puddle of limbs at my feet, whatever warning he was preparing simply dissolved on his tongue as death took him in its grasp.

His friend screamed, the sound low and loud, alerting every passerby in the hall of our presence.

Well, fuck. There went the element of surprise. My bad.

Max took a deep breath, her fingers clutched around a dagger as she glanced from me to Rowan.

I shrugged in response. "I'm not exactly well-practiced in subtlety."

"Well, here goes," Haley muttered, trying to maintain her usual ambivalence, but I didn't miss the way the corner of her eyes pinched with excitement.

Not fear.

It would have been dull if there was no bloodshed on this mission.

And Haley was clearly itching for a fight.

"Fucking hell." Rowan took a deep breath, sighed, and positioned his back against Max's as the four of us prepared for the sudden horde of protectors preparing to descend on us.

The two of them moved together with the kind of ease and comfort that came with years of trust. Honestly, having him on our team was a fucking privilege. No one needed Max alive as badly as I did. But her brother came in a close second.

His eyes darted briefly to mine. "Some of them are young, don't know any better. Try not to kill too many of them."

A woman, eyes green and round and filled with a venom that could have made plants whither descended on us first, her blade sinking into Rowan's bicep as she clawed at his face in an effort to get to Max—more rabid than any feral wolf I'd seen.

"Never mind," Rowan grunted, shoving the girl off of him and kicking her swiftly in the stomach. "Do what you have to do. You were right. Not much room for subtlety or nuance here, is there?"

I smirked.

From there, it was bloodshed. My teeth sank deep into one man's neck, tearing and tugging—I had no interest in his blood, only his death.

The others filed in formation, the hall filled with bones snapping and dull screams as the four of us took out anyone in our way.

Some of the protectors were smart—they saw the hallway floor striped with the blood and intestines of their peers and they disappeared down random halls, through doors that closed shut with the sound of heavy bolts after them.

But there were more pouring into the hall.

I let the darkness I usually did my best to shove down float to the surface.

An arrow shot past my head, crashing into a man attempting to strangle me. He dropped, eyes wide and glassy.

I recognized the syringe in his neck, and my limbs temporarily froze, my body recognizing the memory before my mind did.

But there it was. The rancid scent of the poison clinging to my nostrils with the etchings of a memory that wouldn't fade, no matter how deep I tried to bury it.

The protector passed out, likely dead from the strength of a poison meant to knock out demons of a much higher caliber.

They weren't trying to kill us. They were trying to capture us.

Max.

They wanted her alive.

My stomach tightened with anger that rolled all the way up my throat, until I felt one inch away from breathing fire down these halls and burning them all alive for simply being in the same vicinity as her.

"We need to get out of here." I punctuated each word with a hit, flinging the unorganized protectors into the marble walls. "Too many, this is just going to get sloppy. We don't have time."

Max nodded, grabbed Ro in front of her and tugged him deeper into the hall, away from where the thickest parts of the horde of protectors were emerging.

I spun around, searching for Haley, but she was dragging her body towards me, eyes heavy, moving far slower than she should have been.

A syringe was buried deep in her leg. It was already dead, immobilized, unable to carry her weight.

I took a deep breath, weighing our options. Better to leave her and keep going. That was the plan. That was always the plan.

One glance at Max's wide eyes as she fought to pull her brother through, and I couldn't do it.

"Keep going," I yelled to her, "we'll meet you there and then you can shift us."

Before she could argue, I charged back into the throng of protectors descending on Haley. I wouldn't use Max's fire until I absolutely had to. That was the rule. Until we absolutely needed them, we needed to keep the lines between our bonds free—keep her magic available for when it was the last option, desperately needed.

I slammed two protectors' heads together, feeling at least one skull fracture from the pressure. A knife nicked my arm, but I was too quick for them to sink the blade in properly.

It was annoying more than anything, fighting them. They were like bees, easy to crush and relatively harmless individually, but when you had a hive dropped on you, it was more difficult to deal with. Impossible without getting stung a few times.

Another arrow, no doubt laced with a sedative whizzed close. Haley shifted in front of me slightly so that it buried in her shoulder, instead of mine. Just as I got to her.

Those were the only real threats in this fight. The best chance these assholes had at winning against us.

At the question in my eyes she only smirked. "Better one of us get hit twice than both of us taken out. Go. Help the girl."

Even with her body slowly resisting her, she'd taken no shit. Her clothes were coated in blood that I could smell didn't belong to her, her eyes bright with adrenaline, face streaked with gore and the desire for revenge.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll leave you behind later," I mumbled, sweeping her into my arms before I took off at a run none of them could match.

Didn't stop them from trying.

As soon as I turned the corner, I found Max and Rowan. She hardly waited for me to come to a halt before she wrapped her arms around us and shifted us out of the mess.

When we rematerialized, Haley was practically frozen in my arms. Her dark eyes were the only sign of life as they broadcasted her animosity through to me.

"Sorry, friend," I whispered. And I was. I wouldn't want to miss out on the fight either. And I knew what kind of hell this particular kind of prison could be—where even your own body turned against you, trapping you.

"So much for in and out without anyone noticing." Rowan ran a hand roughly through his hair as he scanned the dark room Max had brought us to. The strands of blond stood in weird angles of chunked clumps of red. "Still in the same building, I'm guessing?"

I nodded. "I can hear the fight still, we're just a floor or two above them."

Max's hair was a wild mess of knots and waves around her blood-streaked face. Her clothes were torn, the skin revealed through the holes already healed from whatever blades had made contact.

That didn't stop me from scanning every inch of her, just to be sure.

"Do you sense the magic?" her brother studied her, but gave her space. Seemed he could sense the frustration emanating from every pore just as clearly as I could, bond or not. "Should we just leave? Go to Plan B?"

"There is no Plan B." Her eyes were on fire, electric. "Not yet. We don't leave until we take one of the council members out. This is it—this is our only?—"

She let out a frustrated sigh, the rest of the sentence dissolving in the silence.

We all knew the truth. That this was our only chance. There was no going back from this mission until we took out whichever council member was here and confirmed with certainty that the stone wasn't hidden somewhere in these walls. Hopefully the others would locate it, though there hadn't been any signal suggesting they had yet.

"And her?" I glanced down at the now-immobile vampire in my arms. "Do we just ditch her or…"

Haley's eye twitched and I bit back a grin, knowing full well we weren't going to.

"Pipe down, I went after you, didn't I? Don't worry, I'm not letting that scrape I got in the process be for nothing."

Max's jaw clenched as she considered. "We leave her in this room, shift here before we shift back home."

Rowan nodded. "Adds another step, another chance for something to go wrong. But it's the best option."

I arched a brow at the girl in my arms before setting her down in a corner of the dark room. "Sit tight. You're strong, well fed. Any luck and the poison they used will be out of your system before we're back." It felt strange just leaving her there, vulnerable and out in the open. Like a betrayal. Hopefully this room stayed abandoned long enough for us to finish the job. I nodded to Max and Ro. "Let's be quick then."

With a last apologetic glance at Haley, Max led the way from the room.

The fighting downstairs had gone quiet, and I could hear the rumble of shuffling feet throughout the building as they searched for us. In an ideal world, they'd give up soon and assume we left the premises altogether—think that we'd have to be mindless to stick around once we'd been discovered once.

To be fair, we kind of were.

Only plan or not, this one wasn't panning out as hoped.

We made it less than thirty seconds before we came face-to-face with two protectors. They both looked about Max's age, and judging from the wide-eyed shock on their faces, they recognized her instantly.

Rowan charged forward, knocking the first one's head into the wall—hard enough to stun them for a minute or two, not cause any lasting damage.

Just as I reached the second one, another protector appeared around the corner.

Blonde hair, blue eyes.

I…recognized this one .

She was at Headquarters that night. Had helped us with Atlas.

"Reza?" Max moved towards the girl, hesitant and unsure. "What are you?—"

The girl's features sharpened and she reached for her pocket.

Instead of a blade, she grabbed a phone.

I dropped the now unconscious protector at my feet and ran towards her, ready for her to meet the same fate.

"Wait." Max stepped forward, arms out. "We don't want to hurt you if we don't have to. Just tell us where the council member's chambers are."

"So it's true. You really were reckless enough to come back." The girl's lips twitched slightly, as she gripped the phone tighter. But she wasn't dialing. "Why the fuck are you here? Didn't get your fill of destruction just yet?"

"Because we have to be." Max's tone was matter of fact but calm as she took a step closer to the girl. "We don't have a choice. Not if we want to make things better."

The girl snorted, her blue eyes coating in a sheen of wet. "Better? You burned down the fucking Guild, Max. I took you to him, to help him. To get him out. And you ruined fucking everything. My entire life is fucked because of you." She swallowed, her jaw tight and voice wavering slightly. "I don't want to help you. I want you gone. I want the life I had before I'd ever even heard your name."

That…sounded like a threat to the Little Protector.

A low growl burrowed in my throat as I shifted in front of her. One careful move and I could have this girl's heart painting drizzles of blood over my shoes.

Max grabbed my hand, a silent warning to keep the girl alive.

Ro's shoulder brushed up against mine. "You know that the world you had before was fucked, don't you? That we're trying to right the wrongs of The Guild?" His voice was calm, steady, even though I could feel his body coiled, ready to strike if things shifted even a millimeter in the wrong direction.

"Just tell us where the council chambers are, Reza. Tell us and you can leave. Get your mom, whoever you want out of here. Leave The Guild and don't come back. Make whatever life you want on your own terms. They're the ones who've taken everything from you. Not me." Max took a deep breath. "We don't want to hurt you. We don't want to hurt anyone." She stepped towards the girl, careful and steady, like she was approaching a stray cat. "But we will if it's our only choice."

Reza swallowed, then dropped her arm until her phone hung limply at her side. "My mom is dead." She sniffed, then shook her head like she was frustrated with her body for betraying emotion. "They killed her. After that night, after what happened. I think she challenged them, wanted to leave. And they?—"

Her words were punctuated by the soft crescendo of steps.

A thick, muscular boy rounded the corner, eyes hard as he took in Reza's cornered position, then the rest of us.

Before he had time to react, Reza knocked him to the ground, and after a fluid, graceful maneuver that disguised its proficiency, he was unconscious.

She stood up, turned back towards us, her eyes hard as they found Max. "His chambers are in the east wing, but he spends most of his time in a war room in the north. With the alarm of your arrival sounded, that's probably where he will be."

"Where exactly in the north wing?" Ro asked.

"I'll take you there," she took a deep breath, "but then I never want to see any of you again for as long as I live."

Traveling the halls with Reza was smooth, if smothering and uncomfortable. She knew a few passageways behind secret doors that cut our time down significantly, and we made it to the north wing without meeting another protector .

"I spent a lot of time here when I was growing up. Other side of this painting," she whispered, her voice carrying through the dark tunnel anyway. "That's the entryway. He's usually in one of the three rooms in this suite."

Max was quiet for a moment, considering this girl whose relationship to her I didn't fully understand. Both times I'd seen them interact, they seemed to hate each other. Though Max's dislike appeared more reactionary to the girl's clear hostility than anything else. "You can come back with us. If you want. You have more information now, about the truth. You're allowed to change your mind based on that. You can join us, start over there."

Even in the dark, I could see the shadows of the girl's face drop in surprise. She considered for a moment as she studied Max, but then her jaw sharpened and she straightened her posture. "I meant what I said. I want nothing to do with you. With any of this, or any of you."

Without another word, she turned and started walking back the way we'd come.

"Where are you going?" Ro whispered, clearly as conflicted as I was about letting her just…leave.

"Getting out of here before she burns this place down. You should too, if you know what's good for you. Death and destruction cling to her like shadows." Her words snapped harsh, with finality.

Without another glance back, she took off at a run.

I tensed, tempted to go after her, snap her neck, tie up any loose ends. I was grateful for her help, but I didn't like the idea of leaving a potential vulnerability festering in the wind.

"Don't." Max rested her hand on my forearm, her warmth fighting back any chill I felt with being back in protector territory. "Let her go. She's right."

"Bit dramatic, isn't she?" Ro said with a half-hearted smirk, a wry attempt to lighten the mood. "Far as I know, you've only burned down one campus. That's hardly a pattern."

"So far," I added. "Let's see where her penchant for pyrotechnics gets her by the end of the night."

Max snorted. With a quick look at us both, she shoved the painting forward, drawing a thick wash of bright light into the tunnel as the room opened before us.

Like a portal into a strange realm, dark into light, we emerged. Only the room wasn't empty, as we'd anticipated.

There were at least thirty people crowded together, their chaotic and erratic mutterings hushed into silence as they turned towards us.

"Fuck," Ro whispered, "it can never be easy, can it?"

"Ah," a soft, disembodied voice called from within the crowd, "you're here. Good. Now I don't have to do the tedious work of searching for you in this labyrinth of a monstrosity they deign to call a castle."