Unstable by Lacey Carter Andersen
12
Drake
It’s official:I don’t like Cole. The bastard took the first opportunity he could to screw us all over. Emory had done a lot of shitty stuff, but he never would’ve gone out of his way to ruin us. Cole had made his alliances loud and clear, and I was going to believe him. Kiera and Adam might be trying to pretend we’re all a happy family on a road trip, but I’m ready to tear the bastard’s throat out the next time he betrays us.
Stretching my legs out in the front seat, I wince. They’re almost as sore as my damned shoulder.
“Still hurting?” Kiera asks from the driver’s seat.
Damn. The woman notices everything. “I’m okay.”
“And have you gotten a chance to test your wings?”
I think of my failed attempt before we were captured. “Not really.”
“He can’t fly,” Cole says in a cold voice.
His eyes are closed, but of course, the asshole was listening to us.
“Maybe not right now,” Adam says, giving me a big smile from the seat beside Cole. “But one day he will.”
Cole gives that snarky snort that I’ve come to seriously hate. “I doubt those shredded things will ever do more than flap about uselessly.”
I’m about to say something when Kiera speaks, her tone far too level. “Cole, I want you to look around this car. With Asha on this mission with us, I’m not sure we need you to help us get the relic. So if you think that our group can’t kill you slowly and dump your body somewhere, you’re wrong.”
“Noted,” he says, after a tense moment.
I smile at my berserker. “I love you.”
She laughs. “I love you too,” and then her smile fades into a frown.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, every muscle in my body tensing.
“I don’t know. Asha’s car is still right behind us, but I have a weird feeling.”
Weird feelings from supernaturals are rarely something to ignore, at least in my experience. I glance around us. There are woods on both sides of the car, and a few cars behind Asha’s dark sports car. In front of us are trucks and a van that looks like they belong to vacationing families.
“I doubt Maxen had more men in that town with us…” Emory says. “He was probably sending more, just as a backup, but I don’t think they would’ve found us yet.”
“But it’s possible?” Adam asks, and he sounds vulnerable.
I look back at the mutant. “We won’t let him hurt you again. Okay?”
The lines beside his mouth relax, and his gentle eyes thank me without words.
It could be the demons. Princess says, from Adam’s lap. I’m sure they have someone watching us.
“Which isn’t a problem, since we’re doing what we were told to do,” Kiera says, but she sounds a little too cheery.
“Or maybe it’s just that Asha,” Emory says. “We don’t really know her, only that she’s a Blood Mage. She might even be working with the demons or Maxen.”
Fuck. He’s right. We all just kind of seemed to trust the tall blonde with ease. Yeah, supernaturals often had a soft spot for females, but that isn’t like us. We’re typically the suspicious sort.
“It’s not her,” Kiera says. “It’s something else.”
And then I see it. A dark van speeding up in the distance. It swerves around a vehicle a couple car lengths behind us on the bending road, crossing the double line, then darting back over before a semi can slam into it. My eyes narrow as it does the move again, and then it’s behind Asha.
“They’re up to no good,” I say.
Everyone turns and eyes the van as it speeds up closer and closer to Asha’s car. In response, she speeds up too, and so do we. Within seconds, we’re tailgating the car in front of us. Asha crosses the double yellow line and darts around us and the car in front of us before swerving back into the correct lane. We all watch, breath held, wondering if the car will stay behind us or follow her.
I’m not sure if I feel relieved when it lets a couple of trucks on the opposite of the road pass, then darts into oncoming traffic, before darting back behind Asha.
“Fuck,” Kiera says, and I look at her to see her knuckles are white as they grip the steering wheel. “What do we do?”
I take a second to gather my thoughts. “We don’t know her. We do know Blood Mages have trouble coming out of their asses. My vote is that we let this thing play out and not bring more trouble onto our shoulders.”
“That’s my vote too,” Emory says, but he sounds unsure of himself.
“No.” Adam is shaking his head. “She volunteered to help us. We can’t just abandon her now that she’s in trouble.”
“Adam,” I try to gentle my voice, knowing that as an alpha shifter gentle is hard for me to do. “She agreed to help us because it’d help her too. She’s not doing us any favors.”
He draws his tall frame up taller. “I vote we help her if she needs it.”
The SUV grows quiet as we all look at Kiera. “I want to help her…”
And Cole surprises us all by speaking. “We can’t just abandon her.”
“The asshole doesn’t get a vote,” Emory snarls.
I tend to agree.
“Do you want to stop because that van has Maxen’s men in it?” Adam asks Cole, his gaze narrowed.
That’s probably it. The fucking asshole.
Cole shakes his head. “That’s not Maxen’s men. They wouldn’t give a fuck about her. They want Kiera.”
“Maybe this is a trap then.” Adam has a damned good point.
Cole glares. “I just don’t like the idea of leaving that woman to whatever the hell they plan to do to her. And no, those aren’t Maxen’s men. And I do think they’re here to hurt her. Can any of you live with that if that happens?”
My answer comes easily. “If the traitor wants us to help, we shouldn’t. That’s just logical.”
Up ahead, the dark van advances, faster and faster, as Asha tries to escape it. And then, the van bumps the corner of her back bumper, and she goes spinning off the road and into the woods. Brakes screech as everyone around us tries to avoid the accident, but the dark van simply slows and follows the woman into the woods.
I look at Kiera, waiting. What the hell are we going to do?
