Dahlia's Kiss

SHOTS FIRED

“They’re not going to win!”Drake bellowed. “I won’t let that happen!” His hands groped for the weapon. He fell short and lost traction on his efforts to hold the door. He grunted as he struggled, unwilling to give the other man an inch. Finally, his finger looped through the trigger and the weapon was free.

Drake slammed his back into the door. He stepped down onto the first step for balance, his body jerking each time Sterling applied his weight. With an unsteady hand, he positioned the gun against the door, over his left shoulder. The barrel was flush with the grain, jumping each time it was hit from the opposite side.

I knew if he managed to get a shot off, Sterling would take a direct hit.

My body tightened, waiting for the sound of my heart breaking. “No!” I belted at the top of my lungs. “He has a gun! Sterling, get out of the way!”

Cole lunged forward, jumping to the upper step, and grabbed Drake’s feet from between the gap from behind. Drake’s mouth made a perfect O as he went forward, his arms out before him, spinning like a pinwheel to break his fall. The gun went flying as he tried to save himself, landing in the corner, far from where his body sprawled.

The door splintered, and Sterling stepped through with his own weapon drawn. Behind him, Damian emerged. There was blood down the side of his face, but other than that, he looked unharmed.

My heart leapt with relief to have all of my men in the room with me, and for all of us to still be alive. I felt the tether between us grow stronger as everyone looked each other over and nodded.

Damian was the first to move, rushing to untie my ropes. His nimble hands made short work of the knots. Each time a layer was removed, a fresh wave of pain would course through my nerve endings from where my skin clung to the braids. I was a mess of angry red gashes and welts, but it would all heal. My men would give me their elixir, and I would be whole once more.

Cole stared at the monitors, his face going from one to the next in rapid succession. “Uh, guys?” he started. “There is a shit ton of cop cars surrounding the house.”

“They are coming for me,” I mumbled. “They think I did it all. Drake set the whole thing up so well, there’s no room for any other suspects. Now they’re going to think I attacked him too, and you’re all going to be accomplices. He killed all those people. He doctored the crime scenes to make me look guilty, broke into my apartment on numerous occasions, and burned down the precinct.” I started to cry again, rubbing my sore wrists.

“Dahlia.” Drake’s body twitched on the floor as he began to regain consciousness. His arms moved out away from his side. His knee came up to his chest as if he were going to attempt to stand. “Dahlia, don’t go with them. Stay with me. I’m your true mate, not them. Don’t leave me.”

Damian grabbed the ropes from the floor and threw them to Sterling. The detective wrapped the lengths around the man’s ankles and drew them up behind him, wrapping the other half around his wrists. Drake was hogtied, his face suspended in the air, purple and swollen from his fall. He looked as hideous as I knew him to be.

The men entered the house and began to bark orders. I heard them yelling when they cleared a room and listened to the heavy footfalls of their boots on the ceiling. “Don’t try to protect me from them,” I warned. “They’ll kill you if you try to get in the way. I don’t want to see any of you die. Not when we’ve come this far.”

“I won’t let them touch you,” Damian vowed, falling to my feet in a heap. I stroked his head and braced myself as the sounds grew closer to the door.

The beam of a flashlight hit the wall first, followed closely by the red dot of a rifle site. Drake moaned from the floor, attempting to make words from his ruined mouth. Nothing coherent came out of him. Sterling kept his gun trained on the back of his head as if he might jump up at any moment, back to full strength.

“Get on the floor!” An officer broke through to our cluster. Squatted on the stairs, he aimed for Cole’s head.

Obeying the command, my Incubus immediately dropped, placing both his hands on his head and spreading his legs wide. Sterling didn’t budge. Damian clung to me like he would be ripped away at any moment. I stood as strong as I could, with my head held high.

“It’s not him!” Sterling bellowed to the officers. “This is the fucker you want right here!” He kicked Drake in the ribs with his boot and cocked his weapon. “Take him fast before I put a bullet in his brain!”

Another man stepped over the first and surveyed the room. His eyes fell on me and moved on. I felt so relieved that I didn’t seem to be the person they were looking for. He came to the bottom of the stairs, weapon braced in his palm on the ready. “Which one of you is Drake Sullivan?” he asked, looking at Sterling, who still had his badge draped around his neck.

My mate kicked the fallen man again, harder this time, eliciting a whimper. “Guess you didn’t hear me the first time. This pile of shit is Drake Sullivan. He is responsible for the slew of murders we’ve been investigating. I also have it on good faith that he started the fire at the precinct. We should just put him out of his goddamn misery and file an official report that he shot himself before he could be apprehended.”

Cole looked up from his position on the floor to see if it was safe to move. When no one was looking at him, he scooted to join Damian on the floor and grabbed my hand to pull me down with them.

“There is no need to waste tax dollars to feed this bitch,” Sterling said.

The other cop chuckled. “Get him off the floor. We have enough evidence to send him to the electric chair. No tax money is going to go to waste on him. Take those ropes off him so he can walk. I’m not carrying his sorry ass up the stairs.”

“I can carry him,” Sterling suggested, hesitant to follow the order.

“Let him walk. It’ll be the last walk he ever makes as a free man.”

Sterling dropped and untied Drake. “You do anything stupid and I’ll fucking end you,” he whispered into his ear.

Drake mumbled something incoherent and faltered to his feet as Sterling jerked him roughly off the ground.

“Take him up the stairs. There’s a car waiting for him outside.” The other cop turned to go, leaving the prisoner in Sterling’s hands. Before he could maneuver him forward, Drake twisted and broke free, making a mad dash toward where I sat with my other two mates. His eyes were red and full of rage. As he reached for me, he stiffened and fell forward. I hadn’t even heard the gun go off. Sterling had made good on his promise. The small hole in the back of Drake’s head evidence that when you fuck with an Incubus mate, you would die.

The other cop didn’t say a word at first. He looked at Sterling and nodded. “You did what you had to do. I’ll make sure they know you’re a hero.” He whistled up the stairs. “Call the medical examiner. The suspect is dead.”