Rage and Ruin (The Harbinger 2)

“Possible,” Zayne said.

“Well, I mean, who cares, though?” Cayman asked, and I looked to where he stood behind Roth. “He was a bad dude, and things were never going to end well for him.”

“Tact,” Roth explained, “is not something Cayman has ever learned.”

“Mainly because tact is often pretending you care when you don’t,” he replied. “Look, all I’m saying is I wouldn’t throw a life jacket to that guy if our boat was sinking.”

Zayne rubbed his brow as he shook his head.

“Well,” I said. “You are a demon, so...”

“I’d also kill baby Hitler,” Cayman announced. “Easily.”

“Jesus,” Zayne muttered under his breath.

“I’d kill baby Harbinger, too,” Cayman added.

“Really?” Layla pursed her lips. “A baby? But what if there was a chance you could change him?”

Exhaling heavily, Zayne dropped his hand but still looked like he was about to have an aneurysm.

“Some people can’t change,” Roth interjected. “Evil is their destiny.”

“But a baby?” Layla shuddered. “That would be hard.”

“Not really,” Cayman said, shrugging when her eyes widened.

“Is this a necessary conversation to have right now?” Zayne asked.

“No, I agree,” I jumped in, and Zayne sighed once more. “Knowing what the Harbinger has been doing, I’d go back in time and terminate his ass.”

Layla was quiet and then she nodded. “Yeah, I’d kill baby Harbinger.”

Roth crossed his arms. “You know I’d do it.”

“Now, that’s a shocker,” muttered Zayne.

“I’d do it, but then again, I don’t have a problem killing some babies, because I’m a demon.” Cayman paused as we all turned toward him again. “Oh, was that an overshare?”

I lifted my pointer finger and thumb. “Just a little.”

“What about you, Zayne?” Roth asked. “Would you kill baby Harbinger?”

“Yes,” he said, and I imagined a vein was beginning to throb in his temple. “I would. Now that we’ve all agreed that we’d kill baby Harbinger, can we get a move on?”

“Sure.” Cayman grinned. “I don’t know about you guys, but this sharing-and-caring moment makes me feel like we’re a real team that can get stuff done. Like the Avengers, but more evil.”

“So, pretty much like Tony Stark?” Layla said.

“Tony Stark is not evil!” Cayman shouted, causing me to jump. “Why do you keep saying that? He’s the only one who ever tried to set boundaries. He just has moral gray areas, thank you very much.”

“You know he’s not real?” I asked. “Right?”

Cayman spun on me. “How dare you?”

“Okay. Really.” Zayne gestured to the sidewalk. “Seriously.”

The plan was to enter around the side of the building, where the work trucks had been parked.

“I think we should check out the basement locker area, since we’re certain that’s where the tunnels lead,” Roth suggested. “It’s where the Lilin and Nightcrawlers were last time. We can access it through the gymnasium.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Zayne said and started walking up the sidewalk.

“What?” I caught his arm, stopping him. “What do you mean it sounds like a plan?”

His face was shadowed in the glow of the streetlamp. “Just what it sounds like.”

“Zayne, we talked about this,” I said, keeping my voice low.

“Yeah, we did. I’m going to be careful and—”

“That’s not what we agreed on!”

“What did we agree on exactly?” He pulled his arm free.

“We agreed that you’d stay outside until we knew what we were facing.”

“That’s not what I agreed to.”

“You have to got to be kidding me.” I stepped back, hands opening and closing at my sides. “I thought we agreed—”

“We agreed to figure this out together. That doesn’t mean I agreed to stay out here.”

“So, you’re going to go in there, where there might be demons and pissed-off ghosts and Shadow People, who are far more dangerous than most ghosts?” I was aware that we were gaining an audience of three. “What if the Harbinger is in there?”

“Do you feel him?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t there or won’t show up—”

“While I’m outside?”

“Or he could be in that school and I just don’t feel him yet. Neither of us can tell if there are more demons around, because, hello, there are several of them right here with us, eavesdropping on our conversation!”

“I’m only part demon,” Layla murmured. “Why are you guys arguing over this? I’m confused.”

“I’m enthralled,” Cayman countered.

I turned from Zayne, not wanting to say what was going on, but they needed to know. “His skin is no longer like a Warden’s. It’s like a human’s.”

“Like yours,” Zayne called from behind me.

I ignored that. “And he hasn’t had any time to figure out what that means and how to work with it.”

Layla stepped toward us. “How is that possible?”

“It’s a long story,” I said, not really wanting to get into our super personal business. “But I want him to stand back until we know what’s inside.”

“I can still fight,” Zayne said.

“Yes, you can. We’ve already discussed this, but the moment they realize that your skin is as soft as a baby’s butt, they’re going to exploit that,” I reasoned.

“She has a point, man.” Roth’s gaze shifted to Zayne.

“Would you sit out while Layla went in there?” Zayne demanded.

“Well, my skin would never be as soft as a baby’s butt, so no.”

I threw up my hands, exasperated, as I glared at Zayne. “You cannot go in there.”

“Hold up.” Layla jumped in, turning to Roth. “If something happened that made you more vulnerable, would you really put yourself in danger out of some backward caveman need to protect me? Even when I clearly don’t need you to protect me?”

Roth opened his mouth.

“Think really hard about how you answer that question,” she warned, holding up a hand. “Because you and I are going to have a very uncomfortable evening if you say yes.”

Roth closed his mouth.

“I totally understand why you don’t want him in there,” Layla said to me. “I wouldn’t want Roth to be in there, either, if something had made him more vulnerable. You’re not in the wrong here, but you?” She pointed at Zayne. “You are in the wrong.”

“Excuse me?” Zayne responded while I smiled.

“Would you be okay with Trinity going in there if the shoe was on the other foot?”

“Actually, the shoe—”

“Not the same thing,” I interrupted, pinning him with a glare. “I know what my limitations are. I know how to work around them. You don’t know your limitations yet.”

A muscle ticked along his jaw.

“You wouldn’t, Zayne. You would not be okay with her doing it. Not only that, you’d be so distracted with worry about her that you’d also be vulnerable,” Layla went on. “Is that what you want her to be? Distracted while dealing with Shadow People and who knows what else?”

His lips thinned as he shook his head, his narrowed gaze finding me. “No. I don’t want her distracted.”

“Then you can’t go in there,” she said, her voice softening. “I know it’ll kill you to stay out here, but that’s better than getting hurt or being the reason she gets hurt.”

“Fine,” he bit out, sounding not even remotely fine.

Relief swept through me so powerfully I almost started crying, and he must’ve felt that through the bond, because his eyes widened slightly. I went over to him, folding my arms around his waist as I stared up at him. “Thank you.”

A sighed shuddered through him as he lifted his hands to my cheeks. “I hate this,” he said, voice low. “I hate the idea of not being in there with you. I’m your Protector. This feels...wrong.”

“I know.” My gaze searched his in the darkness. “But I’ll be okay. And you’ll be okay. We just need time to adapt to this. Patrol. Hunt. We haven’t had that time yet.”

“Don’t be logical,” he said, lowering his head. “That’s not your job. It’s mine.”

Before I could point out that I was entitled to be logical every once in a while, Zayne kissed me, and it was no quick, chaste kiss. He coaxed my lips open with his, and the moment the kiss deepened, the world around us faded away. I leaned farther into him, and when the sound he made rumbled through me, my toes curled.

“Well, now we know why Zayne’s suddenly all soft and virtually useless,” Cayman commented dryly. “Look at the happy couple.”

“I can still kill you.” Zayne’s lips brushed mine once more before he lifted his head, pinning the demon broker with a dark look. “Easily.”

Cayman gasped. “I’m affronted.”

I peeked over my shoulder, my gaze finding Layla. I didn’t know what I expected to see when I looked at her, but what I saw was happiness. The sad kind I recognized and had felt myself, way back when I’d realized Misha had been interested in someone. It wasn’t that I’d wanted him, or that I hadn’t wanted him with someone else, but he’d been mine in a way, and then he was no longer. I imagined it was the same for Layla.

Emotions were weird.

“That was the consequence?” Roth asked, cursing under his breath. “You fall in love and it weakens you?”