Rage and Ruin (The Harbinger 2)

“You’re right,” he snarled. “And that’s why we don’t play along. That’s not how we’ll beat him.”

“And how will we beat him, All-Knowing One? We don’t know where he’s staying or have any way of tracking him if we can’t chase him.” I spun away and stalked across the roof. “This whole time we’ve just been waiting for him—”

“That was the plan we agreed to.”

“But we’re not behind the steering wheel here.” I stopped, taking deep breaths of the warm night air. The other Trueborn’s presence was completely gone. “If this is a story, we’re not driving the plot, buddy.”

“This isn’t a story, and even if it was, sometimes forcing things to happen is not only unrealistic but incredibly stupid. So, you know what, we’ll rewrite the story.”

Huh.

I turned around, seeing that he’d followed. “I’m completely lost now in this conversation.”

His wings swept back. “Remember when I said I had an idea? Before Sulien the Douchebag showed up?”

My lips twitched. “You said douchebag. Peanut would be so proud.”

“Glad to know,” he replied. “There is another way, if we can’t take down those wards. Something that will definitely free those trapped there and get rid of the wards.”

“What? Angel Spells Begone?”

“Didn’t know such a thing existed. Wonder if we can order it from Amazon?”

“Ha. Ha. That was my enthusiastic, you-said-something-clever laugh, in case you didn’t know.”

Zayne’s expression was indecipherable, but I sensed his rich amusement. “We can find a way to take down those wards, then find a way to take out the tunnels and that school, if need be.”

I blinked once and then twice. “Are you, a Warden, suggesting we blow up the tunnels and the school?”

“That is exactly what I’m suggesting.”

* * *

Blowing things up was probably—okay, definitely—a felony, so it should be a last resort, but it was a damn good idea. One that now seemed incredibly obvious.

The rest of the evening was spent discussing the logistics of doing so, which was a conversation I was glad we weren’t having over the phone—I was pretty sure it would result in Homeland Security and the FBI showing up on the doorstep.

We didn’t see Sulien again, nor any demons, and by the time we returned to the couchless apartment, we’d decided we would probably have to involve Roth. Hellfire wouldn’t take down angel wards, so we were going to have to go the good ole human method of mass destruction.

Explosive materials.

Surprisingly, the Wardens didn’t have any stashed away, so we figured Roth would be our best off-market bet.

I mean, I’d be disappointed if he didn’t have access to any.

That night wasn’t like the night before, but it also wasn’t like any other night, either. Zayne and I, well, we were together. We were a thing, and even though it felt like we’d known each other for years instead of months, everything was still fresh. I didn’t want to assume he’d sleep with me, both in the literal and figurative sense.

So, as I’d brushed my teeth and gotten ready for bed, I’d gone over all the possible nonawkward ways I could broach the topic. I ended up working myself into knots by the time Zayne had done the same.

All for nothing.

Because when he came out of the bathroom, pajama bottoms hanging low on his lean hips and hair damp around his face, he asked, “You want me with you?”

Plopping onto the bed, I nodded as I scooted over. He slid onto the bed with far more grace, leaving the bedside lamp on.

I lay down, unsure what to do. Should I initiate fun times? Was I expected to? Was he? I didn’t think being together meant having sex every time you ended up in a bed with your significant other. Not that I didn’t want to, but I was, well, I was a little sore. Like not cringe-worthy sore, but...different.

I wished I could call Jada and ask.

“Mind if I turn out the light?” Zayne asked.

“Nope,” I said, hoping it didn’t sound so much like a squeak as it did to my own ears.

The bed shifted and the light turned off. Then there was a shift again as Zayne rolled toward me. Like he’d done on the rooftop, he snagged me by the waist, arm under my back, and tucked me against his warm chest.

“You comfortable like this?” was his next question.

“Yeah.” He was warm and smelled like fresh mint, and I liked how one of his hands found mine in the dark. Our fingers threaded together. “Are you...going to sleep?”

“Eventually.” There was a pause. “We didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”

In the darkness, I flushed. “Not my fault.”

“I would say neither of us were at fault. Or both of us were.”

“But you brought out the cookies, and that energized me.”

He laughed, and a few seconds later, I felt his mouth against my temple, pressing a quick kiss there. He started telling me about the first time he’d met Roth, and how he had struggled to maintain his human form in public. I listened, laughing at how obvious Roth had been about goading him into shifting. He told me how Nicolai and Dez had both reluctantly come to like the demon prince, if not completely trust him, and about his own history with Danika. How his father had wanted him and Danika to mate, but he’d always viewed her as more of a sister.

Finally, he confirmed that Danika and Nicolai were, indeed, doing the couple thing. We both determined that Nicolai was probably having a harder time dealing with her than he was running the clan, because she was unlike any other female Warden I knew. He told me about Nicolai’s first wife, who’d died during childbirth, and Zayne admitted that after being in the room with Jasmine’s twins for an hour, he wasn’t sure he’d ever want kids. He’d make the exception on adopting once they were old enough to shift, and I’d laughed, thinking how I’d overhead Matthew once say he’d adopt if the child was housebroken. I’d about died, because yeah, potty training had to be one of the circles of Hell.

We talked until our eyes got heavy and the breaks between responses grew longer. Never once did the topic of the Harbinger come up, or anything related to our duty, and while we lay together in the dark, there was no tomorrow to worry about, no pressures or fears.

And this was better than anything I could’ve hoped for. Anything I could’ve wanted or needed. Just us and words and our fingers, threaded together.

Those minutes that stretched out were simply...more.

* * *

An update we’d be waiting for came unexpectedly, right before we left the apartment to patrol—the eerily empty apartment. Movers had come that morning, a small army that quickly packed up the kitchen, the mats and punching bag, and everything in the bedroom. We’d been planning to swing by the new place before we left for the evening, but that wasn’t going to happen now. The first time I’d see it would be tonight, and luckily, Peanut already knew where to find us. I’d reminded him this morning, and he’d responded that walls meant nothing to him and he was a “free range” ghost.

Sigh.

Zayne’s phone rang as I stood where the couch used to be, twisting three sections of my hair into the lamest looking braid ever.

“What’s up, Dez?” he answered as he walked past me, dipping to press a quick kiss on my forehead. “What? For real?”

Zayne stiffened, and all my attention focused on him as he turned back to me. “Okay. Thank you.” A pause. “Yeah, I’ll keep you guys updated. Thanks again.”

“What?” I asked the moment he disconnected the call.

Zayne smiled. “Senator Fisher is back in town.”

“Really?” That was not what I’d been expecting. “I was really beginning to believe the guy was dead.”

“Well, he’s alive and checked in to the Condor, in one of the federal suites.” Zayne told me the floor and room number. “Dez said he’s got security with him, most likely stationed outside the suite, in the private hall and inside with him.”

“So, we can take care of them,” I said. “We’re going now.”

“Yeah, but if they’re just government workers doing their job, we don’t want to do...too much harm to them. We’ll need backup.” Zayne thumbed through the contacts on his phone. “Since there are definitely going to be humans there.”

“Roth?” I knew Roth could mess with human minds, erasing short-term memories or replacing them with something different.

Zayne nodded as he lifted the phone to his ear. As he spoke to Roth, I quickly finished the braid I was trying to tame my hair into. It was uneven as Hell, but it would keep my hair out of my face. I tried to not get too excited about the news, because who knew what we’d find when we got there, but the senator could tell us where the Harbinger was. He could tell us what the Hell the Harbinger was planning and could tell me what Misha had said—

No.

It didn’t matter what Misha had said, or why he’d done what he did. I had to let that go, because finding out was not the priority here.

I exhaled roughly, dropping my hands as Zayne hung up. “Roth isn’t available, but he’s sending Cayman over. He’s going to meet us there.”

“Awesome.” I wondered what Cayman would be wearing today. “The plan?”

Zayne headed to the island, where a small pouch of keys resided. “We get in and we make him talk, one way or another. Find out where the Harbinger is staying and what’s going on with the school.”

“And if he doesn’t talk?”

Zayne dumped out the keys as he peered through his lashes. “Humans are...fragile, Trin, and from what I’ve learned, humans who conspire to do evil are always the weakest, because it’s the inherent weakness that led them to do evil. Find the weakness and exploit that. They’ll spill the tea faster than an anonymous Twitter account.”