Fate Succumbs (31 page)

“
It probably has something
to do with that whole Scout being Jesus’s sister thing,” Liam said
ever-so-helpfully.

“
I’m Jesus?”

“
Jase!” Talley smacked his
arm, eyes wide. “Don’t be sacrilegious.”

“
Hey, he started
it!”

“
I didn’t know Jesus had a
sister.” Charlie was propped up against the banister. I pretended I
didn’t see the cane he was trying to hide behind the
post.

“
He doesn’t,” I said. “Liam
and his family just happen to be suffering from a case of inherited
delusion.”

“
What, pray tell, does this
delusion include?” Charlie asked.

“
Oh, the usual. I’m the
actual child of God, who used to be the moon but got turned into
the first Shifter, and have now been reincarnated to lead my people
out of bondage and set up heaven on earth, or some such
nonsense.”

“
Heaven on earth. Would
that be anything like an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet?”

“
I was thinking more like
Disney Land without the lines.”

“
I would’ve gone with
Universal,” the new-to-me guy said. “They have that cool Spider-Man
ride
and
Butterbeer.”

I actually took the time to look at him and
realized he wasn’t a part of the Hagan Pack. Hagan men are on the
short side of average height, solid without the word heavy ever
crossing your mind, and green eyed. This guy was like a six foot
tall bean pole with big brown eyes bugging out of his narrow face.
I decided he had to be from another Pack, although part of me
rejected the idea of him being a Shifter at all. There was
something off about him that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

“
Who are you?” It wasn’t
the most polite introduction ever. My grandmothers, all four of
them, would have been appalled.

“
Joshua,” he said, holding
out a huge bony hand. “I’m Jase’s roommate.”

Surely I heard that wrong...

“
Jase’s roommate? From
college?”

“
Yes, ma’am.”

“
Jase somehow magically got
paired with a Shifter roommate?”

“
Me? A Shifter?” Joshua
snorted.

I wheeled on my brother. “I know I said you
needed to be more honest about all this Shifter stuff, but I was
talking about with me, the sister you’ve known your whole life. Not
some guy you met in August. And I certainly didn’t mean to bring
him to my cage match with Sarvarna.”

Jase leaned back against the glider he and
Talley were sitting in front of and pulled his mate against his
chest. “Liam said we needed people.”

“
Shifter people. Not human
people.”

“
Oh, well, if it helps, I’m
not human.”
Crazy not-a-Shifter say
what?
“Maybe I should retry that
introduction.” He stuck out his hand again. “Hi, I’m Joshua, an
Immortal.”

I waited, but no one laughed.

“
There are no such things
as Immortals.”

Joshua reached up and tugged on his ear. “Am
I supposed to pinch you, or are you supposed to pinch me to prove
my existence?”

“
Either of those will only
prove you’re corporeal.” I pulled out the pocket knife I had found
in the kangaroo pouch of the Harley hoodie. Using a move Liam
drilled into my head over the winter, I pinned Joshua to one of the
porch posts and aimed the knife at his jugular. “That isn’t what I
need to know. Now, do I stab you, or do you stab yourself?” I
pushed the tip a little further into his neck, but not enough to
even nick him. I may be prepared to take on the entire Alpha Pack
if I have to, but there was no way I could really stab a guy who
looked like a Muppet. But I could scare him a little, especially if
it would end whatever stupid joke he and Jase were having at my
expense.

His hand grabbed my wrist, wrenching it
around until I dropped the knife.

“
No stabbing.”

“
But I thought Immortals
were, you know,
immortal
.”

“
I am. If you stab me, I’ll
live, but it’s still going to feel like someone shoved a knife into
my neck.”

I eyed the knife. It had been days since I
had a proper sparring session, and anyone strong enough to disarm
me was worth playing with. I trusted the Hagans not to bring
someone who couldn’t handle a little hand-to-hand for the fun of
it. “You know, they say that which does not kill you makes you
stronger.” I lunged for the knife, but it was kicked away before my
fingers could close on the hilt. And then a kick caught me in my
ribs, not hard enough to break anything, but enough to knock the
breath out of me. I flew back, not stopping until the house caught
me.

“
Thanks, but I’m strong
enough already.”

I would have agreed with him, but first I
had to remember how to breathe.

“
By the way,” Jase said, “I
brought my friend Joshua along. He’s an Immortal. Don’t pick a
fight with him. Apparently those guys are like crazy
strong.”

“
Thanks.” I stood up and
stretched. My ribs were tender, but not broken. I could feel a
bruise forming on my left shoulder where it got up close and
intimate with the brick wall. “Your timing is, as always,
impeccable.”

“
Oh, and I already did the
Touch-and-See thing to confirm it,” Talley added with an impish
smile.

“
Great. You’ve turned
Talley evil.” I rotated my wrist, which seemed to be in perfect
working order. “And don’t think I can’t see you trying not to
laugh, Charlie Hagan. You’re on my list now, too.”

Charlie tried to swallow his smile and
failed. “We thought about telling you right off the bat, but
decided this would be way more fun.”

Joshua seemed to be just as amused as the
others. “I suppose you were in on the ambush plot?”

“
I’ve always wanted to see
how I’d fare against a Shifter.” He shrugged those thin shoulders
which should not have been able to hold so much freakish strength.
“This seemed like a good practice round.”

As I hobbled over to the glider next to
where Liam was holding up a wall, I gave Joshua another perusal,
this time doing nothing to hide my assessment. Yes, those arms were
long and thin, but not lacking in muscle. His posture was supposed
to appear relaxed, but once I took the time to actually look, I
could see the warrior’s stance. From the way he responded to my
aggression, I would say he was trained. Extremely trained. Like
Jason Bourne trained.

“
Immortals are
real?”

“
As real as Shifters and
Seers,” he said.

“
And
Thaumaturgics?”

“
I’ve met a
few.”

“
How does that work? And
how did you end up sharing a room with my brother?”

“
How it works isn’t for you
to know, and Jase just happened to get the luck of the
draw.”

Right. Sure. That didn’t sound way too
convenient at all.

I folded myself onto the glider. “Tell me,
Joshua the Immortal, why is it you’re here?”

“
Same as everyone else
here. The Alphas took someone I loved. Since I can’t get them back,
I’ll have to settle for a little vengeance.”

“
Funny, I thought we were
all here to get ourselves killed so Scout can feel oh-so-special.”
Makya was sprawled across the glider facing me, making it
impossible for me to miss the disdain oozing in my direction. “I
mean, is she really so good in bed you’re willing to die just to
tap that again?” His question was aimed at Liam and Charlie. “If
so, I need to be getting me some of that before we throw down with
the Alphas.”

Shifters are all fast, but Liam made the
rest of us look like slugs when he crossed the porch and jerked
Makya up by his throat.

You know those moments when the right thing
is crazy obvious, and you know you’re supposed to do the right
thing, but you just can’t seem to bring yourself to do it? This was
one of those moments for me. I knew I was supposed to make Liam
stop. Makya was turning blue, for the love of Pete. Of course he
should stop. And I knew I should be the one to say, “Liam, put the
idiot down,” but I didn’t. I watched Makya struggle, his feet a
good two inches off the ground. I watched Liam, who could have been
a statue for as much as he moved. I heard Jase say, “Dude, he can’t
breathe,” and Charlie mention something about it not being worth
it, but I did nothing. I suppose if Toby hadn’t stepped in, I might
have just sat there and watch Liam kill him, although I doubt Liam
would have let it go that far.

“
He’s a coward and a
traitor.” Liam dropped him back onto the glider. In the first
intelligent move of his entire life, Makya stayed down and didn’t
say a word. Although, I guess it’s kind of hard to talk when you’re
gasping for breath. “I want him gone before morning,” Liam said as
he walked back into the house without sparing the rest of us a
glance.

“
He’s crazy,” Makya wheezed
once he had enough air to accomplish it.

Finally propelled to do something, I went to
stand over the sorry sack of loser. There were lots of people to
blame for what went down last summer, and most likely it would have
happened without anyone’s help, but at that moment all I could
think of was how Makya set off a chain of events which ended with
me standing in front of a guillotine.

“
Because of you, three men
died, one is in a coma, and your cousin can’t walk without a
freaking cane. You’ve earned whatever bad crap happens to you,
Makya. It’s called karma, and it really is a bitch to those who
deserve it.” I leaned in and showed him my teeth. “Ironically, so
am I.”

“
What did I do? None of
that was my fault! That was your doing, you psycho!”

“
We all know who made the
call to The Matthews Pack which led the Alphas to us, so just shut
up.” I leaned in even further so he could feel my breath on his
face. “Liam wasn’t kidding. You better be gone by morning, but feel
free to use my phone before you go to make your call. Be sure and
send Sarvarna my loathing.”

It was a stab in the dark, but his face
proved I was right. “You’ll get them all killed,” he said. “My
family. My father. They’re all going to die just because you think
you’re so freaking special. Scout Donovan, the high and the mighty.
I’ve been putting up with you and your holier-than-thou crap since
we were kids.” Pure hatred seared through his gaze. “I can’t wait
until they put you in your place.”

“
New deadline.” I leaned
back on my heels. “Either you’re off this property in fifteen
minutes, or I finish what Liam started.”

I expected a lot of things, but a gun wasn’t
one of them. I darted to the left, grabbed Makya’s arm, and used
his momentum to throw him over my head… and directly into the
outdoor fireplace Liam had lit earlier in the evening.

“
You might want to stop,
drop, and roll there, buddy,” Jase said when a flaming Makya jerked
himself back onto the porch.

Toby tossed a throw around Makya’s shoulders
and threw him to the ground.

“
Fourteen minutes.” My
voice sounded cold and firm despite the adrenaline pumping through
my veins.

Makya threw off the blanket, and I could see
burns all down his left arm and across his back where his shirt had
been charred off. They looked painful, but not life threatening.
With one final declaration that we could all perform sex acts on
ourselves, he jumped off the porch and started walking in a
ridiculously leisurely fashion towards the road.

Chapter 27

“
How are you
really
doing?” I asked
Charlie, flopping down next to him on the two person glider. The
adults had all found their way to various beds and inflatable
mattresses, leaving the under twenty crowd to hang on the
porch.

“
I’m fine?” He looked
genuinely confused. “Why?”

I grabbed his cane and twirled it like one
of those wooden rifle things the marching band chicks have. “No
reason.”

Jase, who was once again snuggled up with
Talley, reached over and took the cane, which never stopped
spinning as it passed from my hand to his. “His left leg and back
are jacked up. The back was broken, and the leg is from the gunshot
wound. He was supposed to shoot his inner-thigh. He missed.”

I made my hand into the shape of a gun and
pointed at my leg. And then I tried a different angle. And then
another.

“
Okay, I give up. How did
you miss?”

Charlie scooted down in the chair and then
kicked up with his good leg. The cane went flying. He caught it
before it smacked into his head without even looking up.

“
Guess I’m just
clumsy.”

I laughed, because that was what I was
supposed to do, but it didn’t feel right. I hooked my arm with his
and laid my head on his shoulder. At one time, sitting like that
with Charlie would have sent my heart into spasms of excitement,
but now it did the opposite. Being able to touch him, to know he
was okay, calmed me. “You know I’m really mad at you, right? What
kind of moronic move was that anyway? What were you thinking trying
to take on the Alpha Male and three members of The Alpha Pack on
your own?”

“
I was thinking, ‘I’m not
going to let them kill one of my best friends,’ at first; and then
I was thinking, ‘I’m not going to let them kill me’; and by the end
I was thinking about how the cake is a lie, but I’m pretty sure
that was the brain injury taking over.”