Shards: Book One of the Anderian Series

Chapter 34: Clarity

We walked for an hour until June found a car she could hot wire. I collapsed in the front seat and closed my eyes, telling myself I would feel more guilt over stealing a vehicle if I wasn't so ill and exhausted. When my eyes opened again, rain pelted the windshield as we cruised down an empty highway, and from the sliver of light hugging the distant horizon, it was very early or early evening. Either way, it had been several hours since we'd escaped the house, and I prayed we'd put a reasonable amount of distance between us and the enemy.

"Shit," I shouted, bolting upright in my seat and startling June so badly she jerked the wheel causing the compact sedan to slip over the solid yellow line.

"What the fuck, Bria?"

I shook my head and drew in a deep breath as I followed Amaya's instructions on changing our signatures. Pain and nausea threatened to overtake me, but I pushed through, draining the dredges of energy my nap had restored until at last I felt the shift. Only then did I resurface.

"You okay?"

"No," I moaned, rolling down the window and sticking my face into the chilly rain. The back of my head had a heartbeat, and my vision had doubled. "But I'll make it."

I hoped.

"So now that you're awake nearly twenty-four hours later..."

"What?"

I pulled my head back in and blinked rain drops out of my eyes. Leather squeaked beneath me as I turned and sat on my knees, peering through the back windshield and finding nothing but the red glow of headlights. How had no one come after us? Unless one or both of them were too injured. Kohl certainly was, and Jac would have to find a witch to track me.

The succubus straightened her fingers over the steering wheel and wiggled them. A single, sharp white tooth pressed into her lower lip, and when she replied, she kept her eyes pinned on the road. "I was actually considering taking you to the hospital. I tried to wake you up the last two times we stopped."

"Probably the massive concussion."

That earned a chuckle. "Further proof you aren't exactly human. They wouldn't be able to take a blow like that to the head and keep going."

"About that—" I hesitated. June was my best friend—maybe my only friend, and I trusted her with my life. Still, it felt weird admitting to anyone what I was. "We figured out why no one could identify my species. Chances are there is no one else like me."

Sucking in a deep breath, I launched into the explanation she'd demanded back at the house, going into as much detail as I dared regarding my ancestry, purposefully skipping the bit about descending from the gods. June was appropriately shocked. At one point, I had to grab the steering wheel and remind her to focus on the road.

"Andarian. You're an Andarian."

"Half."

"If it makes you feel better to say that, then okay, but we both know the Supernatural world is going to call it like it is. And ironically, for a society built on being outcasts, they don't like things or creatures they don't understand."

I snorted and immediately regretted it as pain ricocheted through my head. "So glad to know solving the mystery that is me hasn't really changed anything. I still don't fit in anywhere."

Her hand was warm on top of mine, and I returned the gentle squeeze. "You don't want to fit in with those fools."

"Is this where you tell me I was born to stand out?"

"Something like that. Now let's stop somewhere and grab a bite to eat."

I pasted on a smile. Food sounded like a terrible idea, but the last thing I'd eaten was leftover mystery noodles. And they hadn't stayed down long enough to do any good. Maybe if I picked something small, I wouldn't throw it up.

An hour later, the French fries I forced myself to eat churned in my gut, but so far I hadn't had the urge to vomit. When I explained to June how I changed our signatures, she sagged in her seat, relief softening her features, and asked if we could stop at a hotel and get some proper sleep. As much as I wanted to keep going, I couldn't drive, and it was obvious she was at the end of her rope.

"You know, the last time I was in a hotel, someone kidnapped me," I joked as we walked into our room at a four-star hotel.

"From what little I heard, that was a motel." June wrinkled her nose as she pushed down on one of the queen mattresses. I flopped stomach first on my bed and wallowed in the luxury. "Not that this is much better."

"Are you kidding me? I looked at rooms here once for a conference. Five hundred dollars a night to start."

"Good thing we aren't paying for this, then."

Eyelids already heavy, I mumbled. "Aren't you, though? You and I both know where you're heading right now."

"You call it paying. I call it dessert." She paused beside my bed. I rolled over, careful not to bump my head, and looked up at her. "Lock the door. I'll be back... when I get back."

"Of course." Arms stretched overhead, I watched her head toward the door. "The bellboy looked like he was interested."

She flipped her braids over her shoulder and tossed me a wink. "He'll be joining us on his break."

The door clicked shut, and I hauled myself out of the bed and into the bathroom. I braced against the sink and stared at the woman in the mirror. Stringy brown hair framed a pale, gaunt face. The nightgown's shoulder straps were loose and threatening to slide down, and all along my arms and neck, tiny bruises bloomed in the shape of fingerprints, each one marking where Jac had restrained me.

The woman behind the front desk had taken one look at me in my flimsy nightgown and bruised face and nearly kicked us out. We were only here by the grace of June's irresistible smile and cleavage. My friend didn't make a habit of using her powers to cheat the system like this often, but since this wasn't the place a person paid for in cash and she refused to downgrade, she did what she had to get us a room. Not that she was terribly upset about the turn of events. A threesome was a Tuesday night for June.

What day was it, actually? Every thing was blurring together. Everything but the hours Cian and I had spent together in that cave.

I covered my mouth to quiet a sob. What if Kohl was telling the truth? What if Cian truly was dead? I would never have the chance to tell him how special our time together was. That it was more than just sex, and I couldn't admit it until now. Because admitting it would mean there was something more than just an attraction between us. That he completed me in a way no one else had ever done.

Something in my chest pulled tight and snapped into place. The room tilted, and I gripped the countertop to stay upright. When everything stopped moving, I rubbed the heel of my palm between my breasts—right over the spot where I could feel a strange warmth. It reminded me of the way the Shard felt, but where the Shard was a foreign, unwelcome presence, this one was familiar and pleasing.

It responded to my thoughts about it. Swelling and stirring in my chest, and in my mind, I could imagine it growing and glowing with a golden light.

"I was about to give up, and then I felt it," Cian whispered. "Completion."

"Oh shit," I whispered.