The water didn’t reach beyond the man’s ankles, but it was enough. I watched the life drain from his eyes as the primal intensity of my Siren’s curse sunk into his skin and poisoned him. His grip on my shoulders tightened until I grimaced from his strength, but then it loosened until his hands went slack and I finally let go so he could slide to the ground.
His body hit the still-bubbling puddle and sizzled in the rippling surface. He started convulsing, jerking so hard that his legs kicked out wildly and his mouth started foaming and drooling water down his chin.
“Let’s go,” I told Ryder. I had no desire to stick around and watch the rest of this. I glanced up and caught Ryder’s horrified stare. His eyes moved slowly to mine and I flinched from the fear and confusion etched into his expression.
“Ivy?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “I’ve never done that before.”
“Then how did you-”
“Lucky guess. Now, please, let’s go. I don’t want to see the rest of this. Or get caught.”
He nodded once, snapping back to survival mode.
“Don’t step in it.” I moved down to the next set of stairs, but I didn’t trust the water to be safe yet. The gigante was still seizing, although his eyes were completely sightless by now.
Ryder edged around the landing as carefully as he could and joined me on the step. He looked down at my dripping feet and back up to my eyes.
“Maybe you should go in front of me,” I suggested.
“I don’t think it will hurt me.” The conviction in his voice surprised me.
“Because you have powers too?”
“Because you don’t want to hurt me.”
He was right about that. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I hadn’t exactly wanted to hurt the gigante either- at least not consciously. I hadn’t meant to kill him. I just wanted to escape.
Murder was a byproduct of using this water-based power. The original Siren myth came back to me: Women luring sailors to their island and sinking their ships before they ever reached land.
My mother had never killed anyone that I was aware of. No Siren in recent history had killed anyone. They hadn’t needed to. They went after the sick and the dying, men already sentenced to their death by the cruelty of disease.
This had been intentional. I had used powers that had never been explained to me. I didn’t know if my mother even had access to something this sinister, or anything other than the lure of her looks.
“We should go,” I suggested. “Who knows how many others are nearby or who else he called.”
“Yeah,” Ryder agreed.
But he didn’t move right away.
Instead, he held out his hand to me. I stared at it, desperately trying to figure out what he wanted me to do.
“Ryder,” I pleaded.
“Ivy, I trust you. Take my hand.” I swallowed against the fierce conviction in his tone. He did trust me. That was indisputable. But I did not trust myself. “Red.” If he had stayed strong, I would have resisted. But his voice cracked over my nickname, the infusion of a plea broke down my willpower.
With trembling fingers, I reached out and let him take my hand. Deep relief washed over me when nothing happened. The power stayed firmly wrapped up inside me and Ryder’s skin remained safe against mine.
He offered me a shaky smile. “See?”
I nodded, “Okay.”
We hurried the rest of the way down and came out the back part of the lobby. We were partially hidden from the front doors by a half wall and a decorative plant. We had decided on caution when we exited the stairwell and thank goodness.
Nix stood in the lobby, just inside the door.
Ryder and I saw him at the exact same time and dropped to the floor. The stairwell door hadn’t closed all of the way yet because it was pressurized. Ryder stuck out his foot to catch it before it clicked loudly and gave away our position.
It was clear that Nix had just stepped inside the building. He was flanked by four other gigantes with bulging muscles and troll-like bodies. He hung up a cell phone and started speaking quietly to them, giving them instructions because they were nodding while their eyes darted around the building.
“Shit,” I hissed.
“Wait until they go upstairs,” Ryder whispered. “We’ll go out the front door.”
I peeked around the corner to see Nix move toward the elevator. He looked as impeccable as he always did. His dark gray suit fit his frame perfectly, draping over broad shoulders and tapering down to his narrow waist. His dark hair was styled to give him the look of an elegant business man and his jaw was closely shaved. He was as handsome as I remembered.
And as evil.
A shiver slithered down my spine born from raw fear. I never wanted to get this close to him again.
As soon as I saw him a weight landed on my shoulders, pushing me into the ground, making my limbs heavy and sluggish. It compressed my lungs, making it difficult to breathe, and squeezed my heart so tightly I thought it would burst in my chest.
I had blissfully lived without that weight for almost a year. I had been able to breathe. I had been able to live without the painful mass tethered to me by his presence.
But now it was back. I slunk back against the half wall and tipped my head back. I closed my eyes and focused on breathing evenly. I couldn’t let him do this to me.
I couldn’t let him get to me now or we would never be able to get out of here.
“There’s no other way out,” Ryder whispered in my ear, pulling me out of my panic. “We’re going to have to go for the front door. As soon as he gets in the elevator, we’ll run.”
I didn’t say anything. The plan had to work, that was my only option right now.
The elevator landed on this floor and the doors opened. Nix stepped inside with his goons and Ryder and I watched the doors close.
We didn’t hesitate. I didn’t even look to see if the elevator had started moving up floors. I should have, but I was too anxious to get out of there.
I took off sprinting through the lobby. My flip flops slapped at my heels. Ryder gripped my hand in his and pulled me after him. As frantic as we were, we remained silent and focused.
We were almost to the glass doors of the lobby. I could feel the heat of the sun through the glass; I could see Ryder’s Bronco down the drive. We had almost made it.
Ryder put his hand on the push bar and I breathed a sigh of relief.
It lasted one second.
The elevator doors popped back open and Nix and his men were ready for us. There was a second where I met Nix’s furious gaze and thought everything was over. I saw more in that moment of connection than I ever wanted to. His eyes were black pools of revenge. I felt the chill they brought with them to my very core. I would never forget that feeling, the bleak despair that infected my entire body.
“What the hell?” I hissed under my breath.
“Get her,” Nix roared at his men.
I had been stunned still, too surprised to see them again to think of what I should be doing. Ryder didn’t have that problem. He shoved through the door and pulled me right along with him.
We didn’t look back, but I needed to see, I could feel them on our backs. Ryder flew across the long patio and down the wide steps that took us to the drive. I forced myself to keep up with him. I hiked up my long, wet skirt and stretched my legs so I could run as fast as he could.
He didn’t let go of my hand until we reached his car. We separated but only so we could stay together in the long run. He unlocked his door and it felt like forever as I waited for the lock to pop up on mine. I had just climbed in the passenger’s seat when a huge hand slammed down on the window.
It scared me so much a scream ripped from my throat. Ryder jammed the keys into the ignition and threw the Bronco into reverse. He pounded his foot down on the gas and we ripped out of our parking spot. He hit something, but neither of us looked to see what it was. The thump-thump under the tire wasn’t enou
gh to kill a man or stop us from escaping.
Ryder reached out again and grabbed my hand, squeezing it tight. “Hold on,” he demanded. “I’m going to get us out of here.”
He took his hand back to hold onto the wheel and he stepped on the gas, leaving no doubt that he would do everything he could to outrun Nix.
He peeled onto Farnam without waiting for the light to change and uncaring of all of the rest of traffic. Horns blared as he wildly weaved through mid-morning traffic. He roared through red lights, barely missing the cars headed in different directions than us.
I held my breath and braced myself for impact. He swung right and then left, continuing to change up our direction. He glanced nervously in the rearview mirror and I craned my neck over my shoulder to see if I could make out anyone following us.
Sure enough, a block behind us was another vehicle gunning it through the cluttered traffic we left in our wake.
At the next stoplight we got stuck behind a delivery truck. Ryder tried to swerve around it, but a minivan waited for us on the other side. The light took forever to turn and all the while I watched Nix in the side mirror.
I wasn’t sure who was driving his SUV, but he had no problem knocking into cars and running them off the road to get us.
The light turned green, but we had nowhere to go while traffic slowly moved forward. By the time Ryder could press significantly on the gas, Nix was right beside us.
There was a gigante driving and more hanging out in the backseat. Nix leaned out of the passenger side window, shouting curses at me. Ryder growled out his own fowl words and rammed over the curb, onto the sidewalk.
We were close enough to the cross street that he only had to cut across the corner and bounce us back to the road, but it seemed to take forever with Nix so close. I struggled to get my seatbelt on while I was thrown all around the cab from Ryder’s chaotic driving.
Back on the road, we inched out just before Nix turned the corner.
We still hadn’t lost them.
“They have guns,” I gasped.
I could see the gigantes dangling out of their windows, semi-automatic guns planted in their heavy hands. I wanted to scream and cry and panic, but I forced my mouth and mind into submission for Ryder’s sake. He was doing everything he could to get us out of here alive. I couldn’t get in his way.
“Ryder,” I pleaded.
“Red, I’m going to get us out of here,” he swore.
I believed him. I had to.
“Oh, shit!” He jerked to the left, barely missing a biker pedaling up a steep incline. He squeezed the steering wheel so tight his knuckles turned white, but he got back in control of the Bronco.
My heart beat so harshly in my chest it was nearly the only sound that I could hear.
Where would Nix take me if he caught me?
What would he do to me?
What would he do to me?
I felt that stirring of power again. I felt it pulse through me, raging against my fear. There wasn’t water around, so there was no catalyst to bring it out of me. But it was there under my skin, swirling in my blood, beating with my heart.
Nix’s SUV rammed into our bumper and I finally did scream. Ryder let out a string of curse words and stomped harder on the gas. The engine vroomed like a racecar, eating up the road like it had been made for this.
When the SUV rammed us again, my stomach roiled ominously and I felt close to a heart attack. Gunshots popped in the air, punctuating our desperate escape, but nothing hit the car. I wondered if they were afraid to kill me.
I had no other explanation for why they didn’t shoot directly at the Bronco.
Another scream ripped from my throat when Ryder took a sudden, sharp right going way too fast. He handled the wheel as best as he could, but we still slid and fishtailed and rocked back and forth until Ryder wrestled the Bronco back under control.
Just when I thought I could breathe again, he did the same thing going left and then again going left again.
We’d come to a section of town that was made of mostly one-way roads. We ended up going the wrong way down one of the busier streets and cars blared their horns at as us we tried not to hit them.
Ryder dodged them at first, swerving right and jerking the Bronco left again. But there was too much traffic and they couldn’t get out of our way fast enough. In the side mirror, I watched two of the cars that had just narrowly missed hitting us head on, spin out before slamming into each other.
They skidded to a stop in the middle of the road only to have more traffic bang into them. Tires screeched, metal screamed and all out mayhem was born as the two cars caused a massive pile-up that reached from one side of the road to the other.
I felt awful for causing the chaos.
Until they provided the perfect roadblock to keep Nix from catching up to us.
Ryder took another hard right, going the correct way down the street. I spun around in my seat, anxious, terrified and trembling. After thirty seconds, when they didn’t appear, I started to feel the smallest blossom of hope.
After a minute, when I could no longer see the turn and I knew the SUV would have a difficult time finding us, I started to breathe normally again.
After five minutes, when Ryder slowed down to a more normal speed and there was a good amount of space between where we’d lost them and where we were now, I turned back around and sat down again.
Ryder reached out and squeezed my shaking hand with his. His warm, calloused fingers wrapped around mind and I felt comfort so intense, so profoundly familiar, that I had to close my eyes from the force of it. I inhaled deeply, breathing in his coconut shampoo. For a moment I just soaked in the peace and simplicity of his touch , the miracle of his dare-devil driving and finally felt relief.
We made it.
I hoped.
Ryder continued to make random turns, blowing off the speed limit completely. I never calmed down completely. I couldn’t.
After so long of being free, Nix was in the same town as me. All of the freedom I’d felt over the last year, even if it had been lonely freedom, evaporated on sight. I wasn’t free anymore, I was a prisoner.
And Nix owned me.
I could fight him for my entire life, I could run every day until the end of time, but he would hunt me just as long. As long as Nix was alive, I would never be free.
I would never let him have me, but he would never let me go either.
I realized that now. It had taken coming back to this place, nearly getting captured again, to realize there was only one way I would ever get to truly enjoy my freedom.
I had to kill a god.
Chapter Nine
Ryder parked the car and silence filled the space where the engine had roared moments before. We looked out on the small town of Council Bluffs, IA and at the bluffs where the city had gotten its name.
The sun set in front of us, painting the sky with vivid pastels that stretched with long fingers overhead. The natural forest around us created walls that kept us hidden. Cicadas buzzed loudly in hidden places and lightning bugs blinked on and off in the cover of the trees to either side of us.
I finally felt a small amount of peace after a very stressful day.
Ryder and I had been constantly moving since we ran into Nix. Ryder developed a plan quickly, born out of necessity and the will to live. He would drive us somewhere and we’d sit for a few minutes, until we were dreadfully paranoid and convinced that Nix was going to pop up at any second, then we’d get going again.
He’d driven almost all of the way to Des Moines before we got gas and turned around. We stopped for fast food around two, but it was after eight now and I was starving again.
I’d asked Ryder what his plan was earlier, but he hadn’t answered directly. He just didn’t want to stop long enough for Nix to catch up with us. We were close to Omaha again now. Council Bluffs was just over the Missouri River, only ten minutes from his downtown loft and fifteen from my midtown condo.
W
e were high up in the bluffs. Ryder had driven to an overlook that was near the Lewis and Clark Landing. Trains chugged along interweaving tracks at the base of our tall cliff. The rumble of their movement and clang of metal added a soundtrack to the summer sounds that filled in our quiet places.
“What now?” I broke the silence, anxious to speak again just to make sure that I could.
“I need to go home and get my passport.”
His words shocked the hell out of me. I didn’t know what he meant or what to say, but I could guess. Ryder had taken care of me today. I would be dead by now if he hadn’t been with me and acted so quickly.
Or worse than that, I would be with Nix. I owed Ryder everything and because of that I couldn’t ask anything else of him.
I had spent the majority of the day on the verge of a panic attack while hundreds of escape scenarios played out in my head.
The best one I thought of involved Ryder driving to Kansas City. He could drop me off at the airport there and I could slip into the crowd unseen and unnoticed. I didn’t know if he was down for the long trip though. I pretty much needed his car services to get anywhere or I was completely screwed.
I couldn’t take a cab to Kansas City and expect to stay alive. Nix would find me. The bus left me completely vulnerable and I was sure that Nix had already staked out Eppley.
In fact, looking back, I was surprised Nix didn’t have someone watching the airport when I first got here. He should have tagged me the second I stepped off the plane.
Even Kansas City, two and a half hours away, was a risk. Nix could have people there too. Hell, Nix could be watching every single airport in this country. Flying could be suicide. But I couldn’t think of another way.
“What do you need your passport for, Ryder?”
He swiveled in his seat to face me. When his gaze hit mine, I sucked in a sharp breath. His gray eyes brightened with determination, steeled with resolve. “The only reason I let you go before was because I physically couldn’t stop you. I won’t make that same mistake twice.”