House of Leights (Secret Keepers, #3)(45)

“Just stay close,” Lexen replied.

There was a small booth on the side of the gate, one which looked like it would seat two guards. There was no one visible through the glass window; Lexen continued around until he got to the door. A foul smell hit me just as Lexen stepped forward and blocked the view from the rest of us.

“Lex…” Emma reached out and touched his shoulder.

His head lowered as he stepped to the side. Emma’s muffled cry was enough to tell us everything. The two guards were on the floor, half draped over each other, congealed blood pooled all around them. They were clearly dead, eyes staring unseeingly; the stench increased exponentially at that point.

One of the guards was young, African American. The other was older, with a gruff face, and wiry gray hair. “How long have they been dead?” Emma asked, her hand pressed to her chest.

“A few hours,” Lexen replied, voice low. “Which means they were waiting here for us even before we left the cabin.”

This Laous seemed to be a planner. The bastard.

Emma knelt down, her hand hovering just above the face of the younger man. “Ace was a really nice guy,” she choked out. “Helped me when I first moved here. Got a message to Lexen’s family so that my guardians were protected.”

She broke off as she sobbed a few times, sucking in some deep breaths. I couldn’t see her face because of the way she was crouching, but I could see Lexen’s. He was doing that scary thing again. Dropping the Daelighter he held – pretty much on his head, because he was clearly way past giving a shit – he reached down and lifted Emma, holding her together as she sobbed.

“First my parents…” Her next words were lost in more sobs. “Then Marsil, and now Ace and this other poor security guard … who is next, Lex? Who will he take from us?” She shuddered. “Thank God, Sara and Michael are away on business.”

I felt my own eyes grow hot and damp. Seeing her devastation, her fears were my fears, but she’d already had those she loved taken from her. Callie stepped up and stood by my side, not saying anything, heat still shimmering in the air around her.

Lexen shook as a rumble of anger emerged. “No one else will die.” His voice was low, controlled, and icy. “I’m going to kill Laous the next time I see him. He’s dead. End of his story.”

After another moment of Lexen stroking a hand up and down her spine, murmuring words I couldn’t hear, Emma calmed herself. By the time he set her back on her feet and picked up the still unconscious and burned Daelighter, there was determination crossing Emma’s tearstained face.

“We need to go now,” she growled, mimicking her mate. “Let’s get this asshole healed enough to hurt him some more.”

Lexen hit a button to close the gates, then we all hurried through before it shut on us. “What are you going to do about the guards?” I asked, hurrying to keep up. Callie remained silent, her expression unreadable. I expected she was both worried about Daniel and trying to deal with the fact she’d hurt someone again.

“Most of the police are on our payroll.” Lexen’s words were clipped. “We’ll let them know what happened. They’ll take care of it.”

“My father should be able to help,” I added, realizing this was probably part of his job. Covering these things up. “Call his office or something. Once he gets back to Earth.”

“Yes,” Lexen agreed, falling silent.

The rest of the journey along Daelight Crescent was a subdued one. Emma marched ahead, her eyes shiny. Callie was silent and hot. Whatever flames existed inside of her, they were bubbling just under the surface. And I was having a mini-breakdown. I just really needed Chase to get here, so I could stop imagining him with his throat cut, bleeding his precious life back into the trees he came from.

My morbid thoughts cut off when we reached the end of the street and turned down a lane covered in roses and vines. They were dense on top, trailing down the sides to form a barrier.

“I’d kill for some coffee,” Callie muttered randomly, breaking the tense silence.

I couldn’t help but smile. “What’s your favorite?” I asked. I wasn’t a huge coffee drinker, but I enjoyed a macchiato at times.

“Café au lait from Café du Monde in my favorite city, New Orleans.” Her voice was wistful.

My smile grew. “I went there on vacation once, with my family. They weren’t around a lot, but we tried to do a family vacay once a year. We ate beignets in Café du Monde almost every day.”

Some of the blankness left her face then. She turned toward me, and as her eyes ran down me, she jolted.

“What?” I asked.

“You do realize you’re covered in blood, right?” she said, voice low.

Emma and Lexen stopped, looking me over as well. “I only got a bit scraped up,” I muttered, even though the injury in my arm felt a bit more than “scraped.”

I lifted the hand on my injured arm, surprised by the red on my palm. Pushing up the sleeves of my dark sweater, I felt a little faint at the sight of a thick line of red running down it. “That’s more blood than I expected,” I murmured.

“What happened to your arm?” Lexen asked.

I held it closer to me, feeling very protective because all of a sudden it felt really painful. “I don’t know. The guy who grabbed me dug his nails in or something. My arm hurt right after he touched me.”