The Midnight Watch

Chapter 33

"Care to explain?" Kai asked.

The rogue trudged up the beach, every so often casting a wistful glance at his departing friends, and beckoned for us to follow. "Not really. But I guess I'll have to — soon as we're inside and the fire's out."

As if in answer, the glow in the cave's entrance dimmed. I remembered, then, that Nate could probably hear every mental word we said. And thinking about it, so could—

We were just outside the cave when we heard the scream. It was Becky's voice, Becky's fear in that piercing sound.

"No," I found myself whispering. "No, no, no."

There was a pair of narrow, slanted green eyes in the gloom. The eyes of an animal, entirely lacking human presence. Crazy Jeff's Shadowcat form — and it was just watching us, still as stone.

"Don't shift, don't do anything heroic. Just stay out of my way," Rhys whispered. Slowly, he put Logan in my arms — the boy buried his head in my uniform — and took a knife from my harness. I felt naked, vulnerable, without the blade, but I daren't complain.

Kai opened his mouth to argue, but he was holding his little sister and her safety came first. He moved right with me when his cousin gestured. We carefully retreated towards the cliff. It felt wrong, to watch and do nothing. But we were out of our depth — and we knew it.

Rhys kept the knife loose in his left hand, the hilt up and blade pointed at the sand. His stance slacked in a way that invited an attack, but Jeff simply lifted a lip and snarled at him — a warning, not a threat.

Neither of them showed any intention of hurting the other, and I began to wonder whether there was something off about the whole thing.

Rhys didn't reciprocate, instead making a tiny downwards motion with his right hand. Then several things happened all at once. Jeff hit the ground, a dark shape leapt through the air he had occupied seconds before and tumbled into Rhys. Finally, I realised what I should have long before. There had been a second pair of eyes, right behind Jeff, and they belonged to Nate. He had been waiting to pounce, waiting for Jeff to get distracted.

It all went horribly wrong.

Rhys had not forgotten Nate's threats regarding his grandfather. He flipped the knife in a heartbeat and buried it deep in Nate's shoulder. And that would have been fine — I'd seen him hurt worse — had the old Shadowcat not seized him while he was reeling and shaken him like a kitten.

My fear for him woke my instincts to do something, anything. The floodgates had opened, unleashing pure, unadulterated chaos onto the beach just when we could least cope with it.

Kai put Leah down, obviously intending to join the fray as a peacemaker. But before he could take a step, I thrust Logan towards him and moved in his place. This was my job. Protecting Kai, even from his family. There was no plan, no intentions beyond stopping the fight before someone died, but my feet carried me into Nate's path.

Whilst I had been distracted, Rhys had shifted. He was trying, with increasing desperation, to keep Jeff in check while defending him from Nate. A living shield between two shifters who were doing their damn best to kill each other. It was futile, it was relentless and, worse of all, it was a death sentence.

So, of course, I decided to join him.

"Nathan, stop. We need him alive," Kai commanded. His tone left no doubt that it was an order, and obedience was not only expected but required. And he did an exceptional — but not flawless — job of hiding the raw panic in his voice.

Nate paused at the order, which gave Jeff all the opening he needed to throw him sideways. My heart in my mouth, I watched Nate land on his wounded shoulder and begin to get up, too slowly, and all the while Jeff was rushing to finish the kill.