Broken Wings (Dark Legacy #1)

“S-stay b-back,” I stuttered, my throat aching as I waved the blade in what I hoped was a menacing way. Cold and shock and pain, combined with oxygen deprivation, had made my whole face numb, and the words were hard to force out. Not to mention he’d been trying his best to crush my throat.

The man must have noticed my severe lack of experience with my weapon, because his guarded posture relaxed. Noticeably so. Fear for my life gripped me, and I stepped forward and slashed my blade at him again. Maybe I didn’t know how to use it, but how hard was it to stab someone? Besides, sometimes the unpredictable was harder to fight. Right?

My attacker must have agreed with my mental ramble, because he took a couple of quick steps backward, avoiding my blade and holding his hands up.

“Now, that’s not necessary, little girl,” he mocked me. “Put the knife down and I promise I’ll make it a quick death, yeah?”

I slashed at him again, forcing him back another two steps. “How does get fucked sound?” I spat back at him. I didn’t need to follow through with anything more threatening. He’d done exactly what I’d been aiming for.

His retreat away from my blade had carried him directly in front of Jasper’s hiding place.

As quick as a striking cobra, Jasper slashed the man’s Achilles, then dragged a second blade across my attacker’s throat as he dropped to the earth.

The whole thing was over in less than three seconds.

For at least double that, I just stood there frozen in horror as blood spread in a rapid pool around the black clad man’s body. It was so... thick. So dark. So fucking final.

Bile burned a path up my throat, and I dropped to my knees, coughing up the meager contents of my stomach into a bush.

We weren’t safe yet, though, so as soon as I was sure I had nothing left to throw up I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand and dragged my shock shaken ass back to Jasper.

“What now?” I asked him in a stricken hoarse whisper. I couldn’t seem to peel my eyes from the dead man. Not even when Jasper tried to get to his feet and collapsed again with a hiss of pain.

“Riles, I need you to pull it together,” he muttered, grimacing as he clutched a hand to his side. My tank top was still acting as a compress, but it looked heavy and wet with blood. “We need to get out of here. Hide until we’re clear.”

I nodded, but barely felt the motion. My head was so numb it was like I’d become a bobble head. “Hide. Right. Where? How?”

Having a task, a purpose, it helped me get a grip. Jasper was hurt and he was relying on me for help. We were sitting ducks, and he was dead right that we needed to move.

“Just help me up,” he suggested. “Probably help me walk too. We don’t need to go far, we just need to not be here.”

My head bobbled again, and I crawled over to him. He draped his free arm over my shoulder and leaned heavily into me as we stood.

Fuck me, he was in a seriously bad way.

Without wasting breath on pointless words, I let him direct me. All that mattered, was making it out of these woods alive. I wasn’t qualified to make that happen on my own, so I needed to place my faith fully in my companions—rich, pretentious assholes or not.





13





To my intense relief, we didn’t need to wait long before the others found us again. We’d been in our new hiding place—a fallen, hollowed out tree trunk—for only a short time before Evan’s grinning face appeared in the opening, scaring the living shit out of me.

“Sorry, Spare,” he teased. “Didn’t mean to frighten you.” The way he said it implied that I was only scared because I was a pathetic little girl, and my blood boiled with fury.

“Don’t be a dick, Evan,” Jasper replied for me then coughed a wet sound. “Get me out of here, I need stitches.”

Shoving Evan aside, I scrambled out of the tree trunk to make room for Jasper to get out. A hand appeared in front of my face, and I took it before even noticing who it was attached to.

“Thanks,” I murmured to Beck after he pulled me to my feet. He didn’t immediately release my hand, and I frowned. “What?”

My voice was still hoarse, my throat and side ached, and I was in no position to deal with Beck right now. He scowled down at me, doing his infuriating well-placed-shadow thing that only seemed to deepen his frown. “Are you okay, Butterfly?” His eyes trailed all over me—checking for injuries? I’d zipped my borrowed coat right up to the chin and pulled the hood up, so he wouldn’t be able to see the bruising that was sure to be showing on my throat. Neither could he see the horrible stabbing pain in my ribs, so I just gave him a tight smile and nod.

“Yep, totally fine,” I lied, wishing I could talk without rasping. Tugging my hand out of his grip, I took a couple of steps away and wrapped my arms around myself, watching as Dylan peeled my soaked tank top from Jasper’s wound and inspected the bloody hole.

“Riley,” Beck snapped, jerking my attention back to him. He stared at me with an intensity that made me shiver and tighten my arms around myself.

“I’m fine,” I repeated, dodging his stare and taking another step away from him.

He continued staring, but it was Evan—of all people—who nailed why I acted so cagey.

“She’s in shock, Beck. Leave her be.”

The gorgeous, scary bastard nodded slowly. How had it not occurred to him I might be in shock? We’d just been in a plane crash, he’d shot someone, Dylan had killed two men with his bare hands, I’d almost died, I’d stabbed someone, then Jasper had—

My stomach roiled again and I hurried a few yards away to retch into the bushes again. I don’t think I would ever forget the sound of Jasper’s knife cutting through my attacker’s throat. That wet, gurgling, tearing sound...

Gentle hands gathered my hair up and held it back from my face while I heaved what seemed to be pure stomach acid. I didn’t even remember where my hair-tie had gone, but I was grateful nonetheless.

“You throw up a lot,” Beck murmured when I was done. He was sitting in the dirt beside me, his hand rubbing soothing circles on my back while I shivered and sobbed. Vomiting always made me cry. Or maybe that was a result of all the killing I’d just seen?

“Shut up,” I whispered back. It was half demand, half plea. I knew he was teasing, but it just wasn’t the time.

“What happened to your throat, Riley?”

I shook my head, not wanting to relive my almost-death. Beck, for once, took my feelings into consideration and didn’t push me. We didn’t speak for a while. I just sat there with my head on my knees, and Beck continued rubbing my back. I was sick and twisted, the worst kind of broken, but fuck if I never wanted him to stop.

Finally Dylan announced he was done. Where he had found a needle and thread to sew up Jasper’s wound, I had no idea. But Jasper was looking vaguely better, probably thanks to the painkillers Evan had given him.

“Come on,” Beck said softly, standing up and holding out his hand to me again. “We need to get away from this area.”

I took his hand, letting him pull me to my feet, and didn’t protest when he started walking without releasing me. “Do you think there are more of them?” I asked, eyeing every shadow with fear and suspicion. “What will happen to all the bodies?”

I didn’t want the guys to end up in jail for defending us, but they had killed a lot of people here today.

“No, we got them all,” he replied with total confidence. “And either they’ll be cleaned up by the ones who sent them, or the wolves will get them...”

My step faltered, and it was only Beck’s grip on my hand that kept me from falling. “Wolves?” I squeaked. As if everything wasn’t bad enough, now we had wolves to deal with?

“It’s not as bad as it seems,” Dylan offered, falling into step beside me. “They’re much more likely to take an easy meal than one that fights back.” To Beck, he nodded ahead of us. “There’s no town within sight, but if we continue uphill we can probably get enough cell reception to raise an S.O.S. signal.”

I shook my head in confusion, even though he wasn’t speaking to me. “How do you know that? Maybe there’s a town right over that hill.” I pointed at the steep incline ahead of us and grasped at hope.