How is he the one apologizing?
“I am really sorry,” he whispered, “to leave you, just like your parents did.”
Pilar sat up, looking into his eyes. She had to wipe her own just to see him properly. Her vision was so blurred with tears.
“Don’t be sorry,” she whispered. “It isn’t your fault, my parents, the poison. It’s not your fault.”
It’s mine.
“But you’re being left alone, again,” he said, stroking her cheek. “I can’t bear it.”
Pilar shook her head, smiling through her tears.
“It’s okay,” she said, stroking his cheek. “I’ll keep you safe so you can finish your work before it comes. I won’t leave your side.”
Maverick brushed her hair back, holding on to her gently. He kissed her, and Pilar melted in his arms, feeling fire running through every inch of her skin. She craved his touch, his passion, his desire. She couldn’t conceive of a world where he didn’t exist.
They were both crying now, so much so that the kiss broke apart as their sobs racked them. Pilar tightened her hold on Maverick’s waist, and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
They sank down on the cold, hard concrete, crying together. Pilar immersed herself in Maverick’s scent, comforting her soul with the beating of his heart and the sigh of his breath. She denied reality with every moment of her existence and with every fiber of her being. She denied the truth.
I cannot lose him. I cannot!
Maverick stroked her hair, crooning softly. Against the waves of their grief, the night was silent, their bodies making harsh, discordant sounds against the darkness. Their hearts beat wildly as their voices tore from their chests in random sounds of grief.
Then, a shadow fell over Pilar’s face. Only for a moment, but it was enough. The lights that ringed the nearby buildings had flicked, just slightly.
Pilar’s eyes snapped open, and she began to search the sky. She pushed Maverick’s hands away and stared straight up, looking for any sign of something hostile.
Then, she heard the wings. They had to be huge to move in such a slow beat, to stroke the air with enough force for the sound to be heard below. Pilar stood, all her grief mobilizing into anger.
“It’s a condor,” Maverick said in astonishment. The bird was dropping slowly out of the sky, its shape a silhouette against the lights of the surrounding buildings. Pilar watched it with steady, cold eyes.
“It’s a shifter,” she muttered, knowing from its size and focused intent that it was definitely not an ordinary bird … and it had come to kill them.
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
PILAR
The big wings of the condor blacked out the stars as well as the city lights as it drifted downward toward them on the roof. Pilar remembered the first day she had gotten here and how she had explicitly told Maverick to stay away from the open terraces.
And I practically invited him to the roof!
“Get back!” she shrieked, shoving him under the covered section. Maverick was watching the sky with a grim but resigned expression. He knew he was going to die either way. A new attack on his life couldn’t shock him, not now.
Why attack us now when he’s been infected with deadly poison?
Pilar shook her head as she stepped out into the open area. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. It was time to channel her rage. She didn’t bother to shift. She wanted to take this thing on in her human form first. Pilar desperately needed to exert herself and flood her body with the kind of adrenaline that healed instead of hurt.
Over the course of her life, she had always used her painful emotions to galvanize herself into an unstoppable force. Rage, denial, grief, these were her weapons. She needed nothing else.
The condor dropped down to just above her head. Pilar leapt up, flicking her long legs at the sky. She connected to the bird’s chest and sent him spinning through the air. He quickly recovered and dipped and turned to come back for another pass.
Pilar roared in fury, sprinting at it. As she approached, she jumped, her arms stretched forward as she dove. She tried to grab the condor, but it nimbly powered upward away from her hands, and she was forced to flip in the air so she could land on her feet.
She panted, looking up to figure out where her prey had gone. Pilar was starting to feel good now. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d spent hours thrashing a punching bag to get out her anger. Finally, she had a physical enemy to hit.
Maverick shouted, and she realized how far away from him she was. Pilar did a series of flips to get back to the covered terrace where Maverick was hiding. The condor was circling, getting ready for an attack dive. She heard its plaintive voice crying against the constant roar of the city noise.