A Sinister Game (23 page)

S
o
many years, he’d worked beside her, and not once had he
ever
seen her like this.
She was completely exp
osed, entirely vulnerable. I
mpossibly enticing.

There was no hope for it.

With a strong wave of
power
he never thought he’d be using on her
, he sent her mind reeling into unconsciousness, forcing her body to follow. When he heard her breathing slow, he knew she was so deeply asleep that it would take more than a touch to wake her.

He strode to the bed and solidified, his body
once more claiming solid form.
With glowing blue eyes, he
gazed down at his sleeping
leader
.

Just as light leaders possessed abilities having to do with warmth and fire, d
ark leaders had
cold
powers. It was a strange twist of fate that no one could completely explain. Why was cold considered dark and vice versa? Perhaps it wasn’t. Rather, it was most likely that the
other
powers
dark leaders possessed were
considered dark –
wounding,
invisibility, coma-inducing sleep, telepathy and mind control, true death – and the cold powers were simply along for the ride.

Whatever the reason, a dark leader had to try very hard to hide the way his skin would become cold to
the touch
or his eyes would take on the look of glaciers
. It was at the most stressful of times that these traits made themselves
the most
apparent.

Like now.

Right now,
Maxwell Blood’s eyes were glowing like cold-fire lit ice from the northernmost reaches of the
sea.
He kn
elt until his face was near Victoria’s
, that cold gaze trailing over her closed lids, their long lashes, her small nose, and her full, red lips.

She trusted him. This beauty before him, so helpless to defend herself – she trusted him. She always had.

Max forced his eyes shut and bared his teeth. Need was turning to pain within him, his fists clenched so tight now that his short nails were carving red moons into his palms.

She trusted him and yet he’d used his powers against her in the most insipid fashion.

Max exhaled shakily,
opened his eyes again
,
and uncurled his fingers so that he could brush a long, golden lock of her thick hair from her lovely face. He tucked it
gently behind her ear and
stood.

He moved around the bed, shrugged off his jacket
,
and unstrapped the sword from his back. He set them both to the
side before he
knelt on the mattress and carefully
lay
down beside her. Once he was settled, he
forced his skin to warm once more, ruthlessly shoving his emotions back into the darkness from which they’d come.

He felt the glow fade from his eyes and knew it was working. With great care, he drew Victoria’s
body
against his
, his hands
sliding around her small waist to span her stomach
.

Her body settled
into his with blissful perfection
, warming and relaxing.
Max leaned over and
breathed in the clean scent of her hair
. Tenderly, he and placed a
kiss on the top of her head. This much, he could do. This much, he would be able to explain in the morning.

It was enough.
For now
,
it was enough.

His last act before joining Victoria in sleep
was to telekine
tically
draw up the blankets from where they’d fallen on the floor and drape their thick warmth over them both
.

There was a sound, d
istant and muffled.
Victoria felt cold. But there was material all around her. She could feel the weight of it over her body and there was no draft. Why was she cold?

Now she recognized the sound as a
knocking.

With her eyes still closed, s
he shivered and hugged further into her own body,
vaguely
remembering….
She was
in an inn
.
She’d come there last night. A stranger had bought her dinner and paid for her room.

Someone was at the door to that
room.

Something shifted
beside her. She stilled, suddenly uncertain. The smell of leather wafted over her. There was the sound of breathing, and it wasn’t her own
.

Victoria’s eyes flew open
.

“Red?” came a deep voice at the door. She recognized it as Anders.

The depth of
the situation suddenly hit her
all at once, and Victoria screamed. The sound simply bubbled up and escaped as she leapt from the bed with u
ntold speed. She spun to face the mattress and its other
occupant
even as the door
behind her
came splintering open with
a
cacophonous
crash.

Instinctively, she ducked, covering her head with her hands
and using a telekinetic shield to protect her
as shards of wood went sailing into the room.

“Get
back
, little one!” Anders bellowed as he grasped Victoria’s upper arm and dragged her
out of the
way
.
As he did, she caught sight of who it was that had been in her bed.

Max rose swiftly, coming alert with expert speed and scrambling out of the bed for his sword.

As if to meet him half way, Anders lunged forward, clearly intent on clobbering the young captain with his bare hands.

“Stop!”
Victoria
bellowed,
raising her hands to hold them palm-out toward both men. She shoved her light leader power through her words and into her arms as well. The palms of her hands heated up, glowing a dangerous red-orange
.

The men slowed, hesitating a single moment before both gazes narrowed and they were moving once more.

A second later,
Max was hit with a
wall of heat and thic
k, telekinetic air. It held him
briefly, causing his expression to go from furious to
uncertain
before he was thrown back to slam into the wall behind him.

The same thing happened to Anders, though Victoria could feel a little more drain on her powers when she directed them toward him. It was odd to her, since she’d thrown 200 pound weights into the training room wall and then melted them promptly afterwards without any trouble. But she couldn’t afford it any more time for thought.

“Max!” she shouted, turning her attention to her captain and shooting him a very stern look. “
Anders is a friend. He
obviously
thought you had ill intentions toward me.”

Max opened his mouth to speak, but Victoria beat him to the punch.

“
Don’t
talk!”
s
he ordered. “The gods know you have a lot of explaining to do,
” she said, thinking of how she was completely nude and he’d apparently been in her bed all night long. “
But
I don’t want to hear
any
of that explaining
until I’ve had a chance to
get
dress
ed
.”

She blinked, realizing what she’d said.
Gods? What are those?

But, again, there was no time to spare anything any unnecessary contemplation.

She turned to Anders, who pushed himself off of the wall he had cracked and looked at her with an
unreadable expression.

“The same goes for you,” she told the giant man. “Please leave and allow me some privacy.”

There was a silence.

“Victoria, you don’t-”
Max began.

“Captain Blood, get
the hell out of my room and go downstairs to wait for me.
That’s an order,” she commanded, her tone brooking no argument.
Max dropped his sword arm and swallowed his retort.

Victoria turned to Anders. “
Now
!”
s
he added, truly wanting the men to simply be gone for the moment. She nee
ded space and privacy. She needed t
ime to damn well
think
.

She watched
as
Anders
smiled. He turned to the door and
looked back over his shoulder at Max. He
gestured
to the hall beyond the broken door as he pierced
Max with his dark
, intelligent
gaze. It was an “after you” kind of look.

Max took the hint.
He picked up his belongings and both men made their way out the door, each of them spearing the other with a warning glare.

Once they were out of sight,
Vic
toria ran to the bed and picked up the
sheet. She
was shaking as she hastily wrapped it around herself.

She
hadn’t wanted to go for it whi
le the men were in the room. She felt like if
she showed them she was uncomfortable standing bare before them, it woul
d seem
somehow
weak
. She felt they would look on it a
s if she were far too aware of her own feminine properties – and therefore, her weaker physical attributes.

It was probably just Victoria
being stubborn
, but there it was
.

However
now, she felt like crawling into some kind of hole and hiding there forever.

She
sat on the bed for a moment and tried to collect her thoughts. As she did, she noticed the
bundle of clothes
Anders had
left outside of the ruined door
. They were neat and folded, and she
recognized them as the same manner of clothing the villagers
here wore
. Anders had obvi
ously brought them for her
as he’d said he would.
That was probably why he’d been knocking.

But it was pointless to change into them now. Max was
dressed in a downtime uniform, a
nd they’d just destroyed
public property. It wasn’t as if
they were going to leave this place unnoticed.

There was no time to mess with something new
and possibly uncomfortable
anyway. Victor was out there somewhere, most likely very close by.

Victoria bent and lifted her clothes from the floor.
Using the same kind of telekinesis she used to heal wounds, she cleaned the garments and pulled them on.

She
was
fully clothed and booted and
fumbling with
the last buttons on
her jacket when the air seemed to shift around her. A light draft of cold air brushed past her face, causing several strands of her golden hair to tickle her cheek.

Victoria froze.

“Well, I must admit, that was worth the wait,” came a low, accented voice from the other side of the room.

Victoria spun to face him, but this time, he was anticipating her every move.

In one fluid motion, Victor Black solidified from where he’d been invisible, leaning against the wall, and then rushed her. Victoria’s eyes widened, but the attack she’d rapidly planned fell short as his gloved hands encircled her wrists, grasping her tight. They spun, slicing through the air with inhuman, blurred speed, until he slammed her up against the wall, pinning her beneath him.

Victoria’s breath caught
as she was trapped
between Black’s tall, hard body
and the panels of polished wood behind her. She could barely breathe, and every time she did manage to inhale, she caught the scent of his leathe
r and the smell of the soap he used
. It was a heady, dizzying combination. She shuddered beneath him as he effectively restrained her wrists above her head and leaned into her so that his words whispered across her lips.

“Blood is an idiot,” he told her in his wicked, p
erfect intonation. “Eight
hours in bed with you and he never
touched you.” He laughed a soft
but harsh laugh. “You’re lucky it wasn’t m
e
.”