Beast of Fire -- a Demon Hunting Sexy Romance (9 page)

He grabbed Kresley by the shoulders. “Go! I’ll meet you at your apartment.”

“No!” she said. “I…I can’t leave you!”

“You can and you will!” he shouted, a moment before someone grabbed him from behind. Lucan screamed at Kresley. “Go!” Then he whirled around and grabbed his attacker, praying silently that Kresley listened. And he was almost certain she would not.
 

***

The sound of Lucan doing battle with numerous attackers ripped through the air in thunderous crashes, grunts, and curses. Kresley’s chest heaved as she leaned against the wall in the narrow hallway in a secret passage of some sort. Her heart raced, her mind slowed, reached for options to save Lucan, but to no avail. She simply didn’t know what to do. She had no swords, no chance of producing them.
 

He was outnumbered, and her fire seemed the only answer. But did she dare risk setting the building on fire? What if it spread to other structures? Think Kresley! Think! She inhaled.
 
Tried to get some air. Sucked in a breath. Let it out. Reached for rational thought. She’d practiced using her fire with precision back at the ranch, worked to make it a weapon without catastrophic results.
 

She could do this. Right. She kicked off her shoes to allow more agility, and silently willed herself to move. Move! She shoved off the wall, no time to second-guess her actions, and charged back toward the room, back to Lucan.
 

What she found forced a barely contained gasp. The table was now a pile of wood, pieces tossed to the side. Lucan was on his knees, ropes around his wrists, the ropes held by a man on each side, with Lucan's arms pulled open as far as they would extend. There were at least four other large men crammed in the tiny room, one of which stood with his back to Kresley, a sword in his hand, and she’d been around the Demon world long enough to know why. Beheading was an easy, certain way to kill any creature, be it Demon or other being.
 

Suddenly, Lucan maneuvered somehow, jerked the two ropes, yanking the two men attached to them toward him. In a flash, the rope was around one of their necks. The others closed in on him, the swordsman yelling for them to hold Lucan down.
 

Kresley darted forward and raised her hand toward the swordsman’s back. Using one finger only, she let her fire loose, reaching for exactness in her targeting, for control. One short shot of fire rocketed through the air and did exactly what she'd hoped – it singed the swordsman's back without sending the room into flames. He screamed, his sword falling to the ground in a loud thud.
 
He dropped to his knees and then rolled, snuffing the flames at his back with the impact of the floor. The other men stood in stunned silence. Then, without warning, they departed, streaming one after another, out through the cracked door. Kresley frowned at the fleeing wolves. That had been too easy. Something had spooked them, and Kresley had a feeling they didn’t want to stay around and find out what.
 

 
Lucan struggled to rip the ropes from his wrists even as he sidestepped the injured swordsman who was still crumpled on the ground.
 

“Go!” he shouted, his long legs eating up the short space between them. Kresley raced for the door, this time confident that Lucan was on her heels. She darted through the door, and shot down the hallway, scooping up her shoes in a smooth move that barely slowed her pace.

Kresley shoved open the back door, bursting into the empty alley in the sweet relief of escape. Lucan was seconds behind her, and side by side, in silent agreement, they kept running. Rocks and pavement bit at her feet, but she pushed through it, aware they had no weapons, that at any moment they could be attacked.
 

When finally they reached a populated area, and had left the alley behind for the bustle of street vendors and people, Kresley and Lucan slowed to a casual walk. But Kresley was breathless, her chest ready to explode from the pumping of her overactive heart. Her feet were sore from the rocks, the pavement beneath them disgustingly dirty. And now, Lucan was headed for the subway entrance.

“Wait,” Kresley said urgently, trying to balance as she struggled to put on one shoe. Someone bumped into her. She stumbled and fell into Lucan’s towering form, his muscular frame absorbing her impact with ease, a big hand on her waist. She looked up at him, their eyes locking, holding. Tension spiked between them, tension bred with equal parts desire and anger. Lots of anger. Lucan was downright pissed and not at their attackers. At her.
 

“We need to keep moving,” he said sharply.

She ground her teeth, irritated. No, angry herself now.

She cut her gaze, and slid on her shoes. He held her steady as she did so–part of her wanted to scream for him to let her go, part to hold on to her. But his anger hurt; it felt unfair, a double-edged sword. She'd come to help him, not become the brunt of anger. She straightened, her task completed, her will to remove herself from his touch powerful now.
 

“I’m ready,” she said, starting forward, her stride longer than before. It was her turn to be angry, and when she had the chance, she was going to have a few words to say.

But now Lucan was flagging a passing cab, detouring from the
 
subway, pulling Kresley along with him. One moment they were on the street, the next, alone in the back of a dark cab. Kresley slid to the far side, and stared forward.
 

Silence, thick with electricity, with lust and passion, with anger and emotion, surrounded them. She didn’t know what to do with all these things she was feeling. Never before had a man warmed her with a mere touch, a look. But never before had a man fired her temper, set her on edge. Any minute they would be at her apartment, with no driver to overhear their words, no Demons present. They would be alone, and there was far more than unspoken words between them. There was a firestorm ready to explode. A firestorm she had to survive, with her will to achieve what she had come to achieve.
 

No matter what Lucan demanded, no matter how loudly he yelled.
 
. .She cut off the rest of the thought, balling her fists in her lap. She slowly, discreetly, inhaled. Her mind raced onward. No matter how much Lucan made her want and need, and he did make her want and need – and had since the moment she’d met him a year before – she would not lose her focus. She was going to save him from the Guardians. She was going to send him back to his rightful place with the Knights. A place she could never return. That was how it was. That was how it was going to be.

Chapter Seven

The minute they entered the apartment, Lucan flipped the locks in place. Kresley tried to dart across the hardwood floor only to find herself under Lucan’s control, her back against the hallway wall, his hands pressed to the navy-colored wall on either side of her head. He wasn’t touching her, but he didn’t have to. He was close, so close she could feel the heat of his body, damn near taste the scent of angry male.
 

Refusing to be intimidated by his obvious strength, his dominating presence, she tilted her chin upward. He didn’t give her time to argue. “You don’t belong here, Kresley.”

“Funny,” she rebutted. “Last time I looked, the lease had my name on it.”

He grimaced. “Smart ass doesn’t suit you any more than the lying back in that bar.”

“How would you know what suits me?” she demanded.

“I know more than you give me credit for,” he proclaimed stiffly.
 

“So do I,” she countered. “No one is granted a meeting with the Seer by chance. I’ve studied that world. I know how to get around in it.”
 

He shook his head. “Why?” he demanded. “Why are you involved in that world? No human survives long in the Dark Circle.”

“Yet, I have,” she hissed through her teeth. “I have, Lucan. What does that tell you? What does that say about me? My fire draws evil to me. It drew Adrian and his Guardians, and you paid the price.” She shook her head. “I won’t let anyone else be hurt by my fire. I won’t let you be hurt by it.”

The hard lines of his face eased; his expression softened. “Your fire is a gift, Kresley, a powerful weapon to defeat Demons. You saw that tonight. The exact reason you cannot be allowed to end up in Adrian’s control. To trade yourself for me would be turning yourself into his weapon. Surely, you must know that.”

 
“I know that,” she said, and she did. “Until recently, I thought you were in a snake pit being tortured. I couldn’t leave you there. I had to take your place.
 
I –-"

Suddenly his hands slid into her hair, his legs brushing hers. Warmth spread through her limbs, overwhelming her. “You’re terrified of snakes,” he said, staring at her intently. “I held you through hours of hallucinations, of you thinking snakes were crawling all over you. I saw the hell you lived.”

 
She remembered the snakes all too well. Even now, if she let herself, she could remember the feeling of their slimy skin against her body. They hadn’t been real, but the terror had been.

“Exactly why I couldn’t leave you to suffer that same way. I couldn’t. Surely you have to understand that.” Her eyes latched onto his, silently willing him to stand up to the challenge she offered, to admit what she so desperately needed him to admit. “Could you have left me?”
 

Torment flickered across his handsome face, settled in the depths of those richly hued eyes. Resistance clung to him, because he knew
 
that admitting the truth would mean he would have to let go of his anger; it would be out of his power to make demands.
 

Seconds passed before his shoulders slumped ever-so-slightly, and he admitted, “No. I couldn’t have left you. I wouldn’t have left you.”
 

Respect filled her at his honesty but did nothing to wash away the reprimand that slid to her tongue. “Then,” she hissed softly. “Stop yelling at me for coming here. Stop trying to bully me into leaving. I won’t apologize for my decision to come after you, and I won’t leave without you.”
 

His eyes lit with challenge. “Nor will I apologize for doing everything in my power to protect you.” Fierce possessiveness laced his words.

She tilted her chin upward in defiance, but her hands remained on his wrists, fingers tightening. She couldn’t bring herself to release him, still couldn’t believe she’d finally found him. “I can protect myself.”

“You sought me out, Kresley,” he was quick to remind her. “Now that you found me, you’ll find I’m not so easy to escape.” Steel and fire lanced those words with promise. A very female part of her melted with his protectiveness, melted with the fire in his eyes.
 

Kresley told herself to withdraw, to protect herself emotionally, that depending on someone else for protection, for security, for safety of any kind, only brought heartache. But in that moment, she found herself melting into Lucan. The roped muscles of his thighs pressed to hers, his broad shoulders framing her body, the intimacy with him welcome in a way that reached beyond comfort. She found warmth sliding through her limbs, found herself melting into him.
 

“Who said I wanted to escape?” she whispered, unable to keep the sensual challenge from her voice, unable to hide the heat rushing through her from the inside out.
 

The truth was, tonight, just this once, she wanted everything to disappear; she wanted the world to slide away and leave only them… a woman and a man.
 

 
***

Lucan stared down at Kresley and forgot all the reprimands on his tongue. Their bodies were aligned, legs intimately entwined, teasing him with how easily he could mold her hips to his. Everything inside Lucan cried out for this woman and not because she was his mate. They were kindred spirits beyond that bond, two lost souls who needed each other, but could never fully join.
 

Kresley was young, but she’d lived lifetimes of loneliness, of feeling secluded and lost. He saw that in her eyes, felt it in her presence. Lucan knew what it felt like to be lost. Spent far too much time feeling those things himself. But fate had moved in a way that had led them apart.

Still, his soul knew Kresley, knew her beyond time, beyond the moment, perhaps beyond this life. But there would be no next time, for his destiny was an eternity in captivity. He and Kersley had now, but there could be no forever. And suddenly, now held all-consuming emotion that reached deep into his soul, the very essence of burn that was absolute understanding between one man and one woman.
 

Lucan brushed a wisp of hair from her eyes, eyes that held a forlorn look, of needing to belong, needing to be found. With all his heart, he wanted to rescue her from the turmoil of what she felt, rescue her far beyond just keeping her safe. He wanted to send her on a path to happiness, to make sure this time that he left her with the peace he himself had never found in life.
 

“I hate that you put yourself in danger.” His hand slid down a long strand of fiery red hair.
 

Her throat bobbed, her words husky with the effort to speak. “I hate that you traded yourself for me. More than you could ever understand.”