Dark Desire (20 page)

Surprise
registered for a brief flickering of time before her eyes filled with such
tenderness that he could barely breathe with the emotion her look created
within his chest.

“And I love you,
with everything I have.” Her words were strong and sure.

It was exactly
what he needed to hear, and his body shivered at her words. He moved within her
then, lifting his hips only to thrust back
deep,
and
then again deeper still, her hips a demanding counterpoint to his, the rhythm
becoming faster, harder. A tingling started at the base of his spine, rushing
through him as he neared climax at the same time
Laris
arched up, her legs wrapped tight to his waist and a cry of release spilling
from her beautiful lips as his shout mingled with hers, as he spilled his seed
deep inside of her.

Whatever the
morning would bring at least they had this. One night together and he planned
to make the most of it. His cock hardened within her as he thought of all the
ways he would love her. This night would be theirs, and nothing or no one
mattered but his
Lari
.
His wife and
mate.

Chapter Twenty-One

Zeke sat at the
long table at HQ,
Ja’mel
on one side and
Laris
on the other. With shades in place his gaze took in
the men he’d spent more than a century fighting side by side with. More than
friends he though. They were his brothers … family.

“Where do you
think Amari is? We really don’t need her coming at our backs while holding off
a pack of
ferals
hungry for blood.” Tegan frowned.

“Knowing her,
she would want a good view to watch her plan come together,”
Ja’mel
said darkly.

“Do you have the
layout of where the summit is being held?”
Laris
broke into the conversation.

Zeke stilled,
mentally recalling the blueprints of the civic center. “No need to drag them
out. I remember them. The reception room where the press will be meeting with
the leaders and dignitaries has only four exits, one on each side of the room.
The area can hold up to a thousand people, with a raised dais for the
dignitaries and world leaders to sit and address the crowd. The room is lined
with windows from the second floor suites, giving a perfect view of the
proceedings below.”

“Too
many places for Amari and her
ferals
to hide.”
Marcus sighed,
rubbing a hand over his face. Tense lines bracketed his mouth and eyes, and he
looked like he hadn’t slept in a week. “We are stretched too thin to cover it.”

“You have my
forces at your disposal. Or the ones who I know are loyal to me at any rate.”
Frustration cracked in the air at
Ja’mel’s
words. “Of
which I can only trust five hundred.”

“And I know my
father will add his to the cause,” Zeke added. “So there are over a thousand
highly trained warriors at your disposal between the
Mers
and
Atlanteans
.”

Zeke had made a
call to his father,
Adreaus
, as soon as he jumped to
HQ, filling him in on the full scope of Amari’s treachery. He’d breathed a sigh
of relief when his father pulled the trackers off
Laris’s
trail. With his father’s full support they may stand a chance of surviving the
inevitable battle to come.

“King
Adreaus
is also sending the assassin and tracking guilds
with his men. With one mission, to bring him the head of Amari,” Zeke added
grimly.

Marcus let out a
low whistle. “I’ve heard about their reputation. They don’t stop until they
achieve their mark.”

“Clearly we need
to notify the world leaders and let them know what’s happening.” Adrian spoke
softly. “They cannot be put in danger, and I fear holding the summit at the
convention center would make them easy targets.”

Zeke studied his
brothers, every one tense and ready for the fight at hand. A warmth settled
deep in his chest as he realized how much these men had come to mean to him
over the century. They were the best fighters of their combined breeds, and by
the determination flaring hard and bright in each man’s eyes he knew they would
move heaven or hell to see Amari destroyed. As his gaze slid to Christophe
Zeke’s chest tightened. Christophe’s grief was a palpable force.

“Christophe, I
give you my word I will do everything in my power to take Cody without killing
him.” Zeke knew he should not promise something that may be impossible to
achieve, but the Cajun had grown on him, had
become
one of them, and you never left your own behind.

Gratitude shown
in Christophe’s dark eyes as he only nodded his thanks. No words were needed.
They all felt the same and would do everything they could to see Cody made
whole again. Or give him a painless death.

“Adrian brings
up a good point.” Zeke changed the subject, an idea taking shape. “How many
leaders are here for the summit, Marcus?”

“About
a hundred or so.
Why?” Marcus’s eyes narrowed in speculation. “What are you planning?”

“We will need
the whole dark breed community here to pull it off, but if we can get their
help we can take those leaders through the underground tunnels and have your
summit right here.”

“I don’t like
it. How do we know we can trust them not to turn on us? If they know where we
are they can attack, giving us little warning,” Tegan argued.

“Then we
blindfold them. Ryes, Christophe, go spread the word. Go to The Asp and enlist
Mari. She can get the word out faster than any of us. We will meet at midnight
in the tunnel entrance. We tell none of the leaders why we are moving them,
agreed?”

A slow smile
spread over Marcus’s face. “If there is a traitor among them, they will have no
time to reveal our plans. I believe it will work. What about the convention
center?”

Zeke allowed a
slow smile to tip up his lips. “Our forces will be waiting to give them a
proper greeting. Only there is one thing I will need, and it’s risky as hell,
Marcus, but if we are to draw Amari out there is no other choice.”

“Something tells
me I’m not going to like this.”

“You won’t. I
need you and
Tambra
to be there, visible so Amari
won’t be tipped off.”

“I will not have
Tam in danger, especially now. And how am I to be in two places at once?”
Marcus snapped.

“You only need
to be visible long enough to flush out Amari, then make good your escape
through the underground tunnels to HQ.”

“It is the only
way we will be able to draw her out,”
Laris
added. “I
know my aunt. If see thinks she has a shot at you she will take it. And we will
be waiting.”

“We?”
Both Zeke and
Ja’mel
spoke in unison.

Her chin lifted
with stubborn determination. “Yes
we
. I will not be left out of this, and besides someone
needs to watch your back.”

“I don’t want
you in danger. How am I to concentrate on the battle if I’m torn worrying about
you?”

“You forget, I
learned the sword at a very young age and am quite competent.”

“But you have
yet to kill someone. It is one thing to practice, sister mine, quite another to
kill,”
Ja’mel
reminded her gently.

Her grey eyes
turned hard as steel. “I will do what I must to keep those I love safe, and you
will not be doing this without me. My place is by my husband’s side as is the
way of our people.” Her voice held a cold edge, daring him to argue. “Besides
someone competent and trustworthy must look after Marcus and
Tambra
.”

 
“When did you become a strategist, sister
mine?”
Ja’mel
smiled, approval shining in the onyx
depths of his eyes.

She sniffed, and
her small chin lifted up just a tad higher as she turned to her brother. “I may
not have battle experience, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to
strategize. I also spent many years in study of
The Art of War
. I found it very enlightening.”

 
Marcus’s chuckle brought everyone’s attention
to him. “Being married to an independent headstrong woman can be challenging at
best.”

“At worst, they
can get you killed since you spend all your time divided between the battle at
hand and their safety,”
Ja’mel
stated darkly.

“Is your brother
always so pessimistic?” Zeke chuckled.

Laris
let out a light
laugh. “Amongst our kind he is often referred to as the optimist.”

“Happy
bunch.
Remind me not to visit your land until I’m in a very good mood.”

“Then I fear you
will never visit,”
Ja’mel
retorted.

Pulling his
thoughts back to the mission at hand Zeke caught Marcus’s assessing gaze. “All
right,
Laris
will keep
Tambra
safe and escort you both to safety before the battle begins in earnest. We will
wrap things up there as quickly as possible, grab Cody, and make a hasty
retreat. If everything goes well, no humans will be in harm’s way, so it will
be the breeds against Amari, the Preservation Society, and her
ferals
. Our warriors arrive in two hours, plenty of time for
us to get the word out. By tomorrow evening at dusk everything should be in
place.”

“Gods willing it
will be contained with no one the wiser.”

“You know what
they say about best laid plans, don’t you?” Marcus lifted a brow.

Zeke gave a
humorless smile. “Then we go with plan B.”

“And that will
be?” Tegan piped in.

Zeke’s smile
died,
his tone dark. “Run like hell because we will be
seriously screwed.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Night of the
Summit Meeting

Ravenous.

Cody could find
no other word for the gnawing hunger tearing at his innards, or the rage and
hate that scalded him as it burned through his veins, his vision a haze of
crimson. Blood, he needed to feed, feel the life ebbing from his victim, to
drink to the last drop as the heart stuttered to a stop.

No.

He hunted those
who took life, drank of dead blood and became the horror known as a feral. He
fought the need, tried to focus his shattered mind to remember who he was, what
he stood for. Even before he became a vampire he’d dedicated his life to
helping others. His base instinct to protect was what he needed to concentrate
on. He couldn’t let the beast battering at him from within have free rein. For
that way led to madness.

So he hung on to
the thin thread of humanity that still burned at the core of his being. He
would end his own life before he would take an innocent’s. He scanned the
others as he sat cramped with in the back of the van they all were herded into.
Vampires,
Weres
, and a few he could swear were elfin
with pointed ears all stared back at him. No trace of sanity showed in any of
them; only hate and bloodlust remained. The Preservation Society’s army of
killers, broken and tortured until nothing but madness remained.

His gut twisted
with hunger, the addictive quality of dead blood making his hands shake and
sweat cover his feverish skin. His fangs filled his mouth as he fought the
need. His body ached, unable to remember the last time he fed. His hand rubbed
at his chest feeling the scars through the thin cotton of his shirt. He lost
all sense of how much time he spent under the sadistic ministrations of Doctor
Haub
, but he would never forget the pain of having his body
ripped apart for study. As he stood on the precipice of death he would be
yanked back from the sweet offer of peace and healed only to have the hell
start all over again.

The van came to
a sudden lurching stop, and his heart pumped adrenaline into his system, the
thought of food foremost in his mind as the doors swung open and the smells of
the night filtered through the cramped space. He took a shuddering breath,
cataloging the scents of exhaust, food and dry desert air into his lungs. The
sounds of thousands of heartbeats nearly overwhelmed him as the hunger
sharpened, driving a spike in his gut with a nearly uncontrollable drive to
slake his appetite.

Three men in
black jeans and shirts stood back a safe distance from the van, and the barrels
of their rifles glinted under the streetlamps. A tall, beefy man moved into
view, his disgust obvious as he swept over the seven of them. “Move out of the
van nice and easy. One
twitch
in our direction and so
help me God I’ll put you down like the animals you are.”

Several growls
erupted around him from the three
Weres
, but they did
as ordered, moving to form a single line in front of the soldiers. With a
sinking feeling Cody realized they were not the only van, but one of twenty and
all of them filled with
ferals
. Bile rose in his
throat, leaving the taste of defeat as dry as ash in his mouth. They all
gathered in a precise, straight line like good little monsters on the top floor
of a parking structure, and to the right stood the convention center. It took
him only a moment to realize why they were there. The summit Marcus had spent
so much time to organize would become a bloodbath. The lives of hundreds of
innocent people, human and dark breed alike, would end in violence this night
and would seal the fate of all the breeds.