Dawn of a Dark Knight (16 page)

“You don’t need to.”

“Yes, I do. Relax.” The healing power in her revved, excited to be allowed free rein. The second her energy entered him, her body electrified. Personal pain and fatigue disappeared. There was nothing but Ashor…no past, no future, nothing but the two of them, connected.

And what a head rush.

He leaned back and groaned.

She sensed he was…Good Lord, he was seconds from orgasm. She cursed herself for noticing this. Arousal rocketed her to a point of spontaneous combustion.

Her medical side pointed out both of them were in shit-poor condition. How could either of them even contemplate heavy grinding?

Her hormones paused for about a second to consider the thought, shrugged, and charged off to supersensitize her body.

She caught a brief flash of thought from him.
Damn, this is so right. Need to taste her.

Startled, she jumped and lost contact with him.

His eyes popped open. “What’s wrong?” He smoothed one of his large hands along her cheek. His touch was gentle. His expression was open admiration.

Kiss me,
she thought.
Where had that come from?
The guy needs healing, not seducing. She choked out, “Nothing. I’m just…”

“You don’t need to do this. You’ve been through a lot today.”

In her best doctor tone she replied, “We’re not done yet. I haven’t had a lot of practice at this healing thing. Let me try again.” How was she supposed to think about healing? It had been so easy with Eric. No distraction. Just down to business. That’s what she had to do. Business only. Somehow, she had to tune out every image her overactive imagination flashed into her brain. Everything that didn’t involve healing.

She slammed her eyelids closed and visualized his lacerations.

All his pain dissipated. When she felt herself sway from weakness, she withdrew her energy from his body, but didn’t miss his suppressed moan. Intuitively, she knew its cause. She also longed for more of the high that came from being so intimately connected to him.

She wiped away the remaining blood with the old bandage as best possible.
It worked!
All that remained were some faint, puckered pink scars. A small blue sigil of a circle and stylized lettering appeared over the area, perplexing her. The mark blended in with his other tats. An impulse compelled her to lean forward and softly kiss his abdomen over the new image where the wounds had been.

Ashor inhaled sharply while his body bowed toward her. He ground out between clenched teeth, “Have you no mercy?”

She sat up and grabbed her head. Vertigo spun the world. “My head is spinning.”

“Maybe it’s the energy expenditure.” However, Ashor’s gaze communicated the belief it was the lust that still pinged between them like a sonar gone wild. Suddenly, his expression turned deadly serious.

He glanced out the rearview mirror and announced, “Evil approaches.”

“Watch out,” Kira shrieked as a four-door import pulled alongside the SUV. The driver targeted Ashor with a gun.

“Down,” Ashor commanded. He dodged the firing muzzle and grabbed Kira forward to avoid the bullet’s path. The bullet left clean holes in the side windows and a spiderweb of cracked glass.

“Persistent fuckers,” Ashor grumbled as he jammed the SUV into gear and rammed the car next to them before peeling away. Just as they hit the road, Ashor’s new cell phone squealed in a high-pitched, synthetic, musical noise.

“You okay?” he asked, ignoring the phone. To clear his side view, Ashor thrust his elbow through the spiderweb of cracked safety glass. Glass cubes showered everywhere. “Shit.” He wiped his body free of debris.

“I’m fine,” she replied. She whiplashed into the seat as the SUV was rammed forward.

Ashor tapped the brakes. The cars crashed together again, slamming them forward and then forcefully back in their seats.

“Can’t you do a spell or something to protect this car or make his explode?” Kira asked.

“What? No.”

“Aren’t you a magus, which implies magician or sorcerer? You guys are supposed to do magic spells.”

“The spells were lost.” His phone rang again.

“Lost? What kind of moronic organization loses the spells?” She heard the hysterical note in her voice.

He swerved the car to avoid another side hit.

“Want me to answer that phone? And maybe change the ringtone?” The phone’s persistent, shrill noise hurt her ears. Who would choose such a grating sound?

He pulled the phone out of his coat pocket from beneath his left hip and threw it to her.

“Have him call back.” He grumbled something to himself too low for her to hear.

“Hello, this is Ashor’s phone,” said Kira.

“Who’s this? Put Ashor on,” demanded the man at the other end.

The car bumped them from behind again. She grunted and then replied, “He’s busy. He’ll have to call you back.”

“No. Put. Him. On. Who is this?”

“Is that you, Eric?”

“Dr. Hardy?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m glad he found you. You weren’t in Baltimore. That’s why I’m calling.”

She turned to Ashor, “It’s Eric. Why is he looking for me?”

“We don’t have time for this. Tell him to phone Javen and instruct him to ready the plane.”

“Oh, crap!” she squealed and grabbed the panic handle above her head when the SUV cornered sharply, barely staying on all four wheels. She put the phone to her ear again and asked, “Eric?”

“Yeah, still here. What’s going on there?”

“Some guy is trying to ram us off the road.”

The SUV swerved; the phone flew from Kira’s hand into the dashboard. A bullet pierced the window in front of her. She swiped the phone off the floor and put it back to her ear.

“Someone just shot through the window again. Ashor said call Javen and have the plane ready. Gotta go.”

Ashor slowed slightly, allowing the import to come up beside them. He rammed into the foreign car, using the advantageous weight of the SUV, which was far heavier. The car fishtailed off the damp road and crashed into a stone wall.

She should commend Ashor on his driving skills. Annoyingly, he didn’t seem at all affected by their near death experience, whereas her heart had yet to realize the danger had passed.

He asked, “Have you always been a magnet for trouble? How about you tell me why I found you hog-tied for aggressive interrogation? Then, this suicidal car attack.”

She was not ready for that particular conversation at the moment.

Instead she said, “I need to make a phone call.” She dialed Markus’s cell phone and got no answer. Then she tried Kane’s cell and was put directly into voicemail. “Kane, this is Kira. I’m a bit worried about Markus. If you’ve heard from him, please give me a ring. I guess you can call this number.”

She dialed Baltimore Regional. “Yes, this is Dr. Hardy. Could you please put me through to Dr. Wilkins’s voicemail? Thanks.” She listened through the greeting. “Hi, Vance. I’m sorry I missed you the other night. I had a family emergency and had to go out of town. I’ll see you at work.”

“Who’s Vance?” he asked in a neutral tone. His eyes stayed fixed on the road ahead.

The tension in the car spiked. His features were so tight that a needle would bounce off the taut muscles.
Was he jealous?

“It’s this guy I’ve been seeing for a while. He wants to get married.” She noticed his knuckles lost their color where they gripped the wheel.
He cares.
Her chest clenched.

“You accept his offer?”

“A woman’s got needs, you know.”

The SUV swerved to a halt on the side of the road so abruptly Kira’s head smacked the seat back.

He faced her and grated out, “Needs? And you think he can do it for you?”

His irises swirled furiously with black sludge. She sensed he barely contained a spiraling violence. His gaze scanned her face, but locked on her lips. Without warning, his lips attacked hers.

The intrinsic power of his body, the viciousness she knew him capable of, and his wildness—they should scare her, but, wow, this guy knew how to use his mouth. And tasted amazing.

His ferocity took a sharp left turn into sensual. His dominating tongue slowed the pace. A large hand cradled her neck just behind her ears and stroked, sending chills down her spine. His other hand started a slow southward descent. Desire for what this kiss promised ignited every neuron in her body, building sensation until nothing mattered, except that he
not stop
.

Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, it registered: He was doing it! Finally kissing her. The wait had been worth it.

Ashor hadn’t meant to do this. But the primal male in him needed her to know that no one else could come close to this. To the elemental, gods-fated mind-blowing chemistry. She was his, and she dared consider another?

The rational part of his mind screamed:
Stop!
According to the gods’ mandate this was wrong.

He groaned in satisfaction when she arced into his hand on her breast. She fist-locked his hair, pulling him close as if desperate to eliminate every bit of air between them.

He was on an uncontrolled skid down the slope of crazy desire. With a yank, he separated his lips from hers. The brutal need to mark and possess every inch of her perfect skin had him biting his lip. Stinging pain helped clear his head. A bit.

Why would the gods fuck him over like this? Deny him this?

He gazed out the windshield, struggling to put a lid on the crazy. To draw some of the blood from between his legs and back into his body. The feel of her soft fingers on the back of his neck sent shock waves down his spine. He was going to lose this battle. Retreat was his best option. The energy from her body arced toward him and embraced. She tempted and teased. He was going in for another taste, consequences be damned. There was no way she wasn’t going to know exactly to whom her body belonged.
How dare she sleep with another man? How could she stand for another to touch her?

She grasped the solid muscles of his upper arms and leaned toward him.

The piercing ring of the cell phone shattered the silence.

Ashor grabbed the phone and barked into it, “What?”

“It’s Ethan. You close to the airport? Eric phoned and said you found some excitement. We’ve got local authorities beating down on us. I’d say we’ve got about twenty minutes before they ground and search us.”

“We’ll be there in fifteen.” Ashor awkwardly shifted back into his seat and pulled back onto the road.

Resting her head on the headrest, with closed eyes she asked, “Where are we headed?”

“Airport.”

Her eyes popped open and she sat up straight. “I can’t leave yet. I’ve got to return to the city and find Markus.”

“Who is Markus? Is this another boyfriend?”

“If I said yes, would it lead to another delay?” she asked with eyebrows raised in feigned innocence.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “He the one that got you into this mess?”

She released her hair and started rebraiding. “Yep. He always thinks his black-market art deals will go differently, but they all end in a mess. Like the other night in Jacksonville. Were you really there?”

“What? You think I hologrammed myself into your path or something?”

“I just…I wasn’t sure if I hallucinated you or something.”

“Let’s just say four new daemons are running around the Middle Realm from my being there.”

“What does that mean?”

“I took out four Hashishins. The soul of any human stupid enough to tamper with black magik gets trapped as a daemon in the Middle Realm when killed. That’s the Egyptian equivalent of purgatory. Why do you help this Markus person, if his deals always go poorly?”

“If he went alone, he’d never have survived this long. He’s my cousin and all the family I’ve got, other than his brother, Kane, which means if he asks, I’ll help when needed.”

“It’s not safe for you to search for him. I’m sure that Hashishin isn’t the only one interested in getting you back.”

“You’re probably right.”

“What were you doing in New York City?”

“I’ll tell you, if you explain what’s going on with this telepathy thing. Can all you guys talk to each other like this? It’s cool, but it’s going to take some getting used to.”

After a long moment, he replied, “No. Only with you.”

“Why me and you? I don’t get it.”

He shifted in his seat and ran a hand over his face. “It means we’re spiritually bonded.”

“Bonded? What exactly does that mean?”

“Connected. This shouldn’t be news to you.”

To her silent shocked look, he said, “Ask yourself why you entered the Hashishin compound all those years ago to find someone you’d never met. Or explain how you were able to torment me these past few years with those dreams? Don’t get me wrong. They were pretty damn hot. That was a new one in the steam room. Something must have distracted you, because I’m interested to know where it was going.” A smile tugged the corners of his mouth upward.

“You did not experience those! Not possible.” She flushed beet red and put a hand over her eyes.

“Sweetheart, that thing you did to me in the beach sequence while dressed in my Roman soldier uniform last month makes me hard every time I think of it.” He suppressed a laugh. “Don’t be embarrassed. They surprised me, but were…” He paused melodramatically to look at her with a suggestive smile. “Inspiring.”

“Crap.”

“Tell me what kind of art deal brought you here?”

She sighed and rested her head on the seat back to stare at the SUV’s suede ceiling.

“Markus was in New York to acquire an item. He often facilitates the sale of ancient art in off-the-record deals. It didn’t go quite as expected with this seller, not that it ever does with these things Markus arranges. Those guys you killed abducted us right after we met the seller.”

“What kind of art piece?”

“It was an amulet. We were taken before the transaction was completed.”

“What did this amulet look like?”

“The guy trying to sell it called it the
Anukrati
amulet. Does that mean anything to you?”