Forged: The World of Nightwalkers (36 page)

There was nothing to describe what she was feeling in that moment except to say it was pure and utter panic. So when she intended to use her power to push him away, she got an entirely different response. A rush of power bolted out of her and directly into the center of his chest. Not outside of his chest, but dead center inside of his chest.

He exploded from the inside out.

Kat was doused with blood, bits of flesh and bone also flinging in her direction. But it was as though she were in some kind of bubble. Everything washed down around her, streaming to the floor as if it were sliding down off some bizarre sheet of protective glass.

She sat there, horrified, gasping for breath. Her panic was complete, freezing her in place.

Run. Run!
Run!

Finally the screaming in her brain propelled her body into action. She ran. She didn’t stop. Didn’t look back, barely looked where she was going. All she knew was that she had to go up. She was in a basement and had to go up. She found the stairs easily. They were clearly marked by the old signage. As were the exit signs. She found the very first one and slammed her whole body into the door. She promptly was thrown back on her ass, the padlock and chains she’d not noticed holding true. She was starting to hear shouts of warning, the raising of the alarm and she knew she was going to fail. It was that knowledge that slammed the bridge to the Amulet into place and that fear that sent the power against the chains. Like Panahasi they
exploded into shards of metal, the links falling free of the door. She ran at them again, this time using the bridge to help her push her way out. They flung open hard and she was dumped out into three feet of snow.

She didn’t even feel it. She ran, slogging through the thickness of it, her heart in her throat as she realized she was leaving a perfect trail for them to follow. She wasn’t going to make it. Even though Panahasi was dead, someone would raise an alarm, alert Apep, and surely then she would die. And she had no doubt in her mind that it would be slow and agonizing.

And that was when something slammed into her body from behind driving her down into the deep snow. She screamed, tears rising frantically in her eyes, her breath thundering out of her as she clawed at the snow and tried to escape with every fiber of her being.

“Kat! Doona be afraid. I’ve got you!”

And in the next instant she was airborne, snow falling away from her body as the arms he had wrapped around her chest pulled her in tight. She could feel the wash of air from the powerful pumping of his wings. She should have been terrified. She was flying in the air at breakneck speed with nothing but a pair of hands to hold her safely.

But they were
his
hands. His. Her Gargoyle. And she had never felt safer in all of her life.

That was when she was aware of a second person in flight beside them. Kamen.

“You came together?” she asked, her teeth chattering from her wet, cold state.

“Aye. We were just trying to figure out a way to find you. Then suddenly there you were. Hang on.” He dipped and reeled, drawing them down low, into the trees.

Okay, now she began to worry. Limbs and branches were everywhere, sometimes just a hairsbreadth from striking her. He flew so swiftly she had no idea how he
was able to anticipate them. She suspected he didn’t exactly have a flight plan, either.

“Oh my god! Go up! You need to go higher!”

“No, I canna. There’s no one chasing us yet, but that doesna mean Panahasi willna send more of his minions after us. Flying low keeps us out of easy sight.”

“Panahasi is dead! I-I killed him. And the ones who know I was there, I don’t think they even knew why. Except that he wanted the Amulet.”

He seemed to absorb the news of Panahasi’s death quite well. He slowed, bringing them back down to the snow. Kamen followed until all three of them had settled into the cold, icy fine softness of it.

Ahnvil turned her to him, quickly inspecting her. Finding she didn’t have a scratch on her, he seemed to exhale in relief. Then his eyes fell on the diamond and ruby bracelet she wore.

“Now, doona tell me he was giving you gifts. Was he trying tae kill you or woo you?”

“I found the bracelet myself on his workbench. I honestly don’t think he knew what it was or he wouldn’t have left it out in the open like that I’m sure. Then again he is something of a moron. Or rather,
was
.”

“Time for tales of conquests are for later,” Kamen said. “Right now, we need to leave this place behind.” He reached out to put his hand on Ahnvil’s shoulder and his other hand on Kat’s arm. He closed his eyes and in an instant they were streaking.

By the time they came to a halt both she and Ahnvil were so nauseated and dizzy they had to cling to one another to keep upright. After a moment, Kat lost one peanut butter sandwich … or rather what was left of it. Which was not very much so she was heaving hard without much production. She felt Ahnvil’s stone hands in her hair, holding it back, slowly turning to flesh as he patiently stroked her neck and back.

“There now. Easy now, Kat lass,” he soothed her softly until she finally was able to see straight.

“God, I am never doing that again,” she vowed.

“Which part?” Ahnvil asked with a gentle smile. “Kick arse and rescue yourself or the streak?”

She laughed shakily. “I’ll never put myself in the position to have to do the first again, and I’ll never do that second thing, period.”

“I doona blame you. Come, lass, let’s get you inside where it’s safe and warm you up.”

His kindness and his caring knew no bounds. He did not yell at her for her stupidity as he helped her undress and get into the tub, brush her teeth, and do all the little things that would make her feel more human and at rest. He did not question her about the bracelet or how she had managed to escape as he dressed her in a clean T-shirt. He did not remind her of her close call and the fact that she had just murdered a man as he drew her onto the bed, holding her up tight and close under his arm.

He waited until she was fully quieted, until she was feeling safe and completely under his protection, before he began.

“Tell me everything,” he said softly. “If you’re ready.”

“I am,” she said. She began to describe everything that had happened, and every time he realized how close she had come to danger, his hold on her tightened. Whether it was to control his temper or to give her comfort, she didn’t know. But she suspected it was a combination of the two.

“I have come to realize,” he said after she had fallen quiet, “that Panahasi was acting completely independently of Apep. Thanks to all of the good gods for that. If Apep had gotten a hold of you …” He closed his eyes, suppressing the tremor that threatened to wash through him.
She is safe
, he kept trying to remind himself.
She is protected in your arms
.

But it didn’t change the fact that he had failed to protect her in the first place.

“I’m sorry,” he said with heartfelt sincerity. “I was wrong. If not for Kamen’s teachings you might be dead right now.” He reached down to finger the newest bauble on her wrist. “It is because of him that you are safe right now, and that is no’ a debt I will forget.”

“And you’ll let him teach me more? I mean, I will want to know most of the serious Djynn stuff from an actual Djynn like Grey, but Kamen can teach me more of the basics. You’re okay with that?”

“You were right when you said it is not up tae me. You do what you need tae do, Kat. I willna interfere.”

She looked up into his face, sliding around so she was lying on his chest and looking into his eyes. “I understand why you hate him. I don’t want to upset you.”

“I admit, I hate him less at the moment.” He touched her at the corner of her lips, the stroke endearing and warm. “He’s brought something back to me that means far more than the ills of being enslaved.”

Kat felt her throat tightening up and unexpected tears jumped into her eyes once more. She’d been an emotional wreck since this whole adventure had begun, but this was an entirely different feeling.

“I’m surprised to hear you say that,” she whispered.

“ ’Tis the truth of it,” he said with a simple shrug.

The words had an incredible effect on her, but she reined herself in, tried to be careful with her soaring feelings. She didn’t want to get too far ahead of herself. Didn’t want to thrust herself out there, exposed to whatever pain he might throw her way. She was on uneven ground as it was. Every step she took was one step closer to falling flat on her face. There was just too much uncertainty in the future.

So instead of filling the air with insufficient words, and the possibility of dangerous disappointment, she reached
to touch her mouth to his. He pulled her up tightly into the kiss a moment after that, his mouth warm and strong against hers. She closed her eyes, just wanting to feel the strength of him, to absorb his vitality deep into herself. That, more than anything, made her feel safe again. That and the surrounding feel of his arms, the strong press of his hands against her back.

Safe.

And warm. No. Not warm. Hot. It only took a moment for the heat of his kiss to stir up the heat he always seemed to carry with him. Then, with a sudden movement, he rolled her onto her back, his hips driving up between her thighs as they instinctively bracketed him, his elbows propped on either side of her shoulders, freeing his hands to be in her hair and against the sides of her face.

“My Kat,” he said, leaving her mouth for just a moment to speak the words. Then he was back again, this time speaking fire against her.

My Kat. His Kat. Was she his Kat? Or was that just something he was saying in that moment? Was it a way of getting his way? Were his words thoughtless or were they full of thought, full of emotion? Gargoyles were a lusty lot, he had told her. Did that mean they would do or say anything to make their way into a woman’s bed?

She put the questions aside and decided to simply accept what he was giving physically and leave off questioning. She couldn’t trouble her mind with the rest. She had been through so much that night. Now it was daylight beyond the polarized glass of his bedroom and they were safe from all the evil members of the Nightwalkers, imp gods included, and they could rest easy.

Kat accepted a series of kisses so deep she could barely catch her breath. He made love to her mouth with his lips and then deep sweeps of his tongue. He tangled his up with hers, traded tastes and fever until she was lost
and thought she would never be found. She felt everything she was go wet and soft with growing need. She had never wanted anything so much, she realized, as she wanted him right then. Nothing had ever been so clear. She very quickly came so far from the fear she had been immersed in just hours earlier. But both places were places of strength. She had fought for her freedom and had won. Now she was fighting for feelings far more frightening. She was coming home in a way she had never known before. All the pain of that place and time was washing away and being replaced by this passion. Doubt and hate had no place, no home, in that moment.

His hand brushed from her face down onto her throat, his fingertips tracing along the line of her collarbone. There was something about the softness and starkness of the caress that made her look into his darkened amber eyes, seeing things she wasn’t sure she understood. He looked a little lost, as though pieces of the moment were missing. But she didn’t know how to fill the holes. She didn’t think she had what he needed. So she filled the blanks with kisses, with the touch of her hands drifting across the wide breadth of his shoulders.

He was without his stone armor, and yet felt just as durable; a strength that amazed her. She had never known anyone so strong, and to feel it under the brush of her hands was an amazing thing. To feel his warmth growing hotter at her command was something so remarkable that she could speak with nothing but her hands. She used her hands to draw him closer, to tell him how amazed she was by his strength. To tell him she wanted every part of him, every contour and every breath with everything that she was.

And he wanted her just as much with just as demanding an extreme. He burned for her and in that moment
was unafraid to show it to her. There was no room for lies, no room for fighting. Why would either of them want to anyway? They gave truth to each other, naked and needful. He unbuttoned her shirt, parting both halves of it evenly, exposing first her belly and then each of her breasts. Her nipples contracted with the brush of the disappearing fabric and then the touch of the room air. Then she was tethered to him by the touch of his fingertips running down the length of her breastbone, inch by inch, every one tangling her up in an expanding need.

When he touched her belly it contracted with both surprise and expectation. She wanted his touch and yet was shocked by it just the same. His hand flattened against her for a moment, pressing into her, as if he were trying to reach inside of her. Then he pulled his palm away leaving just his fingertips against her once more. He drew them down, all the way to the very edge of the light hair at her mound. But instead of threading into the curls he pulled away, running back up her body in the other direction. He drew a line in the crescent under first one breast and then the other.

By the time he cupped her left breast she was breathing as though she’d run a quarter mile. He smiled a little, and she knew he was taunting her on purpose. And frankly she didn’t care. She wasn’t in any kind of rush. Well, maybe she was. But she wasn’t. Oh, how the hell was she supposed to know? If there was one thing Ahnvil was good at it was turning her inside out.

“There’s a fine sight,” he said, his voice thick with the need she could see in his eyes. “You’ve the prettiest breasts I’ve ever seen.”

“That’s such a lie,” she said breathlessly.

“No’ a lie. I’ll no’ pretend I’m a virgin, Kat lass. I’ve seen my share over three hundred years. When I tell you yours are the prettiest breasts I’ve ever seen, you can
know I doona say it lightly. They’re fair and pale, the wee freckles just at the tops of them,” he stroked his fingertips over them, “and then the darkest pinkest nipples … so tight and puckering so prettily. Aye. I’ve never seen the like. And now I’m going tae love on them as greedily as ever a man could.”