Kiss of Darkness (16 page)

He pulled away from her and let her roll to her back, but her relief was short-lived when he covered her, his erection wringing a groan from her as he pushed home again. He kissed her, slowly, tenderly to match his strokes in her. Taking his time now, soothing her electrified senses. She relaxed into him, able to breathe again when he broke the kiss.

“One more time, baby,” he whispered in her ear.

She grabbed his shoulders as he picked up the pace, harder and deeper, in a fast even tempo. Her fingernails dug into his muscles as her sex clenched around him and she felt her mind splinter. He cried his release, warm jets of sperm filling her, and stilled above her, clinging to her. After several minutes, he rolled to her side. They were both panting, sweaty. The need was temporarily sated but nowhere near appeased.

“I’m not moving for at least a week.”

He chuckled and she groaned when her cell phone started chirping.

“Damn it,” she mumbled, trying to make her exhausted body roll out of bed to find the stupid thing. Her body refused to obey her. Marcus stood, rummaged around on the floor and handed it to her as he collapsed back at her side.

“Yeah?”

“Another one,” was Dupree’s clipped reply. She was suddenly wide-awake.

“Fuck! Where? Who?”

“One of the safe houses. On the north end. Four dead, everyone else accounted for.”

She closed her eyes wishing she could go back several days, wishing she knew what the hell was going on. Standing, she tucked the phone under her ear as she reached for her pants.

“I’ll meet you there,” she said to Dupree and closed the phone.

Marcus beat her to them and handed them over. He looked really pissed off. Shit. She added it to the long list of things she didn’t have time for.

“I’ve got to go.”

She pulled her bra and shirt back on, sat on the edge of the bed to zip up her boots, had her weapons strapped back on in record time. Guilt crawled through her, sped her up. Her people had been butchered while she indulged herself with a nightwalker.

“Don’t do that.”

She didn’t have to ask what, had sometime in the last several hours accepted she couldn’t kick him out of her head. She shrugged.

“Why not? It’s true.”

“You can’t be everywhere at once,” he snarled, getting into his own clothes. “And even if you’d been there, you’d probably be dead too and then what good would you be to anyone?”

He said the right words, but it wasn’t what he was thinking. He didn’t give a damn about them; he just didn’t want to lose her. He slammed up walls against her when he realized she’d picked up the stray thought. She narrowed her eyes.

“That’s hardly fair. I don’t get to have any private thoughts but you do?”

She explored the shield with mental fingers, pushed at a weaker spot and it crumbled like dust. Unfortunately, she didn’t know if he’d let it happen or if she’d really accomplished it on her own and now that her access was returned she wasn’t positive she wanted it.

He used fury to cover his fear. His fear he could have lost her in any of the three attacks, his fear he still could lose her. It was a side of him she didn’t want to see, a softer humanizing side. She shook her head. Later. She’d deal with this later.

She closed her eyes, picturing the house she needed to go to and felt Marcus move through her mind and also fix on the location. She knew he planned on following her and was not happy at the relief she felt because of it. She had Dupree and Gia as backup, but she couldn’t deny Marcus’s usefulness in a fight. On that thought, she focused, felt her molecules shift as she teleported to meet Dupree.

Chapter Twenty-One

Luke found a quiet, unused space in the sub-basement, collected an abandoned chair and settled in to wait. There were other things he should be doing—organizing patrols, checking up on the training of new recruits, trying to figure out who the hell inside the Order was betraying his, or her, own. It was pretty damned obvious someone was.

But no. Instead he was hiding out underground, waiting for the sun to set and Gia to arrive. It was all so…stalkerish. And completely ludicrous, that he, Luke Black, player extraordinaire, lover of all women and universally loved in return, was reduced to stalking his own damned mate. Absurd and infuriating. The walls bulged a moment as anger swept through him and he was careful to rein in his power, to let it release harmlessly.

He set the chair against the wall and brushed away a cobweb before sitting and leaning his head back. One day very soon he was going to spank her pretty ass for putting him in this position. She’d insisted on her own room last night, but he hadn’t believed she was really serious about keeping him out. So imagine his surprise when the door was locked. He could have easily gained entrance, picked the lock or just blasted the door open, but he thought it would be more satisfying to force her to come to him.

If he didn’t feed from her soon, thereby leaching off the excess energy from the demon, she would start to come apart. Wincing, he recalled his first meeting with her. She’d been barely walking the edge between sanity and madness then. He wouldn’t let her carry this defiance far enough to endanger herself.

But she hadn’t come to him today either, had in fact left the house as soon as she could. She wasn’t struggling, fighting her demon side for control yet, and he had no idea how long it would be before she needed to. Whatever the length of time, it was too much. He was
not
sleeping alone again.

The question was how to get her where she belonged and the obvious answer was sex. He couldn’t live without touching her, so how could she? He scowled and stood to pace the room. She’d managed just fine last night. He couldn’t demand her capitulation either. He’d tried that, insisted last night she drop her shields and give him access to her mind, but she’d refused.

Refused to accept she was his in the most irrevocable way, refused to grant him access to what was his right as a mate. He stopped pacing and pictured her, then glared at the ceiling. It trembled a little, fine dust shaking free to fall on him as it did. Damn it, why couldn’t his mate be another nightwalker? Why did he get stuck with a stubborn, beautiful hybrid?

Returning to the chair, he reached out, hoping to catch her in a weak moment. No such luck though he wasn’t as cut off as he’d been. He couldn’t get into her head, but he felt her. Her turmoil. Her confusion and anger. Her sorrow. He shouldn’t have been able to sense her over such a long distance. He wouldn’t have with anyone else he didn’t already have a connection with like his brother or Kadall. He jumped up from the chair, excitement surging through him. He shouldn’t be able to sense her emotions so well. That he could was surely a sign in his favor. The bond was growing. Now to just reel her in, make it complete.

With all his concentration turned on her, he felt her teleport into the building, felt her realization that he was there somewhere, felt her trepidation. He was surprised when she didn’t leave right away, that she wasn’t running as fast as her feet would carry her from the confrontation. Of course, she realized she had time. The sun was still up and the windows on the top floor of the building, in her office, weren’t shuttered. He couldn’t go to her yet.

He waited impatiently for the sun to set, never hating it as much as he did in those moments. It wouldn’t kill him. Not right away at least. It would sap his energy, create little sparks of fire along his skin and nerve endings. Nightwalkers, naturally, avoided it like the plague it was. Finally, finally, it slid over the horizon and it was safe for him to go up.

The elevator was too slow, so he found the stairwell and jogged up. He could have teleported, he’d been in her office before and knew the layout, but he didn’t. He
wanted
her to feel him coming for her, wanted her to know there was no hiding, no place on earth and certainly not in Camden, that she could conceal herself.

She was sitting behind her desk when he walked in, pretending to ignore him, but he felt her awareness, preened at the hidden scrutiny. She may not want to want him, but she couldn’t deny she did. He sauntered forward, sat on the edge of her desk until she was forced to look up and meet his gaze with a frosty glare.

He kept his eyes hot and carnal, took in a deep draught of air when he smelled her arousal. His nostrils flared as her nipples hardened under his gaze. How could she deny what was between them when she responded so quickly to nothing more than a look?

“What are you doing here?” She crossed her arms over her chest as if to hide her response to him. “I’ve got work to do, Luke.”

He shrugged, but didn’t vacate the space he’d claimed on her desk. “Do it then. I’m not stopping you.”

She exhaled a gusty breath and he didn’t even pretend to not watch the way her breasts rose enticingly as she did. She noticed and didn’t appreciate his admiration apparently.

“Stop hovering,” she snapped. “And don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?” he drawled, wondering how she would respond. He wanted to keep needling her. Her color was high, her eyes sparking in challenge. He’d never seen her like this and he liked it. He liked it a lot.

“Well?”

“You’re just trying to egg me on, aren’t you?” she whispered.

She shoved the chair back and stood, walking to the windows to stare outside. He didn’t have any idea what she was thinking, but he couldn’t take the forlornness he felt from her. Approaching softly, he was careful not to startle her as he stepped up behind her and rested his hands on her shoulders. Her whole body stiffened.

“So tense, darlin’,” he drawled quietly.

“Times are tense.”

He knew she meant more than the mating hunt they were engaged in and a familiar surge of anger swept through him. At the demons yes, but mostly her. She was his mate. She didn’t have the right to endanger herself. His hands tightened on her shoulders and he pushed a little harder than he intended at her mind.

Let me in, damn it.
Then he felt nothing but fierce joy as she desperately tried to push him out, away.
Too late now, darlin’.

She wrenched free of his grip and stalked away, hips swaying in the seductive manner that always enchanted him. She caught him staring at her ass when she whirled back around. He simply shrugged at her outraged glare. Could he help it if the mere sight of her walking turned him on?

“Stay out of my head, Luke,” she snapped. “And stop that.”

Stop his arousal? The lust, the need for her that had become like a second skin, always with him? Impossible. He shook his head.

“You’ll get used to it.”

Her eyes narrowed to angry slits, just a hint of red around the irises and he knew she’d have to come to him soon. She never intentionally let him see her demon half. She ignored his statement, refused to engage him on the subject of their mating. “I have too much to do tonight to deal with you. Go away. Let me work.”

He stretched out on the old leather couch on the far wall. Crossing his arms on the armrest, he laid his head back, closed his eyes and made himself at home. “Work. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Damn it. I can’t—” She cut herself off abruptly, but he knew what she was leaving unsaid. He didn’t budge from his position, didn’t even crack open one eye.

“Can’t concentrate with me here, darlin’?”

“Oh, shut up,” she muttered. He heard her move back to her desk and resume her seat.

The sound of papers rustling was the only thing that filled the air for several minutes, then she sighed and started making calls. He listened carefully to her side, picked what he could of the rest from her mind while trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. They were building new compounds rather than buying existing houses, but still needed to lease several places for the time being. He’d have to speak to Marcus.

They owned a few houses that were possibilities. There was even room in their house, but he was loath to offer it. The three couples in residence were straining things enough. His stomach grumbled. Though they needed a good cook. One more person wouldn’t hurt. A woman so no one’s instincts went crazy. His stomach moaned again, reminding him he hadn’t eaten since the previous night. He could go several days without the psychic energy from feeding, but he needed food. He stood and her head jerked up at the movement.

“I’m going to pick up some dinner. Chinese okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said, turning back to the computer screens she’d been studying. “I ate something before I left the house.”

“That was hours ago. You need to eat more than once a day.”

Another reason she needed him. She forgot to eat, had been worse about it when he first met her. From the beginning of their odd relationship he’d been feeding her. That sure as hell wasn’t changing now. She sighed.

“Fine. Get whatever you want,” she answered but she wasn’t really paying attention to him, distracted by whatever was on her screen.

He struggled not to take it personally. He’d seen her like this before, so wrapped up in work she practically ignored him. Rather than start another argument he left, teleporting into the alley next to a local Chinese joint.

He was back in minutes with a paper bag packed with cartons and bottles of water. She looked up when he started to unload the contents onto her desk.

“You
are
going to eat. Even if I have to feed you myself.” That idea had interesting possibilities. Feeding her in bed. Naked. She flushed and he smiled when he realized she’d picked up the thought. “Want to give it a try?”

She snatched a box from his hand. “No.” But there was a hint of interest in her tone, a hint of curiosity that fired his blood. Oh yeah. It was definitely something he was going to do later.

They ate quietly, her concentrating on her computer and him watching every bite that went into her mouth ensuring she ate enough. Her phone beeped an incoming message almost the second she set the empty carton down. She glanced down at it and then straightened, rose to her feet. He caught her hand as she tried to slip by him.

“What is it?”

“The lab. I’m going down.”