Night Shadow (19 page)

“No. Find Daklin.”

The man nodded, then paused, studying Lexi. “I wouldn’t’ve taken her for

a woman who’d lose her cool over nothing.”

“Neither would I,” Alex said, watching Lexi pace her confined space like a

caged wild animal. Her eyes were glazed, her jaw rigid as she swore a

blue streak; she seemed oblivious to her injuries. And oblivious to himself

and Lu standing six feet away. This wasn’t the woman he’d made love to.

Alex didn’t recognize this frenzied, wild-eyed woman in front of him.

“Ginsberg must’ve instigated this, given his earlier behavior, but I’m

blown away that she reacted so violently.” He was puzzled as hel . This

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entire bizarre situation didn’t make any sense at all. “Usually she’s got a

pretty cool head.”

“Yeah, wel , I guess everyone has their breaking point.” Lu shot Lexi a

glance, then gave Alex a sympathetic look before teleporting to join

Daklin.

As Alex approached the shield surrounding her, he glanced at his watch to

see just how much time had passed since he’d last seen Lexi up on that

stage, the lights shining on her blond hair like a tracker beam. Just over

five minutes. Yet in that short amount of time she and Ginsberg had

managed to leave each other bleeding, battered, and half dead.

Not what he’d expected when he’d absently sent them off in the same

direction. Shit.

Face flushed, eyes snapping gray fire, Lexi pummeled the shield with her

feet and fists, her beautiful features a rictus, contorted by fury. He’d never

seen a woman so angry. A spark of fear coursed through him as he

observed the tendons and nerves standing out beneath her skin. At this

rate she’d have a damned heart attack if she didn’t get her shit together.

“Take a deep breath and calm down so I—”

Suddenly he was standing outside on a curb in the bril iant sunshine. “—

can . . .” he trailed off. Eyes narrowed, he took in his change of location.

“What the fuck?” He was in a suburban neighborhood. Neat houses, kids

riding their bikes. Sprinklers lazily arcing sparkling drops of water on

lawns. He smel ed freshly mown grass and cooking burgers. Heard a dog

bark, music, kids laughing.

An orange-and-white school bus fil ed with children passed, leaving him in

the wake of hot exhaust and the smel of diesel fuel. Alex’s heart thumped

as he looked around. Tried to figure out where he was. Why he was. Jesus

. . . Just as rapidly he returned to the backstage area.

Now the light was dim, the air tainted by the scent of blood and dust.

On red alert, his fingers tightened on the trigger of the Glock as he

scanned the backstage area. What the fuck?

Just himself and the imprisoned Lexi.

He shot another quick glance at his watch.

Barely two seconds had passed.

Had he imagined it? Something so freaking clear and vivid? Why here?

Why now?

“. . . So I can see to those cuts,” he finished the sentence as if he’d

merely paused. Which he had. To take a fucking
field trip.

One thing at a time.

Blood soaked, black and shiny, into the neckline of her T-shirt where

Ginsberg had attempted to cut her throat. Christ. It looked deep, but if

the man had sliced the carotid she’d have bled out by now. Bad, but not

fatal. Scarlet dripped down her arm, and there was a large, wet patch on

her left thigh. Alex hesitated as he debated sending her to T-FLAC’s crack

medical team in Montana or trying to patch her up here. Here and now

was faster.

Decision made.

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Night Shadow

She threw her body hard against the shield. Hard enough to bounce. She

came back at it in a frenzy. Already bleeding and bruised, she was going

to break something if he didn’t restrain her.

“Alexis! God damn it.” He blew out his breath and consciously gentled his

voice. “Honey, look at me. Ginsberg’s gone. Lexi, do you hear me?

Ginsberg’s gone.”

A second passed. Two. Her head swiveled toward the sound of his voice.

She blinked, eyes glazed. “What?” Her voice sounded thick, almost

drugged. Her fists opened, and her fingers splayed beseechingly, to slide

down the invisible restraint separating them.

Alex released her and shot forward, catching her as her eyes rol ed back

to white, and she col apsed, a dead weight, into his arms. He lowered her

to the floor, transferring her wounds to his own body. Jesus, it hurt like

hel . How’d she been capable of standing with the kind of pain she’d been

experiencing?

He’d had worse, and sucked up the sharp, familiar agony of three instant

knife wounds slicing into him. Ignoring the pain, he materialized a first-aid

kit and a large bottle of water. Since he now wore her injuries, cuts as

wel as al her bruises, he had only to wash away the blood on her skin,

and see if there was anything he’d missed.

He heard the slide of a boot against the wood floor and glanced up. Two

men stood watching. Great. They looked vaguely familiar. Twins, he

thought absently, going back to tend Lexi when the young men didn’t

come forward and offer their help. People usually didn’t want to get

involved in a violent altercation. He didn’t blame them.

As he rinsed the blood off her throat he realized just how scared—no,

terrified he’d been when he’d realized she was out of control. What if he’d

arrived too late?

Magical abilities aside, Ginsberg outweighed her by seventy-five pounds.

Bad enough. But the male operative had twelve years more experience in

the field than Lexi did.
And
the son of a bitch had a Ka-Bar. And speaking

of weapons . . . Where were hers?

He did a visual search along her body. No weapons. He knew Lexi. She’d

never leave home without strapping on every bit of firepower she might

need. Not when she was working.

Ginsberg had magically stripped her of them, then come at her with a

fucking fighting knife. As soon as Alex had assumed her injuries, the color

had returned to her face, and the manic pulse at her throat slowed back

to normal. But he didn’t like that she was still unconscious. Maybe she had

internal injuries? His heart leapt with fear. He tapped her cheek. “Wake

up, honey.”

“Hmm.” Eyes closed, Lexi lazily rolled her face into his palm. He felt the

flutter of her long lashes on his skin as she opened her eyes to look at him

drowsily. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he returned dryly, scanning her eyes for serious injury. Heavy-lidded

but her normal beautiful soft gray. “How’re you feeling?”

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Night Shadow

“Stil sleep—Oh my God, Alex!” She struggled to sit up, and he shifted to

help her. Frowning, she gently touched his cheek with her cool fingertips.

“He
hurt
you!”

“Who?” He realized what he must look like since blood still dripped

sluggishly down his neck. He shrugged. He healed fast. In a matter of

minutes there’d be no evidence that he’d taken her injuries onto himself.

“No. Not m—” Alex’s head shot up as Kiersted materialized a few feet

away. “That bastard better be secure.”

Lexi couldn’t have inflicted nearly the amount of pain Alex was going to

when he and Ginsberg came face-to-face again.

Kiersted ran his hand over his brush of white hair, his light eyes

shadowed. “You are not going to be happy about this.”

Alex pushed Lexi’s bangs out of her eyes, magically eliminating a smear of

blood in her hair. He narrowed his eyes, looked at the man over Lexi’s

head. “What now?”

“Ginsberg’s dead.”

“What the hell do you mean, he’s
dead
? He was alive when you left with

him five minutes ago.”

The other man nodded. “Yeah. I was there. And during the teleport he

ended up with his own fucking Ka-Bar lodged hilt-deep in his heart.”

Eleven

Lexi paced the empty living room at the safe house. The men were stil

searching the Opera House.
She,
however, had been teleported back here,

without even a see-you-later. Why, she had no freaking idea. Wel , yes,

she did. Guilt. She’d seen something she wasn’t supposed to have seen,

and now Alex didn’t know what to do with her.

She was going to have to report him. Simple as that. But this situation

wasn’t freaking
simple
at all because she’d made a huge error in judgment

by giving in to her needs instead of going by the book. Not going by the

book had come up and bitten her in the ass. Again. But damn, it had been

worth it.

Internal Affairs shouldn’t have had to call her to ask for her report.

Protocol dictated that she report in every twelve hours. She’d missed two

reports flying hither and yon—she
was
on an active op. But that was no

excuse.

Her job was to watch Alex for any suspicious behavior, and his behavior

had just crossed the line from suspicious to criminal. Even she couldn’t

believe what her own eyes had witnessed.

Not midnight for her report.

Now.

But didn’t he deserve the benefit of the doubt?

As her lover? Of course, he did.

As a fel ow operative? No. He’d proven today that he was no longer

playing for the T-FLAC team. Lexi couldn’t imagine what had happened to

make Alex switch sides.

Something profound . . .

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Night Shadow

Don’t try to justify it,
she warned herself.
Don’t make excuses for him.

That’s not my job.
IA had given her the Golden Ticket to be a field

operative. She wasn’t about to screw up her first assignment because . . .

because she’d been foolish enough to fall for the very man she was

supposed to be watching.

No. Not fall for. She wasn’t that stupid.

As much as she lo—
cared
about Alex, the security of T-FLAC was more

important. Of course it was. Absolutely. If it came down to either her lover

or the organization that kept the world safe . . .

No contest.

Except her heart ached, and dammit, Lexi wanted to talk to him. Hear his

side of the story. Hear his rationale for his actions. Blasted man. Why did

he have to go and have feet of clay? “And then the son of a bitch

grounded me.” Which stung. “Dammit to hell.” She’d already tried the

doors and the windows. They wouldn’t budge. Magically sealed shut. She

strode toward the fireplace in ground-eating strides. “Damn. Damn.
Now

what do I do?”

“About what?”

The unexpected sound of a female voice made Lexi jump, then spin

around. An exotic-looking woman perched with one hip on the arm of the

sofa, her boot-clad foot casually swinging. She smiled.

Lexi scowled, reaching for her Glock, then realized that Alex must’ve

taken it before he teleported her back here. She wasn’t in the mood to be

friendly to some strange woman who looked as though she was part of a

punk rock group.

“Who are you, and what do you want?” Wizard, Lexi realized, not feeling

particularly warm and fuzzy toward wizards at the moment. She was fed

up with wizards in general. And Alex in particular.

“Ooo. Touchy, are we?” There was a faint lilt to the words, and an

annoying I-know-what-you-did-last-night twinkle in her eyes. In her early

thirties, she was quite beautiful in a Black Irish, pierced and tattooed kind

of way. Her long, curly black hair complemented her white skin and dark

eyes. She was dressed in skintight leather—black again—from top to toe.

She wore no blouse under the formfitting waistcoat cut down to there.

And those painted-on pants would give her a yeast infection for sure, Lexi

thought, feeling catty because she didn’t want to believe the woman

actually
did
know what she’d been doing. Those FM boots must give her a

nosebleed, they were so freaking high. And what was with the eyebrow

and nose piercings, and the tattoos running up and down her milk-white

arms? Did she really want to live with that crap defacing her body forever?

“I’m not touchy,” she snapped.

“Mmmm. Now I wonder what could have gotten your wee knickers in a

knot?” The other woman twisted a waist-length curl around her finger.

“That,” Lexi said through her teeth, “is none of your damn business. If you

flew in to meet up with a boyfriend, forget it. He’s working.” Didn’t matter

which of the men this sexy Goth princess was looking for. They were
all

damned wel working. Except
her.

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Night Shadow

The woman jumped lightly off the arm of the sofa. Despite the heels on

her boots, she was a head shorter than Lexi. “I’m Lark.”

“Great. Want to leave a message?” Holy shit. The thought occurred to her