Savage Bond (The Fallen) (5 page)

He nodded. "That makes the evac easier."

She stared at him curiously. "You're really here to get me out?" He didn't look like standard search-and-rescue. But she liked the idea, liked the fantasy of tossing all her problems onto those broad shoulders and holding on while he did the heavy lifting.

That was just fantasy, though. Reality was, she'd stood on her own two feet before. She'd do it again this time.

And even as she told herself to just step away, she was stepping closer. He was smoke and mirrors, an illusive promise of safety. He wasn't the real deal. Couldn't possibly save her from the nightmares tearing up the Preserves.

Because, at heart, he was one of them.

His next words just proved it.

"I'm getting you out of here," he said, "just as soon as you hand over the vidstick."

Well, that just sucked. She tugged her wrist and he gave it back to her, his fingers sliding against hers as he backed it up a step.

"What vidstick?" she asked, playing for time. She knew damned well what he meant, but admitting that truth seemed unwise. Single female alone in a deserted place with a supernaturally powerful male? Yeah. Classic recipe for disaster.

"Ria." He sighed her name like the sweetest of threats. "You went up in that chopper. You're a photographer. You took pictures and opened a line to MVD headquarters. Of course you have hard copies."

Fear ate at her. If he knew what she had, he'd know precisely how to take it from her as well. She'd seen his work on the vid her drones had captured. He had millennia of experience and no conscience.

He'd kill her in a heartbeat.

Her heartbeat, because he didn't have a heart, didn't have a soul. All this talk of cutting a deal was just that—talk. He didn't have to bargain with her because he already held all the chips. Fear threatened to choke her again.

He inhaled, his nostrils flaring as if he truly were a beast scenting the air. What did he smell? She wondered. What did he know that she didn't?

"You don't like what you do." He was too perceptive. She hated the adrenaline rush. Hated looking over her shoulder to see what was coming. Maybe that was what made her so damn
good
at what she did, because she never let up. Never let her guard down. Not until she was tucked away behind a door and a lock and she could pull the covers up over her head if she wanted to because, even though she was a grown woman, she knew too well, damn it, that there were things that went bump in the night—and all of them, all of them, had come knocking on her door at one time or another. So fear didn't matter. Or, if it did, she'd
pretend
it didn't.

"It doesn't matter what I like," she said. "I have a job to do, Vkhin." She sat down, hard, because her legs were done holding her up and she was done pretending none of this was happening.

For a long moment, he just watched her. "You know who I am. You've been watching me, Ria. You know what I can do."

"Yeah." There was no point in hiding from the truth. She knew
exactly
what he was capable of doing.

He crouched down in front of her, blocking her view. Those massive shoulders of his shut out the sky and the smoke and all the unwelcome signs that her mission was a complete and total clusterfuck of a failure.

"You don't need to be afraid right now."

"You're telling me you're one of the good guys?" He couldn't possibly mean it. He was one of the Fallen.

 He shook his head. "Never make that mistake, baby. Anything, anyone you find here in the Preserves is bad to the core. You don't trust me."

He didn't look bad. He looked big and hard and safe. Nothing was getting through him.

He held out a hand to her. "You come with me, and I'll get you out of here. I'll get you back where you belong."

"Just like that?" She stared at him suspiciously.

"Of course not." His hard, sensual smile wasn't nice. "We both know there's a price tag for my services. You're going to have to pay for your exit ticket."

His hand came up when she didn't take it, one finger tracing the curve of her cheek. Her jaw.

She wanted to lean into that finger, that teasing promise of warmth, but he was Fallen and seduction was just another weapon in his arsenal. They both knew that. "I'm not in a paying frame of mind, Vkhin."

The reality of him was overwhelming.  Before, she'd always had the safety buffer of her camera lens between them. Now, here he was. Raw and real. Overwhelming.

"That's too bad." His finger paused, rested against her skin. "You should ask me, Ria."

"Ask you what?" Her lips were dry and sensitive, as if fear or the altitude or some alien desire had left them swollen and unfamiliar. He was watching her, though, as if he were daring her to use her tongue to moisten her skin. Around them, night fell like a dark dream. As the shadows grew, it was just her and this fallen angel, making sensual promises she didn't want. Did she?

"Ask me what I want." His booted foot moved deliberately between hers, a heavy weight between her bent knees.  "Maybe, you wouldn't mind paying, Ria," he whispered. His thumb stroked a coaxing circle against the skin of her throat.

"I can't." Arousal hummed through her, making her body heated and slow. She wanted to touch him. Wanted to feel his skin against hers and that was so wrong.

"I think you can." His head lowered towards her. God, would he kiss her? Could she let him? "I think you can do whatever you want."

She couldn't believe that sensual, wicked promise. This wasn't about sex, she reminded herself. This was about her life. Her freedom. He'd come after her chopper, which meant the Fallen not only knew what MVD was up to—they had every intention of stopping it. They were on opposite sides.

"I don't do bonds," she whispered.

His head jerked back, but there was no mistaking the harsh look in his eyes. "That's just fine," he growled, "because neither do I. I'm not part of this deal we're making."

Disappointment flooded her, making her wonder what was wrong with her. He was a Fallen angel and he wanted something from her, but what he
didn't
want was a bond.

It wasn't as if rejection was something new.

She shouldn't have felt hurt. Shouldn't have been imagining what it would be like to bond with this male.

"You took photos," he repeated, standing up and moving back as if he couldn't wait to put some space between them. Which was fine. It really was. "And I'm offering you a trade. One exit ticket from this hell your ass is stuck in—in exchange for the pics you snapped.:

"You won't leave me here," she said confidently.

He smiled. A slow, mean smile. "Now, darling, what makes you think that?" She didn't trust him, but clearly he had to get her out because she'd already uploaded the photos. Didn't he?

"You want my photos."

He shot her an inscrutable look. "I could kill you right now, Ria," he pointed out. "If you had time to pop the vidstick on that camera of yours, you'll have secured it somewhere on your person. I could strip you right now, find that card for myself." He shrugged. "Or kill you and dispose of your body. I have lots of options—the one who doesn't have any options in this scenario is you. You have exactly one choice—whether or not you trust me. If you want to get out of here alive, you're going to choose to trust me."

"You'll take me out of here?"

"I'll get you over the wall," he said. "You'll go home."

"Without my pics," she groused.

He reached down and held out a hand again. "Make up your mind," he ordered. "You trust me and you go home. It's that simple, Ria."

Pale white lines from old injuries cut through that sun-darkened skin, scars he'd carry with him forever—and forever was a damned long time when you were near-immortal. Strong, blunt fingers. Capable fingers. Capable of anything, she reminded herself, but there was no escaping the searing heat of the memories of those fingers touching her skin. Holding her in place. He could do whatever she wanted. Anything.

So why was she thinking about taking his offer?

The noise warned her first.

Vkhin dropped his hand, reached for his weapons.

Growls echoed from the trees nearest them as a pack of rogues exploded into the clearing. Oh, God. When the rogues had attacked the chopper, all she'd seen was a pack of winged creatures methodically driving the bird downwards. She'd had an impression of cruel wings and size, but now, face to face with what was coming after her, she realized the sneak peek hadn't prepared her for the reality.

The rogues were big, tough bastards with dark, malformed faces. It was as if someone had brutalized a Neanderthal, making the male harsher, more malevolent. Twisting familiar human features into something purely bestial. The eyes were the worst, though. Those eyes were colder than cold, pure hollow emptiness that advertised the stone-cold killer within.

She didn't want them anywhere near her.

This was why she needed him. Not for sex but for survival. She didn't want to die here and he was the only one who could help her.

 "Take cover," Vkhin snapped. She looked wildly around. He had to stop giving impossible orders. Not that she took orders, but there
was
no cover. Just a handful of scrawny trees, a really inhospitable looking cluster of rocks and the deflated chute. Where did he think she was going to go?

There was nowhere safe.

Ruthlessly, he palmed his blades and slammed into the rogue nearest him.  Those black eyes of his were pure ice as he methodically cut down the first wave of rogues. Those twin blades of his sliced, ripping through flesh and tore apart bone and sinew until blood painted the ground and trees. The thick copper stink choked her lungs when she sucked air in desperately. The powerful blows were a stark reminder he was a powerful ancient and he wasn't human. She wanted to squeeze her eyes shut, to pretend this was just a bad sim, but she was tired of hiding. Tired of waiting for other people to fight her battles for her. Although Vkhin looked more than capable.

Moving with lethal swiftness, he pulled more blades, the vicious edges driving into the attacking rogues.

The rogues were monsters, clawing and lunging for her strange protector. Why should she trust him? How could she? From where she was, he didn't look all that different from their attackers. A little less dark, but the same ferocious rage twisted his features, drove him forward. He was pure violence incarnate and that made him bad, bad news. 

I should run
, she thought. He was distracted. She had a chance.

She took two steps away from the trees. Freedom beckoned. She should take it.

No.

She stopped.

No more running.

"Get down," Vkhin roared. When Ria didn't follow orders, he hooked a hand in the collar of her jumpsuit and tossed her behind him. The Preserves' rocky terrain made a decent hidey-hole, with enough good-sized boulders to give some cover. Ria Morgan was a small female and she'd fit if she kept that stubborn head of hers down and out of trouble. Off-balance, she hit the ground harder than he liked, but bruised was preferable to dead.

He'd make it up to her later.

Right now, though, he got himself between her and their incoming, praying to a God who'd given up on him millennia ago that Ria Morgan had the good sense to stay down.

The immediate movement behind him, as she scrambled to her feet, warned him she wasn't the staying put kind. Fuck. He'd deal with her, but first he had business to take care of. A quick scan of the males coming out told him he needed to make every blow count. Four rogues front and center, and they probably had a few more fighters hanging back to take care of clean up. That was just fine with him. He'd been jonesing for a fight since he'd watched Ria's chopper go down.

Adrenaline and fury rushed through him and it felt good to palm the blade. He didn't understand why, but Ria Morgan was
his
. He knew this in his bones, in the dead organ that had been his heart so long ago. She belonged with him and the Dominion he'd been before he'd Fallen wasn't letting anyone take her from him.

"Come and get me," he growled, surveying their attackers. Bastards had blades and guns and their first shot took out his comm. Well, fuck. He hadn't planned on doing an SOS, but he'd wanted to confirm the pick up details before he headed out with Ria. He wasn't going to be doing that now.