StrategicLust (12 page)

With a half-angry, half-resigned shake of her head, Kate
realized things were a
lot
further out of her control. Part of her
wished she’d never even let Josh come here with her. What the hell had gotten
into her brain tonight?

Kate couldn’t even chastise herself—there was simply no time
for anything except full and complete focus on Sharni. The witch picked up a
half-broken wooden leg from the chair and hefted it. Kate didn’t need to be a
Seer or have any magical talent whatsoever to realize how this next stage would
play out.

Any idiot with most of a block of wood in hand—even if those
hands were bound together—could use it as a bat, a club or in any number of
deadly manners. Kate took a deep breath, moved her hand back and drew her
dagger.

Despite its castings and enchantments, the dagger itself
would not be much use against the wooden club. However, it would certainly do
plenty of damage to anything part of Sharni it came into contact with. The
blonde witch hesitated for a moment, the threat of the large dagger quite
serious.

“Do you really want to do this?” Kate chided Sharni gently.
At heart Kate was a protector—a true Guardian. She had no taste for bloodshed,
no real desire for fighting or causing another living being harm.

That did not mean in the least that she would shy away from
it, nor would she turn and run when confronted. Kate was also a fighter, but
only when her hand was forced. Kate would protect Josh, with her life if it
became necessary, but she would not lie and say she found any pleasure in
fighting Sharni or any other witch or wizard. Any time matters could be
resolved quietly, she far preferred that path.

Sharni snorted at her words. “That stupid knife doesn’t
scare me,” she retorted angrily. “My reach is far greater than yours with that
little toy. I’m going to have fun hurting you and dragging your boyfriend before
my client by his hair. This is going to be a pleasure.”

Kate sighed softly to herself but didn’t show any other
outward change. Instead, having given Sharni a genuine chance to let this drop,
Kate prepared herself for battle. Sharni rushed her and Kate dodged the chair
leg and swiped out with her dagger. The blonde also ducked and the blade only
caught her arm in a graze. Kate leaped around Sharni, continually keeping her
slender body between the witch and Josh.

As they circled each other, Kate caught the occasional
glance of Josh. Each time she had to keep her mind trained on Sharni. Kate was
furious that Josh had remained against her explicit instructions, but was not
willing to give even a few brain cells over to the damnable wizard while she
needed her full focus to be on Sharni.

The two witches lunged and parried at each other, moving
forward and back with increasing ferocity. After what felt like forever but
could only have been a few minutes, Kate realized two things.

The first was that this fight was in deadly earnest. Sharni
had no intention of coming along meekly and being brought to trial.

The second followed on from that understanding. The only way
Kate would be able to leave here mostly unharmed and with Joshua in tow would
be to kill the witch. There would be no knocking her unconscious and running
away. This witch was fairly evenly matched with Kate.

If Kate continued to approach this fight in a defensive
manner, protecting Josh and keeping herself between the two of them, sooner or
later Sharni would overpower her and kill her, then do probably worse things to
Josh. As far as Kate was concerned, that was not an option.

Even though it galled her and left a bitter taste in her
mouth, Kate realized she would have to be more proactive here and take the
offensive. She would have to play for keeps and attempt to seriously wound if
not kill Sharni. The knowledge turned Kate’s stomach slightly, but she had
performed worse tasks in her life. It wasn’t her choice and if she could get
away with a non-lethal response she would.

Kate just had to come to the understanding that Sharni would
very likely force her hand. Kate would have to kill the blonde witch.

Resolved, Kate became far more aggressive in her fighting.
She scored a deep hit against Sharni but suffered a crushing blow to her
shoulder in return. As Sharni moved back instinctively after delivering the
punch, Kate followed instead of retreating. With a quick, smooth motion, she
raised her dagger and struck Sharni a deep cut to her abdomen.

Sharni fell to the ground and Kate kicked the heavy chair
leg out of the witch’s reach. Kate squatted to the floor but kept an arm’s
length away from the blonde and also held her dagger close to her body so Sharni
could not steal it and turn it against her.

“Do you yield?” Kate asked, fully expecting the witch to
agree so Kate could bind her wounds. They were serious but not as yet life-threatening.
Sharni spat at her. Despite the shock that rushed through Kate, she pressed
harder.

“Sharni, you don’t have much time. Yield and I will help
you. I only need your word as a witch. I want to keep you alive.”

“Why?” Sharni coughed as blood bubbled in the corner of her
mouth. “So you can drag me before your precious Tribunal? Get the justice you
seek? I know I’m not your only problem, and lover boy there is still in deep
shit as long as Elijah is on his scent. I’m a pussycat compared to that wizard.
I’d rather die here, in my own home, on my own terms, after fighting like a
witch.”

“Sharni,” Kate repeated, surprised to find a slightly
pleading tone in her voice. She honestly couldn’t expect anything further from
the blonde witch, but still Kate found herself eternally optimistic. A rarity
in her line of work.

Josh crouched beside her and Kate let herself lean gently
into his strength. Sharni turned her face so she wouldn’t have to catch even a
glimpse of either of them and a moment later her breath rattled in her chest.
Kate and Josh waited together without moving until a full minute had passed and
they had not heard a single breath enter Sharni’s chest.

“She fought true,” Kate said softly, the only genuine
compliment she could think to say as a eulogy for the witch. Sharni had been
filled with hate and spite, on the wrong side of the moral line in Kate’s mind,
but she felt no lingering hatred for the witch, even if she did wish Sharni had
shared more with her.

“Could you please feel for her pulse and make absolutely
sure?” Josh said in a soft tone. “I want to take you to the master bathroom,
find a first aid kit. Your skin is scarily pale and you’ve lost a fair bit of
blood. I think you might need stitches in your cheek, love, and I can’t bear to
see you wincing in pain for any longer than necessary.”

Kate stood up stiffly, surprised to suddenly find aches and
pains all over her body. She knew without a doubt that she would have a wealth
of new bruises in interesting places, and her neck itched like damnation. Kate
flexed her arms and legs and did a few stretches to get a mental picture of the
amount of damage.

Nothing appeared broken or more than battered and bruised.
Satisfied, she bent over Sharni and felt for her pulse. First Kate felt her
neck, then her wrist, and finally she placed her palm over Sharni’s diaphragm
to make certain no air went into or out of her lungs.

“She’s gone,” Kate confirmed a few minutes later after a
thorough check. Stiffly, she stood and winced. Josh gently touched her shoulder
and Kate jerked slightly, hissing as pain radiated out along her limb.

“Fucking chair leg,” she cursed. “First and last time I ever
restrain a suspect on a wooden chair. Never again.”

“You’re going to have to call the Enforcers,” Josh replied
calmly, then added as an afterthought, “and likely the Forensics teams as well.
I really,
really
want to do at least rudimentary first aid on you
before
we’re flooded with questions, reports, statements and interrogations.”

Kate sighed and let Josh lead her down the corridor. It didn’t
occur often, but she had been down this road before and she knew for a fact it
dragged on for hours and hours on end. She was not looking forward to it in the
least.

“Remind me to kick your ass the moment I won’t fall over,”
she said crankily. “We had an agreement, Delamere. When I say run, you
run
.
That would have been a whole lot simpler if you’d followed my orders.”

“You were already seriously wounded and half out of steam,”
Josh replied calmly and with maddening patience. Kate couldn’t tell whether she
wanted to rest her head on his shoulder and cry from relief or beat him over
the head until he was as bloody as she.

“There was no way I would have left you—not under any
circumstances,” Josh finished calmly as he gently eased her hand open. Kate
realized it had been clenched around her dagger and she chuckled softly as Josh
placed it within easy reach on the edge of the basin. Kate sat down on the rim
of the tub and let the aches wash over her.

Long experience had taught her that the next ten or fifteen
minutes would be the worst—longer if Josh really did some rudimentary first aid
on her wounds. Then she would get her second wind and be ready for the
Enforcers, the Forensics and every other wizard and witch in the dog-and-pony
show this scene would likely turn into.

Exhaustion washed over Kate and she hissed as Josh pressed a
warm wash cloth soaked in what smelled like antiseptic to her skin. She hadn’t
even noticed him filling the basin. Her neck burned and ached, but after the
initial sting passed the antiseptic felt good against her inflamed skin.

“Should I call Aubury?” Josh asked softly, his amber eyes
filled with love, lust and a depth of caring that would have scared Kate had
they not already admitted their love for each other. When Josh’s words
penetrated, Kate’s eyes widened in fear.

“Don’t you dare,” she insisted vehemently. “I do not need
stitches on my cheekbone. I’m sure it will clean up just fine. Aubury will
coddle me and never let me live down being almost beaten by some stupid, skinny
little witch.”

“That cut will need a butterfly clip at the least,” Josh
insisted firmly, his tone unyielding and brooking no argument.

Kate shrugged a shoulder, uncaring. “I’m sure you can stick
on a clip as well as he or anyone else can,” she said, with another faint hiss
as Josh continued to bathe her wounds. The surprising intimacy of the moment
caught all of Kate’s breath and stole it from her. She realized she had never
had anyone to help with this part. Usually she would sit in the shower stall
and let the water and steam—as hot as she could possibly bear it—run over her
until her tank ran dry and cold. Then she would stiffly move to the bed, lie
down and take a few painkillers before sleeping for as long as she could
manage.

Never had anyone—other than after her worst fights possibly
Aubury—ever helped her or Healed her after her job had been done. For Kate it
was just a rather distasteful aspect of her work, but one she accepted
nevertheless.

Josh, however, touched her with tenderness. He slowly and
thoroughly cleaned her wounds. Kate felt a blush astonishingly creep over her
cheeks and chest as Josh removed her shirt. Instead of ribald comments, hungry
gazes or dirty comments, all of which she half-expected, Josh completed the
task without the least hint of lust or ulterior motives other than to reach her
skin and cleanse her.

Josh continually dampened and stroked the wash cloth over her
skin, washing away dirt, blood and sweat. Even though the antiseptic stung, it
was a healthy pain and Kate finally managed to relax and even enjoy the
soothing ministration.

She was almost half-asleep by the time Josh gently nudged
her knees apart so he could kneel between her spread thighs and have a closer
look at the gash across her cheek. Kate’s gaze met with his tender, caring
amber one and they smiled gently at each other.

“Why are you doing this?” she whispered softly, not wanting
to break the special moment. It was easily the most tender, perhaps even the
most romantic moment of her entire life, and she didn’t want anything to ruin
it, but the question had been burning inside her for these last ten minutes or
more.

“Because I love you,” Josh replied easily and simply. He
smiled slightly as he explained. “I hate to see you in pain. It caused me
physical distress to see you fighting to protect me, placing your body between
me and that witch. This isn’t much, but it’s what I can offer you in return right
now—some comfort, a bit of healing and, as I mentioned earlier, a butterfly
clip to hold this wound of yours closed.”

Kate sighed softly and cupped Josh’s jaw.

“I didn’t protect you because you’re my client and a job,”
she replied with brutal honesty. “I didn’t do anything out there that I
wouldn’t have for any client, but I would be lying if I said there wasn’t so
much more to it than that. Protecting you is instinctive for me. I don’t ever
want to see you harmed. I love you, Joshua Delamere.”

They smiled at each other and bent their heads until their
lips fused together. Kate sighed happily, her aches and pains forgotten, in
absolute heavenly bliss as they tasted each other and she explored territory
becoming as familiar as her own body.

Josh pulled away very slightly and carefully placed a
butterfly clip over her cheekbone. Kate smiled but it tugged on the small
stitch.

“Yech,” she complained without any heat. “I guess now
there’s only the questions, the reports, the interrogations and the bureaucratic
red tape and ass-kissing left to do.”

She sighed. Josh gave her a hand and helped her to stand. She
wobbled very slightly but a deep breath helped her to steady herself. Josh
wrapped an arm around her waist and Kate was grateful for it.

“Thanks, love,” she said softly. Together they slowly made
their way back down the corridor until they came to a small hall table near the
front door. Kate let her hand rest on the receiver of the phone and tilted her
head up to look at Josh.