“The gate.”
He smirked. “Yes. How fortunate of them to find the gate.”
“You shouldn’t be too surprised. You guys made it.”
He did that tilt to his head again, as if he found me amusing and was indulging me. I wanted to growl at him. I was not a child. Hadn’t been for a while.
He eventually shrugged and strolled out. I stared at the door, making sure he wasn’t going to burst back through with a surprise attack. As the seconds ticked by, my body calmed down enough to turn back to the human servant hanging from the ceiling.
My body was bruised, my abdomen hot and bleeding, and I was tired. Yet, there was still so much to do. First order of business. Getting this man back to his buddies.
I walked over and took a moment to stare at him. He had broad shoulders, his light blue shirt damp with his own blood. Even his blond locks dropped a couple of drops of blood to the floor.
Reaching up on my tiptoes, I unhooked him. He threatened to fall to the floor, but I used the little strength I had left to hold him against the wall as I untied the silver chains wrapped around what were his mangled wrists. No burns, so he wasn’t allergic to silver, probably just from him struggling.
I managed to prop him against the wall properly so I could turn around. It took some fancy maneuvering. The human was completely out of it and nearly a half-foot taller than me, around the same height as Slade. After some grunting and swearing, I hoisted him up, his hands hanging over my shoulder. He even got a free pass as his hands knocked against my breasts.
He was just over two hundred pounds of pure muscle. I shuffled back to the gate, keeping my senses on alert in case the baddie decided to come back to finish me off. He wouldn’t have to work very hard to kill me right now. My shirt became a leech and slowly sucked up my blood as it plastered itself to my skin. The human nearly slipped from my grasp, and I clenched my teeth as I hoisted him up, putting a strain on my wound.
Each step was pain. Sweat dripped down my body. My skin was hot and sticky wherever it touched him. Somehow twenty feet to the gate turned into twenty miles. The world even turned into a tilting funhouse, just not so fun.
The only bright side was that the two flunkies were still out cold. I just needed to get out before they decided to finally wake up.
With only a few feet left to go, my cargo finally decided to return to the real world.
“Hi there,” I said as his body stiffened on my back, and I stumbled. He went from weighing two hundred pounds to three hundred.
“Let go,” he growled and shoved at me.
“Calm down before I drop you,” I snapped back, but it was too late. We were falling. Headfirst. Through the gate. We screamed, him louder than me, as the gate raked at our cells and tried to pull us apart at a molecular level.
We poured out on the other side and the asshole used me as support to stand up, squishing me against the wet ground, the pressure on my wound nearly unbearable. Tears flooded my eyes, and I just lay there, wishing I could squeeze the life out of something to make the pain go away, preferably the idiot’s neck.
Cold hands grabbed my arms and picked me up.
“Are you okay?” Mr. Sharo asked.
“That bastard,” I growled, looking around, searching for the man I had saved. Another group was around him, healing his wounds. He looked to be in a shit load of pain. Didn’t make me feel any less angry with him though. Ungrateful asshole. I should have just left him and told the others he was dead. Would serve him right.
“I apologize. You must have surprised him,” Mr. Sharo tried to apologize for him.
“Screw him. That hurt.” I grabbed my shirt and lifted it slowly to reveal the nasty looking wound. It looked like a singed bullet hole and still seeped blood. I poked at it. The skin around the hole felt burning hot.
“You’re hurt.”
“No shit,” I snapped, my anger rising. “And that little thankless bastard made it worse.”
“Let me get a healer.”
My eyes widened. “No!”
Mr. Sharo’s mouth snapped at my little outburst of fear.
I shook my head. “I’ll be fine. I heal pretty fast so I should be good as new by tomorrow. I don’t need a healer.”
He eyed me, trying to look into my deep dark secrets, but I managed to build up immunity to his gorgeous looks. He would never break me. “Are you sure?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Okay.” He glanced at the gate and then at my beaten body. “What happened in there?”
I rubbed at my face. “Bad guys. They had him dangling from the ceiling, unconscious. I think they were trying to question him.” I gave him a quick recap of everything, spending most of it describing the mysterious baddie.
“You know nothing about this man?” he asked.
“Never saw him before.” I eyed the gate, expecting the man to come through it at any moment. “Just get rid of the gate.”
“We have to wait for permission from the queen before destroying it.”
“And while you wait, you’re giving him access to your queen. Doesn’t sound very smart to me.”
“We will post guards.”
“They were able to take on your friend there, and from what you said, if they could take him on, then what will your guards be able to do to stop them?” I eyed the guy, who was still surrounded by medics. He sent me a scowl, his manly pride most likely hurt because a woman had saved him. “Who is he anyway?”
“Christopher.”
“Christopher?” I repeated and then it clicked into place and my eyes widened. Holy mother ship.
“Yes, him.” Mr. Sharo read my thoughts perfectly.
“But...”
“They had an altercation, and he wanted to prove her wrong so he went through.”
I swore. “No wonder you asked me to come.”
Christopher was a badass human servant to the queen. Well over five hundred years old. One very mean son-of-a-bitch who gave out punishments to the underlings like candy on Halloween. And the baddies were able to kick his ass.
I shivered. I may have stepped into something bigger than the pile of shit I thought it was going to be. Now I had caught the attention of the baddie who was able to hold Christopher against his will, and I had a very bad feeling we were going to meet again. A shiver crawled down my spine.
“Get rid of that gate. Tonight.” I gave Mr. Sharo my no-bullshit look, and he reluctantly nodded. “If your queen gives you shit for it, tell her I forced you. I can deal with her.”
“I will not tell her that. The last time you dealt with her, she nearly destroyed an entire city block. You two are like fire and oil.”
I chuckled. “She adores me.”
“She blacklisted you. The next time she sees you, she’ll try to drink you dry.”
“And the last time she tried, I nearly pulled out her dainty little teeth. She can’t do shit to me.”
“She loves the taste of your blood.”
“I know. That’s why she won’t kill me. Just tell her I forced you, make use of all those hopper laws giving me the right to demand the destruction of a gate if I deem it too dangerous. She won’t want the DTS sniffing around, so that will get her off your back. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going home.”
“Payment?”
“Transfer it.”
He nodded.
“And, Pumpkin. I’ll know if that gate isn’t down. If it is still here in two hours, I’ll come back. Don’t make me come back.” I hardened my expression, letting him see how serious I really was. We might be on friendly terms, but it didn’t mean I wouldn’t kill them if I needed too. That gate was a risk. It needed to go.
He just nodded.
Giving him my back, I slowly made my way back to the car and crawled inside. It took me about five minutes before I got enough nerve to start the car, and then I drove slowly so I wouldn’t steer into a ditch. My sight was a little blurry. Probably blurry enough for me to call someone else to drive, but
I didn’t want to wait for a chaperone. I just wanted my bed.
When I finally got back to the apartment, my cell phone rang.
“Yeah.”
“It’s me.” Slade. “Do you still need help with the gate?”
“Nope. Handled it.” Just as I said it, I felt the tether to the gate snap, letting me know they’d done what I’d told them. They must have had mages waiting nearby. Good.
There was a moment of silence, but I knew he was angry. “I told you to wait.”
“Darling, it’s fine. I handled it, and I’m alive. I’m talking to you, aren’t I?”
There was a whooshing sound as he huffed out some air. “Fine. Are you going to the art exhibit tomorrow?”
“Of course. I don’t have much of a choice.”
“I see. See you then.” He hung up.
Well then.
Chapter Five
I remember a woman. She was an older version of me. Her face was thinner, softer. Her smile warm. I remember her laughing at something I said and her hand coming up to pat my head, sending warmth through my body.
—Nyssa’s Journal
I didn’t like going to art exhibits, having to deal with people, but for some reason, I went. Every time I got an invitation, I dug out one of my cocktail dresses from the back of the closet, threw it on, and went to shake hands and try to not make anyone feel like a fool with my amazing personality.
Like tonight. I walked through the double doors, took in a deep breath to take in all the scents, and zoned in on a familiar one. Slade. I plastered on a smile and weaved through the crowd, ignoring the familiar faces because I wasn’t ready to deal with them yet. I needed a dose of bluntness before I had to try to be “tactful” with strangers.
Slade stood in the corner, near a table of finger foods with a taller man next to him. Something about the bigger man called to me, but I ignored the little fuzzies in my stomach and grinned at my second-best bestie. The man turned to talk with a tall redhead, giving me the chance to zero in on Slade and get my revenge.
“Darling,” I called out when I got close enough, and then gave him a huge, shit-eating grin before throwing my fist as hard as I could into his stomach.
He let out a harsh breath. “Nyssa.” His eyes flashed yellow, warning me about his wolf—not that the growling he was now doing wasn’t warning enough.
Good.
“Payback for ditching me. Again.”
Slade straightened out and gave his head a slight shake. The bastard didn’t even rub where I hit him like normal people. He just shrugged it off like the badass that he was.
“I told you to wait. Not to go in.”
“And you know I don’t understand those words when you put them in that sequence. When have I ever said no to a job?”
His blue eyes narrowed. “You said you were fine last night.”
“I am fine.”
“And yet you deemed it important enough to punch me.”
I shrugged. “Not because I had to face the gate alone, but because you promised and then left me. Again.” I punched his shoulder this time, but he didn’t even flinch. My fist did sting though. Damn. “I already have trust issues. I’m beginning to think I can’t rely on you anymore.”
He patted my head as if I were a little girl.
I smacked his huge paw away.
“My Alpha called.”
“And you howled back. Yeah, yeah.” I waved a hand dismissively. “I bet you would even scratch his ass if he asked you to.”
Slade’s eyes grew huge, and he let out a series of very noticeable coughs as a warning, his eyes flicking to the man who stood behind me. The very same man I’d been trying very hard to ignore for the past few minutes. I turned my head to look at him to see why Slade was pretending to be choking on his tongue. The man was no longer talking to the redhead but was staring at me with a blank expression.
I turned to face him. He was definitely familiar.
Black hair. Silver eyes. Tanned skin. My eyes trailed the clean-shaven jaw, taking in the square shape before going up to his wide cheekbones, and then stopping on the sensual lips that practically begged to be tasted.
After taking another moment to wonder what they tasted like, I finally met his eyes. His were trained on me, something rolling around in them, moving behind the scenes so to speak. Once again, I was left with the impression that too much energy was pressed together to create this overwhelming presence of a man.
“Bathroom Hottie,” I laughed. “You look so different with clothes on. I’m sad to see you dressed.”
Slade broke out in another coughing fit, either finally successfully swallowing his tongue or wondering what the hell I was talking about. Eventually, he cleared his throat, shooting me a glare that held both questions and a warning in them. “Nyssa, this is my Alpha.”
I made an O shape with my lips and looked the man over even more slowly. He returned the scrutiny, his hands tucked in his dark jean pockets. Of course, he could get away with going to an art exhibit opening with jeans. He was the fricken Alpha. The rumors pegged him as a very scary mother trucker. I understood why. He was built out of raw energy, screamed it, demanded attention to it. Demanded that my body react with heightened pulse and sweaty palms. Of course, my reaction wasn’t out of fear, but because I couldn’t stop seeing his yumminess unwrapped and naked, the water droplets only highlighting his hard planes.
“I would leave my ass behind too if I was running to you,” I said with a slow flirty smile.
“Nyssa,” Slade warned.
I glanced over, giving him my What did I do now? look.
I slapped him on the back. “I promise to not bitch about it again. I approve of your master.”
Slade sighed. I knew he was having trouble handling me, like normal, but that was what made our relationship so much fun. How far could I push him before he snapped? So far, his patience had been unbreakable. He took on whatever I dished out on him. One of these days I’d get him to say uncle. All relationships needed their goals.
He gave me another warning with his eyes before turning to his master—I mean Alpha.
“Landus, this is—”
“Nyssa,” he finally spoke, his expression softening a little. I think my bones nearly melted. I grabbed Slade’s arm to keep my feet about me, and Landus’s eyes followed the movement, his gaze on where we touched. His eyes flickered to Slade, and I watched his face as they had their little silent conversation. Eventually, his eyes flickered back to me.
He broke out in a grin that nearly had my ovaries bursting and held out his hand. “I’m glad to formally meet you.” His expression gave nothing away to his thoughts. If he was surprised, he hid it well. If he was having the same dirty thoughts as me, he was awesome at hiding the proof.
I gave him my hand, and we shook. Sparks flew, and I didn’t want to let go but forced myself to. He must have sensed my hesitation to release him because he gave my hand a small squeeze and smirked. Apparently, I was the one to be made looking like a fool tonight.
I dropped my hand to my side, and he leaned forward briefly, taking in a deep breath. As his eyes dilated, his beast shifted behind them, and his expression finally cracked into concern.
“I smell blood.”
“Really?” Slade asked, his eyebrows furrowing as he took in a breath. “I don’t smell any.”
Shit. Damn shifters. I swore some more in my head as I played dumb.
“I don’t smell anything either,” I said, trying to send them a puzzled smile to hide the fact I knew why he smelled blood.
Landus eyed me, his right eyebrow cocked up as if he knew I was lying. I was an expert liar, there was no way he could know. I mean, hell, I lied to myself every day and believed it on most days.
He leaned closer to me. “You smell like blood.”
“Impossible. I took a shower before I came here.”
He tapped the side of his nose. “I have a very good nose. Better than most.”
Shit. Damn us
all to hell. I hated showing weakness, and blood and wounds were weaknesses. I felt myself bristle. That warm darkness in me unfurled, ready for a battle. My bitchy side was ready to come out and play.
“I don’t.”
Landus stepped closer, until he was only inches away. His warm breath ghosted along my cheek. I wanted to close my eyes and take in a deep breath, to bask in his wild scent. He smelled of the Woodlands. He took in another deep breath, tasting me. It was a fight to keep my hands at my sides despite wanting to shove him away and out of my personal space. Too close. He was too close, and I couldn’t be held responsible for my reaction if he came any closer.
“Yes. You do.”
Needing to breathe again, I stepped back.
“Fine. I had a little accident, okay. The gate Slade abandoned me at wasn’t a good one.”
“What happened?” Slade asked, going all protective on me. Not appreciating his attitude, my lips curled into a smile, and I nearly growled at him.
“Three men had a guy strung up, and they were questioning him. I got him out, but it took some very hard persuasion.” I smirked at Slade. “You really missed out, Slade. I’m sure this one would have given you enough ammo to use against the vamps for half an eternity. The man they got their hands on was the vampire queen’s human servant.”
Slade snorted. “Fucking bloodsuckers and their fucking drones. Did you get the guy who took him? I think I want to give him a pat on the back.”
I shrugged. “Big Baddie got away. I was more focused on returning the kidnapped merchandise.”
“And getting hurt in return,” Landus growled.
I eyed him, turning to completely face him. “Part of my job and why they pay me the big bucks.”
He growled, and the redhead put her hand on his shoulder and whispered something into his ear. He relaxed. She gave him an unreadable look and walked away to talk with another patron.
“Well, speaking of big bucks, I’m going to go look at the pieces and get my hands on a couple before they’re all sold out.”
I turned and began my perusal of the pieces, ignoring Landus’s gaze as it followed me across the room. The butterflies low in my stomach went crazy knowing his attention was on me, and I had to nip their wings. Artwork. I needed to focus on the artwork.
Emergence Page 5
