He did stop, however, when a female lycan arrived breathlessly in the door, her dark hair wild and windtossed around her shoulders, as if she had run a great distance at the speed only one of their kind could achieve.
“Luc,” she rasped, her gaze landing on the hybrid before skimming each of them, assessing them for threat. Her throat worked, her pewter gaze wild. “Are you okay?”
“Everyone, just stop! Don’t move!” Ruby sliced a hand through the air. “We’re all on the same side here.” She flicked Darius—dark, imposing Darius—a nervous glance. “I think.”
“He’s all right,” Sebastian ground out, to which Ruby release a shaky little breath of relief.
“Isn’t all this… interesting.” Darius looked between Ruby and the new female with burning intensity, his interest in the pair palpable. They were him, after all. Full-blooded lycans driven by hunger—moon hunger, blood hunger—and ruled by the impulses of their libido. Either one would be a perfect mate for him… at least that must be what his instinct was screaming.
Luc strode past Darius and took hold of the other female’s hand in a possessive display. The brunette pressed close to his side. Luc sent Ruby a pointed look. “Ruby, who are these… people?”
She motioned to him. “Sebastian is the dovenatu I told you about.”
Sebastian bristled at their familiarity, but stood his ground.
Luc looked hard at him. “And these are your friends, I gather?”
“That’s right.” He guessed it was the easiest explanation, although he didn’t know whether he would call Gideon and Darius friends. Gideon—he supposed he was family now. But Darius? He didn’t trust the guy. Doubtful he ever could trust a lycan—
He stopped hard at the thought, thinking of Ruby. His gaze snapped back to her. Dressed in fresh clothes. Body washed and clean hair shining darkly. She had been covered in blood and filth most of their time together. He drank this sight of her hungrily. Even with her silver death gaze, she was better, sweeter on the eyes than he remembered.
“If we’re all on the same side, maybe you could help us, then,” the female lycan suggested.
“Lily,” Luc murmured, his gaze sliding over each of them warily. “We know nothing of them.”
“Well, they aren’t over there, are they? With them? That has to mean something.” She motioned in the general direction of the warehouse, then turned her gaze on Sebastian. “Why are you here?” He thought he read hope in her expression. A motherly type of encouragment. His imagination, of course.
“I came for Ruby.”
“Oh. And why is that?” Luc pushed out his chest and crossed his arms.
Lily elbowed him in the side and addressed Sebastian. “Of course you came for her. Ruby told us all about your imprisonment together.” The lycaness smiled widely, a dose of civility that ran opposite to the moment. “You saved her life.”
Sebastian’s gaze locked on Ruby. Color flooded her cheeks, and he knew she was thinking about their imprisonment together. Specifically the portion of it spent having hot, wild sex with him. Had she told them about that?
“Look,” Luc announced. “We’re here for one reason only, and that’s to track down and destroy the family of dovenatus in that building.” He nodded to Ruby. “We found Ruby and she helped us pinpoint Ivo’s location.”
“Dovenatus?” Kit broke in. “How many are we talking about?” Like Sebastian, she clearly grappled with the information that more of their kind existed.
“I suspect there are more of us than we realize,” Luc answered grimly. “Ivo’s a madman, determined to promote our species by enslaving lycans, then using them to… come out.”
“Come out?” Sebastian asked.
“Yeah,” Lily announced, with obvious disgust. “With an army of lycans at his disposal, he intends to proclaim himself to the world and subjugate man.”
“And if we don’t want to be enslaved?” Rafe asked, lines tightening around his mouth.
“Then he kills you. Or sics his lycan soldiers on you.” Luc shrugged. “He’s got an army of them pledged in service to him.”
“How can that be?” Kit questioned, “Don’t lycans outnumber him?”
“Lycans are fiercely pack-loyal. They serve one alpha and war against all other packs. Their inability to unite is their greatest weakness. Ivo’s army grows with every pack taken, he becomes their alpha…” Luc stopped, shaking his head. “I can’t imagine how many packs he’s taken since he started on this mad scheme. It might be too late. He should have been stopped long ago.”
“You sound like you know this Ivo well.”
“I do.” Luc glanced at his wife. “He’s my cousin. We grew up together. Perhaps we’re even half brothers.” He shrugged. “I’ll never know. Our mothers were sisters, Marshan descendants both raped by lycans, together. On the same day.”
“And you’re here to destroy him. Your own relative.” Kit snorted, crossing her arms and spreading her booted legs. “You sure about that? How do we know you won’t chicken out? That when you come face to face you won’t give him a great big hug?”
Rafe had told Sebastian she was a lycan hunter—excepting Darius—but he had never really appreciated that until now. Until he saw this hardness in her. This edge.
“It’s the only way to stop him. To make this world safer.” He shot Lily a tender glance. “For my family.”
Sebastian tore his gaze from Ruby, stopping any tender feelings from rising up in him at the display of affection between a lycan and a dovenatu. “And how were you thinking about doing this?”
Luc and Lily exchanged looks. She took his hand in hers. “He never stays in one nest long after he conquers it. He’s almost impossible to track that way, and it’s nearly impossible to get close to him—”
“What is your plan?” Sebastian bit out, his patience at an end.
“We’re going after them. Tonight,” Lily explained. “Before they move.”
At Sebastian’s arched brow, Luc answered. “We’re going to blow up the warehouse.”
Air hissed out between his teeth. While silver was the most common method used to kill a lycan, being blown into a million fragments was another. Sometimes EFLA and NODEAL employed that measure when they tracked down a nest.
From Ruby’s wide eyes, the plan was news to her.
“Any additional help would be appreciated.” Luc’s tone turned matter-of-fact. He motioned to several crates sitting on one side of the room. “We need to make sure all the charges are clear and unobstructed around the perimeter. And explosives positioned on every floor of the building. No one can survive. We’re looking for total incineration.”
“We have to go back in there?” Ruby’s face paled, and Sebastian felt a surge of protectiveness.
“Ruby’s been through enough,” he spoke up. “I’m taking her to the hotel.”
She gave a small jerk, clearly startled at his words. “I don’t need a babysitter, thank you. I’m a big girl.”
“You’re coming with me.”
Their gazes clung. The air crackled between them. His hands flexed at his sides. He’d carry her if he had to. She wasn’t putting herself at risk anymore.
“Wait.” She blinked, shaking her head, color heightening her cheeks as she came to a sudden realization. “If Gunter’s in there during the explosion—”
“Your curse will be broken,” Lily finished, reaching over to give her hand a small squeeze, smiling kindly.
Ruby returned her smile. A shaky sigh spilled from her lips, and she closed her eyes in a long relieved blink.
“I’ll stay and assist however I can,” Darius volunteered.
Luc nodded, eyeing Darius warily, as if he was unsure whether he wanted his help.
“What the hell?” Gideon shrugged. “Came all this way. Suppose I will, too.”
“Oh, no, you don’t.” Kit shook her head fiercely. “Claire will have my head if anything happens to you. You have a baby at home waiting for Daddy. Rafe and I will help. Not
you.” Rafe nodded in agreement.
Gideon scowled. “Claire knew I was taking a risk coming here. I’m in.”
Shaking his head, Sebastian stepped forward and closed a hand around Ruby’s arm, the warmth of her flesh instantly familiar and sweet. “Let’s go.”
He’d spent enough time in that warehouse. As had Ruby. He’d fantasized about revenge for weeks, but now he cared more about keeping Ruby safe. He owed her that.
He wasn’t inclined to risk her another moment to the bastards prowling that warehouse. He would let the others rig the explosives. They’d do the job right. Kill Gunter.
Right now Ruby needed him. He wasn’t leaving her until this was over.
He faced his brother. “See you back at the hotel. Be safe.”
With one hand wrapped around Ruby’s, he hurried them from the building to wait out the outcome across town.
16
“Why did you come back for me?” She spoke quietly where she sat on the backseat of the cab, looking out the window rather than at him. Anywhere but him. She gnawed the edge of her thumbnail. A bad habit she thought she’d outgrown long ago.
With his face shaved, body clean, dressed in a simple black t-shirt and jeans, he was overwhelming to her senses. Her gaze skittered to him. Outside the cell, he seemed even larger, his shirt stretched taut over his defined chest. And who knew that face hid beneath all that hair? Her heart beat an erratic rhythm in her too-tight chest. Gorgeous in a very David Beckham way. The square jaw, the chiseled lips that looked made for kissing.
She felt his answer before he even spoke, felt it rise up inside him and reach out to her. Bewilderment. Anger. The anger was not with her, but at himself. This she knew.
She lowered her hand from her lips. Her fingers floated above the seat for a moment, the barest tremble over his. The urge to wrap her fingers over his hand seized her. He came for me. Her throat grew tight. That was more than anyone else in her life would do. He cared enough to track her down, find her and keep her from returning to that nest again. Sitting beside him, so close she could smell the light scent of shampoo, something inside her loosened, unfurled inside her chest. Then she regained her senses and snatched her hand away to fist it in her lap.
“I don’t know.” He scratched his fingers through his short-cropped hair. “We seemed connected in all this. I couldn’t be done with any of it until I knew you were safe. Free.”
“Well.” She fingered the edge of the seat. “Now I am. So you’re done.” She moistened her lips, her mouth suddenly dry at speaking words she didn’t want to be true.
“Almost.”
She sent him a sideways look on the seat, gazing at the hard line of his jaw. A muscle flexed in his taut cheek and her insides quivered—all the way deep, to the core of her. Where she remembered him. Where the hard burn of him had filled her. Thrilling. Terrifying. Wrong. Right.
“What do you mean, almost?”
“When they set off that bomb and Gunter’s dead, then it will be truly over.”
Her nails dug into the upholstery. “That shouldn’t be too long.”
Tension swam between them. Except for the driver, they were alone again. Every fiber of her being radiated with awareness of him, his arm so close it nearly brushed her. His tightly-muscled body hummed with vitality beside her. Strength. Power. Her palms itched.
When they finally arrived at the hotel, she slid out eagerly from the cab. Side by side, they entered the luxurious hotel. At the front desk, Sebastian acquired a room for her on the same floor as his. “Your room is next to mine,” he murmured as the elevator ascended. “Just knock if you need anything.”
She moistened her lips. “Thank you.” He unlocked her door and handed her the key. Their fingers brushed and air hissed from between her teeth at the contact. Breathless, she heard herself saying, “I don’t think I can be by myself. In this city. Not yet.”
He stared at her for several moments. The feral chill in that dark gaze made her want to shiver, flinch, look away. She held her ground, releasing her breath when he broke eye contact and walked past her into her room.
Now they were truly alone again. Like before. No driver to bear silent witness. In a clean room. With a large, tempting bed.
She unhooked her money belt and dropped it on a table. Moving to the small bar, she asked, “Drink?”
“No, thank you.”
She poured herself a glass of something goldenbrown. She couldn’t make out the label, but it burned going down. She filled it a second time, gasping when his large hand covered hers. “Don’t.”
“What?”
“You don’t have to drink yourself to oblivion. It’s almost over. Tomorrow you can go home and put it all behind you.”
“Really?” Her head snapped back, the drink spreading like fire through her belly. Her eyes collided with his. “And what about you? Will I forget you?”
He flinched. A muscle jumped wildly in his jaw.
She reached for the glass again, her voice hard, bitter over the heaviness in her chest, the tight ache surrounding her heart. “Because that might be hard to do.”
“What do you want me to do about that now, Ruby? I can’t take it back. Not any of it.”
“Do you even care? Are you even sorry?” She heard the sharpness of her voice, felt the rise of heat in her face and knew that she was dangerously close to snapping.
“Sorry? Sorry for being something that had to either fuck you or devour you.” He dragged a hand through his hair and flung himself away from her; stood before the window. He faced the city skyline. The night burned with a thousand lights.
She drew a shuddering breath.
His voice continued in a low, dark rush, “Hell, yes. I’m sorry. Sorry for what I am.” His dark eyes glittered, sucking her in, spiking heat inside her. “Sorry that when you look at me all you will ever remember is the suffering we shared together.”
She shook her head. His regret, the hurt he felt, reached inside her, twisting her stomach.
Her mother warned her of this. You cannot take others’ hurt inside you, Ruby. You can’t cure them of it, so don’t make it your own. Throw up your walls, do whatever you can to protect yourself.
Easier said than done. Especially where he was concerned. All she ever did around him was feel. He was impossible to block. And she had learned to block over the years, as her mother advised. To some degree. Otherwise, she couldn’t function. But with him, Sebastian… Her heart wouldn’t close itself. So she felt his regret, and wondered why she didn’t feel the same. Why did she only want him to take her in his arms?
“Don’t.” She moved to his side and touched his shoulder. “Don’t hate what you can’t help being.”
Her words brought her up hard. Had she not done that very thing for most of her life? Didn’t Adele nag her to embrace her gift? Although she doubted she could ever open up shop declaring herself clairvoyant and charge thirty dollars an hour, she could learn to better accept herself.
He looked down at her, his gaze pulling her in. “I guess you know something about that.”
She laughed nervously. How could she forget? He knew her secret. “Not many know that about me.” She wished he didn’t. Wished she could take back the confession. She would give anything for him to not look at her as her own family had… a freak of nature.
His gaze drilled into her and she began to feel something else beneath the tension of the moment. His skin beneath her hand began to spark and tingle, warm. “You’re not cold anymore,” she murmured, moistening her lips. “Before, when we were locked up, you were so cold.”
“I’ve eaten.” His lips twisted. A full mouth, she now appreciated, teeth a blinding flash of white. “I’m no longer a walking corpse.”
He lifted a hand and brushed the hair back off her shoulder. She jumped at the contact. His thumb grazed her cheek and he tilted her face up to his.
Step back. Move away, Ruby.
Instead, she gazed up at him, his face limned in red from th
e city lights outside their window. He looked menacing, but she didn’t care. Danger had become as natural to her as the air she breathed, and she discovered she craved this particular brand of danger. She craved him.
Tonight her curse would end, and she would go back to Beau Rivage. She could forget that she had ever been some terrible creature of myth. She could forget him and pretend that she had not given herself to him on the floor of a dirty cell, like a pair of wild animals.
“You know what I’m feeling,” he murmured, his eyes penetrating. “So why are you still standing here? Letting me touch you like this?”
She swallowed. She did know. And the desire swelling through him, the hot sexual need, should have her demanding that he leave.
Except she felt it, too. Deep inside her. It drove her to the edge. Drove her to forget everything except the hot pulse of lust.
“I’ve always been safe. Done what I should.” Except for this trip. This trip had been her first foray into the unknown. And after everything that had happened, she should have learned her lesson about taking risks, venturing into the unknown. But she still stood here. Welcoming danger head-on—him. “Tomorrow I’ll be safe again.” Human. On a plane to the States.
She licked her lips. The memory of his hands on her hips, warm and firm, anchoring her for his every penetrating thrust, flashed through her head. Her hips tingled, as if she could feel his hands on her again, now, holding her for his driving pleasure.
Her voice slipped past her lips. “I want you. Without the fear.” No rushed, desperate coupling. She wanted it to be right this time.
“Ruby.” The callused pads of his hand chafed her cheek.
She thought of those few dates she had risked over the years… the men that had repelled her with their lukewarm emotions, their lack of interest reaching her before their drinks even arrived. Or those whose obnoxious and lewd thoughts made her skin crawl.
“You don’t want me. This is the lycan talking. Your libido is overactive now. It’s one of the many changes—”
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