Touch of Temptation

by Rhyannon Byrd

  “I consider you my friend, Kellan, so yeah, it concerns me. And Chloe’s my friend, too. She needs to know the truth.”

  Like hell she did. The last thing he wanted was to add to her guilt. And he sure as hell didn’t want her looking at him with pity or thinking he wasn’t strong enough to get her out of there.

  “We’ll finish this argument later. Right now, we’ve got company coming. Can you tell who it is?”

  “Spark. Be careful and don’t do anything crazy.”

  With a snort, he asked, “You mean like piss the bitch off?”

  Raine made a sharp sound of frustration. “That’s exactly what I mean!”

  “I can’t make any promises.”

  “You should try,” she muttered.

  “Yeah, but you’ve seen what I’m like, Raine.” Kellan knew there was more than a little of the wolf in his smile as he drawled, “Believe it or not, pissing people off is usually what I do best.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHLOE HADN’T BEEN LYING when she’d told Kellan she was scared, because she was. It was an out of her freaking skull, breaking out in a cold sweat kind of terrified…and it was the only justification she had for what she’d done.

  Yeah, she’d been desperate. But she still felt like a user, because she knew that when he’d finally caved there at the end, it hadn’t been real.

  There’s just no way he was touching me like that without…help.

  The truth was that he’d probably only reacted the way that he had—the desperate, aggressive touching and kissing and make-you-melty sex talk—because of the curse. Because of the way she was jacking up his primal hungers. But what choice did she have? She hated to do it to him, but if he didn’t help her, she was becoming truly frightened of what the Merrick might push her to do in its desperation. If she wasn’t careful, she feared she might find herself begging for what she needed from whomever might give it to her.

  Westmore.

  A Casus.

  Bile rose in her throat at the nauseating thought, and she drew in a deep breath through her nose as she pulled on her panties, wishing she had more clothes to cover herself with. Restless and worried, she moved to her feet and started pacing from one side of her cell to the other. She could hear several sets of footsteps on the stairs now, and knew there was a group headed down to the cellblock, just as Kellan had feared. Their captors had finally given up trying to “feed” her, and Kellan had already been interrogated at length. Which meant they were most likely coming for Raine. Chloe’s heart pounded in fear for the psychic, her palms cold with sweat.

  When the firelight caught the gleam of Spark’s dark red hair, Chloe felt both a burst of hope—since Spark had never been present during the times Raine had been abused—and a surge of anger, knowing the woman would probably make another move on Kellan. She couldn’t stop her lip from curling as she moved closer to the bars, where she could see what was happening, the Merrick in her wanting nothing more than to get its hands on the redheaded she-bitch and teach her a lesson. Having never been one to pick a fight before, Chloe was more than a little surprised by the vehemence of her reaction—but then she’d never known people as vile as her captors.

  The assassin’s high-heeled boots clicked gratingly against the flagstones as she headed toward the cellblock, a sly smile curving her rouged lips when she cut her green gaze toward Kellan.

  At first glance, it was easy to see why so many men had fallen victim to her charms. But if you stared at her closely enough, you could see the cold, calculating killer hidden behind that fiery facade. Though jealousy had gotten the better of Chloe when she’d bought into the woman’s earlier attempt to make them think she and Kellan had been intimate in the past, she believed his denial. Yeah, she knew Kellan’s past had been indiscriminate, but she couldn’t help but feel that he would have steered clear of Spark.

  As the assassin sauntered across the room toward the cells, a group of Casus soldiers fell in behind her, their eerie, ice-blue eyes giving away their species, though they were still in human form. The one named Seton wasn’t with them, and Chloe breathed a little sigh of relief. As far as she knew, every time Raine had been sexually assaulted, Seton had been the one running things. He’d also been the one who’d inflicted the most damage.

  With her hips swaying in a skintight pair of jeans, breasts showcased in a low-cut black sweater, Spark paused in front of Kellan’s cell. “Hey there, pup.”

  Kellan’s deep voice oozed derision as he drawled, “Back atcha, bitch.”

  “Tell me something, Watchman. When Lycans have babies, do they look human? Or do they come out like cute little puppies? A vile thought. And yet—” a slow grin kicked up the corner of her mouth “—when a guy’s hung like you, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted.”

  “Give it a rest,” he muttered, sounding tired. “I told you I’m not interested.”

  Challenge flickered in the glittering depths of her eyes. “I could make you interested, wolf. Trust me. But this isn’t a social visit. I’m here for the psychic.” Looking toward Raine, she said, “Westmore’s done playing your waiting game. He thinks it’s time to see if we can get some more out of you.”

  In a strained voice, Raine said, “I can’t tell him what I don’t know.”

  “That’s true,” Spark murmured. “Unfortunately, we don’t trust you. Which is why you’re going to be coming with us for a while.”

  “Don’t even think about it,” Kellan snarled.

  Spark sent him an exaggerated pout. “Sorry, pretty puppy, but you don’t give the orders around here.”

  Chloe could hear him taking a deep breath, no doubt trying to figure out the best way to get through to the assassin, and then he carefully said, “I can’t figure you out, Spark. How can you stomach what these assholes do to women? What they’ve done to Raine? Aren’t you meant to be some kind of raging feminist?”

  “I take no pleasure in what they do,” she replied, her lowered lashes shielding the look in her eyes. “However, there are times when it’s necessary to put aside our personal beliefs.”

  “And you see Raine’s rape and torture as necessary?” he muttered. “Huh, you are one sick bitch.”

  Hatred flared in the human’s eyes, a cruel smirk twisting her mouth, while the crackling fire glinted off the flame-red strands of her hair. “Just for that, I think I’ll make you watch. Let’s see how cocky you are when she’s crying for help, Lycan, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  One of the Casus reached for a circle of keys hanging on the wall, and Kellan rattled the bars of his cell so hard that the entire cellblock vibrated with his rage. “Leave her the fuck alone!”

  “Kellan, don’t. I know you’re trying to help, but please don’t do this,” Raine begged, her voice thick with tears. “It’s not worth it.”

  “Like hell it’s not,” he snarled. “You want to torture someone, Spark, then try me on for size.”

  The assassin slid him a condescending smile, her bright eyes filled with laughter. “You don’t have anything we want.”

  “Wanna bet?”

  The entire group stared at him with snide expressions, as if wondering what he could possibly have to offer.

  “Raine might think you’re all scum, but she trusts me. Which is why she’s already talked to me about everything that she’s seen,” he told them. “I know—”

  “Kellan, stop it!” Raine cried, cutting him off.

  Ignoring the interruption, his voice dropped as he said, “I know where Gregory is. And I know where the next Marker’s buried.”

  Ohmygod, Chloe thought. Is he lying?

  She hadn’t actually heard Raine tell Kellan where his friends would be searching for the next Dark Marker, but she knew the answer was within the psychic’s power. Using her “sight,” Raine had been spying on Saige Buchanan, a female Merrick who was engaged to one of the Watchmen in Kellan’s unit, a raptor-shifter named Michael Quinn. An experienced anthropologist, Saige had made a stu
nning discovery the year before when she’d uncovered a mysterious set of encrypted maps that led to the hidden locations of the Dark Markers. Using an unusual power that enabled physical objects to “communicate” with her, Saige was the only one who’d been able to decipher the maps’ complicated codes.

  After having been subjected to blackmail and abuse, Raine had already told Westmore what Saige had learned from the last two maps, and the Casus had managed to take possession of the ancient crosses before Kellan’s friends could retrieve them. If she’d deciphered another map, and Raine told them where the next Marker could be found, the consequences could prove devastating for the Watchmen.

  As Spark moved closer to Kellan’s cell, Chloe locked her jaw, fighting the urge to tell the redhead to stay away from him. “You sure you want to do this?” the human asked him in a husky drawl, her gaze a mixture of contemplation, lust and surprise. “Because if you’re lying to me, you’re going to be sorry.”

  “I’m not lying. I’ll tell you everything, but you leave her the hell alone.”

  Spark’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Why do you even care what happens to her?”

  “Because I came to this place to find the Markers,” he growled. “Not to stand around and watch innocent women be abused.”

  Spark appeared to be considering his offer, and Chloe’s fear took on a new edge as she wondered what the hell he was planning.

  “She’s already near the breaking point,” Kellan added. “Think about it, Spark. Westmore might have sent you down here to do his dirty work, but who do you think he’s going to blame if things go wrong and she cracks? Once a psychic as powerful as Raine goes bat-shit, there’s no going back.”

  The human’s nostrils flared as she pulled in a deep breath, and then she jerked her chin toward the brawny Casus on her left. “Open his cell. We’ll find out one way or another if he’s telling us the truth.”

  “Let’s take this upstairs,” Kellan grunted, as one of the Casus flipped the switch on the counterweight for his door, while another inserted the key into the lock. After the door had been opened, the other two bastards each clamped a beefy fist on his arms and pulled him out of his cell.

  “Bring that chair by the hearth into the middle of the room,” she told the Casus who had flipped the switch, before looking back at Kellan. “I’m afraid we’ll be staying down here,” she drawled. “It sounds like you and I are going to have a little fun, and I happen to like an audience while I work.”

  He didn’t even try to hide his derision as he said, “I knew you were twisted.”

  The assassin smirked. “Should I let the Casus have a go at you?” she purred, stepping closer and cupping the side of his cheek with her palm, a bulky silver ring encircling one of her fingers. “I mean, really have a go? You’re not as pretty as the psychic, but they’ll do whatever I tell them.”

  Kellan jerked his face away from her touch and looked around. “Where are all your clever little Collective soldiers?” he asked, while they pushed him into the chair, then used a set of handcuffs to secure his muscular arms behind his back. “They get tired of taking your shit?”

  Shrugging, she said, “Westmore prefers the Casus.”

  Kellan snickered under his breath. “In his bed? Hell, no wonder he’s so eager to break them out of Meridian. Sounds like he’s planning the mother of all org—”

  Without warning, a meaty fist slammed into the center of Kellan’s face, crimson blood spraying as his nose cracked under the bruising force of the blow. Chloe gasped in reaction, but before she could shout at the Casus to leave him alone, Kellan cut her a quick, warning glare. It was the first time he’d glanced in her direction since they’d pulled him out of his cell, and the look in his blue-green eyes made her breath catch as understanding dawned. He was pissing them off on purpose, thinking that if he could keep their anger focused on him, they wouldn’t turn to Raine.

  “Ya know,” Spark said with a low laugh, “that smart-ass mouth of yours is going to get you into trouble one day, puppy.”

  Kellan worked his jaw. “Feels like it already has,” he muttered, his tone dry.

  Stepping behind him, she ran her fingertips across the gleaming width of his shoulders. “If you’d just be a good little wolf,” she drawled, “this could all be so much easier.”

  A wry smile kicked up the corner of his mouth. “Yeah, and I’m really concerned about making your life easy.”

  The look on Spark’s face turned icy as she stepped to his side, her tone even icier. “The information about the Marker, Lycan, before I make them fuck it out of her.”

  Turning his head, Kellan stared her straight in the eye as he said, “You know what they do to women like you in hell, Spark? They string ’em up and peel the skin from their bodies, while letting the demons have their way with them. I guess they figure if torture is what got gals like you off in this life, then it’ll serve them well for eternity.”

  Her mouth compressed to a hard, tight line. “The psychic would be fine, if she’d just learn to cooperate,” she told him, walking around to the front of the chair, her body angled so that Chloe could just make out her profile.

  “Yeah, let’s blame her for not being a cheap sellout like you.” Kellan used his shoulder to wipe away the blood trickling over his chin. “Tell me, you letting Westmore fuck you, too?”

  Before the last word had passed his lips, the assassin’s hand was cracking across his face, jerking it hard to the side. When he tossed back his hair and glared at the bitch, Chloe could see that the corner of his lip had split open, accounting for the fresh wash of blood covering his mouth and chin. “Is that the best you’ve got?” he snorted, flashing her a toothy smile. “You hit like a girl.”

  Stepping back, Spark looked around at the waiting Casus and snapped, “I think it’s time the wolf learned some manners.”

  The Casus smiled with anticipation, two of them releasing their claws, and Chloe tried to cry out for them to stop, but her throat was too tight to make any sound. Tears of rage burned her eyes as she watched claws rip across Kellan’s chest, his blood spraying in a wide arc. The sound of crunching bone followed, and she could see that his nose had been broken in a second place.

  “Leave him alone!” she finally managed to scream.

  “What’s this? A little champion?” With a snide smirk, the redhead slid a laughing look from her to Kellan. “I think the witch is smitten.”

  “Don’t touch him!” Chloe hissed, baring the Merrick’s small, but deadly fangs.

  “Oh, sweetheart,” Spark drawled, walking closer to her cell. “Do you honestly think you could be enough for him? He’d probably fall asleep in the middle of it.”

  Curling her hands around the iron bars locking her in, Chloe smiled and said, “I dare you to come closer.”

  The assassin actually laughed. “And what are you going to do? Even if I let you out, I don’t think you could manage much damage with those little kitten teeth of yours.”

  “Then get your ass over here. Or are you too scared?”

  “Chloe!” Kellan’s graveled voice rang out like the crack of a whip. “Shut up and leave it alone!”

  Turning her back to Chloe, Spark spun toward the place where Kellan’s battered body now sprawled across the floor, the chair he’d been sitting on kicked to one of the far corners. “Enough of the bullshit,” she said brusquely, “I believe you had something you wanted to tell me.”

  Chloe watched as Kellan blinked against the blood and sweat dripping into his eyes, the look on his battered face as he stared up at Spark one of tangible revulsion.

  “Now, or the deal’s off,” she snapped, flicking a quick look toward Raine.

  “Fine,” he growled, looking as furious as he sounded, the muscles in his shackled arms bulging beneath the gleaming surface of his skin. “It’s in Canada. Buried up in the Canadian Rockies. The town’s name is Houghton, and the Marker’s a few miles north of the town center.”

  Spark indicated for two of t
he Casus to pick him up, their claws digging into his muscular arms as they secured him between them. Moving closer, Spark took his blood-covered chin in her hand, her voice deceptively mild as she said, “If you’re lying, Kellan, I’ll have the Casus cut you into cubes of meat, slow and precise like.”

  “I’m telling the truth, but it doesn’t matter,” he rasped. “There’s a Watchman unit not far from where the cross is buried, and they’ll have already been mobilized. There’s no way you can get there fast enough.”

  “Then we’ll steal it away from them.”

  A deep, guttural laugh shook his bloodied chest and shoulders, the corner of his mouth curling with arrogant humor. “You can try.”

  “And Gregory?” she murmured.

  “What about him?”

  The human struck him across the face again with surprising strength and speed, making Chloe wince. But Kellan just looked pissed.

  Spitting a mouthful of blood onto the floor near her boots, he growled, “Gregory is going to be here soon.”

  “How soon?” she pressed.

  Curling his lip, he stared her down, saying, “You’ve gotta explain this one to me, Spark. Because I just don’t get it. I mean, I know ol’ Gregory is a twisted dickhead and all, but Westmore wasn’t afraid of him before. If that’d been the case, he wouldn’t have dared to take Chloe. So what’s got him so scared of Gregory now?”

  Spark snorted. “Like I’m telling you.”

  “Ah.” Kellan gave her a cocky smile. “You don’t know, huh? Westmore must not trust you as much as you think he does.”

  “Shut up.”

  Pushing her, he said, “You’re just his lackey, huh?”

  “He tells me everything!” she threw back at him, rising to the bait.

  Sounding as if he was starting to enjoy himself, Kellan’s drawl became more pronounced. “Obviously not.”

  Spark practically vibrated with rage as she snarled, “DeKreznick’s human host was mortally wounded during that little battle you guys had back in the fall, which meant that Gregory’s shade should have returned to Meridian. But he didn’t.”