Kiss of Darkness

by Loribelle Hunt

  He stepped aside to allow her into the house. “We don’t know yet.”

  He’d done a quick search of the house on his arrival, looking for Kara, and in her absence something to kill. Then he’d notified the scientists who worked in the Order’s local lab before calling Winter. She didn’t realize it yet, but he suspected in Ben’s absence the Order Council would make her the new regional commander. She would probably raise hell about the promotion, but she’d get over it quick enough.

  “It looks like there are no survivors,” he told her without missing a beat even though a part of him screamed in denial. “Had to be demons, but if it was, not one of them was killed. Not here at least.”

  She was scowling and he understood why. For no one to get off a killing shot, or reach for a blade, the demons would had to have launched a coordinated, massive attack. In the sixty years since he’d joined the Order he’d never heard of them operating that way. It didn’t make sense, but it couldn’t have happened any other way.

  That led him to one inescapable conclusion, but he could see she hadn’t reached it yet. Someone had organized the demons. Someone with inside information on the Order. Instead of pointing it out, he led her into the house, trying to contain his rage and desperation and feeling it push at the walls in his mind for release.

  Where the fuck was Kara?

  He went back to the room he’d been searching before Winter’s arrival. The dining room. He was careful not to disturb anything, not to touch any of the blood splatters or brain matter flung around the room, but checked every body part, every face that was recognizable for anyone he knew. For her. Winter followed him in, sized it all up in a glance. He felt her mind flaring out, gathering information.

  “She isn’t here,” she said softly behind him and he stiffened. Kara had been with them since she was a child. Like most members of the Order, like him, she came to them the victim of demon violence. Orphaned, just as he had been. It was bad enough he felt this inappropriate attraction for a twenty-four-year-old kid, someone he’d always looked on as a younger sister, but he sure as hell didn’t need the few friends he had commenting on it. Hell, he didn’t want them to even be aware of it. “Wasn’t she going to the beach this weekend with a group of the younger soldiers?”

  Dupree met her gaze, keeping his expression neutral as he stalked out of the room and freed his phone from his belt. He’d known that, damn it, but the fear had been too overwhelming to think through. He’d seen the blood, the carnage, in the house he’d arranged for her to stay in because it should have been safe, and his mind had snapped.

  She answered on the third ring, laughing, and the fact his whole body responded to the sound pissed him off. He barked at her. “Where the fuck are you?”

  There was a long pause and he knew she was reining in her infamous temper. He’d had a fit about this trip, couched it as an overprotective older brother, since several of the people tagging along were single males. To satisfy his determination to protect her, he’d deny himself. He would never bond with her, but he’d be damned if he saw her with one of them either. She’d have a normal life, if it was the last thing he did.

  “We’re on the way home,” she finally answered, her voice taking on a snide edge he knew he deserved but that pissed him off anyway. “Don’t worry, Dupree. Another hour or so and I’ll be back behind walls.”

  He fought the words clogging his throat, fought the demand of his body and mind—that she come to him for safekeeping immediately. “Go to Ingrid’s.”

  “Why?” Her voice quivered a bit. She knew there was only one reason he’d order her away from her home and to a quadrant commander’s house where he wasn’t exactly welcome.

  “There was an attack here,” he said softly.

  “Survivors?”

  “None.”

  “Are you okay?” No hiding the shake in her voice this time and a part of him sat up and took notice. Accepted her concern as his right.

  “I’m fine. We’ll fill everyone in when we know something.”

  He cut the connection before she could demand more of him. Before he gave in to it. She had to stay safe and he would make that happen at the expense of everything else, his beliefs, his obligations, if it came down to it.

  For now though, the beast inside him settled, knowing the woman who belonged to him was alive and unharmed. He went to work making sure she stayed that way.

  Chapter Seven

  Marcus shifted on silk sheets. Even that smooth contact was an irritation to hyperaware and deprived senses. He stood up and glared at the heavy locked shutters, knew attempting sleep would be a frustrating waste of time. Nightfall was hours away and Winter needed him. Not that she’d ever admit it.

  He recalled the night they met. At first, his fury had made no sense. What did he care if a hybrid acting stupidly engaged three demons on her own? But the ease with which their minds connected, the way he was drawn back to hers over and over again, not to mention his body’s immediate and aching reaction to her, made it clear. She was his mate and she had risked her life with no thought at all. It’d taken him a full week to get control of his rage.

  He’d stayed away the past few weeks because he’d known after his time in her unguarded mind that she would resist him if he tried to claim her right away. She didn’t believe that as a woman born human she had a destined mate. Hell, he’d had a hard time accepting it himself. As far as he knew, no nightwalker had ever taken a hybrid mate.

  It was part of the reason he delayed. He’d searched the records and hadn’t found any instance of a mating between hybrid and nightwalker. He couldn’t be the first one, however. It was rare, but there were some nightwalkers with human mates, something all hybrids started out as. How would he have reacted if one of his people asked for permission to mate a hybrid before he met her? He didn’t know and that made him uneasy. He thought he’d eventually approve such a union, but it would probably take a long time before he could view the couple without suspicion. How could he expect his people to view her any differently?

  While the records didn’t help him with those questions they yielded a different kind of fruit. There were hints that feeding from an unbonded hybrid prolonged their lives. But without concrete cases, without experimenting he had no way to know for sure. He’d briefly considered making the offer to her, but discounted it. If that made him an ass, so be it.

  She was too independent, too stubborn. She even refused bonding in the way of her people to save her own life. And God help him, she was his. He didn’t plan to give her any way out of mating with him and if she discovered a way to control her demon and remain single, she’d take it. The strong-willed iron center of her soul both intrigued and worried him. If she didn’t accept him wholly…No, he wouldn’t even consider it. Letting her go was not an option.

  The primitive core of him, the part that would always be part of the ancient Alukah race despite the rift that had divided the original species into nightwalkers and lupines eons ago, could only be controlled so much during the mating hunt. That part of him wanted to demand, wanted to master her body and soul. It hungered for her complete submission.

  Things were so much easier in the days when he didn’t have to temper that side of himself so much. The twentieth century had brought many changes. The technology wasn’t hard to adjust to. He found it fascinating. Women’s liberation was another matter, however.

  He’d been born and raised in a time when women were protected and pampered. With time, Winter might accept his desire to spoil her, but he suspected it would be a struggle to protect her for many years to come. She would fight him tooth and nail on that issue.

  The plan had been to let her get to know him slowly. He’d expected the ever-present need crawling through him, but hadn’t anticipated how bad it would affect her. She tried to hide it, tried to hide it from herself, but he saw it every time he entered her mind. The longer he delayed claiming her, the more unstable she became. She couldn’t afford for him to wait any l
onger, but he was uneasy. Push too hard and she would resist. It was a sure path to disaster. He would likely hurt her. Not physically—she desired him as much as he desired her—but psychologically. A woman like Winter needed to be wooed carefully. He refused to break her spirit.

  So he’d stayed away. Thanks to the demon’s poison he’d been able to enter her mind unhindered and had used the opportunity to ensure he’d always be able to. Except now she’d somehow managed, after two months of trying, to block him. The sudden lack of contact was a dull throbbing pain.

  Closing his eyes, he reached out for her and found the wall she’d erected. He set a mental palm on it. He stroked it, pressed his will against it in random places and realized it wasn’t designed just to keep him out. It was designed to keep everyone out. Why would she do that? What would cause her to go to such lengths to protect her mind?

  Frowning and growing more concerned, he pulled on a pair of slacks and left his room. He didn’t bother turning on any lights as he walked through the dark wood-paneled halls. Even if his vision hadn’t been so exceptional, he’d have no trouble finding his way.

  He’d lived in the house for close to two hundred years. The humans in the area believed he was just another in a long line of eccentric bachelors. They weren’t far off from the truth, but all that was about to change.

  As he jogged down two sets of stairs to the ground floor he took note of his surroundings. The house was richly appointed, but it was obvious it was the home of men not women. Would she want to make changes? He’d seen the inside of a couple hybrid compounds. They were drab, utilitarian military-like structures. Did she long for luxury or prefer that stark existence? Since she lived in a building with many people, he assumed she wouldn’t take issue with the others in his house. His twin, Luke, lived here as did Kadall, their senior most warrior, and his mate Marelle. There was ample room. It was possible to spend the entire day in residence and not run across any of its occupants.

  He entered his office where he poured a glass of scotch and sat behind the big desk. He took a drink and closed his eyes, exploring her new shield again. Why would she shut out everyone? Even her own people.

  Eyeing the phone on the corner of the desk, he considered calling the lupine alpha, Mitchell, to see if he knew what was going on with the hybrids, but discarded the idea. If there was any threat to his claim on Winter, it was Mitchell. He’d seen her affection for the wolf in her mind, her friendship with him. A friendship that was rooted in a past affair. It was difficult to control his jealousy. She’d had a full life before they met; he couldn’t begrudge her that. Once they were mated, though, he would put a complete stop to the relationship with the lupine. But it would have to wait. There were bigger concerns to deal with now.

  He couldn’t get in her mind to read her thoughts, but even with the new shield he could feel her fury and under that a sorrow so deeply buried he doubted she was experiencing it yet. When she came down from the rage it would knock her on her ass.

  But why? What did this mean? His people had stayed aloof from the lupines and especially the hybrids for so long they couldn’t easily read them. He knew she was close to losing her fight with the demon she’d merged with, of course, knew she had to create a mate bond soon or she’d be lost forever. Whatever she was mixed up in now, he hoped it wasn’t enough to snap what was left of her grip on the beast.

  He picked up a small square of paper from his desk and fingered the edges, traced the name and numbers written on it. He could call her the mundane way, but his soul rebelled at the idea. She was his. She should be open to him, her mind available to his whenever he reached for her. Angry, he rose and shoved the chair back, pacing around the room as he struggled for control. Damn it.

  The shield she’d erected was once again beneath his fingertips. He could batter through it without damaging her mind, but it would be a breach of trust he knew she wouldn’t likely forgive anytime soon. He growled his frustration, swung around ready to attack when the door creaked open. Luke slipped through, an easy grin on his face and hands held up in surrender.

  “Easy, brother,” Luke drawled, walking to the sidebar to pour a drink. “What’s got you so riled up?”

  Glass in hand, he walked to the red leather couch under the shuttered window and sprawled across it. The picture of indolence was practiced and deceiving. Marcus narrowed his eyes and waited, not at all fooled by his brother’s casual pose. He felt Luke’s tension, but wasn’t sure where it was coming from. Luke lifted the glass in salute before taking a long swig. Marcus waited for him to speak.

  He hadn’t even realized his brother was in the house. He caught the faint psychic scent of a woman surrounding Luke’s aura and wondered why he’d left her, whoever she was. Maybe the woman was starting to cling. Luke wouldn’t tolerate that, would quickly end the relationship such as it was. Too bad Marcus didn’t have that problem with a certain blonde. He’d pay good money to experience Winter clingy.

  “Well?” Luke asked. Marcus shook his head, unwilling to discuss Winter even with his brother.

  “If you claim the woman, our little deception will be revealed,” Luke said, no inflection in his voice. Luke often took the head of the table at Alliance meetings and though never introduced, outsiders assumed he was the nightwalker Lord. It wasn’t the kind of secret Marcus could keep from his mate, though, and Winter would feel duty bound to share the information with her people.

  He hadn’t made an effort to conceal his interest in Winter so he shouldn’t be surprised Luke picked up on it. After centuries together, they knew each other better than anyone else and usually worked as a flawless team. He turned from the bar and sat behind his desk, wondering what Luke thought of his bringing someone else into the equation. His grip tightened on the glass. Luke was dangerous and unpredictable; he didn’t suffer strangers or fools. The corners of his brother’s mouth turned up in a bare smile.

  “Don’t worry, brother. I won’t harm your woman.” He paused. “Perhaps you’d like to share her.”

  The growl welled, deep and instinctive in his chest, and he leveled a furious gaze at Luke. His brother laughed in response and lifted his free hand in surrender.

  “Or not.” He swallowed the last of the whiskey and stood for a refill. “I’m the love-’em-and-leave-’em type anyway, remember?”

  Marcus snorted and got a grip on his temper. “One day, Luke, some woman is going to turn your life inside out.” Winter had certainly done so to him.

  Luke returned to the sofa with a refreshed glass and grinned. “Nope. Not me. Don’t want to be tied down.” He shuddered. “I don’t need that kind of responsibility. Not to mention tedium. One woman forever? I don’t think so.”

  Marcus tipped his glass back, savored the cool slide of the liquid down his throat. “I seem to recall saying the same thing.”

  Luke grinned again. “Says the celibate one. There’re too many beautiful women out there. How could I limit myself to just one? Someone has to make up for your lack of a sex life.” He paused for a drink before continuing softly, “Don’t you ever miss the old days?”

  Marcus leaned his head back against the chair and lifted an eyebrow. Did he miss the old days? There was a time he’d been a willing participant in his brother’s endless string of debauchery. He wasn’t sure when it had begun to lose its appeal. Sometime in the last century he’d started thinking about companionship more than sex. He hadn’t even missed the sex really.

  Not until he’d first seen Winter and he’d almost been flattened by the lust that bowled through him. His eyes slid closed as he conjured her image. Sleek and muscled, she had a classically beautiful face and white blond hair she’d worn in a single long braid the night they’d met. His hands itched to twist in its length and slowly draw her to him. Her incredible mind and killer body were a combination guaranteed to drive him to the brink of insanity. Cursing his body’s response to her, he discreetly shifted his sudden erection. Luke noticed his discomfort and laughed.

&nb
sp; “You should claim her and get it over with. I don’t know why you’ve waited. You’ve been prowling around for weeks ready to pounce on everyone who whispers a wrong word. You need to get laid, brother.”

  Marcus lurched from his chair and stalked to the bar to refill his glass. It was that or punch Luke in the face. He wasn’t about to explain to his brother why he held back, that she wasn’t ready yet and he was loath to push her too fast too soon. Wasn’t about to explain that her feelings were more important to him than relieving the torture in his body, or his fear of hurting her.

  Then there was the other thing, the concern he didn’t let himself dwell on. He’d always imagined his mate would be another nightwalker, a woman gently bred who would, if not welcome, then at least accept his possessiveness. What he got was far from that and he wasn’t sure how to reconcile her warrior spirit with his need to protect her. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to discuss it with his reprobate brother.

  He returned to his seat, staring coolly at Luke, hoping he would take the order and drop it. “She is not a topic up for discussion.”

  Luke shrugged one shoulder, looking bored as if it were every day one of them found a mate, but he didn’t pursue the conversation. “I got reports from some of the soldiers tonight. It definitely looks like this new demon surge is organized. And the numbers are much higher than we’ve ever seen.” The one-sided shrug again. “We suspected that already.”

  The increased numbers could be dealt with. He’d just put more soldiers out on patrol and damn the council’s stubbornness in refusing to see the rising danger. The organization was disconcerting though.

  The Alukah had been created in ancient Samaria by the old gods to fight demons escaping from the Underworld and protect mankind. In all the centuries since there was no record of the demons working together in any kind of organized fashion. What had changed?