She sucked in a breath, the cords of her long, graceful neck pulling taut. Now, he gloated.
“Admit it, Taelyn. You want me to prove that statement true.”
Tearing her gaze from his, she launched her darts and surrounded his inside the bullseye.
He barely heard the next gasp she tried to contain.
But he did hear it…
Kage retrieved their darts and upped the stakes. “Triple-20. The highest score on the board. The red inner band in the twenty slice of the pie. All three darts again.”
“All three?” she countered. “That’s got to be impossible.”
“Actually, let’s go for all the marbles.” He threw, hitting the target he’d established. He left his darts on the board.
“Little crowded, don’t you think?”
“The tips are skinny enough. Wedge yours in there.”
“You can be a real asshole, Kage.”
He chuckled. “You say that in every century.”
Taelyn shook her head. “Incorrigible, is what you are.” Regardless, she took aim and let the missile lightly release from her fingers. One, two and three. She found the precise, miniscule spots to fill in the remainder of the wired brackets.
“What’d I tell you?” Kage said, holding his hands up in the air.
Her brows knitted. “Are you sure you don’t practice magic?”
“It’s not magic, Taelyn. It’s you.” His arms dropped to his sides. He stepped in close and said in a lower voice, “You just don’t remember yet. Who you really are, what you know, what you do. But you will, as soon as we figure out what’s gone awry with our reunion.”
She paused, looking contemplative for a moment. Then asked, “Am I supposed to be some modern-day Guinevere?”
“Something like that.” He circled her and, from behind, whispered in her ear, “You’ll eventually remember everything, I’m sure of it. You’ll remember me. Every scorching-hot kiss, every intimate caress. My breath on your neck, my fingertips gliding down your spine…”
She shivered.
The corner of his mouth lifted at how easily she responded to him.
He murmured, “There’s a spot at your nape that makes you tremble when my tongue flits over it. My hand at the small of your back when we’re walking together gives you goosebumps. And when I nip at your inner thigh, you—”
“Kage,” she said on a broken breath.
“You beg me to make you come,” he continued, not missing a beat.
She inhaled deeply. Exhaled slowly. Said, “You don’t play fair.”
“Not cheating, sweetheart. I speak nothing but the truth.”
“And I’m just supposed to believe that—”
“Shh. Wait.” He heard voices again. On the other side of the walls.
As though she recognized the warning in his tone, similar to when the wolves had come through her door, she stilled. Her gaze shot to the entrance of the bar. Seconds later, three men strolled through it.
Not men…
“Vampires,” Kage muttered.
He stepped around Taelyn and with a hand on her hip, he inched her to the side, making sure his body shielded hers.
Vampires were the worst of the lot. And she was human.
The undead hunkered around the u-shaped bar, eyeing the mortals sipping beers and watching TV. The demons looked normal enough. Non-threatening. Unassuming.
Fucking vampires. That was part of their morbid tactic. Appear nonchalant and friendly. Create a false sense of security.
Then move in for the kill when least expected.
They ordered pints and sucked them down. One glanced around the room, assessing the targets while another distracted those in the immediate vicinity, saying, “All the TV channels in today’s world and you’re watching golf? Why not check out the news for a nice change of pace?”
The older gentleman to the vamp’s right glowered. “Because we haven’t heard enough rhetoric during an election year?”
The vampire said, “It’s important to know the candidates’ stance on critical issues. I’m particularly interested in their policies regarding homeland security. You should be as well.” He grinned, light glinting off a fang.
“Shit.” Kage’s gut coiled.
Taelyn’s breasts pressed to his shoulder blades and her fingers curled around his shirt, just above his waist. She whispered, “What is it?”
“A revolution.”
The old codger at the bar said, “Homeland security, huh? America kicks ass. We’re a superpower, or haven’t you heard?”
“Sure, sure,” the vampire congenially concurred. “When it comes to wars where missiles can wipe out small towns and weapons of mass destruction can take down a regime. A human one, at any rate. But without the nuclear bombs or submarine torpedoes or bio weaponry, you’re basically left with guns and hand-to-hand combat, am I right?”
“Not entirely,” the bartender chimed in. “But I see your point.”
“What if we took electricity out of the equation?” the vampire further pontificated. “Or main water sources were contaminated during a terrorist attack, the likes of which this world has never known? That ought to speed up eradication, don’t you think? Much more widespread and rampant.”
“You said no bio weaponry,” the older patron reminded him.
“Right. I was originally associating that strictly with chemicals—you know, anthrax and such. But what about good old-fashioned parasites?”
“Oh, my God,” Taelyn mumbled.
The vamp heard her. His gaze slid to her and Kage. He nodded casually and said, “I’m just ruminating over all the possibilities. The most effective broad sweep of annihilation. Of course, I’m sure the Department of Defense would never allow for such breaches. Though…that whole water idea has merit. It did happen in Flint, right?”
“That was lead poisoning, not parasites,” the bartender corrected.
Kage’s entire body turned rigid. This was about to get ugly.
The vampire said, “True, though I’m making a generalization here. An observation that…anything…could happen. At any time.” He sneered at the bartender.
Kage glanced at Taelyn over his shoulder and told her in a low voice, “Go to the rack on the wall, grab a pool cue, break the stick over your leg and stab in the heart any fucking thing that tries to hurt you.”
Taelyn gaped. Only for a second. Then said between clenched teeth, “I can’t break a pool cue over my leg.”
“Yes, you can. And you will. Back up slowly. No sudden movements.” Kage returned his attention to the vampires at the bar.
The one closest to the bartender said, “Personally, I’m surprised that a superpower wouldn’t be better equipped to fight off a demon attack.”
“A what?”
The words barely tumbled from the bartender’s mouth when the vampire’s arm shot out, he gripped the collar of the man’s shirt and yanked him halfway across the wooden bar and sank his teeth into the man’s neck.
A woman in the far corner screamed bloody murder.
Taelyn choked down her own scream.
A flurry of activity instantly ensued. The vampire released the bartender, whose body slumped to the floor. In the blink of an eye, he feasted on the older gentleman. The sidekick vampire polished off the two others sitting on stools and then joined his third compatriot who was a blur as he viciously descended upon the people on the opposite side of the room from Kage and Taelyn.
The taunting vamp who’d made the initial kill turned his sights on them again. He crossed slowly to their corner, as predatory as Kage had claimed they were.
His gaze was on Taelyn, but shifted to Kage as he approached him and said, “You have a pet. A poor, defenseless human.” He licked the blood from his lips and the corner of his mouth. “A beautiful one at that.” He sniffed the air and added in a lascivious tone, “Her pussy smells as sweet as her blood.”
“Hands off,” Kage warned in a menacing tone.
The vam
pire chuckled. “I was thinking more along the lines of…tongue first, then teeth.” He bared his fangs.
Taelyn took a couple more steps backward, her heart in her throat, her pulse raging so violently she was sure all the vampires heard it.
Kage said, “Don’t let her pretty looks deceive you. She’s a bit of a badass.”
A heartier laugh ripped from the vampire’s mouth. His friends joined in.
Fury collided with fear inside Taelyn. The head vampire advanced on her at the same time the other two went for Kage with lightning-quick speed. But he’d been prepared for it. Combated the first by pulling a wooden stake from the inside pocket of his leather jacket and piercing the vamp’s flesh at his heart, driving savagely in. The second, however, was craftier and dodged Kage’s aim. His body slammed into Kage’s and they both went sailing toward the wall, crashing into it.
Kage lost his stake. Taelyn’s stomach lurched.
The windows rattled from the impact and the neon-lit signs advertising beer brands fell to the floor and shattered.
“Kage!” she cried out.
He was on his feet a heartbeat later and giving as good as he got as he fought the vampire.
The leader said to Taelyn, “I’d be a little more concerned about what I intend to do to you. A nice sample here and there. You look worthy of savoring so I’ll take this slow.” His gaze slipped to the apex of her legs. Then his dead, black eyes slowly drifted upward, turning her blood cold.
Yet from somewhere in her core, she mockingly said, “Sorry, not a sample platter.” Sure, her voice was shaky. But she stood her ground.
He instantly converged. She reached behind her, grabbed a stick, cracked the thick shaft against her thigh exactly as Kage believed she was capable of doing and staked the vampire.
Just like that. Without even blinking.
He fell to his knees. Stared up at her in horror and astonishment. No doubt the same expression on her face.
Her breath caught and her heart all but stopped.
She’d done it!
But then he grinned. Insidiously.
As he slowly pulled the wood from his chest, he said, “You missed, honey.”
Oh, fuck!
Tears stung her eyes as terror consumed her.
He dropped the weapon she’d used against him. But as he was hopping to his feet—thinking she was too stunned to move—her left arm surged forward of its own accord and the jagged edge of the stick plunged deep. So deep, she ran him through.
Huh. She was a left-handed slayer?
Taelyn released the shaft and jumped back.
He fell to his knees once more. Veins popped up on his pale, pasty skin like slithering, snaking blue tributaries. He crumpled to the side and the body instantly began to decompose.
“Yeah,” she whispered, her heart now pounding mightily. “I am a bit of a badass.”
She glanced up just as Kage’s booted foot made contact with the last vampire’s face, smashing it soundly so that the demon reeled backward. Kage glanced around frantically for a weapon. Taelyn lunged for the one that had missed her target initially.
“Kage!” She hurled it at him. He caught the stick and as the vampire propelled himself forward, Kage slayed him.
Taelyn stared in surprise and relief. Neither should have registered so acutely, so fiercely.
She shouldn’t have been the least bit surprised—the man had already demonstrated his ability to take down demons.
As for the relief… A wealth of emotions swelled so fast and furiously within her that her body started to quake.
Kage’s gaze held hers unwaveringly as he crossed to where she was rooted, now wholly unable to move.
His large hands clasped her upper arms and he held her firmly.
“You might be in shock,” he said in his low, evocative voice.
“All of those people are dead.”
“Yes.”
“How can I be a slayer if I can’t save another human being?”
“You do save them,” he assured her. “Believe me.”
At that moment, the pass-through door to the kitchen swung open and the redheaded waitress and several other employees poured out.
“Thank you!” the woman wailed, tears streaming down her ruddy cheeks. “We saw it all through the window in the door. They would have killed us, too, if you hadn’t stopped them.”
“See?” Kage said, not breaking the eye contact with Taelyn. “You do save lives. Yes, there are casualties. As in any battle. And most times, sweetheart…you’re one of those casualties.”
She let out a strangled cry.
He didn’t release her arms or her gaze.
Kage said, “You die. You’re mortal, just like them. But first, you protect them as much as possible. You save as many lives as you can. And you kill whatever threatens them. In the end, Taelyn, you always kill what threatens them.”
“Then how do I die?” she asked, her mind a jumbled mess.
“You sustain injuries that can’t be healed. Sometimes you die on the battlefield. Sometimes it’s afterward or even a little further down the line. A year or two, maybe. But…” He swallowed hard. An agonizing expression turned his features stony and his glowing green eyes misted as he said, “You always, always die in my arms.”
“Oh, my God.” Tears flooded her own eyes. The emotions gripped her painfully.
Kage’s hands slid up her biceps, over her shoulders and neck. He cupped her cheeks, his thumbs whisking away the trickle on her skin.
“This is what you do, sweetheart. And I protect you when you don’t have any recollection of who you truly are.”
“Kage.” Her body continued to quake. She needed a really good cry. Because even though there were six people aside from her and her bodyguard who were still breathing, nine more lay on the floor, bloody and broken.
Not exactly her idea of a winning record.
“You’re going to be fine.”
Yet Taelyn could read him easily enough to know her torment agonized him. He was just better at keeping it all contained in the reality he’d long since accepted and which she still struggled with.
Kage kissed her forehead. His hands fell away and he turned to the survivors. “Everyone’s alright?”
They nodded.
From her apron pocket, the waitress pulled the fifty dollar bill Kage had given her earlier. “Here,” she offered. “I’d give you a million dollars if I had it, but—”
“No,” Kage said in an amiable tone and with a smile—obviously his typical fashion for calming panic-stricken, frantic people. “You keep the money. Go buy several cases of bottled water, batteries for your flashlights and matches for your fireplace and candles. Just to be safe. And keep an eye on the news.” His gaze swept over the small group. “All of you. Stay inside for a few days.”
“What that guy—what that thing—said,” the youngest of the kitchen crew spoke up. “Is it true? About a….demon…attack?” His gaze dropped to one of the vampire’s bodies that was rapidly decaying.
Taelyn imagined all three of the nocturnal creatures would be nothing but ash in another ten minutes. She wondered if that had happened to the shifters Kage had slain, as well.
Add that to the growing list of questions…
Kage told the kid, “I don’t know what’s going to happen. But it never hurts to be prepared, right?”
“Sure,” the kid said, looking a little green around the gills.
Taelyn could relate.
“I’ll call the police,” the waitress offered, sounding as though she was in shock as much as Taelyn was.
“What good will that do?” one of the chefs demanded in an anxious tone. “Are they even going to believe us?”
“There are surveillance cameras,” Kage pointed out. “All they have to do is look at the footage to determine what happened here. It might be impossible to believe at first, yes. But you’re all witnesses. And you can find me at the lakeside cabins. Kage Deville.”
“Th
anks, Kage,” the kid said. Then his gaze lifted to Taelyn. “You, too. Seriously impressive.”
Kage flashed her a told you so look. Then took her hand. He was about to lead her from the bar when—
The lights went out.
The entire room was instantly bathed in darkness.
The waitress screamed. Taelyn’s pulse jumped.
“Son of a bitch,” Kage ground out. “I fucking hate it when vampires are right.”
Kage whipped his cell from his back pocket and the screen provided a hint of illumination. He pulled up CNN and swore a blue streak. Then thrust the device toward Taelyn for her to see.
“Holy shit,” she muttered. “That’s the White House on Breaking News.”
Helicopters hovered and the grounds were surrounded by SWAT teams. Red and blue lights flashed in the stormy night.
“This is where the demon attack starts,” Kage said in a grim tone. To the others, he insisted, “Shelter. Now.”
Kage marched out with Taelyn in tow. He settled her in the Range Rover, then slid into the seat behind the wheel.
She concentrated on breathing normally as he pulled out of the parking lot and sped toward the lake. The vibrations through every inch of her didn’t abate and she couldn’t catch a full breath. Not even by the time they jerked to a halt outside the convenience store on the property where all the summer rentals sat.
Kage collected her—apparently wary of leaving her alone, either because of his self-appointed gig or because she was still reeling—and they entered the store, lit by numerous lanterns, the proprieter obviously being accustomed to blackouts from storms. Kage went straight to the counter and dug out more cash from his pocket.
He said to the man behind the register, “Here’s five hundred bucks. It’s all I’ve got. I want all of your cases of bottled water, except for two. Keep those for yourself. We’re going to load up on some supplies and I suggest you do the same.”
The man’s dark-brown eyes narrowed on him. “Are you holding me up?”
“I’m giving you cash,” Kage said, incredulous. “For fucking water.” He gave a sharp shake of his head and stalked off.
Taelyn let out a tiny laugh. Borderline hysterical, sure. Because that was the fragile state she was currently in. At the same time…she found Kage amusing. Resourceful. Solid as oak, without doubt. Surly, sure. But also compassionate. In a really offbeat sort of way.
BodyGuard (Butterscotch Martini Shots Book 2) Page 21
