It collapsed forward, its newest form registering as it lay motionless on the ground, Braxton’s eyes looking up at her unblinking.
“You killed him.” The Scion’s voice taunted her. “Like you almost killed your sister. Like you killed your parents.”
The air stirred at her back, and she ducked, whipping around to come at it from behind.
But not fast enough. The Scion pivoted and locked his hand around her throat, lifting her off the ground.
“I expected more of you.”
With a strangled yell, Quinn lashed out and caught him under the chin, then drove her elbow down to loosen his grip.
“Your father would have been disappointed in you.”
Her lungs burned for oxygen and lights danced in front of her eyes. And then she felt the air rush at her as he threw her away from him. Pain exploded down her side as she hit the ground.
She struggled to her knees, her body trembling with the effort. She saw him loom closer and was thankful for the yawning blackness that stretched up and filled her mind before she collapsed.
* * *
Braxton slung his bag in the trunk then slid into the driver’s seat. As he jammed the keys into the ignition, he glanced at the clock. One a.m. Too late to swing by Quinn’s.Gage leaned back in the passenger seat. “Damn I wish every assignment was that textbook.”
“What’s textbook about war demons on a rampage?”
“That it was predictable. Find the demons. Slay the demons. Go home.” He settled back against the seat and closed his eyes.
“Can’t complain about that.” Especially not when he was home in less than forty-eight hours, a fact his body heartily disagreed with. Still, he needed to be here and was as relieved as Gage their assignment hadn’t come with any unexpected complications.
Gage’s cell phone rang, and he dug it out of his pocket, grinning when he recognized the caller. “Waiting up for me?”
Braxton laughed, cranking the ignition. His hand paused on the gearshift as he felt Gage tense beside him. Icy apprehension needled his gut. “What’s wrong?”
“He’s with me,” Gage said into the phone. “What happened?”
The certainty something had happened to Quinn knifed through Braxton. He curled his hands around the wheel to keep from wrenching the phone away from Gage. With the waves of psychic energy that broke through Gage’s mental shields, it was easy to determine it wasn’t Jordan who was in trouble.
“Is she okay?”
“Tell me,” he demanded.
“We’re on our way,” Gage answered, disconnecting. “Quinn had a bad run-in tonight.”
He swallowed past the thick knot wedged in his throat. “How bad?”
“Banged up, but hanging on. Jordan says they’re still waiting on test results for any internal injuries.”
“When did it happen?”
“A couple of hours ago they think. But that’s not all.” Gage’s expression was grim. “The EMTs called to the scene said she roused long enough to say one thing. Scion.”
Chapter Eleven
Braxton held Quinn’s hand to his lips, willing her to open her eyes. Bruises darkened her face and a few cuts that had been cleaned and treated stood out against her pale face. Though he knew she’d been medicated to help keep her comfortable while the worst of her injuries healed, he knew by the waves of psychic energy steamrolling off her that she was anything but restful.He’d been almost overwhelmed by her lowered guard and the intensity that had struck him the second he got within ten feet of her room. The connection had, however, been fleeting, almost as though her mental defenses had kicked back in automatically the moment he tried to sift through her thoughts, aching to help her whatever way he could.
Despite the sense of chaos he was picking up on, he couldn’t get any better of a read than that. Was she replaying her encounter with the Scion or had another nightmare sunk its claws in her?
He pressed his lips to the inside of her palm, his stomach wrenching at the sight of the long scratch that ran the length of her forearm. He shouldn’t have left. Maybe if he had stayed the other night she wouldn’t have been alone when she crossed paths with the Scion. Wouldn’t be lying in bed so still and fragile looking that it terrified him. He squeezed her hand, interlocking their fingers. He couldn’t stop touching her, needing the physical connection to remind him that she’d held on.
What if he’d lost her?
Braxton didn’t look over his shoulder when he heard footsteps behind him. “Why didn’t it kill her?”
Heels clicked softly across the floor, and Rae came to stand opposite him. Concern filled her face as she stared down at Quinn. “I don’t know.”
Braxton gently tucked Quinn’s hand under the covers. “You sure about that?”
She avoided answering the question by changing the subject. “Were you going to tell me?” she asked quietly.
He didn’t need to ask to know Rae was talking about him and Quinn. “Probably once we figured it out ourselves.”
She nodded, leaning over to sweep her thumb along Quinn’s forehead, brushing aside her wild strands of black hair. “Every time one of you goes down, something inside me comes undone.” She fiddled with Quinn’s blanket and then turned and walked out of the room in the private clinic where they all recuperated when injured.
Rae’s heartfelt confession left him staring after her, and though he hated to leave Quinn for even a minute, he followed his superior out into the hall.
“Why is the information on Quinn’s parents classified?”
“You’ve been digging through the system?” She didn’t turn around.
“Not yet.” He made it clear in his tone that he intended to if she gave him a reason to think he’d find something. “She’s been dreaming of them, seeing them die right in front of her.”
Rae glanced over her shoulder. The carefully blank expression on her face made his stomach sink.
“She’s right, isn’t she? They didn’t die in a car crash.”
His boss studied the long corridor, looking much younger than her thirty years tonight. He knew without pushing hard that there were days where she questioned her ability to lead their team, and judging by the haunted look that flashed so briefly in her eyes, tonight was one of those times.
What could have been relief crossed her face as Gage and Jordan came around the corner towards them bearing coffee.
“When she wakes up, we’ll talk,” Rae finally said, gazing past him to where Quinn still hadn’t moved. She smiled softly. “She’ll always keep you on your toes.”
“Don’t I know it.”
With a grim nod, Rae strode down the hall, exchanging parting comments with the other two agents she passed.
Jordan held out a cup of coffee. Braxton took it, but the thought of actually drinking the stuff held zero appeal.
“Any changes?”
Braxton shook his head.
“She’s strong and held on.” Jordan leaned against the doorjamb. “She must have done some serious damage to the Scion for him to have run off.”
“Maybe,” Braxton allowed. “If a Scion crossed over our systems would have picked it up.”
“So it’s one of our underground master demons,” Gage surmised.
“And it just happened to come across her?”
Jordan arched a brow. “You think it was looking for Quinn?”
“At this point I don’t think anything can be ruled out.” Since arriving last night he’d had nothing but time to weigh everything out and play with theories. None of which eased the fear that held his heart in a vise.
“Okay,” Gage ventured. “Let’s say it was looking for her. Unless it was a war Scion, it wouldn’t have been able to track her. It would have had to go through some kind of normal channels to locate her.”
Jordan shook her head. “What the hell would a Scion want with Quinn enough to try and find her?”
More questions Braxton didn’t have answers for. He shouldn’t have gone on as
signment with Gage, should have stayed with Quinn and helped her dig for the information she needed. God, how many more times could he let her down?
“Maybe the moles are leaking classified information about agents to the hostiles.” Gage jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I’m going to catch up with Rae and run that by her.”
With all the secrecy surrounding Quinn, Braxton hazarded a guess that Rae was already working on the possibility. Not wanting to get into that now with either Gage or Jordan, he let his friend disappear down the hall.
“She was in a great mood when she left Kane’s,” Jordan said as they both stood motionless outside Quinn’s room. “If I thought for a second something would have been waiting for her I would have followed her home.”
Hearing the guilt in Jordan’s voice, Braxton felt driven to reassure her. “There is still the possibility she came across it by coincidence.”
“But you don’t really believe that.”
Braxton shrugged. Until Quinn woke up and told them what happened, he wasn’t committing to any scenario. If he did, tracking down what had done this to her would have been a priority. And as much as part of him craved nothing less, it would be a stupid move. One that would satisfy the need to make something pay for nearly killing her, but stupid nonetheless.
He was nothing if not cautious, and in the same breath knew that was part of the problem. It had always been part of the problem with Quinn. Instead of embracing his attraction to her from the beginning, he’d buried it. Afraid of what getting involved with her might ultimately cost him, it had been safer to avoid her, and instead of telling her the truth weeks ago despite what her reaction might have been, he’d thought it better to forget it happened. Had pushed her even farther away.
And for what?
Because he always towed the line. Bending, but never breaking. So damn fixated on always playing by the rules he’d been given, he’d made a fucking mess of everything. What if Quinn hadn’t survived the attack? She would never have known how much she meant to him, how deeply she’d edged under his heart.
He leaned against the wall, closing his eyes.
“She’s going to be fine.”
The thick ball lodged in his throat prevented him from speaking, so he only nodded. Abruptly, he straightened from the wall and whipped around to face her room. Nothing stirred inside and yet the wail of distress that ripped through his mind was all too real.
He saw Quinn’s fingers tighten over the sheet, her knuckles whitening. Damn nightmares.
Jordan hovered in the doorway as he returned to Quinn’s side. He leaned down until his forehead touched hers.
“It’s just a bad dream,” he whispered aloud—and then with his thoughts—wishing he could fight the demons in her mind for her.
* * *
She was waiting when he rounded the corner, knowing with a certainty he wouldn’t walk away. Couldn’t walk away. Not now. Not when she needed him. Her blood burned hot in her veins, heady waves of arousal and desire that made it impossible to think through the sensual fog that seemed intent on swallowing her.And she wanted it to. Wanted it to consume the two of them until he couldn’t deny what was between them any longer. Steam was already filling the shower and rising in the small bathroom to cloak the two of them in mist.
God, she couldn’t wait any longer. He was there. He was hers.
He hit the tile wall as she pressed herself against him, only his pants hindering the play of flesh against flesh. She fastened her mouth over his, kissing him deeply. His breath was hot on her face, his heart beating so hard Quinn could feel it echo inside her.
She rocked her hips, arching against his throbbing arousal. “Finally ready to play, Boy Scout?” Empowered by the bursts of lust that streaked through her system, she reached between them, pushing his pants down enough that his erection sprang free, thick and hard.
God, she wanted him inside her.
Without warning, Braxton turned, flattening her to the wall. “More than you know.”
Quinn dragged her tongue across her bottom lip. “About time.”
The heat from his naked skin seeped into her, her nipples hard and aching. She couldn’t stop herself from rubbing them against his chest. Anything to ease the yearning that wouldn’t be satisfied until his mouth closed over each peak to devour her.
He crushed his mouth down on her. The power in his arms, the strength of his mind, the provocative claiming of her mouth all combined to make a sensual whirlpool desperate to suck her under.
She moaned against his mouth, nipping his bottom lip with her teeth before tugging it into her mouth. She cupped his erection, her thumb stroking the head of his cock with a slow swirl of friction that made him shudder.
Braxton dipped his head, curling his tongue around one dark peak. Her back arched as he finally sealed his mouth over her nipple and pulled fiercely.
“Foreplay will kill me,” she growled, scoring her nails across his shoulders.
He flicked his tongue across her other beaded nipple. “You wanted this, you won’t rush me.”
“We both wanted it.” She closed her hand around him.
He hissed out a breath as she pumped his shaft. Slow and soft, then fast and urgent until he started to thrust against her hand.
“I’m ready for you,” she murmured against his cheek. “Touch me and see.”
Braxton did as she bade, trailing his fingers down her belly to the soft curls between her legs. He parted her slick folds, slipping down to tease her opening. She whimpered as Braxton circled her damp opening, wanting him more than she’d ever wanted anyone. Even riding the feverish high, she knew without a doubt that wanting him had nothing to do with any lust demon.
Her inner walls clamped down when he pushed two fingers into her sex. With a guttural cry, Braxton hooked his hands around her thighs, lifting her off the floor.
The head of his shaft nestled against her sex, and she could feel his muscles bunched and trembling as he held her in place. Torturing them both.
“Now, Braxton.”
And then he thrust into her, closing the distance between them to catch the cry of pleasure ripped from her mouth. He withdrew and slammed back inside her again, burying his cock deep…
No!
Quinn pulled back and screamed at the arm that slashed through the darkness and yanked Braxton away from her. She collapsed on the floor, her legs giving out, paralyzed as Brax was pulled into the shadows. The hiss of Shadow Demons surrounded her, filled her head until she pressed her hands to her ears to drown out the sound.
The wet tile fell away beneath her and she plummeted into darkness. Her nails raked at the air, desperate for purchase.
“Just a bad dream.”
The murmured reassurance wrapped her in warmth. Braxton. As quickly as she heard him, he was gone again, and she cried out in frustration, tearing at the thick fog that tangled around her legs, pulling her deeper.
Her body hit the ground hard, her hands locked behind her back. Next to her Cass scrambled to her knees and tried to run. A large body shrouded in black snatched her off her feet and shoved her into the corner.
A clanking echoed over the chaos and she rolled to her side to see her father fighting the demons off, her mother half sprawled on the floor, bleeding and trembling.
Mom!
She lay helpless as another demon emerged from the shadows, its red-rimmed eyes blazing in the dark as it grabbed her mother’s ankle and dragged her to her father.
There were too many. Every second another one broke past his defenses, each blow they landed weakening him until the slash of his sword did little more than buy him another breath before they attacked again, and again. Until one succeeded in knocking the sword out of his hand.
He fell to his knees, then turned to shield her mother—
The sound of her own scream brought Quinn awake, her heart hammering through her ribs.
“Easy.”
Through the tears that blurred her vision, she found Braxt
on sitting on the bed next to her. Deep threads of pain stretched down her back and arms as she bolted up and straight into his arms. She buried her face against his chest, clinging to him as image after image rushed back. Her body trembled so hard she had to clench her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering. She closed her eyes, wanting to banish the memories back into her nightmares. Where they weren’t real.
Where none of it was real.
Each sob felt wrenched from deep inside and she fisted her hands in Braxton’s shirt, suddenly terrified he’d be taken from her too.
“Stay with me,” she whispered brokenly.
He wrapped his arms around her until she wasn’t sure which one of them was holding on the tightest. “If anything had happened to you—” He kissed her forehead, her cheek, then finally her mouth, the possessive tenderness in his kiss giving her something to fight through the dark for, something to hope for.
She didn’t know how long it took before she finally stopped shaking. Braxton had laid back, his arms locked around her waist. She molded herself against his chest and wished the whole world away. He gently rubbed her back until she couldn’t cry any more, and when her mind went blissfully numb, she fell back asleep. And for the first time in weeks, no monsters slipped through the shadows to claim her.
* * *
Quinn shifted to get comfortable on the bed she’d been confined to for the past two days. She didn’t care if anyone still wanted to monitor her. She was tired of being poked and prodded. Most of her injuries were healing quickly and the thought of spending another hour in the place—much less another night—was enough to make her plot her escape if the clinic’s doctor decided to keep her.With so much still unknown about the Destroyer gene, any time one of them was injured enough to warrant being admitted to one of the clinics run by the network, the staff were more than happy to put them under the microscope. While she was less than thrilled about being a patient, given the way she felt like she’d been run over by a Mack truck, she hadn’t protested too loudly about staying. Until now.
Stripped Away Page 18
