Courting Darkness

by Melynda Price

  She arched her brow questioningly, and his grin made her pulse quicken. Staring up at him, she stretched out like a sated feline as she folded her hands behind her head and crossed her ankles defiantly. Making no move to get up, she lay there, boldly taking in the sight of him, and was struck with the realization that, without a doubt, she was beholding the epitome of male perfection.

  “You’re gorgeous…” The thought slipped from her lips before she realized she’d even spoken.

  His violet eyes darkened a shade as his own hungry gaze devoured her. Bracing a knee on the mattress, he leaned forward and scooped her up in his arms. He effortlessly lifted her, turned, and carried her toward the bathroom. “I was thinking the same thing about you.”

  The heat of his whisper teased her neck, sending a shiver of desire flooding her veins. When she suddenly went vertical and her bare feet touch the cold tile floor, she gasped for an entirely unpleasant reason. “You’re leaving me?” she asked, unable to mask her surprised disappointment. She’d been looking forward to a reenactment of that sultry dream Liam had so torturously described in vivid detail last night.

  “I’m not leaving you. I’ll be right outside. But your body needs the rest and I don’t need the temptation.” He placed a chaste kiss against her cheek and playfully slapped her ass before retreating to the other room. The door closed and she couldn’t resist smiling when the lock snicked into place.

  “Kind of a moot point, don’t ya think?” she called over the hiss of the shower’s spray.

  “You’re not helping,” he shot back with mock gruffness. “Get in the shower.”

  “See, I told you she was missing. How can you expect me to find someone the police can’t even locate? The bitch is probably dead in the Everglades by now. She’s been gone almost a week. It’s over.” Take the hint and leave, asshole.

  Gahn clicked the remote and the plasma screen went black. His arm yanked back as if the SOB were pitching in the World Series. Pat leaped out of the line of fire as his uninvited guest snarled an ear-burning curse and hurled the remote across the room. The small plastic rectangle hit the wall like a missile. Pieces of black plastic exploded like shrapnel, pelting the living room floor. For not the first time, Pat considered taking his chances with his loan shark and telling this demented throwback from hell to get the fuck out of his house. Not that he would—Gahn needed him. Pat was no rocket scientist, but even he could Scooby-Doo that much out of this cluster fu—

  “She’s not dead.”

  And what was up with this guy’s voice? Every time that asshole spoke, he expected the proclamation “Luke, I am your father,” to come flyin’ out of his mouth. The dude looked like Emperor Palpatine from Revenge of the Sith. He was creepy as fuck.

  “How do you know she’s not dead?” Pat challenged.

  “If she was that easy to kill, she’d be dead by now. Trust me. I’ve been trying for the last twenty-one years.”

  Well, that was one hell of a lot of unhelpful right there. “So you expect me to accomplish something you couldn’t?”

  “I expect you to find the woman and bring her to me. How many times do I have to explain it?”

  “I can’t find a ghost, dude! She ain’t here!”

  “Oh, ye of little faith—”

  Chills crept up Pat’s spine as the airy rasp quoted Christ. He glanced up at his water-stained ceiling, cracked and yellowed with age, half excepting a bolt of lightning to strike the demon dead, and wishing to God that it would.

  “—she’ll be back.”

  Just great….in the meantime, Pat was stuck with the houseguest from hell—literally.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Are you really not going to tell me where you’re taking me?”

  “I already did. I said I’m getting you coffee.”

  “You’re avoiding the question by feigning ignorance,” Olivia complained as they pulled into the Starbucks drive-thru. Before she could press him further, he lowered the driver’s window to the voice on the intercom saying, “Welcome to Starbucks. How can I help you this morning?”

  A blast of frigid air sucked all the heat from the rented SUV. Rouge snowflakes blew inside, landing on her lap and instantly disappearing. She wrapped her arms around her chest, trying to retain what little heat she could as a shiver wracked her body.

  Liam spoke to the speaker. “Can I get a skinny vente, hazelnut, half-caf with whip.”

  Seriously? Was there anything he didn’t know about her?

  “Certainly, sir. Will there be anything else?”

  Without turning to see her freeze-baby impersonation, Liam reached for the dash and cranked the thermostat. The fan roared as heat blasted from the vents. “Coffee. Black. Largest you have.”

  His intuitiveness was impressive, his thoughtfulness, touching. The temp hike certainly hadn’t been for his benefit. Liam seemed as unaffected by the cold temperatures as Haden was.

  “That’ll be eight-eighty. Please pull ahead to the window.”

  As he drove forward he glanced in her direction. “What?”

  Was she staring? Of course she was… “You ordered for me. You knew exactly what I wanted.”

  He shrugged. “You always get the same thing.”

  It was true. She’d always been a creature of habit—utterly predictable—and totally boring. “You didn’t ask me if I wanted anything to eat.”

  Cash in hand, he glanced up as he peeled a ten from the wad of green and cocked his brow as if she were trying to trick him. “You don’t eat breakfast.”

  “Maybe I do now. Tate made me breakfast all the time.” The moment that snarky remark left her mouth, she wanted to suck it back in. Why did she just say that? What in the hell was wrong with her? Was she trying to make him jealous? She didn’t even want breakfast, for crissake.

  Before she could redact her thoughtless comment with an “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that,” Liam’s jaw locked tight and a little muscle in his cheek gave an irritated twitch. His response was coolly measured. “I’m glad to hear he was good to you, Olivia.” What was not cold however, were the jade flecks that surfaced in his eyes like fiery emeralds. “Would you like something to eat?” he asked, his voice frightfully controlled.

  “No,” she murmured softly, feeling like an ass.

  His irritated grunt all but said “You very well should,” as he handed the young man the cash.

  “You’re right, I do hate breakfast,” she conceded. It wasn’t like her to be so careless with her words. She wasn’t a control freak, not by any means, but right now her entire life was out of control. Liam seemed to know everything about her, which only drove home her own feelings of inadequacy. She hardly knew anything about him. It sucked being on the short end of the relationship stick, and to add insult to injury, she was falling for him all over again—hard. And that made her feel even more vulnerable, further fueling her irritability.

  Liam wordlessly handed her the skinny half-caf. Her murmured thanks went unacknowledged. She owed him an apology. Clearly, she’d struck a raw nerve with the thoughtless Tate remark.

  Liam set his untouched coffee in the caddy and made a rather heavy-footed acceleration through the parking lot. Braking abruptly, the tires protested the abuse as he turned right and followed the signs to the freeway. After another right and a cloverleaf, they were headed south at a brisk clip that was sure to get them pulled over by the first trooper they passed.

  Closing her eyes against the sudden wave of nausea washing over her, she murmured, “Since you know me so well, no doubt you’re aware of how easily I get motion sickness.”

  “Sorry…” he grumbled, his foot immediately easing up on the accelerator, reducing their speed to an acceptable seventy-five. After a moment, he asked, “Why does it bother you that I know you so well, Olivia?”

  Tucking a foot beneath her leg, she turned in her seat to face him in hopes that fixing her gaze on something inside the car would curb her altered equilibrium. The stress-line of his jaw hadn�
�t eased a bit. She couldn’t see the color of his eyes over the furrow of displeasure creasing his brows as they stubbornly remained fixed on the road. Sighing, she pulled the binder off her wrist and tied her hair back, just in case her stomach decided to rebel more violently.

  “It bothers me because I don’t know you like that. And I want to. It makes me feel inadequate in this relationship, because until you just told that guy at the window, I had no idea if you even liked coffee. And I know it seems petty, but this isn’t about coffee, Liam. It’s about how I feel completely helpless—it’s about you and me, and where this relationship is going, because I don’t want to let you go again, and I’m scared to death I’m going to lose you.”

  “You’re not going to lose me—” Although Liam kept his gaze fixed ahead, overly focused on the near-vacant freeway, the hard line of his jaw softened a touch. “—our blood covenant is forever binding.”

  “What exactly is a blood covenant?” Maybe a clearer understanding would help her feel better. She’d meant to ask him yesterday, but being pinned between the mattress and his hard, naked body had not been the best moment for a time-out explanation.

  “It’s a binding union between a male and female, recognized in the courts of Eternal Law. Olivia, the day I assumed your guardianship, I gave you my heart. I committed my body in service to you, even unto death. I have always been yours, but you have not always been mine.”

  “Until last night...” Her pulse quickened at the thought of how many ways he’d made her his.

  His curt nod was almost imperceptible.

  “And the blood?”

  “Virginal blood binds the covenant.”

  “So what happens now?”

  “Short-term? I’m going to try to get the veil lifted from your memories before I hunt Haden down and haul his ass to the High Court. The elders are demanding his presence and have sent me to collect him. Not too difficult a task, considering he seems to be wherever you are.”

  The unmistakable growl in Liam’s voice was laced with contempt and seasoned with a healthy dose of jealousy, evidenced by the flash of green in his amethyst-hued eyes.

  “What are you getting at?” Without a doubt the strife between those two ran deep, and she was starting to get the impression she was at the heart of this hatred.

  “Haden is a ruthless, manipulative killer. He knew you had no memory of the stone and he still took you. Why? Because he either wanted to use you as leverage against me, which was a stupid, jackass plan because now if the elders don’t kill him, I will, or he has feelings for you—in which case I’ll just kill him, fuck the elders.”

  “If he’s so dangerous, then why did you leave me with him?” A question that had been running through her mind since the moment Haden took her.

  “I didn’t leave you with him. Tate was supposed to keep you safe. The court didn’t know he wasn’t bound to you until it was too late. By the time they released me, Haden already had you. Because I can’t feel your emotions, I have no compass leading me to you anymore. It was a lucky guess he was taking you to the grotto and I arrived there mere hours before you did. I barely had enough time to secure a vehicle and collect the stone before you were beating a path right to me.”

  She wasn’t about to confirm or deny Liam’s suspicions or said accusation. Why she cared what happened to Haden was still a mystery to her. But despite her latest nightmarish memory, despite everything he’d done to her, she didn’t want to see him die. “Why do you think Haden would possibly have feelings for me?”

  “Because he stuck his neck out for you in Duluth and he killed Mitch. I’m not blind, Olivia. I saw the look on his face when you were dying in my arms. He was torn up.” He exhaled with a deep sigh and briefly closed his eyes while pinching the bridge of his nose, whether in frustration or praying for patience she couldn’t tell—probably both. “Look, Olivia, all I’m saying is that maybe revenge isn’t his only obsession.”

  That he would mention this twice in as many days told her the idea of it was eating at him. She hoped he was wrong, but she couldn’t deny Haden had been a permanent fixture in her life since she’d returned from Duluth. At first, he’d remained in the shadows, always watching her... Truthfully, his unpredictability scared her. His quick temper and violent tendencies unnerved her, but deep down, she knew there was something in Haden worth saving. The problem was, he was the kind of guy that to get to the good, you had to take the bad—and there was a lot of bad.

  But for all his faults and misguided ambitions, when push came to shove, he had defended her, he’d protected her—and yes, he’d made more than one advance toward her. Again, another detail she wasn’t in any hurry to disclose to the imposing angel seated next to her, whose keen gaze watched her with a predatory intensity not so unlike Haden’s—just a different color. The sharpness of his all-knowing stare burned into her like hot coals. He didn’t speak, letting the growing silence between them say it all. Unable to stand the mounting tension, she snapped.

  “What?” Her tone carried a defensive edge he, no doubt, heard as well as she did.

  “I’m just wondering at what point you’re going to be honest with me about what happened between you and Haden.”

  Shit... “I already told you, nothing is going on between me and Haden.” And as far as she was concerned, it wasn’t going to, either. “You’re confusing empathy with something more. I love you.”

  “I don’t doubt that you love me, Olivia. Last night wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t. But you also loved me when you were minutes from walking down the aisle to marry another man.”

  Well that stung like a slap in the face.

  “Your feelings for me don’t mean you can’t still feel something for him. I find it difficult to believe that after all these months I’ve been away, he hasn’t tried to touch you—that he hasn’t touched you. That you aren’t telling me, tells me that you’re protecting him. And that concerns me.”

  Dammit... She broke his gaze that was spending a hell of a lot more time studying her than watching the road. “Do we really have to have this conversation?” she whispered softly, thinking she might throw up, but now for an entirely different reason.

  “I think we should.”

  “I think there are a lot of things we need to discuss, and Haden isn’t the most important of them.”

  “I disagree. This could have all been over yesterday, but you stayed my hand—why? And don’t give me the bullshit excuse that he has a shot at salvation, because if that bastard can be saved, then I’m Mother fucking Teresa.”

  “How can you say that when you’re the one who told him he was redeemable in the first place?”

  “How do you know I said that? Seriously, Olivia, were you two kumbaya-ing it all the way here from Florida? For having no memory, you sure know a whole hell of a lot.”

  “And for being an angel, you sure are behaving like a jealous prick. Kumbaya? Really? Wow…Journal Olivia never said you were such a smartass.”

  “That’s probably because Journal Liam hadn’t fallen in love with a woman he had to leave not once, but twice, and watch her spend three years in a relationship with some tosser jackass she nearly married. Nor was Journal Liam forced to return to court for a second time, only to have his guardianship revoked and then to be thrown in prison. Do you have any idea what three months feels like in Heaven, Olivia? Freaking. Eternity. That’s how long. I’ve spent an eternity missing you—worrying if you were all right, because I couldn’t feel you anymore, and wondering if I’d done the right thing by taking your memories, because it was the only shot I had at keeping you safe from Haden! Which didn’t fucking work, by the way, so you’re going to have to cut me a little slack if I’m not all rainbows and butterflies.”

  Well…all right then, she certainly felt like shit now. If you asked her, Journal Olivia was a bit naïve and fanciful, because flesh and blood Liam was mind-blowingly complex, passionate, and not just a little damaged—by her—which just hurt all the more.r />
  “I’ll ask you one last time, Olivia. Has Haden touched you?”

  “He...” she sighed. Aw hell... What was the point in trying to protect him if it was only going to drive a wedge between her and Liam? Trust was a fragile thing, as she well knew, not easily earned once broken. “He kissed me, that’s all.” And that was all she’d say about it. There was no way on God’s green earth she was going to offer up the details of the dressing room fiasco. What she’d done had been with purpose. That she hadn’t hated it was neither here nor there. Even if her heart didn’t belong to Liam, there could never be anything between her and Haden. He was just too damaged.

  “That’s all?” he mocked.

  Sarcasm was very unbecoming to him.

  “That’s enough,” he growled. The groan of the steering wheel protested Liam’s white-knuckled grip. “Was it against your will?”

  His dead-calm voice alarmed her more than if he’d yelled. The color changes in his eyes telegraphed his every emotion, and murder was definitely the impulse of choice right now. Not that she feared him. She knew in her heart Liam would never harm her, but Haden?—now that was another story. No doubt, the angel was envisioning that steering wheel was the Nephilim’s neck.

  “I asked him to stop and he did. I told him I was in love with you. I was very clear about my feelings and he gets that.”

  His exhaled snort burned with contempt. “If you think that’s all it’ll take to dissuade him, you’re being naïve.”

  “You really think he’s going to hunt me down after the brawl you two had yesterday? Do you think he’s that suicidal?”

  “I think he’s that out of his fucking mind, Olivia! When he was pouring his heart out to you over his lady love, did he bother to mention that he was raised by demons? And not just any demon, the second in command of the Dark Court. Did he tell you he works for them, hunting and killing the Sighted? He’s killed hundreds of women over the years, hundreds of innocent lives just like yours, taken by his hand. He’s a ruthless killer, Olivia! Why else do you think they would have a warrior doing a guardian’s job? I wasn’t created for this.”