by Zoe Forward
Nikolai leaned back in the desk chair and smirked. “Man, you are so fucked. I never knew you had a weakness. Until now. Be careful. And not just from who’s out there.” His gaze slid to her.
Nikolai was right. She was his Achilles’ heel. “Serenity, do you plan to kill me?” Alexi asked quietly while staring at his brother.
She picked at a cuticle. “There have been times.” Then she smiled. “But we’ve also had some fun. I do wonder if they’ve got any sushi-Italian fusion restaurants here in D.C.”
Alexi felt his face burn at the reminder of his plan’s failure.
She laughed. “I might let you stick around a bit longer. Maybe we’ll actually make it to that restaurant.”
Nikolai gestured—What’s she talking about?—at him. Alexi shook him off. Nikolai shrugged and rolled his chair to a computer and typed. “I did some research last night. Three more contracts popped up on different circuits for her. Whoever this is wants her dead and is getting desperate to get her there.”
“You said you thought it was Jainukul. Why?” Alexi asked.
“I traced two of the contracts which came out of Asia. Singapore, to be exact. A computer associated with Lin Corp. That’s…” Nikolai met Alexi’s gaze.
“Jainukul’s organization,” Alexi finished.
Serenity’s gaze shot to Alexi. Fear skittered through her eyes. “Jainukul? You think he’s got Liz?”
“This guy is slippery. I can’t pinpoint where he is. I only see one way in,” Nikolai said softly. “You’ll have to use the OLM. She’ll have to get caught.” He made air quotation marks.
“What?” she squeaked out.
Alexi tapped his lip. “It might work to get in, or at least get closer. We can see who the kidnappers send to pick her up.” He shook his head. “No. Too dangerous. The OLM might kill Serenity on sight.”
Serenity’s sudden interested smile made him want to groan. She asked, “Don’t you run their acquisitions department?”
“No, I’m just their most effective contractor. The guy who heads acquisitions couldn’t find a witch at a Wiccan convention. None would dare go against me.”
He addressed Nikolai. “Can’t Serenity phone the kidnappers and you trace the call?”
“Doubtful it’d work. These guys are smart. That means they probably time calls in order to tease us with location, but not give us enough time to actually pinpoint source. If they use a cell phone, then that’s even more difficult to trace. Not the best plan.”
Alexi pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his forehead. He wouldn’t risk her to the OLM witch hunter crazies. Her in their possession would be the crowning glory of their decade. They’d finally have in captivity one of the world’s most powerful witches. Would they be tempted by a large sum of money to give her up? Seemed like an unacceptable and likely to fail risk.
“This is for my sister. There’s no other way,” she pleaded.
They were right. No other way.
Chapter Fifteen
“Why are we parked here?” Serenity asked. She stared out the windshield into the darkness of predawn New York. No one walked the icy sidewalk where he’d chosen to pull over.
“I can’t just drive you into the OLM sitting in the passenger seat. You know that.”
“Yeah, I know. Can’t you handcuff me and toss me in the trunk or something?” Fear of his answer cramped her stomach.
“If an acquisitions shithead was to capture you or one of the other Pleiades, what is their usual MO?” Apology gleamed in his gaze.
“They’d drug me. Cuff me. And then shove me in the trunk.”
He nodded.
“Okay. We’ll do that, but you can’t let them…you know what they did to me last time?”
“I read the notes.” His brows dipped low.
“Don’t let them dissect me again like a frigging frog just to see if I’m human. Like they expected to find an alien with two stomachs and no heart, or something. Last time, after they did their surgical exploratory, their doctor stitched me up, gave me a blood transfusion, and then the real fun began. Then they beat me. They cut me, burned me, electrocuted me, and broke a few bones. I never gave them one iota of information. Not one. But I swore I would never…never be in that situation again.”
“No one but me will touch you. If anyone does, I will break cover and kill him.”
She took a deep breath and nodded. “Let’s do this.”
“No one will place a finger on you. Being cuffed for a long time might be painful, though.” He touched her face. “We don’t have to do this. We can abandon this now. I can tell them you got away.” He tucked her hair behind her ear.
She bit her lip.
He said, “I hate this plan. Say the word and I will drive us away right now.”
After a few ragged breaths, she shook her head. “This is for Liz. We have no viable alternative. I’m going to trust you, but if you double-cross me, I will hunt you for the rest of my life. And I will ask every one of my Pleiades sisters and druid protectors to help.”
“Fair enough. I will get you out of the OLM. I swear.”
“Please don’t jab me with something in the neck. That just…it hurts too much.”
He reached into his bag and removed a needle with a few cc’s of yellow fluid.
Her heart pounded painfully against her breastbone as she gazed at the long needle. “How long will it keep me out?”
“An hour, maximum.” He unclicked his seat belt and exited the car, rounding to her side. He opened her door, signaling for her to get out.
She closed the passenger door and froze against the side of the car. Her brain screamed at her not to do this. Fear hijacked her mind. His tall broad body surrounded her and blocked out the rest of the world and the blistering wind. He gazed at her, penetrating and intense. All she knew was the need to feel him against her once more. The quick rise and fall of his chest and the bulge in his jeans assured her he’d be on board with that, too.
He leaned in and teased the seam of her mouth with his tongue, coaxing and nibbling until she let him in. His palm settled on the nape of her neck.
God, this man knows how to kiss.
His mouth devoured her in a way that was hard and possessive. He sucked and nipped at her lips and pressed himself tight against her until there was no space between them. She gripped his strong arms. Her aching breasts pushed tight to his chest. She didn’t want him to stop. Ever.
Wait a minute, they were supposed to be injecting her. He was distracting her. “Stop it. Just stick me with the needle.”
“Get in the backseat.” He wasted no time ushering her into the car.
She sat next to him. “Where’s the syringe?”
He shook his head. “I can’t do it.”
She cupped his cheek. “Okay. We are in the backseat…” She smiled suggestively.
His mouth took possession of hers again. His big body pressed her down into the seat. She had to spread her legs to accommodate him in the cramped space.
“Damned pants,” he mumbled as he kissed his way to her belly button. “We have never done this in the backseat of a car, have we?”
“You think anyone will see us?”
“Does it matter?”
She couldn’t answer him. Didn’t even think he wanted an answer. His tongue swirled in her navel as his fingers popped open her pants and slid beneath the waistband. He folded her knees into her chest and divested her of the pants and panties in one quick move.
His fingers returned to her slippery folds. She arched against his touch. How she needed this. Needed him. He touched her so gently, rolling around everywhere other than her clit, where she needed him. She rolled her pelvis against his hand, trying to get him to put pressure just a little higher. He slid lower.
With a groan she sank her nails into his biceps. “Stop messing with me. Please.”
“Patience. You can hold on,” he said with a chuckle.
“No, I bloody well can’t.”
He spread her thighs wider and lowered his head, moving one of her legs over his shoulder. “Look at me,” he ordered.
She couldn’t take her eyes off him as he kissed his way up her thigh and sucked hard on her clit.
There was just enough of the early light filtering through the car to cast half his face into shadow and light up the wicked gleam in his gaze.
He pulled away to ask, “Will this be enough?” He thrust a finger into her clenching muscles.
She whimpered as he worked a second finger deep inside her. “No. More…” She rubbed her foot against his crotch, causing him to groan. “I need this.”
He unzipped. Relief exploded through her when he nestled into her entrance, but he didn’t continue. What the hell was he waiting for? “Alexi?”
A low chuckle in her ear told her that was exactly what he’d been waiting for. Slowly he thrust into her. She cried out.
“Too much?” he asked.
“Don’t you dare stop now.” She wiggled against him.
He unleashed his strength on her. And she was more than ready for it, locking her ankles behind his back and hanging onto him. Pleasure spiraled. She squeezed her internal muscles.
“Holy hell, Serenity.”
She smiled that she’d wrenched her real name from him and angled her pelvis so he slid deeper.
Oh. My God.
She gasped his name as her world turned into a starry night. Her body clamped down hard on him. He growled into her ear and pushed deep with a shudder. She stroked his back as he came, scoring him with her nails, which only seemed to make him jerk harder until he collapsed above her but didn’t actually crush her.
She couldn’t move and didn’t want to. Ever. She hid her face in his shoulder, not wanting him to know how shaken she was by her depth of need for him. He’d read every emotion on her face if she looked at him. And then he’d know the power he held over her. Her love for him.
He kissed along her jawline, teasing her from beneath his shoulder. Eventually, he found her lips. She sighed into him, thinking how much his touched soothed her.
He pulled away and helped her dress.
She kissed him again, feeling his pants until she located the syringe. Then she reared back and injected herself deep into her thigh through the pants.
“No! Damn it, Serenity.”
She smiled. “We’re doing this. I’m trusting you with my life.” A floaty, boneless feeling took over. If he hadn’t been supporting her, she would’ve conked her head on the window.
He whispered, “I swear on my soul. No one will hurt you. Aš apsaugosiu tave.” I will protect you.
Alexi watched Serenity fist her hands, likely trying to renew blood circulation in the metal cuffs restraining them behind her back. For two hours she’d been kept in a chair cuffed like this. He shifted his feet, restless to release her. To her credit, she hadn’t voiced one complaint since she’d come out of the drug. She’d never glanced his way.
He admired her stoicism. This was her op persona, a well-trained agent. She watched everything but gave nothing away.
He hadn’t left her alone since her “capture.” Everyone understood nothing would be done to her unless he did it himself. He’d spun some bullshit about revenge for her attitude during capture.
She glared silent hatred as the head of the American branch of the OLM, Losev, slow-circled her.
“We’ve been trying to bring you back in for a long time. I am sorry I was not here the first time you were with us long ago.” Losev’s cell phone dinged softly twice. He answered, “Yes.” After a few seconds he hung up. Alexi assumed the exchange was set.
Losev announced, “We will turn her over to other interested parties.”
Alexi asked, “I thought your goal was to eliminate all the witches. Now that you have one, you plan to turn her over to someone else?”
Losev flattened his lips. “You question me?” He drew back when Alexi stepped forward, no doubt experiencing the death aura. He rushed to say, “They will make sure the same end is met. In God’s eyes it’s all the same.”
“Do you not plan to at least question her?”
Losev shrugged. “You can always get me another one.” He waved at her. “You do seem to be extraordinarily talented at finding these girls. You bring her. They’re meeting us in a few minutes in the parking garage.”
Part of him was disappointed that one so seemingly zealous in his pursuit of all witches as Losev could be bought with only a couple million dollars. Yet, his greed worked in their favor.
Alexi pulled her upward. His skin sparked at the contact of his hand on her arm. She inhaled sharply. Her gaze snapped to his and dilated. Don’t give us away now.
“Move. Do not try any bullshit,” he ordered. He pushed her ahead of him. In his brain images flashed of the woman Hades had assigned him to kill, the one who resembled Serenity’s sister, but who couldn’t be. Then Hades’s voice slithered into his brain. Send Losev to me. Now is his time.
Glee squeezed his abdomen. Finally. Now he could remove this pious shit from the world. The three of them crowded into the steel elevator. One floor down, Alexi pushed the emergency stop button.
“What are you doing…” Losev trailed off and pressed his back tight against the wall of the elevator as if those few feet of extra air would save him. His eyes dilated in fear as Alexi approached.
Alexi leaned in. “Your soul has been chosen.”
“What are you?” Losev whispered.
“The antithesis of your god.”
Losev smiled. Madness flashed in his eyes. “Even if you kill me, there will always be another to step up. We will get all of you. The Chancellor will never allow you to live.” He wheezed for air when his asthma activated.
Alexi drew back, desperate for information on the Chancellor. Several years with the OLM and he still had no lead on the mysterious Chancellor’s identity. Hades’s voice blasted into his mind: Stop delaying. Now. “Your time is over.” He reached within himself for the simmering underworld power and drew forth Losev’s vicious soul. He released it. The empty body slumped to the floor.
“Is he?” she asked, staring down at the body.
“Yes.” He quickly uncuffed Serenity and massaged her wrists. With a punch of the up button the elevator lurched into motion.
“What do you do to them? When you do your breath-sucking thing?”
“Breath suck?” He chuckled. “I release their soul for Hades to collect it and usher him to hell.”
One floor up, he dragged Losev’s body out and took the dead man’s phone. “We probably have less than a minute to tag these guys in the garage.”
She massaged her hands and wrists. “Go. You’re faster. I’d only slow you down. Mark their car or whatever. Then we will follow them. Together.” The last part was asked as more of a question.
He glanced around. “You’re safe here. Stay. Be invisible. I will return for you in a few minutes. If I do not, leave in ten minutes. Get out of here. Go somewhere safe with your druids.” He sprinted downstairs. In the garage he slapped a transponder onto the bumper of the nondescript white van when it paused near the elevator. As he melted into the shadows near a concrete support column, Losev’s silenced phone vibrated. He answered, “This is Jovec.”
“I need Losev. We’re here,” demanded a heavily accented male. Italian?
Alexi replied, “There has been a change of plan. We desire to…question our newest acquisition first, and perhaps relinquish her tomorrow morning.”
“That was not our agreement.”
“That is what I offer you. I am in charge of interrogations. You did say alive…or dead.”
“Alive is worth more.”
Alexi chuckled low. “We are very aware of that, and shall endeavor to make that be the case. Even you must agree that this is quite an acquisition for us. I have made Losev understand we cannot waste this opportunity.”
“Where is she?” demanded the male voice.
He clucked int
o the phone. “Gone. You can search the building. Blow it up. Whatever. We will meet you tomorrow at the destination of your choice.”
“Fine. Same place. Tomorrow. Six a.m.”
“Done.” He hung up. The van squealed around the curves toward the exit.
Chapter Sixteen
They followed the blip on Alexi’s cell phone northeast out of New York. Several hours later he drove them into downtown Boston.
“You sure these are going to be the same people that have Liz?” she asked.
“Perhaps.”
“That’s a no. Can you do your precog thing and see anything?”
“It is not precognition. I’m not…” He paused to maneuver the slick roads and stare out the windshield for a few seconds. He was hiding something. “Getting much about the future,” he finished.
Was he evading? Or just focused on driving? He was so damned hard to read. “Looks like they’re stopping somewhere downtown.” The blinking red blip from the van paused.
They pulled past a mirrored skyscraper with a glass lobby where the van pulled into the underground parking.
“Who’s Leif International?” she asked.
He shook his head—no clue.
“That place looks pretty high-tech. Did you see the garage entry?” she said.
He parked a few blocks away in a public parking deck. “I need you to do some research on that business.” He handed her an iPad out of his glove box.
“Can I phone a friend?” she asked.
He scowled. “We don’t know who’s compromised.”
“I can trust him.”
“You can phone him, but if he gets shot again, I’m not saving him for you this time.”
He tossed her a cell. “It’s new but traceable.” The door locks shot up, and he hopped out. “I have a call to make.”
“Is someone else in this with us?” she asked.
He shook his head and pulled out a second cell phone. “I have a few other things I’m juggling.”
“What’s going on?” But she asked it to a slamming door. Damn him. She hated not being in the full know. Was he working other angles? She wondered what sort of personal side business required this much attention when it felt like a crisis to her.
