“Don’t worry about it. Go on back to the office and get your story done. I’ll grab it.”
“You sure?” Whitney gave her a hug and disappeared into the sea of bodies making their way to the second floor.
Thankfully, the phone was still where Whitney left it, and Blair tucked it into her purse.
A crackle of awareness licked up her spine. She froze at the unfamiliar sensation. The temperature in the room seemed to plummet and the hair on the back of her neck stood up.
Someone was watching her.
She slowly scanned the crowd, turning until she covered the surrounding area. No one in the vicinity seemed to pay any special attention to her. She gave the dance floor another look.
A glimmer of red-rimmed eyes glittered in the dark.
She stumbled back, banging into the chair behind her and knocking it to the floor.
“Are you leaving?”
A couple stood to her right, ready to claim the vacant table.
She turned back to the dance floor, scanned every face.
Nothing.
But she felt it. One of them. She was sure of it.
Blair swept her gaze back and forth, flipped open her phone and punched in the first number that came to mind.
Chapter Nine
“I know it’s late, but with the way things have been going lately…” Rae trailed off, pacing away from the table.Drew met Quinn’s curious frown, and they both watched Rae. The woman was damn twitchy. Had been for the better part of the day. It wasn’t often Rae called any of them out on the training room floor, and today she’d taken on three of them. Only Darcy, the team’s other telepath and the quietest of the group, had succeeded in taking Rae down, but their collective triumph had been short-lived.
“Starting next week there will be a profiler working out of this field office,” Rae continued.
Drew didn’t contain his skepticism. “I hope the network was a little more thorough with his background check than the shrink’s.” He wondered over the timing of this reassignment and whether or not it had anything to do with Blair showing up on the network’s radar.
Rae’s clipped stride carried her back to her desk. “They wouldn’t be sending anyone they didn’t feel was well suited for the task.” She cleared her throat and skimmed the file she carried.
Drew watched her fingers shuffle through the file’s contents a little too quickly.
“Could be worse,” Gage piped in from the speakerphone he and Braxton were patched through on. “They could be sending us a new shrink.”
Rae crossed her arms. “I expect someone else will be assigned to us by the end of the month.”
“Oh, joy,” Jordan mumbled.
Rae’s fingers tapped over the keys of her laptop. A refreshed image of worldwide hot zones popped up on the screen at the front of the room. “The network expects a shift in the pattern of temporal distortions before much longer, which may make our situation here better or far worse. The good news is, the number of sacrifices seems to be down across the board, but we have more reports of encounters with Scions that have already crossed over.”
Quinn tossed her pen aside. “Slippery bastards. It’s good to know that we might be getting closer to tracking down where they’re getting their intel from to stay one step ahead of us.”
“Any remaining moles must be quaking in their burrows with the network cracking down to find the weak links,” Darcy observed, sketching something on the notepad in front of her.
“Whatever methods they’re using, they’re impressing Cass,” Quinn added.
After being initiated weeks ago, Quinn’s twin sister, Cass, had been bouncing between various field offices within the network to learn as much as she could. Last Drew heard, Cass had her eye on becoming their field office’s go-to girl for all things research and technical tools of the trade. Might be nice to deal with someone who didn’t scowl and blame him every time his tracker malfunctioned.
“Anything come back yet on the symbol Quinn photographed a few weeks ago?” Drew asked. He’d been forwards and backwards through the archives since then and hadn’t run across anything similar. Another duty he’d get to pawn off on Cass when she completed her training.
“We’re still looking into it.” Rae’s gaze slid away from his a little too quickly, landing briefly on Jordan.
Before Drew could decipher what that meant, a familiar beeping sounded and Rae glanced at her computer screen.
“Temporal distortion thirty miles north of here.” She glanced at Quinn and Jordan.
Quinn yawned. “I’m game for action before calling it a night.”
The pair left the room, and Rae glanced at Darcy. “Get some sleep. You too.” She glanced at Drew.
He followed Darcy out of the briefing room and, leaving her at the field office’s personal quarters, headed for the elevator. The doors slid closed and his thoughts instantly turned to Blair. He was supposed to be keeping an eye on her for Rae, and yet, having a reason to be near her only made him want to keep his distance.
Every time he got within a hundred feet of her, his focus wound up shot to hell. Without focus there was no getting back his A game, which he desperately needed in order to prove to himself—and Rae—that he could handle being both a father and a Destroyer. Except he didn’t stand a chance of that happening unless he stopped making his parents responsible for Molly, smoothed things over with Braxton, and did what his boss wanted. And accomplish all of the above without hurting Blair.
No fucking problem, right?
His mood had only deteriorated by the time he hit the parking garage. He slid behind the wheel of his Jeep just as his phone rang. His stomach knotted. “Hey.”
“Drew?”
The panic in Blair’s voice registered first, followed by the booming music in the background.
“There’s one here. A Shadow Demon.”
He shoved the key in the ignition and cranked it. “Where are you?”
A crackle of static distorted her response.
“I didn’t hear you, Blair.” He emerged from the underground lot and floored the gas pedal.
Another burst of static, then, “I’m at a new club that opened downtown on York Street, The Bank. Second floor.”
“I’m less than ten minutes away. I want you to stay where there are a lot of people. Right in plain sight, okay?”
“Feel free to run a red light or two, all right?”
The half-hearted attempt to lighten her voice reassured him she wasn’t panicking—yet. “What did it look like?”
“I don’t know. He was there one second and then gone. I can feel him, he’s watching me. My hand is itching like crazy.”
“Probably a war demon. They can pick us out and sometimes confuse us with their kind at first.”
“Comforting. Shit,” she said a moment later. “The battery on my phone is dying.”
“I’ll be there soon. Go sit at the bar, order me a drink. A beer,” he added, needing her to stay focused. If her fear got the better of her it was anyone’s guess what the fallout would be.
“Get here soon, okay?”
“Stay put,” he warned one last time.
“It’s gonna die any second.”
“I know.” Adrenaline pounded hard through his blood, and then he heard the call disconnect.
Cursing, he shoved his phone into his pocket. Three minutes tops and he’d be there. Demons weren’t completely stupid. Survival came first and foremost and exposing themselves to get their prey wasn’t how they generally operated if they could help it. Sticking under the radar kept them alive longer and they knew it. This one wouldn’t go after Blair in a crowded bar.
He hoped.
Drew whipped around the last corner and sped down York Street. A crack of thunder exploded overhead. Thick drops of rain splattered across the windshield. Not good.
He double-parked, ignoring the bouncer who yelled for him to move his car. He barreled past the burly guy and sprinted up to the second fl
oor, shouldering his way through the crowd.
Where was she?
He scanned the entire area. No war demon. No Blair. Damn it, where the hell was she?
A soft cry separated from the music that hammered like cannon fire in his head. He moved away from the crowd and closer to the door at the end of a narrow hall near the restrooms. He ignored the emergency exit only sign and shoved the door open. The sound of a struggle came from the right of the small roof-top courtyard.
Drew vaulted over the railing that separated the finished patio from the rest of the roof and whipped around the corner through the pouring rain. He withdrew his sword from beneath his jacket, nearly losing his grip on the weapon as he took in the scene in front of him.
His heart turned over at the sight of Blair planted between a male hostile and a woman huddled against the side of the adjoining building that towered two floors above the nightclub.
“Leave her alone,” Blair warned, the smashed neck of a beer bottle clutched in her hand. She didn’t wave it provokingly at the demon, but neither did she hide that she was willing to use it if she had to.
The war demon took a menacing step in her direction.
“Hey!”
The hostile stopped, turning its homicidal gaze on Drew. Its attention flicked to the sword he carried.
“You’re not bothering these women, are you?”
The demon’s nostrils flared.
Drew calculated the distance between him and Blair, but the demon saved him from moving to intercept by pivoting and facing him.
“Get the woman out of here,” he ordered Blair, then rushed the war demon.
His speed was always an advantage with war demons, but the only hits that counted with the fast-healing bastards were the killing ones.
A ham-sized fist sailed past Drew’s face. He dodged and countered, narrowly missing the hostile’s windpipe with the tip of his sword. A spinning kick knocked the demon off its feet. It recovered fast enough to evade his next strike, but not the following two slashes that caught the hostile across its back and thigh. Had the creature been mortal, severing the femoral artery would have sealed the deal. Instead the wounds closed in less time than it took for Drew to move in again.
What should have been a wide blow caught Drew in the jaw, and he stumbled. Pain flared up the side of his face. He rebounded before the war demon could take advantage, but both strikes missed their targets each time the hostile used its arm to deflect the attack.
A smashed bottle connected with the hostile’s head, and it stupidly turned in the direction of the timely missile. Another ear-splitting crack of thunder almost drowned out the demon cursing Blair in its ancient language.
The minor distraction gave Drew the edge and he shot forward to sever the demon’s head. Blue flames claimed the body before it hit the ground and he turned to see the woman still curled against the wall, her head down. Blair touched the woman’s shoulder, whispered reassuringly, finally getting her to her feet.
Needing a second to fight through the rush of adrenaline that had been drop-loaded into his system, Drew stood motionless.
The woman staggered and he hoped she was drunk enough she might forget most of what had happened, or convince herself she’d imagined it. She gave them both a wide-eyed look and rushed for the door.
“Why didn’t you stay inside?” He grabbed Blair’s wrist when she moved to follow the woman.
“He was going to hurt her.” Her voice trembled, undermining the determination that flashed in her eyes.
“If I had been any later he would have hurt you.”
“I had to do something.”
“Like throw a broken bottle at his head?” he snapped. What if that had only provoked the demon into going after her? Delayed panic gripped his stomach and wrenched hard.
“Drew?” She took a nervous step backwards.
He countered with a step forward, losing what little hold he had on his anger. “It was stupid.”
Blair lifted her chin. “It was the right thing to do.”
“You barely know what you’re up against.”
“Neither did you once.”
He backed her up against the wall. “Next time you damn well do what I say.”
“Not if it’s the wrong call.”
If he wasn’t so furious he might have respected the courage it took to stand up to the hostile. “Do you know what your brother would do to me if I let anything else happen to you?”
“I’m in one piece, aren’t I?”
“This time,” he roared. “You can’t be so fucking reckless.”
“Reckless? One of them almost killed me. Facing them is not reckless, not when it’s doing the right thing.” Her voice cracked and she threw her arms around him, holding on.
“Stupid fool,” he growled, then slanted his mouth across hers, tasting her fear, her relief, her need for him.
His need for her.
Her lips parted beneath his, her tongue sweeping along the seam of his mouth. He locked one arm around her lower back, tightening his grip on her. She moaned softly, a shudder wracking her body.
Drew was done asking himself what it was about her that drove him right to the edge. Dissecting it did nothing to make him stop wanting her. No amount of reasoning or good intentions held up against the brutal need that being with her, being in her arms, dragged to the surface.
He tipped her head back and deepened the kiss, plundering the sheer, wet warmth of her mouth until his whole body shook from the force of his frustration, anger—lust. He left her lips, trailing down her neck. Her body arched impatiently against his and he ventured lower, smoothing his mouth over the cleavage that pressed up the neckline of her shirt.
“Drew,” she murmured.
The mist thickened once more, but the rain did nothing to cool the fire rushing through his veins. He unsnapped her pants, desperate to touch her. Just for a second. He jerked at the edge of her panties and slipped two fingers beneath to find her flesh warm and damp. A groan jammed in his throat.
Blair rocked up on her heels, rubbing against his hand. He’d long ago memorized the smell of her skin, the way she tasted on his tongue, the thump of her heart as it picked up speed. And every bit of that worked against him now, tearing at his restraint.
He ran two fingers down her cleft and plunged them inside her snug opening. She cried out, the sound quickly lost to a slow rumble of thunder. He withdrew and pushed back inside, biting down at the feel of her wet walls clenching around him.
Her gaze snapped to his, a flash of lightning reflecting in her turbulent blue eyes.
He found her clit with his thumb, circling the swollen knot until she bucked her hips, prepared to take her right over the edge.
“Drew.” Blair couldn’t drag in a deep enough breath.
Her skin ran hot, quickly cooled by the splashing drops that came down again in drenching sheets, only to overheat again in seconds. The feel of his mouth, hard and demanding, drove her out of her mind, and every inch of her skin felt exposed, pelted by rain on the outside, ravaged by something else from within. Something she couldn’t control.
She couldn’t hear anything above the raging downpour, the explosions of thunder coming closer together. Bursts of lightning painted Drew in ruthless arcs of darkness and light, his expression passionate one moment, merciless the next.
Both excited her. Thrilled her. Aroused her.
She gripped his shoulders, crying out as he pumped his fingers into her sex again…and again. She bit at his bottom lip, retaliating for the unforgiving thrusts that made her crave release like never before. Drew groaned, and she slid her palm between them, but he caught her wrist before she could undo his pants. Anger still simmered beneath the desire in his eyes, and he slowed his pace, his fingers stroking softly now.
The muscles deep in her core clenched and trembled at the seductive punishment. And she had no doubt it was exactly that.
“Please,” she murmured. He didn’t stop her when she close
d her hand over his, pressing him harder against her sex.
His wet jaw rasped across her cheek. “If you ever do anything like that again,” he warned, “I’ll throttle you myself.” He strummed her clit until she whimpered in pleasure.
“And love every second of it,” she challenged breathlessly. Needing to kiss him, she cupped his face and pulled him to her mouth, cutting off his reply.
His tongue thrust between her lips and he swirled his fingers ruthlessly down her cleft, driving them into her sex until the strength of her climax shattered her.
Thunder rocked overhead and streaks of lightning lit up the angry skyline. Satisfaction, deep and primal, echoed inside her. The rain still hadn’t let up when he dropped his forehead to her shoulder.
“Someone is coming,” he said and quickly straightened her clothes.
Drew replaced his sword while she grabbed the purse she’d abandoned earlier, her movements automatic, necessary. He pulled her around the corner just as the door flew open.
One of the club’s bouncers frowned at them. “This area is off limits.” He looked past them. “Anyone else out here?”
“Not anymore.” Drew tugged her inside, out of the rain.
Their drenched state earned them more than a few odd looks as they made their way through the club. He didn’t loosen his death grip on her hand once, not that she would have let him.
“Where are you parked?” he asked when they reached the street.
She nodded further up the block, and he started in that direction.
“Can you drive?”
She didn’t answer right away, the events of the last hour catching up with her with the force of an elevator plummeting from the hundredth floor.
“Hey,” Drew said softly. He slipped a hand around the nape of her neck. “Come home with me,” he pleaded, opening his mouth over hers.
She indulged in the tender brush of his lips until the kiss stemmed the panic rising inside her. She was safe, she knew it, but still couldn’t stop her insides from shaking. “Are you going to give me a hard time about what happened?”
He searched his eyes, his expression unreadable. Then finally, “Not tonight.”
Storm Warning Page 15
