Seducing Eve (Guardians of Atlantis)

by Miles, Michelle

  “Let me see that wound,” she demanded, sounding motherly and concerned.

  “It’s really okay—”

  “Let me see it, damn it.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  He leaned forward. Tentative fingertips probed his back near the wound. He winced with the tender flesh and groaned. He kept his gaze on her face, saw her blanch before she regained her composure.

  “How does it look, nurse?”

  “Not good. It’s still oozing. And some of your shirt is…charred to the wound.”

  “Bastard shot me with a fire laser,” Lucian said.

  “Let me see the one on your leg,” she said, all authoritative.

  “Eve…”

  “I mean it.” There was a hard glint in her eyes.

  He acquiesced and turned his leg over as best he could to allow her to inspect the wound. Again her gentle fingertips probed the injury which sent shooting pain up and down his leg. He clenched his jaw tighter and tried not to groan.

  “Well?” he asked.

  “Same as the other.” She sat back on her heels and looked him over. “You’re in no condition to walk.”

  He started to push to a stand. “I have no choice. We have to get there.”

  “No, we don’t.” She pushed him back down by the shoulders. “You stay. I’ll go.”

  He stared wordlessly at her, his heart pounding. “You can’t. I won’t let you.”

  “Well you don’t have a choice.” She stood, towering over him with her hands propped on her hips and determination etched on her pretty face. As if daring him to defy her. “You’re staying here while I get to this medical place and get supplies.”

  “Eve, I can’t let you go alone.”

  She looked down the corridor ahead. “How far is it? You said it was close.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Tell me how far and I’ll go and come right back.”

  Stubborn girl. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “Why?” She looked back at him. Her face was full of strength and an iron-clad intention. “You think a girl can’t do it?”

  She threw down the challenge, did she? “It’s not that. It’s just…you’re not familiar with this place.”

  “I’m not an idiot. If you give me directions, I can follow them.”

  He huffed out a breath. She wasn’t going to take no for an answer. He admired her gritty and dogged determination.

  “All right. Follow this corridor to the end. Take a right. The old medical lab will be one of the doors on your left. I can’t remember exactly which one. But there aren’t many. Two or three. Can you handle that?”

  Eve looked back up the corridor. “Yep. I can. I’ll be right back.”

  Without waiting for his reply, she took off at a quick clip, her bare feet silent on the stone floor.

  * * * * *

  This was Eve’s big chance. She was going to patch up Lucian and figure out how to get away from him. Then she’d find Abby and the two of them would get out of this city. She would memorize all these corridors to get out of here. She could do that. Couldn’t she? Even though every wall looked exactly the same and every corridor seemed to lead to another corridor. She was truly in a labyrinth. Who was she kidding? She wouldn’t be able to make it out of here alive. She had no map, no GPS, no way out. She was alone with Lucian as her only ally.

  Lucian. Tall, sexy, incredibly handsome Lucian with those gorgeous green eyes that could tear into her soul. As she hurried down the corridor, guilt set in. She couldn’t leave him there. She had to help him. He’d been kind to her. He’d gotten her away from Franco. He had a gun. He could protect her. He had protected her.

  But what about Abby? What would she do about her? How would she get her out of that awful lab? Maybe she could plead with Lucian. Beg him to help her. Beg him to get Abby out of there.

  She should have told him the truth about her healing powers. That all she had to do was put her hand on the nasty gash, close her eyes and imagine it healed. Imagine the flesh no longer red and oozing. It had been a gift she’d been granted with at birth. She’d always had the ability.

  At the end of the hallway, she paused. This is where the lights ran out. She could go right or left and it was dark as dark could be in either direction. She took the right like Lucian had said, putting her hand on the wall to keep her steady as she tiptoed through the shadows. Her bare feet were gritty from the dust. She didn’t know why she tiptoed but something about the deathly silence set her nerves on a raw edge.

  She hated the dark.

  She hated the dark silence even more.

  All she had to do was find the medical lab, get the supplies and then hurry back. That was it. Easy, right?

  Lucian had said the old medical lab would be on her left. She stopped, peered through the gloom across the wide hallway looking for a door. These were not the sliding panels like she’d already experienced. These were the doors with which she was familiar. Complete with knob. She saw one directly across from her and tried it. Locked. She moved down the hall, keeping her fingers trailing the wall. She tried the next door. It, too, was locked.

  Then something ahead crashed, making her heart jump into overdrive. She yelped.

  What the hell was that noise? She pressed her back against the wall, wishing she wasn’t wearing a stupid bikini and thin shirt. She was practically naked. What if there was some flesh eating monster there that wanted to feast on her?

  She backed away one step at a time. Her heart still beat hard in her throat.

  “Get a grip,” she said out loud to herself.

  It was probably her imagination. Nothing more. She was being silly for no reason. Steeling her nerves, she started forward again. She took a step, then another, and then her foot landed on something cold, soft and squishy. She shrieked and jumped back looking down at her feet. But she couldn’t see anything. She couldn’t see what it was. She backed away quickly, sliding along the length of the wall.

  As she started to turn back the way she came, back toward Lucian, she saw it then. The creature slithered out of the shadows toward her snapping long teeth. It looked like an eel with a giant mouth full of razors and dark skin that blended perfectly with the shadows.

  This time she screamed at the top of her lungs as she turned and ran. Forget the damn medical lab. She was getting out of here. One quick glance over her shoulder and she saw the thing following her.

  Shit!

  She ran as hard as she could back to the hallway full of light. Where Lucian would be. With a gun. She rounded the corner as if the devil himself were on her tail and saw Lucian hobbling toward her, gun at the ready.

  “Lucian, behind me!”

  “Stand aside,” he ordered.

  She flattened against the wall as the creature bound around the corner and came at her at breakneck speed. She shrieked again and cowered against the wall. Lucian fired off several shots at it and it splattered all over. Dead. Black blood leaked from it, pooling on the floor.

  Lucian hobbled to her the rest of the way.

  “What…what was it?” she asked. And to her horror her bottom lip quivered.

  She hated squishy things. She hated bugs. She wouldn’t even kill a cockroach because they were so disgusting. Lucian paused next to her, leaning a shoulder on the wall to steady himself. She could hear his labored breathing.

  “Viperfish. The scientists engineered them to live out of the water in one of their experiments. We used to have them in the city as pets. I thought they were extinct.”

  “Well, they’re not. And they’re gross.” She scrunched up her nose.

  “Gross?” His eyebrows rose in question.

  “Yeah. Gross. You know…icky.”

  He snickered as he took her hand. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

  “Wait,” she said. “You’re still injured.”

  “I can make it to the medical lab. It’s just up this way.”

  But his face was pale and he looked lik
e he might pass out any minute.

  “What if there are more of…those things?” she asked and glanced at the ugly fish. She quickly looked away, forcing back the bile that rose in her throat.

  “Then I’ll kill it.”

  He started walking, limping along the way.

  “Lucian, wait. There’s something I need to tell you.” He stopped and glanced back at her, question in his eyes. She took a deep breath. She had to do this for him. It was the right thing to do. What good was her gift if she wasn’t going to use it? She hadn’t been able to save her parents but she knew she could save Lucian. And when he so needed it. “Maybe it would be best if I showed you.”

  “Showed me what?”

  She moved to stand behind him. She placed one hand on his shoulder and the other on the wound, her palm flat against it. He sucked in a sharp breath.

  “Don’t move, okay?” she whispered.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “You’ll see.”

  She pressed her palm firm against his searing hot flesh and closed her eyes. She imagined what the skin looked like smooth and healed. The heat of the wound poured into her palm. The blood leaked from it onto her skin. She took the injury into her own body, experienced the awful pain and inhaled sharply.

  Lucian jerked as if trying to move away but she dug her nails into his shoulder to steady him. He couldn’t move. Not yet. She was almost finished. But the pain…oh, the terrible pain. It flashed through her for a brief second before it dissipated. And then it was gone. Her labored breath see-sawed in and out of her as she released him and stumbled a step backward. All that was left of his wound was new pink skin.

  Eve leaned against the wall, knowing it would take her a minute to recover. Sweat broke out on her forehead and she swiped it away with the back of her hand. When she turned her palm over, she could see the stain of his blood in her skin. She had absorbed the wound from him and healed it.

  Lucian spun around to look at her, his eyes wide.

  “What did you do?” he demanded.

  “I…healed you.”

  He reached behind him, his arm at an odd angle to try to feel the wound that wasn’t there anymore. “It’s gone. Like you took it away.” His gaze met hers. “Is that what you did?”

  Holding her wrist, she nodded.

  He grabbed her hand and turned it over. His thumb went over her pale flesh, wiping away the last evidence of blood.

  “How?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve always been able to do it,” she said. “I was born with the gift.”

  “Incredible.”

  “My parents were the only ones who knew about it.” She pressed her fingertips to her lips and swayed on her feet.

  Lucian reached for her, steadying her. “You okay?”

  “It takes a lot out of me. I’ll be all right in a minute.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’ve never told anyone about my gift. Only my parents knew and they’re dead.”

  “How did they die?”

  “Car accident,” she said. “I was five. I tried to heal them but I couldn’t. I don’t know why I survived. I should have been killed too but I didn’t have a scratch on me. My grandmother raised me but she passed last year.”

  “I’m sorry.” He ran a gentle hand down the length of her hair, making her nerve-endings tingle.

  She shrugged off the past. “Let me heal your leg.”

  “No,” he snapped. “That took too much out of you. I won’t allow it.”

  “But, Lucian, if I do you’ll be able to walk again. And then…you’ll be able to get me out the city.”

  He snapped his sharp assessing gaze to hers. “That’s why you did it. To bargain with me?”

  “Partly,” she said, hopeful. “I couldn’t watch you suffer anymore either. Can you get me out of here? Back home?”

  “I can’t let you go, Eve.”

  “Why not?”

  “Franco will be expecting that. He’ll have all the airlocks guarded with his best men. He’ll be looking for you and me.”

  “But…”

  “I’m sorry, Eve.”

  She straightened. “Then where are you taking me?”

  “Someplace safe.”

  A loud explosion rocked the tunnels. The lights flickered and threatened to go out. Eve cowered closer to Lucian as they both looked up the shadowy corridor. Her weakness was forgotten as adrenaline renewed her strength.

  “They’re coming,” he said and he took her by the hand. “Come on.”

  He hobbled back the way she’d come. Back toward the medical lab. At the end of the corridor, they turned right. He tried the first door. When the handle wouldn’t budge he kicked it in with his good leg. He winced with the weight he’d put on the bad one. The door banged against the wall with a loud crash.

  “I can’t see a thing,” she said. “Is this the medical lab?”

  He stumbled inside and then came out a minute later. “No.”

  He did the same with the next locked door. Eve stood in the doorway, not wishing to enter more darkness than she had to and keeping an eye on the end of the corridor where the men would come.

  “Ha! Found it!”

  A beam of light snapped on and he waved it around the room. She could see the layers of dust covering all the medical supplies.

  “Hold this,” he said, waving her inside. He put the flashlight in her hand.

  She stepped closer to him as he rummaged through metal shelves to find packages of bandages. He shoved those toward her too.

  “Help me,” he said and turned his back to her.

  “This is silly. Why don’t you let me—?”

  “No. This way or not at all.”

  She huffed her annoyance. Tucking the flashlight under her armpit, she knelt to get eye level with his wounded leg. The injury was in the middle of his thigh. She was entirely too close to his perfectly round ass for comfort but if he wasn’t going to let her help, she had no other option.

  “I need antiseptic,” she said.

  “No time for that,” he grit out. “Just cover it.”

  Her hands were dusty and dirty and she had severe reservations about putting a gauze bandage on him. But if that’s what he wanted, that’s what she’d do. She tore open one of the packages with her teeth and spit out the paper. Eyeing the wound, she realized his pants were in the way.

  Great.

  “Can you, ah, take off your pants?”

  “My pants?”

  “The material is in the way.”

  “Oh. Right.”

  He unzipped quickly followed by the swish of material as he shoved down his pants. And, oh, god, he wasn’t wearing any underwear.

  Now she was eye level with his perfectly round, perfectly muscular, perfectly hot ass. She blushed.

  “Well?” he asked.

  “Right.”

  His voice snapped her out of her ass trance as she quickly covered the wound with the gauze.

  “There. All done.”

  He yanked his pants back up over his hips and spun to face her. “Thanks.”

  She wanted to retort with something flippant but they both heard the booted footsteps in the hallway. Running toward them.

  “Time to go, sweetheart,” he said. “Get behind me.”

  She did as she was told, still clutching the flashlight in one hand. He stepped out into the hallway and fired off several rounds. When they fired back, he ducked back into the room, pressing against the doorframe.

  “Eve, I want you to run that way.” He motioned with the gun toward the darkness. Deeper into the tunnels of the maze.

  “What about you?” she asked.

  “I’ll cover you. And then I’ll be right behind you.”

  She hesitated. She didn’t like the idea of running into the darkness alone. Armed only with a flashlight. “Promise?”

  Return fire exploded outside their door. The men were getting closer.

  “Promise. Now, go.”

  He tu
rned back to the open doorway, gun at the ready.

  A moment of indecision flashed through her. She didn’t want to leave without him. What if there were more of those disgusting viperfish? She stood on tiptoe to peer over Lucian’s shoulder and saw the men charging toward them. It was all the inspiration she needed.

  Armed only with the flashlight, Eve took off into the gloom.

  Chapter Five

  She heard a round of shots fired behind her but didn’t dare look back. She dragged her lower lip between her teeth hoping Lucian was all right. She didn’t want to be lost in these tunnels alone. That would suck.

  She ran until her lungs burned and stopped finally to lean against a wall, looking back the way she’d come. Total darkness. The only light she had was illuminated around her from the flashlight. She heard nothing. No voices. No footsteps. No shots.

  Where was he? What was he doing?

  Her heart beat like crazy as she braced herself against the wall, the cold pressing into her nearly naked back. She squinted, hoping that would help her see better but it didn’t. She waved the flashlight down the hall but the beam of light only went so far. Not nearly far enough to reach where Lucian had been standing when she left him.

  She strained her ears to listen to the sounds in the quiet but heard nothing.

  “Lucian!”

  Silence was her answer.

  She had to go back. She needed to know if Lucian was alive or dead. Alive, she could find out what was happening. Dead, she could decide what her next steps should be.

  She preferred the alive outcome best.

  With one tentative step, she started back down the hall.

  She hated this. The unknown. It sucked. She was a planner. She needed to know what was happening and was going to happen and she needed a plan. This no plan thing was totally not working out.

  “Lucian?” she called.

  A clink of metal against the stone floor echoed back to her. She paused, her hand on the wall, the other clutching the flashlight so tight her hand cramped.

  “Lucian…?”

  And then…

  Ka-boom!

  The explosion vibrated the walls and floor. It was so powerful it nearly knocked her off her feet. She slammed into the wall, looking for something to hold on to. She found nothing.