He splayed his hand over her lower back and rubbed a small circle. "Is that your mom in the photo with you two?"
"No." She leaned into his touch ever so slightly, her knuckles white as she held the photo of her sister. "This is Maisy, our aunt. She died six months ago. She'd been sick for a long time, but it was still difficult when she died. Those are my parents." She pointed at a photo of a man and woman, with two young girls that were clearly Madison and her sister when they were kids.
It was the most recent picture of the family on the table, and Ajax could taste the depth of her grief when she looked at the photo. "Your parents are dead?" he asked softly.
"Yes. Murdered."
Ajax flexed his jaw at her stoic tone, realizing her parents had probably been Illusionists who'd crossed the line and wound up being dispatched. Maybe even by the Order. Maybe even by him. "I'm sorry."
She nodded, staring at the picture of Ashley. "She's all I have left now. I promised my parents I'd always take care of her..." Her voice broke. "And look what happened."
He knew about failing to protect the ones you'd sworn to keep safe. Enzo. Viktor. His own family. He raised his hand and squeezed the back of her neck gently, having no words to take away her pain. He wanted to reassure her that they'd find her sister, but he wouldn't lie to her. He had no idea what they were facing, and he wasn't going to make a promise he couldn’t keep.
She sniffled once and wiped her palm over her cheek, the first tear he'd seen from her despite all they'd gone through. Something turned over inside him, and he didn't want her to face that kind of loss, that kind of guilt.
"It's not over yet," he said softly. That, at least, was the truth.
"No. I know. It's just hard. I keep thinking about the abduction. How I froze. I couldn't even do an Illusion. If only I'd been able to do one, I could have saved her right then—"
"No." He grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to look at him. "Don't say that."
Tears were sliding down her face, making something hurt like hell in his chest. "But it's true! I could have killed him and—"
He tightened his grip on her. "Madison, if you'd killed with your Illusions, it would haunt you forever." He'd killed enough to know what it took from his soul each and every time. It would be so much worse for an Illusionist, because the darkness of her magic would consume her. "You would have traded your soul for hers—"
"I know." Her eyes were rimmed with red. "The thought absolutely terrifies me, and I know that's why I couldn't do the Illusion, because I was too afraid of what it would do to me. Because of my fear, Ashley got taken." She looked at him, her face full of such self-loathing he wanted to shake her. "I was too scared to do what I needed to do."
"It's obvious that you're brave as hell. Whatever made you not do that Illusion, it wasn't because you lacked courage."
"No. You're wrong." She pulled herself out of his grip, stepping away from him. "I'm not the one who should have been spared. It's never been me who deserves that. Never me."
"That's ridiculous."
Her face saddened. "It's not, actually. It's really not." Then she turned and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.
His jaw flexed as he listened to her moving around in the bathroom. He knew all about survivor's guilt. It sucked. "Madison—"
"I don't see anything unusual in here," she called out, her voice back to normal. Strong and unwavering. But he'd seen behind the façade. It was too late for her to hide her truth from him. "It's all as it was when I left it. I don't know what Pete was talking about."
He recognized her comment for exactly what it was: a refocus on her goal of getting her sister back. No time for emotional crap, just get it done.
He understood that. Respected it, even. And she was right. They needed to focus. Every minute that passed elevated the risk to Viktor and Ashley, if Madison was right about what was happening. "McFadden said your room, not your bathroom," he replied. He took another moment to commit Ashley's face to his memory, then he set the photo back on the table. "It's probably out here."
There wasn't much to search, and he even checked the overhead light fixture to see if anything was in there.
Not a damn thing.
"Ajax?" There was a click as she opened the door.
He ran his hand over the top of the doorframe and came away with nothing, not even dust. "Yeah."
"Do I have time for a quick shower? I'm still covered in your blood."
"Yeah, sure." Ajax sensed a rise in pressure coming from her, as if an Illusion was starting to crawl beneath her skin. He turned to look at her, trying to assess if she was about to hit him with one.
She was in the doorway, resting her shoulder against the frame, her head tilted against the wood, as if it was too heavy to hold up. She looked beat. Muddy, exhausted, and fragile. He realized that the energy tremor he was feeling was probably simply the fact she was too drained to fully contain her power. She looked like she needed to sleep for a week instead of taking a quick shower. She needed someone to take care of her.
And all she had was him.
Neither of them had time to collapse. Coddling her would weaken her, and he was pretty damn sure that she wanted to be stronger, not weaker.
So, instead of walking over there, picking her up and sliding under the covers with her so they both could rest, he threw out a challenge to get her back up. "If you get naked, then you better lock the damn door."
Her eyes widened at the lust he allowed to show on his face, then she rolled her eyes at him with a small laugh. "Restrain yourself for two minutes, big guy." Then she slammed the door shut and he heard the lock click, even though they both knew the lock wouldn't even slow him down.
He grinned, knowing that she wasn't thinking about her sister right now or how tired she was.
The water turned on, and he envisioned her stripping those clothes off and allowing those droplets to caress her skin, sliding over her breasts, down her belly to—
"Ajax?" Her voice was muffled by the door and the water, but he heard her just fine.
"Yeah." He turned his attention to the photos again, something about them not sitting right with him.
"What do you think Pete meant when he said it was me they wanted?"
"I don't know." He'd been thinking about that very question, but he hadn't come up with anything that made sense. Why take only Ashley when both women were together, if Madison was the one they wanted?
He picked up the frame that had held her parents. The frame was hot to the touch. Burning with power.
What the hell?
He turned the frame over and carefully pulled it apart.
His weapons hadn't reacted to the frame initially, and they were still quiet despite the fact that the frame was burning with an Otherworld power hot enough to sear his fingers. Why weren't his instincts working anymore? And, more importantly, how the hell was he going to fight an unseen enemy without the instincts he'd counted on for five hundred years?
He pulled the last piece of frame border off and grinned. "Bingo."
There was a tiny piece of malachite stone wedged in the frame. He pried the green pebble out by its jagged edge and held it up to the light. A few lines were carved on it, as if they were part of a larger design, which told him the fragment had been broken off a larger rock.
His adrenaline kicked on and his focus narrowed as he surveyed the room. His heart slowed, and his mind cleared as he went into battle mode, taking in all possibilities.
His gaze fell on the rumpled bed, and he knew.
He grabbed the queen-sized mattress and flipped it over. It crashed with a thud against the wall, revealing a small slit in the bottom, right beneath where Madison would have laid her head. He jammed his hand into the slit and felt a cold, jagged rock inside.
He pulled it out. Hanging from a platinum chain was a jagged two-inch piece of malachite engraved with a design Ajax was all too familiar with.
He knew who owned that rock.<
br />
He closed his fist around it. "Son of a bitch."
Chapter Nineteen
The bathroom door flew open with a crash of splintering wood.
Madison shrieked and whirled around as Ajax burst into the bathroom. She could see his silhouette through the fogged glass of her shower door, and she realized he would be able to see her as well. Her pulse jumped in her throat, and she remembered his promise in the tunnel.
He jerked open the shower door, and she caught her breath as he grabbed her and hauled her out of the shower. She slipped on the wet floor and Ajax caught her, his hands wrapped around her bare bottom as he steadied her.
Anticipation rocketed through her as his hand went for her throat, and she was so aware of her nakedness, his intense maleness—
But he just ripped off her chain. "Take off your rings. Watch. All your jewelry."
Her hand went to her neck, where her necklace had been. "What?"
"Take off your jewelry!" He was already unbuckling her bracelet, his jaw clenched, tension radiating off him. His arm brushed against her breasts as he fiddled with the delicate clasp, and, for a brief moment, they looked at each other, and she felt heat coil inside her belly.
She became very aware of how naked she was. Vulnerable.
He stared down at her, and the air became heavy. Heated.
And she knew she wanted him to kiss her. She wanted his hands to slide over her body, his tongue to lick the droplets of water off her skin, his—
"We don't have time for that shit," he growled. "Get your jewelry off."
The urgency of his voice finally penetrated, and she realized something was wrong.
Really wrong.
Her pulse began to hammer, and she grabbed her ring and tugged it off, not wasting time getting a towel. "What's wrong? What happened?"
"Malachite." He gave up on the buckle and tore the watchband in half.
She stared at him, startled by his words. "Malachite?" Malachite stone was an Illusion enhancer, making them even darker and more powerful than they already were. The mere mention of it made fear ripple down her spine. "What about it?"
"I found some in your room. I want to check your jewelry."
Her stomach congealed in terror. "Oh, shit." She yanked off her other ring while Ajax went for her earrings. She was about to grab his wrist to keep him from ripping them out of her ear when she realized he was carefully pulling the back off. He had them out in a split second, and he tugged her ring the rest of the way off her hand, fisting all her jewelry in his hand.
She waited, her heart pounding.
He held the rings under the bathroom light and swore. "It's in your jewelry, too."
Madison backed up, suddenly feeling dirty. Itchy. Edgy. That was why she'd needed to get in the shower. Because her power had been awakening, scratching at her skin. Because of the malachite in her own house. "Get it away from me."
Ajax tossed the jewelry in the sink, and crossed the bathroom, catching her arm as she backed into the shower. "Shampoo."
She stopped, touching the suds already thick in her hair. "My shampoo?"
He grabbed the pink bottle off the tile and poured it out over his hand. It sparkled with little bits of bright green, and he rubbed his fingers together. "It's in here too." He shoved her back under the showerhead. "Rinse."
She jumped beneath the stream of water and started to scrub her hair frantically, but Ajax grabbed her wrists and pulled them away.
"Don't touch it." His voice was grim. "Bend over."
She immediately leaned forward, her hands on her knees as Ajax pulled her hair forward and squeegeed the soap out of it, letting it fall to the tile floor instead of sliding down her body and contaminating her more. She watched the suds swirl around her toes and felt sick.
"When was the last time you slept in that bed?" His voice was rough, but his hands were gentle as he pulled her head forward under the water and began to scrub at the roots, his fingers precise and thorough.
"I—" She thought of the last six months. "I haven't slept there in months. I was having these awful nightmares, and I started sleeping downstairs." She concentrated on the feel of Ajax's fingers on her scalp, not on the idea that someone had been in her house, planting a substance that was poison to her kind. "When Ashley got kidnapped, I stopped sleeping at all, really."
"I think it saved your life."
Her head began to ache, and she felt nauseous. "I've had such trouble controlling my Illusions lately," she whispered. "I thought it was me...but I was being poisoned. Dear God, I can't—"
"You're okay, now. I won't let it hurt you."
His voice was so calm, so controlled, so unyielding, that she actually believed him. She closed her eyes as some of the tension eased out of her body, instinctively trusting him to keep her safe. She needed someone to hold her up, and she was unable to keep herself from latching onto his words and finding comfort in them. "Thanks," she whispered.
He finished her hair and pulled her upright and grabbed a washcloth. Then his gaze went to her body, and his eyes darkened. Heat pulsed in her belly, and her breath caught. Neither of them spoke. She didn't dare. She was afraid of what she would say if she did.
Without a word, he handed her the washcloth and walked out of the shower, leaving the door open.
She turned her face into the spray of the shower and started scrubbing her body fiercely, her legs trembling.
"I found a piece of malachite in the photo of your parents."
She opened her eyes and saw he was still in the bathroom, leaning over the sink, his jeans splashed with water. There was the clink of metal, and she knew he was examining her jewelry. "Next to my bed?"
"Yeah." He didn't look up, but she saw the tense lines of his shoulders. "Keep scrubbing."
"Where did it come from?" She ran the washcloth over her body, her skin feeling jittery as she watched Ajax. The washcloth felt too rough, her skin too sensitive.
"It was a small piece," he said. "But I recognized the collection it came from. It's Viktor's."
"Viktor? Why would he have a malachite stone?" Madison was shocked by the news. "And why would his malachite be in my house? What did I do to him?"
"He wouldn't have put it here." Ajax glanced over at her, his gaze skimming down over her body once before he pulled his gaze away. "Viktor has a history with Illusionists. He stole the malachite from an Illusionist who used it to enhance her powers so she could torture him. He kept it as a trophy, and he never would have left it behind." He looked over at her again, and this time, he couldn't seem to avert his attention from her breasts. "Please shut the door." His voice was hoarse.
Oh, God. The heat on his face made her body react with desire.
Sheva? Please, no. She really didn't have time to spiral into death and destruction.
She yanked the fogged-up door shut so hard it bounced right open again.
Ajax was facing her now. "I found a large pendant buried in your mattress. Two inches in diameter. It's an ancient piece. Extremely powerful."
Madison recoiled. "Two inches?"
At his nod, she started to shake, thinking about what that much malachite would do to her. Malachite was like a steroid for Illusionists. A little hit would pump up her Illusions, make them stronger and darker. More malachite would twist them into something depraved. A two-inch piece of malachite beneath her head for an extended period of time, would send her into an Illusion free fall, a violent explosion of Illusions that would set her off into a killing frenzy.
The only way to stop her would be to kill her.
Someone had wanted to destroy her, or use her to destroy something else. She looked at Ajax. "That's what Pete was talking about. They wanted me so they could use me to kill."
"They were prepping you to kill someone powerful." He raised his brows. "Me? The Order?"
"No wonder I've had so little control lately." Her legs started to shake, and she felt a pulse of power roll off her. She was a live fuse with all this malac
hite around her, and neither of them could afford for her to go off.
Ajax held up his empty hand, moving carefully toward her, as if he realized she was on the verge of snapping. "I tossed it out the window. You're okay."
"It's not okay. I'm not okay." She began to scrub frantically, her movements panicked and desperate. "How long has it been there? Months? I've been being poisoned for months. That stuff doesn't go away, you know that, don't you? It just builds and builds until an Illusion releases it. Dear God, do you realize what will happen when I finally do one?" She looked up suddenly at the stream gushing from the showerhead. "The water," she whispered. "What if it's in the water?"
Ajax strode across the room and caught her wrist. "Take it easy, Madison."
She closed her eyes at the feel of his firm grip. His touch was strong and hot, a foundation holding her back from the edge of the cliff. She focused on him, only him, using him to ground her and bring her back into control.
He wrapped a towel around her, then gently slid his arm around her waist, pulling her against him as he shut the water off. "We caught it in time. You're safe."
A part of her wanted to melt into his body, into the strength he represented, but she knew it would be too dangerous. What if her control slipped? Her fear was feeding her power, and Illusions were crawling under her skin, alive and malevolent. She'd kill him in an instant... "I have to get dressed. We have to get out of here." She tried to pull out of his grasp. "Can you feel it? It's building. I'm not going to be able to stop it—"
"Madison!" He gripped her shoulders tightly. "Look at me!"
Her hand went to his wrist. "I'm scared," she whispered. "If I succumb..." She shook her head, her grip tightening around his arm. "I don't want to kill you. I really don't—"
His eyes darkened, and she stopped mid-sentence, realizing what he was going to do.
The same thing that had stopped the Illusion before.
A kiss.
Yes.
She met him halfway, desperate to have the beast quieted before it destroyed them both.
His mouth was hot, his lips demanding, obliterating everything from her mind except for him. Gone was her fear of the malachite, of what she was, of what she would become, replaced by the dominating and penetrating presence that was him.
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