by May Dawson
I cast a confused look at Ryker and Levi. But Levi had his eyes closed again, biting his lip as if he were steeling himself to move; he was always the one who seemed to notice when I was upset, but the wound in his side was taking up his attention now. Ryker met my gaze evenly, but didn’t say a word.
“Okay,” I said, following Jacob out of the helicopter. I slid out onto the cement of a parking lot. We had landed in an industrial warehouse lot, surrounded by plain, tall white buildings with ramps for eighteen-wheelers.
I turned back, ready to help with Levi, but Jacob beat me there. He almost pushed me out of the way, his shoulder against mine for a second, and then he reached into the helicopter to take Levi’s legs.
I took a few steps away, out from under the still, dangling helicopter blades, trying to get my bearings. I didn’t even know what state I was in. That was unsettling. And just when I began to feel safe around Ryker and Levi, everything changed. I stared at Jacob. Beautiful, angry Jacob.
Jacob said, “I’ve got a car in mind just around the corner.”
His voice was rich and warm, that accent attractive, no matter how flat his words were. Together, the four of us made our way down an empty street to where a car was parked against a chain-link fence. Jacob set Levi’s feet down, and Ryker helped him lean against the hood of the car.
Jacob quickly went around to the driver’s side. He cast a quick glance around. His posture was perfectly erect, his dark-brown curls ruffled in the wind, his face angelic, and it was hard to believe he was a criminal.
Ryker helped Levi into the backseat. Then he quickly went to work himself, running down the street to another car, unscrewing the license plates and switching the plates between our car and the second.
Jacob slid into the driver’s side, and through the rear window I could see him quickly pop off the compartment cover under the steering wheel. There was a quick glint of silver in his hand as he cut a few wires and expertly twisted them together. The car’s engine roared to life, startling me.
Jacob twisted in his seat, glancing at me, the slightest curl to his lip. I expected him to say something withering. But instead he jumped out of the car and came around the back to me, with a men’s gray jacket in one hand. He held it out to me brusquely. “This was in the front seat.”
I stared back at him, not sure why his tone had been so abrupt, and he shook it at me impatiently.
Ryker took it out of his hand, shaking his head. “Oh, Jacob.”
“I’m trying to help,” Jacob said.
Ryker held the jacket out for me, as if we were on a date, and I slipped my arms in and shrugged it on; it was too big for me, but I was grateful to have something to wear besides a bikini. I had been shivering, my bare feet cold on the pavement, and Ryker kicked his shoes off before I realized what he was doing.
I shook my head, but Ryker was already kneeling, and he wrapped one hand around my bare calf. His touch sent electric sparks up my leg. “It’s our job to take care of you. One of us should have done this earlier.”
“We were kind of running for our lives.” Reluctantly, I raised my leg slightly and let him slip the shoe on, knowing that resistance was going to be futile.
“That’s no excuse.” Ryker helped me on with the other shoe and then stood; I wobbled slightly, still standing on one leg, and his hands wrapped around my shoulders. He gazed into my eyes briefly, those warm green eyes full of concern. Then, full of bossy gestures, he zipped my jacket up for me.
Jacob made an impatient get-on-with-it gesture towards the car.
“You ride with him,” Ryker held the rear door open for me.
Despite his attitude, there was real worry in Jacob’s voice when he said, “Make sure he doesn’t die.”
I slid in next to Levi without comment, although I could barely fit. Levi was sprawled across the seat. Levi’s deep blue eyes flickered up to me, his elbow pressed hard into the makeshift bandage Ryker had shoved into his wound. He shivered, even though it was a warm spring day.
“May I?” I asked, running my fingers gently over his broad shoulders, and when Levi nodded, I eased his head up and scooted closer, resting his head in my lap. He let his head fall back into my lap, his eyes closed, and up this close I could see how long, black lashes rested against his young but weathered face.
“When’d your brother get so bossy?” I asked softly.
“He’s always bossy,” Levi said without opening his eyes. “Worse when he’s worried. But pretty much always unbearable.”
I traced my fingers over Levi’s unusually pale face slowly, without even thinking about what I was doing, really; the big-framed man who had killed to protect me just hours before seemed like a hurt little boy now, and I wanted to make him feel better. Worse when he’s worried. Levi’s wounds were no joke. “Are we going to a hospital?”
“Are you dense?” Jacob asked from the front seat. “No, we aren’t going to a hospital.”
“But Levi’s not—”
“We’ll patch him up back at the house,” Ryker said, glancing over his shoulder at me. His eyes met mine steadily. “Not much that we can’t manage ourselves.”
“I’m not dense,” I said. “Once again, I’m Ellis. And you are?”
“I know who you are,” Jacob said.
“And this is our long-lost brother Jake,” Ryker said. “We shouldn’t have tried so hard to find him.”
Jacob snorted. “Well, maybe we should call off the search for number four.”
Jacob’s big hands were confident on the steering wheel as we raced out of the parking lot and turned onto the highway. I felt self-conscious about touching Levi, in the leather backseat right behind Ryker and Jacob, but I leaned over Levi to nestle my face against his. My hair fell like a veil between me and the boys, giving me a faint impression of privacy, even though I knew it wasn’t real.
Levi breathed a soft breath, like relief, like release, when I pressed my forehead to his. It hurt to bend like this, but when I felt the way the stress left his body as I touched him, I knew I didn’t care; I just wanted to ease his pain. I nuzzled my nose gently against his. Levi smelled like cinnamon and dark chocolate and sawdust; these boys smelled so good to me, all the time, even though they smelled so different. After everything we’d been through, I knew that it wasn’t their cologne. It must be their pheromones themselves. Everything about their bodies called to me, pulled me in. But there was a faint, rich scent of iron too in the air in the car, and that unsettled me.
“How do I help, Levi?” I asked quietly.
He shook his head faintly. His eyes opened and fixed on mine; his blue eyes were dark in the car, a deep blueberry blue, and without the usual spark of humor. “Like I said. I’ll heal the old-fashioned way.”
“My birthday’s just days away.” I said.
Jacob shifted slightly in his seat, glancing towards Ryker. I could feel his disapproval from here.
“It’s how it works,” Ryker said. His tone was almost defensive. “No one said—”
“I’m not doing it,” Jacob said. “Not with her. Nope.”
“Excuse me,” I said. “But I don’t think anyone invited you.”
“You will,” Jake promised me. He moved one hand to the gear shift, and I saw how wide his hands were, his knuckles scarred, and caught the glimpse of a tattoo and a leather bracelet where his shirt-sleeves were rolled back from his forearm. “Guaranteed you will, princess.”
His accent was sexy, no matter how obnoxious his words were.
“I’m just trying to make sure Levi’s okay,” I said.
A faint insolent grin touched the corners of Jake’s handsome mouth, and I just caught that grin in profile for a second before he turned completely back to the road. “Sure.”
I couldn’t help but think about Ryker calling his mother a trollop, and suddenly I was desperate to know if she had been a Lilith too. I ran my fingertips over Levi’s sweat-beaded hairline, and some of the tension still held in his powerful frame slipped away.
; “I don’t care about my birthday,” I said. “I just care about you.”
“I know,” Levi said. “But I care. You deserve to have men in your life who put you first. Who act with honor.”
“Your honor doesn’t do me any good if you die in my lap,” I told him. Even though his words struck me through with warmth.
“I’m tougher than that,” Levi promised me. His hand brushed against mine, and our fingers tangled together. I felt the faint throb of warmth that always stretched between us, a deep sense of comfort. Levi felt like an old friend I’d found again, even though I hadn’t known him before. An old friend who a long shared history and secrets and a constant thread of attraction interwoven in that friendship; he felt, improbably, like the guy friend you fall in love with but try not to, because that friendship is too precious to ruin.
If I felt that way, like I was falling back into a familiar relationship with him, maybe it was because I was the Lilith and he was my reincarnated angel. Maybe we had known each other for millennia and I was wake up, my heart and soul responding long before my brain caught up.
“I’m not really eighteen though,” I said, running my fingers through the long blond hair that fell across my lap and onto the leather seat. “We’ve known each other a long time.”
His eyes opened again, widening in surprise. “Do you remember anything?”
I shook my head no, reluctantly, already knowing he would be disappointed. “Wait. Do you guys remember anything?”
“No,” Ryker said. “Sometimes, according to the mythos, you’ll get flashes of the past. Like a sense of déjà vu but in our case, it’s true. But it’s not like you’ll suddenly unlock the memories of all the other Liliths and the other Fours.”
“That would make things too easy,” Jacob muttered.
Ryker shot him a look.
“What is it?” I asked, glancing back and forth between them. But there was silence from the front seat; the two of them stared out at the busy highway, the cars flickering past as we sped between them. Well, maybe Jacob should concentrate; he drove like we were in a Fast and Furious movie. “Levi?”
Levi never tried to keep secrets from me, it seemed, and he groaned. “We always have enemies. Not just the Company.”
“Who?” I asked.
“The dark-siders. They don’t care much for you.” Levi said. “But don’t worry about them, Ellis. We would never let them get to you.”
Jacob’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Yeah. I don’t even like you, but killing them? It’s my favorite thing. You’ll be safe with us.”
I cast a glance down at Levi, looking for a reason why behind that flash of homicidal instinct, but Levi’s eyes were closed again. Jacob would have to remain a mystery a little longer.
“Oh, first impressions, Jacob,” I said lightly. “Yours are just terrible.”
“Wouldn’t want you to get the wrong idea, love,” he said. “I’m not going to be an easy mark like these two.”
“Watch what you say to her,” Ryker warned.
“See?” Jacob asked.
“You’re lucky we’re driving at high speeds,” Ryker muttered. “I can’t punch you in the face without flipping the car.”
“You can’t punch me in the face anyway, brother. I’m too quick for you.”
“We can see about that back at the house.”
“Are all Hunter families this dysfunctional?” I asked.
“Yep,” Levi said. There were dark shadows under his eyes, but his cheeks were white and hollow. He was still sweating faintly, and he shivered in my arms.
I swayed against the cool glass of the window as Jacob took the exit off the highway fast. We were on a long country road now.
“How much longer?” I demanded.
“Thirty miles,” Ryker said.
“Levi,” I said softly. My voice was a plea.
He smiled faintly, rubbing his thumb across the back of my hand. I raised his hand to my lips, kissing the inside of his wrist, his palm. His hands were rough, calloused, but he had the long, lithe fingers of a musician, like the warrior’s life wasn’t the one he had been meant for. I turned his hand over and pressed my lips against his knuckles, which were scarred and calloused white.
I realized the hem of my borrowed jacket was wet. It took me a few dumb moments to realize that it was from his blood, seeping through the shirt that Ryker had turned into a bandage, beginning to soak into my lap.
“You can’t do this to me, Levi,” I said.
Ryker twisted in his seat, his green eyes deeply worried. “Hang in there.” To me, he said, “We have quick-clot, sutures, everything we need at the house to patch him up.”
I held Levi’s hand tightly in mine, leaning forward again. My lips moved against his cheek, my words barely audible. “Please, Levi. I need you.”
I could see him smile faintly, but he didn’t seem to have the energy to speak anymore. I unzipped my jacket and yanked it off, then pressed it over the wound; red blood seeped quickly through the gray fabric. He groaned slightly at the pressure pushing into the wound.
I leaned over him again. He bit down hard on his lower lip, clearly fighting back the pain. I pressed my lips to his. His lips part against mine despite himself. But as soon as his mouth had relaxed, opening to me, he pressed his lips tightly closed again. I kissed the corner of his mouth, his lips, and I felt him turn his head, trying to escape me.
“Am I really that bad a kisser?” I murmured into his ear.
Bright blue eyes met mine, clearer and sharper than they’d been before. “That’s definitely not the problem, Ellis.”
“Then kiss me back,” I begged. “Let me help you.”
He groaned, a deep guttural groan of longing and pain intermingled, and our bodies were so close that I felt it vibrate into my own body.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he murmured.
“You can’t hurt me any worse,” I said, “Watching you suffer is hurting me.”
“I’m so close to the edge of losing it, Ellis. I don’t want to take more energy than you have…”
“Trust me,” I said. “I’m no damsel in distress. You got hurt protecting me. I want to take care of you.”
“Bloody hell,” Jacob exploded in the front seat. “Would you just kiss the woman back, Levi? I don’t want to drag your corpse out of the backseat, and I’m going to hurl myself out of the car to my own death if I have to hear any more of this goddamn conversation.”
I rolled my eyes. “See? You’d be doing Jacob a favor, too.”
“Well, that might just make this untenable,” Levi said, his lips arching up slightly.
I leaned forward, kissing him again. His broad shoulders still felt sturdy under my hands as I kissed him hard. This time, his lips parted against mine. At first, it was just sweet, tender little kisses. And then I felt him sit up slightly, his hand going up to hold my jaw possessively. He kissed me back harder.
His tongue slipped inside my mouth, a gentle, curious thrust at first. I felt my whole body respond. The throb of longing I felt for him surprised me. I ran my hand down the rough denim of his jeans, feeling his rock-hard thigh beneath my palm, and I felt his exhale his cinnamon-scented breath into my mouth. He pulled his lips away from mine just long enough to murmur, “Be a good girl, Ellis.”
“But I’m not a good girl.” I kissed him again. “I’m the Lilith. So kiss me harder.”
His good arm tightened around my waist. He pulled me on top of him, kissing me hard, his tongue sweeping inside my mouth, and every time his tongue thrusted into my mouth or our tongues slipped together, I felt that throb of longing grow even more intense. I didn’t just want his tongue inside me; I wanted all of Levi.
His arms locked me to his body. I felt the warmth between us, the hardness of those pecs and abs against mine. I had been holding my body so carefully away from his, not wanting to hurt him, but Levi held me against him like I could save him. As our mouths intermingled, with desperate, sweet, fiery kiss
es, I felt the rest of the world drop away. My muscles trembled with my desire for him.
And then my muscles were turning languid. I felt my energy sweeping from my body to his, healing him, and I fell against his hard-muscled chest as he scrambled up, holding me tight. “Ellis,” he murmured. “Oh, Ellis.”
I ran my thumb over his face, which was a handsome, worried blur to me. “Trust me.”
I was so exhausted, so tired and worn, and although I could hear the worried voices of the boys in the car, I let my head fall against Levi’s shoulder. I let sleep take me.
Chapter 15
I drifted back awake as Ryker was carrying me up the stairs onto a front porch. I tried to look around, but the world was still a blur of color and light. I breathed in that familiar Ryker scent of wood smoke and soap and peaches, and let my head fall back onto his warm shoulder.
“Where’s Levi?” I murmured.
“What, you don’t care about me now?” He pressed his lips against my forehead, just under my hairline, even if he was teasing me. I felt us turn slightly as he maneuvered his way through the front door, shifting me in his arms to keep my head from hitting the doorway. “You restored the blood he lost, but the wound’s still open. Jake’s taking care of it, and he’ll be fine.”
“What about you? Are you okay? And Jacob?”
“We’re fine. Now it’s time to get you some rest,” he said. “You’ll see Levi in the morning. He’s afraid he’ll hurt you if you’re too close to him. He took too much of your energy.”
I shook my head, trying to raise myself in his arms to look for Levi, but I was still exhausted and Ryker pushed my head back onto his shoulder again.
“Rest,” he said firmly. “I’ve got you.”
“You’re bossy,” I muttered.
His lips were close to my ear, his voice low and sexy. “And you need bossing.”
I would’ve protested, but I was tired, and so I let him carry me away up a long flight of stairs. I could see that we were in a long hallway, lined with closed wooden doors. I squinted at the plain white walls. “No deer heads.”
“Told you.” His lips were so close that it felt like a kiss when he spoke into my hair. “I’ll give you the tour in the morning, when your strength’s back.”
