She would be more of a fighter, a survivor than the others. She was trained after all. Her history proved she was a survivor.
Of course the last one had been as well, but then he knew they could all be broken.
He pressed the intercom button. “I hope you’ve found your new accommodations to your liking.”
He grinned as she stood and whirled, looking one way, then the other, then up. Her darted looks, her panted breath…
He chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back.”
“Who are you?” she asked, her voice low, but still he caught the tremble.
“Aw, anxious for a meeting? I’m honored, I am.” He leaned up and whispered against the microphone. “Don’t worry, my pretty, I’ll be back and we’ll get to know each other a whole lot better.”
“Not in this lifetime,” she hissed.
He smiled and let go of the button, and watched her for a minute more. This would be fun. But he also knew, he would have to hurry. Yet he didn’t want to rush. He wanted to enjoy. Necessity or pleasure?
He frowned at the knowledge he couldn’t take his time as he wanted to, as he’d like to, as he deserved to. She was one of the rarest of the rare.
This time, though, he’d have to hurry. Sadly, he didn’t have months or weeks. He’d be lucky to have days with this one.
The best things should never be rushed.
However, he didn’t see a choice.
The Hunters were after him.
Erik watched Saker pace, the conference room had been turned into a working hub of activity. Photographs had been pinned to the board. Women, so many women. The left side was reserved for those they knew were victims of the Collector. The right side of the board was possible victims.
Rare women who simply vanished. Mostly from either clubs or very exclusive parties.
No recent bodies had ever been found. So what the hell did the bastard do with them?
“I don’t get why no one has ever found a trace of these women,” Gregori, Saker’s man, muttered.
“He keeps them,” Saker said.
“The Collector.” Erik nodded. “You’re right. He wouldn’t go to the trouble to find his treasures if he simply planned on throwing them away when he was done. That would be ordinary. He’s different.”
Saker pointed to the board. “They’re different. All shifters, for the most part. Though these two are humans, sensitives and gifted, but still humans. Talent and rarity.”
Erik nodded. The door opened and Navalovich strode in, dark circles under her red-rimmed eyes and her clothing rumpled.
Erik assumed they all probably appeared the same. The incessant tick of some inner clock spurred him on. They had no idea where to even begin searching.
“We checked all his properties?” Saker asked again.
“The answer hasn’t changed.” They’d searched all the clubs, calling in all constables, local enforcers, state enforcers, even feeling their underground systems. Nothing. At least not yet. There were two warehouses that had been listed as developing properties in Moscow and Amsterdam. But they’d yielded nothing.
“You both smelled sulfur on him. I’m assuming we’re checking to see if he’s a demon or of a sect? Where are we on that information?” Navalovich asked.
“The local demon council is investigating and said they’ll be sending a liaison to speak with us,” Erik answered.
Damn it, he couldn’t really feel Reen. He could sense her, vague wisps of fear, of worry, of rage.
But he couldn’t get a lock on her.
Not like Saker—damn the man.
Since they’d bonded at the club, Erik could feel his small stake on her fading and there wasn’t a thing he could do to stop it.
Swallowing past his own jealousy and anger, he stared at her picture on the board. “Can you feel her?” he asked Saker.
Saker gave one nod. “He’s locked her in a cage.”
Which would weaken her. “He’s not stupid.”
Saker turned, his dark black gaze glowing green. “Oh, he’s stupid. He dared to touch her.”
Erik tilted his head and studied the other man. “When this is all over and we have her back…”
“She’s mine.”
“Even if she doesn’t want that? She might be pissed at the way things played out.”
Saker didn’t look away. “I’m not letting her go again.” He strode out the door. Gregori staring after him.
“The king laughed his ass off until he realized she was missing and taken by a very evil man.” Gregori, a respected former general of the royal Sokul Guard, nodded to Erik. “The king’s offered his services in whatever way they are needed. As we speak, his best are scouring the city to find her.”
Erik hoped to hell someone did before the Collector made Reen a permanent part of his collection.
Chapter 11
Reen sat between a nightstand and one of the bars on the cage. Air still flowed around her. She tried to see past the cage, but night vision was never a strong point. She could see great distances in scorching light, blinding snow-white light, but darkness…
She shivered. She hated the dark, hated not having her back against a wall.
She felt exposed. She tried again to connect with Leana, but hadn’t made a solid connection, not like before. Either her friend was blocking, or…
No, she wouldn’t go there. Oleana was alive. Alive. She had to be. If Leana were dead, she’d know it, sense it, feel it.
It wasn’t that she felt—nothing.
She simply couldn’t connect.
She did, however, feel others pushing against her walls. Saker? Erik?
She had a feeling it might be both. But Saker’s attempts were stronger, harder, more intense and her head was already aching. Now the pain pulsed through it in a wave. She tried to meditate, calm her racing heart.
This—the cage, the fear—was nothing but the Collector’s sick and twisted mind games and damn it if she wasn’t letting him get the upper hand. The more emotion she wasted, the less power she’d have.
Already, she could feel her power waning. It was the fact she was locked in a cage.
Not just any cage. Only a special cage, one cursed and custom designed, could do this. He’d obviously seen her before tonight. He’d been waiting on her. She wondered when and where she’d first come across his notice. At least she was closer to Leana.
The man knew his victims, what made them tick, what they feared, what sapped their strength.
Behind her closed lids, she imagined her pale pink and blue light. Light that had shimmered around her and her mate.
A sliver of anger shot through her mind, but she tamped it down. She’d kick his ass later. Right now, she wasn’t about to let pride get in the way of getting the hell out of here.
What happened to the others? Were they all trapped here?
No, they were dead or kept somehow.
So much trouble and planning into what? For what?
Again, pain shot through her head from blocking. She concentrated on the sounds, concentrated on the window.
Then she opened her mind.
Images and feelings shouted against her mind. She took a deep breath and tried to understand, tried to focus…
“Saker? Saker? Where are you?”
Shock, like lightning, bolted down her spine.
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know. With him…the Collector. I don’t know where. It’s quiet, I can’t hear traffic noises. It’s dark…”
“Can you get out of the cage, Cyzarine?”
Even from here, she could feel the worry, fear and rage in his thoughts.
It had never been this sharp, this intense with anyone. Not even when she and Oleana had constantly practiced at connecting with each other. Not when she and Erik were lovers. With Saker, it was so…easy. Almost too easy and she didn’t like it, didn’t trust it, but she’d damn well use it.
“Reen, what do you see out of the window?”
She opened her eyes and left the connection in her mind open. “I don’t know…it’s dark, not as dark as the room.” She stared at the window and saw something fly by. She frowned and focused on it.
A click from the other direction made her gasp. She looked to the doorway and saw the silhouette of a man. He flicked his wrist out and the room flooded with lights.
“Stay with me, Cyzarine. Keep your eyes open and stare at him. I need to see him…”
It’s weird, having someone else in your mind with you. She shoved the thought aside as the man spoke and she tried to blink, adjusting to the light.
He stood on the other side of the cage. He seemed…
Normal. He wasn’t what she’d call second-glance handsome, let alone gorgeous. His hazel eyes were round, and deeply set, his face angular, his mouth thin. His hair was dark and wavy, cut close to his head on the sides, but longer on top. The suit was expensive, the shirt silk. A ring on his hand.
She focused on the ring, her vision narrowing as if she first viewed it down a tunnel, then as if she’d zoomed in with a camera.
A demon’s skull and a treasure chest.
Almost like the human pirates.
But this was different. She knew it.
“What is your name?” she asked, staring back up at him, shielding her eyes.
He slowly walked around the cage, which she now saw was enormous and bolted in the ground. The cement ground. The ceiling…there was no ceiling here. Here there was only the bare metal trusses—a warehouse.
She closed her eyes and listened more carefully, focused on the window, focus….
Focus…
A warehouse. Quiet. No traffic…
She watched as he walked the perimeter of the cage. A golden cage. His hand negligently trailed from one bar to the next as he walked closer and closer to where she sat.
Carefully, she moved away from the edge of the cage.
“What do you want?” she asked.
He smiled. “I rather thought that was obvious, moyo zolotse.”
She held his stare, seeing beyond the hazel eyes to the blackness that lurked just beneath. “Who are you?”
He grinned even more and she could see how many might fall for his charm. “I apologize for not introducing myself earlier.” He bowed at the waist. “I’m Kladovik?”
Kladovik? “That’s not an alias?”
He waved his ringed hand. “No. I’ve used them in the past, but figured why?”
Kladovik…
Then it clicked. “A guardian demon.” She shook her head. So simple.
He raised a brow. “I prefer dark spirit.” He tsked. “Demon leaves such a negative connotation, don’t you think?”
“I couldn’t possibly imagine where anyone would get that idea,” she muttered.
He stopped in front of her and she pressed herself back against the bed. For just a moment, he let his charming shield drop and she could see the monster beneath, with the dark bruising, scaled skin and black empty eyes. “You and I are going to have lots and lots and lots of fun.” He licked his lips.
Inside, she shuddered. Instead, she crossed her arms and knew he couldn’t get her without coming inside. “Really? And how are we going to do that? You coming in here?”
He narrowed his gaze at her. “My dear, I’ve been at this a lot longer than you. Trust me, I’ll get in…” He smiled and it held no amusement. “When you least expect it. It’s much more fun this way. Leaves you on edge.” He grinned. “That’s more arousing.”
She let her own power rise up, an ancient power of fire and vengeance. “Hide behind darkness, do you? Poor thing. Maybe one day you’ll be man enough, or would that be demon enough, to face an adversary straight on.”
His nostrils flared.
“Stop baiting him, damn it!”
She slammed the walls back up between her and Saker.
“Damn that woman. Do we have anything yet?” he snarled to the room at large.
A guardian demon. Their analysts knew they were dealing with a treasure keeper.
Apparently this particular one was even wanted by his own kind. Treasure keepers were entrusted with secrets, with artifacts. They also guarded power.
Though their responsibilities were great, their power wasn’t, lest they lust for that which they guarded.
“Right in front of our faces all this time. Where is he?” Navalovich asked, pacing from one window to the other.
Saker hadn’t told her what else he’d felt from Reen. The pain that had coursed through her—not her own, but that of Oleana’s.
Anxiety prickled down his back and he rubbed his neck. He glanced at Gregori, still pissed. The other man only shrugged. “At least your father is helping as best he can.”
“He just didn’t lock the binding in, bless it or make it official.”
Gregori merely stared at him, then asked, “Did you really expect him to?”
“It could help damn it. I’d have a stronger connection to her.”
Gregori shrugged. “You know your father.”
“Yeah, I know my father.”
He cursed and strode from the room. Warehouses. He’d heard the echoes of something…something. Most of the warehouses here were still near water. With their location here in Grubsretep, he knew it would be on the docks, or he’d hoped. And there were numerous warehouses down in that district. Outside, he called the falcons. He’d find her. If it was the last thing he ever did.
With or without his father’s blessing, she was his and it was bloody time everyone knew that. Regardless of what they may or may not think.
Erik stood beside him. “You wouldn’t be hoping to rescue her all by yourself, would you?”
Saker, tired and angry, snarled, lashing out at the other man. “Worried she’d choose me?”
Erik stared at him, let his eyes glow. “You endanger her going off half-cocked.”
Saker took a deep breath. “She’s mine. I’m going to find her. Then I’ll let you know. Surely your people can find me.”
“I’m going with you,” Erik said.
Saker laughed. “You learn to fly, dead man?”
With that, he shrilled out a cry again and falcons swooped down from building tops to circle around his head. Muttering in his father’s tongue, he concentrated and shifted seamlessly. One moment he was standing near the Hunter’s headquarters, the next he was flying, higher and higher, his guards around him, more coming.
They were larger than normal falcons, larger than any eagle. Their kind was almost extinct and only whispered of in legends.
He opened his mind, his sight sharper, the landscape in black and white as he soared over buildings, and snow-covered grounds, frozen parks, towards the quay.
Again her fear and loathing slithered over him.
He flexed talons that could lift a grown human and crush his bones between their sharpness.
That’s just what he planned to do to one Kladovik, after he ripped the bastard’s eyes out.
Chapter 12
Erik watched the circle of falcons, some small and normal. The others, larger than any other bird, swooped, dove and then aligned, a military fleet, searching.
They needed to do damage control.
Some human would be shooting at them in no time. He needed just one more problem. He had a meeting with a liaison from the demon council. They needed to strip this bastard of his power. Damn. Rubbing his head, he tried again to catch the elusive feel of Reen, but knew it was useless. She was blocking and Saker’s connection to her was too strong.
Cursing fate, he strode back into the building. He hoped like hell they wouldn’t be too late.
Once inside, he met with the liaison who confirmed the council’s information that Kladovik was the man, or demon—Erik figured monster covered it—they were looking for.
“We have a team moving in, but for the safety of the women that might still be alive, we want him stripped of his powers,” Erik told the man.
The council le
ader lifted one corner of her mouth. “That’s currently being taken care of. I’ve a feeling by the time your team arrives, he’ll be as human as the next person on the street.”
She watched his dark form circle the cage.
“Do you know what I want to do with you?”
She ignored him. He kept walking one way, then the other, his ring clinking on the metal bars. Knowing it was a scare tactic, a way to weaken her, to play with her mind, helped.
“I want to fuck you. I love sliding between the legs of women like you. Strong women, women who are used to being in control.” A click and hiss as he struck a match and lit a candle beside the cage, then another and another until she saw the candles were on a large candelabrum.
“Women who hate to answer to any man.” He stopped and dipped his chin, smiling at her, his gaze locked on her from beneath his lashes. “I love to wear women like you down, until you’re broken.”
He laughed.
Reen shuddered.
“What are you scared of, Reen? Or should I call you Cyzarine?” He took a deep breath. “Are you scared of wolves?”
She froze, her lungs not moving even as her heart slammed against her chest.
“You are.” He smiled, his eyes glittering. “Poor, poor Reen. Such a fake you are. Dealing out death, when in reality you’re terrified of it.”
She shook her head. “I’m not scared of death.”
He tilted his head. “You’re scared of wolves.”
She didn’t answer, saw no reason to. But he knew. She hated wolves, hated their smell, their sounds, just…them.
She knew all lycans were not dangerous, were not out to rid the world of good. But the scars of childhood were deep and no matter how many lycans she met, she was never comfortable around them.
He pressed a button on a remote he pulled from his pocket. A pale light lit one corner and she saw the shape of a wolf.
She scrambled up and onto the bed.
His laughter reminded her of things that slithered in the night. “Oh this is fun. It’s too bad I don’t have a lively one.” One corner of his mouth lifted with a hint of evil amusement. “Not to say I don’t have any alive. I do, but as of yet, none are in any condition to fight you.” He studied her again with his hazel eyes that seemed to go more silver the longer he stared at her. “Such a lovely you are. It would be a shame to have you shredded. I could offer to let one of my pretties go if she would kill you.”
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