She’d never healed gunshot wounds. Most of her talents had been to determine the root cause of an injury or illness and improve it. She could heal smaller abrasions, but nothing of this magnitude. What was it about these men that amplified her talent?
The darker man, Nicolas the brute had called him, opened his brilliant blue eyes with a rush, sucking in a deep breath. He looked at Britt before turning to the other man. “What was that, Matthias?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, brother.”
Both men stared at Britt as she began stepping closer to the opening to the room. “You both need to leave, now, before everyone returns. And never speak of this again.”
“She may be right.” The brute caught her gaze before turning to his brother, a grimace twisting his handsome features. Britt caught herself for a moment, shocked she’d found the beast of a man attractive, but the closer she looked, the more she realized how drawn she was to him, to them both. One was light and intense, the other dark and innocent looking. They couldn’t be more different in appearance if they tried.
The attraction she felt rocked her to her core. A voice within told her not to let them leave. She shook her head and tried to ignore the call.
Nicolas rose to his full height, and she saw he was almost as big as the brute. In the small space, she felt crowded. She stepped back to catch her breath and hoped to make her heart stop beating so loudly. As she moved back, motion to her left caught her gaze. A man in black steadily walked toward her with a menacing look.
Her breath caught in her lungs, and the world spun around her before a bright light blinded her completely.
Chapter Three
Matthias saw the woman light up like a light bulb again as she moved into the hallway, her intake of breath making goose bumps skitter down his neck. Something wasn’t right. He knew it the moment her feet lifted off the floor. He pushed closer to see what she faced and froze at the sight of the man who’d gunned them down in the woods. The same gun was raised and pointed at the woman.
Matthias shoved her out of the way, but she wouldn’t budge. He heaved with all his might once again, but she was immovable. Suddenly, he realized no gunshot had sounded. The Illuminati henchman was frozen. Nicolas moved to the other side of the woman and looked at the two, his face showing the same astonishment he felt himself.
“What’s going on here, Matthias?”
“I have no clue. She healed me, and I made her heal you.”
“We regenerate, so why bother?”
“A gunshot seems to take longer to recover from than a sword wound. I knew we needed to get out of here as soon as poss—” Matthias paused as the female began floating across the floor toward their Illuminati foe. The man at the other end didn’t move at all, but his expression began to twist into a mask of terror.
Matthias took a few steps to close in. He wasn’t sure what to do, but he was sure going to see what was occurring. The closer the woman became, the brighter she got, the walls of the hallways nearly white with her illumination. One of her hands rose before her, and she placed it in the middle of the man’s forehead.
The light grew brighter. Her head fell back as the man began to soundlessly scream, his face contorting into an expression of pain before he began to age ever so slowly. Deep wrinkles formed over his face, deep jowls forming along his cheeks before his skin began to look leathery and darken.
The light died, and she backed away, slowly dropping until her feet hit the floor. The man’s body dropped before her, a husk of his former self. He appeared mummified, bones and dried skin all that seemed to remain.
Matthias stared at Nicolas before turning back to the woman. She spun on her heel and faced them, a smile twisting her lips. Her eyes still glowed the soft blue that had filled the space when she’d both healed and killed.
“He’s healed now.” With that, she dropped to the floor beside the corpse she’d left behind.
Matthias felt shock for the second time that day. It wasn’t easy to surprise a man who had lived as long as he had. Every day wore on, an endless tedium that had made him grow numb to everything around him. He’d traveled the world several times over, experiencing everything there was to see, to taste, and to know. She was different, and different made him stand up and take notice. It wasn’t just her healing ability that made him pay attention, either.
His instincts screamed at him to pick her up, care for her, and make her his own, but that wasn’t the man he was. A woman was a liability and would only slow them down. He ran a shaking hand through his too-short hair and shuddered as a sigh rose from his chest. How long had it been since he’d had a woman? He wasn’t like Nicolas, who seemed incapable of going more than a few months without charming the pants off some poor unsuspecting woman. It had been at least two decades since Matthias had slaked the lusts that he kept a tight control over.
Love got a man killed, especially a man like him. Death’s right hand didn’t need a weakness, let alone a woman like her. She was an unknown entity; with a power unlike anything he’d seen in the seven hundred years he’d been alive. In that time, he’d met all sorts of paranormal types, things he hadn’t thought were real before he’d been made immortal. They all paled in comparison to what he’d seen her do. She held life and death in her hands. Was she even human?
How long would it be before she turned that power on him?
Matthias had killed multitudes of men in his quests over the years. Perhaps he’d done it for the sake of the church and then for the sake of good, but blood stained his hands by the bucketful. He gazed at those hands. They looked too big, too clumsy, to have been able to do the things they did to others. They certainly looked too big and clumsy to caress Britt in the way he wanted to touch her now. He wanted to pick her up and carry her away to a secluded spot where he could undress her and stare at her body for days, to touch her with whisper soft strokes that would make her suck in a breath, needing him as much as he needed her.
His fingers itched to brush through her fine blonde hair. It looked like silk strands blazing gold in the bright overhead lights. Long, graceful limbs had settled about her when she’d fallen. Her unmarred porcelain skin shone with life. He wondered how red her ass would get when he slapped his opened palm along it as he plunged deep within her core.
He shook himself to get the errant thoughts out of his mind. The next time Nicolas suggested he go out with him looking for tail, he needed to go. Two decades was much too long to not have release. That had to be it. It wasn’t this woman doing this to him, just need speaking to him.
His gaze moved back to her prone form. Who was he kidding? She’d be the death of him.
“We can’t leave her here,” Nicolas spoke and shattered the silence.
“We shouldn’t bring her with us and get her involved any more than we already have.”
“Matthias, they’ll track us down, retracing our steps. What if the Illuminati find her? Do you want her in their hands?”
Mine.
Oh for the love of the goddess, I didn’t just think that, did I? Matthias glanced once again over the woman’s supine form. “I suppose she goes with us?”
Nicolas smiled, victory stamped on his expression. “That was much too easy for me to win.”
Matthias felt blood rush into his face, so he quickly turned away and lifted Britt over his shoulder. “Whatever you say, pretty boy.”
****
Nicolas was still reeling from the events he’d witnessed, but all he knew was they needed to get the hell out of there. Another Illuminati assassin could easily come for them, and they needed to get the female to safety before trying to determine what the hell she was.
Power had vibrated through him once she touched him, and he still felt the swell of her energy within. His mind hadn’t yet processed the other emotions, the lust and the desire that he’d also felt at her caress, but he’d not dismissed it either. Being brought back from the brink of death and then staring down his murderer had been at the f
orefront of his mind, not his baser instincts. Her touch had amped his strength ten-fold, and he hadn’t felt this alert and refreshed in eons. The infinite days had begun to wear on him, and he’d nearly become as jaded and cynical as Matthias as they hunted and killed their foe. He’d held close that there had to be more to their purpose than killing the thousands of Illuminati zombies that roamed the earth because Gaia had to have a better reason for keeping them around so long.
He knew the importance of his mission, understood and held it as dear today as he had seven hundred years before when Gaia had saved them from the Templar massacre. The Illuminati couldn’t thrive; their chaos had to be challenged. The war between good and evil ran amok across the planet. Gaia had gathered him and his remaining Templar brothers to help her balance the power and save the inhabitants of this world in the process.
His gaze moved to the woman once more. How did she fit into the scheme? Which side was she on?
Nicolas watched his friend and mentor throw the woman casually over his shoulder and begin trudging toward the door. Luckily, Matthias hadn’t started a fight, as they needed to get out of the hospital as soon as possible. The fact it was so quiet and there had been no one around to witness any of the events thus far had been pure providence.
“Wait! Where are you going?”
Nicolas turned to see a wide-eyed African American woman eyeing them and realized he’d spoken too soon. He twisted, screaming at Matthias. “Run!”
****
Britt awoke in a bed that wasn’t hers, a soft white light filling the large window beside her. Soft curtains filtered the radiance, muting it and diffusing it around the room. Grayness peeked in through the slit, and the sky looked like snow.
It was early spring and shouldn’t be ready for a snowstorm. She rose from the bed and stepped carefully on the floor. Her bare feet touched ice-cold wooden slats, and she quickly peeled her toe from the frozen surface before pressing down once more. A shiver rushed through her, and she looked down to see she was wearing her thin scrubs. As she moved closer to the window, she saw a frozen, snow-covered landscape. Mountain peaks were barely visible in the distance, behind the thick spread of evergreens.
Britt glanced around the room, taking in the rustic charm of what appeared to be a log cabin. The soft bed was situated in a relatively sparse, large room. A fire was dying in a massive stone fireplace. She walked toward it and warmed her hands and body before turning to march to the closed door.
Testing the knob, she let out a soft sigh after it gave. She inched the door open slightly and peeked from the gap. The two large men from the hospital sat at a large wooden table near the door. If she moved from there, they would see her. Britt closed the door as quietly as she could and went back to the window. She tested that latch and was able to slide the glass up, a burst of cold air striking her in the face and chest. Before leaving, she drew the quilt from the bed to wrap around her and began looking for her socks and shoes. She had no idea where she was, but it couldn’t be far from relative safety.
Her shoes were nowhere in sight. She looked all over, to no avail, so she dropped to her knees at the side of the bed, seeing nothing underneath.
“Going somewhere?”
Britt halted at the deep voice above her. She scrambled to her feet and stood, attempting to not look guilty. The one the brute had called Nicolas stood leaning on one of the posters of the bed watching her with a smirk on his face. His eyes drifted to the opened window.
“I was … warm.”
“Warm?”
A breeze blew in that moment, and she did everything in her power not to shudder. She failed. He snickered as he closed the window and locked the latch. Britt’s chest constricted as she felt trapped, but she took a deep breath and tried to stop her whole body from trembling. A case of the crazies wasn’t going to help her in this situation. She needed a clear and level head.
“We weren’t properly introduced. I’m Nicolas.”
She looked at the proffered hand and didn’t take it. “I suppose it’s hard to be properly introduced as one is planning an abduction.”
“An abduction?” He laughed as he lowered his hand. “We brought you here for your protection.”
“I think it would be better if I were protected from you two.”
He lowered his chin and gazed deeply into her eyes. Lust swam in the depths, and she felt herself warming from his stare alone, the trembling stopping. Or rather turning into a different kind of trembling. “Do you recall the gunman?”
“I remember him approaching—” She went back to that event and considered it a moment. There was just … nothing. “—and then everything is just blank.”
“You don’t recall … healing … him?”
Britt froze. “No, I don’t.”
Nicolas smiled warily, and her gut clenched. She thought back to the night before again, and she could still only draw a blank. “What happened?”
“Just know he can’t hurt you now. But if we’d left you there, men like him would have come, and you may not have been safe.”
“I would’ve only been in danger with you there. Once you were gone, I would’ve been fine. Take me back.”
“You have a gift, one we can’t allow to get into our enemy’s hands. So, here we stay until this blows over.”
Their enemy? Great, here she was plopped into some gangland or mob fight and she wanted no part of it. They were more dangerous than she realized. “You have no right.”
“Perhaps not, but for now, you’re our guest here. You’re free to move about the house.”
“But I can’t leave. I’m not your guest, I’m your prisoner. I expected this from the brute, not from you.”
“The brute?” Nicolas laughed, the rich sound vibrating through her. Need flooded her from the deep resonance alone. “Matthias will appreciate his new nickname, I’m sure. Will you at least give us a name so we can stop calling you the female?”
The rebellious part of her didn’t want to answer him, but she knew it was pointless not to give him the one small detail. “Britt.”
He smiled, his dazzling white teeth showing in his wide, expressive mouth. “That wasn’t so hard, now was it?”
Nicolas stepped closer and tucked a few errant strands of hair behind her ear, and she shivered as his fingers grazed her lobe.
The need returned, times a million. She clutched the post; it was a lifeline that prevented her from jumping his bones the same way she envisioned in her mind. She shook herself, trying to release the desire from her, focusing instead on something else he’d said. “What happened to the man? The one from the hallway. How did I heal him?”
“I’m not sure you’re ready to hear that.”
She nodded her head, unsure her voice would work. “Yes, I am. There are too many questions here. I need answers.”
Nicolas caught her stare and observed her for long minutes before speaking. “You left him on the floor, dead. He was a shell of what he’d been.”
Fear filled her, her gut realizing the truth, but she couldn’t accept it. “No, no. I don’t kill, I heal. It goes against everything I do to harm someone. It isn’t who I am.”
“Who are you?”
“I … honestly? I don’t know.” It was the truth. She’d just always had this gift, one she’d been able to hide from the world. Until they came into the picture.
Nicolas watched her, his brow furrowing as he seemed to contemplate her answer. As the wrinkles on his handsome face softened and disappeared, she released a breath.
“In a way, you did heal him. I think you took the evil from within him and what remained wasn’t enough to keep him alive.”
“Evil? I didn’t know evil was a disease that could be treated medically. I must have missed the Dissecting Evil 101 class in college.”
A smile toyed with the edges of his lips, but it appeared he was able to beat it into submission. “Not a disease, but an entity within. In the case of men like him, of course.”
&nb
sp; “And what do you mean by that? Men like what?”
Nicolas hesitated and then smiled. “I think we have plenty of time to discuss that another time.”
He turned from her and walked to the door, escaping through the frame before she found her footing. She wasn’t going to let him walk out on their conversation. She had too many questions she demanded answers for. As she slipped through the door, her gaze met Matthias’ and she froze. His gaze leisurely roamed over her body, to her frozen toes and back up to her face. Britt felt heat flush through her at his scrutiny and the hint of lust she saw in his gaze.
Anger rippled through her with her reaction. She wasn’t sure why she felt so attracted to two men who had ripped her from her normal life and stowed her away in some obscure cabin in the middle of nowhere.
Nicolas moved to sit at the table with Matthias, and she stormed up to the scarred wooden top. “Men like what, Nicolas?”
“If I told you, I don’t know if you’d believe me.”
“Try me.”
“We are Immortals, both the man in the hall and Matthias and I.”
“As in, you’ll live forever?” She was skeptical, of course, but she’d seen the regeneration power of their bodies before they’d ever made it to the ER. They were more than just men, but immortality was a bit extreme. She wondered a moment if they were military. Had the government found a way to rejuvenate their warriors in battle? “Excuse me if I find that hard to believe.”
Matthias chuckled and pushed out a chair for her. “Sit, Blondie. The story won’t be short.”
The raw power emanating from Matthias gave her pause. She sensed death all around him, but there was something about that strength that also called to her. As she watched him casually rest his muscled arm over the back of the chair he’d pushed out for her, she shivered with need. There was nothing casual about the man. Every move he made was measured and necessitous. He stared at her, a silent challenge in his gaze. Matthias’ eyes glittered with knowledge and wisdom, as well as an emptiness she’d never seen before in another.
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