Vengeful Shadows

by Bronwyn Green

  Hot, hard muscle singed her skin, and she welcomed his feverish heat. With languid strokes, he caressed her body and held her. For a moment, she lay still, her head on his chest, listening to the strong rhythm of his heart. Her own swelled with love until she thought she’d burst with it.

  Rolling off him, she tried to pull him over. He turned to his side, but wouldn’t move farther. She tugged again.

  He cupped her cheek and gently traced the shape of her lips with his thumb. “What are you doing?”

  “Trusting you.”

  Zander searched her eyes.

  “A while ago, you told me that trust doesn’t have to mean being dominated.” Tessa breathed past the lump that tried to suffocate her. “I finally realized you were right.”

  He splayed his hand across her belly, and she quivered at his touch. He glanced at her face, his expression worried.

  She smiled around the pain of leaving him. “That was a good shiver.” She drew his head to hers and kissed him, knowing that if he looked into her eyes right now, he’d see the love she tried to hide. It would be so much worse for him after she was dead if he knew the truth.

  This time, when she tugged at him, he followed, pressing her into the bed. With hungry hands and mouth, he devoured her. He stopped to worship at every curve, every hidden pleasure point, touching her as if learning her body for the first time.

  She squirmed as his stubble covered cheeks abraded her already sensitized skin, driving her desire higher. She grabbed his head and dragged his questing lips back to her aching nipples.

  Fear and anger fueled her desire, and she dug her nails into his back, wanting him closer. His low chuckle vibrated against her. Her desire intensified with every sound he made. The wet suction of his mouth, the needy groans, the carnal promises he whispered like prayers in the dark.

  The streetlight shone faintly through the window, illuminating his face as he gazed at her. For a moment, she could see the children she’d never have and the life with him she’d never live reflected in his eyes. Sorrow and love collided. She pushed away the painful thoughts and, instead, concentrated on the need that thrummed between their bodies.

  She arched against him, desperate to have him inside her. Anxious to have him fill the raging emptiness. Frantic to have him blot out the desolation the following hours would bring.

  His thigh, heavy and hard, slipped between her legs. For a heartbeat, familiar panic welled, beating in her throat like the wings of a trapped dove.

  “Angel,” he murmured, and she met his gaze. As gentle as moonlight, the reverent longing in his eyes washed away the fear. A baptism of flesh on flesh, healing the old wounds.

  He whispered to her, caressing her with words. His voice resonated through her body and centered in her womb. It throbbed along her nerve endings, lifting her on rising waves of need. His hand skimmed from her breast, to her hip and lower. He cupped her and stroked through her damp curls. Groaning, he withdrew, despite her cry of disappointment.

  Holding her immobile with his smoldering gaze, he traced her areola with his damp fingertip. With a shudder, he drew her anointed nipple between his lips. He sucked, pressing it hard against the roof of his mouth, and her body bowed off the bed. Sweet eruptions quaked through her limbs. Wild with need, she urged him to enter her.

  Instead, he found her clit and circled the swollen flesh while he nipped and laved her breast. Delicate tremors rushed and tumbled into jolting spasms of pleasure.

  This time, he didn’t resist when she pulled him forward. He hovered above her, as if waiting for permission. If permission was what he wanted, she’d grant it. Tessa slipped her arms around his neck and pulled him down.

  All fear had vanished, replaced by a need stronger than she’d ever experienced. His weight settled on her, a welcome offering. His grimace bordered on anguish as he nudged her, eager to be sheathed in her warmth.

  Moving her hands from his neck to his ass, she pulled him forward and tilted her hips upward. With a guttural cry, he sank into her. He felt huge inside her, filling her completely. He started to pull out, but she locked her legs around his waist.

  “Oh, I don’t think so.”

  “Condom. Not. Wearing. One,” he gritted.

  The sensation of their bodies meshed together without protection was almost enough to make her come again.

  “It’s okay.” She wasn’t at the right place in her cycle. Even if she was wrong, it wouldn’t matter after tonight.

  “Thank God,” he breathed. Groaning, he bit her earlobe as he slowly ground forward. With long, labored stokes, he thrust. She met him lunge for lunge, the measured pace driving her crazy. His face contorted with the effort of holding his passion in check.

  “I won’t break.”

  “I don’t want to hurt you.” He left the rest unsaid. He wanted to protect her and keep her safe from her memories.

  His acceptance washed away any lingering vulnerability. The old fears had coated her skin like dirt she’d never been able to scrub off. But now, with Zander, she was free.

  She dug her fingernails into the hard muscles of his ass, loving the way his cock flexed inside her, his breath an agonized hiss. She raised her lips to his ear. “Don’t hold back for me. I want you. All of you.”

  As if freed from iron shackles, Zander plunged into her, his roar muffled by her neck. He rasped her name with each thrust, a low, desperate mantra of ache, a prayer of supplication. Tessa surrendered to the need raging between them, the desperate communion of body and soul.

  Zander drove his fingers through her hair, cupping her head with both hands. The turbulent light in his eyes tightened the bands of love and pain around her heart. She blinked back the tears that burned her throat. His gaze never left hers as they strained together.

  “I can’t hold back,” he breathed.

  His abandoned thrusts wound her tighter.

  “Don’t.” She clung to his body, arching into him.

  “Tessa,” he rasped, staring into her eyes.

  Her hips jerked hard against his, and she cried out. He shuddered, spilling inside her. The feeling that something sacred had just taken place overwhelmed her. Aftershocks trembled through her body, and she held him, craving what little time they had left.

  Forehead to forehead, they lay panting. Their breathing eventually slowed, and sweat chilled on their skin.

  “I don’t think I can move,” he groaned.

  “Then don’t,” she whispered and kissed his temple.

  From the corner of her eye, Tessa watched the glowing, red numbers on the digital clock change. They raced by like a film in fast-forward, and she could do nothing to slow them. Unable to stop time, she held Zander close, refusing to let him move away when he would have slid off her.

  Her chest ached, and tears burned her eyes to drip into her hair. She was willingly walking away from this. From Zander. So Cat could live, she reminded herself. An almost immobilizing fear stole over her like a shadow as the reality of the situation crystallized.

  This was it. In a short time, she’d cease to be.

  She hoped Zander would realize sooner, rather than later, that he’d been was mistaken about his love for her. Maybe it would lessen the guilt he was bound to feel.

  “Are you all right?” he asked as if sensing her turmoil.

  She forced a smile. “Absolutely.” She had to do this now, before she chickened out, or worse, broke down and told him everything. “I do have to go to the bathroom, though.” She’d wait until he’d fallen asleep and sneak out. It shouldn’t take too long. Neither one of them had slept much lately. It was risky, but it was also the only plan she had.

  He yawned as he slid off her. “Hurry back.” His sleepy smile twisted her heart and her resolve.

  “I…” She mentally shook herself. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t tell him. But she realized she couldn’t leave without saying something. She’d have to settle for telling him with her body. Lowering her face to his, she kissed him. She pour
ed all of her longing and love for him into a slow, tender kiss. “Go to sleep,” she whispered. “I’ll be back soon.”

  “I’ll miss you.” His voice was already thick with exhaustion. She shouldn’t have to wait long at all.

  Tessa walked to the bathroom, discreetly shuffling her clothes along the floor as she moved. Her toe caught on Zander’s belt loop and his pants followed her to the doorway.

  Glancing over her shoulder, she saw his body outlined by the streetlight bleeding through her curtains. One muscular arm was flung to the side and the other pillowed his head. The sheet was slung low on his hips. He’d get cold. She stopped herself from going back to cover him. She couldn’t take the chance that she’d wake him.

  She wiped gathering tears from her eyes. The necklace he’d given her hung like a millstone around her neck. She steeled herself against the “what ifs” and “could have beens” that plagued her mind and unclasped the pendant.

  Once in the bathroom, she dressed as silently as possible in the dim glow of the tiny nightlight. As she sat on the edge of the tub and waited, she wiped her eyes with tissue. The small, silver angel wings lay on the counter, glinting in the low light, and her heart constricted, as she remembered the moment Zander had placed it around her neck.

  Carefully, she laid another tissue flat on the counter. Leaning over as though she was crying, she pulled a lip liner pencil from a container near the sink and quickly wrote a note. Discreetly, she laid the necklace atop the message. Even if Edward had a camera in here, it was so dark in the bathroom she didn’t believe he’d be able to see her.

  While she counted the minutes and listened for Zander’s deepened breathing, she contemplated praying. The last time she’d prayed, Weston’s roommate had had her pinned to the bed, while blood had run from her nose and mouth, soaking the pristine, white sheets. She wondered idly if the stains had ever come out.

  A soft snore filtered down the hallway and Tessa knew the time had come to leave. In the end, it was far easier to disable the alarm and tiptoe down the stairway than she had expected.

  As her home shrank in her rearview mirror, minutes later, she pushed away the pang of disappointment that Zander hadn’t noticed and stopped her. In real life, fairytale princes didn’t exist, and college professors who put themselves between a psychopath and his target ended up dead.

  There would be no last minute rescue. The cavalry wasn’t coming. It was up to her to save Cat. Tessa had dragged her friend into this mess, and she’d get her out.

  * * * *

  Zander woke with a shiver. The bed next to him was empty. He squinted at the clock. Tessa couldn’t have been in the bathroom that long. Unless something was wrong. He threw off the sheet and bolted through the open doorway.

  “Tessa?”

  He turned on the light in the bathroom. Empty. His eyes fell on her necklace and rose-colored words.

  You’ll always have an angel watching over you.

  Dread chilled his blood. He didn’t think he’d ever be warm again. Even as he searched the rest of her apartment, he knew he wouldn’t find her. She was gone. In the space of seconds, his world crumbled until all that remained was an aching void where Tessa had been.

  He checked the control panel. The alarm had been disabled. From the inside. She’d gone intentionally. Had she received a threat she hadn’t told him about? The phone. She’d been holding the phone when he’d returned, and he’d believed her lame-ass excuse about trying to order food. Frantically, he glanced around the room. The recording device. He activated it.

  An impersonal, mechanized voice filled the small room. The threats against Tessa and her friend stole the air from his lungs, and he sank to floor. The recording stopped abruptly as she must have acquiesced to the demand.

  He played the message again, praying for some clue as to where she’d gone. Nothing. A blinking red light mocked him in the darkness. Her answering machine. With foreboding, he pushed the play button.

  The same conversation permeated the still night. Zander’s fists clenched as he listened to the faceless voice menace her, but hope filled the raw emptiness in his chest as he realized that this message continued past the point of the other.

  Anger tinged with determination propelled him into motion when he heard the address. The deadline followed. Eight-fifteen. He glanced at the clock, terrified he’d slept through his only chance to save her. It was eight-fourteen now. Dimly, he heard the bastard mention Kayla. Zander couldn’t allow himself to feel the sickened horror that pulled at him. There would be time for that later. After he saved Tessa and Cat.

  Running to the bedroom, he grabbed his clothes from the floor and put them on. He scooped the necklace up from the counter and shoved it into his pocket, intending to put it back where it belonged.

  He pushed his feet into his shoes and pulled his sweater over his head. It was as though his movement was hampered by an invisible web, created by fear. Vaulting down the stairs to the street level, he dialed 9-1-1 as he reached his jeep. He gave the emergency operator the pertinent information, disconnected and called Duritz.

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” the detective advised.

  Zander ran another red light and grunted in response. The clock read eight twenty-one. He punched the accelerator.

  “You could put her in greater danger by barging in,” Duritz continued.

  “Then I guess you’d better hurry.” He registered the sound of the other man’s anger before he turned off the phone.

  The image of Tessa’s eyes, bright with tears and what he’d believed was love, swam before him. Her expression as she welcomed him into her body would be etched in his mind forever. With brutal clarity, he realized she’d been telling him goodbye.

  She’d known the whole time they’d made love that she’d be leaving. No wonder she hadn’t cared about the condom. She wasn’t planning on coming back. She believed she was going to die. He slammed his fist into the steering wheel as rage spiraled through him.

  She hadn’t trusted him enough to let him help her. Anger at Tessa for leaving meshed with anger at himself. He’d allowed himself to be lulled into a false sense of security. The recollection of the metallic odor of blood mixed with the sharp scent of pine assailed him. He couldn’t avoid the memory of Julia and the carnage he’d seen, but he’d die before he’d let that happen to Tessa.

  Zander switched off his headlights as soon as he turned onto Prospect. Most of the once-stately homes were either rundown or abandoned altogether. Very few had lights shining in the windows. 605 was a burned-out shell with planking nailed over the casements. He passed the house and parked in front of a beat-up van. Hopefully, the other vehicle would obscure his.

  He crept closer as quickly as he dared. He didn’t want to take a chance that the stalker would hear him and hurt Tessa before he could get to her.

  Slices of light glowed between the boards over a second-floor window. Staying in the shadows, Zander skulked toward an enclosed stairway that led upwards. He eyed the rickety steps and prayed they wouldn’t creak and alert anyone to his presence.

  The sound of muffled voices drifted to him. He heard Tessa. Hope flourished.

  Petitioning whatever divine being might be listening, he began the ascent.

  * * * *

  Tessa stared at Cat. She was duct taped to a metal, folding chair in the middle of a bare room with boarded up windows. Her ankles were secured to the legs, and her hands cuffed behind her back. A wide strip of silver tape obscured her mouth. Red rimmed her eyes, and bruises covered her face.

  Tessa fought the urge to cross the room and claw out Edward’s eyes. She observed the man who had been tormenting her for the last week. The man who thought nothing of torturing little girls. The man who held Cat’s life in his hands.

  He was smaller than she’d remembered. But size hardly mattered when he stroked the blunt barrel of a deadly looking gun along the side of her friend’s neck.

  At least, she could be thankful Zander was safe.
She pictured him as she’d left him, alive and well, asleep in her bed. It hurt to breathe every time she remembered she’d never touch him again. Never hear him murmur her name as they made love. Never tell him how much she loved him.

  An invisible mass lay squarely on her chest, nearly suffocating her with the pain of losing him. Maybe, Edward wouldn’t get the pleasure of killing her after all.

  She wiped tears from her eyes. Zander’s scent still lingered on her skin, a balm to her aching heart.

  “Did you have any trouble finding the place?” Edward asked almost conversationally.

  Several, sharp retorts scurried through her mind, but she pressed her lips together and shook her head. She had no idea what would set him off, and she refused to put Cat in even more danger.

  “Good. Good. Glad to hear it.” He gestured with the firearm. “Well, come over here. Let’s have a look at you.”

  Of their own volition, her eyes sought Cat’s, and her friend shook her head slightly.

  “Quiet, bitch.” He brought the butt of gun down across the back of Cat’s head. With a muffled cry, she slumped forward.

  “Leave her alone!” Tessa took several steps toward them. “I’m here, like you wanted. Now, let her go. Please.”

  He smiled coldly. “Did I mention that I like it when you beg?” When she didn’t move, he placed the barrel of the gun at the base of Cat’s skull. “I thought you were here to save your friend’s life, not to watch me splatter her brains on the wall.”

  “Don’t. Please. It’s just that I thought you said you’d let her go if I came to you.”

  “Patience is a virtue, angel.” His eyes narrowed, and his fingers flexed on the gun. “And I’ve been very, very patient.”

  Cat moaned and Tessa watched her struggle to regain consciousness. She had to get her friend away from this psychopath.

  Edward tangled his free hand in Cat’s hair and yanked her head up. Blood ran from her nose.