Airship Seduction
Empath demon Sacha Camomescro is rescuing refugees from Victorian Europe’s
war on magic when she meets a man unlike any other. Javier Vargas is an alpha
werewolf, his pack nearly decimated by assassins, his appetite for justice superseded
only by his desire for Sacha.
But Sacha’s gift is also her curse. While reading minds is helpful in eluding the
assassins sent by Europe for Progress, it cripples her ability to trust men and enjoy sex, for
she can always see men’s fantasies when they’re with her. But Javier has a single-
minded focus when it comes to his pursuit.
Just when it seems Sacha can trust him, her airship crew starts getting picked off
mid-flight—and it would appear a rabid animal is at fault. Javier and his lone
remaining pack member fall under suspicion, and in the hysteria, Sacha begins to lose
control of her mission. Blindsided by passion, she must decide if she can trust the one
man who wants her just as she is.
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
Airship Seduction
ISBN 9781419938429
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Airship Seduction Copyright © 2012 Camryn Rhys
Edited by Grace Bradley
Cover art by Syneca
Photography: Igor Zh/Shutterstock.com; Fotolia.com; romancenovelcovers.com
Electronic book publication March 2012
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A
IRSHIP
S
EDUCTION
Camryn Rhys
Dedication
For Mark Cameron, who is the Javier to my Sacha.
Acknowledgments
Steampunk, as a genre, has been in the works for a hundred and fifty years, and I
owe an extreme debt of gratitude to my English and History professors in college for
making sure that I understood history well enough to know how to punk it. Thank you
to Suzanne Lazear for an excellent Steampunk workshop in 2010, where I first thought I
could write it myself, more than just love it as a genre. An enormous thank you to Paul
Trout who told me, as a young student, that I would write something brilliant someday.
If this isn't the brilliant thing you were talking about, I promise to do better next time.
Thank you to Keely, who took me to see the research movies and let me babble
about this world. So tirelessly. I couldn’t be writing without Jill, Mary, Cathy, Kristy
and Julia, who loved this idea before it was a book (especially the moments where Jill
would shout, “This will be a movie!”). Or without Denny and Steena, who critiqued this
to within an inch of its very tenuous life at the time.
And of course, no book would be artistically complete without its editorial
contributions. A huge acknowledgment to Grace Bradley and the amazing team at
Ellora’s Cave for the wholeness that is this book—all the parts where it doesn’t suck are
their doing. No artist creates in a vacuum, and I am no exception. I’m so grateful to my
family and friends for their shaping my life to make me who I am today, which has
produced the book you’re about to read. I am eternally in their debt.
Camryn Rhys
6
Chapter One
Barcelona, 1871
Their first mistake was thinking she didn’t speak Spanish. Their second, and most
unfortunate, assuming she couldn’t read minds.
Kill her was the prevailing sentiment. They crowded around, a hazy sea of faces,
their minds snarling as violently as their mouths. Sacha tried to keep the anticipation of
her escape—or rather, relocation—from showing, but something caught her off-guard.
Fear. And it wasn’t hers. She reached out to find the source of it and felt the anxious
pulse of someone’s urgency.
Run. Now.
She searched the faces for some sign of her ally, but found none. The leader stalked
toward her, indistinct tattoos rippling on shoulders that glistened with sweat in the
humid Spanish night. “What’s a pretty lady like you doing in such a bad part of town?”
She waited for the click of the metal linguistor implant that protruded over her ear,
but it remained silent. He spoke English, so something about her outfit gave her away.
As much as she tried to blend in, sometimes she couldn’t hide her ties to England.
“I’m lost.”
The leader stopped his circling and looked back into the crowd behind him. His
broad shoulders relaxed momentarily and she felt the push of urgency again.
Run into the light.
So this was her ally? The prowling alpha leader? With his spidery tattoos and
tattered vest hiding the expanse of his chest, he hardly looked the type to release
unsuspecting prey. He couldn’t possibly know she read his mind, so why was he
thinking in strategy for her?
She felt that niggling instinct that had been itching the back of her mind since they
first approached her. They were all thinking in Spanish, as they should. They were,
after all, Spaniards. She could feel the linguistor clicking with each translation.
But the fearful voice spoke in English. Thought. In English.
Why aren’t you running, woman?
He straightened his neck and spoke to his men in a hushed tone. Without
hesitation, Sacha kicked him in the back of his right leg and sprinted for the lit street.
Undoubtedly expecting a cowering Englishwoman, the men didn’t follow at first, but
she could feel their surprise, then their immediate anger.
One was quicker than the others, but still, they did not reach her before she
exploded into the bright circle of the streetlamp.
Airship Seduction
7
More important, out of the building shadow, into the reach of the moonbeams.
Inside the curl of the gaslight she stood alone, facing the darkness, feeling their
emotions and thoughts intrude, even though their bodies did not. They prowled the
edges, but stopped each time the shadows ended, and retraced their steps.
“You can show yourself if you want,” she said, tentatively. “I know what you are.”
The street was deserted, an abandoned corner of Barcelona that had been left to these
gangs after the last mass murder. The decrepit faces of once-beautiful hand-crafted
brick buildings frowned at her from their shadows. Their burnt frames were all that
remained of what had been Barcelona’s pride and the home of its burgeoning middle
classes.
Now, Avinguda was all but deserted, left to the violent men who guarded it. These
men. If her seer was right, there weren’t even any women left in this pack. And from the
looks of the youngest of the prowling herd, no children either.
“What we are?” This must have been the leader’s voice, for behind the audible
interest, she could feel the remnants of the fear that had pushed her into the light in the
first place. “You know nothing of who we are.”
She pressed further inside his mind and gasped. Unlike the rest of the men, whose
wolves were the black borders of their conscious mind, the alpha leader had chained
and guarded his. Built a wall almost like the scorched brick at her back around his inner
wolf. Even when the first night of the wolf moon engulfed them, his wolf behaved. The
other wolves urged their men to submit, to let them free, to walk into the moonlight.
But the leader must have ordered them out, for none of them ventured to follow
her, and they remained safely hidden in shadows.
“Yet you think you know who I am.” Sacha pulled the cape from her shoulders and
let it billow to the ground. “You do not.” What had appeared under the obfuscation of
the cape to be a fully skirted gown now revealed her short-cropped cerulean dress,
black knee-high boots, black tightly trousered legs, and copper torso cover. The uniform
of the Resistance.
The Resistance. This they understood. Europe for Progress had infiltrated far enough
into the bowels of the Spanish streets that its opposition was recognizable on sight.
The leader’s fear abated. He’d thought her one of the Disraeli assassins, no doubt,
but she allayed that worry. Now the question proved, would he trust her?
“You dress as one of our allies, but we have been tricked by these Englishmen
before, in many disguises.” The leader spoke again, but his confidence was as much an
act as it had been before. This time, however, he masked interest instead of fear.
Interest in more than her mission.
“Show yourself, and I will prove it to you.” Her heart hammered for the first time
all night as he stepped into the gas-lit street. The powerful cut of his muscled arms
seemed more pronounced in better lighting. His broad shoulders flexed as the
transformation rippled through him.
Camryn Rhys
8
At first, it was as though coarse hair sprouted from his pores, and the already
tattered vest stretched across his well-defined chest, straining against the power that
pressed at it. His thighs tore the fabric of his pants as they lengthened and spread, then
curled into the lupine stance that seemed now so familiar.
From inside the folds of her short dress, she pulled the Prata Mudanca, its silver
circle sparkling in the gaslight. With a flick of her index finger, she opened it and
reached toward his expanding body. The bracelet clasped around his hairy forearm
with a snap of her wrist, and as soon as the circle closed, the transformation halted.
Then, as gradually as it had come upon him, it reversed. His thighs returned to
their former human glory, naked beneath torn trousers. His vest, now open where it
shredded under the pressure of expansion, hung around his heaving chest. The thick
fur sucked back inside his pores, and only the dusting of black hair on his chest and
arms remained.
With unmitigated wonder, he stared at Sacha, then at the Prata, and back at Sacha.
His gaze dropped to her heaving cleavage. Heat shot up the sides of her neck,
unbidden, under the intensity of lust that radiated from him as the transformation
abated.
Werewolf lust, she’d seen before. But this was new. Not animalistic, but intensely
emotive. Throbbing. Needy. Stop it, Javier. She can hear you.
The unguarded thought caught her by surprise, and she couldn’t help the quick
intake of breath, the drop of her jaw. When he registered these things, he shook his
head.
Wait. Don’t call out. Just stay calm.
Could he read her thoughts as well? Quickly, she fortified her mind against
intrusion and pulled her emotions tight behind those walls.
“What is this?” He gestured toward her with the arm now encased in the silver
bracelet. Just above the edge of the Prata, the snaking lines of his tattoos bloomed up the
side of his arm and wound across his shoulders as well. Perhaps even across his back,
or down his spine to places unseen. The alpha lobos in Spain were rumored to have
tattoos that covered their entire bodies, including every inch of their flesh. The heat
returned to her face as she thought of all the ways she could test that theory.
She prayed he couldn’t read her mind.
The fawn-colored skin of his jaw worked in tension as he eyed her. His thoughts
unreadable, his emotion clear, he just watched and waited. His companions in the
shadows were not so patient.
“Kill her, Javier,” one shouted.
Another yelled, “Grab her before she runs again.”
Javier pushed one hand through his shoulder-length black hair and swore. They
want to kill you, woman. Tell us what we need to know. I don’t want to hurt another innocent.
Airship Seduction
9
“I can’t tell you much now.” Sacha held her arms wide to silence them. Around her,
the streets of Barcelona were silent and dark, save the occasional pop of lamp light. Not
a soul to be found, thankfully. Yet, it wouldn’t be long before the assassin caught up
with her again, and she would prefer to be back on the Harbinger with whatever of the
lobos would follow before he overtook them as he had in Cordova.
Javier raised his hand when the cries from his pack began anew. “You will tell us
who you are and what your business is, or we will be forced to kill you, as our custom
demands.”
“As your blood demands, you mean.” Her challenge, though not as strong as she
would have liked, obviously found a home, because his shoulders slumped minutely.
“You know not of what you speak.”
She put her hand on the silver bracelet, covering its heat with her own. “I know the
warmth of the Prata. I have seen it keep the change at bay in more than just your kind,
my friend.”
“The Prata?” Javier’s dark eyebrows raised.
“It’s an enchanted invention, whose secrets even I don’t know. But regardless, it
will keep you a man.” Her finger slipped from the expanse of silver onto his skin and
found it to be hotter than either her own body or the warm liquid metal that kept him
human in the moonlight. Something sparked deep within her. A longing she’d
imprisoned long ago.
Perhaps she should just leave one Prata behind and abandon them to Disraeli’s
assassins. No doubt the man who dogged her steps would arrive before the morning,
perhaps even before they reached the Harbinger. He was finding them faster and faster
with each stop.
Perhaps he would kill some of the lobos, as he also had in Cordova.
He would certainly kill them all if she didn’t take them with her immediately. They
would be the last she’d be able to find in Spain, now that her trail had been picked up
by the Empire.
“The Prata will keep you safe from Disraeli’s assassins. At least, it will hide your
animal when the moon’s out.”
Murmurs rose in the shadows. They knew of the assassins, even in the empty
streets of Barcelona. The fear in the ranks of these lobos permeated the darkness and
overwhelmed her stretching senses.
“How do you know of the assassins? Surely you occupy yourself with more
ladylike pursuits than the fairy tales of a deluded empire.”
“Fairy tales? So you’re suggesting that your previous transformation, which if you
will remember I stopped with the Prata, was, what? My imagination?”
Javier’s full lips curled into a lopsided smirk and his eyes coursed over her body
again. His tongue slipped out to wet those lips, and her heartbeat bolted.
Camryn Rhys
10
Sacha wasn’t surprised to find herself naked in his mind. She was always naked in
men’s minds. What always shocked her was the way they filled in the details
differently. Some pictured her with higher, firmer breasts than she had. Most imagined
them bigger and fuller. The size of her areolas often changed, as did their tint.
Some wanted her to have bigger thighs than she did, or smaller. A fuller butt, or a
less…significant one. She silently blessed those men. Some even blurred out her face. Or
her features would gradually morph into those of another woman, one she usually did
not recognize.
What they did to her was always different. Many pictured her lips around their—
awfully sizable, and likely imaginary—erections. Some would press their cocks inside
her, in a variety of positions, mostly unimaginative. Occasionally, one would have her
bound, and it wasn’t unusual for them to be violent, even to draw blood.
She was rarely turned-on by what they saw, and when she was, it never lasted long.
Disappearing into their minds, forgotten, wounded her, made her lock up her heart.
But Javier was different, and the dark flare of his eyes told her he knew it. He knew
she was reading his thoughts, and his explicit fantasy unfolded, flooding her senses.
She could smell her own very real arousal, and from his shifting stance, he responded in
kind.
She was naked in front of him, spread on a silky bed in the moonlight. Her breasts
and thighs and hips and lips were all exactly as she knew them to be. There was no
imaginative embellishment, as though he were picturing a memory rather than a
fantasy.
And he looked at her. Prowled, circled, drank deeply with his eyes, an erection
growing gradually between his powerful thighs.
Sacha also doubted that was embellished.
In his fantasy, he did not touch himself, although that was common enough among
men who liked to watch. Rather, he began at her toes, and licked her all the way to her
mouth, giving equal attention to the inside of her ankle, her kneecap and her clitoris,
her bellybutton, nipple, neck, lips.
Attention that left her every nerve alive, and her every desire unsatisfied as though
awake from hibernation. Hungry. Wet, and very hungry.
His feast of her body ended with a deep, wet, luxurious kiss, eerily similar to the
one from her own imagination when his tongue had trailed over his mouth a moment
ago, which made it difficult to concentrate on the mortal peril.
Good heavenly angels, how was she ever going to forget that tasting?
Yes, the mortal peril. These men were in mortal peril.
“Forgive my boldness, sir, but let’s drop the illusions you have of my ladylike
tendencies, and I will drop my illusions of your gentlemanly behavior. You are an
animal, I am a demon. At the risk of sounding trite, I believe you need me.”
Airship Seduction
11
Javier’s heart hadn’t pumped like this in his human form perhaps in his entire life.
The fear for her well-being when she’d been trapped by his cuadrilla had almost knee-
capped him. The adrenaline he knew, from when the change would take him. As a wolf
he felt the baser lusts, the hunger for violence, the need for feminine flesh. But as a man,
he’d learned to control these urges years ago.
He’d had to.
So the fascination with a couple of perfectly formed heaving breasts underneath
that copper-plated business caught him unaware. He wanted to rip the breastplate from
her body and free all those lovely curves to the muggy night air.
He wondered what she would look like, splayed beneath him, writhing with need,
slick with sweat and heat and desire. One more lustful thought and he might just come
popping right out for God and all to see.
Javier chastised himself for his lack of control. No matter what she said, she was a
lady and an innocent, although perhaps not a virgin, given her response to his rather
blatant perusal. Still, he would not act like an unstudied pup, taken by every lust that
coursed through him.
After that moment of weakness, he was in control again until he sensed Rico’s
tether breaking as they circled her in the alley. He hadn’t known she was an Empatia
until he felt the spike of her heel when he prayed she would run.
Although he couldn’t read her mind, he recognized the response to knowledge that
pressed out fear. Fear was something he was an expert in, if instinct could make one an
expert.
Her fear of him abated, and her wide, curious eyes and damp, open mouth made
his cock stir to life.
Mi Dios, if she could affect him thus using only his imagination, what would it be
like when she touched him?
And then she had touched him. Javier thought he might spill himself all over the
cobbled street when the heat of her skin met his. It had been too long since his last
conquest.
He needed her, she’d said. More specifically, they needed her. Disraeli’s assassins
must be on their way, just as they’d been warned, and now some demon woman
arrived, a savior. A tempting, perfectly formed demon woman, but a woman just the
same.
She blushed and turned her head, revealing the long beauty of her neck, the blood
pulsing just under her skin. A curse of his nature, he could always sense blood, and
hers pushed itself ever faster through her long, lovely body.
His own blood quickened.
Focus, Javier.
Camryn Rhys
12
“How did you stop the change?” He gestured again to his arm, encased in the silver
band. The once-smaller metal circle had tightened around his arm to become almost like
a layer of second skin.
“I cannot tell you, and I have only one.” She turned in a circle, addressing his
cuadrilla who still paced in the shadows. “But if you will come with me to my ship, I can
have more made. I promise to answer all questions, if you will but follow me to the
docks. We must leave at once.”
“We do not follow English whores.” Rico’s voice rang into the light, and the hair on
Javier’s arms stood in violent anger.
Javier rounded on him, holding his arms out to make a barrier between the violent
underling and the beautiful demon. He swore in Spanish and growled at Rico, who
returned the threat.
“And yet you followed me into the shadows, lobo.” She addressed Rico, although
she could not possibly see into the darkness as Javier could. The tenor of her voice bated
his rival, and he grasped her arm.
When he touched her flesh, heat seared through him, and he straightened. The
desire shot from his fingertips to his toes, pooling in his crotch. This woman was too
daring with his men, and it was turning him on.
“None of you have seen what I have seen,” she shouted. Pulling free from him, she
stepped toward the edge of the gaslight. “The Empire has sent men to all corners of the
globe seeking to exterminate remnants of magic from the world. In the name of
progress, they target you and me. Science must rule, they say. And magic must die.”
She circled the edge of the light, speaking directly to many of the men pacing in the
shadows, but paying particular attention to Rico. “I am part of The Resistance, and I am
here to take you to safety.”
“So you say!” Rico shouted. Javier’s large rival hovered just inside the dark lip of
shadow, barely an arm’s length from her fragile frame.
Javier stepped behind her, eyeing Rico over her shoulder and rising to his full
height. Only three or four inches taller than this demon woman, he nonetheless
stretched to dwarf her, to remind Rico of who led this pack after all.
“I know your numbers have dwindled in recent months. I know you have been
promised peace before and been tricked.” From inside the folds of her dress, she pulled
another object. Not like the silver band, this was a copper sphere, folded together like a
pocket watch. This sphere, however, was bigger and rounder than any pocket watch
Javier had seen.
Her delicate fingers plucked the latch and the sphere popped open. It unfolded into
one large picture window and a solid base. In the picture window flickered something
Javier never expected to see again. Mira. His heart tightened.
“They promised us freedom from the assassins.” Mira’s perfect face fluttered in and
out of focus and Javier’s breath stopped. Not only was her face unmarred and perfect,
but her voice was clear and real. “Two men in Resistance dress. They took my brother
Airship Seduction
13
and I and several of our pack to the docks, promising us something that would stop the
change so we could live as fully human again.”
The image blacked out, then reappeared. “My brother was killed instantly, but I
escaped with my life. When the Avinguda pack took me in, I heard stories of others
who had been set upon by these men. There was no way for us to know they were truly
with La Resistencia.”
After Mira’s face disappeared, Javier stood staring at the face of the instrument for
many moments. The pack stilled in the shadows, and even Rico kept his silence.
The demon woman flipped the instrument closed and stared intently at Javier.
While aware of her presence, all Javier could think was Mira was alive. He’d thought
her lost for good, but this woman had shown him proof she had not died at the hands
of the Empire after all.
“I’m sorry I had to show you that,” the demon woman said, quietly.
“It’s a trick, Javier.” Rico’s silence was as short-lived as his temper.
“It’s no trick.” She held the orb aloft. “This is a conjuring orb, and that report was
delivered to one of our Spanish officers shortly after she joined your pack.”
“And where is she now?” Javier tried to keep the emotion from his voice, but the
thought of Mira’s survival brought tears to his eyes.
The woman shook her head, her raven curls bouncing on her shoulders. He noticed
for the first time that her perfectly coiffed hair had come unpinned in one place. For an
unguarded moment, he thought of reaching into the curls to re-pin it, as he had so often
done with Mira. The thought stilled his breath.
“We have had no word from her in months.”
“So she is dead, as was reported?”
“We believe so, yes.” The woman replaced the orb into her dress.
Javier’s momentary hope expunged, his heart dropped. Mira, who for a moment
might have been alive somewhere, was now again dead. It was as they had been told.
Guilt washed over him at the thought that only moments before he’d seen his dead
lover’s face, he had been openly lusting after another woman.
The demon woman laid a soft hand on his arm, and he could feel the compassion
radiating from her. He closed his eyes, shook his head, and grunted.
“Men of Avinguda.” When he opened his eyes, each of his pack stood straight in
the shadows. Except Rico, who cowered now at the rear. “This woman offers us the
chance at freedom. I say we take it.”
“She could have conjured Mira’s image from dark powers,” Rico shouted from
behind several men, nonetheless sounding formidable.
“But to have such an exact likeness…” Javier trailed off, unable to finish his
thought. He’d wanted to admit that he thought her alive again, but thought better of it.
His men must not see him in this moment of weakness. And that’s exactly what it was.
Camryn Rhys
14
He’d long ago vowed never to let a woman rob him of his power of choice again. Even
seeing Mira and thinking she might be alive did not change that.
“It is convincing, yes,” said Tomas.
“But what if she lies?” Rico countered.
“We must take a chance.” Javier stepped to the demon woman’s side. The heat of
her body overpowered even the gaslight above his head. She grew hotter by the
moment, he was certain.
“We were nearly overtaken in Cordova.” She bent to retrieve the cloak she dropped
when she revealed her La Resistencia dress. With a flourish, she spread its black depths
around her again, and the illusion of full skirts and high necklines appeared
underneath, pushing the image of her tightly trousered calves into his imagination.
“By assassins?” he asked.
“They killed two of the men we were trying to save, and one of my officers.” With
long steps, she crossed the circle. “They cannot be more than a few hours behind me,
and we must move quickly if we are to escape them.”
“If we come with you.” Rico would not relent.
Javier tired of Rico’s attitude. It wouldn’t be long before the young man challenged
him for the alpha role, and it was time to put him in his place. “As the leader of the
Avinguda, I am ordering you to accompany this woman to her ship. We will leave
Barcelona this very night.”
Airship Seduction
15
Chapter Two
This was too surreal. With an order from Javier, the entire pack circled the shadows
and followed her through the alleys of Barcelona. Javier held her arm, walking in front
of his men with her at his side.
While she didn’t normally enjoy being manhandled in this way, she was afraid that
pulling away might dampen whatever tenuous hold he had on these men’s loyalty to
her. She certainly wanted their trust. And for now, that meant being perhaps closer to
this muscled, dominating alpha lobo than she preferred.
The closer her proximity, the more tempting it was to push into his mind, and what
she’d seen there earlier was enough to bring a fresh blush to her cheeks.
After the image she’d caught of the two of them entwined in a luxurious bed, she
no longer had control over the wetness that seeped into her underclothes. She also
decided not to push into his mind again, although when he glimpsed Mira’s picture on
the reglimeter, she was tempted to try one more time.
The sorrow on his face was more than that of a leader or a friend. She wondered if
they had been married. Mira’s interviews mentioned many men whose bed she’d
shared when acclimating to the pack. Javier’s name had never come up, and neither had
the possibility of her marriage.
Granted, the interviews had been conducted years ago. She could have met Javier
and fallen head over heels in love. Sacha could see how that might be possible with
him. Or at least head over heels in lust. On your back in a giant, cool bed in lust. Or on
his back. Or front. It didn’t really matter. As long as you got the bed and the lust part.
Even then, the bed was negotiable.
Lord in heaven, she needed a good tumble.
They flew through the darkened streets, careful to stick to shadows. Limping
buildings curled up into the night, inside the heart of the city. The more the buildings
crowded the darkening sky, the closer they came to the docks.
A sudden cry stopped them all in their tracks.
Javier whipped Sacha around as the rest of the pack turned. One of the men lay on
the packed earth of the alley, a tiny arrow in his neck.
“Tomas!” Another man knelt beside the body, feeling for a pulse. With wild eyes,
he glowered at Sacha. Javier stepped in front of her again, putting his pulsing body
between her and the angry lobo.
“This is a trap,” one of the men hissed.
“We should never have come.” The kneeling man stood with unnervingly
deliberate slowness. “I told you she tricked us.”
Camryn Rhys
16
“No.” Javier backed up to her, the firm globes of his butt pressing into her
abdomen, standing practically inside the folds of her cape. “Mira would never have
trusted our enemy with this information. We must continue.”
He pulled her around a corner, pressing them both against the hard, cold brick
façade of a cathedral. “Promise me that your words are true.” His face mere inches from
hers, he locked on to her eyes with a pleading gaze, not the dark brown she’d come to
expect from the Spanish, but sparkling deep green with golden flecks.
How she longed to be lost in that gaze, and not always running.
Another sharp cry sounded from the back of the pack as another man, the last
around the corner, thudded to the street with a tiny black arrow protruding from his
neck.
“I promise you,” she returned. With her own pleading eyes, she begged for
understanding. “This is not me, this is the Empire. We must hurry.”
Javier gestured to the men. “Follow me.” He pulled Sacha along beside him again,
darting for the shadows and galloping to a full run. Thankfully, they followed.
“This way.” She pointed down a familiar street. The Harbinger would be docked at
the end, where this street met the ocean.
Javier’s hand pulled her back into the alley just as she was about to step into the
street. “We cannot all go into the moonlight,” he hissed in her ear.
His hot breath stabbed at the sensitive skin behind her ear, and her knees buckled.
Her body’s immediate response frustrated her. This was not the time or the place for
such a response, but she couldn’t help the immediate heat that pooled in her abdomen.
The more he breathed on her ear, waiting, the more her belly tightened.
Heat coursed through her, mingling with the fear to create an amazing sort of
heady lust that encompassed her entire body. Every pore hummed.
“Your captain had better be ready to hoist anchor.”
She laughed. “It’s not that kind of ship.”
A hand on her arm heightened her awareness of his nearness, multiplied by the
potential of death. “Do I not deserve to know what kind of ship you take us to?”
“An airship.”
His growl surprised her. “You expect us to be safe floating in one of those mad
balloons? We could run faster than it could carry us.”
“It’s not that kind of airship.” She glanced down the last long alleyway, crowded
with a gang of drunkards, which would lead them to the Harbinger. “Trust me.”
“You make it more difficult with each answer.” He released her arm. “Where is
your ship?”
“At the end of this street.”
“We will stay in the shadows until we can no longer stay out of the moonlight.”
Airship Seduction
17
Before they could move, another man thudded to the street behind them. Javier’s
wide eyes rested on each of the men. Only eight remained. Three had fallen, and two
appeared to have either gotten lost or been persuaded by the thought that she couldn’t
be trusted.
Sacha’s breath quickened. She had hoped to deliver all fourteen of the remaining
Avinguda weres, but at this rate, she would be lucky to deliver any.
“Another man down,” said one of the men. He was large and hulking, with dark
skin and eyes. But his eyes were dark with more than just color. Hatred seethed in their
orbs. “I told you this was a trap.”
Sacha extended a hand, stopped from touching the other man by Javier’s tight grip
on her arm. “Please, this is not me. We have been followed by assassins since we
entered Spain. I promise you safety if we can only reach my ship.”
Javier pulled her toward the alley that paralleled the street. “Come with me, men.
We are almost to the ship, and will be free of these murdering assassins.”
Before the words left his mouth, another shot whirred between them. The angry
one, the one who’d been trying to lead the pack away from Javier, was hit. Then in
quick succession, each of the men cried out and fell before them, like a line of sand
castles crumbling under the waves.
Sacha caught Javier just as he moved for them and pulled him down into a crouch
with her. Two more bullets struck the brick where their heads had been, showering
them with dust. “We must go. Now.”
He shook his head and put his arm around the younger lobo at his side. “I will go
back for them.”
She shook her head. “There won’t be time. The assassins will collect them and come
for us.” Sacha searched for an escape route that would take them away from the high
ground the assassins must have found. Looking back, she caught the flourish of a black-
caped body on the top of one building. They were on the move.
“This is our chance.”
She stood and ran for the alley. Javier and the other lobo followed, quickly catching
up. The sounds of people milling in the street masked their footfalls as they got closer to
the docks. At the end of the alley, the shadows ended and the moonlight waited.
Javier turned to his remaining follower and slapped the man’s shoulder. “We’ll get
you safely aboard that ship, Sergio. I promise.” The young man nodded at his leader,
pride shining in his dark eyes.
They peered around the building and Sacha pointed to the giant silhouette of the
Harbinger, which drifted near the long expanse of the pier where the water’s height
came to the edge of the wood.
“There’s the Harbinger.”
“The ship that sank in the Great Gale?” Sergio’s eyes widened in fright. “This is a
ghost ship.” The young lobo crossed himself and looked up at Javier.
Camryn Rhys
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Sacha’s mouth curled into a smile. “That’s as close to the truth as anyone has come
yet. But there’s no storm can sink this ship.”
“There’s always a bigger storm than you can imagine.” Javier’s deadpan delivery
surprised Sacha. He eyed the ship warily and glanced behind them. “We must find a
way to get Sergio to the end of that pier without the moon touching his skin.”
Sacha threw her cape over the sinewy body of the young lobo. “I think this will
work, yes?”
Sergio pulled the cloak over his head so it covered all exposed skin. “I will do my
best to keep out of the moonlight.”
Sacha stepped into the street. “No need to run. We can make our way without
alerting anyone to our presence.”
They crossed to the pier, and a sharp whizzing sound passed Sacha’s ear. She
turned back to see the man from Cordova standing in the mouth of the alley. His long
dark cloak matched her own, although she doubted he bothered to wear a stolen or
fabricated Resistance uniform underneath.
He wasn’t pretending to be one of them anymore, was he? Now he was just hunting
them down.
“Run!” she yelled.
Before they got even ten feet, she heard a thunk behind her. With a quick prayer
that it wasn’t Javier lying in the street, she stopped and steeled herself to look. It wasn’t.
But he knelt beside Sergio and pulled the black gadget from his back.
“Don’t discard it!” she commanded. She took object from his hand and pulled him
up, but he resisted.
Javier bent to retrieve his fallen friend, hefting the body over his shoulder in one
quick movement. He hurried past her, but she stopped him.
“We don’t have time to take him.”
“We don’t have time to argue,” he corrected her, pulling her along. “The man with
the bullets is behind us.” He readjusted Sergio and kept running.
She followed.
Luc had the walkway down and Sacha yelled to her captain. “The Empire is behind
us!”
Javier trampled up the walkway with Sergio on his shoulder, and Sacha followed
with quick steps. She yanked on the lever to disengage and retract the walkway as soon
as her foot met the deck of the airship.
As always, once the long appendage began to draw back, Luc’s voice sounded
across the deck. “Air lift in thirty seconds.” They had this down to a science.
Sacha depressed the button on the communicator. “We don’t have thirty seconds.
Take off now. I don’t care if everything’s retracted or moving. Just get us in the air.”
Airship Seduction
19
With the engines running on idle, the ship in dock appeared to be like any other
seafaring vessel. But when Luc pushed the engines straight from idle to full, the noise
blasted anyone in a forty-foot radius. She’d been hoping for this.
The assassin crumpled under the noise, just as he was about to leap from the pier to
grasp the retracting end of the walkway. When he stood again, it soared well beyond
his reach. With one foot forward, he took aim with the device and depressed whatever
firing mechanism the Empire concocted that could now fire arrows or bullets at so great
a distance with such deadly accuracy.
One of these days, when they had him in their hold, she would examine this device.
The Empire, it seemed, was always outrunning them in the technology department.
But not for long.
The metal-tipped short arrow clanged against her copper breastplate, striking on
the inside of her left breast and falling toward the disappearing ocean below.
Deadly accuracy.
But for now, they were at least advanced enough to repel most of the attacks. She
worried this would not always be so.
With as much arrogance as she could muster, she pushed at the man’s psyche, but
while they were still in range of his firing device, he was out of range of her Empathy.
Or he’d developed a mask against her. This was not unheard of among the assassins.
They may hate magic, but they used it to protect themselves.
Better the devil you know, and all that rot.
Sacha latched the edge of the fully retracted walkway to the airship’s inner wall,
securing it against the early-morning air. Her heart still pounded from their encounter
with the caped assassin, and once she remembered that she’d brought guests on board,
she ran for the inner core of the ship where they would have been taken.
She clapped along the hallway that separated the large hold from the living
quarters. At the end of the hall, a door ajar told her where her captives had been
deposited.
When Sacha reached the hold, she found Javier panting, hovering over Sergio’s
lifeless body with tears on his cheeks. In the enclosed space of the airship, he seemed
bigger than he had before. His wide shoulders heaved as he gazed down at the still
young man.
All of my men. They’re all…and Sergio. I promised Mira.
At the mention of his dead lover’s name, Sacha pulled out of Javier’s mind. She was
only a touch irritated that he hadn’t been thinking of her instead, but also pushed that
thought away.
She took a step toward him, her hand outstretched. “This is not your fault.”
At her words, he straightened and stiffened. Before she could touch him, he turned
on her. “I must be allowed to burn his body before his wolf spirit disappears.”
Camryn Rhys
20
The linguistor clicked at her ear. For some reason, he’d reverted to Spanish. Perhaps
the shock of losing his men, perhaps he was testing her.
“We will be in Italy in two days’ time. You may burn him on landing,” she said.
Javier’s dark head shook in quick movements, then stilled, his eyes closing. “This is
not acceptable. If I do not burn his body before the moon rises again, his wolf spirit will
leave his body, and we will not recover him in the next lifetime.”
Sacha leaned against the heavy wall of the hold and drew a breath. There was no
possible way to accommodate this request, unless they threw him into the incinerator
deep in the caverns of the airship. Somehow, she doubted that was what Javier meant
when he said they should burn his body.
“I will speak with Luc, but I do not think this will be possible.”
She expected a violent outburst in response, and steeled herself for it, readying her
psychic arsenal, should he try to attack her. Instead, he sank to his knees, his eyes fixed
on Sergio’s face. “Please find a way.” Javier buried his face in his arms and fell onto
Sergio’s body, shaking with grief.
Sacha had seen the mourning rituals of Spanish lobos before, and knew to steer well
clear for as long as possible. She did not have the emotional stamina tonight to sit with
him while he grieved. Perhaps one of the Cordovans would know how to sit in
companionable silence while he tore through the emotions.
Yes, she would get right on that.
* * * * *
Sacha woke from a dreamless sleep to the presence of someone in her quarters.
While she rarely expected complete privacy, her crew usually protected her while she
slept. The new passengers must be a handful, because some hulking presence slipped
past the guards.
“You didn’t come to me when you boarded.” Luc’s voice seethed from the dark
corner of her cabin.
“I was tired.” She pulled up onto her elbows and the woolen blanket perched on the
edge of her breasts. “And we had new passengers.”
“Just one, I thought.” He struck a match and she followed the small light to the
candle, where its breadth grew to encompass Luc’s trousered legs, then his torso, then
his frowning face.
“Well, one alive.” She sat up a bit farther, pulling back on the lumpy mattress so she
could sit against the wooden wall. The cool, smooth surface contrasted sharply to the
warmth of her sheets. The blanket strained against her skin, but traveled well enough to
prevent her exposing herself to Luc.
Not that he would have minded.
In his mind, they were already naked, tangled in the sheets, humping like wild
animals. The picture of his hard, naked body sliding against hers normally made her
Airship Seduction
21
body prime for him. But this time, she could only remember the way Javier had licked
her from toe to mouth. That made her wet.
“I waited for you.”
“I was tired, Luc.” She glanced to the mirror, positioned so she could watch herself
with Luc when they were in her bed. Since the first day he’d come to her like this, she’d
been infatuated with watching. It was like seeing into her own mind the way she could
see into others’, and it excited her even more.
She looked as if she’d been sleeping, though. The dark circles under her eyes were
back, her hair was a mess, the right side of her face still flush from the warmth of her
pillow. She couldn’t imagine what he saw here that made him lust so ardently after her.
Well, she knew what he saw in his head, but always wished she didn’t.
“This man, he’s made you forget me, eh?” Luc’s dark-blond beard rippled with his
closed smile.
“I would never…” Sacha stopped before she gave herself away. Her response to
Javier’s fantasy had frightened even herself. She never left herself open to a man, not
with the kind of ardor she’d felt when Javier’s fantasy leapt at her.
“I could see him shooting at you, still, when we took off.”
Luc meant the assassin. Of course. He wouldn’t have seen her with Javier yet. And
she worried for the moment when he would. Although not an Empath, Luc had a knack
for reading people. He would see her heart on her face.
“I am unharmed.”
“I know that. But I still wish you would have come to me.” Luc moved toward her,
shedding his shirt as he went. Her shoulders tensed and he stopped, sitting on the edge
of the bed.
“You don’t want me to take my clothes off?”
“It should be almost morning, Luc. We need to check on the passengers.”
Luc’s hand brushed through his short, wheaten hair. “You always welcomed me
into your bed before, Sachela.”
She hated his pet name for her. But his Italian tongue had such a hard time
wrapping itself around her Gypsy name.
Not around her Gypsy cunt, though, and she felt the wetness building inside her.
“Maybe you keep your clothes on this time, Luc?” She pulled her hand from where
it held the blanket over her breasts, and it fell into her lap.
His eyes widened at the sight of her heavy breasts, and greedy hands reached for
her. “I needed you this morning.”
But that wasn’t really true. When he reached for her breasts, she reached for his
mind, and found herself suddenly gone from her own body. The rough pads of his
fingers excited her nipples before he took one fully into his mouth and suckled there.
But when he looked into the face of his fantasy, it was not Sacha’s faintly scarred cheek
that he brushed.
Camryn Rhys
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It was also not Sacha’s chocolate-brown eyes that looked back in ecstasy as he
pressed his coarse fingertips onto her clitoris and inside her wet channel. Not in his
mind, anyway. The gaze in his fantasy was deep green, and bright with love, not hazed
with lust.
When he finally dropped his pants and freed his erection, she was so ready for him,
she practically begged for it. And she never begged.
On the outside, the way they pawed at each other would have appeared loving. He
called her “Sachela” and reached for her pleasure center as he panted. But as he drove
into her from behind, bracing himself against the wall, he was not thinking of her.
He pulled his wet cock out of her, leaving her desperate to be filled again. But as he
pumped white ropes of spunk onto her back, he thought of his first wife, who
happened to share Sacha’s voluptuous figure and raven black hair. And as the pressure
of climax built inside her belly, she pictured the dark, handsome werewolf who saw her
just as she was.
Luc was back at the helm as quickly as he could pull his clothes back on. Sacha,
however, lay naked on her stomach until she was certain he’d returned to the front of
the ship. Between the sex, all the running, and two days in the grimy city, she felt ready
for a bath. Sacha pulled on her blue satin robe and stepped out of her room to head for
the water closet. In the hallway, she was almost alone.
Still, she couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that she wanted to wash Luc away for
another reason entirely. While it was hardly a secret among the crew that they shared a
bed, she didn’t want to risk running into Javier so soon after coitus.
The animal in him might be able to smell another man on her, and that bothered her
more than she liked.
Airship Seduction
23
Chapter Three
Javier woke in unfamiliar darkness, his head on someone’s chest, the feeling of a
recent nightmare rolling in his stomach. While he couldn’t quite make out where he
was, he at least knew it was a full moon tonight, so thank God he’d at least fallen asleep
out of the moonlight.
But a foreign pressure on his arm reminded him of the nightmare. A beautiful
black-haired Gypsy girl had unmasked her pretense in front of the pack, clapped a
piece of silver on his arm, and prevented his shifting. Surely, it was a nightmare.
One touch to his left forearm revealed the metal cuff that warmed his skin. Javier
pulled his arm to assure he had not been bound, and when it moved without fetter, the
cold realization of reality swept over him.
He’d not dreamt of a menace chasing them, his pack falling around him one by one,
then abandoning him as he followed this mysterious woman. The soft pressure of
Sergio’s rib cage against his face confirmed it. Though he had not yet cooled in death,
that would be short hours away, and all that Javier thought was a dream would prove
to be true. He was alone, his last remaining brother dead beneath him, on some devil
ship that the Gypsy had brought him to just before he’d passed out in his grief.
Javier lifted his head as his eyes adjusted to the dark. He couldn’t see much, but he
could make out stacked crates against the far wall, and a bit of an open space around
them. He and Sergio lay against a wall whose twin he could not make out. This must be
the hold of the ship.
“Hello?” he called across the space, assuming that if anyone lay in wait for him,
they would at least speak English as the woman had.
No one answered.
Custom demanded that he remain with Sergio’s body until they could burn him, a
constant companion to his wolf spirit. But Javier wanted answers, and he wanted them
now.
He kissed Sergio’s lips, saying a short prayer over his spirit, and crossed himself,
then the boy. Standing on shaky legs, he felt his way along the wall until he came to a
door. Logic said there would be at least two entrances to the room. The one closest to
him would be the one he’d entered through.
He knew what lay that way.
So instead, he felt his way along the rest of that wall, counting his paces until he
reached the corner of the room. In his mind, he mapped the size and shape of the hold
as he felt the wall, needing to detour around crates.
Camryn Rhys
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Suddenly, the door he’d already passed opened. Javier froze. A moment later, a soft
light entered the room, then expanded to consume the space.
“Merde!” a male voice boomed. “There is only the body.”
Another voice, a somewhat familiar one, returned, “He cannot have gone far. I’ll get
Sacha.”
“Wait,” said the first voice. “Luc said you know him. Perhaps he is even still in this
room, listening.”
“Javier Vargas!” The second voice Javier knew from somewhere. It could not be one
of his cuadrilla. But he knew it. “Javier. You must show yourself.”
“He is not here.”
“Stop, André. He is here. He would not leave Sergio’s body.” A pause, footsteps
approached. The two men fanned out into the room. “Javier, come out. It is Vidal
Herrera of the Cordova cuadrilla.”
Yes, this was the voice. The alpha of their brother pack. The place where Mira had
disappeared. Vidal had come to him personally to tell the story of her loss. Anger
burned in his throat.
“If this is Vidal, then you will know of the last time we met,” Javier growled, feeling
the wolf stir. It pushed at his insides, like a flower pushed at the soil when it first
awoke. But it did not break.
There was silence, and the footfalls ended. “Yes, brother. That was unfortunate.
And you may still harbor some anger toward me, but I promise you, we did everything
we could to save Mira from Disraeli’s men.”
Javier pressed his hands against the crate that hid him, feeling the coarse
woodgrain threaten to snag his skin. While he wanted to push against Vidal’s words, he
knew that the man was at least sincere. He remembered that much from their last
meeting.
“I am coming out,” warned Javier. “Don’t shoot me.”
“We’re not armed, Javier.”
When he stepped out into the dark edge of the gaslight, Javier saw Vidal’s stocky
frame next to the tall, lanky Frenchman who’d spoken first. He was right that neither of
them were armed with weapons, but Vidal was a powerful were, and the Frenchman
had a quiet power he couldn’t place. Something unnatural gleamed in his black eyes.
“I would know who you are, Frenchman.”
“André Perrin.” The brown head bowed low in a flourish only a true Frenchman
could capture with that kind of elegance and complete foppery. “In your service, no?”
“It is ‘at your service’, André. And don’t be so dramatic.”
“He is the alpha leader, is he not?” André’s eyebrow rose while he was still in the
midst of his bow.
Airship Seduction
25
“Please stand, André Perrin.” Javier stepped closer, though still not in hand-
shaking distance. “And Vidal. I am unarmed as well.”
“You’re among friends.” Vidal crossed the space between them. It wasn’t until his
hand moved that Javier noticed the silver cuff on his left arm that matched his. The
Prata Mudanca, she’d called it.
Vidal offered his right arm, and Javier paused before grasping it, considering one
last time that this man had once been the target of his hatred. But trust seemed the only
option.
He certainly didn’t want to make enemies in such small quarters. Not yet, anyway.
“You’ve met Sacha, I assume,” André said.
Sacha. That was the Gypsy beauty’s name. Javier nodded.
They reached Sergio’s body and a wave of nausea curled through Javier’s stomach.
The events of the previous night flew through his thoughts, ending with the perfect
memory of Sergio falling behind him. Taking the arrow meant for him, no doubt.
“Where are we sailing?”
André and Vidal traded another glance. “You tell him, Vidal. It might be easier
coming from you.”
The short man breathed and pulled Javier down with him, so they knelt at Sergio’s
side. “We’re not sailing anywhere.”
“But I can feel the unsteadiness of the ocean below us.”
Vidal’s thin lips stretched into a smile. “Yes, the ocean is below us. At times.” He
put a thick hand on Javier’s shoulder. “We’re not on the water, brother. We’re in the
air.”
“The air?” The nausea returned. He remembered Sacha’s laughter and talk of
balloons and flying. He hadn’t thought to take her seriously when he saw the
seaworthy vessel they boarded the previous night.
Airships weren’t made of wood. Or built for the water. This was obviously both.
Some magic kept them in motion, and he only hoped it wasn’t black magic.
“And where are we docking?” Javier asked.
André clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re one open-minded man. It took me
much longer to accept this was the state of things. Vidal had to take me to the helm
personally, so I could see the ocean below.”
“There’s a place to see this?”
Vidal grinned and looked up at André, his dark skin crinkling in his laughter.
“We’ll take you. It is like nothing you’ve ever seen.”
Javier gazed down at Sergio’s corpse before them. “If men can become wolves and
women can read minds, then nothing is beyond the realm of possibility.”
“Not even a ship powered by water that flies above the birds,” Vidal wondered.
“And the bats,” added André. “Don’t forget the bats.”
Camryn Rhys
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“You are a vampire then?”
André’s heavily lined face rippled into a wistful half-smile. “I am many things.” For
the first time, Javier realized how much older this Frenchman was than either him or
Vidal. Not only did he have the ageless air about him, but he spoke with the most
contemporary cadence of the France Javier had visited. His light-brown hair, upon
further inspection, was dotted with gray. His face, at first appearing youthful, was
heavily lined, if a bit pale. Not as pale as the vampires Javier had met in the dark alleys
of Barcelona, and nowhere near as fierce. André appeared civilized, and perhaps a bit
too well-bred for the heavy woolen pants and cotton shirt that hung on his lanky frame.
“And this Sacha you spoke of. The woman who brought us here.” Javier stopped,
closing his eyes and murmuring a prayer for Sergio. “Who brought me here.”
Vidal nodded. “Sacha Camomescro. She is the Crusader.”
“From the legends?”
“Sí.”
Javier swore in Spanish, forgetting his French friend. “Holy Mother of Jesus.”
Friend. Fifteen minutes in the man’s company and he was already calling André friend.
How his wolf brothers would chastise him.
A were has no friends but his wolf brethren. Only they know the sting of the change, the
sweat of the wolf’s possession. Only they… But they were no longer with him. A were alone.
He had never heard of such a thing.
* * * * *
Sacha paused before opening the door to the Harbinger’s hold. She was still unsure
whether this wolf could read her thoughts, and must steel herself against him, in case
he was also an Empath.
She stretched her limbs which were encased again in their Resistance regalia. The
cool-blue, short dress looked just as silly today as it always did over her tight black
trousers, and she longed for the feminine length of her old dresses. Just for once, she
wanted to be a lady among men instead of a warrior. But Luc was right. These dresses
made the Resistance women understand their role among their male counterparts. They
were at once women and men. The soft, emotional and empathetic along with the hard,
strong and vicious.
But when she remembered her moments with Luc in her bed, he didn’t seem to see
any maleness in her. He saw softness and curves. And his dead wife. Still, woman.
Of course, when he fought at her side, he needed to know she could call up the
ferocious warrior within. And she could. He trusted that. Perhaps her half-male
costume helped him understand that. Perhaps it just made her look like an idiot.
Yet she longed to just wear a real dress for once.
The cool metal of the door handle shifted her back to reality. Best not to be thinking
of Luc when she met Javier again.
Airship Seduction
27
She urged the door open. The hold was lit, but empty. The spot near the wall where
Javier had deposited his companion, vacant. She remembered his heaving shoulders as
he sobbed. Perhaps the Cordovan alpha had offered his own quarters as a grieving
place.
Sacha pushed at the room with her mind, checking for signs of life, and finding
none. So she pressed further. Only familiar passengers on the other side of the wall.
Without hesitation, she picked up the snuffer and put out the lamp. Must save all
the fuel they could. They would not be back to Africa for a good month yet, and they
could not afford to restock the ship before then.
Not with Disraeli’s assassins on their tail, so close.
She stalked to the other end of the room and out the hold, into the corridor where
Vidal’s quarters were. When she reached his door, she knocked three times and the
door opened immediately.
The faces of the Cordovans were still dark from their own grief. They’d been
allowed the time to burn their dead once they reached Barcelona, and the room reeked
of the oppressive sadness of responsibility.
“I need to speak with Vidal.”
“He’s not here,” one of the men answered, turning back to the room. He said
something in Spanish, and she realized, at the unfamiliar words, that she’d left her
linguistor in her cabin.
“Do you know where he is?”
“The last we saw him was when you came for him.”
She paused. That had been hours ago. If Javier and the wolf corpse were missing
from the hold, and Vidal had not been seen in hours, where in the name of everything
holy could they be?
Surely they wouldn’t have gone to André’s quarters. The French vampires were
notoriously snobbish when it came to the others. They would occasionally tolerate
Sacha’s presence because she was a demon, but apart from André, they mostly kept to
themselves and snubbed the other passengers.
Taking a werewolf corpse into a den of vampires was just out of the question.
Surely Javier would know…they wouldn’t hesitate to feed on a dead were. Without
thanking the Cordovan, she bolted for the vampires’ cabin.
She nearly ran over Luc when she turned the last corner. He grabbed her to prevent
her falling, and she caught a momentary glimpse of fear before his mind went blank
again. His mind was always blank, except when they were alone.
“Luc! What in the blazes—”
He stopped her. “Have you seen André?”
“I was just going to look for him. Why?”
“It would appear that he and Vidal are missing with the werewolf corpse.”
Camryn Rhys
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A missing corpse. What a problem to have. Why couldn’t she just be like normal
women who had a husband and children and laundry and cooking? Of course, the fact
that she was a demon had nothing to do with it. She could easily conceal herself among
the humans, as she had for most of her life before The Resistance found her.
While she was contemplating a quiet life as a farmer’s wife, Luc shook her. And
back to the sad reality.
“Sachela!”
“Please refrain from using that name in public, Luc. And may I remind you? The
Spanish mourning custom is not like yours. Surely, they’ve found a quiet place to sit
with him as he grieves.”
“Did you check with the Cordovans?”
“Yes, and he wasn’t there, but I’m sure he’s somewhere.”
“Of course he’s somewhere! But we need to know where that somewhere is.”
Sacha contemplated the ship’s anatomy. She’d been to the hold and come forward.
Luc had been at the helm and come back. They’d met practically in the middle. The
only place she hadn’t been was…the mechanical level.
They both must have come to the same conclusion at once because they turned in
tandem and ran for the stairs that led into the hot underbelly of the airship. The place
where the furnace waited.
The closer they got to the furnace, the hotter the air became, and the more profusely
the sweat poured down her back, her face, her exposed cleavage. By the time she
reached the door to the furnace room, every inch of her skin was slick.
Sacha pulled the door open and a fresh wave of heat pelted her. At her side, Luc
was eerily dry. She’d always assumed he was human, but even a part-human would
have been drenched at this temperature. This was why only the drakienen worked the
furnace room. The temperatures necessary to heat the water-fuel would rob any part-
human of all their body’s water in a matter of hours, but the men who turned to
dragons could stand inside the furnace and not be burned.
He pushed past her, into the furnace room, where the door to the fire lay, and she
followed with tired steps. At the end of the room, three men stood in front of Gilles, one
of the drakienen who worked the furnace. A tall, thin man on one end, a short, stocky
man on the other, and the raw power of Javier’s physique in the middle, holding a limp
body in his arms.
If it was possible, when Javier turned to behold her, the heat pressed in on her even
more. Between the anger and the lust that flamed in his eyes, she’d rather work the
furnace room for a year than be caught in that gaze for long.
Either one would likely kill her.
“He wishes to prevent my burning Sergio’s body.”
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29
Javier couldn’t control his anger at the large, scaly man any more than he could
control the sudden wave of desire that took him when he saw Sacha enter the
sweltering room, her skin damp, her breasts heaving. It was as though she intended to
plague him.
Perhaps she did.
“You cannot throw him into the furnace,” the drakien repeated. “We have to be very
careful about the material that goes in.”
“He’s right.” The man at Sacha’s side chimed in, making the anger boil in Javier’s
belly again. “The temperature is very carefully controlled, Javier.”
How did this blond intruder know his name? Did everyone on this blasted ship
know who he was? God in heaven, he just wanted to go back to Barcelona. If he was
going to be alone, at least he could be alone in familiar surroundings.
“I don’t care about the temperature of this ship.” He thrust Sergio’s body toward
Sacha. “His spirit will be lost if we do not burn his body before dark falls.”
The blond man took a step toward him and Javier hunched over Sergio’s body,
pulling it back into his chest like a baby. Sacha reached for the man’s arm, and held
him.
So this was her husband? They touched like lovers.
“Don’t advance on him, Luc. He’s still unsure of us.”
The woman could, indeed, read minds. Of course, he’d assumed she was an Empatia
last night, but he knew it now. That had been his very thought.
“I must burn his body before dark falls!”
Sacha pulled Luc back and walked toward Javier. Her steps were graceful and her
face earnest. She’d donned her Resistance uniform again, although it was not the same
one she wore last night. This one was clean and smelled of flowers. He could smell her
sweat, new on clean skin, and her desire, budding inside her. Perhaps she did not even
know it. It had not been on her when she entered.
He shook the scent off. Vixen, pressing her sex on him when he had a duty to his
brother wolf. Sergio’s very spirit was at stake.
Sacha finally stopped, just inches from Sergio’s body. She opened her fingers wide
and touched the Prata on his arm. “Remember, I am a friend.”
He flinched, but allowed her touch to remain. “I must—”
“We will make a way for you to prepare and burn his body. But it cannot be this
way.” She grasped his arm with the entire warmth of her hand now. It both calmed and
excited him. But her words harnessed his anger.
“The furnace is temperamental,” Luc explained. “If it is just a few degrees cooler
than it needs to be, it will not heat the water-fuel to the right temperature, and we could
fall from the sky.”
Camryn Rhys
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“When you put it in those words, I am convinced.” Javier stepped toward Sacha,
away from the hulking scaled man, the other were, and the vampire. “I did not mean to
cause a commotion, but our customs must be observed.”
“We will make an unscheduled landing this afternoon,” Luc said. “Near Avignon,
and before sunset. I promise.”
“Luc is the captain of the ship,” Sacha explained, backing up with Javier as he
advanced. The pressure in his chest that the anger had created abated, and he realized
he was being led out of the room.
Javier stopped, turned back to the large, scaly man, and knit his brow. “I apologize.
My intention was not to intimidate you.”
A red bloom furrowed along the scales in the man’s forehead and spread down his
long face. The two long nostrils in his wide nose flared. “You could never intimidate
me, half-breed. I am a demon.”
Javier paused and a slow, rueful smile spread across his face. “Nothing can stand in
the way of an alpha werewolf protecting his family.” He turned back to Sacha and
flicked his gaze between her and the inhuman thing behind her. “Not even a demon.”
Sacha’s slightly dimpled chin dipped, her gaze narrowing at something over his
shoulder, undoubtedly the scaly man’s anger. She must carry much power to be able to
silence a drakien with a flick of her eyes.
And not just magic, but authority. She carried it well.
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31
Chapter Four
Sacha silently cursed herself for leaving the linguistor in her room as she followed
Javier and Vidal through the ship’s corridors. Not knowing what they were saying put
her at a strategic disadvantage.
Not being able to translate Javier’s thoughts meant she had no idea if the heated
looks he gave her were because of the growing intensity between them, or the fact he
might smell Luc on her.
“Your captain promised to dock in Avignon today.” Javier’s voice, from behind her,
felt too much like an illicit caress—pliant, but with an undercurrent of danger, as
though there would be hell to pay if it went astray.
“He’s not my captain,” she insisted.
“But he is the captain of this ship.”
“Well, yes.”
“And he did promise to dock in Avignon today.”
“Near Avignon,” André piped up, probably as much to correct their pronunciation
as their geography. Among his other snobberies, he hated to hear the French language
mispronounced. They spent three days between Nice and Marseille having André at
their heels continuously shouting, “no ‘ch’, there is no bloody ‘ch’ in Nice,” and then
swearing profusely in French. She’d had enough.
“Yes, André. We all butcher your beloved Francais. And if you’ll be so kind, I’m
sure your little cult of bloodsuckers could use some babysitting before the rest of the
pixies go missing.” Sacha pointed to her right at the corridor juncture.
“I only meant—” André tried to protest. “And I take offense to the pixie comment.”
“Now, André.”
The tall vampire took the right corridor, around the hold, muttering to himself in
French. For once, Sacha was glad she had left her linguistor in her room. When André
was in a tiff, he was impossible to tolerate. His thoughts shouted, as though he knew
she couldn’t escape them if he applied enough force.
She and the two werewolves—well, three werewolves—took the left fork, heading
for Vidal’s rooms. “We’ll probably dock in the Rhone, north of the city.”
“It will need to be remote.” Vidal’s voice seemed easier, more free, than Javier’s. No
point trying to read their minds, because their thoughts would be in Spanish anyway.
And turning to face Javier would put her at risk of getting caught in his gaze again.
Potentially, also, in the pictures of his mind.
“For the burning?”
Camryn Rhys
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“Yes, for the burning.” Javier’s voice shook. “And I must be alone.”
“No,” said Vidal. “My brothers and I will be with you. Just as it is ordered. The
whole pack will be present.”
Javier was resolute. “They are not my brothers.”
They reached the door to Vidal’s quarters, and Sacha could hear the men behind it
still wailing in the pathetic, strained voices of the wolves stuck in human form. But
because they couldn’t afford twenty werewolves running around the ship during the
full moon, each one wore the Prata. Most of her crew was not magical, although most
magical creatures could not stand up to an enraged lobo on their best day.
Plus, everyone was hurting. Everyone had lost someone to the assassins. In the last
month, her airship had gone from being a secret place to a highly anticipated means of
salvation. It heaved in grief like one giant, sobbing shoulder. The pain was
overwhelming.
And Sacha felt all of it.
But the flamboyant release of the Spaniard weres was too much for her to handle for
long. They were too open and free with their emotions. Overwhelming.
“Will you take Sergio’s… Vidal, will you take Sergio with you so I may speak with
Sacha for a moment alone?” Javier’s quavering request sent chills up her spine. The
word alone was enough to make her bolt from her steadfast spot. Only her legs were
frozen.
Vidal accepted Sergio from Javier’s bulging arms and rapped on the door with his
foot. For the first time, Sacha noticed the tattoos on the two alpha’s arms were not the
same. She assumed they would be some kind of rite of passage, and would be identical.
But they were completely different.
Vidal’s were larger, more colorful, almost what one would call flowery, except they
didn’t look out of place on this proud, masculine shoulder. Javier’s were completely
black, with his camel-colored skin in the gaps where a picture on a page might have
been white. The stark contrast of the black against his skin made her curious how the
tattoos would feel under her fingertips. They almost appeared to have texture.
Or perhaps they would feel like his skin. Her mouth opened at the thought of
tracing her fingers along their edges. She glanced at Javier, but Sergio took his full
attention and she heaved a sigh of relief.
When the door opened, the pained eyes of the other weres glared back at her, then
softened. “Hello, Sacha,” one of them said. She nodded her response.
“Should we begin to prepare him?” Vidal asked, keeping his eyes on Sergio’s face.
Javier considered for a moment.
“I would be honored if you would help me prepare him.”
Vidal’s head dipped and he carried Sergio’s limp body into the room. When the
door closed, Javier pressed a hand into the frame and stood in silence. His wide
shoulders dropped. She couldn’t help the course of her eyes down his muscled back,
Airship Seduction
33
newly clad in the white cotton fabric they provided the passengers, which clung to the
contours of his body tighter than her imagination.
“I have many questions, señora.”
“Señorita,” she corrected.
Javier turned, shock in his eyes. “But the man, your captain. Luc, you called him.
He is not your husband?”
So he had picked up on it.
“He has been my friend since childhood. His wife was like my own sister.” No lies,
no admissions. She turned, feeling crowded out by the sudden spike of emotion coming
from Vidal’s quarters. “Please, walk with me. I cannot stand near this door any longer.”
Javier followed, his steps longer and heavier than hers. “What is it?”
“Their pain. It’s going to swallow me.” She spoke before thinking, and could hear
his interested murmur. She rolled her eyes. “Just come with me. We can talk in private
elsewhere.”
He grasped her arm and the heat of his touch spiraled through her. “We can speak
here, can’t we?”
She pressed outward, sensing those in the immediate area, then turned to him. His
face, lined with concern, opened something inside her, as certainly as if he’d released a
latch and pulled at the door around her heart.
“We can speak here.” She looked down the corridor, toward the were quarters. “For
now.”
“I must know where you are taking me.” He offered her the arm encased in the
Prata. “I’ve taken much on faith, señora.” His mouth was still open on the last syllable as
he corrected himself. “Señorita.”
There was more promise in that word than she hoped he intended. Sacha reined in
her desire to look at his thoughts. What she could understand, he’d have put there for
her. She had no doubts by now that he knew she was an Empath, or Empatia, as he
would say it. In that deep, rich, sexy voice of his…
Stop, Sacha. Just stop.
“Shall I repeat my question?” His eyes, inscrutable, slowly covered the planes of her
face. She could feel his gaze on her cheeks, her lips, her neck. What was he looking for?
“You didn’t ask a question,” she spat. “I’m not a complete idiot.”
“Are you only a little idiot, then, señorita?” He toyed with her. The nerve of the
man. The wolf. The wolf-man. What have you.
She flexed her fingers at her sides and exhaled sharply, ending with a saccharine
smile. “We are taking you, sir, to the Ivory Coast.”
As though that settled it, she twisted toward the main deck and stormed away.
Javier, of course, followed.
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He didn’t need to be an Empath to see the flush in her cheeks and the crinkle of her
mouth when she looked into his eyes. Her shallow, quick breaths. She baited him.
And he liked it.
She liked it too, although he might be more aware of his blood pumping and his
pulse rising than she was. Years of the change made him hypersensitive to his own
body.
It was the years of abstinence that made him hypersensitive to hers.
The penis was truly an amazing creature. No matter if danger lurked or grief stung,
give it a perky pair of tits and the smell of arousal, and it would stand to attention better
than the most seasoned soldier.
It also made for uncomfortable walking when the object of desire turned and ran
for parts unknown. Easier, of course, if she would stay still for the fucking. Also more
complicated, and probably not in good taste.
Still, it made chasing after her a tasty bit of torture.
“You must stop, señorita. I have not been satisfied.”
That made her stop. And twitch. Of course, he could have said it another way, but it
likely would have resulted in her continuing to run. He’d learned a bit about her in
their short time together. She liked a challenge.
The ridiculous outfit she wore covered little of her assets, and when she heaved her
chest like that, her breasts straining against the copper plate that covered her vital
organs, it excited his imagination even more.
He pictured himself covering the ten steps between them in quick succession,
pulling the plate from her body, the leather straps that held it in place snapping. Then,
he would scoop those beautiful breasts from their cage and feast on them. As soon as
the quick image flitted into his thoughts, he saw streaks of red brush across her
alabaster skin. She was reading his thoughts again. And, it would seem, enjoying them
right along with him.
Naughty girl.
Part of him wanted to smile, but a bigger part knew that if she was off-guard this
way, he might be able to get the information out of her she so vigilantly protected.
“I demand to know where we are going and why.” His chest tightened. “My
decision to follow you cost me more than I care to remember. I deserve your
indulgence, señorita.”
Her tense face relaxed into straight resignation, and she closed her eyes, exhaling a
long breath as she had before. She must be reading the area. “It’s not safe here.” With a
quick glance to her right, she nodded. “We can go to my quarters. There are…barriers…
Well, we can have privacy there.”
Instead of carrying on down the corridor, she disappeared down one of the
tributaries. Javier was lost already. He needed the sun, the stars. This enclosed space
with no view of the outside left him centerless.
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35
He followed her through another set of hallways. They turned one last corner and
came to a dead end with a massive clock filling the entire width of the corridor. Her
hand disappeared inside the folds of her dress and returned with the dim light glinting
off a golden key.
There didn’t appear to be a lock in sight, or a handle to turn, but then again, as he
studied the key more closely, it was not really a key at all. The end that protruded from
her hand was straight, with a tiny point at the end. He focused in on the point and saw
an intricate little extension with three prongs. Each prong had a hook that faced in a
different direction.
Sacha inserted the key into a small hole below the immense face of the clock. Javier
hadn’t even seen the hole until the key punctured its opening. She twisted the key three
times until a loud click rang through the tiny space.
The clock face froze for a moment and from behind the body, another click
sounded. When the gears of the timepiece started to turn again, the whole body swung
toward Sacha.
The moving block of wood and gear opened to reveal black space behind. This
would be her quarters, then? How interesting that she chose to so securely lock herself
away from everyone. The way he’d been feeling the last several hours, he could
understand the urge.
He glanced at the clock again as it swung past his face, then felt for his own pocket
watch. But the new clothing had no pockets. He’d left the watch in the stockroom, along
with the tattered rags of his old clothing. The only thing he hadn’t been able to remove
was the silver thing that clung to the skin of his arm.
“Is that the correct time?” The clock read 13:38. Surely, it couldn’t be that late in the
day already. That would make it more than twelve hours since he’d left Barcelona. And
a shorter time before sunrise.
Sacha smiled over her shoulder. “Its purpose is not to tell time.” She disappeared
into the black space behind the clock. As the giant instrument started to swing back,
Javier darted into the black as well.
“Before I tell you anything,” she was saying, “I need to ask you a few questions.”
Another door opened and the blackness disappeared as she struck a match. The
light wavered until she lit the lamp, then it grew to fill the room. A messy bed was built
into the far wall, and a chair was near the entrance by the small table that housed the
lamp. At one end of the bed, a cloaked room, no doubt where she kept her clothing.
Beside that, a desk littered with papers and inkwells, sidled up to a giant bookcase.
Sacha crossed to the desk and picked up a piece of curved metal with what looked
like a latch on the end. She placed it over her left ear, and he was surprised that the
latch clamped onto the base of her neck, like a river leech. A tiny grimace crossed her
pretty features, then she settled those chocolate eyes on him.
“I’m going to ask you three questions, and I want you to answer me as honestly as
you can.” She sat on the bed and gestured to the chair. “Please sit down.”
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He obliged, trying his best to clear his mind.
“Who are you?”
“I am Javier Vargas, alpha leader of—”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Why did you stop?”
He remembered the moment in the streets of Barcelona when his brothers had
fallen, white dust overhead and strained human voices hiding wolf spirits. When he
became a leader of nothing.
“I am not the leader of the Avinguda werewolves any longer.”
Sadness creased her face, as it did his heart. She looked at the floor, her chest rising
again. From this angle, he had too nice a view of her cleavage. Perhaps she could sit up
so he wouldn’t be tempted to launch onto the bed and—
She sat up.
A slow smile spread across his lips. Of course. “If you’re going to read my mind,
señorita, why must you ask me these questions?”
She flushed, setting her lips into a tight line. “Your answers are as important as
your thoughts.” She searched his face. “I need to know what you wish me to believe, in
addition to the truth. It’s the only way I will know if I can trust you or not.”
His voice low, he said, “You can trust me.”
One corner of her mouth turned up. “Everyone thinks they can be trusted.” It
turned back down. “Very few can.”
“I understand.” He thought of Rico, of Tomas. Their dark faces flashed through his
thoughts one by painful one.
“I see that you do. I’m going to ask you who you are again. Please answer as
though last night had never happened.”
“I am Javier Vargas, alpha werewolf of the Avinguda.”
“And your family?”
He thought first of Sergio, then Mira. It was instinctual. Although they were not his
blood family, they were his family.
“Sergio? The boy was your blood brother?”
“He is…was my late wife’s brother.”
“Mira?”
Mira’s honey-colored hair and hazel eyes, her long nose and thin lips pressed into
his memory. He saw them making love—skin and wet and almost changing.
Remembered gazing into her face for the last time and coming inside her. If it hadn’t
been his last memory of her, he would have blocked it out.
He felt suddenly guilty. Of course, she had seen the memory. Her face did not color
this time, but perhaps she was prepared for it. Perhaps all men thought of their women
in the throes of passion. And if they did not, they should. In her lover’s arms, a woman
was most beautiful.
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“I apologize.” He wanted to reach across the space, to help her feel his
embarrassment. “That was the last time I saw her.”
“That was an enchanting thought.” Her eyes fluttered, then diverted. “About a
woman being beautiful in the arms of her lover.”
“You do speak Spanish, then?”
She shook her head. The long strands came loose from her shoulders and fell
around her neck. He realized for the first time that she unbound her hair here. It was
intoxicating.
Sacha pointed to the contraption on her ear. “This is called a linguistor. It translates
thoughts and words for me.” She lifted the hair from her neck and turned so he could
see the metal contraption. “Say something in Spanish.”
“Tú es hermosa.”
An arm on the little mechanical device raised and clicked back down as he spoke.
She blushed before he could draw a breath. This machine was fast.
“Where did you get this?”
“Luc procured it from one of his contacts in Africa.”
He relaxed into his Spanish. “How about something more complicated? What if I
were to tell you that the assassin who came to kill us yesterday shares with you an
uncanny ability to predict the behavior of others?”
“It translates as you speak, Javier. I can understand you as quickly as you can utter
the words. It happens inside my brain, as though I am hearing you in English.” She
brushed the device with the hand that hovered above it, holding her hair away, then the
flash of a grimace marred her features for a moment. “The only way I can tell if you’re
really speaking Spanish is by watching your lips.”
“That is how you can read my Spanish thoughts as well?”
She nodded and lowered her hair. “And any other language.”
“But you were not wearing it this morning?”
“I forgot.” In a self-conscious gesture, she reached for the ear again, freezing her
hand just before she touched it. “Luc likes for me to wear it at all times. But sometimes I
just want people to have their privacy.”
He extended his hand, as though he meant to reach across and touch her ear
himself. The movement of her hand so often to the side of her face made him curious.
“Does this machine hurt you, Sacha?”
With a tight smile, she looked away. “No more than necessary.”
“No pain is necessary.”
She resumed her steady perusal of his face. “Why are you here?”
“You’re going to tell me that, I believe.”
“I mean, why did you come with me?”
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He saw again the picture of her laid naked before him, and his tasting her. It made
his blood warm, as it must hers. “Surely, you’ll not ask me to divulge that, even if you
can read my mind.”
“So you followed me because you want to see me naked?”
“I followed you because you intrigued me.”
She narrowed her eyes and focused in on his. As tempted as he was to let his
fantasies run loose in his mind to teach her a lesson for playing around in his head, he
reined it in.
“Last question. Do you now, or have you ever worked for Gladstone, Lanza,
Willhelm, Thiers, Pasha, Leopold II, Sagasta or Christian of Denmark?”
With each name she recited, the tension escalated inside his chest. The only one
he’d ever seen in person was Praxedes Sagasta, a Spanish state leader who lived in
Barcelona. But these men were known throughout the werewolves of Spain as Los
Malvados. In their own circles, they preferred Europe for Progress, or The E.P. if you
worked for them. But The Evil Ones was a more accurate title.
“I have never. I do not. I would never. Does that answer your question?”
Sacha was convinced. The bite of his last words—he’d practically growled at her.
His hatred for Sagasta was deep, and she couldn’t quite make out all the images that
had flashed in his mind. But none of them were favorable, and even the most unskilled
human reader could pick up the anger he radiated.
Part of her was relieved. Even the vampires hadn’t been able to pass her inquest
without reserve. Vidal had come close, as had the dragon leader, and even the pixie
princess. But none of them were as completely what they claimed to be as Javier Vargas.
And yet. Much as she should be fully relieved, she wasn’t sure she’d ever met a
man as completely what he claimed to be as Javier Vargas. And that frightened her. No,
to be more precise, his unreserved interest frightened her, his blatant honesty unnerved
her. A man like him had no cross-purposes.
“I believe you, I do. But understand, I needed to be sure that I could count on you
not to spread this information around the ship.”
He gestured wide, the muscles rippling up his arms. “Who will I tell?”
“Vidal?”
“I owe him nothing.”
“Yes, well, he is a were, like you.”
A muscle tensed in his temple and he took a deep breath, shaking his head. “There
are no more like me, madam.”
“You can call me Sacha.”
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39
“Very well, Sacha. Will you be so good as to tell me what the bloody hell is going
on around here? And give me a good reason why I should stay in this Godforsaken
contraption you’ve built for yourself.”
His words stung, and she could see he intended that. Her comparison to Vidal was
not flattering, apparently. His mind recoiled from it, and the grief returned, filling not
only his memories, but the lines of his face.
“I did not build this ship,” she said, tightly. “My father did. And it’s not
Godforsaken just because it runs on magic.”
“It runs on magic?”
“That’s beside the point, Javier. The point is, you want to know why you’re here.
And I’m not supposed to tell you.”
“According to whom?”
Sacha brushed her dark hair away from her face, wishing she’d put it up that
morning after her bath like she’d planned. “Luc.”
“Your friend, the captain.”
“He is our link to the Resistance.”
Javier’s dark eyes narrowed on her. A brief flash of distrust surrounded Luc’s face
in his mind. “I don’t trust him.”
“I know that.”
He shook his head. “Of course, you can read my thoughts. Why do I even speak in
your presence?”
His sudden anger pricked her senses. The urge to go to him, to comfort him, grew
with each passing second. She stood and walked to the desk, instead, trying to keep
those thoughts from her mind. “I’m sorry. I can control it if I try.”
“It unnerves me.” His eyes swept her up and down. “Among other things about
you, Sacha.”
She didn’t need to read minds to pick up the sexual innuendo in his words, the
deep tenor of his voice, its gravelly execution. He exuded desire. She wanted to gratify
that desire in the odd moments. The even moments, she had a handle on herself.
Who was she trying to fool? The even moments, she wanted him just as much, only
she buried it.
“I will try not to read your mind.” She gestured to him. “If you’ll come to the desk, I
can show you as much as you can know. But this must stay between us.”
His rise out of the chair was languid, not at all the quick movement she expected.
He joined her, careful to stand as far from her as possible while still maintaining a view
of the desktop.
The map Luc had given her sprawled atop the wooden desktop, a rough sheet of
thick paper hand-copied by a seer in the Resistance. It showed a rough outline of the
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countries involved in Europe for Progress, which was nearly all of it. Bright pockets of
red dotted the open space of each country.
In these pockets were tiny drawings. Some of wolves that stood on two legs, some
of bats, some of dragons, men with wings, gargoyles, giants, dwarves, trees and human-
looking men and women. Each pocket generally contained only one type of drawing,
and some of them were tightly clustered. But there were also large patches of blank
sheet inside countries like Germany, France, Spain and England. They assumed,
because they were uncharted by the seer, there were no creatures. But Sacha had a
feeling there were.
“When Europe for Progress declared its secret war on magic, a seer in the heart of
Africa drew this map, with no guide, and presented it to Alexander Warrick, a
Presbyterian minister living in Kenya. She told him that the governments of Europe
were planning—” This was where the fairy tale became too dark for most.
“Please, continue. I know it is bad.”
She sighed. “What do you know? Nothing. You werewolves have had your nose in
the ground for ten years. It only became important when your own people were
threatened. I’ve been dealing with this…”
It was no use fighting like this. The way his nostrils flared, she knew she’d offended
him without even pushing into his mind.
“It is very bad, Javier.”
His dark head dipped toward the map. With the long first finger of his left hand, he
traced the circle of figures around Barcelona. Only his werewolves.
“It is bad. And if I am to help, I must know.”
“They planned to exterminate all magical creatures.”
Javier sucked in a quick breath, his finger rising from the page as though burned.
“So it was not just the werewolves?”
“It was…it is, all.”
“You know this?”
She hesitated, tempted to reach into his mind again, as she moved her hand to the
edge of the map. Underneath that map was a document she hadn’t even shown to Luc.
A document which could get her hanged, or perhaps even burned at the stake if they
still allowed that in public execution, if anyone in any of the governments knew of her
possession. Even if Javier gave her permission now to enter his thoughts, it would be
useless. It was the first thoughts of a person’s mind that she needed to hear. This not
having access to his first thoughts was unnerving.
She didn’t do trust well. Except with her crew. Even then, not with everything.
“You do not need to show me, but I would know.”
“I know for certain this is true.”
Javier fisted his hands and drew them to his sides, stepping back from her. “We
knew from Mir…from Vidal, and others, that there was an assassin. And then, when
Airship Seduction
41
they came to us and told us of the Resistance, there were men claiming to be you. We
foolishly believed.”
Sacha reimagined Javier’s memory of his dead wife. The same face she’d seen in the
conjuring orb. She knew of Mira’s death—had heard of its grisly execution from Luc,
who passed it to her from Resistance officials.
His face lined with sadness, Javier backed into the chair again and his head fell into
his hands. Something about the contrast between his hard, masculine body and his
overwhelming, emotional grief called to her.
She knelt beside him and covered one of his hands with hers. “I can’t tell you how
sorry I am. This is why we don’t tell passengers about our plans.”
He dropped his hands into his lap and stared at her with restrained anger, his
brown eyes searching her face. Sacha touched the lines that formed in his frustration
and felt the heat beneath her fingers. Something about him called out to her.
“Because you think knowing will take away your grief, or give you some revenge to
satisfy you.”
A vein beneath her finger pulsed and his response sent a thrill through her body, to
her core. “You think revenge will not satisfy me?”
“There is no revenge, Javier.” She almost felt her own sadness for him, because she
knew that was his desire, as it was everyone’s at first. “We’re running away, not
preparing to fight.”
His gaze clouded as he searched her face. “Why not fight?”
“There is no fighting this war.”
A loud chime sounded, filling the room with its alarm. She turned to the dark
passageway.
“Someone is trying to get in the door without a key,” she said.
Javier jumped to his feet, ready to pounce, but she waved him off.
“It’s probably one of the crew who forgot Luc’s key.” She also waved off his
questioning glare at the statement of Luc’s access to her bedroom. “Let me check who it
is.”
Javier extended his arm, preventing her from entering the dark chamber. “It could
be an enemy, Sacha.”
Something twisted inside her at his action. “It’s not an enemy.”
“How can you be sure it is a friend?”
She laid a calm hand on his forearm, just below where the Prata heated. “There are
only friends here.”
He slackened under her touch, but the heat remained. She didn’t remember the
other Pratae being quite this inflamed all the time. Perhaps his was defective.
Camryn Rhys
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Keeping him behind her, Sacha grabbed the lamp and walked into the corridor. The
loud chime sounded again, leaving a ring in her ears long after it silenced. She
depressed the door, which made the clock face swing into the hallway.
When the light from the corridor lamp met the light of hers, Angus Fearchar stood
at the intersection. His red face matched his red eyes and hair.
“Angus? What’s wrong?”
His accent, thicker than usual, caught on the words. “M’lady, we found another
body.”
“Not the werewolf. He was dead when we came on board.”
At Javier’s hasty indrawn breath, she felt the pressure of the air on her ear. The man
was close, and she’d just said precisely the most insensitive thing she could say about
his kinsman.
“No. We havena’ seen any weres.”
“God, not the pixies again.” Sacha handed the lamp back to Javier, who remained
close enough that she could smell the maleness of him, the spicy heat of his skin.
“Angus, I’m going to toss those blasted bat-faced vampires out in mid-air. I don’t think
their Pratae are working—”
“M’lady,” Angus interrupted. His eyes, if possible, reddened to a more streaked,
tearful state. “It’s no’ the pixies. God help us, it’s one of the crew.”
Fuck.
It’s begun.
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43
Chapter Five
Raul Morelo stalked the length and breadth of the cage. Well, to be fair, it was as
opulent a prison as he’d ever seen, but a prison it was, nonetheless.
The walls were covered in lush cloth, as was every visible surface, save the table in
the center of the room, and the various metal instruments. Against the wall, near the
door, Raul’s cape hung. The one piece of black in a room of red. It taunted him.
He fisted his right hand and punched the bed again. It bore several prints of his
anger already, though it wouldn’t be long before they’d disappear into the smooth
surface again. He pressed his hands together and felt the cool pressure of his silver
finger against the skin of his right hand.
It had been so long since he’d felt anything with that finger. The two leather straps
that harnessed it to his hand, he could feel. Where there had once been pain, only
calluses remained. It was as much a part of his body as his curse.
Raul fingered the crest at the base of the metal appendage, remembering the man
who’d first put it on him. What he wouldn’t give to see that man again.
He’d love to rip off this silver finger and then tear the man’s throat out.
A tap interrupted his seething rage.
“Stand back, Morelo,” said a familiar, deep voice. Always the same voice, this one.
His captors, if nothing else, were consistent.
Raul acquiesced and the door near his cloak opened, revealing a lanky man with a
great diagonal bald spot running across his head. Mr. Benjamin, whom Raul had not
seen since London nearly a year previous, looked as though he’d lost even more hair in
the ensuing months. Perhaps a bit of weight as well. The man was a disaster.
“Mr. Morelo.” Benjamin nodded, his thin, aristocratic lips barely moving. “I’m
afraid we come to you in dire straits.”
“I don’t appreciate being gagged and blindfolded when pursuing a pack of
werwolves, Benjamin. I work for you. I would have come in when I could.” Raul
clenched his right hand again, this time with slightly less anger. At least having a
human before him meant he would be gone soon.
“I understand you and your men were unable to capture the Gypsy woman again.”
Raul sighed. It had hardly been his fault. “They split up, sir. My men made the split
decision to follow the pack.”
“Your men are not paid to think.” Mr. Benjamin straightened his neck and shook
his head, a tiny and somewhat foppish movement.
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44
“I followed the woman, and the alpha. They made it back to the ship before I could
drop them. But I believe my men got the rest of the pack.”
Benjamin stepped fully into the room, keeping his distance from Raul and coming
to rest in one of the bulky chairs. It couldn’t have been comfortable. The man sank into
it as though drowning. Raul always preferred a nice, hard chair. Good for the posture.
But these rich men and their feathers and down. They’d take any good chair or
chaise, stuff it with an ungodly amount of goose feathers, and cover it in some gaudy
velvet or other. This was, Raul was convinced, why they all had such crooked backs.
“The woman is our primary objective.”
Raul growled, his blood rushing for a moment before he could push the rage back
down. “Why don’t you have your spy kill her then, if you need her so badly?”
“We can’t afford to reveal our asset at this time. It’s too vital to our infiltration of
this rebellion as a grander organization to allow an unmasking just to silence one petty
Gypsy.”
“One petty Gypsy with some kind of flying steam ship who’s managed, so far, to
outwit two assassins and half an army.” Raul smirked self-assuredly.
“Careful, Morelo. You’re one of the assassins she’s outwitted.” Benjamin tapped his
knotted nose and winked. “The last one didn’t fare well after that.”
Raul shifted his weight from side to side, clasping his hands behind his back. “I just
need one more shot at her.”
“That is also what he said.”
“If I can just catch them in Milan—”
Mr. Benjamin raised a thin finger, stopping Raul’s speech. “You’ve been a good
man, Raul. We have no plans to terminate you, yet. But don’t get hasty.” The same
skinny hand snaked into the pocket of his extremely well-tailored suit and emerged
with a folded piece of paper, which he extended to Raul.
“You received another message?”
Benjamin inclined his head and the light caught the glare of his oddly shaped bald
spot. Raul wondered what made hair grow in such a strange pattern. Perhaps if he
could scalp the man and get a look under that skin…maybe he was some kind of
demon.
Of course, he smelled human, but Raul had been fooled by that before.
“You may approach me, Raul. They will only shoot you if you attack.”
Raul looked back to the windows flanking the door. As always, one man stood in
each window, armed with twin revolvers, aimed at his heart no doubt. He plucked the
paper from Benjamin’s outstretched fingers and opened it.
“They’re docking in Avignon?”
Benjamin nodded.
“You’re certain this is correct?”
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45
“It came directly from our source on the ship. Apparently, one of the weres you hit
was taken on board.”
Raul’s stomach tightened. “What if they keep the body for more than a day?”
Mr. Benjamin waved a diminutive hand in his direction. “Calm down, my boy.” He
pulled a tiny box from his other pocket. “We have it on good faith that they plan to
burn the body before sundown.”
“As custom dictates.”
“Yes.”
“If they wait for the body to surrender—”
“They will not.”
“I cannot reach Avignon by sunset. We’ll be lucky if we make Torino by the time
they land in Milan. My men will be prepared to leave as soon as I am released.”
Mr. Benjamin opened the tiny box and pulled a substance out with the
extraordinarily long nail of his pinky finger. He put some on the back of his tongue,
then snorted the rest with a dainty sniff.
“We don’t expect you to overtake them in Avignon. I will dispatch one of our local
mages, just in case. But this will give you time to make Milan before them.” He closed
the box and replaced it in his pocket. “On the back of that paper, you’ll find directions
to our man in Milan. He’ll help you sniff out the pack, and you can be waiting for her
when she arrives.”
When Benjamin said the word pack, something in Raul’s stomach puckered. Seeing
the men in Barcelona had been hard enough. He hoped they would clean out the rest of
the weres soon. Too much cannibalism wasn’t good for the soul.
If he still had a soul, that was.
“When I capture her, what would you like me to do with her?”
“The plan had been for you to bring her to London.” A tiny flicker of disgust
wrinkled Mr. Benjamin’s nose. “But some uproar there has forced us to move our
facilities elsewhere.”
“So I should, what? Kill her?”
“Good God, no. We need her.” Mr. Benjamin stood, dusting his pants with
impatient fingers. “When you capture her, you’ll bring her here, and someone will
contact you with further instructions.”
“To Barcelona?”
“To this very room.”
Raul laughed. “But I was blindfolded when brought here. How could I possibly
know how to—”
“Don’t pretend with me, Morelo. The blindfolding was a formality. We both know
you could get back here, even if blindfolded again.” Mr. Benjamin turned for the door.
“You’ll bring her here.”
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Pressing his cold finger against his palm, Raul resisted his anger again. There were
few things he hated more than being ordered around. But he had signed on for this.
“Untouched?”
“Oh, we don’t care what you do with her. By all means, satisfy whatever lust you
have for the girl.”
Another growl punctured Raul’s breathing. “I lust after no one.”
“Well, then whatever you were asking. We don’t care what shape she’s in. We just
want her alive.” Benjamin put his hand on the door, then turned. “Of course, we’d like
to have the captain of the ship, and perhaps even one of the alphas. The rest, you know
what to do with.”
“And your spy, of course.”
“Our spy will be long gone before you arrive, Mr. Morelo.” Benjamin tapped the
door three times in quick succession and it opened. “She knows how to handle herself.”
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Chapter Six
Javier felt out of place following Sacha after such bad news, but to stay in her
quarters alone would have been too much of a temptation. Either he would have fished
through her documents, or he would have taken to smelling her clothes.
Both were requisitely out of the question.
Instead, he extinguished the lamp and returned it to the tiny table near the chair
that smelled of another man—of Luc. For a man whom she would never claim, his smell
was everywhere. And it reeked with a ferocity that made Javier’s nose hairs feel singed.
Yes, he was the ship captain, but what the hell was the man’s scent doing in her
private bedchamber if they were not lovers? And if they were lovers, why could she not
simply own it when he asked? There were certain rules, but these Resistance men and
women were supposed to be above the law, above the government, above even
morality and religion.
Javier crossed himself at the thought. Of course, being a werewolf meant an
acceptance of certain magicks, but his mother had raised a good, God-fearing man who
went to mass every time the doors were open.
Except during the full moon.
Questions about Luc and Sacha plagued him. He smelled no sex on her, but Luc’s
scent was everywhere in her room. At her desk, her bookshelf, the chair. It saturated the
place.
Although why he cared who she spent her time—or her nights—with was beyond
him. He’d known her for less than a full day.
But she intrigued him so. A man could be intrigued by a woman.
Or a werewolf by a demon. However it was made to be.
“I was on my rounds after the noon meal,” Angus was saying. Although to be more
blunt, he was crying. The man was obviously shaken, but there was more than grief at
play here.
“Was Elias with you?” Sacha asked, keeping pace with the rotund Scotsman.
The red head shook. “He’d gone t’the bilge, miss.”
“And is he back yet?”
“’Twas his body we found, miss.”
Sacha pushed out a heavy breath and swore. “Not Elias.”
“Aye. And the body. Well, I’ll not attempt… That is t’say, ye can see.” Angus
stopped in front of a door, attempting to usher them through. “Perhaps I should warn
ye, it is very much like what we expected.”
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Sacha swore again. “How could I have missed this?”
Javier glanced between the two, his raven-haired rescuer and her redhead
compatriot. Nothing either of them said made any sense to him. But what he did know
for certain is that there was fresh blood very near. And nearly human. At least half,
from what he could tell.
“I can smell the blood.” Javier stepped in front of Sacha, at her hesitation. “Best let
me go first.”
“You won’t know what to look for,” Sacha insisted.
Javier placed his hand on the wooden wall, shimmying inside the door. Her
infernal dress blocked most of the doorway, even though it was only really half a dress.
The closer he got to the center of the half-lit room, the more the blood smell
overwhelmed his senses.
“Just let me…” Javier trailed off as the scene unfolded before him. Splayed on the
floor, half-propped against the wall, was what remained of young Elias.
He couldn’t have been more than eighteen or nineteen, and perhaps even younger,
given the immature musculature of his underdeveloped body. But since a good portion
of his face had been eaten away—or torn away, perhaps—it was hard to get a good
measure of the boy’s age. “Mi Dios.” Javier stifled the urge to recite Catholic prayers.
Behind him, Sacha clambered into the narrow room. It must have been a closet of
some sort at one time, although it was completely devoid of its contents. But the dark
wood from the corridor continued in here, and there were indentations on the floor, as
though something heavy once sat along the near wall.
“God, Angus. You could have warned me it ate away half his face.” Sacha stood at
his shoulder, her hand over her mouth, gulping air as though stifling nausea.
“I told ye it was what your letter promised.” Angus hobbled into the small room.
The three of them crowded into the tiny space with a dead, half-eaten body left Javier
feeling claustrophobic. And oddly hungry.
Over his shoulder, he addressed Angus. “Are you human?”
The old Scotsman harrumphed. “O’course I’m human, y’idiot. You’d’a smelled it
otherwise, yeah?”
“You’re obviously not human,” Javier said to Sacha. “And he was only part
human.” He pointed to the body. “So what’s this other scent in here?” He sniffed again.
It wasn’t werewolf, and it wasn’t Empath. He couldn’t quite place it.
Angus cleared his throat. “The boy is… Er. He was half chaos-demon.”
Javier stepped toward the bloody mess, trying to avoid stepping directly in any
puddles of bodily fluid. No matter what the thing on his arm kept him from doing, it
did not abate his hunger. “That’s not the scent I’ve found. It’s something else.”
Sacha squatted next to him, keeping her knees out of the corpse’s significant radius
of disaster. While most of the body lay propped against the wall, it was badly mauled
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49
and pieces of flesh, entrails and brain matter scattered as far as halfway across the
room.
Javier realized that her scrutiny of the body wasn’t about the blood or the flesh.
“Can you read anything from the dead?”
She shook her head. A dark curtain of hair came loose and fell over her shoulder,
obfuscating her face. “His memories were gone long before we arrived.” Sacha stood,
looking back. “Probably before Angus even found him.”
“Is this what you feared would come?” Angus was being deliberately vague, and
Javier couldn’t understand why.
“You can speak freely in front of Javier.” Sacha waved her hand down in his
direction. “He’s an ally.”
Angus eyed Javier with straight suspicion. The human didn’t have the luxury of
Sacha’s sight into his thoughts.
Thank God for that.
He didn’t want anyone seeing his thoughts, except her.
Angus didn’t like Javier, although the blessed man tried to keep it as hidden as
possible. But no one could hide from her.
I don’t trust the man, Angus thought. Sacha nodded at him. It had been a joke
between Angus, Elias and her, that they were the motliest of crews, but no motlier than
need be. Angus distrusted new people, and for good reason.
It seemed that each addition to the crew brought some kind of tumult. When they
landed in Cordova, one of the drakienen had gone missing. The introduction of the
French vampire clan brought several disappearing pixies—which André had attempted
to explain away by saying that pixies often disappeared intentionally and he couldn’t be
held accountable. But that hadn’t been the first, even.
A mermaid had been lost in Nice, and the pixies after that. But before the vampires,
it had been another crew member. Luc’s assistant, the freed succubus slave, had gone
off-ship in Dresden, where they found the first of the drakienen. She never returned. Luc
tried to convince Sacha the girl had gone back to her family, but he had been worried,
even then.
This was, however, the first corpse—besides Sergio—they’d had on board
Harbinger. And because it was a crew member, she was even more certain that this was
what the Good Mother had warned her about.
“The letter I was going to show you in my chambers.” Sacha stepped back to stand
by Angus. “It was from someone we call the Good Mother.”
“She calls herself the Good Mother,” Angus corrected.
Javier snorted, reaching one hand to smooth away a substance on Elias’ lapel. Or
what was left of his lapel, since half his body had quite literally been ripped away.
“People who refuse you their true name hide as much from you as from their enemies.”
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He put his fingers to his lips, sniffed them, then tasted them. Whatever had been there,
he spat back on the body, and stood.
“What?” asked Sacha.
“Can you see that blue substance there?” Javier pointed to the lapel, and down the
body, almost exactly along the line of his torn flesh and clothing.
Angus hobbled forward, bent over Javier’s hand, and peered down. “I can see it,
Sacha. Can you see it?”
She hated to admit she could not. The red of the bleeding flesh and the brown of his
clothes were barely distinguishable to her. Empath demons were notoriously color
blind. “I can see something.”
“I forget,” Javier spoke, his lips forming different words than she heard. “You are
color blind, of course. I apologize, my lady.”
She hated not being able to hear his real voice when he spoke in his own language.
Although it was close to his voice, she could now tell the difference. This hollow tone
was not the product of his long throat.
Sacha imagined she could hear the difference now, even with her eyes closed.
“There is a blue substance that I do not recognize, spread along the torn parts of his
flesh, where something has ripped his body from his bone.” Javier gazed at her, his
dark eyes shifting into a silvery tint. “I’m sorry, Sacha. I know you knew this boy, I
don’t mean to give you bad news.”
Angus’ eyes grew into large circles, the whites completely visible. “It’s saliva.”
“Probably.” Javier nodded, clapping the man’s shoulder.
“And from a demon?” Angus wondered.
“That would be my guess, although it’s not one I’ve ever hunted before.”
Sacha snorted. “Since when do werewolves make it a sport to hunt demons?”
Javier’s gaze narrowed, his eyebrows pulling together. “When a demon threatens
us, we do what we have to do. I don’t make a sport of it, but I protect my own.”
A tiny thrill pulsed up her spine, and then down into the low center of her belly. He
had such a tight leash on himself, if not always on his thoughts. What would it be like to
break that leash?
Javier was unlike any werewolf she’d encountered before. Yes, they were clannish,
like so many demons and creatures had to be, but their closed borders only applied to
intruders. With their thoughts, and their outward appearance, they were always so
carnal. Some of the Cordovans came straight on to her when she would enter their
chamber.
Well, when they weren’t grieving.
But she could always sense their lust building. Lust for everything. For her body,
for her flesh and blood, for her power. They wanted, deeply.
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51
She’d never wanted anyone or anything like that—so innate she could practically
bleed her desire. She occasionally found want that deep in others. Luc, for his dead
wife. The pixie princess for Elias.
“Althea!” Sacha met Angus’ gaze, the sadness welling in her heart again.
“Someone’s going to have to tell Althea about this.”
“Let’s not tell anyone just yet.” Javier knelt near the body again. With the black
tattoos rippling over his arm, he took a firm hold on his left sleeve and ripped it from
his body, then the right sleeve. He patted the bloody remains of Elias’ chest with one of
the sleeves, then folded it in on itself and wrapped it inside the other sleeve.
With his shoulders exposed again, Sacha was going to have to stand far away from
him. The man had simply magnificent shoulders. Lickable. They made it impossible for
her to concentrate on the task in front of them.
“Why wouldn’t we tell Althea?” Angus asked, his face redder than normal. “She
was his woman. She deserves to be the first to know.”
Javier’s face softened and he closed in on Angus, clapping his shoulder. “You
followed your instincts, good man that you are, and came to get Sacha, instead of telling
Althea first. You knew that something gruesome happened here.”
“Of course it’s gruesome!” Angus huffed. “Half his body’s missing.”
“Ah, but gruesome in motive, Angus. As well as gruesome in appearance.” Javier’s
dark gaze clapped on to Sacha again. She could feel something pulling her toward him,
drawing her in.
“So we’re not going to inform Althea of Elias’ passing?” she breathed, suddenly
finding that she was staring.
“We’re not.”
“And what do you intend to do with that awful stuff you found on the body?”
Javier extended the neatly wrapped package toward her. “I’d like you to keep it in
your room for now. I’m afraid if I bring it to the Cordovans, it may cause an uproar.
Since you have private quarters, it would be best if it remained with you.”
“What’ll we tell Luc?” Angus asked, turning his back on the boy’s body at last. A
visible relaxing of his features accompanied the gesture, and Sacha pulled back from his
thoughts, tempted to see if she could soothe him.
“Leave Luc to me.” Sacha stepped past Angus and into the hallway, hoping that a
breath of air would clear her thoughts. It did not. The sadness followed, even when
Elias’ corpse was gone from her sight.
“Perhaps we shouldn’t tell Luc anything yet.” Javier pressed his fingertips into her
arm, a light gesture, not a possessive one. But still, it set off a heat wave inside her.
“Not tell the captain?” Angus emerged from the room last, closing the door behind
him. “Who are you to ask us to lie to our superior officer?”
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Javier’s gaze dropped. Cautiously, he said, “I am no one. But something about Luc
gives me pause just now. I wonder if it wouldn’t be wiser not to burden him until we
can tell the rest of the ship.”
Sacha considered his words, gazing down the corridor where no one stood to block
her vision. “There’s no reason not to trust Luc. I’ll tell him when the time is right.”
“As you wish, my lady.”
* * * * *
Javier waited while Sacha gave orders to Angus concerning the guarding of the
body. The Scotsman didn’t trust him, which was logical, but Javier didn’t trust Luc. For
a ship supposedly full of friends, trust seemed sorely lacking.
“You don’t have to make Angus paranoid.” Sacha blew past him once Angus was
out of ear shot. “If you make him choose between any of us and Luc, he will always
choose Luc.”
“I wasn’t aware of that.”
“How could you be? You’ve been here five minutes.” She stopped in front of the
corridor back to her room and whirled on him. “I want you to know, I’m putting a lot of
my eggs into your basket.”
Her cheeks went instantly red.
“You don’t have to explain, Sacha. I’m aware of who I am.”
Sacha flipped her hair over her shoulder and kept walking again. Her hips bounced
with an enticing rhythm as she flounced away.
They walked as quietly as possible, while she led him back to her room. She opened
the clock, once more, and it surprised Javier even more the second time, because the
timepiece had barely moved forward in its progress, although at least an hour had
passed.
“I’m going to deposit this in a safe hiding place, and then we’re going to the deck.”
Sacha held the white ends of his shirt between two fingers, as though it were a soiled
diaper.
Javier leaned one arm against the interior door as the clock closed behind him. The
woodgrain was finer in here, less coarse, as though built for a more refined taste. “Can
we speak just for a moment?”
Sacha opened the bottom drawer of the desk, shoved the material into the back, and
clapped it closed again. When she bent, he couldn’t help but admire the lush roundness
of her backside, hidden beneath all those layers of fabric. And yet her long legs, where
they peeked out from under that short dress, were so well-defined by the clingy black
material. He wanted to follow those legs all the way to their source. Find said source
with his tongue, and lave it until she screamed his name.
With her back to him, she sighed. “Can we is a different question than should we,
Javier.”
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53
She was reading his mind again.
His blood began to pulse. “Regardless of what pretty thoughts might be floating in
your head, my lady, that boy back there was ravaged by a demon. No demon that either
you or I or Angus could identify.”
One corner of her lips curled into a smile as she faced him. “And yet all you can
think about is ripping my clothes off and having your way with me. Typical man.”
Something in him snapped, and he spun her roughly by her arm to face him. With
animal quickness, he backed her up against the sturdy bookcase and blocked her in
with his powerful body.
“I am nothing like a typical man, señorita, and you would do well to remember
that.” He panted great gulps of air, inhaling her scent with each indrawn breath. She
was so fresh, as though she’d bathed only moments before, and yet underneath the
intoxicating spiciness of her soap, he could smell her sweat, and her desire. Growing.
The rhythm of her chest matched his own, as though he breathed in the air she
expelled and she did the same. Her eyes searched his face, then rested on his lips, and
for a moment, he thought she might kiss him. Sacha’s head bobbed toward him, then
turned.
“I’m not a toy for you to slake your lust.”
He laughed, feeling his amusement build from the pit of his stomach. Of course, she
didn’t know him. Didn’t know how long it had been, how many opportunities he’d
turned down with women far more willing.
Of course, if she were reading his mind, she would know, because each of them
flashed through his memory. All the way back to the last, with Mira.
He shook his head, then met her eyes. “I’m not an animal on the prowl, Sacha. I’m
not looking for a faceless body to rut with.”
With careful precision, he remembered their first meeting, in the fish market near
the sea, the day before yesterday. She’d been wearing that cloak that made her look like
a courtier. And then following her through the city, until finally she tracked down his
cuadrilla, and revealed herself for what she was.
Her face softened when he remembered his explicit fantasy of tasting her body. A
sudden sadness in her eyes made him pause. He touched her cheek, marveling at the
softness under his fingers.
“I wish I could read your mind.”
Sacha turned, leaving his hand empty, her silky hair fanning the back of his hand.
“You wouldn’t like what you’d find there.”
Javier grasped her chin and pulled her to face him, bending toward her. “I beg your
pardon, señorita, but you don’t know what I like.”
He took her rose petal mouth with his own and suckled her, tender at first. As her
body melted into his, Javier became more supplicant, and when she opened her mouth
to him, his tongue sought and danced with hers.
Camryn Rhys
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Sacha’s hands tangled in the thickness of his hair, working their way across the
back of his neck, and pulling him closer. His arms stayed on the bookshelf, steadying
himself as he plunged down onto her, pressing her back against the hard shelves.
She moaned and he slid his arms around her, feeling the smooth material for some
kind of hook or release he could use to free her nakedness to him. The dress had no
apparent ending, and he pulled back to get a good look at the infernal thing.
She followed him, her mouth open, wanton. The hardness he’d been fighting off all
day returned, and brought the familiar pain of being imprisoned by inferior fabric. His
old pants had been made of a much more pleasant material. This, perhaps wool, chafed
at the ever-bulging head of his erection.
“This dress perplexes me.” He found her mouth again, urging her lips apart. “I
want to feel your body, my beautiful rebel, but I can’t seem to get at it.”
She giggled into his kiss. He thought it an unusual sound from this serious,
dominating woman, and paused to look at her.
Her hand snaked down, between two folds of material at her side, and pulled at a
hidden metal clasp, which released a long line of tiny hooks as she pressed it down the
side of her body. The dress fell from her body.
“It’s an automatic clasp mechanism,” she said. “All the Resistance uniforms have
them.”
Sacha pulled the dress away from her undergarments, revealing a heavy black
material underneath that encased her breasts, rib cage and stomach. A similar clasp
mechanism was hidden between two folds of material, as well, and hid the tiny hooks
that snaked down her side.
As he grasped this metal clasp, she covered his hand with hers and met his gaze.
“This is the only way to tell the true Resistance from the Empire masquerading as
us, you know.” She moved his hand lower, revealing tiny bits of her creamy skin to his
eyes. “Our automatic clasp mechanism was designed by…”
“Tell me later.” Javier captured her mouth again and pressed the clasp down until
he felt it catch. “This is a beautiful invention.” He peeled the fabric away from her side,
freeing one breast. “And I certainly would love to know,” he kissed the other breast,
“all about it.” He gazed at her hardening nipples, pushing the rest of the fabric down
her body and kneeling in front of her. “But much, much later.”
She stood before him, panting, naked from the waist up, her round breasts heaving
just above his eye-level. He kissed the soft flesh just above her bellybutton, and her
breath caught.
“I mean to taste every inch of your body, Sacha.” He met her lowered gaze and
reached up to catch one of her hardening nipples in his fingers. “Every inch. You know
this, don’t you?”
Her full, ripe lips opened around a moan and she nodded.
In Spanish, he said, “Every single beautiful inch.”
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With a trembling hand, she reached up to her head. A tiny grimace crossed her
features, and she pulled the magic piece of metal from above her ear, placing it on the
edge of the bookshelf.
The pain on her face troubled him, but she urged him to his feet in front of her. “Do
you need me to speak in English, carina?”
Instead of answering, she kissed him. The pain had not vanished from her eyes, and
when he found them again after she released him, Javier could have sworn there were
edges of tears.
“I just need you to keep touching me.”
Sacha fumbled with the buttons on her pants as Javier tasted every inch of her belly,
just as he’d promised. The sensation dizzied her, but it was possible that she was more
overwhelmed by the need to feel him on her breasts and inside her cunt than she was
pleased by his kissing and licking the ticklish skin of her stomach.
She just loved that he was touching her, kissing her, tasting her. The thought of it
had made her wet with desire from the first moment she pressed into his mind. And it
was even better than she imagined it would be.
One strong hand pressed her thigh, close to her working fingers, and his other hand
cupped her back, pulling his mouth closer to her. Her belly tightened as he sucked on
her, and her insides actually ached to have him in her. Throbbed.
The points of her nipples pulsed as well, wanting the attention he paid other parts
of her body. Other than one painful touch, he had barely even heeded their existence.
His hand on her thigh moved to caress her through her pants and she groaned, her
hand leaving the opening of her pants and grasping one of the shelves for support as
her knees threatened to give way.
Before she knew it, Javier whisked her to the bed, lifting her with little exertion, and
laying her on the cool blanket with ease. He dropped his head to her wrist, kissing the
tender flesh, and she groaned.
“What’s wrong, carina?”
“I know you promised, every inch.” Her right hand went back to the buttons of her
pants, working to open them again. “But some of my inches need you more than others,
Javier.”
She practically growled his name, and the heat in his eyes showed he’d connected
with her meaning. With a devious smile curling his pursed lips, he added his fingers to
help work at the clasps.
The pants finally came free, and his thumb brushed the apex of her cunt, just above
her clit as he pressed the last button open. She shuddered and closed her eyes, bucking
up against him.
He peeled the pants down her legs, hovering over her clitoris, his breath priming
her. “This would be an inch that needs my attention, mi dulce?”
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“Please, God, just—” But she couldn’t finish, because between hearing him speak
Spanish and feeling his tongue press into her naked cunt, she just about came right on
the spot. “Holy Mother of God.”
“Don’t speak with God or his mother.” Javier stopped his delicious torture. “Just
me, carina.”
When she finally looked down at him, all she could see in the dim light was the
black curls of his head. But she felt every delicate thrust of his tongue, and a
magnificent tension built inside her, threatening to unfurl.
As the beginnings of her orgasm came upon her, she clutched at the blanket with
her trembling fingers and at his back with her legs. Her calves found the cotton of his
shirt, and the thought that he was completely clothed while she was spread naked
before him sent the final wave of pleasure rolling through her.
“Javier!” she hissed, searching for other words and finding none. As that fist of
passion unclenched inside her, she noticed two things at once.
First, her lover was standing over her, watching, unfastening his pants. And
second, the door to her bedroom was wide open, and there was someone blocking what
little light flooded in from the hallway. Someone who wasn’t currently unfastening his
pants.
“I hate to interrupt such a tender moment,” Luc said, his voice stern. “But we are
nearly to Avignon.”
Javier stopped messing with his trousers and stood in front of Sacha, blocking her
from Luc’s prying eyes.
“God, Luc!” she exclaimed.
In the illuminated corridor, the outline of his face appeared as he turned his head.
“Scusi, bella. But it was you who left the door open. For God and everyone to see.”
Luc stepped through the clock, into the room. As he advanced, Javier pulled the
edges of the blanket from the front of the bed and threw them over her nakedness,
cocooning her in its warmth. Sacha felt the heat expand in her heart, as well, that Javier
would do such a possessive thing.
“We forgot ourselves.” Javier came to his full height, standing toe-to-toe with Luc
as the blond came to a halt in front of the bed.
“I’m well aware of her charms, brother.” Luc patted Javier’s shoulder, a diminutive
gesture, and peered past the hulking Spaniard. “Twice in one day, Sachela? Even you
are not that ravenous.”
Heat crawled up Sacha’s neck and she broke eye contact. Javier straightened and
took a step forward. “Where I come from, amigo, a man does not speak to a lady with
such a voice.”
Luc’s hand, still on Javier’s shoulder, flexed. His hollow laughter rang in the tiny
space. “A man says many things when his heart has been broken, Javier.”
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Sacha fought the urge to laugh, herself. Luc’s heart, broken? Because she was
intimate with another man? She knew better. “Please leave us, Luc. We will join you on
deck shortly.”
“Remember, Sachela, we have work to do.” Luc’s voice rumbled low, and she did
not need to see his face to know that this was a warning.
“I am well aware of the work we need to do.”
Luc’s steps rang in the tiny room, but he stopped at the door. Sacha peeked around
Javier’s thighs to see her captain lighting the lamp in the corner. The light bloomed, and
he stepped through the door, closing it.
For a long moment, Sacha wasn’t sure what Javier would do. Certainly he
understood what Luc meant when he referred to their encounter this morning. She tried
pushing into his mind, but she’d taken out the translator, and the pictures were gone.
Then he turned to her, knelt beside the bed, and reached for one hand. “Let’s
promise each other something, carina.” His gaze settled on her mouth. “This will be
whatever it will be. We have not known each other for long enough to have regrets.”
She nodded, a piece of hair slipping over her shoulder. Javier pulled her dark hair
behind her ear and leaned in, kissing her forehead. He came to sit on the edge of the
bed.
“You don’t owe me anything.” His voice was hot and dark. Sacha’s heart melted.
The way his eyes avoided hers, the way his mouth was so tight, she was certain there
was another emotion on his mind and considered going to the bookshelf for the
linguistor.
He rose from the bed, picked up her discarded clothes, and returned them to her.
“I’ll wait outside while you dress.”
She caught his hand as he pressed her clothes toward her. “Please, stay.” With his
back turned, she couldn’t read his face. “You’ve seen it all already.”
His shoulders tensed, the black tattoos rippling over his skin. He said something
indiscernible in Spanish and pulled his hand away.
“At least wait in here.”
Javier stood near the bookshelf, his dark pants blending into the shadows. With the
arms ripped off his shirt, he looked menacing. And yet, he’d been so gentle with her.
She wanted that man back again.
He’d been so much more gentle than Luc had ever been, and so attentive to her
body. She promised someday to return the favor.
Camryn Rhys
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Chapter Seven
Javier could barely stand the scent of the airship captain. It stung his nostrils. The
smell of him was everywhere, except in the werewolves’ quarters. So rather than
following Sacha to the deck, he’d muddled his way back to pick up Vidal’s scent, and
found them all hovering over Sergio’s body, surrounded by hundreds of lit candles,
reeling with grief.
“We’ve been waiting for you, brother.” Vidal clapped Javier on the back when he
arrived, then fingered the seams of his shirt. “What happened?”
“A very long story. Perhaps another time.” Javier realized he was trying to be too
chipper, his smile and his attitude were too feigned. The other weres watched him with
furrowed brows.
Javier stepped through their ranks and stood before Sergio’s body. He looked so
like Mira. Javier had noticed that over the years. In his relaxed state, he had her long,
elegant nose and soft eyes. Sergio at full awareness was a different creature.
He put a hand on the boy’s cheek. The muerta larga of a fully mature werewolf often
took twelve hours. The more powerful the werewolf, the longer it took for his body to
surrender his spirit.
Javier remembered watching his father’s muerta larga, looking for the moment when
his body would stiffen and surrender, so they could burn him. It had taken nearly the
full night until the first rays of sun before he could be placed on the pyre, and the young
boy had sat, watching his father’s face for hours, waiting to see the moment. When his
mother finally ordered the body into the flames, the bearers had to pry Javier from his
father’s body, while the boy insisted he wasn’t ready yet.
Shaking the memory away, Javier looked at the men around him. “He’s not ready
yet.”
“That is good,” Vidal said from behind him. “Before you came, Luc told us we were
about an hour from Avignon.”
“Minutes,” Javier spat. “What care have we for time? We must be ready when he
surrenders.”
One of the weres released a sound somewhere between a tenor high note and a wolf
howl. One by one, the others joined in. Some mimicking his song, some singing
counterpoint. The chorus reminded Javier of his fallen brothers, and he lifted his voice
along with them.
This is where he should have been. With Sergio’s body. With his were
brothers…cousins. Not following Sacha, looking for answers. Not coiled between her
legs, tasting her honeyed cunt.
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He should have recognized the scent around her as Luc’s. Javier prided himself on
being a one-woman man, and expected the same of his lovers. It was ludicrous to go
around sticking your cock into anything that moved just because it got hard. Like so
many of his cuadrilla had done.
It had been too long since Mira.
He was out of practice with women. That was why Sacha had been able to so
immediately bewitch him. Something about her called out to him. From the moment he
set eyes on her, he wanted her, in every way a man could want a woman. And every
way a wolf could.
The singing had long ago reached its crescendo, and was dying down. It would
pick up again, no doubt.
But the Cordovan’s sympathy did little to quench the anger burning in Javier’s
stomach. The thought of belonging to another pack had never entered his mind. Of
course, neither had the systematic extinction of werewolves by European governments.
Still, he was not a Cordovan were, and much as the offer was appreciated, he would
never truly be one of them.
But no matter what Sacha claimed about the war being unwinnable, he would visit
this revenge on someone.
“Take me to the deck. I will see us land in Avignon.”
Of course, the entire pack would decide to come along, despite what Javier insisted.
They followed close as he carried Sergio’s body, staying behind Vidal, who knew the
ship better than he ever would.
And back in the corridors again, Luc’s scent was everywhere. Javier tried to block
him out, but the entire ship was saturated with it. Could not the other weres smell it? Or
had they been so inundated with it for so long, they couldn’t distinguish it from
anything else?
Or was it so strong to him only? Because of Sacha? And why would it matter, a
woman he barely knew, if her lover’s scent was everywhere?
The closer they got to the deck, the more Javier could feel the movement of the ship.
Although he still had no sense of direction, he was able at least to discern that they were
moving.
They passed the hold, which Javier knew, and the corridor where the body had
been found, which he only recognized because of the faint scent of flesh that lingered.
He was careful to watch the other weres, but they did not smell the blood.
With great difficulty, he pushed Sacha from his thoughts. He could practically feel
her reaching out to him, and the last thing he wanted was her reading his unsuspecting
mind. At least if he filled his head with other things, he wouldn’t be thinking of her. He
conjured images of Sergio, Barcelona, anything that could distract him from thinking of
Sacha’s scent and eyes and breasts and sex.
Camryn Rhys
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After they passed through a final corridor, a small door stood open at the end.
Rather than being made of wood, like all the others, this one was edged in metal, with a
large metal lip that curled up toward the ceiling at the top.
Through the door, the whole room opened into a giant triangular shape, with the
front open. Although as Javier approached, he could see they weren’t open at all, for
there was no wind. Something covered them that looked like air. Glass, perhaps, but it
was a huge amount of glass, for the room was at least as wide as the hold had been, and
nearly as deep, if cut on the front so the room ended in a point.
The instruments were all made of copper, sunk into the wood frames, some riveted
into the hold to look almost like a shiny fabric. The navigator’s station, the captain’s
station, the helm, all were copper. The room made a truly magnificent spectacle, with
the contrast of texture, and the sheer size of the place.
Javier felt small for the first time in his life.
He stood in front of the Royal Palace in Madrid not three years ago, and still
managed to feel his own power. But in this massive ship, with Sergio’s lifeless corpse in
his arms, stripped of all that mattered to him, he was infinitesimal.
Sacha felt Javier’s presence before she saw him. She and Luc had been quietly
arguing near the helm, him with one hand on her waist and one hand on the wheel.
Arguing about Javier, about her involvement with him, about the state in which Luc
had found her only minutes before. But she barely heard Luc’s words. As soon as she
felt the gentle pressure of Javier’s thoughts, she reached for the comfort of his mind.
And of course, in her haste, she’d forgotten the linguistor, which was another thing
Luc berated her for. But regardless of that, she couldn’t understand Javier’s racing
thoughts. The pictures flickered between Sergio in the streets of Barcelona, Javier with
Mira, and Javier with his brother weres.
She pulled out of his mind, remembering that she’d promised him. But he left her
without so much as a by-your-leave, and she desperately wanted to talk to him about
Luc and explain…well, whatever there was to explain.
Even she didn’t know where she and Luc stood, other than that he was still madly
in love with his dead wife. But from the looks of his thoughts, so was Javier, even
though Mira had not been his legal wife. Maybe she was doomed to want men who
loved other women.
At least she had her eyes wide open.
“We can’t afford to lose focus, Sachela.” Luc pressed his hand heavily against her
skirt. “I realize that I may not be everything you’ve ever wanted in a lover.”
Sacha raised an eyebrow and he had the nerve to look sad. He wasn’t sad. She knew
what went on inside his brain—he didn’t love her any more than he loved Angus.
Perhaps less. He loved the release of their encounters, but he’d never loved her. Since
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61
they began this tryst, nearly six months previous, she’d known what she was getting
herself into.
“Don’t look at me like that, Sachela. You spear my heart.”
“You’re being melodramatic.”
“I know that I cannot give you all you need. But must you take up with a werewolf?
He can’t hold a candle to your heritage, cara mia.”
It was strange to hear him speak in Italian. Most of the time, she had on the
linguistor, and understood the words he said. His voice, unlike Javier’s, sounded the
same in the metal reproduction as it did in real life. But it was strange to hear his mouth
make those sounds. She realized how much she missed the friendship they used to
have, before Harbinger, and The Resistance. Before the war.
“This is not about my heritage, Luc. Your pride has been damaged, and it will
recover. I don’t want to fight about this any longer.”
Sacha pulled Luc’s hand from her waist. Javier was approaching the door, and she
wanted to make a physical statement about her relationship with Luc, even if he
wouldn’t let her speak about it.
She strode across the front of the helm. “They’re coming.”
Moments later, Vidal came through the door, followed by Javier, and then a cadre
of other weres. But none of them could hold a dim candle to Javier.
The raw power in his legs, the proud hoist of his shoulders, the flare of his dark
eyes, the curl of his hair around his neck. She’d had her fingers in that hair less than an
hour before, and loved the feel of it in her hands.
He was raw sexual energy, tightly leashed behind a veneer of pride. It made her
breath quicken. She noticed that Luc was not eyeing Javier as he entered, but watching
her instead. The man was more confusing now than he’d ever been.
“We are close to Avignon now?” Vidal asked, coming to stand near Sacha. None of
the weres liked Luc, she noticed. They crowded behind Vidal, away from Luc’s
menacing stares. Javier froze in the middle of the room, studying its details and
avoiding both her gaze and Luc’s.
“We’re going to land north of the city, near an island in the river. The cloud cover
should protect us from being seen in the city.” Luc twisted the wheel just a touch to his
left, watching the brass compass built into the panel near his left hand.
“We will land before sunset?” Javier still did not look at Luc. Instead, he locked his
eyes on the floor in front of him.
“Well before, it appears. We made better time than I anticipated.”
Javier nodded, a curl bouncing onto his forehead. The man needed a haircut in the
worst way. Only then there would be less of his hair to hold on to when he was buried
in her…
Focus, Sacha.
Camryn Rhys
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“After we dock in the river, the top decks will open and we can lower the
walkway.” Sacha spoke to Vidal since Javier wouldn’t make eye contact. The stockier of
the two alphas made plenty of eye contact, and offered a wan smile.
“We will all go ashore with Javier to prepare for the ritual.”
Luc’s head snapped. “I thought you’d be doing your rituals here.” Luc shot Sacha
an angry look. “We need to be on our way quickly.”
“The muerta larga is a process that cannot be hurried,” Javier said. “We must wait
for his body to be ready, and then we feed him to the flames.”
Luc stepped away from the wheel, one hand worrying that blond hair of his. “What
was all that this morning about putting him in the furnace?”
“We would have waited the same time, anywhere.” Javier shifted Sergio in his
arms, the boy’s head flopping back against Javier’s tattooed arm. “In the belly of this
ship, on the shores of Avignon, in the fires of hell. It matters not. Once a were spirit is
ready to rise, it must be freed by fire.”
Luc snorted. “Well, if you’re not back long before sunrise, we’re leaving without
you.”
Vidal, Javier and several of the other wolves started to protest. Sacha held her
hands up in a defensive posture.
“We will not be leaving without you.”
“The hell we won’t, Sachela. We have a rendezvous with one of the local Resistance
men to lead us to this last nest of magicks. Then, we have to make for Prague. Post
haste, Alexei said.”
Sacha met Luc’s smoldering eyes with a forceful gaze that she hoped found home.
“We will not be leaving without them.”
After holding Luc’s eyes until she was certain he understood her seriousness, she
searched for Javier. He still was not looking at her. A great ball of tension seemed to
pull tighter in her chest. She just wanted to see his eyes, to know he still saw her as she
was, as she wanted to be.
But he watched the floor as though the outcome of the war depended on his staying
fixed on one spot.
“We will build the pyre and ready it for him as soon as we disembark the ship,”
said Vidal, raising his voice above the murmur of the other weres.
Luc pricked his head up again. “You’re going to leave a funeral pyre burning all
night? Until he feels like surrendering his spirit?”
Javier lifted his gaze. “We must be ready when he is ready.”
“Have you thought about what might happen if people come looking for this fire in
the middle of nowhere?” Luc gestured toward the bowels of the ship. “We have
hundreds of magical creatures to protect, and you’re going to draw trouble to us
because one of your friends needs his soul saved?”
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63
Javier bared his teeth, stepping toward Luc, and the other weres followed suit. “One
is the same as all. If one is lost, all are lost.”
“That’s backwoods twaddle,” said Luc.
“You’re calling us uncivilized? You, who reek so profoundly of humanity that it
fills the entire ship with your stink?”
Sacha moved across the room to stand between them, but Luc advanced to her
outstretched hand.
“You’re going to endanger hundreds of people, some of whom are more important
to this cause than you are, because some stupid boy got himself killed?”
A low rumble started somewhere deep inside Javier. Of course, he couldn’t shift, so
there would be far less blood than what Javier wanted, but he was stronger than Luc,
bigger and fiercer. He had more fight in him.
Still, Luc had a gun. She worried for them both.
“Stop, you two, just stop!” she shouted.
Javier was coiling down, preparing to strike, and Luc was reaching for his gun.
“I said stop!” she shouted again. But neither did.
With a quick push deep inside, the wave built. Her anger, when it expanded upon
itself, had a way of invading the minds of others, and it was preparing to do just that.
Javier dropped Sergio’s body, Luc made contact with his gun, and Sacha pushed
the anger outward. An invisible wave emanated from her in concentric circles, pushing
as far out as the navigator and several of the other weres. All were knocked soundly on
their backsides.
It happened so quickly, everyone might have missed that it was her mind that had
silenced them all. Except that when she opened her eyes to survey the damage,
everyone within ten feet of her was on their backs, and Sacha stood in the midst of a
circle of unconscious bodies.
* * * * *
Javier woke with a pounding pain in his head. It took a moment to remember what
had happened, but when it started to flood back, he remembered the big deck, the
anger, the insults. And Sacha.
Something had struck him in the chest and knocked him backward. Sergio’s lifeless
body lay almost two feet away. A quick survey of the room told him it was not Sergio
who had moved. Rather, Javier, Luc, Vidal and about ten others had each been flattened
as well.
But Javier was the first to wake.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been on his back, but the crew on the edges of the
deck continued to work at their instruments as though nothing had happened.
Or as though this sort of thing had happened before.
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The only thing missing from the circle was Sacha.
Javier scanned the deck, but she was nowhere to be found. The other weres who
were not on their backs were gone. Only the crew remained, unfazed. He got to his feet,
slowly, and the ache in his head worsened. Javier groaned.
From across the deck, someone yelled, “Best to stay still for a bit, yet.”
When Javier turned to follow the sound of the unidentifiable voice, he expected to
find a man attached to it. Instead, he saw an unfamiliar, yet distinctly female face. Her
deep-set eyes and aquiline nose reminded him of something he couldn’t place. With
straight, silky black hair and sharp cheekbones, she wasn’t what he would call
beautiful. He liked his women a little softer, curvier. A little more like Sacha.
“Will it help the pain?”
“In your head? Yes.” She turned back to her work.
“There will be more pain?”
She stood, after scratching a last line into the open diary. Her costume was not
unlike Sacha’s, although she filled it differently. The same short dress with a slightly
longer back, the same copper breastplate, black boots and tight pants. Her movements,
though, set her apart from anyone Javier had ever seen.
Her fluidity was intoxicating to watch, like a foreign dance. Although she did step,
she made no sound, and her shoulders slumped permanently, always at the ready. The
only thing stilted about her movement was the occasional jerk of her head as the others
began to groan.
“There will be more pain later,” she said.
Javier leaned back on his elbows and lowered himself gently to the floor. It did help
the pain a bit to recline fully.
The strange woman came to stand over him, hands on her hips. “It isn’t the same
for any of us, where the pain begins, but it will begin somewhere. And soon.”
Her hair fell over her shoulders as she looked down at him, and she cocked her
head at a strange angle, her eyes narrowing. “You are one of the weres, yes?”
Javier nodded. Although he’d never seen one in person, he guessed she was a Felis,
a race of shapeshifters similar to weres, who took feline form. According to his
grandmother, the Felis and the Lobos were once rivals. But he and his brothers were not
raised on tales of the catshifters the way his grandmother had been.
“I am one of the weres. Yes.”
She regarded him a moment longer, taking in the details of his face, his clothing,
down to his feet. She pointed to Sergio’s lifeless corpse. “Is he one of yours?”
Javier ground his teeth. The sting of tears filled his awareness. “He was one of
mine.”
“I am Chax.” She reached one gloved hand toward him, extending her fingers wide.
“You should be able to rise now.”
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Taking her offered hand, he stood quickly. “How long have we been asleep?”
“Over an hour. Sacha asked us to retrieve her when you woke.” Her head swiveled
as a noise sounded behind them. “Please, do not stand,” she said to Vidal, who was
groaning from the other side of the circle.
“How long to Avignon?”
Chax studied his face, her head angling in liquid movements. “We landed in France
nearly three quarters of an hour ago.” Her head whipped around again. “I will ask you
not to stand or move, please. It will be best for you—Henry!”
The crew member at the other side of the deck jumped from his chair. He moved to
handle Vidal and the other waking weres.
“Would you like to fetch Sacha yourself?” Chax purred, looking him up and down.
“Surely she won’t turn you away, and I’m needed here if I may stay.” She swept her
arm in a half circle, indicating the other bodies. “They will wake slowly. We must wait
for them, to still their responses.”
Javier glanced back into the ship. “I’m not sure I can remember the way to her
quarters.”
Chax placed a long-fingered hand on his chest. “Take every left after the first right
until you come to the clock.” She swept his body again with her eyes, and from deep
inside her throat, the rhythmic purring returned. “Knock at the clock.”
He followed her instructions and was deep into the bowels of the ship before he
realized he’d left Sergio lying on the floor with the other weres.
The clock stood open when he turned the last corner. The only inkling he had that it
was the last corner was that he began to smell Sacha underneath Luc’s wretched scent.
The dark passageway to her room glowed in the light of the candle Sacha left lit near
the door.
She lay on her bed, hands folded over her stomach, resting serenely where the
bronze plate met the cerulean of her gown. With her eyes closed, her dark hair fanned
out over the pillow, and her body so pristinely still, she looked like a corpse. Were it not
for the occasional rise of the breastplate, he might have checked her pulse.
“I’m sorry.” Her lips barely moved, but her voice was clear and strong. The steady
rhythm of her breath continued.
Javier didn’t speak. Whatever purpose had brought him here suddenly disappeared
when he saw her stretched on the bed. He couldn’t help but remember the last time
she’d been in this posture.
“You have every right to be curious, Javier. Please, sit down at the desk and I’ll
explain everything.”
She obviously wasn’t reading his mind. “I don’t want to talk about what happened
on deck.”
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Her chest continued to rise and fall. When he’d watched her breathing for almost a
full minute in silence, his patience snapped. Javier crossed the room in two long steps
and knelt at her side, grasping her hand.
“Sacha.”
Her sharp intake of breath stopped him from speaking, but at the shift in her
rhythm, his concern multiplied. He slid a hand onto her stomach, meeting part cold
metal and part dress fabric. Her face twisted in pain and she cried out, her back arching
toward his hand.
Javier immediately pulled both hands away and leaned back in shock. His senses
shifted into hypersensitivity, seeking out her body heat, her smell, her heartbeat.
Everything about her was on high alert.
He groaned in hesitant immobility. His very nature demanded that he do
something to stop her pain, but if he couldn’t touch her, he had no idea how to stop
whatever was happening to her.
“Please… Please, don’t…” Her breath hitched and her face wrinkled, pressing
breath through tense lips. “It’s too soon…please, go back to the desk.”
Javier stood, frustration welling in his throat. He had to concentrate to normalize
his own heartbeat. He’d never felt so powerless in all his life, and it terrified him. This
woman he’d known for the space of two days suddenly had the ability to render him
useless to the world. He wasn’t sure he liked this.
“What am I supposed to do from here?”
“Nothing.” She panted a few short, uneven breaths, then the deep rhythm he’d
witnessed before returned. “Please, if you sit and wait.” She said nothing more for a few
breaths.
Javier’s muscles twitched to do something. He rolled his shoulders and closed his
eyes, reminding himself that she’d promised to explain. Not that information would
help anything. What would help is if he could fix whatever was wrong.
“Please. Sit.”
“How can you tell if I’m sitting, Sacha? Your eyes are closed.”
“I can feel your tension.”
“But you’re not reading my thoughts?”
Her breathing hitched for a moment and Javier seized the edge of the desk, feeling
the rough underside catch his fingertips. The splintered wood cut into his sensitive skin
and the pain grounded him. His pulse steadied, as did Sacha’s breathing.
“What happened on the deck…” She sucked in a long breath. “It is like pushing
myself into everyone’s brain.”
Javier pulled his hand from the desk and studied it. Tiny pricks of blood appeared
on his first and third fingers. He stuck both fingers into his mouth and the tang of his
own blood made a wave of nausea roll over him. It was somehow comforting to focus
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67
on the trials of his own body when Sacha was so obviously struggling to maintain her
equilibrium not four feet from him.
“The catshifter who was with me when I woke…”
“Chax. She’s the navigator.”
“She said there would be pain.”
Sacha’s hands moved higher, toward her breasts, and rested again on her rib cage.
“My…the presence of my mind inside yours. It triggers something in people. I don’t
understand it all, but it always happens.”
Her hands flexed, then moved to the bed. She lightly fisted the sheets in her hands,
then opened her hands again. Some kind of balance seemed to be returning.
“I am sorry for the pain, Javier.”
He stretched to his full height and rolled his shoulders, searching his body
carefully.
Sacha’s eyes flickered open and she turned her head, her dark hair crowning her
like a princess. The beautiful gleam of her dark eyes accelerated his pulse. The cloud of
frustration that had been building deep in his throat suddenly dissolved.
“There is no pain, querida.”
The promise of a smile curled across her lips. “I like hearing your language.” The
tenor of her voice dropped into a husky depth that made his blood race.
He pitched his tone to match hers, hoping to inflame her as she had him. “Le hablaré
por siempre si tu lo permite en español, mi querida.”
“What does that mean?”
Javier leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and dropped his voice even more,
whispering, “I said I will forever speak Spanish to you, if you’ll let me.”
Sacha’s eyelashes fluttered against her pale cheeks. “Beautiful.” Then, as though
remembering something, her eyes opened wide. “Did you say you felt no pain?”
“No, querida.” Javier’s heel moved, impatiently. Now that she was coming around,
he just wanted to touch her.
“How long have you been awake?”
“Not long. Maybe a quarter of an hour now.”
Sacha’s brows knit together. “That’s quite odd.” She swung her legs around slowly
and sat up. “There is always pain. And it’s always right away.”
Footsteps sounded in the hallway and Javier turned to the door, fully expecting to
find Luc. Instead, the angular face of the catshifter appeared. Her quick eyes flickered
between him and Sacha.
“Everyone is awake, ma’am.” Chax stood at attention as though she might salute
Sacha. “Acclimating as much as they can. Well, except for the corpse, of course.”
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The corpse. Javier chided himself for allowing his mind to drift away from Sergio
yet again. His eyes latched on to Sacha. She had changed everything for him, and not all
in ways that he liked.
“We’ve landed?” Sacha asked, pressing her hands into the bed for support. The
lines on her face said she still hadn’t fully recovered from whatever she’d done to them.
“Nearly an hour ago.”
“Where’s Luc?”
Chax shrugged her shoulders. “No one has seen him since he woke.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Just a quarter of an hour after you left.”
Javier shook his head. “Luc? I didn’t see him when I woke.”
Chax’s head flipped toward him, a swift and fluid movement. Her eyes swept him
quickly. “You were still asleep when he left.”
Sacha sighed. “Please tell me Henry landed us somewhere unobtrusive.”
“We’re near the river island, protected as we can be, and as far as we could get from
civilization,” Chax said.
Sacha flashed a weak smile. “We’ll be back to the deck soon, Chax. I just need a
minute alone with Javier.”
As quickly as she’d approached, Chax bounded away. This time, Javier caught a
glimmer of metal on her arm he’d missed before. He fingered the Prata.
“Is the moon out?” he asked.
Sacha’s eyebrows peaked. “I don’t know. I would imagine so. We’re quite a bit later
than we thought we’d be.”
“I would like to burn him in the moonlight if I could.”
She nodded. “I understand. I must find Luc and then we can disembark the ship.”
“I must go alone.”
Her full lips pursed. The movement was so uninhibited, yet so sensual. He wanted
to capture those lips and feast on them.
“I’ll have to talk with Luc. You’ll need protection.”
“I can protect myself,” he growled.
“At least take Vidal?”
Javier considered, trying to press away the thoughts of what his brothers would say
if they were here. Allowing strangers to view the burning would animate his ancestors
from their ashes back in Spain.
But if he had to choose between strangers’ presence and allowing Sergio to remain
trapped in his body, he would take the former. He’d already been enough of a cock-up
when it came to leading the Avinguda pack, one more mistake wouldn’t do him any
good or harm, one way or the other.
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Chapter Eight
The rest of the weres had a much more typical recovery from the incident on deck,
spending quite a bit of time writhing together in their respective pain. Some of it was
legitimate, but some was the melodramatic nature of the werewolves. Sacha was bored
with their spectacle.
The entire Cordovan pack accompanied Javier as he carried Sergio down the long
walkway almost two hours after Javier left Sacha’s room. They filed down like a line of
morose men walking the plank to their death. Some carried candles from their quarters.
Some wore long white robes. Some were naked from the waist up, clothed in only their
dark common-issue trousers.
Javier was one of the half-naked ones, and it distracted Sacha something fierce.
She and Luc had disembarked together while Javier waited for the weres to recover.
They found a place not far from the ship where they could hide themselves without
being seen.
Of course, any of the wolves could sniff them out if they had half a mind to, but she
hoped they would remain blissfully unaware, and they found a place significantly
upwind which still provided the view they needed.
With the Empire hunting them, it was just moronic to send them out, unprotected.
And since they wouldn’t allow non-weres to participate in the ritual, she had to
improvise.
She didn’t like to improvise. That was how people got killed. But Javier wouldn’t
have it any other way.
“Where did you tell the others to wait?” she asked.
Luc pointed across the large clearing where the pyre had been arranged to the north
side of the river shore. Another copse, much larger than the one she and Luc hovered
in, sat back against the edge of the water. Although she couldn’t make out any clues as
to their presence, she assumed that’s where they hid.
Henry had landed them in a strategic place, just sidled up to the long, uninhabited
island on the north side of the city. With the dense foliage on the mainland and thick,
low cloud cover, it was possible that no one had seen them land.
Unlikely, but possible.
If there were Empire spies, they were probably not this far beyond the city walls.
And the island, while habitable and solid enough, was not populated. If Javier and his
werewolves would hurry, they might even be back in the air before the night was
completely upon them.
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The sun still hung just above the western hills, dipping below the heavy clouds to
reveal its face before sinking into darkness. Night would begin to fall in less than half
an hour, and twilight was a dangerous time in this part of France.
The weres finally progressed around the pyre, circling the makeshift pile of sticks.
Javier stepped forward and placed Sergio’s body alongside it, then joined the circle, his
back to Sacha and Luc.
There was a long silence as they bowed their heads, then Javier raised his chin into
the sky and began to howl. The sound was as animalistic as it was human, and as full of
grief as anger. She’d never heard anything quite like it.
Luc snorted next to her. “Well, if that doesn’t bring the Empire out, nothing will.”
“Stop,” she hissed. “They may hear us, even from this distance.”
“Think about it, Sachela. There are no werewolves in this area.” Luc’s long, stubbed
nose twitched as though smelling something, and he licked his incisors with quick flicks
of his tongue. “They may even be able to hear that wretched yelping within the city
walls.”
Sacha studied his face as he stared into the clearing. There was something almost
canine about the way he watched them. Not like a were—a human incarnation of a
wolf—but more like a dog trapped inside a human body. Alien. Feral. And not happy
about it.
It struck her that he’d never looked quite like this before.
“They’ll be finished soon.” She eyed the group of howling werewolves and
continued, almost to herself, “Surely, Javier knows we can’t just sit here like this.”
The noise reached a crescendo, then faded. Sudden silence after so much noisy grief
made Sacha uncomfortable. She’d seen plenty of werewolf rituals before, especially of
the Spanish variety, and they often ebbed and flowed like this, but it didn’t make the
waiting any less interminable.
Across the river, just above the craggy brown tips of the eastern hills, the clouds
were heaviest. In the low sunlight and dense cover, the moon wasn’t really visible, but
its promise hung on the horizon as certain as the night. Last of the full moon tonight—
not that it would matter.
“I believe they’ve finished,” Luc said.
The werewolves stepped into a tighter circle with their collective heads bowed.
Javier bent to pick up Sergio’s body.
“But no one knows how long this will take,” Sacha reminded him.
“I thought they had to burn him before the moon.”
“That’s a myth, Luc.”
“There’s no such thing as myth in this world.” His face darkened into fierce lines. “I
had it on good authority that the moon rising was some sort of catalyst for this burning
ceremony.”
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Sacha reached for his arm, feeling the silky black fabric slip between her fingers.
“We will wait, they will burn him, and we will make Milan. Don’t worry.”
Luc turned his face so he could meet her fully. Instead of speaking, he cocked his
head to one side and studied her. His eyes, usually a light-brown, looked almost black
in the low light, and moved across her features with alarming quickness.
“You remind me of Tsura sometimes.” He released a long, sweet breath and offered
a slight smile. “She used to touch my arm like that, when I would be on the edge of
anger.” Luc’s eyes narrowed and he held her gaze for a moment before looking back at
the spectacle in the clearing. “It always brought me back.”
Sacha couldn’t speak for a long moment. It was unlike Luc to open up, to speak of
her best friend who had been gone so long. Other than Tsura’s face in Luc’s mind while
he rutted with her, she assumed he never thought of his late wife. She hadn’t caught
even Tsura’s name in his thoughts for months now, besides during sex.
“That surprises me,” Sacha replied. “She was such a firebrand.”
A sudden memory of Tsura manifested in Sacha’s mind. Her black hair swept up
into customary childhood plaits, she fought with one of her brothers over a bit of bread
left from dinner. Her hands seemed to be everywhere at once, punching and poking,
pounding on Za’s broad chest, fisting the bread and running. When she and Sacha
reached a copse of trees, she’d broken the bread in half and handed some to her friend.
“Why did you take the bread, Tsura?” Sacha had asked. “We just ate and I can’t fit a
morsel of this in my mouth.”
Her friend’s fierce eyes took in her face and laughed. “Because we can have it. And
because Za wanted it.” Tsura’s angry hands pressed the bread toward Sasha’s mouth.
“Sometimes you fight just because you can.”
How her memories and Luc’s could be so different puzzled Sacha. More than that,
it frustrated her.
“I feel, sometimes, like I can’t remember her anymore.” A quiet tear slid down
Sacha’s cheek as she closed her eyes, memorizing the contours of Tsura’s childhood
face. The same face she’d grown into as an adult, save the innocence of childhood. Such
a beautiful face.
Luc’s rough palm guided Sacha’s hand to his cheek. “You can always look in my
memories, Sacha. Look.”
She didn’t need to touch him to read the pictures in his head, but it did help the
connection when her emotions threatened her. The physical sensation of his stubbled
cheek under her hand made the experience more real, somehow.
Luc saw Tsura as he’d met her. Loose-flowing hair splayed on the forest floor,
brown dress torn. She couldn’t have been more than fourteen. He rescued her from the
highwaymen who killed her father. His first touch, he’d been overwhelmed by her
beauty.
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His next image flashed of her was less than a year later, the plain dress she wore to
her wedding curling around her shoulders as he peeled it back in wonder. He kissed
the dark skin on her shoulder, then the image faded.
Another tear joined the wet mess on Sacha’s cheek. “The dress wasn’t quite that
color, as I remember it.” She pulled her hand back from Luc’s face, afraid he would
show her a picture of Tsura’s death. “How like a man to forget the details when sex is
involved.”
Luc’s forehead wrinkled in concern. “You remember her wedding dress with that
much detail?”
“She’d been my companion nearly since birth.” Sacha dried her cheeks. “I try to
remember everything about her.” For the first time, when she cried in front of Luc, she
didn’t add to her torture by wishing he would dry her tears for her. There wasn’t even a
tiny hint of that desire left in her.
One encounter with Javier, and Luc was an unappetizing former lover. Since there
were days and years when she’d wondered if this moment would ever come, she
savored it and pictured Javier’s strong arms around her. A much more appetizing wish
than hoping for Luc’s empty heart to be hers. Never again.
Luc’s concern deepened into anger and he dipped his dark face away from her. “I
wish I had your memory.”
“You have memories I do not, Luc.” She colored as he flipped frightened eyes to
hers. “As you should.”
“Can you see her…?”
His sentence, she could finish without reading his mind.
“When you come into my bed?”
Luc nodded, his gaze fixed on the cool ground in front of him. There was nothing
special about that patch of grass, other than that he’d not orgasmed into its depths
while thinking of another woman. So it was undeniably safe, although Sacha wanted to
reassure him that she took no offense.
“Yes. But it would be strange if you did not think of her, no matter whose bed you
share.” Sacha touched his arm again, marveling at the cool temperature. He certainly
felt the night air more quickly than she did.
“Sachela, I—” His pliant voice, while earnest, belied the stoic blankness of his face.
She wanted to stop the free flow of his guilt.
“She was your first and only love, Luc. I understand.”
He was silent while the muscles in his face twitched unaccountably. An unreadable
expression covered his features, and Sacha waited for him to speak. When he didn’t, she
released his arm.
“You blame me.”
“We promised not to speak of it.”
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Unsatisfied, she pushed at his mind, but found the barriers up again. How he’d
learned that skill, she’d never know, but it was his most frustrating. They hadn’t
promised not to speak of it. He’d ordered her never to bring it up. There was a
difference.
“Don’t try to read my mind anymore, Sacha.” He leaned forward, hovering on the
balls of his feet. The gun that had been on the ground was now in his hands.
“They’re on the move.” Luc nodded toward the pyre.
In the lowering light, Sacha could still make out shapes. The bare chests were
obvious, contrasted with the white robes, but she made out none of the details that
helped tell one bare chest from the next. They had yet to light the fire, although they
seemed to be moving out into a more extended formation.
At the center of the circle, a figure knelt before the pyre. Sacha assumed this was
Javier, and watched him closely. The circle stopped expanding and all of the weres
turned around so they faced away from Javier.
A great howl went up just as the clouds parted to reveal the nearly full moon. As
the light from the bright orb spilled across the clearing, the wolves responded in a sort
of frenzied wailing. Though none of them began the transformation, they roiled
together as though the moon ate them from the inside out.
Perhaps it did.
Perhaps the magic never really went away, and the Prata only hid its effects.
Because Sacha didn’t shapeshift, she didn’t understand the feeling of the Prata, but she
imagined it only leashed, rather than obliterated, the wolf inside.
Javier howled again, a deep and mournful cry, and his shoulders heaved against
the pyre. He appeared to be leaning over Sergio’s body, weeping on him. Another howl
tore from him, filling the whole valley with its anguish.
One of the hooded figures stepped forward, extending a lit torch. Javier’s wolfish
voice silenced and he stepped back from the pyre. The hooded figure moved to take
Javier’s place, walking with the torch in front of him like a sword. Javier turned his back
on the pyre.
The other were placed the small flame at the bottom of the pyre, which caught
quickly on fire.
Just as the fire started its spread, a commotion began among the circled weres.
“What’s going on?” Luc asked.
Sacha shook her head. “I don’t know. This isn’t part of any ritual I’ve seen.”
Several of the weres on the south side of the circle rushed toward the fiery pile of
wood, screeching in Spanish.
Luc grasped her arm. “What are they saying?”
But Sacha didn’t know. She’d forgotten her linguistor back on the ship. Besides, she
could barely make out coherent words from that distance.
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The weres who’d broken the circle approached the fire and stood just clear of the
flames, yelling at each other. Gradually, the whole pack collapsed on the pyre.
Sacha gasped, her heart in her throat. She tried to find the words to ask Luc if what
she saw was real, but could manage none.
From inside the circle, on top of the pile of burning logs, a formerly lifeless body
stood. The black form rose to its full height inside the flames, and discharged an ear-
splitting growl that Sacha would never confuse with the human incarnation, ever again.
It wasn’t the first time she’d seen a fully formed werewolf. But it was certainly the
first time she’d seen one come back from the dead.
* * * * *
Javier could feel Sacha out here in the wild. More than that, he’d been able to smell
her, as soon as he stepped out of the ship. And now, as the frenzy of weres collapsed on
one another in their grief, he could smell her fear.
He also smelled something foreign. Something no words could express. It was
almost like a human smell, but tinny and without origin. If anything, it suffocated the
smell of Sacha’s fear. Surely, a burning was an intense experience, but nothing to be
afraid of. They would burn Sergio’s body and leave the ashes, his spirit finally gone.
“Javier!” Vidal’s cry pierced the air, sharpening Javier’s senses. He whirled toward
the pyre and the sight choked any air from his lungs.
A fully shifted were stood in the middle of the fire and howled. Javier’s first thought
was that one of the Cordovan weres was desecrating the ceremony. But there was only
one body on the pyre, and it was definitely not dead.
“What happened?” Javier held Vidal’s arm, the heat of the silver bracelet under his
hand.
“I didn’t see it.”
“Is that Sergio?”
Before Vidal could answer, the huge black creature vaulted off the pyre and into the
mob of unshifted weres. The Cordovans wisely kept their distance. Those close to the
pyre froze. One of the younger weres raised his hand to pick at the Prata around his arm,
no doubt trying to find whatever release would put him in the moonlight and on equal
footing with his Barcelonan counterpart.
But he could not free himself from whatever spell the Prata held. None of them
could. Sergio’s shifted wolf crouched and howled in their midst. Javier couldn’t guess
what he would do next—shifted weres were unpredictable. But he knew one thing. It
would take all of them working together to capture him.
“Don’t crowd him,” Javier said.
The Cordovans who’d been slowly inching forward stopped. Some took a step or
two backward. No one took their eyes off the massive threat in their midst.
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“He’ll spring before we can get to him.” Vidal spoke from Javier’s right, no doubt
sensing his plan. “We can’t wait.”
“If we all move at once…” Javier paused when a movement behind Vidal’s head,
across the clearing, caught his eye. Sergio’s wolf-head spun as well.
Then they all smelled it.
Fear. Very human fear.
“We must move.” Javier spread his arms, indicating the whole circle.
The entire group of men pounced at once. While human-shifted weres did not have
the supernatural remnants of their wolf-selves, they were generally stronger and better
prepared for battle than any human. And they sensed their brothers’ movements well,
even without communication.
Javier found this to be equally as true of his Cordovan cousins as it had been of his
Avinguda pack. They all moved as one animal.
Sergio, however, was a fully shifted full-moon were. Not the kind of half-human
shift they could accomplish when any moon was overhead. But the powerful,
unthinking, instinct-driven wolf without a man’s reserve.
He anticipated their movement and waited until they were close enough that he
could use them as a springboard to the wild. Sergio sailed over the row of attacking
weres and hit the open ground behind them, galloping for the woods.
The Cordovans turned as a unit and followed. Javier stood his ground, watching
the scene unfold, and sniffing the air for Sacha’s scent. Sergio had bolted toward the
human smell, which was not the same direction as Javier believed Sacha to be. Still, he
needed to find her.
From his left, behind a small copse of trees, Luc and Sacha emerged. A twist of
anger turned inside him at the sight of them together. But a surge of relief pushed it out,
knowing she was safe. And not in Sergio’s path.
He ran toward them, his heart pumping from more than the exertion of increased
speed. Javier wanted to hold her. To take her from Luc’s possession and keep her in his.
Her expression, as he approached, was as hungry as his.
“He’s not dead.” Javier felt immediately strange for stating the obvious, but with
Luc so close, didn’t know what else he could say.
“We saw it.” Sacha’s black hair had been pulled up into a more proper coif, but
running brought the knot of hair down and released some strands around her face and
neck. She looked unrealistically beautiful.
His relief at seeing her safe was suddenly overpowered by a deep frustration. “I
asked you to stay aboard the ship. This ceremony is sacred.”
“Wartime makes ceremony moot, Javier.” Luc’s heavy-lidded eyes narrowed on
him. “We have been charged with your safety. I wouldn’t think this was such a difficult
concept to grasp, given that you accepted our protection when you came on board the
Harbinger.”
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“I accepted no man’s protection.” Javier stepped toward Luc, daring the shorter
man to challenge him. “We ran for our life, and your ship happened to be the closest
safe haven.” At the presence of Sacha’s hand on his arm, he stopped advancing.
“Besides, I am at war with no man.”
“Well, they are at war with you,” Luc said. “You just don’t know it.”
Sacha stepped between them, the folds of her dress pressing against Luc’s black-
trousered legs. “I don’t believe this is an appropriate time for philosophical discussions.
There is a werewolf on the loose who’s supposed to be dead, and we have no way to
catch him.”
“On the contrary, my dear,” Luc sneered. He held up the heavy gun he’d been
toting, hefting it over his shoulder. “We have only to get within half a kilometer of the
wolf again, and I can stop him.”
Javier studied the gun. It was unlike any machine he’d ever seen before. The body
was at least four inches in diameter, and more than half a man’s height in length. The
metal had been painted black, for there were chips around the base that showed a much
lighter color, although he couldn’t place it.
“What is that?” he asked.
Luc stroked the long chamber with one very white hand. His long fingers closed
around the girth. “It’s Resistance-issue. Not for civilians.”
Sacha eyed Luc narrowly. “It’s for subduing magical creatures.” She pointed
toward the retreating Cordovans. “Speaking of which, we should give chase.”
Luc nodded across the darkening space. Near the horizon, the moon went behind a
large, dense cloud, and shadows claimed the landscape.
“He will turn back now, yes?” Sacha’s eager gaze turned to Javier. He wanted to
smooth the hair from her face, but rolled his shoulder instead.
“In a full moon, a were doesn’t need the light to change.”
“Chax and Angus will have one of these,” Luc patted his large gun, “and since the
wolf headed in their direction, it should be only a matter of moments until they have
him under control.”
“Bullets will not stop him,” Javier insisted.
Luc grabbed Sacha’s arm and pulled her along into step with him. “They aren’t
using bullets.”
Javier followed. They avoided the still-burning pyre, which provided the only light
to the full dark of night.
“It’s a special compound.” Sacha turned her head toward Javier, as Luc continued
to force her into walking with him. “It will stun him, but not kill him.”
“Chax will fell him quick. She’s a fast shot.”
Javier remembered the catshifter and imagined her quick movements with one of
Luc’s guns. Any human, no matter what their capabilities, would be a rough match for
Sergio. He doubted she could stop a fully shifted werewolf.
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Sacha wrenched herself from Luc’s grip with a sour look and matched her gait to
Javier’s. Her earnest brown eyes met his and she grasped his hand. “Sergio will be
fine.”
“I’m not worried about Sergio.” Javier tried to keep his voice steely, although the
pressure of her skin on his made his blood rush. “What I want to know is how in the
name of God he is still alive.”
* * * * *
When Sacha broke through the werewolf ranks, she expected to see Chax and
Angus standing over the still body of a wolf. But the center of the circle was empty.
“Have we interrupted something?” Luc stalked over to Chax. “Where is the wolf?”
Sacha went to Chax’s side and squeezed her friend’s shoulder. The wiry catshifter
shrugged her hand off.
“I missed him.”
“It’s all right, Chax. We’ll find him.”
“Not likely,” Luc said. “A shifted wolf can cover forty kilometers in an hour. If he’s
not in top shape, it might take him until the morning to reach Breziers. If he is, he’ll
make Narbonne.”
“Assuming that he returns to Barcelona,” said Angus.
The circle of weres swelled with comments. None of which she understood, of
course, because she’d forgotten her linguistor. Never again, Sacha.
She sensed Javier at her elbow and reached back for his hand. If this had been a
week previous, and it had been Luc’s hand she reached for, he would have pushed her
off, awkwardly. But Javier clasped her hand in his. The heat of his flesh warmed her
against the cold night.
When she shivered, he pulled her into his side. That gave her a shiver of an entirely
different kind.
“What are they saying?” she asked.
Javier leaned into her bare neck and whispered. “They agreed with Luc. That a
shifted wolf is too fast for us to chase.” The feel of his breath reminded her of their
intimacy, of his mouth on other parts of her. She wanted nothing more than to fall to the
ground with him at that moment.
But one look at his tormented face said he wasn’t feeling the same. Javier’s
unfocused eyes glazed over. He might have been planning, or plotting, grieving. Other
than a jumble of images which would be hard to interpret, she wouldn’t be able to
understand his Spanish thoughts.
It pained her to admit this, but she didn’t like to have to ask what people were
thinking in order to comfort them. She always just knew. Asking him outright made her
feel too vulnerable.
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Instead, she squeezed his hand harder.
“Well, something has to be done,” Angus said. “There’s a werewolf on the loose in
unfamiliar country. It’s been dead for nearly a day, and is probably hungry.”
“And it’s our fault.” Luc paced in front of Chax, watching Sacha with wary eyes. “I
should have known this would happen.”
“You couldn’t know the wolf lived.” Chax reached for Luc’s hand and twined her
fingers around his. Such a simple gesture, and yet it set something off inside Sacha.
“No one is at fault.” Sacha leaned into Javier’s warmth, seeking a reprieve from the
anger that twisted inside her. She didn’t take her eyes off Chax’s fingers stroking Luc’s.
She considered for a moment that she could simply read the catshifter’s thoughts,
except that she’d promised Luc she wouldn’t.
It was one of the conditions of her entrance into the Resistance. She would only use
her Empath powers when necessary, and never on her crew. Luc was right. No one
would trust her if they knew she would read their minds at a moment’s notice.
But it would have come in awfully handy right then.
“Someone is at fault.” Chax flipped her gaze to Javier.
Luc’s eyes followed, locking on Javier’s face. “If you had followed my orders, we
wouldn’t be in this mess right now.”
Sacha stepped toward Luc, putting her body between his and Javier’s. “You’d
rather he murdered one of his own than inconvenience us? What has gotten into you,
Luc?”
“We’re never going to catch him, Sacha.” Luc’s brown eyes went that fierce black
color again. “He’s got a head start and he’s shifted. None of us can match that. Our only
chance is to find him when he turns back.”
Javier’s hand tensed in hers. Sacha didn’t dare step back to his side, lest Luc mistake
it as an offer to pounce. She chanced a push into his mind.
Luc’s anger at Javier filled every corner of his thoughts. A few pieces of Italian, then
a careful curse in English. He knows I’m in here. Sacha pulled back and stepped into
Javier’s chest. His strength centered her.
“We can’t catch him in the dark,” Vidal said. He stood behind Luc, but spoke to
Javier, who must have made a gesture, because Vidal nodded. “Not with the moon.”
“Can you take these off?” Javier held his arm up so the Prata was in her peripheral
vision.
“No.” Luc and Chax spoke as one. But Luc hunted down Sacha’s gaze. He locked
on to her with dark, tight eyes. “Sacha. You can’t.”
“But if they could catch him…”
“They won’t catch him. He’s got ten minutes head start.” Chax stood, releasing
Luc’s hand. “One loose lupis on the night of a full moon, no. Even if he can think
enough to catch the other wolf, we can’t be certain they won’t turn on us and kill us
all.”
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Luc nodded. “Not to mention all the innocent people we’d be endangering, and the
creatures on the Ark.” At that last word, Luc’s eyes narrowed. He apparently hadn’t
meant to say that. It was a word Sacha hadn’t heard to reference the Harbinger. While
appropriate, given the nature of their mission, it struck her as odd.
The circle of weres grew restless, grumbling. Vidal took their cue. He stepped out of
the circle, coming closer to Luc and baring his teeth. “If you won’t release us, then what
will you let us do?”
“We’re not keeping you prisoner,” Chax said. “We saved you!” Her catlike eyes
glistened with challenge.
Vidal shrugged, the colorful tattoos on his arms rippled in the emerging moonlight.
Each of the weres, in turn, closed their eyes and let the soft glow wash over them. Sacha
wondered if Javier did the same thing. It was still strange to think of him as a were, even
though she’d seen him begin to shift in front of her eyes in Barcelona.
Luc waved his arm to take in the circle of weres. “You can certainly traipse all over
the earth as you are.” For the first time, he looked at Angus. His normally severe
expression softened. “Angus and I will go after him when the moon sets fully.”
“That won’t matter tonight,” Vidal said. “Or for the next three days.”
“The full moon.” Javier’s voice was quiet, solid. Almost as if he’d forgotten and
Vidal’s comment reminded him his entire life revolved around this celestial object.
“He’ll be able to shift in and out of wolf form at will. And since he’s so young, it’s
likely he can’t control his wolf. Most of us didn’t learn that before twenty.” Vidal
grasped the Prata on his forearm, and the flesh surrounding it went red, almost like a
sunburn. “If you don’t send us after him, he’ll terrorize the countryside, and you’ll
surely never see him again.”
“That is not an option.” Luc’s voice was stiff and deep. Had he been a werewolf, he
might have growled, as some of the weres in the circle did.
Their alpha hushed them with the slice of his strong arm through the air.
“We’ll talk about this on board,” Sacha said.
Vidal’s nostrils flared as he faced Luc, but he stepped away while Luc held his
ground as the other weres followed. Only Javier remained behind with the crew, stoic
and silent behind Sacha.
Luc took her arm and pulled her in as the last of the weres filed past them. “There’s
no need to discuss it anymore, Sacha. We’re not removing the Pratae, no matter what.
Our orders are clear.”
Sacha hissed, “I don’t think their intention was to—”
“It’s not our responsibility to divine the intentions of our orders. Only to follow
them. Without question.” His long face hovered so emotionless before hers. It infuriated
her that Luc would so quickly dismiss her opinion.
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The temptation to read his mind was so overwhelming, she had to wrench out of
his grip for fear of doing it unintentionally. “Our responsibility is to these creatures first,
not to some stuffed shirt who gave you orders months ago.”
Luc drew himself up to full height, looking down on her with fierce authority. “I
am still the captain of this crew.”
Sacha straightened, as well, anger rising in her throat. “This is my airship.”
“I,” Luc paused, drawing a thin breath, “am the captain of this crew.” Luc’s arm
extended past her, toward Javier, and he leaned toward her, mere inches from her face.
“The fact that you’re rutting with this animal clouds your judgment.”
In an instant, the broad-shouldered were stood between them, a low growl
sounding from deep inside. He shifted his weight from side to side, flexing his hands.
“You speak to her with respect. She is not some expendable streetwalker you can
abuse as you like.” Javier’s chest expanded with quiet breath as he waited for Luc to
respond. “Captain or not, you treat a lady with respect.”
Luc glowered at Javier, sizing him up with angry eyes. “You think she’s a lady, and
I respect your…naïveté. But you’ll soon learn that the welcome into her bed isn’t a
choice invitation.” At Javier’s deeper growl, Luc sneered. “Don’t waste your anger on
me, you’ve got no competition in that area.”
Luc’s dark gaze drifted back to Sacha and a slow smile transformed his face into an
almost distorted visage. “One whore’s bed is as good as another.”
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Chapter Nine
“You shouldn’t have hit him.”
Javier scowled at the floor, cradling his fist to his chest. The blinding rage that had
come over him in the clearing still hadn’t fully subsided. He was just glad, for Luc’s
sake, that Vidal and the other Cordovans had been back on the ship before they heard
his comments about Sacha.
His heart expanded. When the man had said those things about Sacha, he just
couldn’t control himself. There was nothing on this earth that would have kept him
from hitting Luc. In fact, it had only been because Sacha stopped him that he held back
from breaking the bastard’s neck.
“I won’t allow anyone to speak of you that way.”
Javier still hadn’t looked at Sacha since she’d brought him to her quarters and sat
him down on the bed. The sight of her luscious white skin and dark, slightly messy hair
made conflicting emotions rise inside him.
He wanted to shake her. To release his anger about the situation they found
themselves in. But a bigger part of him wanted to hold her and kiss her and make love
to her for days on end.
If they’d been in Barcelona, before all this, that’s what he would have done. But in
the tenseness of this new situation, he was tempted toward the former choice. She could
do with a good shaking, anyway. Shake some sense into that head of hers.
“Aren’t you going to answer me?”
Javier shook his head, keeping his eyes fixed to a spot on the floor that avoided all
parts of her in his direct or peripheral vision. For now.
“You made a statement, Sacha. Those generally require no answer.”
She placed one hand on his knee, but he jerked away. The sensation of desire that
even her nearness brought overwhelmed him. He needed to think straight.
“You don’t have to be so angry.”
Javier seethed. The very thought of Luc’s hands on her made an uncontrollable
anger throttle his senses. But the idea that the bastard would discard her so easily,
throw her aside like a piece of trash, produced an anger almost as devastating.
The dull throb where Luc’s teeth had connected with his hand kept Javier in the
moment. Every time he inched into thoughts of Sacha, he focused in hard on that pain,
and it made the whole world dissolve.
This was how his people coped with loss. Pain leads to revenge.
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“My anger comforts me.” Javier flexed his fingers, watching the two reddening
patches where Luc’s teeth had torn skin from his hand. “This is how it should be.”
“I don’t need anyone to get angry for me.” Sacha stood, the back of her half-long
dress swaying with her movements. “I can take care of myself.”
“No, my dear. That you cannot.” Javier’s laugh bordered on a snort, and he saw the
frustration edge into her features, crimping her brow and drawing her lips together.
“Oh really?”
“If a man doesn’t stand up for you, you are nothing to him.” Javier clenched a fist
and pressed it to his chest. “It’s how you know what you mean to us.”
“It’s quite barbaric, if you ask me.” Sacha moved toward him, dragging her fingers
up his arm in an invitation. “There are much more interesting ways to show me what I
mean to you.”
Javier pushed off her touch, trying to keep focused on the anger. “You will not
distract me, Sacha. I mean to stand up for you, even if you will not stand up for
yourself.”
Sacha laughed, taking a step back. Then another. Her slow, deliberate movements
puzzled Javier. Their precision spoke of some larger strategy, one which he would not
allow himself to be caught up in.
“When will Luc and Angus leave?”
“I’ve asked Luc to come here so we can talk about Elias.”
Javier arched an eyebrow. “The boy we found? You’ve not told him yet?”
“We’ve been…busy.” She sank into the chair, which was deceptively deep for such
a small seat. Her body seemed to keep going until he thought she might fall straight
through to the floor. “I wanted to wait until after we’d dealt with the werewolf corpse,
which of course, isn’t yet finished. But now it seems like we should tell Luc. And then
the whole crew.”
“Then, they will leave?”
“Not until the sun rises, I would imagine.” She pulled a pocket watch from the
folds of her dress and flipped it open. “Another four hours or so. Why?”
Javier calculated how far Sergio could travel in four hours. He didn’t know the
terrain of France, having never been here before, but there weren’t many places in Spain
that a werewolf couldn’t reach after a night of hard running. France would likely be the
same.
“How long will we be docked here?”
“Until they return, or Sergio does. Or both.” Her eyes drilled into his. She was
saying, of course, that they might have to kill him. He doubted Luc could singe the hair
on Sergio’s coat, let alone kill the boy.
“We still haven’t talked about the obvious, Sacha.”
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She sat forward and flexed her shoulders, making her cleavage press up against the
confines of her too-small bodice. “Being interrupted by Luc?”
The reminder of their intimacy sent a warm sensation coursing through him. He
shook his head, trying to re-center himself. “Sergio is alive.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“I want to know why he lives.”
Sacha walked to the bed and sat beside him. The mattress sank beneath their
weight. Before he could protest, she slid her hand along the side of his face. “I thought
we agreed not to talk about philosophy.”
Javier closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. Her hand was so soft against his
shadowed jaw, and so enticing with its scent of still-ripening grasses from the meadow.
“How can you not want to know?”
Sacha exhaled, and the sweetness of her breath caressed him. “I’ve learned, in this
fight, that some things you’re better off not knowing.” Her eyes shadowed and dropped
to her lap. “Some questions, you shouldn’t answer.”
Javier’s heartbeat normalized when her hand left his face.
“I have never wanted to unknow the answer to any question.” His voice was deep,
certain, steady.
Sacha swallowed and turned her head, exposing her neck. The pulse of her heart
catapulted as her eyes closed. “Would that you never have to know this feeling, then.
There’s none other quite like it.” Something had her heart racing, her nostrils flaring,
and Javier couldn’t help his curiosity.
“You’re sad, carina. Why?”
She shook her head and another tendril of hair came loose, spilling down her bared
neck. “I want to trust you, Javier. To tell you things.” Her eyes met his, wide and dark.
“But the mage told me to test my lovers carefully.”
Javier traced his finger over her round, pink lips. “We are lovers, then?”
Sacha’s back straightened, thrusting her breasts toward him. An unconscious move,
perhaps the shock of his blunt question, but it said more to him than her words could.
She leaned into him and pressed her lips against his. Javier sat back, allowing her to
be the aggressor, and relished the feel of her weight against him. She climbed into his
lap and the bunch of fabric that ended her short dress pushed into his navel. While
Sacha continued to kiss him, he tried to wade through the fabric of her dress.
He leaned his head away long enough to ask, “Will this help you to trust me,
carina? If we are intimate again?”
The question seemed to stun her more than encourage her. She sat up and put a
hand in her dark hair. The innocent look on her face, coupled with the open and
recently kissed pink of her lips did nothing to abate his desire for her.
But he could tell, by the pallor of her face, that it abated hers.
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“Why do you ask me this?”
He studied her, searching for an answer. An overwhelming sense of unexplainable
protectiveness came over him, not unlike what he’d felt hovering over an unconscious
body in the meadow. “I am not Luc.”
Her features softened and a glaze of unshed tears welled in her eyes. “I cannot
explain Luc.”
“You don’t need to explain anything. Men like that always treat women as
expendable.” Javier reached across the distance she’d created and touched her cheek,
where a tear had fallen. “You are not a toy or a trifle.”
Sacha fell against him, her mouth slanting on his, her tongue searching and hot. The
instant she entered his mouth, Javier felt his erection begin to grow and a sense of
anticipation pooled in his chest.
As she moved on him, Javier relaxed into her dominance. He loved the spark in her,
her ambition, even if it was currently centered on his cock. He slid his hands up her
back, pulling her even closer to him and reveling in the pressure of her breasts against
his chest.
He would need to unfasten all her clothing again to get at them. What an arduous
process, wading through all her warrior’s accoutrements. Javier smiled as he found the
line of hooks and began the process.
“Something tickles you?” she asked.
“Your clothing. Such a hindrance.” He leaned forward and kissed the tiny flash of
exposed skin on her rib cage.
“There’s no need for hindrance between us tonight.” She pressed her breasts
toward his face and leaned down to find the front of his trousers. The rough material
prickled against his cock and he gasped when she made short work of freeing it.
Sacha fisted him roughly, her mouth hovering over his, her dark eyes watching his.
With her other hand, she reached between her own legs and panted into his kiss. She
scooted forward until he could feel wetness on the head of his erection. His hands went
quickly to her hips, steadying her, almost stopping her.
For just a moment, Javier could feel the wolf inside, tearing at his skin, begging to
be released, to be in control. Not unlike his cock, which seemed to need to be inside her,
the wolf was insistent, almost clawing.
And then the plunge. When he felt the edge of her stretch for him, he held her
down and found her eyes closed. Part of him wanted to force them open, to see what
she felt in this moment. But he also appreciated her being lost. She moved on top of
him, propelling herself away from him, and then back.
The tiny space between her lips expanded with an indrawn breath and Javier
couldn’t help thrusting his tongue into her mouth. Sacha’s moan fueled him.
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So many feelings crowded at once, but the wolf was always the most resolute. This
writhing wasn’t enough for the animal inside. He wanted to pound into her, to replace
those contented moans with whimpers of surprise and desire.
But at the same time, he couldn’t treat her like an animal. Not when her trust was so
tenuous. If at all.
Javier sat as still as he could manage, fighting the beast, allowing Sacha to do what
she would, and hoping the exquisite torture would be the catalyst for her surrender.
It felt positively sinful to have a man buried inside her while neither of them were
naked. She missed the feel of him, of skin on skin, but this was perhaps better. Sacha
could feel nothing except the hard rod inside, and her own slick wetness urging him
onward.
She kissed him languorously, relishing this moment. They’d known each other such
a short time, and yet she felt as though she’d been waiting for this moment all her life.
Javier stiffened against her, though not in orgasm. The earnest look on his
handsome face made her want to kiss him again, but she held back, studying. Her
fingers sought out his hands, and she happened to graze the Prata in her search. It
seared her and she cried out.
“Carina!” He took her face in his hands. “What’s wrong?”
“The Prata.” She held her scorched fingers, then stuck one in her mouth. “It’s like
fire.”
He brushed his fingertips over the silver bracelet and winced. “I’m sorry, carina.”
Then, looking at her fingers, he stretched his neck and took them in his mouth. He
sucked on them until she couldn’t feel the burn any longer.
She continued to ride him as he ministered to her, and when he finally released
them from his mouth, he put his own fingertip into its hot depths. “I will make you
forget the fire, carina.”
Javier reached beneath the folds of her dress and found her clitoris with alarming
swiftness. She almost jumped at the slick pressure of his finger on her, even as she held
his cock inside.
He urged her into a rhythm so that she was riding him. The upswing brought a
beautiful pressure from his thick cock, and the downswing found his finger pressing
against her clit.
It wasn’t long before she was crying out in her ecstasy, and she collapsed against
him as she finished, but he still hadn’t come. She wasn’t used to this. Typically, her
lovers took what they could get, and her pleasure was an afterthought. Just the
difference between them and Javier made her corral her disobedient limbs and find
whatever strength she had left in her to take him through his orgasm.
She found more speed, and soon, he was grasping at her, holding her while he cried
out, burying his face in her fully clothed bosom. Just the promise of his mouth near her
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nipples made her arch her back to offer them to him, but her dress both muffled his
ecstasy and covered hers.
Sacha made a mental note to do this again soon. Naked next time.
When Javier had recovered, he slid from her and positioned her so she was resting
on the pillow. He pulled up her blanket, the warmth returned.
“You should get some sleep,” he said. “We’ll need to go back out in a few hours.”
She reached for his face and felt the scruff tickle her palm. “You’re not going to
stay?”
“I should find Vidal and get some sleep myself.”
Sacha turned toward him, knowing full well her cleavage would pop over the top
of her dress. “You could stay here. We could…find other ways to pass the time.”
Javier’s dark eyes dipped to the front of her dress and he laughed. “I don’t want to
pass time, carina. I want you to get some sleep and I’m wide awake now.”
Her heart sank for a moment and she debated whether to pull him down into bed
with her, or let him go. In the end, she couldn’t keep him somewhere he didn’t want to
be, regardless.
“I suppose I could sleep.”
“I’ll be back for you before we go after Sergio.”
Javier leaned in to kiss her and she thought about turning her head. But she let him
have her lips. Her limbs and eyes were, indeed, heavier than they had been before the
sex, but part of her wanted to stay awake just to spite Javier.
He walked across the room. “Sleep well, Sacha. And quickly. There may not be
much time for sleep after tonight.”
She closed her eyes and puzzled at the statement. Her first instinct was to push
inside his mind and read whatever was hidden there, but she’d made him a promise. So
the Empath was relegated to puzzling out the meanings of cryptic sentences, just like
some human being. What an annoyance.
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Chapter Ten
Javier set off in search of Vidal and the Cordovans, and instead found a cluster of
the French vampires crowding the hallway near Sacha’s clock door. He recognized one
of them from earlier.
“André,” he said.
The tallest of the vampires looked in his direction, over the cluster of his compadres.
His face read shock, and it was more than Javier’s sudden appearance that prompted it.
“Tell me, are you coming from Miss Sacha’s boudoir?” The note of condescension in
his voice made the hair on Javier’s neck stand on end.
“What of it?”
André laughed, in that sort of foppish way that vampires laugh when they find
something funny that entirely isn’t. “Oh, my boy. I meant no disrespect to you, or to the
lovely mistress. I simply was inquiring as to her whereabouts.”
“She’s sleeping.”
“I’m sure she is.” The innuendo in André’s voice practically grew fists and smacked
Javier across the face.
The wolf in him growled, deep and low. A few of the nearer vampires bared their
fangs in an almost pained gesture, as though it was a subconscious reaction to Javier’s
presence that they weren’t at all happy with.
“Again, I meant no disrespect. Sacha Camomescro saved our lives. We wish her
nothing but the…utmost…happiness.” Again, André’s voice was laced with innuendo,
and Javier could feel his patience begin to snap.
“Why do you need her?”
“We have, I believe, a bit of a problem.” André glanced around at his pack of
fanged ones, and there was an unspoken communication that Javier couldn’t quite pick
up on. “I’m unwilling to go to the captain with this, for fear that he will, how shall we
say it, mishandle this sensitive information, given how he responded to your little
mishap with your brother werewolf.”
“I wouldn’t call it a mishap.” Javier fought to keep control of his temper. Lack of
sleep was catching up with him. He needed to relax, and he needed it now. “But I’ll
forgive you that. For now.”
One of the shorter vampires who’d been cowering in the back said something in
insistent French and André shrugged his shoulders.
“Yes, it is a bit of a time-sensitive issue. Do you happen to know how long we will
be docked in Avignon?”
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Javier studied the short vampire in the back. He seemed to be built more like a
werewolf. Stocky, muscular, less angular in feature, and more swarthy than the pasty
cult of bloodsuckers. Javier wanted to know what the short vampire had said that made
André cut through the flowery show to get to the point.
“At least through the night. There will be a search party going out in the morning.”
André’s face registered the same shock as it had when Javier first approached.
“Then they know?”
“About Sergio? Yes.”
“No, no.” André spoke in French and the other vampires nodded. Apart from the
short, dark one in back, they all seemed to be of one mind about everything. “Not about
your were brother. Although, we express our sympathy for you, in deepest measure.”
“What are you worried about Luc discovering, André?” Javier’s patience wore
almost through, and he had to fight to keep the growl out of his voice. Vampires and
werewolves weren’t natural enemies, like some in the culture would have people
believe, but they weren’t exactly common allies, either. And these particular vampires
seemed jumpier than your average bloodsucker.
“We have a tiny problem.” André’s pale face crumpled into frustration. “I really
must speak with Miss Sacha.”
Javier crossed his arms and filled the corridor to her bedroom. “She is asleep. How
can I help you?”
“Well, you see. We have a slight problem.”
“Stop rambling, André.” The short, swarthy vampire strode to the front of the pack
and stood in front of Javier, matching his body language exactly. Although he was
neither as tall nor as strong as Javier, he made a much more impressive picture when
out from behind the other vampires.
The vampire scanned Javier from head to toe, settling at last on the Prata that
encircled his forearm, and exhaling. “What André is saying rather poorly is that we
need your help.”
* * * * *
Sacha had been asleep less than an hour when Javier was at her bedside again. She
would have been pleasantly surprised, except he’d brought company.
There were certain magical creatures that Sacha preferred over others. And certain
ones that she would rather not cross paths with. The vampires were among the latter.
They weren’t particularly dangerous, at least not with the wooden Prata that each had
donned upon boarding the Harbinger. The most they could do was bare their fangs. Of
course, they still had unseemly predilections, thus the event with the pixie.
But Sacha didn’t avoid them because of their danger. She avoided them because
they were excessively annoying. Vampires were the toddlers of the magic world. They
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required a good deal more work than they were worth, and made a great deal more
noise than they should.
One at a time, they could be tolerated. But all in a group like this? This was going to
be a much longer night than she initially anticipated.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Javier stared her down with that earnest, hopeful look he always wore. “I’m so
sorry to wake you, carina.”
His deep voice made her whole body heat as if she were next to a roaring fire.
Under the blanket, her toes curled, and inside her chest, something pressed at her heart.
“Don’t worry, Javier. But why is André here? And the rest of the vampires, I can
feel them.”
“It seems we’ve misplaced a vampire.”
She fought the urge to burst into laughter. But after losing Sergio, and with the way
André’s face scrunched up as if he might be fighting back tears, she was relatively
certain that laughter wouldn’t be tolerated by either of the men at her bedside.
“Oh, André.” She held her hand out to him, pretending empathy. Secretly, she was
certain they had done no such thing. No one loses vampires. Lord knew she’d been
trying to lose them ever since she picked them up, with no luck. “Who is it? Jean?
William?”
“No, no, no. This is precisely why I knew we must find you. It is not one of the
young ones. Or someone reckless. We would not even have come, but…” André’s eyes
glazed over. Sacha had to intentionally not roll her own. The man was a basket case
about a ripped seam in his clothing. He would be inconsolable no matter who it was.
“It’s Gabrielle.” From behind André, she recognized Lucien’s voice. Then, the
shorter vampire appeared. Dressed in his customary blue frock coat, Lucien’s calming
presence balanced out André’s hysterics. Except it was his sister that was lost. He, of all
the vampires, should be the most distraught.
Yet he seemed to be encountering no more than a polite annoyance. His demeanor
was as it always had been. Reserved.
Sacha hadn’t yet gathered the entire story of Lucien’s and Gabrielle’s relationship to
the other vampires. But their physical appearance was closer to her own—to the Gypsy
people—than to the angular, lanky Frenchmen. Because vampires were notoriously
cautious about who they turned, Sacha hadn’t ever probed André for more details.
But the gossip she’d heard around the dinner table hadn’t been good.
And Gabrielle had always been a little strange. Not quite all there, if one could be
said to seem completely normal and yet absolutely abnormal at the same time. Her eyes
never focused, although Sacha knew she could see. And she never spoke, except in
hushed tones to Lucien, who spoke French marvelously and without an accent.
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But his English held just the faintest hint of Romany, and Sacha had always been
curious about the pair. One of these days, she would ask questions first and form search
parties later.
“I’m so sorry, Lucien,” she said.
André took a step farther into the room, his tone emphatic, his gestures
overwrought. “We have searched the boat. Completely.”
“I’m sure there are places we could still look.” Sacha stood and re-clasped the side
of her dress, discarding the woolen blanket.
“How long has she been missing?” Javier asked, taking up position behind her.
“No one’s seen her since before we landed,” André said. “We noticed her gone after
the werewolves returned.”
That had been hours ago. Sacha stepped toward André and Lucien. “Why didn’t
you find us as soon as you noticed her gone?”
“You were,” Andre paused to glance from Sacha back to Javier, “otherwise
engaged.”
Any other day, Sacha might have been appalled at his insinuation, but he was right.
This insatiable desire to have Javier’s eyes and hands on her at all times was distracting.
And worst of all, it kept her from being on top of her job.
Her job.
To find these magical refugees and protect them. She wasn’t doing a very good job
of protecting Gabrielle while she had Javier’s face between her legs, good as it felt.
Appropriately chastised, she pushed Javier to the side. “We’ll start a complete
sweep of the ship, from the deck out. When we get to the hold, we’ll split—”
“We’ve searched the entire ship already.” The slightly tinged Romanian English
betrayed a hint of frustration.
This was not André’s over-dramatics. If Lucien said they’d searched the entire ship,
he meant it. Perhaps, if he’d only employed other vampires, the job may not have been
as thorough as Sacha would have liked. But it likely had been done.
Lucien’s frustrated voice was louder, as though he’d crossed the room, or decided
she couldn’t hear him. “We haven’t been in the captain’s quarters, or yours. But I can’t
think why she’d be in either place.”
André slumped into the chair in the corner and Lucien paced in front of the closet.
She crossed her room and placed a hand on Lucien’s forearm, catching a warm bit of
the wooden Prata under her skin. “We will find Gabrielle. Make no mistake.”
“I hope so, because she’s never been on her own.” Lucien’s eyebrows furrowed.
“She doesn’t know how to survive.”
“So we’re assuming she’s left the ship.” Javier pushed off the wall, ready for action.
Sacha turned to him, releasing Lucien’s arm. “One of us surely would have spotted
her if she’d gotten off the ship during the mourning ritual.”
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“Not if she managed to sneak off after the shifting.” Javier’s eyes glazed over and
he gazed into the middle distance. “We were a bit distracted.”
“So we start off the ship.”
Lucien nodded. “I don’t know why she’d leave me. But I have a bad feeling she’s
gone not of her own free will.”
“You think someone kidnapped her?” Sacha’s mind whirled for a moment. This
was an entirely different situation than a hazy girl getting lost in a big ship on her own
and wandering outside. The presence of force would mean that someone on the ship—
someone she trusted—had deceived her, and committed a crime under her nose.
“Remember the boy.” Javier’s words sank deep. She’s been meaning to talk to Luc
and the crew about Elias’ murder. But it never seemed like the right time. What the
“right time” looked like, she didn’t know.
Although Javier was right. Elias had been lured away and murdered. It wasn’t
entirely out of the realm of possibility that the same thing that ate him had also
kidnapped and potentially killed Gabrielle.
“What boy?” Lucien looked between Javier and Sacha, his bright eyes big and
questioning. “There’s been another disappearance?”
“No,” Sacha said, firmly. It was the truth, and yet it wasn’t. But she didn’t want to
alarm anyone just yet.
“Are we going to search for her, or stand her pontificating while my sweet Gabrielle
could be out in the wilderness being torn apart by wild dogs at this very moment?”
André’s voice ratcheted up an octave with each horrifying twist.
Javier grabbed Sacha’s hand and pulled at her. “If we go now, we can beat the
moon setting. Even with the Prata, I am better with the moon out.”
“As are we,” André agreed, at last back to his normal voice.
“Then let’s not waste another moment.” Sacha allowed Javier to drag her from her
room and into the corridor. While she hoped they would not find Gabrielle out in the
dark wilderness of the French countryside, she prayed even more that if they did find
the girl, she would at least be alive.
* * * * *
André and his queue of vampires weren’t the best grunt workers, and Javier wished
more than once that he could go back and enlist the Cordovans, leaving the vampires
on the ship to fold handkerchiefs or write operas or something equally silly. Because
silliness seemed to be their primary mode of operation.
The only one worth any salt was Lucien, the disappeared girl’s “brother”. Although
Javier had never met Gabrielle or Lucien before this evening, he doubted they were
truly brother and sister. The young vampire behaved like an abandoned lover, and
barely gave Sacha a second glance. Ever.
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No unfettered male in his right mind would be able to ignore Sacha. Perhaps even
the fettered or the crazy would be consumed with her every movement, breath and
thought as he was. She certainly made him feel insane.
“Stay in sight of us.” Sacha’s voice pierced his thoughts, and he found his eyes
drawn to her again. Her black hair fell about her shoulders and provided sharp contrast
to her creamy skin in the moonlight. The open neck of her short dress plunged to her
cleavage and reminded Javier of his fantasy of tasting her. So much had happened,
although in his mind, not enough of it had been naked.
“André!” Sacha yelled.
The vampire and two of his silly friends had disappeared down the bank of the
river again. Sacha turned and walked straight toward the spot they’d last been seen, but
Lucien stopped her with a solid hand.
“Let me handle them.” The short, stocky man released his grip on Sacha’s arm and
Javier realized he’d clenched both of his fists in response only as he relaxed his own
hands.
He shouldn’t let another man touching her bother him so. But truth be told, he
couldn’t help it. Even in passing.
“We’re wasting valuable time every time we go after them,” Sacha called after
Lucien’s jogging form. She turned to Javier and he saw the frustration creasing her
forehead. “It would have been so much simpler if we could have brought Vidal and
taken Lucien, and left these unruly morons behind.”
“I had the same thought moments ago.” Javier pulled her toward him and
smoothed a stray lock of hair away from her face. “This would be a much more pleasant
experience without the vampires.”
“Or if it were just the two of us.” Sacha slipped her hands around his waist. Their
bodies pressed together and Javier’s heartbeat increased. He wanted to peel the clothes
from her body and have his way with her right there on the grass.
“But that wouldn’t lead to a successful search.”
Sacha’s laugh was musical, light. “But it would be extremely satisfying.”
Javier shook his head and took her face between his hands. “What is this between
us, carina? This heat?”
Sacha’s brown eyes searched his, but she bit her lip as if holding something back.
“I don’t need an answer, Sacha. But I do have my opinions.”
“I’m not sure we should be having this discussion here, in the open, surrounded by
vampires.” Sacha glanced up at the moon, now starting its descent toward the western
horizon. “And you’re not yourself here.”
Insinuating, perhaps, that the moon made him want her more? He had no idea of
the Prata’s control over his wolf nature, but he could feel the difference when the
moonlight touched his skin, even if it was only the memory of the change.
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He didn’t need the moon to want Sacha. Although it didn’t hurt. And the thought
of plunging inside her warm body underneath the wide, white moon sent a frisson of
electric energy through his blood.
Sacha’s warm blush reminded him that she could see the pictures in his mind, even
if she couldn’t understand the words. She pulled him closer.
Just as he was contemplating kissing her, Lucien’s voice rang back toward them.
“I think they’ve found something.”
Javier took Sacha’s hand and they all raced to the bank. The vampires that had been
searching the western side of the island rushed behind them. The moonlight provided
all the sight they needed, until the edge of the bank.
Down the eastern side of the bank, dark reclaimed the ground. Javier couldn’t see
his way down, and stopped just behind Lucien at the edge of the bank.
“What’s down there?”
The stocky vampire put his full back to the moonlight and pointed down the ridge.
“Can you see that path?”
There was indeed a bit of an indentation just down the side of the bank. It would
have been just walkable for someone with very sure footing. Javier was surprised
André and his silly friends had gotten down safely. Although he still couldn’t see well
enough to know that they weren’t floating down the river after falling down the bank.
One could always wish.
Javier pulled at Lucien’s plain blue coat as the short vampire moved to descend to
the river side. “I can’t see to the bottom.”
“Once you get out of the moon’s light, your sight will improve.” Lucien edged
down the path with careful steps.
Javier turned to Sacha, hoping she wasn’t of a mind to follow. “Can you keep an
eye out for predators?”
Her eyes narrowed and she swept the landscape quickly. “We can leave the
vampires here to keep lookout.”
“They need someone to keep an eye on them.” He kissed her nose. “Someone with
some power. Just in case.”
Sacha sighed. “I know when I’m being left behind, Javier.” She crossed her arms
and tapped long fingers against the smooth black fabric covering her arm. “I don’t like
it.”
“You don’t need to like it.” Javier put one foot on the trail. “I don’t need to like it. I
just think we need to do it.” He mimicked Sacha’s scan of their moonlit surroundings.
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
“So you’re leaving me up here to handle it?”
He shook his head and glanced back at the dark path down to the river. The
shadow of the bank covered the whole scene in black, almost to the middle of the river
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itself, where the water picked up the moon’s sparkle after the obstacle cleared. “I have a
bad feeling about all of it.”
The rocks under his feet weren’t as unstable as he’d expected. He was able to walk
in an almost natural gait down the side of the bank once he got the first few steps out of
the way. And Lucien was right, once he got down almost to the base of the bank and
the moon hid behind it, he could see a lot better.
André, Lucien and two other vampires stood on the sloped ground that led to the
river. This was the only place where the river didn’t follow the line of the bank above. A
flat piece of land stuck out away from the bank, like a landing. Or a dock.
“How did you find this place?” Javier asked.
André pointed down the landing a ways. “Trillian smelled the blood.”
“Blood?” Javier sniffed the air.
“You can’t smell it?” André’s nose was in the air, his eyes closed as though he were
breathing in the scent of a bakery or a fine wine.
“No.”
Lucien stepped toward the spot André pointed out. “It smells like Gabrielle.” His
breath caught when he came almost to the edge of the landing. He bent and retrieved
something from among the brush. Instead of returning with something of his sister’s, he
pulled out a long branch.
Lucien reached his hand behind him. “Take my hand.”
André grasped the shorter vampire’s arm with both his hands and Javier nearly
laughed. The sight of this willowy man trying to anchor such a substantial man as
Lucien was nothing if not humorous.
“I’ll do that.” Javier stepped past André and placed his hands where André’s long,
thin fingers had been. “Go ahead,” he said to Lucien.
The short man leaned over the water, extending the stick into a patch of sludge. At
first, when he swiped the long stick through the reeds, it came out empty. But the
second time, it caught something.
“Pull me.” Lucien strained against Javier’s hands.
Javier hauled the short man back onto the landing. On the end of Lucien’s long
stick, a wet piece of material hung. Javier pulled the fabric away and held it up for the
group to see.
A corset.
“It has Gabrielle’s blood on it.” Lucien snatched the dirty material from Javier and
turned it over and over in his hands. “Somewhere.”
“I can smell it,” said one of the vampires.
“I can’t see it, though,” said the other.
André stood the farthest back, his face wrinkled in disgust, hands wringing. Javier
waved a calming hand in his direction.
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“This doesn’t mean she’s dead.”
André gasped and his hand fluttered to his mouth.
Javier could barely see the expression on Lucien’s face in the dark, but the light
material of the corset was the only light object near that bank. An obvious dark patch,
which must have been the aforementioned blood, marred the material near the clasps.
If they’d been wrapped around a woman’s body and fastened, the blood would
have come from a wound in her lower back. Hardly fatal. Although seeing as there was
no matching stain on the opposite side, it was possible the corset wasn’t on her when
her blood soaked it.
Javier grasped Lucien’s shoulder as the younger man began quietly weeping. “Are
you certain it’s Gabrielle’s blood?”
Lucien nodded, bringing the corset to his face and inhaling. When Javier pulled it
away, the water clung to Lucien’s skin, giving his pale face a deathly sheen.
“It’s a strange pattern.” Javier ran his finger over the end of the stain. The edges
were firm, as though the stain had been made when the material was dry. “And likely
not made in the water.”
“It’s also not the only source of the smell.” Lucien turned back to the water.
“There’s more of her blood somewhere.”
Javier clutched at his arm, pulling him back toward the group. “It might have
washed into the river.”
“Or her body might be here.” Lucien struggled against Javier’s grip. “Let me go! I
have to find her.”
“Stop, Lucien,” André ordered. Javier turned to see the tall vampire stretch up to
his full height and straighten his face. “She’s gone.”
Lucien’s scream pierced the blackness and he sagged toward the ground, dragging
Javier with him. Javier fought to maintain his footing and tried to pull the stocky
vampire to his feet. In the struggle, he dropped the corset and took hold of Lucien’s
other arm.
Still, he didn’t have quite enough leverage to stop Lucien from sinking to his knees
and wailing.
“Lucien.” Javier kept holding the vampire’s arms, at least keeping him from
collapsing to the ground completely. “There’s nothing you could do.”
“Gabrielle!” Lucien screamed.
The four of them stood in uncomfortable silence while Lucien writhed on the
ground, calling his sister’s name and cursing alternately the country of France, the
Empire itself and Sacha Camomescro.
Each time the shattered vampire called Sacha’s name, Javier wanted to belt him. But
putting himself in Lucien’s place, he would have done the same.
Except he hadn’t. When the man in black had shot Sergio, Javier never directed his
anger at Sacha. In fact, he’d sought her solace. And she’d comforted him. Something
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about this emotional display left him wondering if there was something wrong with
him, or with Lucien.
Above them, a commotion rang out. Javier heard his name on Sacha’s lips and
sprang to attention, dropping Lucien completely to the ground. “Watch him,” he
ordered André, then ascended the bank toward Sacha’s panicked voice.
When he cleared the bank and saw the frozen vampires standing in a pack in front
of Sacha, he was momentarily comforted. Until he saw what they were all staring at.
In the clearing, not fifty paces away, a fully shifted werewolf padded toward them.
His giant body, all sinew and dark, matted fur, practically pulsed.
“He just appeared,” Sacha whispered. “After Lucien started screaming.”
Javier sidled up to her. “Are you all right?”
“We’re all fine. Until a moment ago, he just sat at the edge of the clearing.”
One of the vampires edged behind them, the jewels on his coat glinting the moon’s
light as he passed out of Javier’s field of vision. “Did you find Gabrielle?”
“We found her corset.” Javier pulled the nearest vampire behind him as well. “And
an awful lot of her blood.”
One by one, the rest of the vampires came to stand behind Javier and Sacha, all of
them crowded against the edge of the river bank. Javier took a step forward and held
his hand out, encouraging Sergio to stop. It was, of course, Sergio.
“There’s something around his mouth,” Sacha said.
“I see it.” Javier held his hand out again. “Stop, Sergio,” he called in a louder voice.
But the giant wolf continued to advance.
“What is it?” Sacha asked?
One of the vampires took a deep breath behind Javier and hissed. “Blood.”
Sacha thanked the gods she’d remembered to bring Luc’s gun with her. She
withdrew it from the folds of her dress, raised it to eye level, and aimed at the werewolf
just over Javier’s upraised hand.
As though Sergio recognized the apparatus, he froze momentarily. The blood
dripped from his jaw at the sudden stop in movement.
Just as Sacha pulled the trigger, the giant wolf bolted. Javier turned, having no
doubt just felt the giant bullet pass his head by inches. His gaze, wrinkled with
foreboding, settled on her for a second. She couldn’t have felt his anger more severely if
she’d read his mind.
They both looked back to the clearing at the same time. Instead of the hulking body
of a werewolf in a crumpled heap, they saw an empty clearing.
“He went into the woods,” one of the vampires said.
Another pointed almost straight west, in the path of the sinking moon. “Right
there.”
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Javier put his hand out to stop their progress. “We’ll never catch a fully shifted were
traveling at full speed.”
“But she hit him.” The first vampire pushed at Sacha’s back, urging them all
forward. “He was slowing at the end.”
Javier took another step toward the clearing and turned, facing them. His white
shirt fairly glowed in the moonlight, especially against his dark skin and darker
trousers. “He could be hiding in the woods, waiting for us to follow. Werewolves are
quite intelligent.”
“I have no doubt you’re all very smart.” Sacha advanced, pushing his hand away as
he tried to grasp at her. “But these bullets would stop an adult elephant. It would take
more magic than your average werewolf can muster to shake off the sedative in these
bullets. They’re specially developed for shifters.”
With Javier behind her, Sacha picked up her pace. She dropped the gun back into
her dress, careful to neutralize its firing capacity first. She certainly didn’t want to
misfire into her own flesh. These bullets were made for werewolves, catshifters and
drakienen. While it might not kill her, she would be unconscious for days.
She wasn’t sure whether all the vampires followed or not, but the important person
did follow. Sacha was getting to the point where she could feel Javier’s presence
whenever he was near. She liked that more than she wanted to admit.
He was angry, of course. And although she couldn’t understand the words that
passed through his mind, the feelings were obvious. A healthy anger mixed with a little
lust and even some fear. Just as it should be.
Guessing by Lucien’s uncharacteristic emotional breakdown, Gabrielle was dead. If
the blood on his coat was any indication, Sergio could very well have been the culprit.
And if he wasn’t the culprit, he could easily be gone. Who knew if she’d really hit him
or not. Vampires couldn’t very well be trusted.
One of the vampires made a noise behind her and she stopped, turning to see one of
them bent at the waist, studying something on the ground.
“What’s this?” she asked.
He touched the ground with a gloved hand, then looked up at her. “It’s the blood
from the werewolf. And it’s fresh.”
“Is it human?”
The vampire—she couldn’t quite remember his name, there were so many of
them—put one blood-stained and gloved fingertip in his mouth and smiled. “Yes.”
Sacha whirled back toward the western escape and studied the grove of trees. She
pushed in toward the edge of her vision and searched for some kind of consciousness.
Sacha! someone thought. The exclamation was feeble and unrecognizable. But she
knew she’d heard it, and just inside the trees. Someone knew her, knew she could hear
their thoughts, and couldn’t call out.
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She set off again. Javier and the vampires called after her, but she wouldn’t be
stopped. After she heard the thought again, Sacha tilted into a full-out run. Her long
back skirts inhibited much speed, but she managed to at least outrun the vampires and
one very pissed-off human were for at least long enough to reach the edge of the
clearing.
Before anyone could stop her, she stepped into the trees.
While the adjustment of her eyes took a few moments, she moved without
completely seeing her environment, and put her hands in front of her to feel the trunks
of the big trees. A branch smacked her in the face and she squealed with the discomfort.
“Sacha!” Javier’s voice was thick with worry and she turned her head to call back to
him, then tripped over a tree root.
She tumbled forward and banged into a thick tree trunk, then fell to the side,
landing on top of something large and warm.
When she got her bearings, Javier stood above her, his face wide with shock. Sacha
raised herself onto her elbows and felt an odd texture under her right hand. Instead of
the cold, hard ground of the forest floor, she felt warmth. And hair.
Javier scooped her into his arms, clutching her to him, and the two of them looked
down on two bodies. One was the familiar werewolf they’d been chasing. The other
was mutilated. Half bone. Half Angus.
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Chapter Eleven
Milan, Italy
Raul Morelo gave his black cape to the maître d’ and growled at the man when
asked if he’d like to shed his gloves. Polite society didn’t take well to deformities, but
they generally overlooked quirky behavior, especially from the very rich. Since Raul
appeared sufficiently luxurious for the Milanese elite, his habit of wearing gloves in
public was mere gossip fodder.
His deformed right hand would have branded him an outsider and an object of
ridicule. Worse, it would have made the meal he was about to partake in absolutely
impossible. And nothing made Raul Morelo crankier than missing a good meal.
After being seated, Raul searched L’Antico Ristorante Boeucc for his promised
contact. With the addition of the silver finger, his sensitivity to magic had diminished,
making it more difficult to access many of his latent abilities.
Like sensing the presence of a magical creature. Or two.
The bigger the pack, the more he was able to latch on to their magical aura, almost
like the scent of perfectly prepared lasagna among a table of forgeries.
A skinny man in all white, likely an actor of some kind, approached the table with a
glass of ice and spoke to him in Italian.
“Do you speak French?” Raul spoke Italian quite well, but he enjoyed the stir it
created to speak the language of the most recent invaders in such a politically sensitive
area as the newly unified city-states of Italy.
The young man’s eyes rounded, but he nodded and began his conversation in
French instead.
Raul paid little attention to the special offerings of the day, or any of the other
assortment of tasty dishes. Each time he dined at the Boeucc, he had the same meal.
And he wasn’t about to start getting creative in his culinary exploits with so much on
the line. When every meal could be his last.
“Bring me the osso bucco, just a bit rare in the center, and a bottle of your finest
local chianti. Oh, and if they’re not already in the works, have the chef put together a
crème tart with fresh fruit for my finish,” he finally said in perfect Italian. “I’ll need
another place setting, as I believe my party has just arrived.”
The waiter did not turn, and it was well he didn’t, for whatever common sense had
been in his head after that interaction would have disappeared the moment he set eyes
on Raul’s companion. Instead, he bustled for the kitchen, muttering in low Italian. Not
curses against Raul, but the precise instructions he’d given about the food preparation
and table setting.
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Good man.
Raul always appreciated people who knew their place. He was blatantly aware of
his own place, and tried to stay in it. But the gaudy dress of the man who approached
his table spoke volumes of someone who didn’t yet know his place.
The man had to be some kind of dragon demon, to begin with. He was simply
massive, like a drakien would be. A good head and shoulders taller than the tallest
waiter in the room, and tall enough he had to stoop when he used the door. While he
either magically kept his demon side at bay or had learned to control its manifestation,
he could not hide his supernatural size. His shoulders, full across, could easily double
their skinny waiter’s.
And the clothing. The man was dressed as though he’d gone to a tailor and asked
for stage costume. The pads inside his purple frock coat made his shoulders higher and
broader than they were naturally—already too wide to fit in the door. Said frock coat
was entirely too long to be fashionable, and much too purple to blend into society. Even
in Italy, where flamboyance normed the crowd.
At least the giant managed to execute his tie appropriately, even if it was hideously
purple as well.
Everyone in the tiny restaurant turned to stare, and petulant gazes followed the
demon from the door all the way to Raul’s table, nearly in the back of the room. Once
the giant grasped the back of the chair, the silence ended and the gossip began.
Raul didn’t mind being the object of gossip. But this wouldn’t be the type they
could afford for long, if they were to remain in Milan for any length of time. And he
never knew when his next orders would arrive.
He would have to speak to the stupid oaf about his appearance, and get the man to
a decent tailor immediately.
Raul snapped his napkin and met the giant’s dark eyes. “Sit down, you idiot,” he
hissed between fakely smiling lips. “Everyone is staring at you.”
“Let them stare.” The man’s face was broad and short, like all drakienen. But his skin
lacked the leathery quality of any of these demons Raul had ever seen. Apart from his
size and obvious lack of decorum, he looked as human as anyone in the room. “They’re
none of my concern.”
Mr. Benjamin certainly could have picked a less obtrusive contact. Perhaps even a
pixie this time. That would have been nice. Raul’d had his fill of drakienen and
werewolves. At least, if the contacts had to be magic, Benjamin could send a more
refined counterpart to match Raul’s preferences. A vampire, perhaps. Or a catshifter.
Someone who could hold a civil conversation and not look out of place among the
upper crust.
What he wouldn’t give to get his hands on that Empath…she would provide great
companionship, of course, apart from a pleasant feast for his eyes.
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“They ought to be your concern, you arrogant ass.” Anyone who looked at Raul
would have found a pleasant smile on his face, but the tone of his voice conveyed the
appropriate warning, for the giant man leaned back as though punched.
The man didn’t speak, just stared down at Raul. After a moment of intense silence,
Raul gestured to the chair across from him. “Sit. Tell me your name. This place, we will
never see again. And I will get you to a tailor immediately. But for now, let’s do our
business and be done.”
“My name is Petr Kalistraat.” The giant’s face hardened. “You should call me Kalo.
This is what is done.”
Kalo’s heavily accented English could have been Bulgarian or Romanian as easily as
Russian, it was so thick. Raul’s curiosity peaked, and he studied his giant counterpart.
Perhaps the reason for his skin’s normalcy was some kind of interbreeding. Russian
peasant stock were notoriously big. It would have taken a massive human to birth the
size of baby Kalo likely would have been.
Europe for Progress found such interesting magical castoffs to do its dirty work.
“Well, Kalo, what orders do you have from Mr. Benjamin?”
“He wants you to wait here, in your hotel. There has been some sort of difficulty
with the spy. The ship is still docked at Avignon.”
Raul’s heartbeat increased. The woman continued to elude him, even when he laid
traps for her. Her luck would not last forever.
“Why does he not allow us to overtake them in France?”
Kalo leaned over the table and his chair creaked under his weight. “He believes we
will be at our strategic best here. This time, we must find the werewolves before the
Empath. Destroy them.”
“How will we do this?”
“There is a local who can help us. We’ll meet him tonight.”
Raul rubbed his chin with his right hand, expecting to feel the cool sensation of
metal, as he always did. Instead, the supple leather of his gloves caressed his skin. For a
moment, he missed the silver finger. It centered him.
“Will they not be here tonight?”
“It’s not likely.” Kalo’s eyes dropped to the table cloth. He studied some speck on
its perfect surface, appearing to avoid Raul’s gaze.
“What is it?”
“One of the weres you downed. They took him on board.”
Raul sucked in a quick breath. His one big mistake. He underestimated the alpha
were’s lack of concern for his own life, and his stupid bravery. No one had ever taken
one of the dead before, risking their own life in the process, so it had been a shock.
“I know this.” Raul growled, drawing the gazes of the nearest patrons. With a
sickly sweet smile, he returned them to their gossip.
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With a grand flourish, the waiter returned with two steaming plates of osso bucco
over creamy risotto. Raul actually salivated at the rich scent of the perfectly braised leg
of a young calf. There was no more decadent dish in all of Italy than the Boeucc’s
artfully prepared ossobucco alla Milanese.
The chef was a wizard, and not above using magic.
Raul met the old man on his last visit, and asked what the secret of this dish was,
but the old wizard’s amused smile stopped him. Of course, a master never reveals his
secret. But since that moment, Raul had been obsessed with discerning what it was that
made this particular dish such a memorable experience.
“What is this?” Kalo asked, pointing to the dish with a stubby finger. The waiter
arched a thin eyebrow, shook his head and retreated.
“Don’t ask questions. Just eat.”
“I don’t eat meat.”
“You’ll eat this.” Raul picked up his fork and held it above the dish for a moment,
inhaling deeply. Several surrounding patrons raised their heads and turned with almost
painful slowness. This was how Raul had first discovered the sorcery, as well. One
whiff of the dish, and you were enchanted.
The spell perhaps did not work on drakienen. Kalo poked at the shank with his
knife, lifting it first, then dropping it back onto the decadent pile of rice. “I don’t eat
meat.”
“If you don’t eat this, I will hold you down on the floor and force feed it to you
myself.” Raul placed his fork on the edge of his plate and took a long draught of the
chianti. The first taste, he found, was always the best. Rich and smoky, with a beautiful
finish. “Test me on this, Petr Kalistraat and you’ll find out why you were so hastily
called to replace my last captain.” He sipped the wine again and found that, sadly, the
second taste already dulled the chianti’s exquisite flavor.
Kalo’s meaty hand closed around his fork. “You could not take a dragon.”
“A leashed dragon, Kalo.” Raul sunk his fork down the bone and the meat
practically dissolved under the pressure. “For I’m certain the only thing that hideous
purple coat hides is some kind of magic restraint.”
Kalo did not answer. His nostrils flared in defiance, but no smoke came from them.
He ate a forkful of arborio.
“Eat the meat, dragon boy.”
Raul closed his eyes as the first bite of osso bucco passed his lips. Better than sex.
When he opened them, Kalo’s swarthy face stared back, but a large portion of the
meat had disappeared. Good man.
“Now. The rest of the information.” Raul sipped the chianti and savored the heady
taste on the back of his tongue as the undoubtedly white wine of the sauce mixed with
the deep red on his palate. This could not be the only magic of the dish. If it took a
thousand years of returning for this experience, he would discover the secret.
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“They were supposed to destroy the body by sunrise.” Kalo talked around the meat
masticating in his mouth, and Raul had to look away. The sight was too pedestrian for
such a delicacy, but it was more important that this Kalo knew who ruled him.
Although the thought of the osso bucco going to waste nearly made him halt the oaf’s
obliteration of his enjoyment.
“As tradition dictates.”
“Yes, the Spanish weres always burn their dead, before the rise of the next moon.”
Kalo grasped the wineglass and gulped it down, taking the bottle from Raul’s side of
the table and refilling it almost to the top.
This outrage, Raul would not tolerate. He signaled for the waiter and retrieved his
chianti bottle from Kalo’s stupid fist. “Bring us also a bottle of sauvignon. We will not
waste such a luscious bottle of chianti on an undiscerning palate.” The last line, he
hissed at Kalo while the waiter retreated.
“What is sauvignon?”
“It’s a cheap French wine. You’ll love it.” Raul eyed Kalo’s full glass, mentally
preparing himself for the giant to drain it in one long gulp. He had to close his eyes.
“Continue.”
The sound of gulping was followed by a long sigh. Raul opened his eyes again. The
waiter approached with an open bottle of the sauvignon, and filled Kalo’s glass
practically to the brim.
“They didn’t burn the were.”
Raul sighed, a bubble of anger rising in his throat. “Could the spy not make them
land the ship?”
“They landed well before sundown. Mr. Benjamin said they had the pyre built and
burning before the moon rose.”
“But they didn’t burn the body?”
“Some tradition from the Barcelonan alpha.” Kalo drained the glass after
swallowing almost a fistful of meat. His plate nearly finished, he put his utensils down
and leaned back in his chair. “He required that they wait for the body to surrender.”
“I should have known.” Raul turned his fork in his hand, a morsel of veal dripping
off the end. “I told Benjamin to let me overtake them in Avignon.”
“You wouldn’t have been able to get near them without revealing yourself. They
landed north of the city, in a clearing.”
Raul tried to ignore the building frustration. He still didn’t have a tight enough
leash on his emotive powers, as the outburst in Barcelona proved. This public a
spectacle would make unnecessary waves.
“Speaking of landing,” he growled, “does Benjamin know where they’ll be landing
in Milan?”
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Kalo cast a sideways glance as the waiter approached. The willowy man took Kalo’s
plate, which Raul followed with frustrated eyes. The barbaric demon had no respect for
culinary genius.
“Lago Idroscalo.”
“They’ll have to wait for night to fall, then.”
“Yes.”
Raul sampled another bite of the luscious arborio rice and drained the last of his
chianti. He resisted the urge to scarf up the rest of the veal, as his companion had done.
Instead, he wiped his mouth and pushed out from the table, putting the napkin over the
scrumptious remnants of his meal.
After dropping several hundred lira on the table, he signaled to the waiter. “Please,
give my compliments to Signore Contadino. An excellent meal, of course.”
“Where will we go now?” Kalo stood from his chair with considerably more
difficulty than Raul. The chair was perhaps too low for him, in addition to being too
narrow. And rising proved more difficult than sitting. Once upright, Kalo followed
Raul’s slow progress across the room.
“First, we must find you some less obtrusive wardrobe choices.” Raul retrieved his
cloak from the maître d’ and turned to survey Kalo’s disastrous appearance. “That is, if
you own anything that isn’t purple.”
Kalo’s face scrunched into an even more offensive countenance, but he wisely chose
not to answer.
“Then we’ll find your source and get a handle on our werewolves.”
“Should I roust the rest of the EFP?”
“There’s a whole cadre of you, is there?” Raul secured his cloak and stepped out
into the street, ahead of Kalo. While it was significantly less noisy than London, Raul
supposed he would never exactly be used to how dirty these Italians were. The
immediate assault on his nostrils was that much more exacerbating given that he’d just
stepped out of a magically pleasant smell.
“Mr. Benjamin had us sent down from Dundee, so yes. We are many. He put us at
your disposal, Mr. Morelo.”
“How many of you are there?”
Kalo scrunched up his face, thinking. “There are several weres, but they’re Spanish.
The rest are a pocket of German drakienen, two pixies and a witch from Romania, and a
bearshifter from Luxembourg.” Kalo pulled a piece of metal from his pocket and
handed it to Raul.
“What’s this?”
“A translator. You’ll need it.”
Raul turned it over in his fingers. Two long cylinders pressed together, flat on one
side, and ended in a short protrusion off the back end with a needle point. He slipped it
into his pocket.
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“For now, let’s focus on the task at hand, shall we?”
“And that would be?”
Raul narrowed his eyes, pictured the Empath and tried again to grasp at the
memory that eluded him, without success. “We need to see a man about a girl.”
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Chapter Twelve
It had taken them nearly an hour to bury Angus, which was more than the poor
cabin boy had gotten. Javier hadn’t liked how quiet Sacha was. He’d carried Sergio’s
wolf-shifted body back to the Harbinger after the quick burial, and she’d stayed at his
side, never speaking.
She hadn’t said anything over Angus’ grave. Javier hadn’t known what to say. The
vampires had been entirely too eloquent, and had to be cut off after ten minutes of
dramatic eulogizing. Lucien had been similarly silent, holding his sister’s corset while
André went on and on about Angus’ noble end.
Javier still wasn’t convinced it had been Sergio who’d torn the man half apart. He
didn’t think any of the vampires knew about the cabin boy from yesterday, but
werewolves didn’t feed like that. They generally ate everything.
Gruesome as it was, it was the truth. It took a very meticulous monster to eat
around the indigestible refuse of a body. And if they’d been able to take Angus back to
the ship, or wait for full morning, Javier was certain they would have found the same
sticky, blue substance lining the flesh left on Angus’ skeleton that they’d found on Elias
the previous day.
Once they reached the end of the Harbinger’s wooden walkway, Javier expected
Sacha to start giving orders, but she stayed so quiet, and held so tightly to his side. He
just wanted to get his arms around her.
“Go to the bridge and find Luc,” Javier ordered.
André looked at him, stunned, and then drew his eyebrows together, studying
Sacha. The vampire must have seen whatever he’d been looking for because he turned
back to his friends and said something in French. They enfolded Lucien into their
number and took the left hallway back into the belly of the ship.
Before taking the right hallway, André paused. “Where will you be?”
“There’s a cage in the hold. I’m going to take Sergio to the cage until we can
determine exactly what happened.”
André looked down at Sacha, lifting his hand as though he might cart her off with
him. A growl formed low in Javier’s stomach and rumbled without being completely
audible. But André either felt or heard its meaning, because he departed soon after.
“Come with me.” Javier took a step forward, down the left hallway toward the
hold. Sacha stood in the rising sunlight, unwilling or unable to move.
With his arms full, he couldn’t guide her, but he hoped her grip on his arm would
hold. He took another step and her arms stretched out farther, but she still didn’t move.
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“Sacha.” He tried to keep his tone even and low, but his arms were starting to tire,
and he needed to put Sergio down before he couldn’t hold the weight anymore. A little
more forceful. “Sacha.”
She finally looked up at him, her dark eyes drooping. He nudged her forward with
a small tug of his arm. Sergio’s claws scraped against the side of the wall, and Javier
couldn’t push him any farther.
“Come with me,” he repeated.
She took a tentative step forward and he could finally walk, if at a slow pace,
toward the hold.
“We can’t leave Angus.”
He didn’t look back, afraid he’d lose what little control he had over his need to hold
her. “We’re not leaving Angus. We’re just going to put Sergio in one of the cages in the
hold.”
“But we put him in the ground.”
The sad dip in her voice almost undid him. A tight pressure in his throat threatened
to expand, and he gulped some air to steady himself. “Just come with me to the hold,
carina, and everything will be better.”
She followed, again silent. When they reached the hold, she even opened the door
for him, and then opened the nearest cage. He stepped over the rise of the door,
deposited Sergio’s big body inside, and locked the cage behind himself.
“I’m so sorry, brother.” Javier held on to the cold bars and pressed his forehead to
his hands. “This is for your own good.”
“He didn’t kill Angus.” Sacha’s voice was soft but resolute. The tightness that had
been threatening to overtake Javier’s breathing for the last hour finally unfurled when
she put her hand on his back.
“I know.”
Her hand moved higher. “The killing was too similar to Elias.”
“It was exactly the same.” He turned to face her. “It had to be the same demon.”
“Or monster.” The hand that had been stroking his back now rested on his chest.
Her fingers splayed against the white fabric of his shirt made her skin look darker than
it had been in the moonlight.
Something niggled at Javier’s mind. The picture of Sacha lying atop Sergio’s body
and just inches from Angus’ bleeding corpse. “It’s so strange that Sergio would collapse
right on top of Angus.”
“Strange.” Her hand moved on his chest. With his own, he stilled its wandering.
But her voice was so far away, so flat. It worried him.
“Are you going to be all right, carina?” He touched the supple skin of her cheek,
tracing a pattern against her bone, trying to ground her.
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“I want to think about something else.” She leaned into him, resting her cheek on
his chest and closing her eyes. “I want to see something else.”
Javier pulled her into him, folding her inside his embrace and leaning against the
cage. In his peripheral vision, he realized that Sergio lay for the first time facing him. In
the shadow of Sergio’s jaw, Javier saw a long red streak.
“Just a moment, Sacha.” Javier released her, opened the cage, and was on his knees
inside Sergio’s cage before she had a chance to respond.
“What are you doing?”
“I saw something unusual.” Javier lifted Sergio’s jaw and felt along the ridge of his
neck bone until he felt the warm wet of what he’d been searching out. “He’s been
wounded.”
Sacha clutched the bars, kneeling to Javier’s level. “Will he survive?”
Javier felt the gash. It was less than half an inch deep, and didn’t even go to the
bone. There was very little blood on the fur surrounding the cut, and Javier held his
bloodied hand to his nose. It had the familiar tang of werewolf blood. Like his own
blood.
“It’s not a fatal wound.” Javier peeled his shirt off, wiped his hand clean of Sergio’s
blood, and pressed the cloth into Sergio’s chest. “He will live.” Javier sat back against
the bars, his head near to hers.
Her fingers snaked through the bars and touched his neck. Their feathery tips
slipped along his collarbone until her hands clasped. “I’m so sorry, Javier.”
He studied Sergio for a few moments, his curiosity piqued. “Why would Sergio
have a superficial neck wound? And be laid next to Angus like an offering?”
“But he had human blood on his mouth.” Sacha’s breath against his ear sent shivers
through his body. Blood began to flow, he could feel his lust rising again. Just from a
simple touch of air on his skin.
Javier pulled one of her hands from around his neck and turned the palm upward,
placing a kiss on her fingers. He’d almost forgotten what she said. “Human blood.”
He propelled himself to his knees again and bent over Sergio. His jaw, neck and
mouth were free of blood. “Are you certain it was his mouth?”
“His muzzle was wet with it. Not just wet. Dripping. There was enough on the
ground for the vampires to determine it was human.”
“His muzzle?” Javier ran his hands over Sergio’s muzzle and jaw again. Dry. He
jumped to his feet and bounded from the cage, locking the door behind him again.
“What are you doing?”
He headed for the main doors, the bridge, André and Luc. He had to tell them that
Sergio was innocent. “I’ll be right back.”
“Javier, don’t leave me.”
“Stay with Sergio. I’ll return in moments, I promise.”
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Before he could get far, her steps clipped behind him and a strong hand stopped
him in his tracks. She shoved him against the wall.
“You can’t leave me!” Her face curled up like an angry fist and she stood a step
away, her shoulders heaving.
Shock coursed through him. She’d gone from meek and silent to angry and violent
in a blink.
“I need to talk to Luc and André.”
The anger melted away, her face softening, and she took a deep breath. The sparkle
of tears clouded her eyes. “Please, Javier. Don’t leave me here.”
Whatever resolve he’d felt crumbled with her anger. The same urgency to hold her
that he’d felt most of the night consumed him again. He crossed the short step between
them and held her once again.
The weight of her in his arms sated him and inflamed him at once. She sank against
him, her body molding to his with perfect attention. He fought to catch his breath, the
pressure of his racing heart threatened to suffocate him.
With Sacha in his arms, much as he tried, his thoughts went in only one direction.
All it took was a little movement of her against his abdomen, and he began to harden.
What began as a chaste means of comfort soon turned into perfect torture. He was
practically an animal, salivating at the smallest wiggle of her hips.
“Don’t do this to me, Sacha,” he whispered. “I’m trying to respect your grief. And
mine.” But she moved against him, her breathing heavy.
“I don’t want to be alone right now, Javier.”
He cupped her cheek in his big hand, wiping a tear from beneath her closed eye.
“You won’t be alone. I’m not leaving you.”
“Please.” Her upturned lips reached for his, and he watched her close the distance
between them. For a short moment, he knew he had a choice. But her wanton beauty so
overwhelmed him. And when her hand reached down for his erection, he was past the
ability to say no.
“God, Sacha,” he breathed into her mouth. Her soft flesh grasping him and her
velvet kiss, together, assaulted him.
She moved her hand up his shaft, and slowly down. The agony of her touch built a
torturous bubble of anticipation inside him.
He stilled her movement, forcing his bulging cock out of his pants and taking her
hand in his. With a quick swish of clothing, he backed her against the wall that he’d
previously occupied, and busied himself with removing her tight black trousers.
Such a strange piece of clothing for a woman. Not at all accessible.
He barely got them to her knees before the scent of her arousal enfolded him. It sent
his senses reeling. With his mouth so close to her cunt, he dove into the folds of her
dress until his mouth found her hot wetness. His tongue moved in circles around her
clitoris and he slid two fingers inside to test her readiness.
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“Javier!” Her breath caught.
“So quickly?” He laughed into her sweet musk and pulled back to meet her eyes.
Their heated depths welcomed him.
He rose to meet her and her knees parted to accept him. With fingers covered in her
warmth, he stroked his cock and pressed it against her hot cunt, then hesitated. “I need
to be inside you, carina.”
Sacha reached around and placed her hands on his still-clothed buttocks. With eyes
locked on his she pulled him toward her and held him still for a moment.
“You are inside me,” she whispered. He ground his hips against her and she
moaned. “Please, don’t stop.”
Javier started a careful rhythm, pressing himself all the way inside her, then
withdrawing. She shifted her hips to give him better access, but moaned a little. Her
legs were still bound at the ankles by her pants.
“Faster,” she begged.
His heart swelled at her urging, but more so at the intimate rasp of her voice and
the tense, open-mouthed moaning. She wanted him. Him.
If his cock could have swollen, he imagined it would have. But he was harder than
he’d ever been, and could practically feel her milking the hardness from him with every
stroke.
Javier leaned toward her and groaned into her hair, inhaling the sweet scent of
jasmine in her dark tresses. His balls tightened, and he could feel the release
threatening. When she reached between them and sank her hand into the folds of her
pussy, her nails caught the skin of his erection and his orgasm pushed him over the
edge. He groaned into her neck, practically ready to sink his teeth into her just to get
that little centimeter closer to this amazing woman.
He kept pumping into her and at last, his fingers joined hers, coaxing her into her
own writhing pleasure. “Oh, Javier,” she whispered as her body released. The tiny
moan of ecstasy sent a shiver through his body and he devoured her mouth, needing to
silence her for a moment.
He had to get a handle on himself. And stopping her mouth seemed to be the best
way to do it at the time.
Sacha was pleased with Javier’s response. She asked him not to leave, he stayed.
She asked him to undress her, he obliged. She asked him to eat her cunt again, he
attacked with fervor.
That had been the most toe-curling series of orgasms. Like the first, in her quarters,
all those hours ago. Javier could eat pussy better than any man had a right to. Then
again, he wasn’t really a man, was he?
Sacha silently thanked whatever woman had taught him the way around a
woman’s vagina. He’d been instructed well. No man could make her come like this. Not
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that there’d been a long line of them. But enough that if it were a natural male talent,
she would likely know about it. And it was not.
But he was incredible.
And it gave him time to recover. To get hard.
Because what she wanted more than anything was to feel him inside her again. The
first time he’d come inside her, she had to close her eyes and enjoy it. It was unlike any
previous fucking. This felt as though he was pouring himself into her. Not just coming.
She didn’t even try to read his mind.
And now that she lay on her back on the cold wood of the hold, her boots, pants
and dress a thing of the past, she could only pant her thanks. Javier hovered over her,
his green eyes sparkling with lust. His gaze settled on her breasts and a thrill raced
through her. He wanted her again.
His head bent to her breasts, bathing one with his tongue, then adding his hot
breath, until her nipple was uncomfortably erect. Javier covered it again with his mouth
and tugged at it with his teeth. Her breath hitched as her nipple slipped from between
his lips with an audible pop. There was no hotter sound on the planet.
“Javier.” She didn’t even know what she wanted to say, only that she wanted to
speak. Her breath came close and loud. “Please.”
He moved over her, resting his elbows on either side of her head. He stroked her
face with a hand that still smelled like her sex. As though he knew she’d smelled it, one
hand searched out her clitoris again, rubbing the sensitive nub between two wet fingers.
Then those fingers plunged inside her and she called his name. Again.
His handsome face curled into a silly grin, and a growl rumbled deep inside his
chest. “I love it when you say my name like that.”
“Like what?”
He touched her clitoris again and a jolt of desire shook her. “Javier!”
“Like you need me.”
“I need you.” She clutched at him, pulling him closer. “Please.”
Javier moved between her legs, and she opened even wider for him. Hooking her
legs around his buttocks, she guided him toward her. He paused, hovering above her,
meeting her eyes.
“I need you too, Sacha. You should know that.”
Before she could respond, he sank inside her with a deep thrust. The dark moan
that ripped from his lips made her nipples peak. The animal in him, even though it
might be harnessed, was always so near the surface.
She pulled his face down to hers and opened her mouth to receive his plundering
tongue as he thrust inside her with frantic abandon. Her hips joined his in a mad
rhythm and his muscles tightened under her hands.
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Her lips moved next to his ear and she whispered, “Come inside me, Javier. I want
all of you.”
This time, he came screaming, mouth open, growl fully formed and shaking. He
collapsed on top of her and she locked her feet behind him, holding him inside her. His
panting body heaved on her, pressing her into the floor.
“I’m hurting you,” he said.
Before he could move, she tightened her hold on him. “You could never hurt me.”
“Don’t be so certain.” In a quick move, he’d flipped them over so that she lay atop
him, her legs splayed open, his softening cock still inside her.
She ground her hips against his, seeking another release. But he stilled her with his
big hands and she snuggled against him, curling her legs down against his.
Javier scrunched her discarded pants and put them underneath his head, giving her
a better angle at his full, wet lips. And, of course, giving him a bit more comfort from
the hard floor.
“This will do, as well.” She pressed a kiss to his lips and pushed against his mouth
with her insistent tongue.
“You will be my undoing,” he groaned against her.
She kissed the flesh of his neck and threaded her fingers into his hair. “If that’s
what your undoing feels like,” she whispered, “let’s do it again.”
* * * * *
Sacha knew the moment they took off. While she often slept through takeoff and
landing alike, the presence of a naked man and the size of the room made her senses
alert. She was surprised that an announcement had not been made in each of the rooms.
But then again, that had always been Angus’ job. Or Elias’. And with both of them
gone, Luc would need the rest of the crew on deck to handle the takeoff. A wave of
sadness overtook her, clouding thought.
She could see Angus’ face, white and wrinkled, smiling back at her from some
distant memory when she’d first met the crew that The Resistance had chosen for her.
Better that than the half-eaten skull…
A shudder made her readjust her position, and Javier grunted in his sleep. His back
was to her, and she wondered if those fantasies she always had about waking up in her
lover’s arms were just that. The men who shared her bed were never cuddlers.
Or she wasn’t worth cuddling with. One of the two was certainly true.
Javier shifted again and turned, slowly. The black tattoos on his shoulders
momentarily mesmerized her. As she’d imagined when they first met, they covered
both sides of his entire body, from wrist to shoulder, down his sides, and then met
again in the dusting of dark hair that nestled his cock.
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She followed their path all the way to their source and saw that he already had a
present for her this morning. Even though every muscle in her body ached from their
particularly athletic sex, her blood raced for him again.
When his eyes focused on her, they heated and flared. A slow, sexual smile quirked
up one side of his mouth. “Good morning, carina.”
“If it is morning.”
Javier scanned the big, gray space around them and nodded. “It is late morning, but
morning nonetheless.”
Sacha followed his gaze around the wooden floors and walls. She took in the crates,
the cages, the supplies, luggage and miscellaneous items strewn about the giant space
with the low ceiling. “There are no windows. How can you tell it’s morning?”
He closed his eyes and inhaled. “I can still feel the moon.”
“It’s long set.”
“Only to the naked eye, carina.” Javier raised himself up on one elbow and turned
his body toward her. His cock bounced in the motion, still erect. Waiting. “It is
somewhere in the sky, although not over us, and given the time of the month, I would
imagine we’re right before the noon hour.”
She reached for him and laughed. “Your talents are amazing.” His erect flesh
heated in her hand, pulsing with his heartbeat.
“I would have thought you realized that last night.” His voice hitched as she
fingered the length of his erection, reaching all the way to his balls and then back to the
head before resting her hand on his stomach.
“You are a man of many talents then.”
Javier took her waist in his hands and pulled her toward him. The rough wood
scraped her hip and thigh, but the pressure of his erection between them finally
distracted her from her discomfort.
She wanted him inside her again. To feel that perfect completion. But he was more
interested in her mouth than her cunt. Much to her chagrin.
He tasted her fully, waking her tongue with his own. A low growl rumbled inside
when she shifted her leg over his hip and the head of his cock pressed against her
wetness.
Sacha ground against his erection, reveling in his groaning response. She was about
to take him in her hand once more when his head tore away from hers.
Javier shifted back to his other side, facing Sergio’s cage and the door they’d come
through. A stack of crates hid their clothes from the cage, but their naked bodies were
visible. Sacha pulled at the crumpled white shirt under her head and covered her
breasts, afraid that someone would catch them.
“Back up against the wall,” Javier whispered.
He gathered up what clothing lay spread around them and ambled back, where
they couldn’t be seen in the shadows. She noticed, to her chagrin, that his erection was
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almost deflated. It amazed her that she cared more for one part of his body than she did
for her own safety. But there it was. Couldn’t hide from the truth.
Just as they’d hidden themselves, Sacha heard the main door open. She peeked
around Javier to get a glimpse of their guest, but he pushed her back.
The door, which was on the same wall they’d backed up against, stood open, its
wooden face obscuring whoever opened it. Javier placed a long finger against his lips,
and she pushed into his mind.
We should get dressed.
She nodded. Quietly, she began to pull on her undergarments, then the black
trousers. Still, the door didn’t move.
With quick hands, Javier pulled his pants on and tied them closed. He reached for
her dress and helped pull it over her head. Sacha pulled her breasts up through the
material and flipped her gaze to his. The heat that she’d seen this morning was
suddenly back. He reached inside the loose fabric of the dress and softly caressed one
breast, his eyes never leaving hers.
You have such beautiful breasts, carina. Would that I could do this for hours.
Javier startled and perked, as though smelling something. He pushed himself up
onto the balls of his feet and peeked around the side of the crate, blocking her view of
the door.
It’s an unfamiliar scent, he thought. Vampire? Catshifter? Dragon? Pixie?
At each of the questions, he paused, as though waiting for her answer, but she gave
none. She had no way of knowing that unless she tried to read its mind, whatever it
was. And that wasn’t always safe.
The thing behind the door moved away from them, toward Sergio’s cage. Sacha
couldn’t see around Javier. She put a careful hand on his back as he looked out into the
open space of the hold.
It’s a woman.
She forced her hand into his back, harder. More information.
She’s wearing a long cape. It looks purple in the light, but I can’t really tell. She’s standing
in front of Sergio’s cage.
He looked over his shoulder. Can you read her thoughts without her knowing you’re
here?
Sacha nodded again. Well, of course, most people wouldn’t notice her presence in
their head. Unless they were looking for it. But your average vampire was about as
sharp as a stocking full of soup, so the likelihood of a vampire noticing her exploration
would be unlikely.
She pressed toward the unfamiliar presence. Before the barrier of the woman’s
mind, she found no emotions, which was strange. Usually, people had a haze of
emotive trash clinging to them. Some relevant, some not. But this woman was clear.
Almost as if she were an Empath herself.
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Sacha touched the barrier of the woman’s mind, feeling its clean, controlled edges.
Also unusual.
There was something familiar about this barrier that Sacha couldn’t quite place.
This mind would notice the attempted intrusion, so she stopped pushing.
Instead, she yanked Javier’s arm. She needed to see who it was. Of course, everyone
on the ship would be somewhat familiar. But she’d tried to read this mind before, she
just knew it.
His body thunked against the wall and she climbed over him to look around the
crate. The noise drew the attention of the purple-cloaked woman who had just moved
to the mouth of Sergio’s cage. Her deep hood fell back at the movement, revealing a
familiar round, china-doll face.
Gabrielle!
Javier heard Sacha’s gasp and put his hands on her waist to pull her back against
him. Her dress wasn’t yet fastened, and she was entirely too much in disarray to face
anyone in public.
But even as he tugged on her, she resisted. “Gabrielle,” she whispered.
The vampire sister? How could she possibly be alive? He pulled her down with
more force. This time, she tumbled against him.
Javier was on his feet in a matter of seconds and found the woman’s cloak shed and
the familiar black and cerulean uniform of the Resistance underneath instead of what
had looked like a fully confining gown. She crouched in front of Sergio’s cage,
brandishing a knife.
“Gabrielle!” Sacha called from behind him.
“We’re friends.” Javier spread his arms. “And we’re unarmed.”
“I know who you are, werewolf.” Gabrielle’s voice was low, gravelly, vicious.
“Keep your distance, I warn you.” Her accented English, like Lucien’s, wasn’t quite
French, and that disturbed him.
A warning shot off in Javier’s head and the awareness of danger set his hair on end.
They’d found her bloodied corset. Yes, not enough blood to have been fatal, but she
would be at least wounded. And had gone through an awful lot of trouble to disappear,
then only to reappear when no one was guarding Sergio.
Danger.
He walked around the crates, hands outstretched. “I don’t want to hurt you. I just
want to know why you’re here with a knife.”
Her body went completely still. Javier stopped as well. Something wasn’t quite
right. Most people would be nervous at the approach of an alpha werewolf. Especially
one showing all of his regalia. Only predators went still when another approached.
Gabrielle’s pale eyes glanced from him to something behind him. Sacha. He tensed,
matched her stance and prepared to pounce. But Gabrielle launched the knife and it
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sunk into the meaty flesh of his shoulder. Surprised by the quickness of her movements,
Javier stumbled back against the crates.
With a quick flick of her wrist, Gabrielle produced what looked like another knife
from the long, black sleeve of her dress. She turned back to the cage, hurled it into the
sleeping werewolf, and vanished into thin air.
Sacha’s voice sounded behind him in some kind of wonderment, but Javier could
think of nothing but Sergio. An animal scream tore from his throat. He pulled the knife
from his shoulder and dropped it to the floor. The hard thunk on the wood grounded
him. The events of the last few seconds flashed before him again. It had all been too fast.
He hadn’t expected it.
He stumbled toward Sergio’s cage, blood seeping from his shoulder wound. The
pain began to radiate out from the wound site, making it difficult to concentrate on
opening the cage door. He sagged against the cage bars, feeling their solid support.
Sacha hurried toward him, a look of pale fright on her face. Her brown eyes, so
wide and concerned, shed giant tears. Javier reached for her face as she knelt beside
him. “How bad is it?” Her voice trembled.
Javier didn’t look at the wound. It wasn’t spurting blood, and it didn’t seem to have
hit anything vital. His arm still worked. There was just so much pain.
“I’m going to survive, carina. Please,” he jerked his thumb over his good shoulder,
“Sergio.”
Her gaze searched his, the concern so evident. But she still moved past him and
retrieved the key from amidst the line hanging on the near wall. The click of the lock
opening and the creak of the door swinging echoed in the huge hold. Javier held his
breath, waiting for his hope to be squelched again.
Sacha knelt beside Sergio’s unmoving body and reached toward his heart. A tight
anger reverberated within Javier, seeming to push at the pain for a moment. Sergio,
again, had fallen under his watch.
“Look at this.” Sacha’s quiet words forced his eyes open.
The object that stuck into Sergio’s flesh just above Sacha’s hand was not a knife after
all. Sergio’s chest did not move under her hand. The anger began to spread.
“What is that thing?”
Sacha plucked it from the werewolf’s chest and a thwacking squish told of the
depth of its penetration. The object wasn’t silver, as the knife in Sergio’s shoulder had
been, but was made of brass and glass.
It was long, like a knife, but cylindrical, and had a big brass handle on one end,
with a long brass point at the other.
Javier took it from her outstretched hand. “This looks familiar.”
“It should.” Sacha reached into the folds of her dress and withdrew an exact replica
of the object Javier held in his hand. It was maybe six inches in length, and at least half
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of it was the long, brass point. Not as fine as a needle point, but perhaps more like four
or five needles melded together and sharpened.
“What is this?”
“I’m going to take it to my contact in Milan and see what he can tell us about it.”
Sacha handed the object to him. “It’s from the assassin.”
He held the two weapons in his hand and studied them. “The one who chased us in
Barcelona?”
Sacha nodded. Her eyes narrowed. “That’s the one I pulled from Sergio’s body after
he fell behind us in the street.”
Javier held them up to the lamplight, comparing the grooves on the brass points,
the thickness of the glass, the markings on the brass handle.
“They’re identical.”
“Yes.” Sacha took them from him and put them back into the pocket inside her
dress. She stood and relocked the cage door. After placing the key on the wall, she
paused, her hand still holding it on its hook. “He’ll be safe here.”
“Safe?” Javier growled. “He’s dead.”
“He did not die from the first. He will not be dead from the second.”
Javier considered her words. Sergio had, indeed, come back from his first death. If it
had been a death. But it had been so like death. His breath stopped, his heart failed to
beat, his limbs stiffened.
“How do you know this?”
Sacha turned, her eyes blazing. “Because these instruments are not Resistance-
issue.” She finally released the key and walked past him, her feet bare. He noticed for
the first time that she’d fastened her dress, confined her body again in that uniform, and
erased all evidence of their lovemaking. Except for her bare feet.
“You should finish getting dressed,” she said. “We need to go see Luc immediately,
and then scour this ship to find Gabrielle before she does any more damage.”
* * * * *
Sacha waited for Javier outside the laundry room. It was as much a desire to be
alone with her thoughts as it was a need not to see his naked body again. Her resolve
was set, and she needed no distractions.
That wasn’t likely to be possible if Javier persisted in her company.
A group of vampires passed, eyeing her with careful suspicion. She avoided their
gazes, although they attempted to speak to her. Sacha wasn’t in the mood.
She was moody, but not the kind of moody that invited long conversation. Between
the grisly memories of Angus and Elias, and her most recent memory of Javier’s
glistening flesh, she didn’t know what to feel.
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“Sacha!” a female voice called from behind her. Before she could turn, Althea stood
in front of her, transparent wings flapping and slight pixie face open in earnest.
“Althea.”
The princess’s voice shook and her eyes fluttered with her wings. “I’ve been
looking for you everywhere.”
Sacha resisted the urge to roll her eyes. The vampires and pixies were alike in one
aspect—their love of melodrama. She forced an even tone. “What can I do for you?”
“I need to speak with you.” Althea’s blonde head shook. Her hair was long and
bound in braids lined down her back, which quavered in her nervousness. “I’m sorry.”
Sacha pressed her lips together and waited while the tiny woman wrung her hands.
“Take your time.”
“It’s just, I promised Angus I wouldn’t say anything, but when I heard about him—
I needed to come straight to you.”
A stab of grief pierced Sacha’s disenchantment. “When did you speak with
Angus?”
“Just last night. I tracked him down after…after I heard what happened to Elias.”
The delicate face creased, her fine features exaggerating the pain.
Sacha’s own pain swelled, thinking of how eager Elias had been when he first met
the pixie princess months ago. His whole life had been full of her, until its end. He
could never get enough of her, and his job often suffered because of it.
But Sacha had always given him the benefit of the doubt, because everyone in their
presence could see their love for each other. If Sacha hadn’t been so marred by life’s
tragic nature, she would have been tempted to believe in true love because of Elias and
Althea. And now, as life would always have it, tragedy extended even to them.
“I miss him too, Althea.” Sacha touched Althea’s delicate arm. It felt too fragile
under her fingers, like a twig waiting to be snapped. “You’re not alone.”
Althea wiped the tears from her cheeks and stared at her wet fingers. “Pixies never
cry, you know.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“I would have given up my wings for him.” She smoothed her hands on the gauzy
fabric of her dress. “Angus said that Elias died bravely. So at least his spirit will survive
this life. Perhaps we will meet in another.”
Sacha stiffened. Somehow, with these pixies, talk always turned to religion, and she
never knew quite how to respond. Althea searched out her eyes, looking for comfort, no
doubt. All Sacha could do was offer a rueful smile.
“I was with Elias just before he…was killed.”
Silly pixie! Why couldn’t she have gotten to this a little earlier? “Exactly when were
you with him? And where?”
Althea’s cheeks flushed and she averted her eyes. “I don’t know if—”
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“No, I don’t mean to tell me the details. I need to know if you saw anything that can
help us determine what happened.”
“That’s just the thing.” Althea’s brow furrowed and she took a deep breath. “But
Angus said I should never tell you. He said that we don’t know what it means.”
Sacha’s frustration rose, a fire scorching up the sides of her throat. It would have
been so easy to grab the tiny woman by the shoulders and shake the information out of
her. She pushed it back down. Pixies didn’t respond well to violence, even just polite
violence. “Angus is gone, Althea. If we’re ever going to find out what happened to
Elias, you have to tell me what you saw.”
“Elias and I had just left…one of the closets. We were looking for a…well, a place
where we could be alone and…with a—”
Sacha rolled her eyes at the pixie’s prudery. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of,
Althea. This isn’t some polite society or high court to put on a pretense. You’re perfectly
free to express your love for one another.”
Althea’s cheeks reddened once more. “Well, I still don’t wish to—”
“I know what you were doing, and what you were looking for.”
“Well, Elias kept me in the closet so he could find a…a suitable room. But when he
opened one of the doors, there was someone inside.”
Sacha’s senses perked. “When did this happen?”
“Shortly after we left Barcelona. We would always meet shortly after takeoff
because it unsettled most of the creatures, so everyone would be in their rooms.” A
wistful remembrance glazed the pixie’s big eyes. “And Elias knew where all the empty
rooms were, far from prying ears.” A tear slipped down her cheek. “To think that we’ll
never be together again…”
For an un-crying breed, pixies sure could turn on the waterworks when it suited
them. Sacha crossed her arms and sat back on her heels. No use pushing. It would only
make the tears come faster.
After Althea had expunged the tears, she met Sacha’s eyes again. “I’m so sorry. I
just…this is my first cry.”
The thought struck Sacha as strange. To have never cried before. What a thought.
Sacha had cried many times, shed tears for both Angus and Elias in the last two days.
Even now, she had to keep her walls carefully erected, or she would be drawn into
Althea’s emotive downward spiral.
“Did you see anything when Elias went into the room?”
“I didn’t see anything at first. There was a voice, but I couldn’t place it. I don’t think
Elias recognized him at first, either.”
“So it was a man?”
Tears welled in Althea’s eyes, spilling over the edges and onto her perfect porcelain
skin. “I’m so sorry, Sacha.”
“Sorry for what?”
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Althea took a deep breath, her shoulders rising almost to her pointed ears. “When
Elias backed out of the doorway into the hall, the person followed him. And he was so
angry. I couldn’t see his face at first, but he had a big black cloak on.”
“Who was it that you saw, Althea?”
The pixie pressed her trembling lips together and her eyebrows rose. She blinked
once, twice, three times, then shook her head. “It was Luc.”
Sacha stepped back and sucked in a short breath as though she’d been punched.
Without thinking, she quickly pushed into Althea’s mind.
She saw Elias and Luc arguing in the hallway just outside the room where they’d
found the mauled body. Luc pinned him up against the wall by the neck, a violent snarl
on his lips. Elias glanced back toward where Althea waited, then gave a barely
perceptible shake of his head. Blackness overtook the memory, as Althea must have
pulled back into the closet.
Sacha pulled out of Althea’s mind, her breath coming quickly, matching the tiny
pixie’s erratic pace. The two of them stood, unspeaking, their breath sounds filling the
hallway. Althea’s wings picked up their pace and she burst into tears again.
“I’m so sorry. I know how fond you are of Luc. And I didn’t want to tell you. But
after Angus was mauled as well, I had to come—”
“Angus was mauled by a werewolf.” Sacha shook her head even as she said it.
Sergio hadn’t had any blood on his muzzle. It couldn’t have been him. And unless there
was another deranged werewolf, they were back to square one.
“Was Elias mauled by a werewolf? Was it not Luc after all?”
Sacha closed her eyes, remembering the snarl on Luc’s face. He could easily have
shifted into his bear form in the hall. Unlike the creatures who boarded, the demons on
staff were not required to wear Prata. Some chose to, like Chax, because they did not
control their demon powers well. But they also knew how to remove them with relative
efficiency, should their powers ever be necessary.
There was a key. They all knew where it was. Every member of the crew.
But Luc? And could a bear even have done to those bodies what had been done?
The meticulous cleaning of bones? The ripping of flesh?
No. It couldn’t have been Luc. No matter what Althea said. It could not.
Unreasonably big eyes stared back at her, waiting for some sign she’d understood
whatever question she’d just been asked. But Sacha wasn’t in the mood for answering
questions. She needed to think. Alone.
The door to the laundry opened and Javier stepped into the hallway. His solid body
filled the space behind Althea, dwarfing the little pixie. As soon as his eyes found
Sacha’s, his gentle smile turned to harsh concern.
“What’s wrong?”
Sacha shook her head. “Althea was just leaving.”
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“What’s the matter?” Javier crossed the space between them, putting his hands on
Sacha’s shoulders. “What happened?”
“Althea saw Elias just before he was murdered.”
The pixie nodded, her feet picking up off the floor. Instead of walking away, she
floated down the hall. “I’ll be in my quarters if you need me, Sacha.” Her sad eyes met
Sacha’s. “I’m so sorry.”
Javier placed a finger on her chin and turned her face to his. “If she was the one
who saw her lover murdered, why is she telling you she’s sorry?”
“It’s not important.”
“Carina.”
The simple word, the deep timbre of his voice, his presence with her—she felt more
comforted than she had a right to feel. Javier was here, and he would fix all this.
Only, no. She couldn’t put this burden on him. This was hers to bear. She’d let Luc’s
anger go unchecked for too long. His frustration over Tsura’s death continued to eat at
him. And her indulgence of his sexual needs only compounded the problem.
A problem she needed to fix.
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Chapter Thirteen
“I’ve been looking for you.” Luc’s monotone surprised her. “I waited in your
quarters and finally had to scour the ship.” He walked into her field of vision, and she
was stunned by his haggard appearance.
The face that stared back at her in anger looked almost unfamiliar. His usually clean
skin was dirty, eyes puffy, skin shadowed with whiskers. But his dark eyes were ever
the same. Prying into her, almost demanding.
Luc crossed his arms and spread his feet in a wide stance. “Where have you been?”
Sacha burned, closed her eyes, and pushed the memories away. Of course, Luc
couldn’t read her mind, but she’d been taught such ardent defense of her mind, she
couldn’t help it. “What’s happened?”
“Other than the death of two crew members? The disappearance of a passenger?
The strange un-death of a certain werewolf?” His voice hardened. “You tell me, Sacha.”
A sad tightness crowded her throat at the thought of Elias. And Angus. She saw
him again in her memory, his head half-eaten, and shuddered.
Luc’s features softened. “I’m sorry, Sacha. I didn’t mean to be angry with you.” He
took her shoulders in his hands and pulled her toward him. “I’m so sorry you had to
see Angus like that.”
She expelled a long breath, trying to push the memories away as well. She was
sorry she’d had to see Angus or Elias at their end. A lady shouldn’t have to see such
things.
Ahh, but she was no lady. Was she? She was a demon, and not a particularly
ladylike one, at that. She wore trousers and short dresses that most ladies would
consider not only scandalous, but dirty. She fought with her hands, she worked for her
living. She’d been raised a gypsy, grew up playing in the mud and learning how to
survive in the wilderness.
No, she was no lady.
But no one deserved to see their friends in such a state. Demon or human, lady or
whore, or anything in between.
Luc’s hands began to roam over her back. “I wish I could have prevented that.”
She shrugged him off. “It was none of your doing, Luc.”
Behind Luc, the laundry room door opened. Javier emerged, clothed in new, clean
brown trousers and an unblemished white muslin shirt. He even wore shoes, which he
hadn’t done since Barcelona.
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But it was his face that troubled her the most. What began as an open, earnest smile
ended in a tight, curled snarl. He may even have growled. The naked possession in his
eyes sent a thrill right through her. No one had ever looked at her like that before. It
was intoxicating.
Luc stood beside her, sneering at Javier.“Ahh, here’s your werewolf.”
“He’s not my werewolf,” she quickly corrected, a tiny bolt of fear passing through
her. She had never belonged to anyone.
“Yes. He is.” Javier’s words surprised her.
Sacha couldn’t meet his eyes. But she knew what she’d find there. That same
possession, the same heat, the same friction that was always there. She couldn’t look
into that desire right now.
Instead, she faced Luc, turning her body away from Javier just enough to
communicate that conversation was over. “We were just on our way to find you.”
“I must admit to being frustrated, Sacha.” Luc’s arms crossed again. He backed into
the wall. “You found Elias and didn’t tell me. You found Angus, and still didn’t tell me.
But you go to this stranger with everything.”
“He was with me when I found both of them.”
Luc’s chest retracted with a quick breath, almost as though she’d hit him. “You
seem to spend all your time with this werewolf, as of late.” Luc glanced at Javier, taking
him in from shoes to eyes. “Yet all our troubles began when he came on board.”
“That’s not true.” Sacha’s throat constricted and her breath quickened. “We’d been
having trouble long before Barcelona.”
“Not as I recall.” Luc’s lips tightened into a line and he glowered at Javier, stepping
away from the wall and taking a wide stance. Javier matched his posture, but stayed
thankfully silent.
“We had an incident in Lisbon. And an attack in Cordova. Then, we lost all of the
Valencian werewolves, and would have lost all the Barcelonans if Javier hadn’t
managed to get Sergio on board so quickly.”
Luc grunted, leaning back against the wall. His dark eyes narrowed. “He could
have been following us. Waiting for an opportunity to get on board.”
“I followed them for almost two days. I knew he was the alpha.”
“He could have—”
“He didn’t.”
Both Luc and Javier took shallow breaths, facing one another across the hallway,
Sacha nearly between them. She was ready to step completely between them, but didn’t
want a face-off of any kind.
Javier finally spoke. “The first attacks on board ship did start when Sergio and I
arrived.”
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Sacha shook her head. “That’s not true, either. There was an attack on the pixies just
before we landed in Valencia.”
“That was a vampire,” Luc said.
“We don’t know that for sure. Just because all her blood was drained, we assumed
it was one of the vampires.”
“But it certainly wasn’t like these last attacks.”
Sacha backed down, recognizing his logic. Certainly, the pixie attack had been
different than the two maulings. Luc had found the woman in the hold, sprawled over
some of the crew’s luggage. There was no blood, anywhere. Except a few sprinkles on
the skin of her neck near the two puncture wounds. But she’d been deathly white when
she’d been found.
Everyone assumed it had been vampires, and heaven knows Sacha loved to blame
the vampires. But it had been the first death on board. And it was certainly strange.
Finding a corpse completely empty of blood was almost as strange as finding one with
only half a face.
“Are you insinuating that I had something to do with either of these deaths?”
Javier’s tone was much more even than Sacha had expected. There was even a note of
sarcasm hidden in its depth.
“I’m just saying that something has been off around here ever since you arrived.”
This time, Javier growled. He reached across the space between him and Sacha and
took hold of her wrist. With a quick jerk, he pulled her against him. His chest was hard
against her protesting hand. But she was flush against him, and his eyes fired daring.
Just try to deny how you feel, Sacha. This isn’t really about the death for him. It’s about you.
“That’s absurd,” she said aloud, turning back to face Luc. But Javier kept her tucked
against him, his arm around her waist.
Don’t doubt me, woman. His words may accuse me of murder, but he watches you, he
moves toward you. This is about you.
“Whatever is going on here, just stop it. Both of you.” She tried to pull away from
Javier’s grasp, but found she couldn’t, which both thrilled and terrified her. “Two of my
friends are dead.”
“By a werewolf.”
Luc’s words reverberated in the empty hall. Sacha felt Javier stir, his chest expand
beside her. But he leashed his anger as well as he could.
“That was no werewolf attack,” Sacha answered for him, his emotion pouring into
her. Her voice betrayed the anger. “You have no proof. And you didn’t see the bodies.”
Luc nodded his resignation. “True. But from what André said, Angus was certainly
mauled. And there’s an unfettered shifted werewolf somewhere on this ship.”
“He’s caged.” Javier pushed a breath out. “Not that he needs it.”
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“He will stay caged until we can get to the bottom of this.” Luc took a step toward
Javier. “I’m assuming he’s in the hold, then. And he’ll stay guarded until we land in
Milan.”
“Which will be when?” Sacha asked.
“Just after sundown, Henry tells me.” Luc raised his hand, pointing at Javier. “You
will stay with the Cordovans until we land. Sacha, come with me.”
Javier tightened his grip on Sacha’s waist just as Luc grabbed her arm. A sudden
and possessive hum sounded from Javier.
“She can stay with me.”
“We have…official business to tend to.” Luc plucked Javier’s hand from her waist
and pulled Sacha toward him.
“This is ludicrous!” Sacha stepped back, putting herself equidistant from each man.
“You can’t pass me around like I’m some trinket. I’m going to my quarters.”
“Sacha,” Javier called after her. “Carina, stay with me.”
The pliant tone in his voice tugged at her heart. She wanted to stay with him, but to
take a stand like that with Luc right now could be dangerous. The last thing she wanted
was them fighting over her.
She turned to him, met his soft eyes, and her breath caught at the need in him. “I’ll
just be in my room.”
“I do need to speak with you, Sachela.”
Sacha spun around and kept walking. Her patience for Luc was dwindling. If he
continued to challenge Javier, the werewolf would snap eventually. He may not be able
to shift, but the animal was only leashed from showing its physical presence. The
emotion, the spirit, the presence of the wolf always hovered just below the surface.
* * * * *
Sacha lay in the dark, waiting for Javier. The ship groaned and creaked as it would
in air passage, but none of the noises attached to a person. She found herself drifting
toward sleep, knowing she should rest before they landed in Milan, but wanting to stay
awake and speak to him. They hadn’t had a moment alone since they were last intimate,
and now that she had some space to think, she was questioning more and more.
Javier had been the first of her marks to sense her presence before she revealed
herself—almost as if he had been waiting for her instead of vice versa. He acquiesced to
her rescue more willingly than any other alpha she’d taken. Their physical intimacy had
been so quick and passionate, it had taken her by surprise, and with her defenses down,
she’d left her mind unprotected. She’d also told him more about the Oracle’s words
than even Luc knew.
It had been a long time since she’d had a real lover, and never someone like Javier,
who saw her so completely and wanted her for who she was. Just the memory of his
mouth on her made her whole body shudder. Sacha had to take a breath to refocus her
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mind. Something nagged at the edge of her awareness, as though a detail waited there
for her to uncover. But it only eluded her more swiftly the more she tried to chase it.
A sound in the dark focused her thoughts quickly. Someone approached her door,
turned the key, opened and closed the clock, and padded toward her. Instead of
reaching out for his mind, Sacha waited for him.
His presence filled the doorway and his breath came in even pants. “I’m through
waiting for you, Sachela. I had to come myself.”
Luc. Of course. Why should she expect Javier to come for her? He may have proven
his desire for her body, but she told him to stay away, and he listened. Stupid man.
“Luc, I’m so tired.”
“Just let me speak with you for a moment.”
She pushed toward his mind and found its familiar smooth emptiness. The man
had certainly developed the skills to keep her out unless he desired it.
“If you’re here to warn me against Javier or convince me that he’s part of the reason
we’re having these deaths, you can save your breath.”
Luc crossed the room with heavy steps and sat down on the edge of her bed. His
back rested against her leg, which she’d propped up in anticipation of rising. A fleeting
sadness took hold of her as she considered how much she used to love him. And now,
all that remained was the promise of Javier.
“I just need you to hear, from my own lips, what I believe he’s doing to you.”
“Now, Luc…” She didn’t know what else to say. Javier was doing something to her.
What, she couldn’t yet be certain. But something was different with him than with the
others. And different than Luc.
“Just hear me out, Sachela.” He put a hand on her thigh.
“Because you are my closest friend, I will listen. But if you start accusing him, I will
ask you to leave.”
In the dark, Luc sighed. While she couldn’t make out his shape, she could still feel
the pressure of his hand on her leg and sense an uneasy anger, latent in him.
“You’ve known him so short a time, Sachela. And yet you listen to him before you
listen to me?”
“He has proven to me that he’s trustworthy.”
“Because you’ve taken him into your bed? You trust him because you’re lovers?”
Sacha took a deep breath and reached for Luc’s mind again, gaining no advantage.
“I can smell him on you.” Luc’s voice veered into almost a snarl. “You were once
this way with me, Sachela.” His hand clamped down on her thigh and ventured
inward, toward her center. “We have been lovers for a long time.”
She inhaled sharply and his hand stopped moving, but did not remove it from her
person. “We were never really lovers, Luc.” Her sadness betrayed her in the delivery of
this statement, but she didn’t try to take it back. It had been a long time coming. Now
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that she knew what it was like to receive a man’s full attention, she didn’t know if she
could settle for what Luc provided her anymore.
“Javier loves me. You have never loved me.” Sacha pulled the blanket down over
her ankles and crossed them, pushing against Luc’s sturdy frame.
He leaned across her body, almost as though he wanted to kiss her, but instead, he
grabbed her chin and stared into her eyes with unrepentant anger. “How do you know
this, Sachela?”
She clutched at his arm and pulled in vain at his tight trip. “I can see her.” She
looked down at the crumpled bedclothes and clutched the blanket around her. “When
you’re inside me. I can see Tsura.”
Shame clouded the air between them and Luc didn’t speak at first. His hand relaxed
and the pressure of his fingers retreated.
Tears formed in the corners of Sacha’s eyes as she remembered the moments of her
gripping climaxes with Luc, then searching his mind for his pleasure trigger, only to
find his dead wife playing the lead role in his fantasies. She’d given him everything,
and he’d blindly sought solace inside her body, only to be betrayed by his own mind.
“I can’t help that I loved my wife, Sachela. Or that I miss her.”
“But you can certainly help that you never think of me. Not even when you come
inside me, Luc.” The spite in her voice shocked even her.
She expected him to retreat completely at that, and scooted back on her bed to
encourage him to leave her. But he didn’t. A hard, fast anger took hold of him and he
snaked his hand under the loosened blanket, grabbing the delicate flesh of her inner
thigh in his vise-like grip.
“Will you please stop that?” Sacha shifted against him, but he ground his hand into
her and brought the other hand around her knees to pin her onto the bed.
“You never complained before.” His grip on her leg tightened.
Sacha tried to kick him away, but he’d pinned her down by his arm, so she hauled
around and slapped him with one of her hands, missing his face in the dark and
landing a blow to his neck.
“You don’t know how much I need you, Sachela.” Luc shifted his weight so that he
sat on her legs now and when she reached around to hit him again, he blocked her with
his forearm and caught both her wrists in one hand.
“If you stop struggling, you’ll see how much I do love you.” His hand disappeared
quickly from inside her blanket and for a brief moment, she thought it was finished. But
his breath wore into a ragged pattern and she could hear him unfastening his pants
with his free hand. “You make me so hard, Sachela. I just want to be inside you.”
“No, Luc.”
“You’ll see. It’ll be like it was before that werewolf lured you into his magic spell.”
Luc’s body pressed on her while one hand continued to hold her wrists together as she
struggled. He kissed her with a wide, angry mouth, and she wrenched her head away.
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“Please, Luc. Just go.” Sacha pressed her eyes together, but the darkness of her
room and the darkness behind her eyes were the same. There was no sanctuary. She
screamed at the top of her lungs, but knew no one would hear her. Her quarters were so
far buried away from anyone but the crew, and those that would have been closest were
now dead.
Javier! she cried inside. Please, save me! If only he could reach her in time. But she felt
the slimy head of Luc’s erection pressing against her leg, searching for home.
“Stop! Please help!” she screamed, but no one came. She pushed at him with her
whole body, and finally with her mind. Then a white light took her and everything
went silent.
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Chapter Fourteen
Javier sat against Sergio’s cage, focusing on the cold steel at his back instead of the
angry mob of vampires across the room. Vidal and several of the Cordovans lay around
the edges of the cage as well, having volunteered to keep watch with Javier. But Javier’s
unease grew with every passing moment.
Ever since Sacha dismissed him in the corridor, he’d been feeling the same unease.
Perhaps it was Luc’s veiled threats, or the fact that Gabrielle had vanished into thin air
and not been seen again. If they could only get to Milan, and Sacha could seek out her
allies, then this would all be solved.
Vidal tapped Javier’s shoulder. “Did you hear that?”
Javier turned toward the door, where Vidal’s eyes were focused. It remained closed,
and Javier strained his ears to listen beyond it. Nothing.
“No. What do you hear?”
“I thought I heard someone calling for help.” Vidal stood, brushing the dirt from
his pants, and walked to the door. The mass of brooding vampires shifted, but Vidal
held a hand up to silence them. “I hear something in the hallway.” Vidal turned back to
the room at large. “It’s nothing.”
Javier pressed harder against the cage, willing the metal to mark him in some way.
To cut him or brand him. Anything to take away the pain inside as he contemplated
Sacha abandoning him. What began as a purely sexual mating was morphing into the
kind of emotion he’d only felt once before. The moody, protective, paranoid aching
inside wouldn’t go away. It must be love.
True love, no less, he’d bet his last peso. Only true love was this consummately
torturous while simultaneously promising the most intimate fulfillment. He’d been on
the precipice of this with Mira, and escaped just in time. Before it stole everything from
him.
Yet he didn’t want to escape from Sacha. He wanted to revel in her. To claim her
and mark her, and stay buried inside her for hours—no, days—on end. More than that,
he wanted all of her. Not the blatant sexuality that she seemed to offer freely, but the
vulnerable woman inside. The one who needed him, who wanted to belong to him as
he belonged to her. This was the woman he loved.
Yes, love.
His mother always promised him that he would know in an instant, and he had.
The moment he saw her in the market—her black hair loose and enticing, her guarded
interest, her reaching toward his mind—he knew he wanted to know her.
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The wolf part of him wanted to consume her, to possess her, to mark her and mate
her. But the man wanted to know her. In his heart, he wanted to explore and discover
everything there was to know about Sacha Camomescro, Empath demon, Resistance
leader, airship owner. Woman. God, what a woman.
When it had taken him so long to fall in love with Mira, he wondered if it would
truly last forever. His mother had been so certain when she said he would know.
Almost as if she was warning him to wait. But he hadn’t. And part of his heart would
always belong to Mira.
But what was left of it, he wanted Sacha to have. And he wanted to tell her, right
that exact moment. Except she wasn’t here. And she’d told him to stay away, to let her
rest. So Javier had a choice. He could be the good, obedient dog every master wanted,
or he could be the hunter.
He didn’t feel much like being mastered right then. But he did feel like a good
hunt—he hadn’t been hunting in far too long. Javier rose from his position and set off
for the door. The vampires roiled across the room and Lucien grunted loudly.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Javier paused, careful to control his response. “I’m going to find out how long until
we land in Milan.”
Vidal’s voice rang through the corridor. “No one is under arrest here, Lucien. He
doesn’t have to prove himself to anyone.” The silence that met his utterance was
deafening. Javier felt a slow curl of shame trace into his heart. Vidal was more the alpha
in this situation than Javier was acting.
Between his uncontrolled lust for Sacha and his lack of restraint when it came to
protecting Sergio, he was more wolf now than man. And a good alpha was the best of
both. At that moment, Javier felt like the worst of both.
He needed to see Sacha and get this nonsense under control. This time, when he
made a move for the door, the vampires didn’t make a sound. Javier wanted to turn and
beat them all to a pulp. But he burst through the door and made his way to Sacha’s
room.
The hallways were darker than he expected, and he walked slowly, attempting to
make all the right turns. But the closer he got to her room, the more he was fueled by an
urgency that came from somewhere other than inside himself.
Javier never pretended to be a psychic, but something didn’t feel right. Typically, he
could feel her, smell her, sense her. But now, everything was empty.
He turned the last corner and found the clock door open, pushed through it, and
every lupine sense he had told him danger lay ahead. For the first time since he met
Sacha, he wanted to remove the Prata and at least have the ability to shift if he needed
to. It was still the height of the lunar cycle and he should be able to shift at will, were it
not for the magic bracelet on his arm.
Her bedroom came into view after the black corridor, and a lamp flickered near the
door. On the bed in the corner lay two unmoving bodies. On top of Sacha lay a half-
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naked man whose face didn’t need to be visible for Javier to recognize as Luc. He bent
forward in the doorway and growled, channeling the wolf he used to summon.
It took a moment for Javier to work out what had happened, but the closer he got to
her, the more the details became visible. Sacha was still fully clothed, while Luc’s pants
were at least mostly open. Her skirts had been lifted, but part of Luc’s shirt sleeve was
torn off, as though she’d been pulling him off, not urging him forward.
Javier had seen this aftershock before, been part of it, even. When Sacha’s psychic
energy exploded, it knocked out everything in a radius. If Luc had been on top of her,
he would have felt the brunt of it.
Bastard. He deserved it.
Rage burned inside Javier’s chest and he hoisted Luc off Sacha by his shirt collar,
tossing the big man back onto the empty floor. Luc’s head made a hollow thud on the
ground that caught Javier off-guard. He bent toward the listless man and put his hand
in front of Luc’s mouth. No heated breath. His chest didn’t move, even upon close
inspection. Javier tuned his hearing as much as he could in human form and put his ear
to Luc’s chest. No heartbeat. He felt Luc’s neck for a pulse and found none.
The man was dead, and Sacha had killed him.
* * * * *
Javier tried to rouse Sacha, to no avail. After he put Luc in the chair near the door,
he smoothed out the front part of her skirt, all the while thanking God that Sacha had
killed him. Because by everything holy, if Javier had come upon that scene before Sacha
took care of matters, he would have shifted from the rage alone, magical leash or not.
Just the thought of another man touching her made his heart thud in his ears.
But regardless of what Luc tried to do to Sacha, there was yet another corpse on
board the ship, and whatever happened next would be the tell. With the captain dead
and crew members mauled, their chances of reaching any port at all looked bleak.
Never mind finding magical creatures in Milan and then setting sail for Africa. By the
time they reached The Resistance, there would be none left alive.
Javier sat against the hard, cold wall of the bedroom and held Sacha’s head in his
lap. Her breath was even, if slow, and each rise and fall of her chest made him want to
cover her with blankets and hide her from the world.
Why had he not been here to protect her? And if he did get shooed away, why did
he listen? He should have stayed right here, despite her protests. Now she was
unconscious and Luc was dead, and it could have all been avoided if he…
Don’t think like that. This isn’t your fault.
But it was always his fault. Mira’s death had been his fault, his pack’s decimation
his fault, Luc’s death, Sergio’s capture. Javier sucked in a breath. What a
disappointment he was as the Avinguda alpha.
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After a few minutes, Sacha began to stir. Javier stroked the side of her face as she
began to murmur and flutter her eyes.
“Don’t speak, carina, you’ve had a bad spell.” Javier touched her lips with his
fingertip and hoped she could hear him. “Come back to me.”
Sacha’s dark eyes opened and focused on him. “What happened? Where am I?”
“Your bedroom.”
Sacha tried to sit up, but Javier’s hands pressed her down into his lap.
“Don’t struggle, Sacha. You need to rest.”
“Where’s Luc?”
Javier took a deep breath and took Sacha’s hand. He didn’t quite know what to say
to her. You killed him? He attacked you and now he’s dead? There wasn’t a way to say it. So
instead, he said nothing and shook his head.
“What’s wrong, Javier?” Sacha tried to sit again, this time struggling against his
hands on her shoulders. She wriggled out of his grip and saw Luc in the chair. The color
drained quickly from her face and she opened her mouth in a silent scream. “Dammit,
where is the linguistor? If you won’t tell me, I’ll read it in your goddamned Spanish
thoughts.”
Sacha pushed at him and he tried to get his arms around her thrashing body, but
she wouldn’t settle. His frustration grew at her fighting and he finally growled.
“You killed him, carina.”
She stopped struggling and collapsed against him, her face resting against his chest.
Her tears were hot on his skin, although she made no noise. Her wordless sobbing
tugged at his baser instincts. Mother of God, he wanted to fix this for her.
He should have been here.
“He tried to…force you, yes?” he finally asked when she stopped shaking.
Under his chin, her head went up and down. Her affirmation made the blood pulse
in his ears and his mouth dry out. He should have been here.
“Oh my God, the crew,” Sacha whispered. She clutched at his back and moved
against him frantically. “They won’t understand this.”
Javier was less concerned about the crew. Henry, Chax, a few others he’d never
met. That was all that really remained of the crew. What worried him was the gaggle of
vampires in the hold, all convinced that he and Sergio were the enemy. They would
insist on some kind of justice for Luc.
“We can’t go to the crew.” Javier smoothed her hair and kissed it. “I could try to get
Vidal alone, but I worry about the vampires. I’m not sure how much their senses are
dulled by the Prata they wear.”
Sacha sniffled and peered up at him. Her eyes were read and swollen, but she still
managed to leave him breathless. She cocked her head. “What would Vidal do?”
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“Dispose of the body. Keep it in their quarters.” He swallowed, not wanting to ask
this of her, but it was all he could think of. Javier broke eye contact and stared down at
his lap. “If you took the Prata off my arm, I could shift and consume him.”
She shook her head. “I cannot remove them.”
Javier looked around the room. Perhaps they could hack him into pieces and store
him in one of her clothing trunks until they landed in Milan. Did anyone know he’d
been coming to see Sacha? If she took the helm of the ship, would they miss Luc?
“How did Angus dispose of the body we found?”
Sacha’s eyes glazed. Of course, mentioning Angus would bring up all the
destruction that had happened over the last several days. He held her to him. “I’m
sorry, Sacha. I just want to prevent you from being Sergio’s cage companion.”
She shook her head and pulled back, her head bent down. “I’m sure Angus put him
in the waste container that we dump whenever we land.”
“Wouldn’t he have been discovered?”
“Not if Angus was the one to dispose of the refuse.” Her eyes traveled to Luc and
her face crumpled in sorrow. “Oh, Javier. What have I done?”
With strong arms, he pulled her to him and enveloped her as best he could. “You’ve
done nothing, Sacha. You were trying to protect yourself and can’t be faulted. That’s
why I want to find a way to dispose of the body without involving anyone else. I don’t
want you to be held responsible for something that isn’t yours to take on.”
Sacha curled into him and his heart raced. The way they fit together confirmed
everything he’d been wondering since he met her. They were such a match. But life
seemed to want to get in the way of them.
Being with Mira had been so easy—as if it were destiny. With Sacha, it felt like a
fight against circumstance and will. Did that make Mira right and Sacha wrong? If he
could answer that question, he’d have solved at least one mystery.
He bent to kiss her and held her face between his hands, searching for the answer in
her eyes and, finding none, he sighed. “Everyone is locked in the hold, so we’ll go to the
waste container together.”
She pressed her lips to his and threw her arms around his neck. “What would I do
without you, Javier?”
He shook his head and stood from the bed, the events of the last several days flying
through his mind in rapid succession. “I’m sure your life would be simpler and easier if
Sergio and I had never come on board.” Picking up Luc’s body, he couldn’t help
chuckling. “However, you’d be left to dispose of several corpses on your own. Perhaps
we should thank God for small favors.”
Sacha hooked one of Luc’s arms over her neck with unsmiling silence. “We’ve lost
so many people this last week.”
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Javier put Luc’s other arm over his own neck so it would look as if they were
helping him to walk on his own instead of carrying him to his grave. “We’ve all lost
people, carina.”
They walked out of the bedroom without speaking another word and Javier
couldn’t help feeling that a wedge of resentment pushed them apart even as conspiracy
brought them together. He certainly couldn’t contain the feeling in his own heart that if
Sacha had never come into his life, either his brothers would still be alive, or he would
be dead with them.
Where he belonged.
* * * * *
Sacha pressed out as far as she could in all directions, feeling for thoughts that
weren’t Javier’s. While she still couldn’t translate his thoughts without the linguistor, it
didn’t take an Empath demon to see that he’d been affected by Luc’s death, and
potentially more. What she could pick up that sounded familiar was all about his
cuadrilla, his pack. And hermanos, which she knew to mean brothers.
If he was thinking that his brothers would be alive today if she hadn’t found them,
he was sorely mistaken. The assassin couldn’t possibly be on her ship, and therefore, he
had to know where they were going before they arrived, or he wouldn’t be able to so
carefully track her movements.
Sacha stopped in her tracks and Javier tripped over Luc’s suddenly stationary feet.
“Of course!” she yelled. “How could I not know this?”
Javier’s shimmering eyes turned on her. “What is it, carina?”
Pressing out again, she made sure there was no one around, and lowered her voice
to a whisper. “The assassin.” She shook her head and kept walking. “I can’t believe I
didn’t see this before.”
“Sacha, unlike you, I cannot read minds. You must speak your thoughts aloud, or I
will be lost.”
“The assassin. Since France, he’s been so close behind us. And getting closer each
time.”
“Yes?” Javier pulled on Luc’s body a bit. “We must hurry, carina. I know you can
feel people around us, but we can’t be caught with him in this state.”
“In Barcelona, he was so close. He may even have been there before us.”
Javier’s posture changed at the mention of his home. More thoughts of his fallen
brothers. She wanted so badly to comfort him, but he was right, they needed to move.
“You think he knew where you were going?”
“He doesn’t have an airship, or we would have seen it. It’s impossible to hide from
Angus in the skies.” A shallow pressure in her chest made her catch her breath. Angus.
And Elias. And now Luc. Dammit. Why hadn’t she seen this sooner?
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“So in order to catch you in Cordova, in Barcelona…in Milan.”
“He had to know where we were going.”
Suddenly, a short distance away, she felt someone’s thoughts. Sacha hushed Javier
and they both froze. Luc’s body felt so heavy as she listened. Thoughts in English,
which made her breath return.
We need to find Luc. Of course he’ll know what to do. It was Chax. Sacha couldn’t tell
how quickly she was moving, but she wasn’t far away. She searched the corridor in
front of and behind them. All the doors in sight led to occupied rooms, and even
though Javier said everyone was in the hold, she couldn’t risk someone being left
behind. If they were asleep, she wouldn’t be able to hear their thoughts unless she was
in much closer proximity.
“Do you hear something?” Javier whispered.
She nodded. “Chax.”
Javier pointed to the door in front of them a few feet. “We have to get him out of the
corridor.”
“That’s the pixie quarters. We can’t chance that someone will be in there.”
He scanned the hallway and pointed to the next door. “What about that?”
“Staff quarters.”
“Whose quarters?” he hissed, pulling on Luc’s body.
“Angus, Henry, Elias, Yuri.”
Javier’s eyes were frantic, his thoughts hurried. And her name appeared in his
thoughts over and over. “Yuri is the short one with the beard?”
“Yes. He works in the engine room with the dragons.”
“He’s in the hold.”
“You’re sure?” she asked.
“He’s in the hold, Sacha. We have to get into that room.” Javier took Luc’s full
weight and moved so quickly down the corridor, she almost couldn’t keep up with him.
She braced herself against the rough wood walls and reached out. Chax was still
coming. She would need to get into this corridor to get to Luc’s room, which must be
where she was headed.
Sacha scooted down the hallway and Javier looked back when he reached the door.
He turned the handle and just as he was about to step over the threshold, Chax
appeared behind him in the corridor.
“Stop!” she yelled. “I need to speak with Luc.”
What happened to Luc? God, that woman has knocked him out again, Chax thought as she
approached Javier with careful steps. Chax’s eyes glowed orange as she glared at Sacha.
Please, just let her go back to the hold. Go back to the hold, Chax.
“We need to get him back to his room,” Javier said.
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Chax put a graceful hand on Javier’s arm, near the Prata that leashed him.
Undoubtedly, it heated under her touch. It would be hot with magic if Javier wanted to
shift. But Chax didn’t pull away. Instead, she yanked Javier around.
“What has she done to him?”
“We need to get him to his rooms.”
Chax crossed her arms. “Why are you going into this room, then?” She looked past
Javier into the room. Angus. Then, the sadness overwhelmed Sacha, so much that she
had to put her hand on the wood wall again, for support.
But the sadness masked something else. Something Sacha couldn’t quite place, with
the overwhelming ferocity of the higher emotion. Guilt?
“Isn’t this his room?” Javier asked.
Chax laughed. “Not bright enough to ask Sacha where her lover’s room was?” A
metallic undercurrent of spite radiated from her. She was always jealous of Sacha’s
closeness to Luc.
Javier growled and his possessive glare fixed on Sacha. He wasn’t angry at her,
though. Was he? Goddam linguistor. Now she knew why Luc wanted her to always
wear it. Otherwise, she was blind, like everyone else.
“I see not.” Chax took one of Luc’s arms and hefted it over her neck. “Well, his
quarters are this way.”
Javier began to walk next to her and Chax grabbed Luc’s hand to steady her grip on
his arm. She froze.
Cold.
Sacha closed her eyes. They were discovered.
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Chapter Fifteen
Milan, Italy
Raul didn’t like open spaces, but with the exception of night cover, which could be
very dangerous in a crowded port, the only way for Sacha’s airship to dock
inconspicuously was to find an abandoned section of open water. At least, that’s what
he’d been assured—a lake northwest of the city, under-populated and quiet.
Not only the open space, but Kalo’s band of thugs unnerved him. Shifters of all
kinds, witches, satyrs and ogres. It set him on edge to think of being backed up by so
many magical creatures. Sure, Raul was magical himself, but he had no choice. The
presence of so many traitors unmasked the motive in his own heart.
Raul crouched behind a cluster of bushes, his fine clothing succumbing to use at last
and now covered with Italian mud. Benjamin would owe him a wardrobe after this. In
addition to other promises, it would cost the wretched man a pretty penny to dispose of
this demon and her horde.
Kalo stood only feet away, hulking and seething. The longer they waited, the
darker the drakien’s eyes became. Raul had been told early afternoon, and they’d been
waiting since noon, hidden as well as they could be.
Raul had given the order to allow the demon to disembark her ship so they could
attack a leaderless ship. This way, the demon herself would lead Raul and Kalo to the
pocket of traitors they sought, as she had each time he’d tracked her.
Their ventures would be more successful than in Cordova, more even than
Barcelona. This time, they would wipe out each and every one. His corps was now large
enough to be completely effective.
And deliver the demon to Mr. Benjamin. Then his contract would be fulfilled.
“Raul,” Kalo hissed. He looked more like a bear than a man as he crouched in wait.
An angry, hungry bear, but a bear, still. “Are you sure you have the right location?”
“This is precisely what Benjamin gave me.”
Kalo shoved a massive hand into the air between them, one sausage-like finger
extended almost all the way to Raul’s chest. “You haven’t even spoken to the spy
yourself?”
“She’s on the ship. How could I speak to her?”
The dragon shifter raised a thick, hairy eyebrow. “How do you think Benjamin gets
his information?”
Raul considered for a moment. He hadn’t ever asked. In all the times he’d been to
the apartment, he’d never known how he got there, but he knew it was magic. The
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Empire, while trying to eradicate magic from the populous, wasn’t above using it for
their own purposes.
A rustle behind them drew Raul’s attention. Two shifters pointed at the sky to the
west. Where there should have been a setting sun, a great brown ship sailed in the air.
Its tonnage would rival the large naval ships Raul used to work. At least four hundred
meters at waterline. Maybe bigger. He’d never seen it full-on like this, because they
were always following so late behind and almost always in full dark. But now he got to
take in its beauty, and it was truly a magnificent vessel. The demon’s father had crafted
an unparalleled work in his Harbinger.
Too bad he hadn’t lived to see his daughter take the helm and use it as a refuge for
the bastardized magicks.
Kalo’s meaty fist went into the air and his hand flattened horizontally. The chatter
and whispering ceased, and what heads had been visible disappeared. Raul leaned
toward the drakien and caught his lapel.
“You remember I am in charge here, dragon?” Raul snapped.
Kalo nodded. “They are clearing their minds so the Empath demon cannot
anticipate the attack.”
The ship emitted a trail of steam, although Raul had heard it ran on magic and not
on true steam power. Something powered it, and something steered it, as it glided into
the water at a slow clip and the gangplank descended toward the ground with a figure
on it. Even the setting sun didn’t illuminate them fully.
But it was either the demon or the spy on that plank, and if the moon wouldn’t tell
them, they’d have to get closer.
Raul hissed for one of the pixie men to approach him. The short, hooded boy
shimmied out from behind a tree and was at Raul’s side in a moment. Pixies were
notorious for being quick and silent.
“Go toward the ship, but stay on the perimeter of the clearing.” Raul put his hand
on the boy’s shoulder. He really was a boy—his doe-eyed innocence struck Raul like a
slap. This empire they served was reported to be above such things. But child soldiers
smacked of Mr. Benjamin. Raul shook himself and finished his instructions, but the sick
feeling didn’t subside. “If that’s the spy, she’ll seek you out. Bring her to us. If it’s the
demon, signal me and I will come to you.”
Two tiny wings sprouted out of the boy’s hooded cloak and he lifted a few inches
off the ground. Keeping to the shadows, he moved silently around just as Raul had
instructed and approached the ship. It was nearly full dark now, and it would be quite a
hoof in to the city if that was the demon. Their plan was simple. Complete eradication.
Save the demon.
The long plank touched the ground at last and the figure started its deep descent to
the ground. But instead of one lone figure, several followed. The noise subsided
gradually, and the figures kept coming. All shapes and sizes.
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Some were obviously women, but some were men. At least two hundred when the
last one filed off the walk board, but maybe more. Raul glanced at the pixie at the edge
of the clearing, but couldn’t see him. They hadn’t planned for this and Raul hoped he
wouldn’t make himself known because he didn’t know what to do.
The murmur of the crowd hushed and one woman stood back on the plank, so as to
be a bit above the crowd, and shouted across the group for quiet. Then, one of the larger
men, obviously a drakien, whistled and there was silence.
Raul leaned forward, listening, and caught most of her words.
“My friends and fellow magical creatures,” she shouted. “You have been led to
believe that Sacha Camomescro was one of you. But when I found her with Luc’s
corpse, she proved her otherwise.”
Raul glanced at Kalo to gauge the drakien’s reaction, but couldn’t see a visible
emotion on the man’s face. This woman, obviously not the Empath, was now leading
the refugees. The demon, somehow, had been the spy? Is this why Benjamin wanted her
so much? And Kalo knew?
The woman continued. “We must assume that whatever orders Sacha was giving
are suspect. The crew and I will take you to the Satyr House, where Althea has assured
me they can cast the same spells we have lived under on board the Harbinger for
protection from human eyes.”
A rumbling started in the crowd and several of the men nearest the shouting
woman appeared to be resisting. Two large drakien wandered into the crowd and began
hushing them again. Someone shouted a question at her that Raul couldn’t hear.
“We’ll have to leave her behind. We need to move together, and we must be quick.
Before the light comes up, we need all of you to be inside the Satyr House and give the
pixies time to weave the magic necessary for our protection. This is what Luc would
want us to do. Now, follow me.”
The noise returned and Raul turned to Kalo again. Still, no emotion on the drakien’s
face, but Raul was dumbfounded. “We’re not prepared for this.”
Kalo finally snarled and a menacing smile curled across his broad face. “This is
perfect, Raul. Don’t you see?” He rubbed his giant hands together. “I will take the
group and we’ll kill them en masse. You go on board, see if they’ve killed the woman,
and meet us at the Satyr House.”
“And if there are more creatures on board?”
Kalo pointed toward the retreating crowd. “You heard the woman. She’s taking
them all to the Satyr House. There’s no one left on board.”
“And they’re abandoning the ship?”
The giant shoulders shrugged and Kalo stood. “It appears, yes.”
Raul tried to recover his wits for a moment. Their lateness, first of all, put them all
on edge. And the change of plans made the hair stand on the back of his neck.
Something about this wasn’t right.
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A rustling at his elbow made Raul turn instinctively to check his peripheral vision,
and he saw the young pixie, hood pulled back, eyes wide.
“What is it?”
“The captain is dead.” The boy blinked, swallowed, and hung his mouth open.
“Does this mean we don’t have to fight anymore?”
Kalo raised the back of his hand and the boy crouched behind Raul. “Get back in
line, Milo.” Kalo kept his gesture frozen and eyed the boy with alarming menace. “Of
course you have to fight.”
“What else did you hear?”
The young man peeked over Raul’s right shoulder, getting as far from the drakien’s
angry hand as he could. “Their captain is dead and the woman, your spy I believe, is in
a cage in the hold with a dead werewolf.” He came all the way out from behind Raul’s
shoulder and stood just off his right arm, his eyes big once again. “I didn’t catch the
whole story, but a group of shifters was trying to reboard the ship to get their fallen
brother. The dragons stopped them, and they all left.”
A pang of sadness struck Raul at the mention of the shifters. The Cordovan
werewolves, his cousins. Yet he’d shot them as quickly as the French vampires. The arm
of the Empire, he truly was. “The werewolves too?”
The boy nodded. “All of them. No one got on the ship again after the scuffle.”
Raul held up his hand to silence Kalo’s interjection and barked out an order. “Kalo,
you track them to the Satyr House. Kill them and everyone you find there. Start with
the pixies so they don’t have a chance to cast their magic.”
“They would be visible to us anyway,” Kalo argued.
“Still, there might be additional protection spells. Just kill the pixies first.” He stood
from the bushes and meticulously brushed the country grime from his excellent
clothing.
Kalo’s big hand stopped him. “Where are you going?”
Raul stared at the giant ship and blinked against the dark, wishing his senses could
be as they once were. He stroked his chin, feeling the cool weight of the silver finger
against his throat. “I’m going to find this spy and the demon and make sure she’s
dead.”
“And if she’s not?”
Raul spread his jacked to reveal his holstered assassin’s weapon—the long steel
shaft filled with special-issue bullets that would put the demon into a deathlike sleep.
“Then I’ll make sure to take her alive.”
* * * * *
Sacha let the guilt slide over her in painful waves as Vidal and André prepared Luc
for burial. Lucien watched with wary eyes from across the hold, occasionally tossing a
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glance at her or Javier like the jailer he’d become. It had now been almost two hours
since she woke to find Luc dead at her hand, and every minute was more surreal than
the last.
Luc had known her longer than anyone alive. Now he was gone. Memories of their
long friendship flashed through her mind. She still couldn’t believe she’d killed him.
First Tsura. Then Luc. Her father always told her she needed to learn to control her
power, but since Tsura’s death, she hadn’t wanted to go to that dark place again.
Now she would have to, or risk killing again.
What was worse, her service to the Resistance might now be at an end, because she
was unable to control her power. She sniffed back the emotion and leaned against the
bars, finding no comfort.
Javier crouched over Sergio’s body at the other side of the big cage. The shifted
body of his wolf took up more than half of the space, and Javier had been trying to
move him into a more efficient pose since they’d been relegated to share the same space
with the sleeping giant. According to Javier, as soon as the full moon crested out of its
brightest phase, he would shift back, awake or not.
Sacha was certain that Chax put them in the were’s cage on purpose, hoping he’d
wake while shifted and eat them alive before she returned and had to bring Sacha to
trial.
Chax hadn’t believed Sacha’s insistent retelling of what Luc had tried to do to her.
She’d thrown them in the cage, gathered everyone from their rooms, and set off for the
city. Chax had hissed something about a trial when they reached Africa, but given her
loyalty to Luc, the possibility of Sacha’s death at the hands of a shifted werewolf was
likely more appealing.
Javier pushed Sergio’s legs underneath his big body and glanced over at Sacha. She
felt a flash of fear radiate toward her and turned back to the large open space of the
hold. Lucien glared at her and an audible growl sounded from Javier’s throat.
Javier moved quickly across the cage to put his body between her and Lucien, never
making eye contact with her. She searched his face, but he glared at the vampire and his
body thrummed.
Lucien thumbed his nose. “You’re finally going to get what you deserve, whore.”
With a flex of his shoulders, Javier stood at full height in the cage, his chest thrust
forward, head bent slightly. He raised a long, tattooed arm and pointed at Lucien’s
white face across the darkening hold. “You speak to her again and I will come through
these bars, vampire.”
“You don’t scare me, rougarou.” Lucien’s crude snarl almost hid the word from
Sacha’s ears, but now, without the linguistor to translate for her, she perked. French, but
not French. She’d heard this accent, this word, somewhere before.
André turned away from Luc’s body. “Stop it, both of you.”
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“Don’t you see?” Lucien pointed a stubby finger at the cage and looked to André
for solidarity. “She’s been the one killing the crew. She led our coven into certain death
with her compatriots from Europe for Progress.” Lucien’s lips flattened into a line and
paled even from their already grayish state. “She killed Gabrielle.”
Sacha couldn’t help but laugh. Deep and full and from her belly. The idea that she
would be in league with the Empire? And she knew Gabrielle was not dead.
Lucien leapt toward her. “Don’t laugh at me, cocotte!” His face roiled in emotion,
from anger to hate to disgust. And he’d slipped back into his strangely accented French
again.
André shook his head and returned to helping Vidal with Luc’s body. “We don’t
know anything yet, Lucien. Sacha is our leader, and it would be unwise of us to assume
anything as yet.”
“Tuat t’en grosse bueche,” Lucien spat.
The contrast was stark. André’s beautiful Parisian and Lucien’s stilted drawl.
Cocotte sounded so familiar. The connotation wasn’t hard to pick up, although she
wasn’t quite sure of the direct translation because she couldn’t remember for the life of
her what kind of French this was.
All she knew was Lucien wasn’t who he said he was. Which meant Gabrielle wasn’t
either. And after she and Javier had seen Gabrielle with the weapon of the enemy, she
knew the female vampire’s loyalty. Now there was little doubt in Sacha’s mind that
Lucien was in league with his sister.
Javier flexed his muscles in front of her, starting with his legs and rippling up to his
biceps, as though reminding Lucien how perfectly he could control his body. The
slightly pudgy vampire snarled back and Sacha put her hand on Javier’s shoulder.
“Please. Don’t bait him.”
She pushed out to read Lucien’s thoughts, but found only feelings. Hatred of her,
fear of Javier, and nothing else. Relatively harmless, but she wanted Javier to marshal
his strength. If they had a chance to escape, they might need it. And if Sergio woke
before he’d shifted, they definitely would.
Vidal and André picked up Luc’s body, wrapped in white cloth, and carried him
toward the door. As they passed Lucien, Vidal kicked the vampire’s feet and snarled.
“Get your shovel, Lucien.”
The younger vampire shook his head. “I’m not letting her out of my sight.”
Vidal kicked at his feet again. “They’re not going anywhere, and I’m not leaving
you here alone with them. So either you and André go out to bury the body or you’re
coming with us.”
Lucien shook his head, his hair flopping against his forehead. “I’m not leaving you
alone with them. You’ll release them.”
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André pushed out a melodramatic sigh and took one hand off Luc’s shoulder to
pull at Lucien’s coat. “Quickly, boy. The faster we get the body in the ground, the faster
you can be back to your watch.”
Lucien’s shoulders dropped and he stood. He reached for the trio of shovels they’d
left after burying Angus.
Vidal’s handsome countenance darkened and he blinked into Sacha’s gaze. “We
bury too many friends.” She felt his despair. It seemed everyone had lost someone in
this fight, and while Javier had lost everyone, Vidal had lost brothers as well. Men
whose well-being he’d taken responsibility for, as their alpha. Whom he had also let
down.
And burying another body reminded them all of the ones they’d already buried.
Each mind carried faces of someone they loved that they’d lost in this fight.
While Sacha was wary of the mounting death, she was afraid that they hadn’t yet
seen the worst of it.
“Death is not the end,” she said, attempting to push some comfort toward Vidal.
She concentrated on sending out a release of responsibility, and even the momentary
relaxation of his shoulders as they left the hold felt like a victory.
Suddenly, the hold was empty, save herself and Javier and a giant, shifted
werewolf, and she wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do more—kiss him or slap him
across the face.
She opted for neither and simply sank down into her skirts against the bars. The
enormity of what she’d done—what they’d almost done—washed over her again like a
wet, heavy wind. It stilled her lips and salted her tears.
“What is it, carina?” Javier’s voice hung between them as did her silence. He knelt
next to her and rubbed his hands down her arms, as though to warm her.
“I don’t know what to do with you anymore, Javier.”
His large, brown wolf’s eyes studied her. Part predator, part protector. She’d
known him only a span of days and yet she felt more enmeshed and vulnerable with
Javier than she ever had with Luc.
A part of her wanted to flee at that thought.
“You don’t have to do anything with me, Sacha.” Javier wrapped his arms around
her, put her back to his chest, and held her tight against himself, resting his chin atop
her head and groaning. “What we have been through these last days, anyone would
question. Anyone would be afraid.”
“I may be afraid of the Empire, yes.” Sacha rested her hands on his and let her body
melt into the form he gave her. Arms over arms, body over body, breath on breath. “But
you scare me more than Benjamin Disraeli himself.”
She closed her eyes and braved the trek into Javier’s mind. A memory of her in the
Barcelona street flashed over his mounting desire. She didn’t understand this
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overwhelming desire he felt for her, except that there was a mirrored craving in her
own heart. But how it got there or why it continued to grow was beyond her.
She’d never felt this for Luc, or any man she’d been with before.
Javier’s Spanish thoughts were a mystery to her, but the pictures that continued to
occupy him fanned her lust. She made intentional contact with his groin and felt the
beginnings of his erection pulsing there.
Seconds from death if the werewolf awoke, imprisoned unfairly, and all she could
think of was how much she wanted this man naked and inside her. And, if she were
honest, how much she wanted to be inside him. Maybe forever. This man who saw her
as she was.
What a relief it was to be in someone’s arms who wasn’t thinking of his dead wife
or his first love or his prostitute or his unrequited interest. And yet. As Javier’s hands
roamed up her belly and cupped her breasts through the stiff fabric of her dress, she
couldn’t stop the thought that she couldn’t hide from Javier. He was intent on her, he
desired only her, and there was nowhere she could run that he wouldn’t find her. Even
in his own mind.
Javier could sense fear in her as he kneaded her clothed breasts. It wasn’t the
prospect of making love, because they’d done that. It wasn’t the fear of Sergio waking,
because he’d sensed that in her already, and it was far less intense. No, this was
something altogether different, and it puzzled him.
He stopped his ministrations and considered asking her. But as soon as his fingers
stilled, she groaned.
“Oh, don’t stop.”
“Are you sure, carina?” He smoothed her black hair over her left shoulder and bent
down to kiss the exposed neck. “They could come back any minute.”
She sighed. “They’re not coming back anytime soon. Besides, I could sense them
before they got inside the hold anyway.”
He began to stroke the weight of her breasts again. “If you insist.”
“I just want to be with you again.” She turned into him and found his lips, kissing
over her shoulder. Javier raised a hand to her cheek and stroked it in tandem with the
thrust of his tongue.
Sacha twisted onto her knees and pressed against him as she returned his kiss. He
loved the feel of her skin, the gentle dance of her tongue with his. A bright warmth
spread through his chest as he leaned into her.
He plunged his hand into her dress and sought out the warmth of her wet pussy.
To his absolute pleasure, he found her to be without undergarments, and made short
work of finding her clitoris and getting into an easy stroke.
With her legs straddled around his waist, her whole vagina opened to him. The
hood of her clitoris had come back to reveal the sensitive nub he caressed with his
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thumb, and her lips were parted and ready for his middle finger to enter her. Sacha
shuddered and rose up onto her knees.
This was how he wanted her always. Pleasured, relaxed, happy. Wet for him, but
more importantly, satisfied. He didn’t want her to have to worry about the Resistance,
or about assassins and enclaves of magic, or about her own powers and their
consequences. He just wanted her to be climaxing around his hand or his tongue or his
cock.
In her writhing, she rubbed against his now fully hard erection, and he wanted to
either still her or reposition her. But she was still coming in her pleasure, and he left
himself to suffer a little longer while he drank in her happiness.
He couldn’t run from this any longer. His whole existence revolved around her—
around what she needed and felt. Around her protection and her pleasure. Javier had
never planned to fall in love again after Mira, but Sacha had taken him by storm. She
had been with him in his most vulnerable moments and managed to make him feel
every inch the man his father raised him to be.
Sacha sagged against him and whispered something in his ear he didn’t
understand. It may have been English—there were certainly plenty of English words he
didn’t recognize—but he imagined it was some kind of Gypsy tongue. She tried to hide
it, but he’d seen enough Gypsies to know the general feel of their language, and he
could hear it in her.
“What was that, carina?”
She laughed and whispered, “You make quick work of my coming.”
“I do indeed.”
When she pulled back to reach between them for his cock, he noticed something
glittering on her cheek. A tear. He grabbed her hands.
“What’s wrong, Sacha?”
She flicked a graceful finger to her cheek and wiped away the evidence. “Just
happy.”
But he remembered her fear. And the tears unnerved him. “I don’t think these are a
sign of mirth, my love. What are you afraid of?”
A ripple of shock cascaded over her beautiful face. “I’ve asked you this before,
Javier, and you’ve never answered me.” She met his eyes, squarely. “Are you an
Empath?”
He laughed. “Not like you.” Javier moved his hand up to her heart and placed it
over the thrumming organ. “I can sense fear, like any predator. It’s more like reading
the outside.” He pressed his finger into the soft flesh of her breast where her heart beat.
“I can hear the thud of your fear.” He touched the side of her face. “I can see your eyes
change, your face.”
Javier took her face in both hands and kissed her, skimming his tongue over her
bottom lip as he pulled away. “I read the outside. But you can read the inside.”
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A rueful smile crossed her lips and she nodded. “You are always so good at reading
me. I was beginning to wonder.”
He kissed those lips again, and the smile was gone before he finished. Her fear
returned. “What is it you’re afraid of, carina?”
Sacha’s hands went so quickly to the unfastening of his pants, he almost didn’t
expect it when the wet warmth of her sheathed him. He’d been so hard and ready, he
slid home quickly enough that she was fully seated and looking into his eyes before he
felt the need to repeat his question.
“I’m afraid of you, Javier.” Sacha’s black hair tumbled behind her as she began to
ride him, leaning back so that her breasts fairly popped out their invitation.
“Why, my love?”
She gasped as he found her breasts again, this time with more force. Instead of
answering, she latched on to his mouth and explored him as she rode him. Her
breathing hitched and she threw her arms around his neck, pressing harder into his
body.
“Please don’t ask me questions like this.”
Something in the tone of her voice was so dismissive, it took him completely out of
his desire. This used to happen to him with Mira so often. He wanted more than she
could give and when he asked too much, she shut down. The memory of it was perhaps
more fresh than he cared to admit, and when he indulged it, Sacha’s eyebrows
narrowed.
It had been such a brief flash. Surely she couldn’t have been in his mind at that
exact moment. Surely, she was so caught up in her own desire, she wasn’t governing his
thoughts as well as her own.
Instead of trying to distract her, he allowed himself to get swept back into the
moment. The feel of her clamping around him was heavenly, and the combination of
her scent and her raw sexual energy intoxicated him. It was easy to get lost in making
love to Sacha. She was everything he’d ever wanted.
Finally, she leaned forward and kissed him, a tentative move that turned into raw
need as soon as their flesh met. She moved on him like an animal and soon was panting
through the tension before her orgasm.
He reached between them to stroke her clitoris with a heavier pressure than she
would have gotten from mere fucking, and the need to please her returned. Consumed
him. He would have given anything to draw out the moments before she climaxed,
when she needed him so completely. His desire spread from his chest, outward,
through his entire body, and heated the raw end of every nerve until he could think of
nothing but exploding inside her. Marking her.
And yet just as she was about to crest and fall into him, she pulled back, fortified,
and held. The fear returned.
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Javier tried to stroke her back to abandon, but she was like a rabbit in the arms of a
wolf. Her fear overwhelmed her desire, and she hesitated from surrendering, even as
her orgasm took her into ecstasy. He could see the walls, as clearly as if she’d built them
out of brick and mortar.
His need drove him into her, thrusting up with as much power as he could muster
and edging into anger. At least with Mira, he’d never needed her to be completely his. It
had been enough that she had been with him.
With Sacha, he needed her capitulation as much as he needed his subsequent
breath. He needed to know that he could be inside her, more than physically. He
wanted to crawl into her heart and camp out there.
But with her heart walled up, he was left in the dark and the cold. He gave in to his
orgasm almost reluctantly, shearing the air with anguished pleasure. As she collapsed
against him, she felt further from him than she had ever been. The despair that he could
touch her and be so shut out by her fear shook him to the core. For just a moment, he
wished to be back in Mira’s bed, where they’d both been alone, but never lonely.
He saw it with such clarity. The particular moment after Mira had fallen upon him
for the last time. Her need had been for companionship, not for Javier. And his had
been for someone to take away the certainty that he wasn’t the man he should be. Yet
with the understanding between them that there was no love lost, sex had been pure
pleasure, with no promises.
Sacha stiffened in his arms.
He regretted his indulgent memory as quickly as it faded. “Sacha,” he whispered.
But she was already climbing off him, her hands pushing at his chest and arranging her
skirts around her.
Javier grabbed her arms. “Sacha, it’s not what you think.”
Except it was. In the moment they should have been closest, he had been far away.
And thinking of another. The shame caught in his throat.
“Don’t touch me.” She wrenched her arm from his hand and slapped him hard in
the process.
But he couldn’t stop trying to gather her into his arms. To undo what he had done.
To bring them close again. “Please, Sacha. I’m sorry. You need to understand.”
Tears lined her darkening eyes and a scream tore through the air just as the world
went white.
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Chapter Sixteen
She’d killed them.
When Sacha awoke to find herself alone in the middle of the hold, the cage door
open and no one in sight, she knew Javier and Sergio must be dead at her hand. Just as
Luc had been.
She felt her body with slow fingers and found all her clothes to be in place. No
marks or wounds that she could discern. Just the typical achy joints and uncertain
vision. It would be best if she could lie here a moment longer.
Unfortunately, all that would play in her head was the memory of Javier’s betrayal.
She tried to give all of herself to him, and he had wished to be with his dead lover. After
being so convinced that she finally found a man who wanted only her, that had been
more betrayal than she could stomach.
She felt the moment where she could have held back, but her anger was so
complete, she pressed out with all the might she could muster. If she was honest, there
had been a moment where she wanted to kill him. She wanted him to feel what it was
like to be without hope. Without life. As she always felt the moment she recognized her
current lover’s real agenda. Their need for sex, their need for comfort, their lack of need
for her.
With Javier, it was supposed to be different. He’d seen her so perfectly from the
start. And now, just when her fears started to melt away, he struck her the lowest blow
of them all.
Lying in the middle of the empty hold, with not a soul to hear her, Sacha began to
weep. The sobs took her slowly at first, halting her breath, but then they overtook her.
She rolled onto her stomach and pounded the wood floor. She didn’t know which she
wanted to curse more fervently—her power, or the lover she’d used it on.
And she hadn’t even done it intentionally. She always pulled back right before
orgasm, so she wouldn’t have to see what darkness lay in men’s hearts at their most
unguarded moment. But with Javier, the hesitation had been only temporary, and she
sought his mind to companion hers as they both tumbled into each other.
She wasn’t certain what would happen, at first. Always on guard against her
power, she never let it fully take her, not since Tsura. A deep grief seized her heart. Not
until Luc. When she pushed her anger out completely, she knew she could kill.
She hadn’t known at first, of course. Or Tsura would still be alive. But when those
men fell upon them, she’d had no choice. Tsura, who had no magic in her blood,
begged Sacha to save her. Luc’s young wife had seen Sacha’s powers in brief form. And
Sacha tried to shield Tsura when she did unleash her anger. But she hadn’t been able to
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control it. Yes, she’d killed the horrible men who set upon them, but she’d killed her
best friend in the process.
There had been a tiny part or her, when she’d pushed at Luc, who wanted to hurt
him for loving Tsura more, and forever. For never loving her. The small voice of control
had been silenced, and she lashed out to protect herself, to wound him, to end his
horrifying assault.
With Luc, it had been much more deliberate. With Javier, she’d just wanted to hurt
him so badly for his wounding her. She didn’t know if there was even a modicum of
control in her at that moment. As the sobs subsided, she lay in darkness and wished she
would have learned better control of her dangerous anger. Especially since that lack of
control had cost her the three people in the world who mattered the most to her.
You always hurt the ones you love, her father had told her. You must learn control. Well,
even the control he taught her before his own death wasn’t enough.
“I take it back,” she whispered. “God forgive me, I take it back.”
A tiny creak jolted her awake. She whipped her head up and craned around in the
semidarkness of the hold, searching out its source and finding none.
“Who’s there?”
Another creak sounded, and closer this time. She closed her eyes and listened for
the direction of the quiet footsteps. With careful precision, she felt for the person who
approached her, and came upon a consciousness she didn’t recognize and couldn’t
place. It was empty. Or very well fortified with magic.
“What do you want to take back, Sacha?” A deep, rumbling voice sounded in the
recesses of the hold, behind crates. It reminded her of Javier, but without his thick
Spanish accent.
“Who are you?”
“I’m your assassin.” The voice was closer, but the speaker still not visible.
Somewhere off to her left, toward the dock.
Did Vidal and André take the bodies out to bury them and leave the ship open?
How would a stranger be able to get onto the ship otherwise? Luc always…well, they
had always left a guard on the gangway.
But with everyone else in the city and her guards out burying bodies, there would
be no one left to protect her. Goddamit, where was Javier when she needed him?
Dead, Sacha. And you killed him.
“I’ve longed to meet you face to face,” she said. If she lay here long enough, most of
her functions might return. And if all else failed, she might be able to kill him with her
power, although she’d never tried to do it so quickly back-to-back and had no idea if
her power was as weak as her body in that moment.
“You’ve seen my face, girl.” An odd, squishing noise sounded left of her, and not
far away at all. This voice was higher. Not the same as the other. “In fact, you know
me.”
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“Gabrielle?”
The female-esque laugh rang in the hollow room, and at last, the voices spoke at
once. So there were two of them.
“Who else? Lucien?”
Gabrielle chuckled. “Lucien? Ha!” This time, the footsteps were clear. They were
still behind the large wooden crates they used for food storage, but they were closer. If
she could pool enough strength, she might be able to kill them both where they stood.
“I told you, I am your assassin.” This was the voice that reminded her of Javier. The
animal-like quality to the depth of his rumbly bass. “Put that away, Gabrielle.”
“No.”
“You’re not going to kill her. I have orders to take her alive.”
“Orders from whom?”
An exasperated sigh revealed the same tightly leashed brutish fury that Javier
sometimes exhibited. Javier. She paused and remembered his face. This memory, she
would need to etch into her head. If she was never to see his face again, she would need
at least to see him in her mind’s eye. She couldn’t go forever without seeing his face.
“Mr. Benjamin himself.”
Benjamin? Sacha pressed toward their minds, but both were locked up so tight, she
couldn’t get any kind of read—even an emotional one. This was definitely training.
Magic couldn’t hide emotions, although it could hide thoughts.
Gabrielle laughed. Not the rich, beautiful sound of a woman, but the cold,
calculated laugh of a superior with secret knowledge. “Which one?”
Whether too stunned or too confused to reply, the assassin let his guard down for a
moment, and Sacha got into his mind. She saw a flash of an old man in a black suit, and
an opulent room. But rather than anger, Sacha sensed an overwhelming fear.
Memories flipped through the assassin’s mind as he was overcome with fear.
Memories of a striking brunette and a small, black-haired boy. As he relived happy
moments, she saw them as well. But then the foggy haze of imagination took hold, and
she saw the woman and the boy in a dark room, chained to a gray rock wall, being
whipped and tortured by the old man from the apartment.
Then, nothing. Either he couldn’t imagine beyond their torture, or he’d realized his
mistake and refortified his mind. Whichever it had been, Sacha had not only seen the
pictures, she’d felt his crippling fear, his gut-wrenching love, and most of all, his
desperation. His anxiety all centered around saving them from this fate. Or preventing
whatever came afterward. She couldn’t quite tell which, because as soon as the words
came, she’d been overwhelmed by yet another language she didn’t know.
It had been Italian this time, though, she was relatively certain.
Gabrielle’s mind, however, was shut up like a tomb. Not an emotion or a memory
leaked out, even for a split second.
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Sacha took a deep breath and assessed her internal balance. Strength returned with
every inhale and clarity with every exhale. But she still didn’t know if she’d be able to
strike at all so quickly after having used her power. She needed them to get closer.
“Kill me if you must.”
Gabrielle’s amusement was joyless. Full of pity, if anything. “Oh, don’t worry about
that, girl. We’ll kill you.” Her superiority was so complete, Sacha wondered just how
deep in the Empire’s counsel this woman was. Her resilience to mind probing was
extensive, and her pride prodigious.
The assassin swore and stepped forward with loud footfalls. “You’re not going to
kill her. We need her.”
“We don’t need her.” Gabrielle was closer this time. Her voice echoed around the
crates. If only they’d have relit the damn lamps. “I have her maps. Her lover led me
right to them. We know precisely where all the inferiors are.”
She’d said the word lover with such venom, and for a moment, a picture of Luc
appeared in Gabrielle’s mind. Sacha had no doubt it was planted to throw her off, but
Gabrielle obviously knew little of how the human mind worked. One opening, even an
intentional one, was still an opening. Sacha mentally latched on to the image of Luc and
Gabrielle entwined in his bed and pressed through it into Gabrielle’s mind.
With extensive resistance, Sacha continued to push and finally broke in with
unrestricted sight. What she saw shocked and disgusted her, and she retched aloud at
the macabre contents of Gabrielle’s mind. But as creatures were wont to do, Gabrielle
went immediately to the one thought she didn’t want Sacha to see.
An image of Gabrielle standing over two familiar bodies with a maniacal glee in her
heart. The assassin’s wife and son. Bloodied. Beheaded. Dead.
* * * * *
Javier opened his eyes to a heavy throbbing in his head, and a familiar face
hovering above him. He focused in on Sergio’s young features and a sense of release
overtook him. The tears that had been threatening to burst through his consciousness
for days finally soaked his cheeks and he threw his arms around Sergio’s neck.
Sergio embraced him as well, and offered wordless comfort until Javier recovered.
Javier couldn’t help the laugh that escaped when he finally pulled back and took in
Sergio’s face again. “Mother of God, man.” He clapped his young compatriot on the
shoulder. “Twice now, I’ve thought you were dead.”
Sergio’s face was suddenly somber. The reunion over, he had something important
on his mind.
“What is it?” Javier asked.
Sergio stood and Javier realized for the first time that they were in the midst of a
heavily treed area, and both shivering against the cold night. Sergio walked to the thick,
mottled trunk of a giant chestnut tree and leaned against it.
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“I had to get you out of that ship.” Suddenly, as though he realized Javier was there
for the first time, Sergio turned and sank to his knees beside him. “The woman who
killed the Scotsman, she was there.”
Javier tried to concentrate on Sergio’s words and blinked against the darkness. The
musty dankness of the forest flooded his senses and he tried to think of who Sergio
meant. “The Scotsman?”
“In the forest, by the river.” Sergio looked around. “It wasn’t here. But it wasn’t
Spain—I didn’t recognize it. She killed him and drenched her corset in his blood.” He
helped Javier into a sitting position and rested him against the rough trunk of a tree.
Corset and blood. That, Javier remembered. They’d gone looking for Gabrielle.
Found her corset by the river. Then it came back to him. Angus. And Sergio’s body in
the forest. They all thought he’d killed Angus, but it must have been this woman,
although how a woman could disfigure a body like that. Was it Gabrielle? A vampire
could never do that kind of damage.
Sergio rested his hand on Javier’s shoulder. “You stay here and I’ll find you some
food. We’re going to find a way to get this ridiculous silver contraption off your arm.
But in the meantime, we need to get back to Barcelona.”
Javier shook his head at Sergio’s quick retreat. “No.”
Sergio turned and his long face curled into a confused stare. “You want to keep the
silver leash? Fine. But we have to get you back to the Avinguda.”
“There is nothing left for us there.” Javier swept his hand across his face, felt the
days’ growth there, and paused. He remembered the burned carcasses of buildings, and
people, that had littered their old home. Barcelona was the front of the war on magic.
Hell, everywhere was the front these days.
Mother of God. Sacha! Javier tried to stand, and his still-shaky legs floundered a bit.
“We have to get back to the ship.”
“No.”
“I need to get to Sacha. If Vidal and André return and we’re gone, Lucien will kill
her, I’m sure.”
Sergio cocked his head. “The demon?”
Javier had to remind himself that Sergio had been under the assassin’s spell most of
the time he’d been on board, and didn’t have the familiarity with Sacha or the crew or
passengers that he had.
He brushed past Sergio, feeling steadier now. “I have to go back for her.” The
younger were followed. For the first time, Javier noticed an unfamiliar scent about his
companion. He stopped and sniffed Sergio’s familiar white tunic.
“You smell strange, brother.” He stretched the tunic sleeve between his fingers and
sniffed closer. “Like nothing natural or magical.”
Sergio’s wiry arms tightened under the tunic and he pushed Javier back a good
foot. “You accuse me of being other than I am?”
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“No, that’s not it.” Javier sniffed again. He scanned their surroundings, looking for
the source of the unusual smell. “I smell you, but there’s something else.”
Sergio put his own shirt to his nose and inhaled. “I haven’t been shifted that long in
ages. The whole moon cycle, I imagine. Maybe it’s residual animal.”
Javier shook his head. He smelled Sergio’s wolf as well. This was something
altogether other. He closed his eyes and let the smell wash over him. The more he was
aware of it, the stronger it became. “Give me your hand.”
Sergio tented his generous eyebrows and finally offered his left hand. The scent
wasn’t there. Not on his arm. Or his shirt. Javier stepped closer and smelled his hair,
then moved behind him. There it was. He leaned in. On his neck. Javier felt his friend’s
neck and his fingers found two deep indentations. “This.”
Tiny trickles of blood still poured from the little wounds. “Vampire,” Javier snarled.
He smelled the saliva of a vampire, applied to Sergio’s wound in an attempt to close it
and make it undetectable. But a shifted werewolf wouldn’t have responded to vampire
magic.
The more Javier saw of these vampires, the more he wanted to kill a few.
Specifically, he’d like to get his hands on Gabrielle and Lucien…
Sergio replaced Javier’s hand with his own. “It was the woman.” He rubbed his
neck and Javier swore in realization. His chest tightened.
“Sacha may well be alone on that ship with the vampire’s brother.” He moved
through the trees, not even caring if Sergio was behind him anymore. The scratch of the
tree branches on his skin barely registered as he bustled through to the clearing and the
ship was in sight.
“You can’t risk yourself, Javier.” Sergio’s firm hand on his shoulder stopped Javier’s
forward progress, but not his motivation. “Not for some demon we don’t know and
can’t trust. You’re our alpha.”
“The pack is gone, Sergio. We are the last of our brothers.” He turned to his young
friend and let the sadness of the last days wash over him again. “I am the leader no
more.”
“Don’t you see? If they were hit with the same bullets as me, then they’re no more
dead than I am.” Sergio pulled at Javier’s shirt and the seam ripped just enough to
produce a sound that sliced through the dark silence of the Italian night.
Javier let that thought roll through his consciousness, but still, the image of Sacha in
danger brought his blood into a heated frenzy. The more he let that picture reign in his
mind, the more the wolf in him clawed at his silver leash, as Sergio had called it.
If Sacha was in danger in there, he would cut his arm off to rid himself of this
muzzle so he could unleash his wolf on her attacker. Dammit, he loved that woman,
and nothing on earth was going to get in his way if he wanted to protect her.
He picked up his pace again. “We may not have much time. They were coming
back just after—”
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The sound of Lucien’s voice halted Javier and he pulled Sergio toward the nearest
bush cover. Lucien, Vidal and André walked across the moonless clearing, their shapes
barely visible, but their voices cutting through the air.
“We can’t wait for Africa,” Lucien was saying. Javier put his finger over his lips and
shook his head at Sergio. The three figures, all carrying shovels, entered the clearing
from a good hundred yards away. In the bushes, Javier and Sergio had the advantage.
They crouched less than five yards from the walkway. As the three men passed, they
could mount some sort of surprise attack. But they’d never be able to get on the ship
first, not without being noticed.
“You’re not going to lay a hand on any of them until we know for sure what
happened,” Vidal said. Judging from the relative speed of his movements and the angle
of his voice, Vidal was in front, which mean that Lucien was behind him, and the much
taller André took up the rear.
“For the girl’s sake, we’re going to honor that,” André said, sniffing. “She saved me,
and my entire coven. You’re not going to kill her for some petty revenge that you can’t
even prove.” André’s brassy voice got higher with each syllable. “And I am your
leader!”
“You are nothing of the sort,” Lucien sneered.
Fifty yards. They were moving slower than Javier anticipated. Not on a mission.
Returning from one.
Javier reached out to Sacha, hoping she could hear him. He pushed at his thoughts,
shouting internally as loud as he could. They’re coming back, Sacha!
With bitter nostalgia, Javier remembered the first time he’d mentally shouted at her.
A lifetime ago. Or a week. His pack had been intact, if a violent scourge on the darker
corners of Barcelona, thanks to their insatiable hunger, and the unrest of the impending
magic wars.
But still, they had been intact. And ready to feast on the young Englishwoman who
stumbled into their midst. Yet she hadn’t stumbled at all. She’d been led. And he’d
followed, like a puppy to the slaughter.
Thirty yards.
There was no getting around it now. He was going to have to pounce on Lucien and
hope that Vidal and André would forgive him. There was no time to communicate with
Sergio. Even a whisper would have been heard, and with no moon from the cloud
cover, they couldn’t very well make eye contact in the near black of their cover.
“Well, as the reigning alpha aboard this ship, I take responsibility for them. They’re
part of our pack now, and anything they may or may not have done, we will handle
with our own law.” Vidal’s growl was more audible than Javier would have expected,
given the presence of the Prata Mudanca on his arm.
Part of him was relieved to have the title of alpha claimed by someone else, and
part of him rebelled against the idea of being part of another pack, especially one where
he and his brother wolf would be outsiders. Still.
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Fifteen yards.
A hair-raising scream rent the air and all three men stopped dead in their tracks.
Javier took a breath as they started to run for the ship, and when they were close
enough, he took aim and lunged at Lucien with all the power he could summon from
his inner wolf, caged or not.
It took him a moment to recognize that the scream he’d heard wasn’t Sacha, and as
he hit Lucien and tumbled to the ground, he wished he’d chosen to run up that
walkway instead of spend his time on petty revenge. Any more seconds wasted trying
to down this miserable worm, and there might not be enough left to allay whatever
threat was on its way to her.
Lucien hit the ground with a sickening crack and Javier landed in a crouch next to
his body, staring up at André and Vidal with animal ferocity. “Something is in there
with Sacha. We have to go to her.”
“Javier? What in the blazes?” André stumbled over the words, but managed to get
them all out. His long, ashen face still registered more shock than anything, and his big,
open eyes stared unblinking at Javier.
“How did you get out?” Vidal asked, clapping Javier on the shoulder. “Thank the
gods you’re all right.”
“Sergio.” Javier nodded back toward the bushes, although he could see only dark
masses. Now closer to the light of the Harbinger, he found that the rest of the landscape
faded to black out of his vision. “He’s the resident pickpocket in our pack. He
outsmarted the lock.”
“Sacha is still inside?” Vidal helped Javier to his feet and both men panted through
their adrenaline.
“Yes.” Javier turned and catapulted up the walkway, toward the hold.
“What about Lucien?” Vidal asked.
“Bring him,” he called over his shoulder. All that mattered now was getting to
Sacha. He could afford to waste no more time.
* * * * *
Sacha recoiled at Gabrielle’s shriek and the assassin’s face curled into a sneer of
disgust. The tiny vampire’s gray fingers pried at her temples and her now fiery eyes
met Sacha’s in a flare.
“Stay out of my head, witch.”
“I’m no witch,” Sacha fired back. “You opened your mind to me. You wanted him
to know that you killed his family.”
As the assassin reached into his cloak, Gabrielle’s fingers pried open the vial that
hung around her neck. She drained the contents in one gulp and laughed.
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“Just try to stop me now, dog,” she snarled. Gabrielle’s pretty features began to
shift into something that could only be described as animalistic. This wasn’t a vampire
change, as Sacha had initially expected. The fangs that emerged through her snarls
weren’t for draining blood, and they didn’t belong to any creature of the night.
The assassin’s dark features flourished as he produced his double-barreled coppery
firearm. Sacha could have sworn she saw tears on his cheeks as he fired.
The first bullet struck a shifting Gabrielle in the chest. The second in the neck. He
reloaded and fired again, lodging one in her forehead, and missing her the last time
altogether. The trajectory sent the bullet flying past Sacha’s head and it missed her as
well.
But as she had said, they didn’t stop Gabrielle. They didn’t even slow down her
transformation. Her limbs crackled and her features expanded until she was a big,
hulking beast that resembled a fully grown werewolf, but wasn’t exactly that, either.
The creature’s mouth contained three sets of teeth, varying in sharpness and gruesome
fright. It fairly smiled at them.
Sacha found her breath and froze in front of the animal’s pitch-black eyes. This was
the animal that had mauled Elias and Angus, that had pulled the skin and flesh right off
their bones. Whatever it was, it was horrifying.
With a wolf-like head and a short snout, it had an almost catlike posture. It watched
them with pleasure, moving its all-black eyes the way two pieces of coal might move in
pea soup—like smooth, inky stones in murky liquid.
The wooden Prata on Gabrielle’s arm had expanded with her size and the wooden
sphere blended into the black-gray fur of the animal, obviously not stopping a shift of
any kind. Sacha’s breath seized in her throat. The Prata should stop the shift! They were
forged to keep the magic at bay. Perhaps they only stopped her turning into a vampire.
But this creature was infinitely worse.
The creature laughed at them. Laughed.
The assassin had reloaded his gun and was shooting again. Another shot in the
chest, and another in its broad forehead. Still, nothing. He reloaded again.
“Don’t bother,” the creature said. Somehow, it could not only smile and accomplish
an almost human sense of emotion, but it could laugh. And talk. It swiped at the
assassin, who tried to raise his guard, but the clawed paw hit him square in the head
and he went flying across the room, then sprawled into a dark corner near the door.
“Gabrielle, you don’t have to do this.” Sacha felt futile even as the words crossed
her lips. She might be able to summon great speeches and read minds, but the best she
could come up with was absolutely worthless in the face of this giant hybrid monster.
“Of course I do, Sacha. That’s what you just don’t understand.” The giant catlike
animal stood and pounced across the room onto the cage. For the first time, Sacha was
thankful for the depth of this cage, because it caught Gabrielle before her massive jaws
got anywhere near Sacha’s delicate bones.
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Sacha panted and crammed herself as far back in the cage as she could manage.
“Enlighten me.”
The cat-creature smiled again, its rows of teeth more visible through receding
gums, and somehow more macabre with each second. “I’d rather kill you.” Gabrielle
reached a paw through the bars and Sacha gasped when it came a foot short of her
heaving chest.
The cat-wolf prowled around the outside of the cage and Sacha inched along with
it, keeping the farthest distance possible always between her and it.
“I’m a simple woman,” the cat-wolf said, its black lips roiling around its teeth.
“They offered me power and money, and I took it.”
Sacha calculated the distance at the cage’s shallowest point. She would be lucky to
escape those claws at all angles. Dammit, why couldn’t the assassin fell this animal? His
arrows had worked on Sergio—a full-grown werewolf. On vampires, dragons, bears,
cats, people. She’d seen those arrows fell everything they touched. But not this creature.
“But there’s hatred in your eyes,” Sacha said, creeping along the bars, feeling them
press into her back in uneven spaces, one at a time. “This isn’t about money for you.
You hate magic like the Empire.”
“I’ve been with Mr. Benjamin since I was a little girl. Since before I became this.”
The Gabrielle-creature flexed its muscles. “I’ve learned to hate magic from birth.”
A wave of compassion washed over Sacha and her heart expanded against her tight
chest. Sacha knew what it felt like to hate your magic side. The picture of Tsura
returned to her mind’s eye. After her death, it took Sacha a long time to use her power
again, and when she did, it was too late to do much in the way of control.
Now she was lucky not to kill everyone in a forty-foot radius… Sacha looked
around. For the first time, she recognized the fortitude of her situation. If she could use
her powers now… She took a deep breath, trying to encourage the fearful press of her
power, and pushed out.
Nothing happened.
“Powers won’t come on call, eh?” The tone was almost sarcastic. As the animal
reached the shortened end of the cage, it swiped at Sacha again and missed by a hair.
“Don’t you know you can’t stop me, Sacha? I’m going to kill you. My people are going
to kill every last passenger on this boat, including your weakling lover.”
Sacha’s powers swelled at the mention of Javier. If only she’d been able to save him.
She looked past Gabrielle’s pulsing shoulder muscles to where the assassin lay
motionless on the floor. Maybe he was far enough away that she could spare him. She
knew his heartbreak, his desire for vengeance. He could be an ally.
Still, she had to chance it.
Sacha closed her eyes and let her anger about Javier’s death, and her anger about
Luc and Tsura grow inside her. The fear of Gabrielle and those sharp teeth ripping into
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her delicate flesh rippled through her mind, and her power swelled again. She tried as
best she could to unleash it completely.
But there was no flash of white light. No unconsciousness. And when Sacha peered
out into the hold, she saw the drooling, snarling cat-monster prowling in front of her
cage, still.
A pang of anger shot through her. Why couldn’t she control this power? Direct it?
Why did it only kill unintentionally? Luc. Javier. Sergio. Tsura. Damn useless mess of a
power if it couldn’t be used, as Gabrielle had said, on command.
Gabrielle’s stalking suddenly halted, and she flipped her attention to the door of the
hold. Sacha couldn’t see the door, since it was behind her, but she tried her best to listen
for thoughts. There was a jumble of hushed whispered thoughts and pictures of the
darkened hold outside the door. Gabrielle obviously heard something and Sacha felt for
telltale signs of who it could be.
Before she could make anything specific out, the door burst open and four men
burst in. Among them was the most welcome face she could have imagined. The fierce,
protective eyes of her lover met hers at once and held her gaze, as though Javier assured
himself with each second that she was alive and well.
A silent sadness stole through her as she took him in. She’d thought him dead, and
here he was. Yet to face Gabrielle with no protection—what chance did they have?
The cat-wolf growled, its silver-tipped fur curling down hard against its body and
its ears pricking back. The growl wasn’t exactly animal-like. But it wasn’t precisely
magical, either. Sacha couldn’t place it, but it had the strangest unnatural sound, almost
like the noise passed through something other than flesh.
The four men split immediately and Gabrielle’s attention darted between each of
them. Sacha slipped along the back of the cage, coming to the side nearest Javier. The
cat-wolf crouched down on its haunches, bearing all three rows of jagged teeth. On the
far side of the room, farthest from the cage, Sergio began to change. With Gabrielle’s
attention still on Javier, Sergio was nearly complete in his change before the creature
even noticed there was another big, black, hairy beast in the hold. When she did, she
leapt the distance to Sergio and latched on to his neck.
Sergio shook her loose and her full weight careened into a stack of luggage crates in
the back of the hold, then he pounced for her again. Javier ran for the cage and Sacha
reached out for him.
When he finally grasped her hand, Sacha thought she might burst. She pulled him
to her and found his lips, suckling on him, keeping him with her.
“What is that thing?” he finally managed when he extricated himself from her. But
as soon as he finished the question, he found her mouth again and was ravaging her.
“God, when I heard that shriek, I thought I would find you dead.”
“That’s Gabrielle.”
Javier’s thick eyebrow raised and he glanced across the room where Sergio’s jaws
had found Gabrielle’s throat and an ungodly howl sounded through the hold.
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“The Empire’s weapons don’t work on her. I can’t get my powers to focus, and her
mind is locked up tight.”
Gabrielle shook loose of Sergio’s grip and lunged for his throat. When she caught
him, Sergio whimpered. He wouldn’t last much longer.
Javier offered his arm. “You have to get this thing off me.”
Sacha felt along the smooth silver surface. She’d only ever put the Prata on people.
When the seer had given her a supply of the magical implements, she hadn’t told her
how to take them off. Sacha wasn’t even sure they came off at all.
“I can’t, Javier.” She grasped his forearm by the circle of silver and pulled him into
a deep gaze. “No one has been told how to remove them.”
Javier’s countenance dropped and he glanced back at Sergio, who wailed again as
Gabrielle snapped at his back leg.
In a sickening moment, the giant cat-wolf monster turned with Sergio’s leg in her
mouth and smiled at them. Her glee left no question that she planned to come for them
next. Sacha held tighter to Javier’s arm, and before she knew it, he’d shaken loose of her
and gone to the limp body of the assassin.
Javier pulled the sword from the cloaked man’s scabbard and turned away from
Sacha. The last thing she remembered was hearing Javier’s grunt and the sickening
sound of flesh and blood and bone being severed—a sound Sacha could have lived
without ever hearing again.
Javier could feel the wolf take him as soon as he was free of the silver contraption. If
it had been loose, he might have been able to shimmy it off, but the thing had melded
into his skin like a layer of bone around his forearm. Yet he could see Sergio was failing,
and if guns hadn’t worked against her, then he would tear her apart, limb from limb.
He shifted more quickly than ever before, and suddenly, he was all wolf. Without
making a noise, he gathered his full strength and sailed across the room in two bounds,
adjusting to his lack of four legs with an instinctive adjustment of his tail. He had
Gabrielle’s neck between his jaws before she even had time to turn her head.
Javier crunched at her neck and she yowled. Sergio’s leg now released, he hobbled
across the wood floor and curled around his injury. Javier shook the cat-wolf and
chewed down on her neck, hoping to hear a crack that would signal her end. Instead,
her feet scrambled for purchase and she clawed at his chest, rending his flesh almost to
shreds. Her movements shook his carefully held balance. He opened his jaw to get a
better grip on her neck, but when he snapped shut again, her neck was gone, as was
she.
With alerted senses, he searched for her. His first instinct was to go to Sacha, but a
quick glance saw Vidal and André standing with Sacha in front of the cage, swords and
daggers in their hands.
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The scratch of scrabbling claws told him Gabrielle was still moving, but he couldn’t
see her. Javier pounced on top of the crates for a better view, still unbalanced by the
lack of his left paw. Just as he landed, the force of another huge body knocked him to
the ground and he felt her teeth dig into his neck.
Almost at the same time, she released him and yelped again. Javier swiveled to see
Sergio’s teeth sinking into her back. When she craned around to snap at Sergio’s body,
Javier saw his opportunity and lunged.
This time, he caught her vulnerable throat and ripped at it, his teeth lodged deep.
The taste of blood overwhelmed his lust for revenge and as he continued to chew at her
body, he saw the faces of his fallen brothers, of Mira, of Sacha and the other passengers
she’d terrorized or killed. Her reach of fear was wide, and this would be a delicious kill.
The noise she made stopped him. It was no longer an animal’s cry, but that of a
woman. Javier reined the wolf out of its bloodlust as best he could and took a step back,
just as Sergio did the same. The cat-wolf creature lay in a bloodied heap on the floor
and almost as quickly as Javier himself had shifted, she morphed into a human.
Gabrielle lay on her back, her throat and chest a bloodied mess, and Javier felt a
very human prick of regret overtake him. Suddenly at his side, he could smell Sacha.
Then, her hand rested on his shoulder and he nearly toppled forward. He hadn’t
realized he’d been so precisely balanced until then, and he sat on his haunches, letting
the sadness wash over him.
They all stared at this woman. Only moments before she’d been a psychotic animal,
bent on destroying them, but somehow, seeing the humanity reminded Javier why he’d
made the vow in Barcelona to end killing. Even taking the life of an enemy didn’t bring
back the dead. It only added to them.
Sacha knelt next to Gabrielle, taking her hand. The battered villainess lay in a pool
of her own blood and gasped as well as she could for more air. Javier was no doctor, but
he was certain she wouldn’t last long. Suddenly, being the shifted wolf seemed
barbaric, and he closed his eyes, willing the wolf back into its cage.
Once he was human again, Javier became aware of the pain in his arm he’d ignored.
Sergio sat on the bloodied floor, remaining a wolf, his ears fully forward as though he
expected there to be another fight at any moment. Behind Javier, Vidal was already
ripping cloth to tie off the wound—something Javier wished he would have thought to
do before. But the need to protect Sacha, to get his revenge…it had been so strong.
Truth be told, he wouldn’t have cared if it had killed him. It gave him what he needed
to kill Gabrielle.
“Lu… Lu… Lu…” Gabrielle wheezed. Sacha gripped her hand harder and the sight
of their bloodied, grasping fingers made Javier turn away.
“Lucien?” Sacha asked.
Across the room, two limp forms lay in a heap near the cage. Lucien was one. The
other was a black-cloaked man Javier didn’t recognize. But if he was knocked out in
Gabrielle’s presence with Sacha in a cage, he was likely her enemy, and thus, his friend.
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161
“Lucien is fine, Gabrielle.” Sacha’s words stung Javier’s heart. He couldn’t look
back at Gabrielle, dying before them.
A tight cord closed just above his elbow and Javier closed his eyes against the
pressure. Vidal was a good man, a good werewolf. A good leader. And somehow, the
fact that Javier had avenged his brothers didn’t make him feel he could put himself in
the same category.
“She’s gone,” Sacha said.
Javier opened his eyes to find her eyes on him. She’d put her hand over Gabrielle’s
eyes and frozen there. Did she think he’d been remiss in killing Gabrielle? He’d
forgotten about her being a woman when he had her neck between his teeth.
Sacha shook her head. “She would have killed us all if she could have.” Her lips
settled into a line. “You did the right thing.” She stood and focused on Javier’s arm,
tears flooding her eyes. “There was no reasoning with her or placating her. She wanted
us all dead, and nothing would have stopped her if you hadn’t.”
Sacha put her hand on his cheek and the warmth of her touch startled him.
Somehow, he’d expected coldness. Perhaps to mirror what he felt in his heart about
having to kill again.
Vidal tied another strip of cloth around Javier’s arm and patted his shoulder. “You
need to lie down, brother. You’ve lost a lot of blood.”
Sacha put her arm around his waist. “I’ll take him to my room and bandage that
arm. I might have a spell I can use to stem the bleeding.”
André sniffed. “Better hurry. Much longer like this and even a werewolf won’t be
able to survive.”
Vidal pointed to the back of the hold. “We’re going to have to lock Lucien in that
cage.”
“You think he’s dangerous?” Sacha asked.
Vidal shook his head. “We don’t know.”
Javier glanced back at the two bodies and sniffed. “Who is the other man?”
Sacha’s body tightened next to his and he sensed she wasn’t telling the whole truth
when she said, “A friend.”
Vidal pushed at Javier’s shoulder. “Hurry. Take care of that arm. We’ve got things
here.”
Sacha guided him to the door. “This way.”
Something inside Javier tensed and he turned back to survey the room. The
bloodied body of his enemy still lay motionless in the middle of the floor. “Shouldn’t
we stake her or cut off her head?”
Sacha turned as well and she made an affirmative grunt. “Maybe both, just to be
safe.”
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Vidal picked up his sword. “I’ll take care of it.” As Javier and Sacha made their way
out of the hold, the air hung thick with anticipation. Javier wondered if everyone else
expected Gabrielle to spring up from the floor and bear her fangs.
The swift thump of Vidal’s blade making final contact with the wood beneath
Gabrielle’s head made Javier’s stomach stop flipping over on itself. And while it didn’t
take away the sting of losing his pack, it did offer a finality he hadn’t realized he was
hoping for.
It is finished.
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Chapter Seventeen
With careful fingers, Sacha secured the bandage around the enchanted wound. It
still hurt him, as the silent wincing evidenced. She had half a mind to laugh at his alpha
pretense. Every man who bled felt pain, it was the unfortunate truth of life. Yet not
every man showed it.
“I’m still a little dumbfounded at your battle strategy.” She left her fingers on his
arm above the wound. “I had no idea your thirst for revenge was so intense.”
Javier’s dark brow creased and he reached for her. With him in her bed and her at
its side, she was just far enough to scoot out of his grasp. “Sacha.” She turned to the
bloody water. “Look at me.”
When she met his eyes, there was a depth there, and a sincerity that made her want
to read his mind. But after their lovemaking, and the consequences, she promised
herself she would never do that again without permission.
“You know what I’m thinking,” he said, a twinge of disappointment creasing
around his mouth.
“No.” She unclasped her breastplate and put it on her desk, then slipped onto the
bed beside him. “I promise you that I will never read your mind again unless you give
me leave.” Tentative fingers found his cheek and smoothed out a drop of sweat that still
remained from his exertions against the pain. “It’s not right of me to dig around in your
memories.”
He clasped her fingers and held them, moving his mouth to kiss her palm. She
expected profound gratitude at this promise, but the emotion that radiated from him
was closer to possession than thanks. Javier lifted his lips from her skin and met her
eyes. “Sacha, my love, you are welcome in any corner of my mind you care to explore.”
Her throat tightened and no breath moved into or out of her lungs for a full minute.
Some unnamed emotion filled her heart and when she did finally gulp for a breath, she
sobbed and pulled his mouth to hers.
“You don’t want me to stay out?” she whispered in a voice that reminded her of a
child. She shuddered at her sudden vulnerability, but she couldn’t stop now. “There’s
always something men don’t want me to know, some place I’m not welcome.”
“You are welcome everywhere.” Javier’s arms stole around her and the warmth of
his embrace seemed to cover every inch of her.
She relaxed into him and stared up into his deep, olive eyes. “What about Mira?”
A concerned dent appeared between his eyebrows and his whole face seemed to
change into painful lines. “I can’t promise not to mourn her, Sacha.”
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She looked away, the familiar emptiness creeping back into her heart. He really
would be like Luc after all. Only instead of getting a wall of silence where his dead lover
was concerned, she would get to see and experience all the pain fresh each time they
made love. No thank you.
“I would never wish to exchange you for her, carina.” He pulled her chin back
toward his face. “Look at me.”
An almost magnetic force kept her eyes fixed just beyond him. To look in his eyes
when his voice held such promise…it would be too much.
“Sacha. I mean it. I want to see that you understand this.” He tapped at the bottom
of her chin once, then twice. Instead of forcing her, grasping her, or unleashing his
anger, he just tapped at her chin again. She finally gave in.
“There. Was that so hard?” he asked.
His loving smile infuriated her, frightened her. Promised too much. Asked too
much at the same time.
“I want you to know that if I had all the power in heaven and earth, and could
make it happen right now, I would choose you.” He lifted his eyebrows and dared her.
“Search my mind if you don’t believe me.”
But she didn’t need to. She could feel the truth when she heard it.
She threw her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his. A guttural growl
she hadn’t heard before rumbled inside his chest and he pushed her back.
“The wolf is still so close, carina.” His shallow breathing continued and his eyes
closed. “Too close.”
“What’s wrong?”
His generous lips curled into a peaceful smile. “You unleash something in my
blood, Sacha. It makes him want to emerge.” Javier’s breathing normalized and he met
her gaze. “You’d have to be a shifter to understand.”
The empty darkness crowded at her heart again. Her eyebrows drew together and
her breathing stilled for a moment.
“What’s wrong, carina? What is your mind telling you now?”
She couldn’t help the smile that stole its way into her voice. He knew her so well.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer someone like Chax who was a shifter too?”
He pursed his lips and sighed. “You think I want Chax?”
“Dogs and cats. Seems to make sense.”
“You know, a cat will curl up with anything that’s warm. A dog only goes to its
master.”
“Is that what I am? Your master?”
Javier laughed, then his dark eyes glazed. “Would you like to be my master?”
Sacha ran her finger down his rippling tattoos that now ended in a white bandage
where his arm disappeared. “I’m not sure I could ever master you, Javier.”
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He caught her with his good hand and pulled her into his plundering mouth. His
kiss deepened and his hand traveled down to hers. He grunted against her kiss and
laughed then pulled her hand into his lap. His erection was warm and already firm
under his trousers.
“You’ve mastered me already,” he murmured as he sucked the sensitive skin of her
neck.
A knock sounded at her door, pulling a groan from her throat. The warmth
between her legs demanded release, and it had been too long since she’d last come
apart in his arms. Okay, so it had been only a few hours, but the need grew with every
passing moment.
“What?” she growled.
The door opened and footsteps sounded in the short passage. Vidal cleared his
throat before he stuck his head into the room. “Sacha, I just brought the last of the satyrs
on board and they want to meet you.” He tented his eyebrows at Javier. “I’m sorry if
I’ve caught you at a bad time.”
“No, we’ll be right there.” Sacha swung her legs around and put her feet on the
floor.
When the door closed behind Vidal, Javier leaned over to kiss her neck again and
Sacha felt the familiar roil of desire fold her insides into a tight mess. She put her hand
on the back of his head and held him there, moaning.
“You want me to be late to meet the new passengers?” She laughed and tangled her
fingers in the dark curls at the nape of his neck. “Leave them to their devices?”
Javier kissed her neck one more time and sat up. “No, there will be plenty of time
for this.” He pushed her to her feet and clapped her butt with his big hand. “I want you
to get out there and save the world.”
Sacha found her breastplate and relatched it around her. “I’ll be back.” She leaned
down and kissed him, pressing her full weight against his chest and reveling in his
strength. For the first time in a long time, she thought only of him when she thought of
the future. Sure, there were people who needed her, but she couldn’t wait to get back to
her lover and feel the earth move beneath them.
He sucked on her bottom lip and smiled, pushing her toward the door again. “Go,
on, Sacha.” Javier’s lips curled into a proud and knowing smile. “You have work to do.”
About the Author
Camryn Rhys grew up on the border of Canada and the U.S. and still hasn’t
decided which country to call home. She splits her time between the Alberta and
Montana Rocky Mountains, with friends and family in both beautiful locations. After
running her own restaurant for several years and acquiring advanced degrees in
writing, she started writing foodie romance, which led to all arenas of romance writing.
Whether she’s writing historical or contemporary, paranormal or erotic, she hopes to
always write romance so good you’ll feel it in your taste buds.
Camryn welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email
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