by S. E. Smith
She whimpered and pleaded and came apart in his arms. It was beautiful and glorious, and healed the last dark cracks in his soul.
She would love him soon. It was there, in the tenderness of her heart. Zoey would love him.
He drove her to the edge again and took savage pleasure in watching her head thrash on the pillow, in seeing her hands claw at the sheets on either side of her hips, and in hearing his name as a dark cry from her lips.
He could have looked at her for hours, petted her and tasted her and reveled in the rapid staccato beat of her heart and the way she fought to draw breath.
But she reached for him, pulled his sweats from his body and pushed his shoulders back as she rose on her knees and lifted her leg to straddle him.
“Zoey, stop.” He spoke through gritted teeth but held her in place above him. “What about a child?”
“It’s okay. I’ve been on the Pill since I was fifteen. Periods from hell.”
Aron searched her mind to make sense of the comment and sighed in relief. His kind did not carry disease, but he would not father a child when there was a very real possibility the poor babe would be hunted and killed by his people. Or worse…sent to live among the Triscani.
Shoving the sad thought aside, he released his grip on her hips. She sank onto his shaft in one slow, hot glide. He grabbed her hips to hold her still and looked up into the face of the wild-eyed lover who’d claimed him. She was a goddess, a temptress, a female of pure flame.
Their gazes locked and something zinged from her hip to his. No gentle, soothing heat this time. No soft flow of energy, healing, connection or restoration. It was an explosion, a lightning bolt of power, and his hip burned, the heat so powerful he’d swear he was burning alive with pleasure.
She threw her head back and moaned as her inner muscles clamped around him, convulsing in another orgasm. He pulled her forward to kiss her again, needing the taste of her tongue and the melding of their mouths. He filled her, and held her, and fused his mouth, his sex, and his soul to hers until he couldn’t hold back another second.
Before she knew what he intended, she was on her back and he covered her soft body with his so he could drive into her over and over. She grabbed his hair and pulled his head to her neck, arched her hips to meet every thrust, and wrapped her legs around him, her heels digging into the back of his legs, urging him to go harder, faster.
She exploded again, his name no more than a whisper of air on her lips as she fell apart and trusted him to hold her together. He thrust one last time and followed her over the edge into oblivion, her name a chant his soul sang as he sank into her.
He was Marked.
He wanted to keep her forever.
What a fucking disaster.
Chapter 6
Zoey checked the map in her lap and scanned the highway for an exit sign. They’d made the trip to the library to look up Aron’s doctor on the internet, and now drove to the exclusive Cherry Hills Village neighborhood in South Denver, a rich part of town she’d never much cared to visit. Professional athletes, movie stars, and senators were neighbors here. Not her kind of place, or her kind of people. Not that she could afford it, even if she wanted to.
Aron wanted to drive, and she’d let him. George was a very good driver. Apparently, he’d been one hell of a lover as well. Not that she could complain, not after she’d just spent the last two hours in bed making love to a stranger. Two hours straight. When she’d finally cried uncle and headed for the shower, he’d washed her hair and taken her again, her back against the tile wall, and she’d begged for more. Whimpered for more. Said his name over and over like he was a talisman, like he was her whole world, her protection against the dark.
Zoey felt different somehow. Alive.
Real.
It was an odd choice of words, but it fit. It was like her whole life had been a dream before Aron, covered in fog, like she’d been numb for twenty-five years and not known it. Like she’d never been in love.
As if she loved him. She’d known him for all of a day. How could she love him? How would that be possible? Yes, they’d connected somehow. She could feel his soul and he claimed that he could sense hers. The link between them was very real, too powerful to deny, like heroin for her heart.
He could break her. Utterly and totally break her.
“There. That’s it.” Aron pulled her truck to the side of the road and parked on the edge of an older neighborhood. It was gated, with a guard at the entrance and brick walls at least ten feet high around the entire perimeter. “His house is in there.”
Zoey checked the map they’d printed at the library. He was right. They’d arrived. But now what? They didn’t exactly have an appointment. “How are we going to get in there to talk to him?” She tossed the map onto the seat between them and stared at the guard. “You do want to talk to him, and not kill him, right?”
Aron smiled and dropped one hand from the steering wheel to tangle his fingers with hers. “Yes, Zoey. He’s one of the good guys. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
Zoey raised her eyebrows and dropped her head back and to the side, her temple pressed to the headrest as she met his gaze. “How can he be a good guy and not know it? He thinks he’s a bad guy? And who are the bad guys? He’s a human, isn’t he? Doesn’t that make him on our side automatically?”
Aron squeezed her hand. “I wish, Zoey. I really do.”
She frowned and turned back to stare at the guard. Bad humans? Sure, there were wars and criminals and despots and terrorists. But when it came to the Dark Ones, surely there was only one side it was possible to be on? “Are you saying there are humans who side with the Triscani?”
“Unfortunately, yes. I heard them sometimes, felt them in the cages.”
Rage rose within her, dark and violent. “Is that how they find us? Find the girls, like Jiselle? We’re tracked and tagged by our own kind? Human beings turn us over to the Trsicani so they can kill us?”
Aron pulled her hand to his lips and kissed each of her knuckles. “Calm down, Zoey, or every Hunter in a hundred mile radius will feel our new connection, and your power.”
She closed her eyes and inhaled slowly. Let it out. She still wanted to hunt and kill any human who worked for those evil bastards, but she didn’t feel like a fiery sun trapped inside the vehicle anymore. “Okay. I’m okay. Let’s go. We can kill those fuckers later.”
Aron burst out laughing and she turned to him in shock at the sound. He was transformed, and she wanted to crawl on his lap and ride him until they were both breathless and begging.
“You can’t look at me like that, Zoey. You want me, and I want to let you.”
“Okay.”
He smiled and ran his thumb along her bottom lip. “The most dangerous word in your language.”
She smiled back. “They say it all over the world.”
He laughed again. “Then I’m screwed.”
A cold chill crept over her, like a cloud passing over the sun. In Antarctica.
“They’re close.” There was no laughter in his eyes now. He started the truck again and drove toward the guard at the gate.
“What are you doing? What’s the plan?” She ran her sticky palms over her jeans to dry them. She was ready. Whatever he wanted or needed her to do, she was ready.
“No plan.”
“Okay.” She checked the knife in her cowboy boot and rolled her shoulders to relieve the tension. He pulled the truck to a stop at the guard’s gate. “Okay. No plan. We can wing it.”
Aron cranked the handle in circles to roll down the driver’s side window on her old truck and the guard leaned out of his box to look them over. Her twenty-year-old pickup didn’t impress.
“What can I do for you?” A large iced coffee sat next to a computer inside the small enclosure and she suddenly felt sorry for him. What a boring job.
“We’re here to see Doctor Jacob Hansen.” Aron gave the guard Dr. Hansen’s address and the man punched some keys on his computer.<
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“I don’t see any appointments here.”
He was going to turn them away, but Aron raised his hand and stopped the guard before he could speak. “Call him and tell him that the kitty-kat sent me here from the dark side.” Aron waggled his eyebrows at the guard in a very provocative way. “Trust me, friend. He’ll let us in.”
The man looked skeptical, but Aron wouldn’t let it go.
“I wouldn’t want you to lose your job because you wouldn’t pick up the phone.” Aron leaned back and looked straight ahead, waiting for the gate to open. “Call him.”
“Okay.” The man picked up the phone, repeated Aron’s message and then opened the gate.
“What the heck is a kitty-kat from the dark side? What was all that?” Zoey shook her head. What kitty-kat? And the good doctor let them in based on that? Aron grinned. God, she could really get used to seeing him smile.
“Katherine is her name. She’s the one who found me. She’s the reason I’m free. And she used to work with this doctor in a secret military operation called the Casper Project. She went rogue, left the unit. But she knew him very well before. Kitty-kat is a nickname some of the men on her team called her.”
“How do you know all of this if you’ve been locked inside a cage for eight hundred years?” The thought of him with another woman made her blood go from warm to insta-hot, just like the little red tab at her kitchen sink. Crap. She had it bad.
“I believe she’s my brother’s mate. I think that’s how she found me. I hurt her.” He looked away from her, as if the memory brought him shame. She wanted to touch him, to comfort him, but he turned back to face her before she could, his gaze cold and unapologetic. “I took some of her memories, Zoey. It’s what I do.”
Okay. She’d have to learn to live with that as long as some other woman didn’t come looking to steal her man. “Did you see your brother in her memories?”
“No.”
“Then what made you think she was his wife?” She crossed her arms as he pulled into the curved drive of a large, two story brick mansion.
He frowned and stopped the engine. “I don’t. I assumed, because when I tasted her blood, I scented his D.N.A.” He looked straight at her. “My D.N.A. It must be how she found me. It’s the only way anyone could have found me there.”
Right. Twins. He’d said they were twins. But she hadn’t really thought about it before. Identical twins with the same genetic formula, the same dark brooding eyes and gorgeous black hair. Two of them would be very dangerous for the women of this world.
“So, can you use your D.N.A. to find him now? To track him like she did you?” Perhaps, if they could find his brother, Aron would have some help with the Triscani. She didn’t like the idea of fighting them alone. She would. She’d face a battalion of them if that was what Aron needed to do. But she wanted him safe, and whole, and not insane. He needed better help than her.
“I tried.” He slammed his palm against the steering wheel. “But I can’t find him. I did feel him, for a very short time, but now he’s gone. Somehow, they hid him from me.”
“It’s okay.” She scooted next to him in the seat and wrapped her hands around his waist. Squeezed. “Let’s go see this doctor. We can find your brother after you finish your business with him. We’ll look for him together.”
He kissed the top of her head and opened his door. She slid out after him, admiring the body-hugging fit of the camo fatigues she’d borrowed from George on his tight rear end. The dark green cotton stretched snug across his shoulders and emphasized the bulk of his chest and back. He was magnificent. And hers.
Yep. Right there in the doctor’s driveway, she’d decided to keep him.
The home before them was built from deep red brick with giant, two-story windows. The yard was immaculate, covered with perfectly spaced jonquils and trimmed shrubs. It looked like a movie star’s mansion or the set of a television show, or the home of the rich but evil surgeon in some insanely plotted soap opera.
Or maybe Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?
The front doors opened and an older man stood on the threshold. He looked dressed for the office in a suit and tie, perfectly pressed pants and shiny black shoes. Maybe sixty, his eyes crinkled at the corners. Keen intelligence and kindness shined from blue their depths. “Don’t park there. The satellite will be overhead in a few minutes. Pull around back. I’ll meet you in the garage.”
She nodded at Aron and they both got back in the truck. When they were safely parked inside the doctor’s garage, he closed the doors and led them inside his home.
“Sorry about that. My boys can hack the cameras around here and delete your photos, but I wouldn’t be able to get to the Sat photos in time.” He held out his hand. “I’m Doctor Hansen.”
Zoey placed her small hand in his. “Zoey.”
Aron stood behind her, watchful. He didn’t offer his hand, or take his eyes from the doctor while he touched her. The doctor didn’t seem surprised when Aron refused his outstretched palm.
“All right, then. Let’s go chat in the library. The boys tell me the whole house is safe from prying eyes, but I had that room lined with magnetic plates, just in case.” He led them down a long hallway decorated with fine art and crystal. Everything in the home said money, old money. “Here we are. Are you hungry? Or thirsty? Can I offer you some tea or coffee?”
“No thank you, sir.” She smiled at him and took a seat facing the door. She knew Aron would take up residence behind her where he could watch the exits.
The doctor noticed it as well, but said nothing as he closed the door and settled into the antique Victorian chair facing her. Fingers a steeple beneath his chin, he stared at them. “So. Who are you and why are you here?”
Zoey had no idea, so she stared back, and waited.
Aron stepped around her to stand in front of the old man. He held out his hand. “May I?”
The doctor looked up at him. “You are not human.”
“No. I am not.”
“Did one of the Triscani send you to kill me?” The doctor leaned back in his chair. So calm. Waiting to know if he was going to live or die in the next few minutes. Zoey was shocked by his attitude, and convinced that this doctor knew things she didn’t, had seen things she hadn’t. The knowledge was a dark stain behind his eyes.
“I don’t answer to those dogs.”
The disdain in Aron’s voice must have convinced the doctor that he spoke the truth. “Then who are you? How do you know about…? Who sent you here?”
“I got your name from Katherine.”
Zoey watched the wheels turning in the doctor’s mind. Calculating the odds. Eliminating possibilities. He didn’t quite believe Aron, but he wanted to. She could see it in the eager tilt of his shoulders toward her and in his clenched jaw. Hope was bubbling up within the old man, and he fought valiantly to keep it buried. Who was this Katherine to him? Aron said she was his brother’s wife. But if she was the wife of an Itaran, how had she ended up in the Casper Project with this doctor? How well did this Katherine really know this old man?
Doctor Hansen stared at Aron’s outstretched palm. “Are you going to read my mind?”
“Yes. And your memories.” Her lover made no apologies and offered no explanations. “I have to be sure I can trust you before I give you Katherine’s message.”
Well, that was a lie, but she didn’t care. It was a test, and the doctor passed. He placed his hand firmly in Aron’s. “Get on with it, then.”
It was over in seconds. Aron released his hold on the doctor and paced away from them both. She couldn’t see his face, but she sensed his distress through their new bond. The urge to run to him was strong, but he’d turned his back on the doctor, trusting her to protect him, or at the very least warn him if the man made a move. He was Itaran, after all. What harm could an old human man do to him?
She watched the doctor like a hawk anyway, unblinking and prepared to either accept him as an ally or hate him forever. Either way was just fin
e with her. She simply held him pinned with her stare and waited for Aron to speak.
“You are in over your head, Doctor.” Aron turned and sat on the arm of her chair.
“Tell me something I don’t know, son.”
Aron inclined his head, an act of respect. Guess he liked the doctor after all. “Aron of Itara, First Circle, Forbidden Son, House of the Judgment.”
“Holy shit.” The doctor rose and closed the distance between them to take Aron’s hand. “Doctor Jacob Hansen.” He looked to her.
“I’m human, like you. Zoey. Just Zoey.” The doctor shook her hand and sat back down, a stunned look on his face.
“I’ve heard of your kind, Aron. But never met anyone from your world before.” He leaned forward, forearms resting on his knees and one foot tapping nervously against the rug. “Why are you here? Why did you come looking for me? I already spoke to Katherine and Teagh. There’s nothing else I can do for her. The changes are irreversible. I’m sorry. That hasn’t changed.”
“And Ajax?” She had no idea who this Teagh was, but Aron only cared about his brother.
“I’ve never heard of Ajax.”
Aron froze and she placed her hand on his thigh in a show of support. She knew what it was to lose a sibling you loved. She wanted better for Aron, hoped to spare him her pain.
“Doctor, are you sure? I didn’t see him in your memories, but I don’t understand how that’s possible.”
“Yes. All contact at the CP is documented and tracked. I’ve never seen that name at the Project, and I’ve never heard the name myself.”
Aron cursed. “Katherine is his mate. How can you not know who he is? He would never allow her to be around all of you power-hungry mortals without protection.”
The doctor looked apologetic, spread his hands out in a plea for Aron to listen to reason. “Katherine’s mate is Teagh. They call him the Darkwalker Lord. Protector of the Gate. I do not know the name Ajax. I’m sorry. It’s the truth.”
Aron stood. “I did not find his name in your mind, old man. But I did see you take a silver box full of human syringes from one of my kind. I watched you inject what you knew was alien D.N.A., his D.N.A., into Katherine and a human male named Robert.” Power pulsed through the room like a shockwave, rattling the furniture and her teeth. “If you know nothing of my brother, how did you get his D.N.A.?”