“What are you doing?”
He looked up at me. “Cleaning.”
“Why?”
He looked around the room. “Well besides the obvious.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure I can manage cleaning.”
“If you were capable of cleaning, it wouldn’t look like this.”
My mouth dropped open. “I told you, I’ve been busy with no time for anything else.”
He snorted. “As you’ve told me.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Nobody told you to come look for me.”
That got his attention, he dropped the clothes he had in his arms and stalked over to me. He had a scowl on his face and I couldn’t help but to take a couple steps back. My back pressed against the wall as he came forward and put his hands on either side of my head caging me in. His voice came out as a growl.
“For four months I’ve wondered if you were dead or alive or living it up somewhere. This isn’t the first time I came looking for you. There have been other times but you never stayed in one place for very long. I was going crazy…I came looking for you because I love you.”
My breath hitched. “You can’t…it’s against the rules.”
“Fuck the rules!” He ground out just before his mouth descended on mine and coaxing me into yet another deep and powerful kiss. This was not good, this was dangerous. He pulled back slightly. “Besides…the rules are a moot point when it comes to you and me.” His lips found mine again as he pressed up against me and I could feel every hard outline of his body. I molded myself to him. After all, aren’t rules meant to be broken?
Chapter 3
I lay in bed wide awake thinking about the man sleeping next to me, his soft snores filled the room filling me with a kind of contemptment. We went to bed twenty minutes ago after we stopped sucking face and it seemed as soon as his head hit the pillow that he was out like a light. It was kind of strange lying in bed with him again after everything that I’ve done in the last four months. Of course that didn’t stop him from snuggling up to me and draping his arm over my side like he wanted to keep me close.
I knew that I should get some sleep but instead, I found myself gently moving his arm off me, careful not to wake him and quietly getting out of bed. I made my way to the living room, grabbed the doorway pull-up bar and put it in the kitchen doorway. I tested the sturdiness of it before I used both hands to pull myself up. With each pull up and chin up my shoulder screamed at me but I pushed on through the pain like I always do.
I still had energy to burn and this was the only way to use it up, well besides the obvious but I wasn’t going to take advantage of a comatose Caden. Shaking my head for where my thoughts wandered, I concentrated on my work-out. The longer I went the harder it got to pull myself up and that wasn’t acceptable. I gritted my teeth and worked harder trying not to make a sound, but the more I kept going, the harder it was to stay quiet. I let out a strangled breath. Caden startled me when I heard his voice and was momentarily blinded when he turned on the light.
“What are you doing?”
I let go of the bar and faced him. “Working out.” I said between breaths.
He raised an eyebrow. “In the dark?”
Nodding my head. “It’s comforting.” I grabbed a hand towel that was close by and wiped off the sweat that was running down my face. His eyes watched me closely and it was kind of nerve wracking. The wariness faded from his face and he crossed his arms over his greatly defined bare chest. Literally bare, there was no hair on his chest, you would think there would be for him being a panther shifter and all, but nope, it was as smooth as…not sure what, let’s just keep it at smooth.
I threw down the towel and took the bar down from the kitchen doorway. Caden was still looking at me oddly when I turned around. I propped my hands on my hips and glared.
“What?”
He smirked at my tone as a thoughtful look crossed his face. “Let’s fight.”
“What!” I squeaked.
He chuckled. “Not real fighting…kind of like sparring.”
I thought about it for a minute. “Okay.”
He seemed a little surprised as my answer. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright then…let’s go.” He headed for the door.
“Um…where are we going?”
He glanced at me over his shoulder. “The basement.”
The basement? Of course this hotel had a basement, why wouldn’t a place like this have a creepy, dark basement? I hesitated before following him. Throw me into a nest of killer assassins and I’m all for it, but going into a basement makes my skin crawl.
I didn’t say anything as we walked out of my room. I thought that we would take the elevator but nope, he walked right past it and headed towards the stairs. Well, I did say that I had some pent up energy to burn. We walked down the stairs in silence, the only noise there was was our bare feet lightly slapping against the cold hard steps echoing around us. The farther we went, the colder it got.
If I would have thought about it,I would have put on shoes and a t-shirt instead of being in a tank top and bare footed. It’s too late to turn back now. More silence and a few more flights of stairs later we stopped in front of a door that read in red lettersBASEMENT-NO ACCESS GRANTED. I gave Caden a look that said seriously. He shrugged his shoulders and pushed through the door with me right behind him. His hand felt along the wall until he found a light switch and flipped it on.
Light filled the room to reveal washed out grey walls and puke green flooring. Small windows were smack dab in the middle of each wall indicating that it was still dark out. A person couldn’t fit through those windows, not unless they were a tiny baby. White pipes zig-zagged above our heads though out the whole basement. I was surprised to see a lonely brown chair pushed in a corner to my right. On each side of the room there were tall, silver circular things that went from floor to ceiling and I think they are called pillars. What they are used for, I had no clue. Nothing in this basement matched. You would think that a hotel like this would have a better looking basement. Nope, it was gaudy as fuck.
I wrinkled my nose and turned slightly to face Caden and my mouth damn near dropped open. He was stretching his arms out behind his back making his chest puff out. Did he forget that he didn’t have a shirt on? Oh well, more viewing pleasure for me.
He walked to the center of the room and faced me. His legs were braced apart and he held up his hands in a defensive motion. I rolled my neck on my shoulders to loosen up the muscles before I stepped forward. He smirked at me when I got in a fighting stance. “Let’s see what you’ve learned love.” He struck out at me with his fist and I deflected the blow.
We went back and forth like that for a while and I was beginning to get bored. One of his kicks got past my block and connected with my stomach making me double over. I straightened up and smiled at him. “Now we’re talking.” Our hits became faster and harder. I did a roundabout kick catching him in the side.
His arm clamped down on my ankle and I could tell from the look in his eyes that he thought he had me. Using his arm as some sort of leverage, I jumped up and twisted my body bringing out my free leg and catching him on the side of the head with my foot. I could tell that he wasn’t expecting it.
We both fell to the hard floor, he landed on his side while I landed on my stomach. I should have known that he would collect himself faster than I would have. I barely flipped over when I felt his hand on my throat pushing me back down. I was too surprised to think. Not only that, but his body was aligned perfectly with mine. With his hand around my throat and with his body weight on top of me, I couldn’t form a coherent thought. He looked down at me with smiling eyes.
“Not bad love.”
“Thanks…can you get off me now?”
His breath froze in his throat with that realization. I saw something else flash in the depths of his eyes, but it was gone just as quickly. I could see that he was aware of me under him, but yet, he m
ade no move to get off me. I opened my mouth to say something else only to be silenced by his mouth clashing with mine.
Chapter 4
My hand slowly made its way up his muscular arms, over his shoulder and came to a stop on the back of his neck. He was no longer holding onto my throat, his hand rested light on the side of my neck and slowly made its way to the back. His fingers lightly curled around the nap of my neck and brought me closer, if that was even possible. I made a sound in the back of my throat that triggered his own animalistic growl.
It seemed to take a lot for him to pull away and when he did, we were both breathless. He rested his forehead against mine for several seconds before getting up and pulling me along with him. He ran his fingers through his hair.
“We should head back to the room and get some sleep.”
Sleeping was the last thing on my mind. “Okay.” I breathed. He laced his fingers through mine and together we left the basement and headed back to my room. We glanced at each other a few times but didn’t say anything thing. My mind was still on that kiss and all I wanted to do now was get some much needed rest and go out and kick some assassin ass.
Fighting seems like the only action that I’ll be getting and I wanted to be well rested for it. When we got to the room I took a semi cold shower (god only knows I needed one) and changed into my sleeping shirt. Caden was already under the covers half asleep when I crawled into the bed. It didn’t take long for me to fall asleep.
The next morning my eyes popped open. Light filled the room making lines of light on the bed and the floor from the crappy blinds that covered the windows. Caden was still snoring softly next to me. Apparently he didn’t feel that little tingle that I did whenever I was being watched.
I quickly rolled out of bed and opened the bedside table and pulled out a dagger with a light blue handle. I tip toed out of the room surveying the area around me. My eyes landed on someone hunched over the coffee table. Their arms were moving so I thought whoever it was was leafing through the papers.
I launched myself over the couch and put my dagger to the person’s throat. She let out a high pitched scream and dropped the cleaning supplies that she was holding. I removed the dagger from her throat and stepped away just as Caden came running out with wide eyes. He looked ready to invade a pack of hungry lions.
The woman looked like she was ready to pass out and kept a safe distance from me. I tried to apologize. “I’m so sorry…I thought you were someone else.” She kept shaking her head while gathering up her supplies as quickly as she could. Hell, if that was me I’d say screw the cleaning stuff and run out the door screaming my head off.
All the while Caden stood on the other side of the room with an amused look on his face. I was half tempted to walk over to him and slap the look off his face. After the cleaning lady left in a hurry without looking back, I sat on the couch with my head in my hands. I felt a jolt of embarrassment. Caden knelt down in front of me prying the dagger from my hand and setting it on the table. He brushed my hair away from my eyes.
“It happens to the best of us.”
I gave him a bland look. “I seriously thought it was someone else.”
“Like who?”
“Seriously…do you have to ask that?”
“Cora, maybe you should take a break on hunting the assassins.”
I jumped up from the couch almost, knocking him over. “Are you freaking crazy?”
“Cora.” He pleaded.
“No Caden…I have to do this.”
He stood swiftly. “Why, why does it have to be you?”
I threw my hands up and let out a frustrated breath. “I don’t see how you can even ask that after everything that’s happened! Those bastards killed my parents, killed Carla and all those people at that stupid supposed safe haven and all you can say is why!” I tried to calm myself down but I could already start to feel the fire rising up. “They killed your parents too…I have to stop them.”
Caden looked at me wearily. “Okay…but I’m helping…you can’t get rid of me this time, we are in this together.”
I shouldn’t have been shocked but well, my face told a different story. Caden chuckled as he walked back to the room to grab what I was assuming was a shirt. After he came back out fully clothed and once we were strapped down with weapons, we headed out the door. I should probably tell him that the assassins don’t usually come out until later but I kept my mouth shut. After all, this is a dangerous world we live in and you’ll never know what’s lurking around the corner.
Chapter 5
We stepped out into a brightly lit day and I could already start to feel my hair start to frizz. The day was hot and humid with clear blue skies and puffy white clouds. Horns honked in the distance and smells of food from different carts made my stomach growl. I could go for a chocolate covered donut and a nice big cup of coffee. Ah coffee, the most important beverage of the day, its fuel for the mind and body.
I left Caden by the hotel doors so that I could get a cup of coffee from the coffee cart across the street. I think the name on the cart said Coffee Croozer. I laughed softly to myself at the name. The man behind the portable coffee shop looked to be middle aged and gave me a warm smile as I stepped up to look at the beverage menu. I couldn’t decide if I wanted a caramel flavored coffee or a chocolate flavored one. Hm…decisions decisions.
I was about to tell him what I wanted when his eyes about bugged out of his head. On one of the silver bars on the cart, I saw a reflection of a person raising their fist about ready to cold-clock me. I ducked just as he swung. As I ducked I spun around on the balls of my feet and swiped out my leg. My foot connected with his ankle knocking him to the ground. He fell with an oomph sound. I was too fast for him and was already straddling him with a dagger at his throat before he even knew what was happening.
Some people screamed and ran while others watched. It took me a minute to realize that it was the teenaged assassin from the night before. He looked up at me with wide frightened eyes but there was no way I was going to remove the dagger from his throat.
Shouldn’t these guys know by now not to come at me unless they were in a group? I mean yeah, you get the stupid few like this one that try and come at me on their own. Tipping my head to the side. “Who are you?” He didn’t answer so I pressed the blade harder into his neck. “What’s your name?”
“K-K-Kevin.” He stammered.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “How old are you?”
He didn’t hesitate this time. “Fifteen.”
“Cora?” I looked up at the sound of my name. “What’s going on?”
I stood up pulling Kevin along with me. “He tried to punch me.”
“I got your attention though.” I glared at him and he shut up and looked at the ground. Caden looked at the all black clothes the kid was wearing and a surprised look crossed his face.
“He’s an assassin.”
I snorted. “Not a very good one.”
“Nonetheless. We should probably take him to the basement.”
Oh good grief. “Fine, you take him there and I’ll be right behind you.”
Caden grabbed ahold of the kids arm and practically dragged him across the street. I watched as they disappeared around the side of the hotel before I looked back at the middle aged guy. “Caramel coffee please.” His hands shook as he filled my order, causing the coffee to spill over the edge and over his hand. I dropped a five on the cart and crossed the street. There was no way that I wasn’t going to drink any coffee, plus put a kid in the mix…yeah I’m going to need it.
People seemed to move out of my way quicker and I couldn’t help but to smile to myself as I took a sip of the steamy liquid. Mm-mm, it was like bliss on my taste buds, smooth like black silk as it glided down my throat. Now this is what I call heaven. Who knew that a portable coffee shop would have such amazing coffee?
By the time I reached the basement door my cup was half empty. I decided to stay outside a few seconds longer to finish my
drink, it kind of sucks that I didn’t get the chocolate covered donut, oh well, I’ll get one later. Dropping the cup in the trash bin next to the door, I pulled the door open and walked in. A click echoed through the room indicating the door locking behind me. I walked in a-ways and came to a stop.
The Kevin kid was literally tied to the gaudy looking chair and Caden stood a few feet away from the kid with his hands propped on his hips. That was an odd, but funny position for him to be standing in, that pose was so not for him because it didn’t look right when he did it. His type of pose would be him leaning his shoulder against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest and his ankles crossed.
Mentally shaking myself to the present, I walked over and kneeled down in front of Kevin so that we were somewhat at eye level.
“Why did you attack during the day?”
He hesitated. “To get your attention.”
I looked at him thoughtfully. “Well…now you have it.”
“Can you, uh, untie me?”
I gave him an amused look. “Let me think…um…no.”
He semi shrugged. “You might want to after you hear what I have to say.”
Caden spoke up just then. “Very doubtful kid.”
He gave Caden a knowing look. “Oh…you will.”
They went back and forth for a few more minutes throwing insults at each other. “Okay, Caden knock it off.” I turned back to Kevin. “And you, stop dancing around the subject and start talking.”
Kevin swallowed nervously and wouldn’t meet our eyes when he began talking. With each word he spoke, they came out shaky.
“I saw what you did to the man I was with the night before. I know the assassins aren’t supposed to show fear or be afraid. But that night I was afraid, not because of what you’re capable of, but of you personally. I wasn’t born into the assassin ranks, I was abandoned when I was a kid and these people took me in. That’s when I learned all about the guardians and shifters. In all honesty, the shifters don’t seem so bad. I don’t want to be on the losing side anymore.” He looked at me full on. “The two of you can make a change, but with me…I can help make that happen.”
Guardians Of The Shifters Page 10