by Anna Hackett
He dropped his forehead against hers. “For a smart woman, you don’t learn very fast.”
She touched that terrible bite again, probing gently. “I learn very fast. I’m just not going to let wolves eat the man I want to—” God, what had she been about to blurt out?
Their gazes met.
“Man you what, Lexa?”
Looking away, she tore a strip off her shirt, wadded it up and pressed it against his shoulder to stem the bleeding. “I’m not exactly sure what I want to do with you yet.” Oh, boy, she was a big fat liar.
He pulled her closer, giving her a quick hug. “We both know that isn’t true.”
“Come on, Mr. Malik. Let’s check on Dathan and get you healed up.”
***
Damon let Lexa fuss over him. He saw that tending his wounds with the medscope and medical kit calmed her. She used the medscope on his scratches and bites. She wanted to give him a shot, but the scope eradicated any viruses or sources of infection. He wasn’t letting her stick a needle in him.
She was washing the last of the blood off his chest with a med cloth. “They didn’t set off the deterrent alarm.”
He scowled. “No, they didn’t. That big one leapt on me from behind with no warning.”
The pack had snuck in soundlessly. He pondered how they could have done that. Only one option made sense.
Lexa’s hand smoothing over his chest broke into his thoughts. She moved her fingers up over his shoulder, where there was now no sign of the wolf bite. He watched that slim hand against his skin. It was far too easy to imagine her exploring him, both of them naked, her straddling his body.
“Damon?”
He cleared his throat. “Someone let them in.”
Her gaze darted to where Dathan was calming the still-agitated ballo beasts. One beast had been killed and the other two, while wounded, had survived. “I can’t see Dathan doing this.”
Damon couldn’t either, but he’d learned the hard way that seemingly nice people were capable of doing horrible things. He’d seen child terrorists carry out suicide bombings and smiling old women open fire in crowded places.
Lexa leaned forward and pressed her lips to his healed shoulder. “All better now.” Her voice was thick.
He grabbed her. “Lexa, I’m too old for games. When we get somewhere safe, I want you naked. I’m going to spread your legs, suck on your clit until you come, and then fuck your brains out.”
She quivered, heat flashing in her brown eyes. “A poet, you are not.”
He let his hand travel down her body, his fingers grazing her belly. “No. But I’m honest. I want you under me.”
Her lips twitched. “I like being on top.”
A laugh burst out of him, despite everything they’d been through tonight. “Damn, you are trouble. Fine, we’ll do both.” And a few other positions he knew. God, he’d take her anyway he could.
“I’m worth the trouble,” she whispered.
Oh, he didn’t doubt it.
“Not sure I’m getting paid enough for this job.” Dathan’s voice broke the quiet night as he stomped up to them.
Damon pulled Lexa to his side, his arm across her shoulders. “Someone let the wolves in, kid.”
The treasure hunter nodded, his face troubled. “I know. I found the place where the fence was disabled…from the outside.”
They all turned to scan the dark dunes around them.
“Your father?” Damon asked.
Dathan was quiet for a minute. “I don’t think so. The sad fact is he wouldn’t come all this way. It’s too far from the bar.”
Shit. Damon had hoped to put a face to whoever had tried to kill them. “So, someone else is targeting us?”
“Who?” Lexa asked.
“I’d say someone who wants the egg.” Damon looked up. “We need to get to the crossways…as fast as we can.”
Chapter Nine
The rising sun lit the sky with a pink blush and turned the dark dunes a lovely shade of yellow. Since her ballo beast had been killed by the wolves, she now rode with Damon, sitting in front of him, surrounded by his lean body. His chin rubbed against the top of her head and she smiled. She liked it. If there was one thing Damon Malik inspired, it was a sense of protection and safety. Hmm, well, if she was being honest, he also inspired something else in her—crazy, panty-melting desire.
She snorted mentally. If someone had told her last week that she’d be lusting after Damon Malik, she would have had them declared mentally unfit.
Only a few steps ahead, Dathan looked back at them over his shoulder. The ballos were moving at a fast clip. “Only a couple of miles and we’ll reach the crossways.”
Damon raised a hand in acknowledgment.
They were still in the dry riverbed. The dunes had given way to rocky cliffs here, the sandstone walls pockmarked with caves.
“Look,” Damon murmured in her ear.
She followed where he pointed and for a second, she noticed nothing more than just other caves in the cliff wall. Then she saw it.
An ancient town carved out of the rock, clinging to the side of the cliff.
She gasped. It was amazing. Some of the dwellings were intricately carved, possibly temples. Others were simpler, perhaps houses, and some had been worn away by time. She imagined the people who’d lived there, going about their daily lives, no doubt surviving off the river. Maybe the priestesses had come from the Temple of the Goddess Divine and administered their goddess’ will, given fertility blessings and healed the sick.
“What’s put that look on your face?” he asked.
“I was thinking of the past. Of the people who’d lived here. Maybe the priestesses came here.” When they weren’t tending their temple, guarding their treasure.
Damon was quiet for a moment. His gaze hadn’t lost that sharp, cautious look since they’d set out. “Why history? What drew you to it?”
“I’m not sure. I’d always loved it. My planet never cared much for history. For Econia, it’s all about the pursuit of money and finance.” She wrinkled her nose. “My parents never once talked about the past or history, but I was always insanely curious about where we’d come from. Especially since my brothers and I are so different from our parents. None of us were interested in joining my father and making gazillions more e-creds. Much to my father’s dismay.”
“And your brothers chose law enforcement?”
“Yes. I always thought they’d end up behind bars, not in front of them. Well, maybe not Aston, he’s the most straitlaced of the bunch.”
Damon went very still. “Aston Carter. He’s your brother?”
“Yes.” She detected something in Damon’s voice. “He’s an analyst in the GSS. Do you know him?”
Damon made a choking noise. “I’ve met him a couple of times.”
So at least that confirmed Damon had actually been in the GSS.
“My brothers were always physical and liked to fight for the underdog. I preferred to read stories of our ancestors, and of colonists and adventurers forging across the galaxy, conquering new worlds, meeting new cultures.”
“Sounds like you.”
“I decided on astro-archeology, fought my parents to study it. I thought at first I wanted to be in the field on digs, but my parents refused to approve my attending any training digs. I ended up spending my practical stints in museums.” She grinned. “Luckily, I discovered I liked museums too, and ended up specializing in curation. I love studying the artifacts and displaying them so others can see and learn as well.”
“You do excellent work in the museum.”
His simple, quiet praise made her blink and her chest tighten. “Really?”
“Yeah. Your exhibits are interesting and the crowds love them. Nightmare for security, though.”
She smiled. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her.
A shout from ahead had both their heads snapping forward. Dathan had pulled his beast to a halt and was waving his arm at them.
Dathan pointed down from the top of the small rise where they’d stopped. “Down there. It’s the Confluence.”
Lexa stared down at the junction were the two large riverbeds crossed. There was a huge expanse of sand between the rock walls. The rivers must have been impressive when they’d been swollen with water.
Damon kicked his ballo and they lurched forward. “Come on, Dr. Carter. Let’s see what our adventure has in store for us next.”
“As long as it isn’t more desert wolves, I’ll be happy.”
“Well, whatever it is, remember to keep away from the trouble.”
She poked her tongue out.
“I saw that,” he murmured in a tone that promised payback.
***
As they wandered through the large crossways, Damon found it hard to imagine it filled with water. There wasn’t a lick of moisture here now.
Ahead, Lexa and Dathan were talking, both of them waving their arms around and pointing.
Damon left them to it. He couldn’t see anything but rock and sand, nothing that indicated which direction they should head to find a mythical temple.
As he wandered along behind them, he admired the swing of Lexa’s curved ass. Desire, a hot, hard coil in his gut, flared. He couldn’t wait to explore every inch of her.
Suddenly, that familiar prickling feeling crept over him. He kept walking, his arms relaxed by his sides, but he lifted his gaze to scan the surroundings.
Nothing. No movement. No shadows. No wolves. Nothing that should set off his internal alarm.
He scanned again. The suns were getting damn hot now, sending sweat running down his back. There. A glint of something at the top of one riverbank.
He grabbed his binocs and lifted them, zooming in on the location.
Frustration punched through him. Nothing, dammit.
But that itchy feeling hadn’t gone away.
He headed over to where Lexa stood, her hands on her hips.
“Any luck?” he asked.
Her shoulders slumped. “No. ‘Right path’ is pretty general and there’s nothing here.” She kicked the sand.
“Right path,” he murmured. “Do you think it’s literal? A path to the right?”
They both stared at the dry riverbeds.
She shook her head. “Right based on which direction?”
Yeah, it didn’t help narrow down any path. Lexa wiped an arm across her forehead and sighed. He could tell she was tired, but it was the most dispirited he’d seen her since they’d left the museum.
“Hey.” He cupped her shoulder. “We’ll work it out. You’ve gotten us this far.”
Her lips firmed and she gave a decisive nod. “Everyone split up and look around again. Check the side walls. Maybe there are carvings or markings—something.”
The three of them fanned out. Damon cast another look up to where he’d seen that glint of that reflection, but all he saw was sand.
He searched his area. He looked all along the wall of the riverbed. Dirt, sand, dirt, rock, more sand.
A shout echoed across the crossways. Damon spun, reaching for his pistol.
But it was just Dathan, waving them over to where he stood by the wall on the opposite side of the crossways.
Lexa got there first and was crouched down, looking at something, when Damon reached them.
She looked up. Smiled. “We’ve found a clue!”
There was that look. The one that made him hard in an instant.
She brushed sand and grit off the rock. Damon could just make out faint symbols carved into the rock. She traced a hand over it.
“It’s definitely Orphic.” She traced the last carved symbol. “Their language is so distinct. It’ll take me a bit of time, but I can translate it—”
A loud rumble sounded. A deep reverberation from beneath them. They all froze.
The ground started shaking.
Dathan spun. “What the hell—?”
In the center of the crossways, a giant hole appeared. The sand around them started to swirl around, like a giant drain in a bathtub.
“Sinkhole!” Dathan yelled.
Damon grabbed the rock beside him.
“Damon!”
Lexa’s feet were knocked out from under her. She slid and he lunged for her. His fingers brushed hers but he couldn’t grab her.
“Fuck!”
She skidded a few meters and suddenly jerked to a stop. Dathan had grabbed her ankle. He was holding onto the wall like Damon.
But from the strain on his face, he couldn’t hold on for long. Damon started edging along the rock toward the pair of them. “Hold on!”
But it was too late.
Dathan lost his grip and the sand swept him and Lexa away.
The treasure hunter was shouting, his arms spinning as he tried to climb out of the whirlpool. Lexa screamed.
No, dammit. Damon’s heart was pounding double-time. He tried desperately to grab for Lexa, but she was too far away. He watched, helpless, as she was pulled into the giant sand whirlpool. She tumbled a few times through the sand, headed toward the giant hole in the middle.
Lexa and Dathan both made a wide circle around the center, and then, with one last shout, Dathan was sucked into the hole.
Lexa’s gaze caught Damon’s, so many emotions racing across her face. His fingers dug into the rock and he felt like he had the weight of a starship pressing down on his chest.
With a final scream, she was dragged closer to the hole.
“No!” Fuck this. Damon let go of the rock.
The sand sucked at him, swirling him around, tugging at him. Lexa tipped into the hole.
A few seconds later, he fell in after her, sand streaming over him. “Lexa!”
Chapter Ten
Lexa lifted her head, spitting sand out of her mouth. She lay flat on her belly, and her entire body ached from the bone-jarring landing.
Her hair had come loose and was hanging in her face. She spat out more sand, wiping her mouth, and pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. She swallowed a groan. Her back was aching and…well, there wasn’t anything in her body that wasn’t sore.
She looked up at the hole above her, with a flow of sand still flowing down like a waterfall…or rather, a sandfall. From what she could see in the dim light, she was in some sort of circular cavern with bare stone walls.
Okay, time to move, Lexa. But her muscles were trembling. Maybe she’d just stay here a second longer.
“Lexa?” A warm hand pressed to her lower back.
And just like that, she felt better.
“How did you get down here?” she asked Damon. Last she’d seen, he was holding on to the rocks above.
“Followed you down.” He helped her to her feet, keeping an arm around her. “Looked like a fun ride.”
She stilled, her mind whirling. He’d let go and been engulfed by that sand trap…to follow her? She stared at his lean face. She’d thought him so arrogant and detached when she’d first met him. But now she saw something so, so different.
She leaned forward and kissed him.
Then they both groaned, but not from pleasure. She let out a wry laugh. “Stars, my back hurts.”
“I smacked my knee on the landing. Aggravated an old injury.”
That got her wondering for a moment. Technology these days, especially whatever high-tech stuff the GSS was hiding, could heal just about anything. What had happened to him that still had lingering effects?
Another groan echoed through the cavern. They both swiveled and spotted Dathan half-buried in the sand.
They hurried over and pulled him out. Sand coated his dark hair and his lashes. “Fuck. That was a rough ride.”
Lexa crouched and dusted off his hair. “Are you okay?”
“Feel like I went ten rounds wrestling with a desert lizard, but other than that, I’m peachy.” He stood, then took a longer look at where they were. He whistled. “Who knew this was
just below us? I’ve never heard of a cave system in this area.”
Damon was staring above them at the domed roof. “I don’t think this is natural.”
Lexa wanted more than anything for it to be manmade. But the rock walls were rough and bare, striated with layers of different colored rocks. Not an engraving, carving, or painting to be seen. “But there’s nothing here.” Doubt crept in again. Maybe this had all been a wild-goose chase after impossible dreams, just like her father had told her?
Dathan moved and then bit off a curse, clutching his arm. “Damn.”
It was then Lexa saw the bone protruding from his forearm.
“Shit, kid,” Damon muttered.
“I didn’t feel a thing.” Dathan grimaced. “Starting to hurt now, though.”
“Adrenaline. And dammit, my bag and medscope are still tied to my ballo. Here, I know a little field first aid.” Damon fashioned a sling from Dathan’s shirt. “Not much we can do until we get out of here. Don’t move it or bump it, if you can help it.”
“Roger that.” Dathan looked up. “Ah, speaking of getting out, how are we going to do that?”
“We’ll find a way out,” Damon said, grim determination in his voice.
They searched the rounded walls. Lexa even dug in the sand under their feet to see if she could find a bottom beneath it. Nothing.
The men were both muttering and cursing under their breaths. A huge sense of failure and weariness washed over her. She looked at Damon’s face and imagined those now-healed gouges left by the wolves. She looked at Dathan’s broken arm. They’d been attacked by wolves, sucked into a sand trap, injured, and they’d lost most of their supplies.
She wrapped her arms around herself, all her energy gone. She’d known this treasure hunt wouldn’t be easy, but she’d been naïve enough to not truly consider how dangerous it might be.
Or to realize she might fail.
Oh, her father would love that. Not that he’d gloat or rub her nose in it. He’d just give her that smug look, like he knew best, and she was just foolish for believing differently.
She looked at the blank walls. If the temple and its treasure were out here, the priestesses had hidden it too well, and left too may dangerous traps to stop any treasure hunters finding it.