by Mina Carter
Groaning, she dragged the pillow over her head. Perhaps if she kept her eyes shut she could escape back into dreamland and re-join her phantom lover. Her gorgeous, sexy, phantom lover, the sort of lover she had no chance of attracting in this lifetime or the next. Not dull, plain little Lyssa the null.
There was movement on the bed next to her, and a hair-roughened calf slid against hers. Under the pillow, her eyes snapped open. There was someone in the bed with her.
She snatched the pillow from her face and looked around with wide eyes. Hawk lay stretched out full length beside her, his arms folded behind his head, and his chin covered with the dark stubble of morning.
Her eyes widened even farther. It hadn’t been a dream at all. They really had done all those things. Hot and cold washed over her skin, her body coming to life again at the memory.
In his light doze, Hawk felt the slight movement of the bed and the stirring of the witching around them as it, too, became aware she was awake.
A deep sense of contentment filled him. He hadn’t felt this good for a long time, not deep down good like he did now. All the aches and pains he’d accumulated over the years had disappeared overnight. Washed away as he wallowed in the frenzy she’d whipped the witching into. That was the thing about Earth Wardens. There were benefits to having sex with one. Unless the magic was channeled into some sort of ritual or ceremony, the healing energy was up for grabs, and last night his weary body had lapped it up.
He felt the weight of her interest on him and cracked an eyelid. Wide violet eyes considered him from over the edge of a pillow. Beautiful violet eyes. Eyes Hawk remembered darkened with pleasure last night. His body stirred, instantly awake as he rolled over to wrap an arm around her and drag her into his side, pillow and all. He wanted her again.
“Morning, beautiful,” he murmured, pushing the pillow aside and rubbing his nose gently against hers. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d awoken so content and pain free. It was a nice feeling.
Don’t get used to it, he told himself firmly. You’ll be out of here before the day’s done. Which was true. All he had to do was get Lyssa to a safe place and he was gone. She was Warden-born, so she was sure to have some family kicking about somewhere who would take her in and look after her. Protect her from those maniac Wardens who were trying to kill her.
That was the bit that didn’t make sense to him. Why try to kill an Earth Warden? They were rare enough that for a Haven to have one was a huge status symbol. Most Havens tried to cultivate them. Yet, hers hadn’t recognized her as an Earth Warden and was trying to kill her? It was all too odd and something Hawk really didn’t want to get into.
He was a Warrior. He killed things that needed killing, protected the average Joe-human, and left the politics to other people. It was a win-win formula and one he didn’t intend to change any time soon.
She closed her eyes in response to his caress and lifted her lips in silent invitation. An invitation Hawk couldn’t, nor intended to, resist. He murmured low in his throat, a sound of pleasure, and took her lips in a long, slow kiss that fanned the embers of passion burning in his gut back into full flame.
He rolled onto his back and took her with him, his hands sliding through the silken fall of her hair so he could explore her lips at his leisure. An unhurried exploration as he pulled her closer, his free hand trailing down her soft curves as he prepared for a re-run of the night before. Although he was fully healed and well rested, it was as though he couldn’t get enough. There was something about her that affected him on a primal level. A level that needed to claim and possess her. A level that railed at the idea of letting her go later.
“Warrior, we know you’re in there. Give up the girl and we’ll let you live.”
Lyssa stilled at the harsh shout, fear cascading through her like a cold waterfall. They were here. The Wardens had found them. Hawk lifted his head, his blue eyes sharp as he listened. Wrapped in his arms and still naked beneath the sheet, she held her breath. Was he about to give her up to the Wardens outside?
She met his eyes hesitantly, aware of the fear filling them but unable to hide it. If he handed her over then, she was dead. No ifs, buts or maybes about it. She was deader than a dodo. The attack in the alley and that overheard conversation made that as plain as day.
Dimly, she wondered why they hadn’t just barged in. After all, it wasn’t as if one warrior and a null were much of a challenge for a group of magical assassins, even if they were only in training, and that door wouldn’t hold out very long against a determined physical assault.
“Warrior! We know you’re in there.”
Hawk looked down at her, and their eyes met for a long second in silence.
“You should take their offer,” she said finally, biting her lip. The backs of her eyes prickled with hot tears as she realized there was no way out of this. Not for her, anyway. But she was determined not to take him down too. They only wanted her; they’d made that clear. He could still walk away from this.
Hawk’s lip curled back, a look of disgust entering his eyes. “You expect me to just hand you over to them, knowing they’ll kill you? What sort of man do you think I am?”
“They’ll kill us both if you don’t.”
Hawk snorted. “They can fucking try.”
He smiled, a feral expression that transformed his features and proved that at least some of the blood that flowed through his veins wasn’t human.
“I’m hard to kill, and I get pissed off when people try. About time our friends out there found that out.”
Dropping a quick kiss on her lips, he rolled off the bed and scooped his pants up off the floor. Although she knew she should be moving already, she couldn’t help but watch him. He moved so gracefully, each movement of his body filled with lethal grace.
A body which was marked by violence. Scars covered his back, all old and well healed, but each spoke of the violent life Warriors led...fighting the nastier things that went bump in the night, keeping humans—and the magically useless like her—safe.
Three marks on his side caught her attention as he bent at the waist to pull the pants on then started to button them up. He went commando. If she wasn’t so distracted, she’d have commented on that. But as it was...those scars looked suspiciously like the claw marks he’d had last night. But no one could heal that quickly, could they?
She reached out and ran a hand down his side, using the pads of her fingers to trace the lines of the scars. “Are these the cuts from last night?”
Hawk twisted to look over his shoulder, and then he grunted.
“Uh, yeah, guess so. Get up,” he ordered, recovering his T-shirt from the lampshade. “We need to move. When that lot out there don’t get an answer, they’re going to come crashing through that door. We need to not be here when they do.”
Lyssa gaped at him for a moment then slid off the bed as he made irritated little shooing motions with his hands. Locating her clothes, she rapidly started to dress.
“Okay, Mr. Clever Dick, just one question,” she dragged her T-shirt over her head and flicked her hair back, hoping to god she didn’t look too much like she’d been dragged through a hedge backward. “Just how do you plan on doing that? Wave your hands, say abracadabra, and we disappear in a puff of smoke?” she asked sarcastically, trying not to ogle his body as he strapped on enough weaponry for a small army. “Do you really need all that?”
“Do women really need the crap you clutter your makeup cases with?” he shot back, sliding a small knife into a sheath on his thigh. “Yes, I really need all this. They’ve all got different wards on them for killing different critters and no, I don’t plan on any abracadabra. Unless it’s the sort which accompanies a swift exit through the bathroom window.”
His teeth flashed white in a grin at her surprised look. “What, you think I’d get caught anywhere without an escape route?”
He tsked as he pulled his jacket on, covering most of the weapons, then bent down and scooped her bag up t
o throw it toward her. It landed on the bed and bounced slightly. “Come on, we’re leaving. Now.”
“You always this bossy?” she complained as she shoved her feet into her shoes. As much as she was arguing, she wasn’t slow to follow him as he headed for the small bathroom. There was no way she wanted to be left on her own in here when those Wardens got in.
She scuttled through the doorway to find Hawk opening the window. The impossibly small window.
“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me.” Why had she not noticed last night how small it was? There was no way she’d fit through it, never mind Hawk. He was easily twice her size.
He caught her look and grinned again. Lyssa blew out a breath of frustration. Damn the man, he actually seemed to be enjoying himself here. “There’s a technique to it. Watch.”
There was indeed a technique to it, but if asked later she wouldn't have been able to say what. First off, all her attention was hijacked by the sight of Hawk's firm, toned butt waving in the air in front of her, and then she was too busy being pushed and pulled about as he literally pulled her through the window to join him on the metal fire escape outside.
“Come on, we don't have much time before they realize,” he said, his voice the merest whisper in her ear. “And I want to be long gone before they do.”
She nodded and followed him down the steps, trying to be as quiet as she could. But whereas Hawk's footsteps were nearly silent—the man himself little more than a dark shadow moving in front of her—hers sounded as if a herd of tap-dancing elephants were clattering down the steps.
In front of her, Hawk paused and sighed, the curve of his jaw visible as he looked over his shoulder. “Can you be any louder?” he asked, exasperation clear in his voice.
“It's not my fault,” Lyssa whispered back, feeling herself go hot with embarrassment. So she wasn't the most graceful of women, on top of everything else she didn't need that pointing out as well. “These steps are noisy.”
“Sure, the steps. Right.”
“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, you know?”
“So people keep telling me,” he replied, his teeth flashing in an unrepentant grin. “Still doesn’t explain how you can be half the size of me and make twi—”
“Here! Over here, they’re on the fire escape!”
A shout sounded behind them as they reached the bottom of the steps. She gasped, her breath catching as fear raced through her again.
“Move. Now.” Hawk grabbed the back of her jacket and hauled her along at a dead run beside him. It was all Lyssa could do to keep her feet under her as he dodged and weaved between the cars in the parking lot, heading for the industrial buildings on the other side as fireballs exploded around them.
They ducked down the side of an all-terrain vehicle to dodge one, only to have another hit the truck head on. She screamed and ducked as it exploded, glass flying everywhere. They weren’t going to get out of this. There were too many Wardens and, fast as Hawk might be, there was no way they could dodge everything. Sooner or later someone would get lucky, and they’d be a double order of crispy duck.
“You have to leave me,” she told him, yelling over the sound of another explosion as they scuttled between the cars, bending low to stay out of the line of fire. “They only want me. You can get out of here.”
Hawk turned, fury in his eyes as he grabbed her and pulled her close. “Listen to me. I am not going to leave you. No one dies on my watch, understand?” He glared at her until she nodded, her heart in her throat and eyes wide.
“Good.” He relented a little, releasing his hold and smoothed down the bunched fabric at the neck of her jacket.
“We just need to get into that estate there. If I can get them to come at me one on one, in a bottleneck, there’s no way they can take us.” He nodded toward the nearest alley. Between two factory buildings it was covered over and, from the butts decorating the ground, used by the workforce smokers. “On three, make for that, I’ll be right behind you. Okay?”
Lyssa nodded her head, locking her fear away. She could do this, she had to do this. There was no other option. She had to trust they would get out of this, had to trust Hawk would get them out.
Flicking a glance sideways, she studied the man crouched at her side. He wore a determined frown, his sharp eyes noting the positions of the Wardens around them. She didn’t bother; she already knew they would be arranged. Like all magic, there was a pattern to these things, and they would set themselves up in the best configuration to channel the witching through the ley-lines.
And there seemed to be a lot of those about here. She frowned and held her hand over the ground, palm down, as she concentrated. She was a null, yes, but she’d always been sensitive to magic. She knew where to set a circle for the best draw on the witching, or for maximum protection, she just couldn’t power the damn things.
She yelped as the power rose, sharp and immediate to bite at her fingers like an over-eager terrier. “Bloody hell!”
“What? What’s the matter? Are you hurt?” Instantly Hawk was by her side, his face anxious as he checked her over.
A chuckle startled out of her as she slapped his hands away. “Gettoffme I’m fine you big lummox. Just got a belt from a ley-line. They’re strong around here, never felt one that powerful before.”
She frowned, shaking the last of the sting out of her fingers. She looked up and smiled. It was a reassuring smile, or tried to be. They were both rumpled, stressed, and running for their lives. So why did the look of worry in his eyes strike her to the core?
“I’m fine, so come on. We need to move before they manage to barbeque us properly.”
Hawk smiled. Not an expression she’d seen before. At least, not this one where his eyes were warm with something she didn’t want to name, and the tiny creases in the corners of his eyes crinkled. He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “So we should...three.”
He launched himself into movement, hauling her to her feet and shoving her ahead of him. She squeaked once but then saved her breath for running, hearing Hawk pounding concrete behind her as she raced for the alleyway. Fire erupted around them as the Wardens shouted their battle cries and did their level best to make sure neither Lyssa nor the Warrior behind her made it to their objective alive.
“Keep going,” Hawk yelled as she thundered into the alleyway and started to slow. “Far as you can.”
There was the sound of steel being drawn behind her, and she risked a glance over her shoulder. Hawk stood in the center of the alleyway, blades in both his hands as he prepared to take on the Wardens who followed them. From the grim look on his face, she almost felt sorry for them. Almost. Her lungs burned as she burst out the end of the alley and into a small courtyard between the buildings.
She wasn’t alone.
Her eyes widened as she skidded to a halt in front of another group of Wardens. But these weren’t Wardens in training. No, these Wardens were something far more powerful and dangerous. These wore the plain clothes of the Haven-master’s personal guard and, in the middle of them stood the Master himself.
“Hello, Lyssa. A merry little dance you’ve led us, haven’t you?”
Chapter Nine
“Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me.”
Lyssa's voice was full of disbelief as she looked about the semi-circle facing her. Forget the group behind her that Hawk was valiantly fending off—or making mincemeat of if the sounds coming from the alley were any indication—the real danger was right here in front of her.
Her gaze flicked along the line of silent, grey-shrouded figures. Again, she had a name to go with every face. But these weren't kids. These weren't Second Sigil wardens with their eyes on the elaborate triple swirl of mastery. These were full-on battle-Wardens. Masters in their own right but in service to the Haven-master—the guy who led the whole magical shooting match in this area.
The fear trickling down her spine slowed to an icy crawl. She couldn't out-run them—there was nowhe
re left to run. She couldn't fight them—the null against the Masters? A snort escaped her. She was mad to even consider it as an option.
And even Hawk's weaponry would be useless against them, she realized as the warrior emerged from the alleyway at a run, skidding to a halt exactly as she had done.
“You've gotta...”
“...be kidding me.” She finished the sentence for him, unable to help the small smile pulling at the corners of her lips. “Yeah, we did that part already.”
Hawk wasn't even half as amused as she was though, his face grim as he stepped in front of her and raised the blades in his hands.
“Can't you lot take a fucking hint and back off?” he snarled. “I'll take on all of you if I have to, and carve you up into chunks even your mothers wouldn't recognize.”
“Ahh, the valiant Warrior and the last piece in the puzzle,” the figure in red drawled. His voice was smug and condescending, the tone making Lyssa's flesh want to crawl off her bones and go hide somewhere safe.
Pulling the deep hood back from his face, he smiled at them. If anything, that made things worse. A kindly looking man, he could have been anyone's uncle, father, or even grandfather—if not for that smile.
A smile that was all wrong. It didn't reach his eyes, or at the least, it wasn't amusement or kindness that lit them. It was something darker and more dangerous. Something oily and unpalatable, evil even, which made her feel as if she needed a month-long shower just from him looking at her.
“Good to know I'm not losing my touch. You can put those toys down, young man. I assure you, crude blades will have no effect on us.”
Hawk snarled. Within a heartbeat, he had a throwing knife in his hand, the movement so quick it made Lyssa blink. “We'll see about that.”
The knife shot through the air, right on target to hit the red-robed master. Lyssa caught her breath, hardly daring to believe what Hawk had done, and hardly daring to hope it would work. It couldn't be that easy, surely?