“Um, yeah. They were at least three hours out and I could get here faster without waiting for them.” Cara whispered the statement, a deep flush rising under her skin to pool in her face.
“Why didn’t you wait for them?” Emma asked in astonishment. “Since neither of us are exactly strong fighters, a sworn enemy of the damn Kurjus would come in handy right now.”
“I know.” Cara sighed. “But Lorcan said he’d start cutting off your body parts if I didn’t hurry.”
“And?” Damn it. Her sister knew her too well.
“And I found a file in Talen’s desk ordering for him to mate and bear sons.” Cara avoided her sister’s eyes by looking around the small, empty room, but only yellowed stone walls and a dirt floor were visible. She just couldn’t go into the whole branding situation yet.
“Oh. So you were pissed?”
Cara nodded.
“And you were hurt?” Emma’s voice softened.
Cara nodded again and blinked back tears.
“Okay, we’ll figure all of that out later. Right now we need to get the heck out of here before some doctor arrives. If Lorcan knows you’ve mated, he’ll try to use the virus on you.”
“You know about it?”
“Yes. The lab I worked at helped develop it, but we thought we were curing genetic diseases. We had no clue the Kurjans even existed. When I found out, I tried to destroy the virus, but it was too late.”
“And they came after you?”
Emma nodded. “Yeah. They knew about me from day one; it was always their plan to ‘acquire me’ after we developed the virus.” She flushed. “And they checked into my background and found out about you and Janie. It’s my fault you’re here.”
“It’s their fault, Em.” Cara closed her eyes and concentrated on reaching Talen. Only static filled her head, and she wondered if whatever had happened earlier had broken their connection. If so, she fervently prayed that the results were temporary.
“Cara, they showed me the tapes of what the virus does to mated women.” Emma’s eyes filled with concern for her sister. “We didn’t know what we were developing.”
“Is there any way to beat the infection?”
“No.”
“What are we going to do?”
Emma didn’t have a chance to answer before the lock clicked and the door shifted open. “Now we run,” Emma said with determination as she rose to her feet and pulled Cara through.
Chapter 32
Cara followed as Emma took a sharp turn down the damp, empty tunnel before starting to jog through the barely lit area.
“Come on,” Emma whispered. “We can’t go back the way you came in—the Kurjans are setting up the main control room by the entrance, and I’m pretty sure I saw a back way out.”
Cara shrugged and increased her pace to keep up, her feet pounding on dirt that swiftly turned to mud as they ventured farther into the dimness lit by faint industrial lights strung every ten feet. It seemed like she’d spent most of her life underground at this point.
She tried again to reach Talen with her mind and only ended up with a dull throb in her temples—damn it, what had he done? A guilty little voice in the back of her aching head whispered he had reacted to her running off to meet his mortal enemy, and his anger was probably justified. Maybe. But that was no reason to short-circuit her brain.
A voice in the darkness ahead froze them in place.
“Matre here, south tunnel is secure,” a deep Kurjan voice wove through the space.
Cara pressed against the stone wall until water dripped down the back of her shirt. “Do you still have the lock pick?”
“Yes.” Emma looked around furtively. “We’ll have to take him out. There isn’t time to get back to the room.”
“I know. He’s probably armed, if we could get him down, I could get the gun.”
“You and your baby stay out of the way,” Emma snapped back. “Duck down.”
They both slipped into a crouch as muffled footsteps echoed through the underground space.
“Go for his neck with the pick.” Cara leaned in close to her sister’s ear. “You have to go for the jugular and decapitate him.”
“I do not want to know how you know that,” Emma replied just as softly.
Water dripping down stone to pool in dirt beat in time with the footsteps coming closer as the sisters crouched in the darkness like angry prey ready to spring. Determination flowed strong and sure between them as they both tensed—Cara saw his feet before Emma and kicked out her leg to trip the soldier who fell with a startled grunt into the mud. Emma leaped forward and plunged the slim metal into his neck just as Cara reached for his glowing green gun. Hissing, the soldier swept out a clawed hand to throw Emma into the nearest wall before bounding to his feet and yanking the bloody weapon out of his flesh.
His teeth glimmered sharp and deadly in the soft light as he moved toward Cara, and with an answering glare, she raised the gun and pulled the trigger, only to have the gun sputter in her hand. With a growl, she focused as hard as she could on an image of the Kurjan’s heart and tried to seize the organ mentally, drawing on any power Talen may have passed to her. The soldier gasped and stumbled, his purple eyes widening on her as she stopped him in his tracks. Then, with a fierce shriek, he shook off her control and started forward again.
Crying out, Cara squeezed the trigger, and this time the weapon fired. The soldier gave a harsh screech as he was thrown back into the stone wall, and Cara kept firing straight at his neck, moving closer, her hands clenching the gun so hard her fingers fought numbness until the Kurjan dropped to the ground. Emma leapt across the tunnel in a blur of motion and grabbed the knife stuck in his belt, while Cara shifted her aim to his head and kept firing.
His flesh split and blood sprayed.
“Plunge the blade into his neck,” she hissed as green fire continued to erupt from the gun.
With a harsh sob, Emma reached forward and stabbed the knife into the Kurjan’s neck and then twisted her head to the side as blood sprayed toward her face. She looked back and tried to yank the knife but to no avail. Cara put the gun in the back of her pants and leaned down with both hands to help her sister, but the blade didn’t move. “Talen made this look easy,” she grunted as she pulled with all of her might. The knife sat immobile in the hard tissue of the soldier’s neck.
“Yet another reason it’d be nice if he were here.” Emma fell back onto her butt. She nodded to the fallen soldier. “Well, he’s unconscious at least—let’s get the hell out of here.” She scrambled to her feet.
Cara nodded, yanked the soldier’s earpiece out, and jumped up to follow her sister at a dead run—who knew how long it would take for the soldier to regain consciousness and pull the knife out of his throat? She tried to reach Talen in her mind as she ran through the now thick mud and dripping ceilings, but soft static crackled where his voice should be. Damn it, he probably couldn’t track her, either.
She and Emma were truly on their own.
The light became even dimmer as they ran, and after a while her calves started to burn as the tunnel shot upward, the slushy mud camouflaging their footsteps until they came to a large stone door. They both reached forward to tug, and it opened with a harsh groan. Light made Cara blink against the pain. She hurried after Emma through the doorway, both of them pushing the door shut with their bodies before looking around a large cave with smooth walls.
Cara’s heart dropped to her knees as she realized the distance to a hole in the roof that was letting in abundant light. “How in the hell …” she asked wearily as nausea sped through her. Gasping, she turned to the stone wall and lost the meager contents of her stomach. Emma rushed forward and held her hair out of her face. “I’m okay,” Cara muttered as she wiped one dirty arm across her mouth.
“No, you’re not,” her sister retorted while looking anxiously about the small cavern. “There’s a type of ladder carved into the rock,” she mused while pointing across the small space.
�
��God Emma”—Cara breathed out while looking up into the now fading light—”that’s at least fifty feet up.”
“I know,” Emma said as she hurried across the room and put her foot into the divot in the otherwise smooth rock. Cara’s heart sped up as her sister reached with a soft grunt and pulled herself up before starting to climb awkwardly hand over foot. She paused about halfway up.
“Are you okay?” Cara called.
“Yeah, just taking a moment,” Emma replied before starting to climb again.
Cara breathed a sigh of relief as Emma made it to the top and pulled herself outside the large hole. Dark hair flew around her bruised face as she peered down at Cara. “We’re in the middle of a forested area—I don’t see any rope or anything. You need to climb up, sis.”
Cara nodded and took a deep breath before placing her foot in the lowest cut. Her hands trembled as she reached into other crevices to balance herself before starting to climb hand over foot up the wall. She ignored her lurching stomach and possible danger to her baby if she fell and concentrated on climbing steadily, calmly up. Before she knew it, Emma helped her into a small clearing surrounded by large pine trees. Thank God. Nature and oxygen. She lay on her back gasping air for a few precious moments until she noticed the thickening black clouds forming right above them, then she rolled to her feet.
Damn it. The Kurjans could venture outside with cloud cover like that. They needed to run.
“Which way do you think?” Emma asked anxiously.
“That way.” Cara pointed to the opposite direction from the underground tunnels. Emma nodded and quickly led the way through two monstrous pines as thunder clapped with fury above them. Cara followed her sister through trees, over deep brush, and alongside rocky hills as lightning flashed bright around them and rain pelted their light shirts and jeans. She gasped and stumbled in the sudden darkness more than once. Finally, her foot caught on a low-lying branch and with a cry, she went sprawling onto her hands and knees on the pebbled earth.
“Cara!” Emma, her dark hair plastered to her wet face, instantly rushed to her side and pulled her to her feet. “Come on,” she yelled over the driving rain and yanked Cara along the rock side to a small opening.
Cara looked around the secluded cave before sliding down one smooth rock wall to sit on the hard, packed dirt. The storm raged outside. She pulled her soaked hair out of her dripping face and shivered until Emma sat beside her and put a gentle arm around her shoulders.
“We’ll ride out the storm and then keep running,” Emma soothed.
“Good plan.” Cara shivered again while her hands and knees ached worse than a compacted tooth. The sensation of huddling with her sister while a monster sought them brought a raw ache to her throat. They’d been here before. “I’ve never thanked you.”
“Hmmm?” Emma murmured, rubbing Cara’s shoulders to warm her up.
“Em. I’ve never thanked you—for saving me from Daddy. For getting hit so I wouldn’t.” She turned her gaze, now blurry with tears, toward her older sister.
Emma breathed out, her own eyes filling with tears. “We saved each other, Car. He would’ve killed me the night with the knife, if you hadn’t charged him.” She tilted her head to rest on Cara’s shoulder. “We survived him—we can survive this.”
They could, and they would. She wondered if she should warn Emma about Dage.
“So”—Emma lifted her head to lean back into the rock—”tell me about this husband of yours.”
“Talen,” the name was a sob on her lips. “He’s big, strong, stubborn as hell …”
Emma laughed. “Sounds perfect for you.”
“Humph.”
“That’s not a word. So, does he love you or not?”
Cara was quiet as she thought about it. As she fought it.
“Come on Cara. Even if we lie to ourselves, we don’t lie to each other.” Familiar blue eyes gave no quarter.
Cara sighed in defeat. “Yes, I think so.”
“So, why did you run?”
“To rescue you,” Cara huffed as she leaned into her sister, fighting a sneeze.
“Humph.”
“That’s not a word,” Cara retorted.
“You ran because you love him, too.” The words sunk in. “Dumbass.”
Cara chuckled. “He’s larger than life, you know? And besides that, he has this power. To manipulate or control the physical actions of other people. I won’t be helpless again, Em.”
Emma sighed deep. “No. You can’t compare him to Daddy—he wasn’t larger than life, Cara. He was small. A very small, mean, pathetic man.” Emma tightened her hold. “It sounds like your Talen is nothing like our father.”
The wind whistled a mournful plea, sending a chilled air inside the cave. “It’s just,” Cara struggled to explain, “he takes over everything, like Daddy did but in a different way, I guess.”
“Is Talen mean?”
The image of Talen carrying a giggling Janie over the threshold of his house filled her mind. “No.”
“Does he hurt you? Or Janie?”
“No.”
Emma snorted. “Geez, Cara. Is Talen one of the good guys or not?”
Cara was silent for a moment. “Yes. He is definitely one of the good guys.” She breathed out heavily. “Though he’s going to be really pissed about this.”
Emma shrugged. “Can’t blame him too much for that.”
“Hey. You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“Always.” Emma was quiet for a moment. “You mentioned vampires have different eyes from us. How did you mean?”
“The color. Talen’s are gold.”
Emma tensed next to her. “Like a metallic gold?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Have you met one with eyes that were, I don’t know, like silver?” Emma’s voice cracked on the end.
Oh crap. Emma knew about Dage. “Um, well, actually yes. A couple of his brothers have silver eyes.”
“And they bite. Like vampires?” Emma turned breathless.
“Yes. I’m taking it you have dreamt of one? Maybe a big, rather dominant one named Dage?” Oh boy, was Em in for a rude awakening. Or Dage was. Maybe both.
“I don’t know his name,” Emma said.
She owed Emma the truth, if for nothing else so she could prepare herself. “Now you do. He thinks he’s your mate.”
“He’s not.” Stubborn pride lit her sister’s face.
“I told him that.” Not that he’d listened, of course.
“Thanks.”
The rain slowed to a drizzle outside as the sisters sat, both lost in their own thoughts. Cara had the sudden need to find her mate. She had been so stupid. He filled her with power, and damn it, they belonged together. Fate or not.
“We’d better get going,” Cara said as she stood to her feet and pulled Emma with her. They moved gingerly out of their safe haven to the now calm rain bathing the earth. Cara turned to her sister just as a strong arm enclosed her neck and lifted her off the ground. She threw her elbows and kicked back until she turned and saw Emma in a similar position, held by a Kurjan soldier off the ground with a glowing gun pressed against her temple, her eyes shooting furious blue sparks as she struggled.
“Hello, sotie,” Lorcan’s voice in her ear chilled her to the bone. “Stop struggling or I’ll have my soldier shoot your sister.” Cara stopped kicking and moved a hand toward her back. “No, no, no,” Lorcan chuckled as he pulled the gun from her waistband and gave her a hard shake. “No more shooting Kurjans, Cara. You’ve shot your limit today.” He leaned in closer to whisper in her ear. “If you fight me, I will give your sister to Matre; you remember the soldier you shot in the tunnel? He’s itching for some payback.” Cara stopped fighting and shook her head in warning at her sister before closing her eyes and trying to manipulate the Kurjan leader’s nervous system. A rough chuckle sounded in her ear.
“You’re not strong enough to influence me, sotie.” With that, he slammed her focused thoughts ba
ck into her own head along with sharp spikes of pain. Cara clenched her eyes shut as the pain webbed through her whole system. Lorcan started running through the forest with her still in his arms while the other soldier carried Emma.
“Cara? Keep your eyes open, mate. I need to see where you’re going.”
“Talen!” She shouted his name in her head, the trees flying by her. Her heart leapt as she realized she could hear him again, and she watched carefully as the forest blurred together until they emerged in a large field outside of an older white farmhouse. They had made it back to the entrance much faster than she and Emma had run away. She kept her eyes wide open as Lorcan walked inside and stomped down several stairs to a big stone door that he kicked open with one boot—then they were in tunnels again. He walked for a few moments before opening a door leading to a familiar room.
“We’ve taken your sister’s lock clip,” Lorcan hissed too close to her ear. “This time you stay put.” He dropped her on her feet and pushed her inside with Emma. “Say your goodbyes.” He slammed the door shut behind him.
Emma slid to the ground with her back against the wall and a sad look of defeat on her classic features. Cara hurried over to sit by her sister and place a comforting arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry, Emma, Talen and his brothers will be here soon.”
“How do you know?” Emma whispered.
“Trust me, I know.” She patted her sister. “He’s in my head, we can communicate that way.” She rolled her eyes. “Not to mention my hip is heating like crazy.”
“Your hip?” Emma asked, turning to face her and raising an eyebrow.
Heat filled Cara’s face. “Um, long story.”
“I believe we have time.” Emma’s lips trembled in a parody of a smile. “What, is it something like old Ms. Tulley’s arthritis—when it rained she could barely walk, remember? Do you have Talen arthritis near your ass?”
Cara snorted. How many times had her sister made her laugh while they huddled, praying for safety? A true gift, that was. “Okay, don’t freak.” The woman should be warned anyway. If Dage got his big old paw anywhere near Emma, her hip would probably ache, too.
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