Or maybe her melancholy had to do with his impending trip into Esria. If anyone knew the dangers he’d face there, it was Tarrys.
“You’re not worrying about me, are you, eaglet? I’ll be fine.”
Her mouth compressed. “I’m concerned, yes. But I believe you’ll succeed anyway.”
He lifted a brow. “Is that a premonition talking? Any good news you want to share with me?”
A glimmer of a smile lit her eyes, and something else. Something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. “I don’t get premonitions.” She slipped the bow on her shoulder with a shrug. “I have no magic. But I’ve watched you and heard the others talk about you. They believe that if anyone can succeed in freeing Princess Ilaria, you will. I agree.”
He nodded slowly, watching her. “Thanks.” But he’d heard her qualifier loud and clear. If anyone could.
There was something else, though he couldn’t put his finger on it. He was getting a vibe from her that was slightly off, making his instincts itchy all of a sudden. Making him restless.
His gaze dropped, skimming the small, perfect proportion of her feminine body, and he had to admit that maybe it wasn’t his instincts so much as his hormones kicking up that had him slightly on edge.
“Do you want to shoot first, or watch me?” Tarrys asked, dropping the handful of arrows into the quiver strapped to her back without looking, as if she’d been doing it all her life. She probably had. The flicker of challenge in her eyes definitely prodded his interest. He relaxed and grinned, not bothering to hide the subtle, surprising attraction he was feeling. “I want to watch you. Definitely want to watch you.”
She met his gaze for the briefest instant before turning away, a hint of color in her cheeks, a small, charming smile on her lips.
Charlie smiled to himself as he followed her across the roof. She was as light-footed and graceful as a dancer and as proud and confident as any trained soldier. He’d never thought about it before—he’d never really spared any thought on the little Marceil at all—but she didn’t cower or grovel as someone who’d been a slave. Probably because her masters had never had to break her spirit in order to control her. When the Esri enchanted a human, they controlled them body and mind. The human never knew what was happening. They never remembered. While the Esri couldn’t take over a Marceil’s mind, they could…and did…enslave their bodies, controlling every action with a thought or a touch.
Reaching the far end of the roof, Tarrys turned and met his gaze. “Do you want me to shoot slowly so you can see what I do, or normal speed?”
Charlie stepped out of her line of fire. “Normal speed. Show me what you’ve got.” He studied her delicate profile as she faced the target, wondering why he’d never noticed how pretty she was. Her features were small—everything about her was small—but perfectly proportioned. Except, perhaps, her eyes, which were just about big enough to drown in. And that lower lip of hers, which was definitely full enough to catch his attention.
He shook his head and pried his gaze from her mouth. Her violet eyes flicked his way, unreadable, whispering of miles of untold depths. What was going on in that head of hers? He’d never before wondered, he realized. Never before noticed the gleam of sharp intelligence.
Too bad he was about to leave for Esria.
Without warning, Tarrys reached over her shoulder for an arrow, nocked and shot it, then reached for a second. He watched in stunned admiration as she fired six arrows in less than six seconds, hitting the target in a perfect line, top to bottom, alternating each arrow high and low.
A whoop of appreciation erupted from his throat. “Hot damn, eaglet. That was brilliant.”
He caught a glimpse of a smile on her mobile mouth before she handed him the bow. “Your turn.”
Charlie laughed. “Yeah, right.”
Her smile bloomed, amused and enchanting, then disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared, as if she were charmed by him and rather wished she weren’t. And wasn’t that an interesting thought? Yes, indeed, he loved a challenge.
“I’ll get the arrows,” she said.
His gaze followed her, watching her slender hips as she ran lightly across the roof. Reluctantly he tore his gaze away from her and focused on the target. A competitor by nature, and feeling a strange desire to impress, he was determined to make a good showing. As good as humanly possible.
Humanly possible, indeed.
Tarrys met him with the arrows and handed him one, not quite meeting his gaze. Charlie took a deep breath, nocked the arrow and drew the bow, then aimed and released. And watched the arrow land at the edge of the middle circle. Not bad, but…
“You’re not holding it right,” Tarrys said softly beside him.
He forced his pride down and met her gaze, seeing no smugness in her expression. “Show me.”
She hesitated a moment, then closed the distance between them. The top of her head barely reached his shoulder as she pushed up the sleeves of her sweater, revealing delicate wrists and a thin, rustic wood bracelet.
“You’re wearing holly,” he said, surprised. Holly was the only thing known to protect humans from Esri enchantment. “I didn’t know it worked on Marceils.”
“I’m not sure it does,” she admitted. “Larsen asked me to wear it anyway, just in case.”
“Good idea.”
Her scent teased his nostrils, sweet and crisp like some kind of exotic, forbidden fruit. But it was the touch of her slender fingers as she adjusted his grip that sent desire flaring sun-bright inside him and blood surging between his legs.
Whoa. This was the little eaglet. The Sitheen’s not-quite-human mascot. But his hormones couldn’t have cared less.
Maybe Harrison was right. Maybe he should take her with him. She was a far better archer than he could ever hope to be. And he was surprisingly attracted to her, which might be kind of fun, if the feeling was mutual. But, no, he needed to move fast and quick and didn’t need to be responsible for anyone, especially a tiny slip of a woman. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to ask her to go back there. She was safe here, and Myrtle relied on her.
Tarrys shifted her hands, bringing the inside of her wrist to rest on the back of his hand. He could feel her pulse racing like a raw recruit’s before his first dive.
Hot damn.
But as his gaze dipped to her mouth, he noted the tenseness of her lips and suddenly wondered if her pulse raced from fear rather than attraction. The thought slammed into him hard. Of course it was fear. She’d been Baleris’s slave, the slave of a rapist and murderer. Being this close to him…to any man…probably terrified her.
Hell.
“Now sight your target, imagine the flight of the arrow, and aim into it as you release.” Her soft words flowed over him, echoing the thread of tension he’d felt in her, confirming his fears.
A pro at compartmentalizing, he forced himself to concentrate on the weapon and target. He pulled back the string and released the arrow. Just shy of a bull’s-eye. Excellent.
“Good,” Tarrys said, a smile in her voice. He could feel her gaze on him and, while he still felt her tension, she hadn’t moved away.
With a grin, he turned to her and found her watching him with a smile, and more, in her eyes. Attraction. So he wasn’t wrong about that. But he wasn’t entirely sure he was wrong about the fear either.
He resisted the temptation to probe deeper and explore this attraction a bit. Rule number one in the Charlie Rand Book of Dating clearly read, Never date a woman you can’t escape. Tarrys lived with a Sitheen. When the relationship was over, there would be no getting away from her. And he owed her too much for her help with Baleris to do that.
There was something about Tarrys that was too innocent, too vulnerable for a casual affair and he didn’t do anything deeper. No. Mutual attraction or not, this woman was a complication with a capital C. Good for a bit of flirtation and nothing more. The kind of woman no sane man went near unless he couldn’t help himself. Unless he’d foolishly fallen
head over heels in love.
And if there was one solid, immutable fact in life, it was this: Charlie Rand didn’t do love.
Chapter 2
“Damn, Rand. You look like an Esri.”
Jack Hallihan shook Charlie’s hand as Jack and his wife, Larsen, joined Charlie a few minutes before midnight in front of the Dupont Circle Fountain. The cop and his wife, two of the small band of Sitheen, each carried a flamethrower, ready to defend the world against the Esri invaders when the gate opened in a few minutes.
“A little bigger than the last time I saw you, aren’t you?” Larsen, an attractive blonde, patted Charlie’s chest. “And lumpier. What in the world are you wearing under that outfit?”
Charlie grinned. The night was clear and brisk, a cold wind stinging his cheeks. He was dressed in the Esrian Royal Guard’s uniform of silver tunic, black silk pants and black cloak. To the naked eye, he hoped to pass for an Esri. But beneath the costume, he was armed.
“Vest, T-shirt, and my gear.” Everything from a first-aid kit to C-4 charges in case he needed to blow something open to reach the princess.
“You ready for this?” Jack asked.
Charlie shook his head. “Hell if I know.” His breath fogged, glowing in the illumination from one of the streetlights. “How do you prepare for the twilight zone?”
He’d feel a hell of a lot better about this op if he could bring his team with him. Most of them were, like him, ex-SEALs. All had extensive special ops training. But he was the only one who had the trace of Esrian blood that made him immune to Esri enchantment. He’d seen Baleris turn the D.C. cops into his own personal army. The thought of an Esri turning his own men against him sent chills all the way to his toes.
Larsen gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Be careful, Charlie. We need you back.”
“I’ll be fine.” He wasn’t sure if he said the words to convince her or himself. “Where’s Tarrys? I thought you were bringing her.”
Larsen glanced to his right. “She stopped to talk to Harrison.”
Charlie turned and saw Tarrys heading toward them. Not the attractive petite who’d stirred his hormones this afternoon, but once more the Marceil slave, complete with gray sacklike slave gown, two bows slung over one shoulder and a pair of quivers on her back.
What the hell?
A growl of frustration rumbled in his throat. Harrison was behind this. His brother was the most controlling son of a bitch on the planet.
And Tarrys was playing his game. He stalked toward her. “I already told you, you’re not coming with me,” he snapped.
Tarrys stopped short, her expression filling with a wariness that bordered on fear.
Charlie caught himself, reining in his temper. “I’m not mad, eaglet. I’m not mad at you, anyway.” He stopped an arm’s length in front of her, glad to see she didn’t back away. Once again, she looked a little otherworldly. Until his gaze dropped to the hand holding the two bows, fingernails painted pink. That pink nail polish reminded him that the woman in the purple sweater and snug jeans was still in there. Her sweet scent wafted over him, heating his blood, driving home the lesson. Even dressed like Friar Tuck she stirred his interest.
She met his gaze without flinching. “You can’t go through the gate alone, Charlie Rand.”
“Yeah, I know that.” Humans didn’t possess the magical genes to get through without an escort from Esria. “But all you have to do is hand me through, right? You don’t actually have to go all the way through yourself.”
“I don’t have to stay, but I have to go through.” Her gaze broke from his and traveled to the mammoth fountain that was the location of the gate into Esria. “I will go first, then come back for you.” Her gaze slowly returned to his. “I would not have you walk into a trap.”
His gut started crawling and he looked at her sharply. “Do you have reason to believe there’s a trap waiting for me?”
Her eyes widened. “No. But as I’ve told you, I don’t have the gift of foreknowledge. If there are Esri in the area, I’ll draw less attention if I’m dressed properly.”
“If there are Esri in the area…” A chill washed over him at the thought. She’d be snatched and enslaved and there’d be no one there to protect her. “Forget it. We’re going through together. If we find Esri waiting for us, we’ll come right back.”
There was something about the little Marceil that brought out his protective instincts. Her size probably had something to do with it. But it was more than that. He’d seen her under the control of Baleris, seen the way she fought against the son of a bitch’s far superior power. And he knew she’d probably suffered serious abuse at the bastard’s hands. No way could he blithely let her go back to that.
She’d take him through the gate and come right back. Nothing more.
“The gate’s open.” Kade’s voice resonated over the park.
Charlie’s pulse leaped as he lifted his flamethrower and ran to take his place with the others. There were five of them guarding the gate tonight, four Sitheen and Kade.
Harrison stood on Charlie’s right. Jack and Larsen had taken up position across the park, on the other side of the fountain. And on Charlie’s left stood Kade, seven feet of hard-muscled immortal. Kade didn’t look Esrian, especially in his jeans and leather jacket. He’d been as surprised as the rest of them when they’d realized he was only half Esri. It turned out that both his parents, born more than fifteen centuries ago, were half human, but Kade had inherited his dad’s dark hair and Caucasian skin and his mom’s immortality. The Sitheen were more than happy to have him on their side.
He’d lived fifteen centuries in Esria until a month ago when he’d stolen through the gate on a mission to destroy the Sitheen and steal back the strongest of the seven stones. When he’d realized the full extent of his king’s evil plans for the human race, he’d discovered he had too much humanity in him to let it happen. It hadn’t hurt that he’d fallen in love with a human—Larsen’s friend, Autumn.
As he stood by the fountain, Charlie saw that the light of the full moon had cast the three life-size statues carved into the fountain’s pedestal into ghostly relief. The statues looked ready to leap naked from the marble.
Charlie settled his flamethrower securely in both hands. Adrenaline pumped through his veins like rocket fuel. Within the next sixty minutes, he’d be walking through that gate himself. But first, he had to help make sure no Esri jumped out.
A chill breeze molded the silk pants against Charlie’s legs and lifted the hem of his borrowed cloak. He was wearing Kade’s uniform from the Esrian Royal Guard. The uniform had been hastily altered to fit his more normal, six-one frame. With any luck, if he did run into Esri he could pass himself off as a mixed blood immortal, like Kade. If they figured out he was mortal, he was dead.
Charlie glanced at the giant. “Any last-minute advice before I go through?”
“Stay away from the Esri,” Kade advised.
Charlie laughed. “Yeah, I figured that much. Anything else?”
“No. Nothing that I haven’t already told you. Other than the Esri, the biggest threat to you are the black trimors, but there’s not a lot you can do about them except hope you don’t cross their paths. You’ll never see them coming.”
“Great.” If there wasn’t anything he could do about them, he wasn’t going to worry about them.
He’d spent all morning with Kade, learning as much as he could about the place—what to eat, what to avoid, like the deadly, cat-like black trimors that remained invisible until the moment of attack. And how to reach the Forest of Nightmares where Princess Ilaria had been held captive for more than three hundred years. Kade knew she was alive. Linked by the magic of their world, all Esri knew the moment one of their own died…and at whose hands. Princess Ilaria still lived.
But rescuing her was going to be a feat of gigantic proportions and Kade could offer no advice. He’d never been in the Forest of Nightmares. No Esri entered those dark woods willingly.
“I wish I could go with you,” Kade said, sounding frustrated.
Charlie couldn’t imagine what the man was feeling. Just last night Kade had killed one of his own men as that Esri forced open the gate a day early and tried to abscond with the seven stones of power that were the keys to the gates…and so much more. Kade had stopped him but at a terrible cost. It was forbidden to end an immortal life, and Kade was now marked for death should he ever return to Esria. The moment he stepped through one of the gates, every Esri would know and be able to track him. They would terminate his existence long before he got anywhere near the Forest of Nightmares.
Now Kade was stuck here and Charlie was going into Esria alone.
Silence settled over the small group as they watched the fountain, waiting. The tension in Charlie’s gut twisted even as adrenaline simmered in his veins. Fifteen minutes. Thirty. Forty-five. Enough.
He stepped forward, breaking the circle. “If they were coming through, they’d have done it by now. I can’t wait any longer.”
One by one, the others left their positions to shake his hand and wish him luck.
Finally, Harrison stepped up to him. Charlie had never gotten along well with his too-serious older brother. But this wasn’t the time for old fights. And he had a sense of what it was costing Harrison to watch him enter the Esrian world. Harrison’s first experience with the Esri had been a nightmare. He’d taken his young kids to the Kennedy Center to see The Lion King and fallen victim to Baleris instead. Baleris had done no more than touch Harrison’s six-year-old daughter, Stephie, for an instant, but the pain he’d launched into her small body had damaged her in ways no doctor could repair. Even Aunt Myrtle, with her gift for healing, hadn’t been able to help her. Months later, the child still remained catatonic and might stay that way for the rest of her life.
Anger flared every time he thought of his little niece, but Charlie knew his anger was nothing compared to his brother’s. Harrison hated the Esri with a depth that was chilling. He wouldn’t deal well with the loss of a second family member to that evil.
A Warrior's Desire (Harlequin Nocturne) Page 2