“What the ever-loving fuck?” Jas said in a horrified whisper that had her slowing the vehicle down.
“No, don’t stop. Go!” Jasmine yelled, but her gaze was locked behind them.
Nickie tried to see what had Jasmine so freaked out, but all she glimpsed was a blurry streak in the sky in her side mirror. With renewed determination, she stepped on the gas, making them both lurch at the sudden acceleration. They were only a few miles from the paved road that would take them to the interstate. Civilization was still hours away, but at least it was maintained, and they’d be able to get some real distance between them and the nidhogg, whatever that was.
They’d almost made it to the intersection when two trucks barrelled onto the dirt road, kicking up dust, obliterating her view of the stop sign ahead. The one at the back fishtailed in the loose gravel. Damn it. They were probably kids whose parents had more money than sense, and they were heading straight into trouble.
Nickie slammed on the brakes.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Jasmine asked. “We can’t stop.”
Nickie released her seatbelt. “So, we should just let them die?” she asked, her hand sweeping toward the trucks closing the distance between them. Before Jasmine could say anything else, she opened her door and hopped out, swinging her arms in the air to gain their attention before they tore past them.
For a second, she didn’t think they’d stop, but with a flurry of dust, the truck skidded to a halt only feet from her. An enormous man, bigger than any she’d seen—other than Zenon—dropped from the elevated cab.
He had to be at least six feet tall. Wide shoulders. With muscles bulging all over him, he could snap her in two if he wanted to. Nope, these weren’t kids out hot-rodding, that was for damned sure. A knot formed in her gut. She should have kept driving. The roiling clouds in the sky back from where they’d come were lighter than they had been but still there.
“What are you doing out here?” he demanded more than asked. He gave her a quick once-over, then, apparently deeming her unimportant, opened her back door and peered inside at their gear.
“Hey, what are you doing?” she asked, putting as much confidence and power as she could into her voice. If she’d have had any hope of stopping him, she would have. But the guy was seriously huge.
He didn’t look at her. Another man came around the vehicle and pulled Jasmine from where she’d been already exiting the vehicle, no doubt coming to her rescue. “Don’t you fucking touch me,” she yelled at the guy, but the man ignored her, hoisting her off her feet.
“I asked you a question. What are you doing out here?” the first guy asked with a cold, hard stare that left her reeling. His black T-shirt strained against his chest as he flexed, trying to intimidate, but what the asshole didn’t know was that she wasn’t easily frightened. She’d dealt with bullies before and lived to tell the tale. But they were in the middle of nowhere. Any weapons they had were stowed in the back of the SUV, and they were outnumbered. She wasn’t about to poke the proverbial bear. She wasn’t that stupid.
“Hands off, buddy,” Jasmine screamed as she struggled against the guy who carried her to where Nickie was and deposited her none too gently next to her. “We were just going to find a spot to go camping for the night, but there’s a wicked storm happening back there, so we turned around. Must be a sandstorm or something. Clouds don’t look so bad from here, but up a few miles, and it’s scary powerful,” Jasmine said.
Nickie could have kissed her friend. The vibes coming off those men were dark and slimy. Whatever they were doing out there, it was nothing good, she was certain of it. “Yeah, I wouldn’t go that way if I were you,” Nickie added.
Another car door slammed, and a man dressed in army fatigues and hefting a gun she probably couldn’t even lift stalked over, scowling at them all. “What the fuck is the holdup?” he snarled.
“Woah. Hey. Calm down there, big boy,” Nickie said, taking a step back. “We don’t want any trouble.”
The one with the gun came so close, she could’ve touched him with her nose if she’d leaned forward a few inches. “This is private property. You shouldn’t be here.”
Rather than tell him to go fuck himself—what she wanted to do—she sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and looked up at him through her lashes. “You’d think there would be signs posted. What does it matter anyway? We just got here, and we’re leaving.”
The man sneered down at her, the jagged scar bisecting his right cheek jumping as he ground his teeth. “There are signs, and you’re trespassing.”
She let her eyes go wide, gasped, and flicked her gaze over to Jasmine. “We didn’t see any signs. We didn’t mean anything by it.” Of course, they’d seen the signs. There’d been three, but they’d ignored each one. Hell, if she turned and looked the way they came, she’d probably see one just up the road.
“What’s in there?” he asked, peering into their vehicle as the other man had done.
“Our camping gear, that’s all,” she said.
The asshole went to the back and ripped the hatch open, all but yanking it off its hinges. Reaching in, he rifled through their things, and Nickie held her breath. The sword the witch had given her and commanded she get used to wielding was in its scabbard, wrapped in a tarp, and under all their other supplies. Unless he took everything out and found it, all he’d see was the cooking equipment, tent, and boxes of food.
“That’s a lot of food for two women on a camping trip,” he said when he slammed the door shut again.
Jasmine huffed. “Not that it’s any of your business, but we’re on a road trip across America to see the land, not the inside of a mall or shopping center. Of course, we brought food and water.”
He squinted at her. She didn’t know how long they stared at one another, but the man finally shook his head and hefted his gun over his shoulder. “Leave now, and don’t come back.”
Then, as if he and his men hadn’t just manhandled them, the jerk walked away, taking his men with him. Just as they reached their trucks, a blast of static electricity sizzled in the air. Goose bumps chased their way up and down her arms as the fine hairs there rose to meet it.
She didn’t dare look at the sky again as she climbed into the SUV and started the engine. If the men suspected anything at all, she sure as hell wasn’t going to give them a reason to further detain them.
“That was fucking intense,” Jasmine said, sitting as stiff as a board in the passenger seat. “You still doing okay?”
She pulled ahead, keeping her gaze on the gravel road as she passed the trucks before breathing a sigh of relief. “They’re after Zenon.”
“Either that, or that monster he said was coming after him.”
That was a possibility, but her gut told her otherwise. “I hope we gave him enough time to get away,” she said, finally looking in the rearview mirror to the calm sky behind them.
Chapter 6
Nickie paced just outside the fire’s glow, keeping her eyes on the darkening skies. She couldn’t stop. Every minute that went by without word from Zenon was driving her nuts. They’d traveled over two hundred miles before making camp for the night, so she wasn’t scared that the assholes that had rifled through their things would find them, but what if they’d discovered her phoenix?
She would have stopped sooner, but once they’d reached the paved road and Jas had texted the others—which had led to a conference call—plans had been made. She’d pled her case, but the vote had been unanimous. Seeing as she had more at stake, she should have had more say, but then again, maybe she wasn’t quite as objective as the others were.
Whatever. All that mattered was that Zenon was out there. And he was alive. Had he died, she would have keeled over right along with him, but other than that one episode of tightness in her chest, she hadn’t had any symptoms. She spun on her heels toward the fire again.
She refused to entertain the idea that he might be caught and chained. The anguish and relief pourin
g from him when they’d freed him had all but broken her. She couldn’t fathom him having to go through it again, even if it was only long enough for her to find him and free him a second time. Because she would. She’d never stop looking, that was for damned sure. No one should be made to live like that. Fuck. Where is he?
The constant hum of chatter filled the silence, but she ignored it. She didn’t want to hear the other women talk about how dreamy Zenon had been once he’d risen, and how lucky she was to have him. She’d seen him. She didn’t need reminding of what he looked like. The image was etched into her mind, maybe even her soul. Nor did they need to tell her Zenon was hers. He was. Period. She wasn’t about to argue that point with anyone because it wouldn’t change a thing—not that she wanted to—and she had better things to do—like watching the stars poke out of the blue-black canopy of atmosphere above them.
A throat cleared not far from her, yanking her from her thoughts. She brought her gaze down from the sky and her mood soured. “What do you want, Jessica?” she snapped at the woman standing there with her hands in her pockets and a frown on her face.
She had treated her like shit at the clearing, and Nickie was too on edge to reconcile bitch Jessica with that of the nicer version she knew her to be. Or maybe her true colors had shone through. Either way, she didn’t want to deal with her right then.
“I’ll leave you alone, but I want to apologize. I don’t know what happened today.” Her voice faltered as she said the words.
“You mean when you acted like a jerk and tried to take my mate from me? You saw what happened. You watched us both die and then come back to life. The old witch told us we were tied to our mates that way, and you still tried to pretend like he was meant for you.”
Jessica sighed and cast her gaze on the ground. “Yeah, that. No point in sugarcoating it, huh?”
Nickie huffed out a breath then turned her back on Jess, glancing at the sky again. Where the hell is he?
“I am sorry. I’m so scared of going through it again, you know? It’s no excuse, but it’s not the same for me. I don’t have a best friend who holds my hand when I die. In those last moments, when that paralyzing fear invades every part of me and I can’t force another breath into my body, I’m alone,” Jess said in a broken voice to her retreating back.
Damn it. Nickie knew that fear, and Jess was right, she didn’t have to suffer through it on her own. Taking a deep breath, she faced the woman. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t still pissed at the woman, but she understood. “It’s fine, okay? And you’re not alone anymore. We’re all here with you. In case you haven’t noticed, even though I’ve found my phoenix, I haven’t ditched you guys. We may not have known each other long, but we’re in this together. Like the witch said, it’ll take all of us to find the men. And I’m not going anywhere until we’re done,” she promised.
Jess kicked the toe of her sneaker into the dirt. “What if there aren’t enough of them to go around?” she asked, her voice smaller than Nickie had ever heard it.
“If your mate wasn’t out there, your heart wouldn’t kick into gear again once it stopped, Jess. We’ll find him. He might not be at our next set of coordinates, or even the one after that, but we’ll get to him, too.”
Jess took a shuddering breath. “Thank you. I promise I won’t pull that shit when we get to the next location.”
“Good. Now if we can keep Michelle from stabbing someone else, we’ll do all right.”
“We’re a fine bunch, aren’t we? Just so you know, she feels like crap. Cried the whole way here, and she’s sitting alone and sniffling right now.” Jessica glanced over Nickie’s shoulder, her eyes widening and her mouth gaping. She took a couple of steps back. “Tell him I’m sorry. And if you could maybe see if he can not kill me, that would be awesome.”
It took a second for her words to sink in, but when they did, Nickie whipped around to see Zenon standing there not twenty feet from her. She hadn’t seen him come from the sky or heard his footfalls behind her, yet, there he was.
Rushing over, she barely resisted flinging herself at him in her need to make sure he was all right. Even though the other women had stopped talking and were undoubtedly openly staring again, his gaze never left her.
“Are you okay?” Standing in the shadows where the campfire didn’t quite light up the space between them, she couldn’t see if he was hurt.
Zenon tipped his head to one side, his gaze curious. “I am well, my…Nickie. You are also injury free?”
She swept her gaze from his face to his chest before dipping to his waist, then stopping. Heat bloomed in her cheeks. Yes, he was her mate, but he didn’t know her from a hole in the ground—or she him. The murmurs of the others filtered to her ears again. Yeah, no. If she shouldn’t stand there and ogle him, they sure as hell couldn’t, either.
“I got you some clothes earlier if you’d like to put something on,” she offered, leading him further from the fire toward the back of the SUV she and Jasmine had driven. “It’s not much, but it’s better than being naked.”
He made a grunting sound next to her. “That would depend on the circumstances surrounding the nudity.”
***
Zenon couldn’t help his body’s reaction to having Nickie’s eyes upon him. Blessedly, her visual exploration ended before she got to his rigid shaft and tight sac. He did not wish to offend her so early in their courtship. Even though he hadn’t been promiscuous before his captivity, he’d enjoyed his fair share of carnal pleasures. Willing ladies had never been difficult to find. But it had been millennia since he’d bedded a woman. And none of them had been his mate. If what Zandar told him was correct, Nickie was his, and the pleasure they would find together would be far beyond what either of them had experienced before. No other would compare.
Nickie sucked in a quick breath. “Oh, yeah. That’s true, I guess,” she responded in a breathy voice that sent more blood pooling into his groin.
On his way to find her, he’d explored the new world he’d been freed into. When he’d spotted the hundreds of colorful, shiny boxes zooming past, following one another, he’d flown in to take a closer look. At first, he’d thought they were beasts he’d never encountered. Perhaps new ones born of this day and age. When he’d realized humans were inside, he’d feared they’d been eaten, but none had been in distress. Some even laughed and sang songs aloud. When he’d found some herded together, immobile, next to an odd-looking structure, he’d realized his folly. Unless a human was navigating it, there was no heartbeat or movement of any kind. “What do you call this thing?” he asked, his curiosity piqued as he pressed his palm to the cool, smooth surface, needing as much information as he could amass.
She stopped rifling through a crinkly, linen-thin material and looked at him over her shoulder. “What?”
He indicated the massive box with a wave of his hand. This one was larger than some of those he’d seen, but smaller than others. “Is it a chariot of sorts? I saw no horses pulling similar ones as I made my way to you.”
Her gaze flicked between the thing and him, and her lips curved up, making his lungs struggle to take in air. He glanced at her wingless shoulders, still not quite believing that she wasn’t an angel come to earth to claim him.
“It’s a car. Well, an SUV, if we’re being technical about it. And yes, I guess you could call it a chariot. It’s man-made and runs on fuel. No animal power required. We have so much to discuss. I’m sure you’ll have tons of questions about modern life. How long were you held captive?”
Fury churned in his gut—not toward his tiny savior. She was human, but he wouldn’t hold it against her. She’d done right by him. Liberated him. But as far as he was concerned, the rest of the planet could burn, starting with those who had captured him. He would free his brothers first, and then they would reign terror on their enemies. When the time was right, vengeance would be his.
Until then, he had to ready himself for the battles to come. And that meant gaining knowl
edge. He wondered if Nickie would be amenable to sharing hers. Memory transfers didn’t harm either party, but they were intimate. Linking their minds would give him insights into her that no one else possessed. His ability to share the same with her was moot. He wouldn’t. She didn’t need to witness his endless days and misery. Some of the ways he’d died had been more than gruesome, including the last before she and the other women had come upon him.
“I cannot say with certainty. Many lifetimes.”
Her eyes widened, and her mouth fell open. “Were you always in that awful field?”
Zenon reached up, the memory of the collar’s weight heavy around his neck. For the hundredth time since it had come off, he was amazed to find his body free of the contraption.
“Not always, no, but it was where I was captured. How did you come upon me? In all my years imprisoned in that wasteland, none other than my captors ever ventured to that godforsaken land.” He suspected it had been magically guarded against discovery.
Nickie shrugged and sucked her bottom lip between her teeth, worrying the plump bit of flesh as she contemplated him. “I’ve been sick all my life. Doctors and specialists haven’t been able to figure out what’s wrong, much less how to fix my heart. So, I started digging around online for off-the-chart cures or experimental treatments. It’s amazing how far you’re willing to go to keep from dying every few months.”
Her heart fails her? The knowledge sent his own knocking a hard, rigorous beat against his breast bone. Death for the phoenix wasn’t more pleasant than for any other creature, but it lacked finality. More times than he could count in his lifetime, he’d wished for it to come and be over.
Nickie gasped and her gaze flew up to meet his. “I suppose you probably do, though, don’t you?”
Her delicate fingers gripped a bundle of grey fabric the likes of which he did not recognize but assumed was the clothing she’d been rooting inside her SUV for. “I do, indeed. Is that for me?” he asked, indicating the parcel she held, distracting her from the direction her thoughts had taken her. He would not burden this woman with the weakness that had plagued him for so long.
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