Dark Promises 4: Flesh & Blood

by Elisa Adams

  “Stop talking.” He handed her a pile of clothes. “Put this stuff on. Now. We need to get out of here. We don’t have much time.”

  Her body chilled to the core. Running on autopilot, she slid out of bed and did her best to dress in the dark. She opened her mouth to speak, but Sam shushed her with a finger to her lips. He leaned in close again. “Don’t speak. Just follow. Don’t make any noise.”

  He hefted his duffel bag over his shoulder, grabbed her hand, and pulled open the room door. “Follow,” he whispered.

  She clung to his hand, her fingers so tight they went numb. He paid her no attention, his gaze swiveling around the parking lot as he raced toward the car.

  “Get in and close the door quietly.” He unlocked the doors, pushed her toward the passenger seat, and slid behind the wheel.

  She did as told, awed by his grace and the complete silence of his movements. He tossed the duffel bag in the back, gave her a quick, hard gaze as he started the car, and peeled out of the parking lot.

  The second they hit the street, the back window of the car exploded.

  Sam’s hand landed on her shoulder. “Get down.”

  He pushed her forward until her head hung between her knees. His hand lingered on her back for a brief second before he pulled it away. “Stay that way until I tell you it’s safe, okay?”

  Her blood rushed so loud in her ears she had to struggle to hear anything else. Somewhere along the way, her heart had lodged in her throat, swelling and growing until she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t swallow.

  “Faith, did you hear me?”

  “Uh-huh.” She cleared her throat. “Yes. Yes, I heard you.”

  “Good. It’s going to be fine. Just give me a few minutes.”

  She’d believe it when it actually happened. Every time she let herself believe she was safe, something terrible happened to shatter the fragile illusion. Tears formed in her eyes, dripped onto the floor mats. Hatred for Paul, and what he’d put her through, welled inside her. But she had to do it. She’d made her promise, and she wouldn’t back out now. She’d have to trust in Sam enough to believe he’d keep her alive. If she stopped believing, she might as well give herself up to the men trying to kill her.

  The car’s tires squealed as Sam cut the wheel hard, sailing around one corner and then another. A horn honked from somewhere behind them. Their pursuers, or someone else? She didn’t dare peek her head up to find out.

  “Sam?”

  “Shh.”

  She shook her head, tried to swipe away the flow of tears that wouldn’t be stemmed. What was wrong with her? She never cried. Never. Not when her mother had died, not when Paul had. Why now did she seem to cry at every turn?

  Because everything had gone wrong. Everything. No matter what happened, whether or not Sam upheld his end of the bargain, her life would never be the same.

  It seemed like an eternity before his hand once again rested on her back. “You can sit up now, if you want to.”

  “Did you lose them?”

  “I think so. I hope so.”

  She sat up, glanced around them. The sun had just started to rise, bathing the trees and the dirt road in an eerie yellow glow. She swallowed. “Um, thanks.”

  He slid her a glance. “For what?”

  “For sticking to the bargain.”

  He looked at her again, his eyes hard and cold. “Yeah. No problem.”

  “What happened?”

  “They found you, obviously.”

  A shiver ran through her at the darkness in his tone. “They found us. I’m not in this alone, am I?”

  He shook his head, his expression grim as he stared at the road. “You saw me kill one of them. You know they aren’t human. They know I’m not—and they know a simple bullet isn’t going to do me any permanent damage.”

  His words settled like a rock in the pit of her stomach. She clenched her hands together. Fear pushed common sense out of the way and she lashed out at the closest available target. “Well, why can’t you keep them away? Isn’t that why I’m sleeping with you? So you can protect me?”

  Guilt hit her hard as the words left her mouth, but she refused to back down. She couldn’t. She’d put her life in his hands, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

  Sam slammed his hands down on the wheel, his face reddening as his expression turned hard as stone. “What the fuck is wrong with you? I’ve saved your life twice. I suggest you shut up or I might stop the car and leave you on the side of the road.”

  All too happy to oblige, she sank back onto the seat and closed her eyes.

  * * * * *

  After what seemed like hours, Sam turned down an empty dirt road. He slowed the car to a near crawl. The sun poked through the canopy of tress hanging over the road. He squinted through the bright shards of light splashed across his line of vision.

  Faith stirred, sat up. “Where are we?”

  He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, his anger still strong from her cutting words. “Connecticut.”

  “Still?” She frowned. “We haven’t left yet?”

  “We will, when the sun sets again. For now, we need to hide out and stay out of view.”

  “And we’re going to do that in the middle of the woods?”

  He heaved a sigh. “No. There’s a place around here that’s abandoned. We can spend the day there, though there won’t be much to do.”

  He returned his focus to the road, looking for the break in the trees that would indicate the driveway. Once he found it, he turned left down the rocky path that led to the old barn.

  She put her hand on his arm. “You know where we are?”

  “Yeah.” He shrugged away from her touch.

  “How? Have you been here before?”

  He nodded, pushing his anger—and every other emotion—aside. She wanted this to be about the bargain? Fine. He could handle that. He could be the coldest son of a bitch she’d ever met, if that’s the way she wanted things.

  “Sam?”

  He ignored her questioning tone, ignored the heat of her gaze over his skin. If he looked, his resolve would cave.

  A few minutes later the barn came into view. The structure looked ready to fall in on itself, but he knew better. Though nothing spectacular to look at, the old barn he’d bought too many years ago to count would serve their purpose, give them a place to hide out for the day. He pulled his car around the back, out of view from the drive, and turned to Faith. “Get out.”

  Her breath hitched. “What are you doing? You’re not going to leave me here.”

  “As much as I’d like to, we made a deal. I don’t go back on my word.” Without giving her another glance, he stepped from the vehicle and walked into the barn. Soft footsteps on the dusty wooden floor told him she’d followed.

  “How do they keep finding me?”

  Her question drew him up short. He spun, shrugged. “They have ways. I’m sure there is someone very powerful behind them, someone who can back them with whatever they need.”

  “Like money?”

  “Money, weapons, poisons that would kill a human. Tracking devices of all kinds, electronic and otherwise. They’re after you, and they intend to take you out. They aren’t going to stop, and they aren’t going to give up easily.”

  She shivered. His heart clenched at the sight, some of his anger dissolving.

  “Sam?” Her voice held unshed tears. “So what you’re saying is I’m basically screwed? That nothing is going to stop them?” A bitter laugh escaped her. “I’m on my own, on the run, and everything I had with me is back in that hotel room. What am I supposed to do now?”

  “Shit.” He reached out for her, pulled her into an embrace and kissed her temple. “Don’t look at me like that. It isn’t the end of the world. You’re not alone. And your stuff is all packed in my duffel bag. It’ll be okay. I made you that promise, and I intend to keep it.”

  She snorted. “Yeah, I definitely believe that one.”

  Despite the se
riousness of the situation, he smiled. Even running for her life, Faith had a stubborn streak he never would have figured on. She was beautiful, polished, and knew her own mind. Even faced with the kind of stress that would break a man, she kept going. Didn’t give up. He tightened his hold.

  Up until recently, he’d rarely seen a Panthicenos with a human mate. Not until Eric, a man he’d raised like a son and had later become his friend, had found his mate in a human last year. Though Ellie was no longer human, he had had no doubt that she was the right woman for Eric.

  Though he’d never himself experienced the feeling of finding his true mate, he’d known Faith for who she was when she stepped into his cabin that night. He’d noticed something about her before that, something he’d refused to name but couldn’t shake. But that night she’d come to him for help and he hadn’t been able to deny it any longer. She belonged with him, to him, for the rest of her days. His heart clenched as the last words echoed in his head. The lifespan of a human was like a month in the life of a Panthicenos. He would lose her almost as soon as he’d found her, and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it.

  The only way to make a human a Panthicenos was to use an ancient curse—one that was not an option. Yes, he had changed Ellie, but she’d been dying. She’d had no other hope.

  Provided he could keep Faith alive until he figured out how to stop the demons chasing her, she was a normal, healthy human. Young, with plenty of life to live. He was bound by the rules that stated he couldn’t change her, and he couldn’t turn her vampire, either. Human blood didn’t respond to demon blood in any way. It left him with no options, save enjoying what little time they had together. Provided she didn’t run when he told her the bond had been forged.

  Faith shivered again and he wrapped his arms tighter around her. Pain for her filled him, along with something else. Something a little too close to the all-too-human emotion of love. Panthicenos don’t love. But Eric had found Ellie, and Merida, Eric’s sister, had found…well, he didn’t approve of the annoying vampire she’d chosen as a mate, but from a very early age Merida had known her own mind. The way she saw it, it was her world and everyone else just got in her way. She and Faith would get along a little too well.

  “It’ll be okay,” he repeated, more for his own benefit than hers.

  “I don’t know if it will.” Her voice sounded so soft, so wounded, that his heart nearly broke for her. Why hadn’t he tortured Richardson when he’d had the chance? He’d let the man off too easy, breaking his neck with such swift precision. The man had deserved so much worse. If only he’d known…

  Red-hot anger spiked inside him, turning his insides to molten lava. Every muscle he had clenched and his nerves snapped.

  “Sam?”

  The worry in Faith’s voice broke through his anger. He glanced down at her, into those big brown eyes that would forever haunt his dreams. “Yeah?”

  “What’s the matter? You’re scaring me.”

  “That’s the last thing I want to do.” But it happened, time and again, nonetheless. Helplessness surged through him, a foreign and unwelcome emotion. In desperate need of a distraction, he tilted her chin up and kissed her.

  When he broke the kiss, she glanced up at him. “I’m sorry for being so rude earlier.”

  He shrugged. “It’s to be expected. You’re under a lot of stress.”

  “Yes, but that doesn’t give me the right to treat you so poorly.” She stepped away, walked back to the barn entrance and leaned against the doorframe. “You’ve done everything you can to keep me alive. I shouldn’t have talked to you the way I did.”

  His heart clenched at her words. He walked to where she stood, leaned on the opposite side of the doorframe and shoved his hands into his pockets. “I’ve heard much worse. There isn’t anything you can say to me that I haven’t heard before.” Though, coming from her, the words wounded him straight to his soul.

  “You’re lying. I can see it in your eyes.”

  He took a step back, frowned. Turned away and walked out the barn door into the bright sunshine. How had she known? He hadn’t survived all these years, done the job that he had for so long by allowing his every emotion to pass over his expression. He’d made a career out of distancing himself from his emotions. Becoming a hard, cold shell of a man without feeling. But now…

  Her hand on his arm pulled him from his thoughts. He turned, took her fingers in his and squeezed.

  She smiled in return. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Anything.” Though he couldn’t guarantee her an honest answer.

  “What do you really do? I know Paul had hired you as a bodyguard, but that doesn’t seem to fit you.”

  He let out a breath, raked a hand through his hair. Dropped her hand and crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s a question you don’t want me to answer.”

  She laughed. “Why? What are you, some kind of assassin?”

  Unable to look at her, not wanting her to see the undeniable truth in his eyes, he turned away.

  She gasped. “Oh, my God. You are.”

  Her words chilled his blood. He turned back to her, grabbed her hand in his. “It isn’t what you think.”

  Her fingers were stiff under his touch. She shook her head, her face paling. “Then I think you should explain to me what it’s really all about. You’re making me nervous. I mean…you kill people for a living, Sam. That doesn’t exactly inspire trust.”

  And it shouldn’t. He fought the urge to walk away, to run from the emotions attached to the conversation. “Do you remember when we talked about Panthicenos, about balance keepers?”

  She nodded.

  He drew a breath, let it out on a sigh. How could he explain himself without scaring her off? If she’d been any other woman, he would have brushed off her questions and told her it was none of her business. But with Faith, all the rules changed. “That’s part of it. It’s what I used to do for the Council, when I was still a balance keeper. And now I still do the occasional job for them, when they request me.”

  Her expression turned horrified. “That’s terrible. How can you do that?”

  “To keep the balance, sometimes killing is necessary.”

  “Killing is never necessary.”

  “Maybe not, if you live in your cozy little human world with your blinders firmly in place.”

  “Give me a break, Sam. I don’t wear blinders.”

  “Did you know of the existence of supernatural creatures before I confessed my secrets to you?”

  She blinked, swallowed. “No.”

  “Blinders.” He swung his gaze around the forested area. “The supernatural is all around you. Most humans choose not to see it. And believe me, however bad your human world is, it would be a thousand times worse without some of us taking care of certain problems before they can grow into something out of control.”

  “Still, it doesn’t seem right.”

  “Because you live in a society that touts a strict moral code it doesn’t adhere to. Life in my world is a little simpler.”

  “Do you live somewhere else, besides here?” Confusion, doubt flashed across her delicate features.

  He laughed. “No. Unlike some, I don’t reside on the demonic plane.”

  A nervous smile twitched her lips. “There’s a demonic plane?”

  He nodded. “But it isn’t any place I’d want to visit. Most of the time I’m quite happy living among you humans, as well as the other creatures that inhabit this plane of existence.”

  “There are other creatures?”

  There seemed to be no limit to her curiosity. “Do you really want me to answer that?”

  Her eyes widened. “I’m thinking I don’t. So, in your…ah…job, you don’t kill innocent people, do you?”

  He sighed, fixed her with a glare. “What do you think?”

  “I don’t know what to think.”

  Her eyes told him a different story. He reached out, snagged a lock of her hair and tugged. Brought her
closer until her soft scent wrapped around his senses. “Yes, you do. You know the truth. You know I would never hurt innocents. And I would never hurt you. I’m doing all I can to protect you, Faith. You’ve got to believe that I’ll continue to do so, no matter what.”

  She glanced down at the ground. “Why, Sam? I get the feeling this isn’t about the bargain.”

  He’d never met a human so perceptive. “No, it’s not. But like I told you, I gave you my word and I intend to make sure nothing stops me from keeping it.”

  “Thank you.”

  Her soft, sincere words struck him through the heart. It wasn’t often that he did anything that even deserved thanks. And with the way he’d treated her when she’d first asked for help, he sure as hell didn’t deserve it. But he’d take it. He’d take all he could get until they ran out of time. He pulled her into his arms, hoping they had a lot more time than he thought.

  * * * * *

  They got away again.

  Tomaz stomped through the old mansion, his anger reaching a dangerous level. How could this have happened? Did he have anyone working for him who wasn’t completely incompetent?

  He’d sent his own men after Kincaid and the woman this time, and they’d failed as Aiala’s had. It ate him up inside to think he couldn’t stop the man. Couldn’t control him. Couldn’t bend him to his will, as he could everyone else in his life. His own flesh and blood. Kincaid had shunned him at an early age, acted ashamed of the blood they shared. From those early days, Tomaz had realized Kincaid’s worthlessness as a son. He’d taken after his mother, and for that he could no longer be trusted.

  He had to be destroyed.

  But the man showed powers far surpassing the norm for Panthicenos. For years Tomaz had been trying to get rid of him, to no avail.

  But now things had changed.

  He was traveling with a human woman who would do nothing but slow him down. Did he care for this woman?

  Tomaz smiled. He could only hope. If so, it might prove to be the weakness he’d been waiting centuries for. The way to finally remove Sam Kincaid from his life once and for all.