Warrior Rising (Harlequin Nocturne)

by Pamela Palmer

  “I need the draggon stone.”

  He grunted and turned, dragging her with him toward the door. “Convenient, Princess.”

  “You believe I’m lying? The draggon stone answers to royal blood and always has. Within it lies my power.”

  “You haven’t had the draggon stone in fifteen centuries. Forgive me for having a hard time believing you’d have left the source of your power with us, where not even your queen could find it.”

  She didn’t answer for a moment and when she did her voice was low and subdued. “I did what I had to do.”

  He glanced at her, trying to figure her out…trying to ignore her feminine assault on his senses. “So when we get you back to D.C., if we allow you to touch the draggon stone, you can forgive all the death marks?”

  “If you allow me to touch the stone? The stone is mine, human. As the rightful queen, they’re all mine.”

  “That wasn’t my question.”

  Temper flared in her eyes. “Yes, I can forgive the death marks.”

  “Will you?”

  She looked up at him, the light of challenge quickly eclipsing the anger in her eyes. Slowly, her mouth began to curl upward in an intriguing shadow of a smile that charged the already electric air between them.

  “Allies help one another,” she purred. “Perhaps you should be trying to convince me you’re my ally, and not my enemy. Free me.”

  “You ask too much, Princess. I don’t trust any Esri.” Especially one powerful enough to weave a sensual spell over a Sitheen, for that was exactly what she had to be doing. There was no way he’d be attracted to an Esri otherwise. Not when he knew the evil they were capable of. Not when his own daughter suffered still. But despite everything logical and right, he was definitely, horrifyingly attracted to this woman.

  * * *

  Ilaria clenched her jaw tight as the human propelled her down the hotel’s hallway. She was infuriated that he insisted on keeping her tied like a common slave. Never had humans treated her so poorly. In the old days, they’d revered her. Then again, these were no ordinary humans. They were Sitheen. Humans with a trace of Esri blood who could be neither enchanted nor tricked with glamour.

  Worse, these Sitheen knew the death chant…and how to use it. Two thousand years she’d lived, yet they could destroy her in seconds.

  Yes, they maddened and infuriated her, but sweet Esria, that wasn’t all.

  Striding beside her, tall and strong, Harrison’s nearness caressed her skin with a tingling pleasure. Even through her sleeve, she felt his fingers curled around her arm, warm and fierce, yet surprisingly gentle. In the air between them, desire thickened, awareness sizzled.

  When was the last time she’d felt desire like this for a male? Not for as long as she could remember. Yet despite his sharp, distrustful eyes, there was something about this male that pulled and tugged at her in all her darkest, most vulnerable places.

  He glanced at her, meeting her gaze, sending a rare force of masculine power rippling over her skin. Human males were so much more physical than Esri. So much more aggressive, more potent. The simple gaze of this one heated her, turning her to liquid deep inside. Passion burned in his eyes, passion walled behind a barricade of fierce control.

  And anger.

  For a moment, she thought she felt something more. A touch of energy. The shadow of a latent, untapped power she couldn’t identify, but could feel whispering through his aura.

  Strange.

  He pulled her forward, his grip on her arm unyielding, and she fought him no longer, knowing too well his strength far exceeded her own. If she didn’t give in, she’d find herself flung upside down over his shoulder and carried as Charlie had carried her through the gate. A princess could only take so much indignity.

  Her own anger steeped and stewed even as his nearness made her blood warm and her skin dance with excitement. How was it possible he had this pull on her? If Harrison weren’t human, she might question whether he possessed a rare ability to enchant an Esri. Instead, she feared the weakness was hers alone.

  No, not alone. She was quite sure he shared it. And that could, possibly, work to her advantage. She must convince him that her intent was to seal the gates as they wanted her to. Convince him to hand over the stones to her. And a smitten male was so much easier to manipulate.

  Of course, this human was far from smitten. He might feel desire for her, but his hatred ran deep. A hatred, she suspected, for all her kind. She might talk of being allies but they weren’t and they both knew it. The humans had made it clear they didn’t trust her, nor were they giving her any choice in what she did with the stones. Yes, this could be fun. She needed a little excitement after three hundred years of incarceration. Her own special means of retribution for this human’s disrespectful treatment of her.

  A small smile curved her mouth at the prospect of the sensual battle to come as he led her through the room and out the door into the hallway where the others waited.

  A battle she didn’t intend to lose.

  Chapter 4

  “What are those?” Ilaria asked, nodding toward the headphones Tarrys had slipped over her ears in the private jet. “If you’d untie me and allow me to touch a human, a non-Sitheen, I would know these things.”

  “Headphones. And you’re not touching anyone.” Harrison knew that a full-blooded Esri could absorb a human’s entire store of knowledge with a single touch. They might come into this world clueless, but they didn’t stay that way long. Harrison sighed. “I suppose you want to watch the movie, too?”

  “Of course. What’s a movie?”

  From the moment he’d steered the princess out of the hotel room, Harrison had become her keeper. And he was pretty certain she was enjoying driving him slowly insane. All he wanted to do was get as far from her as possible, to break this ungodly attraction that refused to die. Instead, he was stuck with her.

  He grabbed another set of headphones and lifted them onto her delicate head, pushing aside the pale, curly hair covering her ears. The soft, springy feel caressed his hands and he was slammed with a longing to wrap one thick lock around his fingers and draw it to his nose to inhale its sweet scent. Ignoring her wasn’t even a possibility. As he adjusted the earphones over her dainty ears, she watched him, those green eyes reflecting every ounce of the heat that had been building inside him since the moment he first touched her.

  He tore his gaze from hers, refusing to fall into that sensual pit again, but her mouth moved, catching his attention, and he watched her pink tongue dart out to lick ripe, gorgeous lips. Lust sent the blood pounding through his body. With a growl, he flicked on the headset.

  As sound filled the headphones, Ilaria’s eyes widened, and her gaze flew to his for one startled moment before a look of pure delight crossed her face. The smile that bloomed in its wake took his breath away.

  Ilaria turned away to face the small flatscreen television projecting out from the wall of the plane, breaking the spell. Harrison sat back in his seat beside her, his breathing erratic, his runaway pulse pounding in his ears. Looking up, he found his brother watching him with amusement and silent speculation.

  “Go to hell,” Harrison muttered. He glanced at his watch.

  “When was the last time you heard from Jack?” Charlie asked.

  “Right before we picked you up. He or Kade should be calling with another report within the hour.”

  The humor left Charlie’s eyes. They were dealing with a major invasion this time, and the greatest threat the world had ever known. If King Rith got those stones, it was all over.

  “Anyway…” Charlie cleared his throat and resumed his story, giving Harrison the short version of his trip through Esria. “We reached the Forest of Nightmares not a moment too soon, but Jesus, Harrison. That place will steal your mind. The name couldn’t be more accurate. Whatever you’re most afraid of appears. It may not be real, but damn if you don’t think it is. I found myself surrounded by Esri who weren’t there, and nearly run down
by an eighteen-wheeler. In the forest.”

  Musical laughter trilled beside Harrison. Ilaria’s laughter. The sound caressed his senses, stroking him inside and out. He struggled to ignore her and failed, unable to forget what Charlie had told him earlier, that she’d been incarcerated in a village no bigger than a football field. For three hundred years. No wonder she couldn’t quite contain her smiles or laughter. She must be ecstatic to be free.

  Even though they were essentially holding her captive.

  His gaze slid to her, lingering on the creamy pale flesh of her cheek and the long expanse of silken neck peeking out through the soft cascade of curls. He breathed in her scent, sweet gardenias, and felt things tighten low in his body as his gaze dipped lower, to the ripe swell of breasts beneath that amazing gown.

  “So fill me in on what’s happened while we were gone,” Charlie said, drawing Harrison’s attention back to where it belonged—anywhere but Ilaria. A keen speculation lit Charlie’s eyes. Harrison pretended not to notice.

  “We’re all but certain Esri came through some of the other gates last month. Reports of sexual assaults and abductions have skyrocketed in five very specific locations, all in northern Europe. London, Copenhagen and small towns in close proximity to three stone circles, one each in England, Scotland and France.”

  “You think the circles were originally erected as an attempt to defend against the monthly Esri invasions?”

  “Seems likely, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah, it does. So, tell me about the Sitheen recruits.”

  “Kade’s been traveling almost constantly, from one military base to another, and from police station to police station. Once we’ve exhausted the most likely places to find trained warriors, he’ll expand the search.”

  “How many has he found?”

  “Six. We lost one last night during the battle. One of the Marceils’ arrows went right through his eye.”

  “Damn. So who do we have other than Brad and Tom? Handy that Tom’s a pilot, by the way.”

  “It is.” Tom was flying the jet, Brad keeping him company. “Norm is a retired firefighter in his seventies. He and Myrtle hit it off as if they were made for one another.”

  Charlie smiled. “A bit of romance?”

  “No doubt about it. The other two are brother and sister. Paige is a detective with the Richmond police, mid-forties, and a crack shot. Frank is her brother, also a cop, though not as fit. Still, he knows what to do in a fight.”

  “Who did we lose?”

  “A young navy ensign. The most promising of the bunch.”

  Charlie swore softly. “Myrtle couldn’t help him?”

  “The arrow punctured his brain. He was killed instantly. Myrtle’s a gifted healer, but she can’t raise the dead.”

  Harrison went on to fill his brother in on the full battle, struggling to forget the woman who sat beside him, which turned out to be an impossible task. Her presence filled the air.

  He and Charlie were still talking an hour and a half later when the movie finally finished. Tarrys pulled off her headphones and stood up. “I need to move around.”

  Charlie watched her, the look in his eyes all predatory male. “I’ll go with you.” He rose and looped his arm across Tarrys’s shoulder, the air crackling between them. “Maybe we can find something to eat.”

  Harrison grunted. If it was food on Charlie’s mind, Harrison was a chimpanzee. More likely, his brother was planning to join the mile-high club. If he hadn’t already.

  As the pair walked off together, Harrison turned to find Ilaria watching them with a speculative and knowing gaze of her own.

  “Do you want the headphones off?” he asked her.

  That gaze turned to him, heat swirling in the depths of her eyes. “For now.”

  His pulse began to speed even before he reached for her. If only he could assign the task to someone else. Bracing himself, he lifted his hands and took hold of the headphones, that soft-as-silk hair of hers teasing and caressing his sensitive flesh as he pulled them away.

  Her gaze never left his, her eyes hot as sin as her tongue slowly licked her lips. “They’ve gone to find a place to mate in privacy. It’s the first chance they’ve had since we came through the gate.”

  “You don’t know that. They may be looking for food.”

  One pale eyebrow rose, hot laughter dancing in her eyes. “Are you truly so naive?”

  Harrison scowled. “No.” He sat back in his seat, his eyes still caught in hers. His gaze turned rueful. “I’m sure they’re doing it, too.”

  Answering humor flickered in eyes that steamed even as they danced with mischief. “I’m attracted to you, human. More than I’ve been to any male in a long, long time. While your brother mates with the Marceil, let me take you inside my body.”

  Her words all but blew away his rigid control, a glorious picture erupting in his head of him pulling her gown up to her waist, freeing himself, then pulling her down to straddle him as he pushed deep, deep inside her heat. Blood throbbed in his veins, beating a carnal pulse as he grew harder and harder and harder.

  “I’m not having sex with you.” His words were little more than a growl, his voice choked with desire.

  Her eyes dimmed. Not enough that anyone else would probably have noticed, but he did.

  “Because I’m Esri.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Yes.”

  She looked away, stealing the heat of her gaze. “That’s too bad, human. You would have found pleasure with me. We both would have.”

  Begging his body to settle down, he sat back in his seat. “The name is Harrison. Not ‘human.’”

  She watched him. “You’re not like the others, Harrison. You have a power they lack. A power unnatural to humans.”

  His heart gave an awkward thud. “What do you mean?”

  In her expression he saw absolute seriousness for once. When she spoke, the seductive tone was missing. “I don’t know. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt. Familiar, yet not, and deep within you. Nothing that’s ever risen to the surface. Perhaps nothing you’ll ever be able to reach.”

  As badly as he wanted to tune out her words, he couldn’t. Because he already knew.

  Most of the Sitheen had discovered strange gifts that had apparently been passed down to them from their Esri ancestors. Larsen’s premonitions of death, Jack’s ability to talk to his ancestors, Myrtle’s healing ability. Neither he nor Charlie had appeared to have any Esri gifts. Until he’d touched the draggon stone and felt a strange thrill of recognition, as if the power in the stone had welcomed him. He’d only touched it once, as he had the other six stones. The latter had sent an unpleasant crawling sensation climbing into his head from the base of his skull.

  Both times, he’d asked Charlie if he felt anything. Both times Charlie had denied it. Harrison preferred to think whatever he’d felt was just his imagination, but he’d never really believed it. And he’d never stopped wondering what it meant.

  The princess’s assertion that there was something strange going on inside him just confirmed his own suspicion. And he couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or bad. While he wanted nothing to do with Esria, he’d be a fool to ignore anything that might help them win this war.

  The question was could he trust a word the princess said? He just didn’t know.

  Her gaze dropped to his lap, to the erection that still strained painfully against his zipper. “Let me touch you, Harrison,” she said, her voice low and husky. “Let me feel your power.”

  “Yeah, right.” He grabbed the headphones and pushed them back over her ears with minimal care. “Watch another movie,” he said gruffly, punching the play button. He rose and moved to the other side of the plane and sat down where he could keep an eye on her, but not close enough to be tempted.

  His hands curled around the seat arms, clenching until his knuckles turned white at the thought of her touching him. At the thought of her straddling him…

  He groaned from the pul
sing ache of need and forced his gaze out the window to the sea of sunlit clouds. Anywhere but on her.

  He wasn’t sure how long he’d sat there, trying to catch his breath and still the racing beat of his heart, when the onboard phone rang.

  Harrison shoved himself from his seat and grabbed it.

  “We’ve got trouble,” Jack said a moment later.

  “Hold on, Jack. Charlie!”

  As he returned to his seat beside Ilaria, she met his gaze, her eyes sharp and serious. “Take off my headphones. I would hear this.”

  After a moment’s indecision, he did as she asked, then sat beside her as Charlie and Tarrys joined them, both flushed with that insufferable glow. He jammed a button and held the phone on his knee.

  “You’re on speaker, Jack. Charlie and Tarrys are here, too.”

  “Glad to have you back, Charlie. Have you acquired a death mark?”

  “I have.”

  “Then you’re with us. Larsen and I were attacked by half a dozen Esri thugs a couple of hours ago. They had a singer.” A singer was the term they used for an Esri who could enchant surrounding humans with a song, turning them into his own personal weapons. “We nearly didn’t make it out of there. Kade’s joined us and we’re on the run. We’re trying to come up with a way to turn the tables on them.”

  “So they’re not going for the stones?”

  “Best we can tell, they’re neither organized nor heading in any particular direction. Except ours. But we don’t know where King Rith is. Kade hasn’t seen him since midnight, and the rest of us don’t know what he looks like.”

  Beside him, Ilaria tensed. “King Rith is here?”

  Harrison nodded. “He came through last night with a large number of guards and Marceils.”

  “Where are my stones?” she demanded.

  “Forgive me, Princess,” Jack said. “But that’s not information we can share at this point. I assume Charlie told you why he rescued you?”

  “You wish me to seal the gates again.”

  “Yes, we do. When the time comes, we’ll allow you access to the stones.”

  She scoffed. “Sealing the gates will do neither of us any good as long as Rith and his men remain on this side. You must give me the stones so that I can protect them.”