by Alysh Ellis
Tybor pulled the keys from his fist. “You’ve still got things to learn from the master.”
He inserted the key in the lock, opened the door and leaned over and punched a series of numbers into the key pad.
“How did you know that?” Huon gasped.
“Memorized it when we first came in.” Tybor smirked, then he sobered. “I’ll apologize but I’m not explaining why I reacted the way I did. It won’t happen again. I won’t jeopardize this mission.” He pulled the door shut. “Come on. Let’s see if I can make this right.”
* * * * *
The roll of the mattress dipping under the weight of another body snapped Judie awake. Adrenaline hit like a punch in the chest and she sat up, a whimper of terror escaping before she could suppress it.
Instantly a hand reached to cover her mouth and a soft voice whispered, “Shh. It’s just me.”
Through the haze of fear and darkness, a face she recognized drifted into focus. Her panicked breathing slowed, and she whispered a name against that hard, calloused palm.
“Huon? I fell asleep,” she said, her dazed mind slowly remembering where she was, what she had been doing and why this beautiful stranger was in her bed.
“It’s late. We have to go,” Huon whispered, “But we wanted to say goodbye before we left.”
“We?” The fog of confusion dissipated a little more, leaving behind the sour memory of Ty’s abrupt departure. “Nice of you to include Ty in the farewell. Since he left some time ago, I doubt if he’ll care.”
From the darkness beyond her bed, she heard a deep voice say, “I care. I offended you and I apologize.”
“Ty?”
A different kind of shock replaced her earlier fear. She hadn’t thought she would see Ty again after his abrupt departure. Having him here in her bedroom sent her mind skittering in a thousand directions, trying to comprehend his motives, predict his next action, anticipate his explanation—if he intended to offer one.
He stepped out of the gloom and sank down onto her bed. “My behavior was neither gallant nor respectful.” He picked up her hand and interlinked his fingers with hers. “I won’t offer excuses, but perhaps an explanation might help you forgive me.”
He looked into her eyes and she felt herself falling into the dark chocolate depths. A dark and bitter chocolate, but with a heat she could not resist.
She shook her head, trying to break the spell. Forgiving him too easily would be a mistake. If their association continued, maybe even became a relationship—and God, how much she wanted it to—she had to set limits. Ty could so easily reduce her to an obedient slave, willing to do anything, to accept anything if only he would stay with her. Ty had so masterful a personality, it would take extraordinary strength of will for those around him to avoid being subsumed.
Ty’s instinctive dominance fascinated and attracted her. Some basic female instinct responded to the alpha male, but another, more cerebral part demanded she maintain her self-respect.
“I was offended. You made me feel…used.”
“It was not my intention to make you feel that way,” Ty replied. “I won’t discuss the reasons, but it has been…some time since I last engaged in sex. I wasn’t prepared for the, ah…power of the experience. It left me shaken and I needed to walk…to clear my head. I didn’t think about how that would appear to you. Again, I apologize.”
Ty had found the sex tonight so profoundly moving he couldn’t cope? Really? Sex with her? And it had been “some time” since Ty had engaged in any sex at all? Again, really? What was wrong with the women he met? How could a man who looked like Ty, with his confidence, his off-the-scale levels of attractiveness, not have had sex for “some time”? Did he live in a cloister?
Maybe they both did. There had to be some explanation for the obvious dearth of sexual activity in their lives. She didn’t think she was mistaken about Huon’s lack of experience. In what world would Huon’s glowing beauty, combined with his strength and boyish charm, not be admired and sought after? Some deeper mystery was at work here and Judie longed to get to the bottom of it.
The only way to solve the mystery and to find out where this adventure, emotional and sexual, would take her was to see more of both of them and to do that she would have to…
“I accept your apology,” she said. ”This time.”
“Thank you,” Ty said. “It’s more than I deserve.” And he leaned in to kiss her.
His mouth, smooth and cool, covered hers and she opened to him, allowing his tongue to glide in, taking possession. Dominating. She shrugged and gave herself up to the experience. Ty’s approach to sex reflected his basic nature and she might as well enjoy it.
She drew him down toward the pillow but he pulled back.
“There has been a lot of difficult emotion here tonight. You need time to work through it and you need to sleep.” He stood. “Come, Huon. Say goodnight to Judie.”
Ty thought working through her emotions would help her sleep? It had been a long time since he’d been with a woman. Ty’s kiss had stirred her hunger, and now her body pulsed with renewed desire.
“I can think of a better ways to get me to sleep,” she said. “You don’t have to leave.”
“Yes, we do,” Ty said, his words falling like iced water to douse her fire. His tone left little room for negotiation. A small, tight smile curved his lips. “Thank you for forgiving me.”
“Goodnight, Judie,” Huon said, leaning over her to kiss her cheek. “We’ll see you again soon.”
While she tried to gather her breath to argue or entice, Ty grabbed Huon’s shoulder, spun him around and ushered him out. Judie heard the click as the outer apartment door locked.
She blinked, scrubbed her hands across her face and settled back down in the bed and pulled up the covers. A twinge in the muscles of her thighs reminded her of the physical activity of the night. She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes.
Doubt, speculation and hope chased each other ’round and ’round in her head, mixed with lust and a sharp, needy emotion she was afraid to name. She tossed and turned, lying on her stomach, then one side, then the other. Sleep did not come for a long, long time.
* * * * *
Huon leaned on the railing of the bridge, watching the lights reflected off the canal. Without turning, he said to Tybor, “You got the mix between regret and a desire for privacy just right.”
“I’ve had practice,” Tybor grunted.
Huon swung his head around and opened his mouth.
“Don’t ask,” Tybor cautioned. “I won’t tell you.”
“Okay, tell me this instead,” Huon replied. “Why did you still insist we leave when Judie asked us to stay the night? It’s what we want—access to her home and her information.”
“It’s human nature, something I know more about than you do,” Tybor said. “She asked us to stay but there’s no way she’d be comfortable with us there after all that’s happened tonight. She’d be on edge. If she slept at all with us both there it’d be lightly. She’d notice if one of us got up to search.”
“But if we’d just stayed there and done nothing, she’d get used to us,” Huon protested. “Then tomorrow night, or the one after…”
“No. If we don’t want to arouse her suspicions, we have to take it slowly. You said it yourself. She can’t feel pressured or threatened.”
“You— We could use the time to reassure her. To get close. She wants us.” He lifted his chin. “And I want her. I think you do too.”
“I want to do this job and get out. That’s all.” Tybor’s gaze fixed on the water below them. “Don’t get involved with her. Don’t forget who and what she is.”
“She’s a woman,” Huon replied. “A beautiful, generous, hot woman.”
“She’s a human,” Tybor ground out. “And Hopewood’s weapons designer. Her creations will destroy our people if we don’t stop her. You’re young—you can’t see the risk you take if you become too involved.”
“It
always comes back to that, doesn’t it,” Huon protested, anger rising. “You never let me forget you are so much more experienced than me.”
“Because I’m older than you,” Tybor replied. “I have seen and done things I hope you never have to. Her kind hate us and want to destroy us. I will not forget that and neither should you.”
“Not all of them are like that,” Huon said, despair rising up inside him. “You needn’t worry, though. I know what my mission is and I intend to carry it out.”
“The safest way to do that is to keep a mental distance from Judie Scanlon,” Tybor said. “When the time comes, you have to do whatever you have to.”
“I’ll do what is necessary,” Huon said, tired of arguing. “But I’m not going to hide from what I feel.”
“Are you suggesting I am?” Tybor asked, his tone low and dangerous.
Huon merely raised an eyebrow.
“I admit I find this situation disturbing, but not for the reasons you seem to think.” Tybor pounded his clenched fist on the stone balustrade. “We’re in a dangerous situation and this emotion-laden atmosphere is clouding your judgment. I won’t let it cloud mine.”
“No. You’ll ignore it, just like you’re ignoring whatever it is that made you kiss me,” Huon snapped.
Tybor said nothing.
“Of course you will,” Huon said in disgust. “I’m hungry. You want something to eat, or are you planning to ignore all your weaknesses?” He pushed himself away from the railing.
“I could eat,” Tybor said.
They walked toward the fish markets, where they found a tiny café open in the early hours to cater for the Venetian fishing fleet. The atmosphere between them remained dark and tense. Huon didn’t want to talk about the actions Tybor expected him to take and trivial conversation was impossible, so they ate in silence.
When they’d finished, Tybor said, “The best thing we can do is hole up in your room for the day and sleep.” He stood and rolled his shoulders. “Tired people make mistakes.”
Huon nodded and yawned. While Tybor’s training had prepared him for fatigue, last night had been so different… His mind drifted back, replaying the moments when he’d been thrusting into Judie’s warm body. There were no words to explain the exquisite wonder of the sensation, the sense of welcome and rightness he’d found there.
No matter what his orders said, he couldn’t destroy such sweetness, beauty and fire. She didn’t deserve to die.
In the half-light of dawn and with his mind elsewhere, he stumbled and lurched into an oncoming pedestrian. Huon righted himself and began to apologize but the man wasn’t looking at him.
His eyes were fixed on Tybor, who had turned to ask, “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Huon picked up his pace, hoping Tybor hadn’t noticed his clumsiness. Even though they were under no current threat, Tybor’s constant exhortations to be alert at all times echoed in his brain. How could he expect Tybor to respect him if he literally stumbled at the first hurdle?
But if Tybor had been aware of Huon’s embarrassing lapse he gave no sign of it, turning into their hotel and mounting the stairs without further speech. As soon as they were inside, Huon flung himself on the bed.
“Hey! Who said you get the bed?” Tybor complained.
“My room, my bed.”
Tybor raised one eyebrow. “We’ll take it in turns.”
Mischief prompted Huon. “We could share.”
A pair of strong, dark brows snapped together. “We’ll do it in shifts. One of us should be on watch anyway.”
Huon stuck his hands behind his head. “You’re standing. You take first watch.”
On a blown-out breath, Tybor said, “And you can get your beauty slee—”
The door burst open before he finished speaking, the flimsy lock ripped from its ancient moorings by a booted foot. A man charged into the room, a knife held in his hand.
“Demon!” he grated out and lunged forward.
Tybor spun to face the danger and the stranger lashed out, slicing downward through the shirt and into the muscle of Tybor’s left upper arm. Blood spurted out, spattering bright scarlet across the wall.
Huon had leapt up from the bed at the first explosion inward, his hand going to his pocket even as he shouted Tybor’s name. Arterial blood continued to pump in bursts from Tybor’s arm.
Tybor, his face a sickly mud-gray, lashed out with his foot, trying to kick his attacker in the groin, but the man slashed with the knife, aiming for the underside of Tybor’s leg, attempting to sever the ligament or hack into another blood vessel. Tybor fell to the floor, blood spilling over the gaping edges of the gash in his pants.
The attacker, who had to be one of Hopewood’s Gatekeepers, stepped over Tybor and rushed toward Huon.
Huon thrust his hands into his pockets, found what he searched for and squeezed. He raised his arm and flung the fireball at the attacker.
The man ducked at Huon’s first movement. He was quick, more agile than Huon would have believed, and prepared for the attack. The fireball burst against the wall in a silent explosion and although the ricochet singed the man’s hair and must have burned his back, he kept coming.
“You’ll have to do better than that, demon.”
Huon didn’t waste his breath replying. He reached in again and hurled another ball. This one hit the man square in the chest and he staggered and went down on one knee, almost on top of Tybor. For one horrifying second Huon thought the fall would plunge the knife the Gatekeeper still carried straight into Tybor’s chest, but the man regained his feet, beating at his burning shirt with his free hand. He used the point of the knife to rip away the charred embers of fabric. Underneath he wore a vest made of a silvery material.
Huon swore. The opalescent glitter of the garment told him the Gatekeepers had discovered that mica could be used as a shield against fireballs. What else did they know?
“So, the demons have recruited a human apprentice to fight their battles,” the Gatekeeper said, swinging around to face Huon. “Your demon master failed you when he left you to fight with demon weapons. Launching a fireball takes energy. You have thrown two already. A demon the size of that one,” he looked at Tybor, his lip curling in disgust, “might be able to launch five or six in a row, but you are not built like him. It will take time for you to build up enough power to launch another fireball. Time you don’t have.” The human laughed, a blood-chilling sound too close to the edge of madness. “Prepare to die, demon lover. May your last thought be this—soon all of demonkind will perish and the Earth will be free of their evil.”
He held the knife in front of him like a lance and charged. The moment before he struck, Huon side-stepped and hurled an energy ball from point-blank range straight into the man’s face.
Huon didn’t stop to check if the man was dead. A direct hit on any unshielded area of his body would guarantee that. Tybor lay unmoving where he had fallen, a pool of blood surrounding him. Huon leapt over the human’s body and dropped to his knees beside Tybor. He wrapped his hand above the wound on Tybor’s arm and squeezed. The flow of blood ceased and Huon’s pounding heartbeat slowed. He felt for the wound in Tybor’s leg with his free hand.
“That’s just a shallow cut. Nothing to worry about.” Tybor’s thready voice startled him. He watched as the dark eyes fluttered open. “Damn, I fainted like a frightened little girl.”
Relief washed through Huon and he grinned. “So who’s the tough guy now, huh? It’s not me down on the floor, bleeding all over the place.”
The corners of Tybor’s mouth lifted a fraction. “I already said you were good. Going to keep making me admit I was mistaken about you when I first saw you?”
“Yep. Every chance I get.”
The smile faded from Tybor’s face. “You did good. That human caught me completely off guard.” Tybor’s neck muscles strained and he lifted his head a fraction. “You got him?”
Huon slipped the hand not putting pre
ssure on Tybor’s artery under his head and lowered it to the floor. “Yeah. I got him.” He looked at his blood-stained hand. “We have to get you fixed up. Now. Or you’ll be joining the human, and I don’t fancy going home and telling them I lost our best trainer and favorite hero.”
Tybor grimaced. “I need a doctor. Put a pressure bandage around my arm and get me to him.” He rattled off an address.
Huon’s eyes widened. “How do you know that?”
Tybor drew a shaky breath. “We walked past a sign that said Dottore on the way to Harry’s Bar.” His lids drooped closed, then slowly opened again. “I thought I might need to remember where to find medical attention for you. Got that wrong.” His eyes shut again and he whispered, “Get the bandage on. Let’s go.”
Huon went to the pack he’d been provided with. The first-aid kit included had bandages and gauze pads, enough to do the job for the few minutes it would take to find the doctor and bring him back.
Tybor didn’t stir while Huon wrapped him up and his stillness lent Huon extra speed.
When it was finished Tybor opened his eyes again. “Help me up.”
“I’ll go and get the doctor. Bring him here. You won’t make it that far.”
His voice stronger, the ring of command adding backbone to it, Tybor said again, “Help me up.” He used his uninjured hand to try to push himself off the floor. “It’s just blood loss. I will make it to the doctor’s, because I have to.”
Huon shook his head.
Tybor glared. “He can’t come here. How are you going to explain the dead human? The burn marks on the wall? The stench of burning? We’re damn lucky no one is pounding on the door demanding to know what’s going on. I have to get to the doctor’s on my own two feet. Now, help me up!”
Huon obeyed. He wrapped his arm around Tybor and brought him to his feet. Tybor swayed and the color in his face receded even further but he stayed upright.
The grim smile tilted Tybor’s lips again. “I’ll be all right. It’s only half a mile. The first eight hundred and eighty yards will be the worst, after that it will be easy.”