Stripped Away: Shadow Destroyers Book 2

by Sydney Somers

  “Looks like a fish,” Braxton put in, trying to figure out the significance. He couldn’t decide if Quinn avoided looking in his direction because of what was said in the locker room earlier or if it had something to do with Darcy’s sketch.

  Rae pursed her lips, waiting. “Bored?”

  “She’s into astrology,” Quinn explained.

  Darcy bobbed her head a little too vigorously. “Quinn’s a Pisces.”

  Braxton leaned back in his chair and wondered what the two of them were up to. “She’s an Aries, actually.”

  “My mistake.” Darcy quickly picked up one of the printouts Rae had handed out when they’d all sat down.

  Drew, who’d been lounging half asleep in his seat across from Quinn, leaned up to see the picture Rae held. “Looks like Mr. Murphy to me.” He covered his mouth on a yawn.

  “Mr. Murphy?” Rae asked before Braxton could get the same question out.

  “Yeah,” Drew answered sleepily, oblivious to the death glare aimed at him from across the table. “Quinn’s goldfish. I think this one is the twelfth incarnation.”

  Rae looked stupefied. Darcy—mildly embarrassed. Quinn slumped in her chair.

  Braxton surprised them all by bursting out laughing.

  Drew opened one eye and gave the page another skim, the gleam in his eye far from the innocence he projected. “The real one looks a lot more like you, Brax.”

  * * *

  The office was quiet as the clock in the office hit nine in the evening. Braxton tipped back in his chair and scrubbed his hands down his face. There was no way he was leaving before he made sure Quinn was okay. She’d avoided being alone with him for the rest of the day, but he refused to let her forget that he was there. Waiting.

  Drew strolled by with Cass at his side.

  “Hey.” He pulled Drew’s standby tracker from the docking station on his desk and handed it over. “Try to go more than two weeks without breaking it this time.”

  Drew frowned good-naturedly. “How is it my fault they’re so fragile?”

  Braxton refrained from commenting on the recurring issue that it was often the agents who were the problem. “Where are you two headed?”

  “Cass can’t get enough of my company and invited me to crash on the couch at the temporary safe house Rae has set up for her and Quinn.”

  Cass rolled her eyes. “I believe Rae’s words were, ‘Drew you’re on safe house duty’.”

  “Who am I to complain about being surrounded by two good looking women? Conjures all kinds of wicked fantasies doesn’t it?” He grinned unapologetically at Braxton.

  Braxton growled at him, unimpressed by the reminder he’d be sleeping alone again tonight. He’d spent years that way and suddenly his bed seemed too empty without Quinn there with him.

  “Too easy,” Drew muttered steering Cass towards the elevator.

  “Quinn not leaving with you guys?”

  Cass glanced back over her shoulder. “She said she had a couple things to take care of.”

  Braxton waited until they stepped into the elevator then went in search of her. He didn’t have to go very far.

  She stood in the open doorway to the field office’s personal quarters. Not once in two months had he ventured inside. For weeks he’d preferred to avoid the reminder of what they’d shared. Of what he’d turned his back on.

  He hesitated, and then walked up behind her.

  “I guess I should be grateful to that lust demon. If I hadn’t been infected, hadn’t been restrained that night, the switch in my memory might not have been flipped.”

  Once upon a time he would have taken that as a cue to walk away, to let her keep her distance. Now more than ever it seemed important to prove to her that he wouldn’t turn away from her again.

  She stiffened as he put his hands on her hips, but she didn’t pull away.

  Closing his eyes, he inhaled the wild scent of her hair. “I’m sorry I hurt you, but I’m not sorry it happened between us.”

  “You didn’t want to give in,” she mused quietly.

  “You were…persuasive.”

  “I wanted you pretty damn bad.” The grudging admission gave him hope.

  “As in past tense?”

  She turned her face, and his jaw rasped against her cheek. Her lips parted, but no sound emerged. Endless seconds ticked off in his head.

  “I want to be furious with you,” she breathed.

  He slid his hand up the side of her throat, tipping her chin back. “But?”

  “You’ve always made it so hard to hate you.”

  “Then don’t.” He lowered his head, sweeping his mouth tenderly across hers.

  Quinn turned in his arms. “It’s not that easy. God, every time I used to convince myself there was nothing between us, I’d catch some fleeting glimmer of the man I couldn’t get out of my head. I can hardly remember a time when I didn’t want you. Didn’t want something more between us.”

  He touched his forehead to hers. “Then don’t give up on me now. On us.”

  “It’s hard to be mad at someone for trying—however misguided—to protect the people they care about. I’ve done it with Cass for so long I can barely remember that there are still people I can play it straight with.”

  “I’m still not off the hook, am I?”

  “Not quite yet.” She looked at the floor, then finally back at his face. She opened her mouth, but glanced down the hall instead of clarifying exactly what she meant by that.

  Rae’s heels clicked down the corridor before she rounded the corner, coming into view. “Glad I caught you two. Temporal distortion two miles out.”

  He stopped himself from pulling Quinn back into his arms as she stepped around him to face Rae.

  “I thought I was still off the active roster?”

  Rae glanced back and forth between them, recognizing she’d interrupted something important, but that it couldn’t be helped. She fixed her critical gaze on Quinn. “Are you trying to talk me out of it?”

  “Hell no.”

  “Then why are you still standing here?”

  * * *

  “I’m really sick of lust demons.” Braxton unsheathed his sword from the small scabbard strapped to his back. He couldn’t be sure, but the telltale flicker of a smile around Quinn’s lips looked damned promising.

  “You can have it,” she offered, peering over the edge of the fourth floor building still under construction. Waving her dagger tauntingly, she retreated from the ledge and covered the opening towards the temporary elevator the construction crew used.

  “Rock, paper, scissors?” He didn’t take his eyes off the hostile who couldn’t seem to make up its mind if it was better to make a break to get past them or just save itself the trouble and jump over the side of the building.

  Quinn snorted, but humored him. She grinned a moment later when her open palm covered his fist. “But I’m still passing.”

  “Then what was the point of that?”

  She jerked her head towards the hostile. “Makes them wonder what the hell we’re doing. Besides, maybe I’ll get lucky and you’ll get infected this time.”

  “Revenge is only a superficial satisfaction.”

  “Not if I locked you up with Drew,” she purred.

  He winced. “That’s a bit harsh.”

  “Says who?”

  Knowing that this wouldn’t be a conversation he could win, he advanced on the lust demon, wanting the hostile vanquished so he could spend time alone with Quinn before he took her to the temporary safe house.

  The lust demon, a female with short brown hair and undoubtedly aiming for the girl-next-door look with her plain white T-shirt and jeans, finally started to get into the game. Ruby-red nails curled like a she-devil out to draw first blood, and it attacked with a wide punch that didn’t come anywhere near Braxton.

  The demon’s pissed-off screech reverberated from the exposed rafters. Its gaze darted to Quinn. Braxton didn’t need to get a fix on the hostile’s thoughts to
see that Quinn was of interest, not when the creature looked at Quinn and licked its damn lips.

  The fight would be over too quickly, he realized. He’d never been one to draw out a vanquishing, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself from taking his time, purposely goading the creature to make a move only to easily deflect each attempt. Finding a weak spot, he pushed into the demon’s thoughts, working deep to plant the certainty the lust demon would die tonight.

  Realizing what he was doing, the hostile snarled at him, cursing him in ancient tongues he was more familiar with than most.

  “You’re not actually playing with the demon are you, Brax?”

  He didn’t stop to look at Quinn. “Just taking a page out of your book.”

  The demon lashed out, but Braxton didn’t break the mental connection. He deflected a random kick, wanting the creature to see its failure, know there would be no more feeding on the emotions of others.

  Game over.

  Red-rimmed eyes narrowed to vicious slits, and Braxton grinned.

  Then it bolted for Quinn.

  Unprepared for that sharp sprint to the left—stupid as it was on the demon’s part—he couldn’t get between them in time. Not that he needed to. Quinn didn’t move an inch, waiting until the demon was with striking distance and brought both hands up, daggers at the ready.

  The demon didn’t have enough time to react before she drove them home and wrenched them in opposite directions to sever the hostile’s head. The manifested body pitched forward, erupting in blue flames before it even hit the ground.

  Quinn tucked her daggers back into the straps at her thighs.

  Braxton slid his sword in the scabbard, adrenaline still pumping through him. He strode towards her.

  Her eyes widened, and she scrambled back a step.

  He kept coming, didn’t stop until she was backed up against one of the interior walls. She shook her head, but he caged her face in his hands, crushing his mouth down on hers, silencing what few words left her mouth as he devoured her lips.

  The rich taste of her—one he’d never get out of his head—consumed him. His tongue tangled with hers, sweeping the sweet recess of her mouth until he strained for control that was quickly spiraling beyond reach.

  Quinn pushed him back a step, but he caught her wrists in his hands and pushed them over her head.

  “That night at the field office, you were determined not to take no for an answer. Now it’s my turn to persuade you to stay.”

  “I was under the influence of a lust demon,” she reminded him, her voice breathless.

  “What happened to it being what you wanted?”

  She didn’t say anything.

  “That’s what I thought,” he growled and took complete possession of her mouth again.

  Only when he’d dragged a throaty moan from her lips—one that echoed inside him—did he jerk her shirt up. He tugged her bra down until her breasts were free. Her nipples hardened under his gaze.

  He lowered his head to flick his tongue over the beaded tip. “Still want me to stop?”

  “Are you being cocky again? Because I’m not sure I can handle that.”

  “Remember what I said about a sure thing?”

  Quinn rolled her eyes, her expression at war with the way she responded to his touch.

  “Putty in my hands,” he murmured against her throat, plucking at her nipple until she whimpered.

  “You wish.” For all her talk of resistance, she made no attempt to deny the hunger he felt unfurling inside her mind in thick waves.

  Braxton unsnapped her pants, yanking them as far as her knees before sliding his fingers beneath the edge of her panties.

  He stopped. “Let me touch you.”

  “Now you’re asking for permission?”

  He circled his palm over her sex. “Yeah.” He met her eyes willing her to understand. Willing her see how much she meant to him. That he’d do anything for her.

  “Braxton.”

  He wanted to shout in victory as the heated plea whispered through his mind. He slanted his mouth across hers, another drugging kiss working like fire to burn him up. He cupped her chin and imprisoned his other hand at the nape of her neck, desperate to prove they could make it work between them.

  Her hands snaked up his chest, hauling him even closer. “Touch me.”

  Waves of hot psychic energy wrapped around him, heightening his arousal to the point he had to rub his aching shaft against her for some measure of relief.

  Quinn groaned into his mouth, and without breaking from his lips, reached between them to push her panties and pants all the way off, along with her boots. “More. Much, much more.”

  He drove two fingers into her wet sex.

  “Yes!” Quinn sank her nails into Braxton’s shoulders as he pumped his fingers deep inside her. In and out, they dragged at her sensitive inner walls until she rocked her hips to deepen the penetration.

  He roughly palmed her breast, the pad of his thumb scuffing the erect tip. The feverish throbbing between her legs intensified when Braxton swirled up to tease her clit. The precision of his thumb over the slick knot left her trembling.

  She fumbled with his pants. “I need you inside me.”

  His groan sounded scraped from his throat as he yanked his pants over his hips. She started to close her fingers around his shaft, but he shook his head.

  “Later.” And then he lifted her off the floor, the swollen head of his cock poised at her opening. Glittering amber eyes bored into hers. “I love you.” And then he sank inside her to the hilt.

  Never had anything felt so good. Both her body and her heart screamed out at the intensity that consumed her. In only a few hard strokes, she climaxed in a furious explosion of sensation, and opened her mind to share it with him in every way.

  Braxton slid to his knees, taking her with him. His mouth was everywhere, nibbling at the side of her neck, sucking at the flesh of her throat, then lower as she arched back to let him reach her breasts.

  His lips clamped down over her nipple, his mouth hot and wet and greedy.

  She thrust down, impaling herself on his shaft, rocking slowly back and forth until the heat in her core threatened to overtake her again.

  “Quinn!”

  She trapped his jaw in her hands and kissed him fiercely. “I love you.” She chanted the confession over and over in her mind as the twisting threads inside her snapped.

  Braxton turned and rolled until she was on her back. The cool cement barely penetrated compared to the scorching male looming over her, thrusting hard until he came with a guttural shout.

  His hair fell across his forehead, and his arms trembled before he slowly lowered to fuse their mouths together once more in a kiss that shook her to the core.

  * * *

  Quinn snapped the button on her pants, checking to make sure both daggers were in place. She felt Braxton’s gaze on her and lifted her head to find him smiling at her.

  “What?”

  Before he could answer, the transmitter beeped once in her ear as the line of communication between them and the field office opened. Had someone opened the channel two minutes ago there would have been some explaining in order.

  She frowned at the background noise that filtered through the line, some low enough she doubted Braxton picked up on half of it.

  “Rae?” Braxton said after a minute, his hand going to his ear as though to adjust the transmitter.

  Something smashed to the floor, and Quinn flinched as the sound echoed over the line.

  Braxton grabbed her hand and turned her towards the elevator. “What’s going on, Rae?” he tried again, but nothing more than the sound of a fist striking flesh echoed over the open channel.

  “Fuck.” He cursed the slow lift.

  A second later the line between their transmitters and the field office went dead. They exchanged looks, and Quinn pulled her phone from her pocket, punching in Drew’s cell number.

  With every ring, dread pooled in her sto
mach. “He’s not answering.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “I can get there faster,” Quinn argued, easily keeping up with Braxton’s furious pace as they sprinted the last block to the field office. She’d said as much the second they realized something was wrong, and felt compelled to remind him again. They’d left Braxton’s car ten blocks from the construction site to track the demon on foot. Backtracking to get it would have taken more time than to run for the field office.

  “And I won’t let you go in alone. We stick together.” His answer hadn’t changed.

  Nor had his reminders that the Scion could be sitting in wait for her. Since their city wasn’t high on demon traffic most of the time, a lust demon popping up on the radar so close by felt almost too coincidental, especially given the lust demon’s preoccupation with Quinn during the encounter.

  They needed to play it smart and be prepared for anything instead of rushing headlong into the situation. It took no more than a look at his granite expression to know Braxton was just as worried about Rae, Cass and Drew as she was. Although her first instinct had been to go for Cass, they were closer to the field office. Jordan and Gage’s plane had touched down minutes ago and they were on their way over to check the safe house. Still, she couldn’t stop the cold cramping in her stomach at the thought of the Scion getting within a hundred feet of Cass.

  “If he wanted you both dead, he would have struck before now.”

  Braxton’s comment did little to ease the panic that wanted to claw through her chest. She almost wished that wasn’t the case, wished she didn’t know how much Shadow Demons thrived on playing with their victims first. Only this time around she was at the center of an old game the hostile felt compelled to bring full circle.

  “Stairs.” Braxton’s curt order preceded them entering the building.

  Quinn had half expected the internal alarms to be screeching by now since the sensors were programmed to pick up on a Shadow Demon’s bodily readings—or lack thereof. To Quinn, who could usually hear activity as far as two floors up or down, the eerie silence chilled her. Even halfway up the stairs, both of them armed and ready, she still hadn’t picked up on any auditory clues as to where Rae was. She took a small amount of comfort in not detecting any demons in the building. Not even a lingering trace any had been there at all.