There wasn’t much of what he said that made any sense to me, but the thought of the girl being harmed in any way set my back itching. I flicked my eyes from Rhett to Amos then back to the cat as he leapt from the table and vanished among the jumble of antiques strewn around the room. “We should find her.”
Amos nodded. “She’s had a difficult day. We should start with her room and work our way through the hotel. I doubt she’ll be out tonight.”
“I doubt she has any wish to see us.”
I narrowed my eyes at Rhett. “She has little option. If she’s in danger, and we are to keep her safe, then that’s what we must do.”
They didn’t think that I’d noticed the look that passed between them. I ignored it. I couldn’t explain the way I felt. I didn’t understand it myself, but since I’d touched her, she’d been the primary focus of my attention. Even with distance between us, she was there in my mind.
Whoever she was, whatever she was, she was mine. Mine to protect.
“We’ll start with her room.”
She wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere, and I was losing my patience.
“She’ll likely be in the spa. Calm yourself.” Amos seemed almost too relaxed, considering he, too, had touched her. He may not have come in contact with her mark, but touching her had been enough. Unless he was feigning his discomfort.
“Being angry when we find her will serve no purpose but to further alienate her from us.”
The voice of fucking reason. But Rhett was right. She’d run from me once already that day.
“Something is very wrong. We’ve always known where to find her.”
Neither of them disagreed. Rhett was the first to leave.
I didn’t use the portal ability often for fear of being seen. The image of someone vanishing in a plume of smoke would attract no end of unwanted attention, but I was becoming so deeply concerned, that I followed without hesitation.
The spa was empty. Not a soul was in there. Amos was already checking the steam room. Rhett the sauna. I moved toward the jacuzzi.
She was face up, inches beneath the churning waters, and not moving, save for the sway of her lifeless body being battered by the water jets.
I froze.
My legs were leaden and refused to move. My mind was void as I watched Amos rush to the water and jump in, a kris forming in his hand. With one swift movement, he had severed her hair and was lifting her from the water. Rhett had joined him, taking her in his arms and turning to look at me. I think I shook my head.
“Her room.”
Amos gave the order as he stepped from the churning pool, moving around Rhett and the limp girl to reach me. His grip was hard around my bicep. “Silas.”
I watched the smoke dissipate. Rhett and Maia were gone. “Is she dead?”
“Shall we find out?”
Amos rarely sounded annoyed. I locked eyes with him. “The pain is gone.”
“Well, fuck.”
Fuck indeed. We’d just been told to keep her safe and managed to fail her within ten minutes. I shook my arm free from his grasp and followed them.
She was on the floor, lying on her side, vomiting water. The deep whoop of her lungs filling with air as she gasped and retched was one of the most reassuring sounds I ever remember hearing. I stepped to her side, kneeled, and reached out my hand to stroke her head. “Maia?”
Her whole body went taut.
Fear. She feared me.
“Maia, we had no idea. We came to you as quickly as we could, but it was…are you okay?”
Her body relaxed, slumping forward before the retching resumed. I looked to Rhett and he held up both hands, giving them a half-hearted wave. He’d managed to start her heart. She couldn’t have been under the water for long. He seemed to understand what I couldn’t say, because he gave me a curt nod and turned away, heading into her bathroom.
“This was my fault. I should never have touched you.”
I hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but Amos certainly heard it. “This was happening before you came near her, Silas. Remember the choking…”
I nodded once and pressed my lips into a firm line as Rhett came back into the room with a robe over his arm. He passed me without a word and draped it over her barely covered body before sitting next to her. Not once did his eyes leave her.
“Who could be doing this?”
“I have no idea, Amos, but I know who does.”
“I will come with you.” It wasn’t a request. “Will you be alright here, Rhett?”
“How long will you be?” He sounded almost worried.
“As long as it takes. She can’t be left alone. Not now.”
His head bobbed, and he looked back to her. It was then that I realised what held his attention. The long, beautiful locks of golden hair were gone. It had been necessary, but it could upset her further when she realised. I did not want to witness that.
The retching had stopped, and she rolled onto her back panting. “Thank you.”
It was barely audible behind the exhausted strain of her voice, but we all heard it. None of us responded. I couldn’t. The rage in my chest wouldn’t allow me to speak anymore if I’d wanted to. Instead, I looked to Amos. He replied with an understanding nod when weapons formed in each of my hands. We left Rhett and the girl where they were.
I wanted answers. Real answers. Not the cryptic bullshit the little furball had been feeding me, and he could either give them to me, or find himself without his tail. His choice.
She managed to sit up and look at me just before I left. Her eyes met mine and pain tore through my shoulders.
Agonising, reassuring, confirming pain.
She was alive. She was there, whole, and making me uncomfortable. Her eyes widened as she witnessed me leaving the room. I didn’t care that she saw. She would have to learn what we were, for good or for bad. What we were would keep her safe. She would have to accept it if she wanted to live.
16
I don’t know what I’d just witnessed, but all I remember thinking was it can’t have been what I thought it was. I mean, those sword things came from nowhere. He’d turned into…nothing.
I didn’t dare move, but my chest was absolutely killing me, and my arms were aching from holding myself up. I could see the stalker on the edge of my vision, sitting within arm’s reach. The other two had… I flopped back onto the floor, wheezing with the pain.
“Here. Let me help you up.”
I didn’t protest as he scooped me up and lay me down on my bed, then sat on the edge of the bed opposite.
“What happened?” It didn’t sound like me, but I’d definitely asked. My voice was a bit raspy, and not very loud, but I was sure I’d asked.
“You drowned.”
Well, yes, I remembered that much. I didn’t bother asking anything else. I’d forgotten he had a strange way of answering things.
Staring up at the ceiling, I tried to remember what exactly had happened. I’d been floating, warm and happy and relaxed. Then I’d felt a yank and had been pulled under by my hair. My bloody hair!
“My chest hurts.”
“You inhaled a lot of water, which you vomited out. I gave you chest compressions to restart your heart. There will be bruising, strains from the vomiting, and the possibility of infection.”
His blunt way of putting it would have irritated the hell out of me if it hadn’t been for the tone of his voice. He sounded so defeated.
“Thank you.” It wasn’t enough. He’d saved me.
“It was Amos.”
“But you said…”
“Amos freed you from the jacuzzi. I brought you here and…”
He brought me here? I felt terrible, but my mind had started racing and I wanted answers. “How did you get me from there to here?”
He remained silent, so I turned my head to look at him and asked again. His resigned sigh was the only indication that he’d heard me. He didn’t answer at first. He didn’t seem to want to explain. “You saw Si
las leave.”
“I saw Silas evaporate.”
He shrugged. Apparently, that was all the explanation I was getting, so I forced myself up and shuffled down the bed, kicking off the robe I hadn’t realised had been draped over me. The dressing table sat at the foot of the bed Adam had slept in, the bed I had been laid on, and I stared at my reflection in the mirror.
I looked ghastly. I was pale anyway, but I looked like I’d died. My eyes were black with heavy circles underneath, my hair was sticking out at odd angles where it had started to dry, and it was about eight inches too short. It had been hacked off, I realised, probably with one of those massive sword things.
My eyes filled with tears. I wasn’t vain, not really, but my hair…
“Rhett, what are those sword things called?”
“Khopesh.”
“They’re Egyptian?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes. “How did they just appear like that?”
I heard the bed springs pop but didn’t look to see what he was doing. Movement behind me made me shudder, but I didn’t flinch as he sat behind me. “I can help, if you want me to.”
My thoughts all jumbled together as I focused on his soft voice. On his accent. On the warmth of his body so close to my bare back.
Silas had healed my leg. He’d made food appear out of thin air. And swords. He and Amos had disappeared into thin air. Rhett could talk to cats. My reasoning was that whatever this was, even if it was a really weird dream brought on by overeating, I should like to get my hair back before I faced the rest of it.
“Help me. Please.”
I felt it brushing my back. It sort of fell, like I’d taken it out of a clip. But that wasn’t what made me gasp. The wheezing sound that accompanied my breathing had stopped. The pain in my chest was gone. I didn’t feel sick. I didn’t feel tired. I felt…well, I felt just as good as I had when Silas had sorted the cat scratches. Better.
I opened my eyes and looked at myself. I was perfect. My cheeks were rosy, my eyes weren’t baggy and dark, and my hair looked like I’d just spent a fortune in a salon the way it sat in perfect loose curls around my shoulders.
I was so grateful. I turned around to face him; to thank him. I don’t know what possessed me— I was wearing a damn bikini and had just technically died—but it was like I was seeing his face for the first time. His deep brown eyes, glossy curls that sat just past his ears, that strong jawline…
His mouth was nice. His lips sat in a natural upward curve making him look like he was on the verge of smiling, despite his serious personality. He was just as handsome as Amos, in his own way. Less rugged.
I smiled, I couldn’t help it, and he instinctively mirrored me. He was even more gorgeous when he smiled. “Thank you.”
One minute I was looking at his lips, the next, mine were pressed on them. I half expected him to push me away, so when he kissed me back, I was a bit surprised. Good surprised, obviously, but I didn’t expect his enthusiastic response. I didn’t even realise I’d lifted my hand to his cheek, the short stubble beard rough beneath my palm was the first I knew of it.
And he was so warm. I could feel his body heat through his clothes, smell his cinnamon scent. Everything about him was just perfect.
And he was kissing me. No. I was kissing him, that much was obvious by the way I’d ended up straddling him. I didn’t remember moving. The way his tongue traced my bottom lip set my muscles clenching, and I felt the equivalent reaction in him.
I’d been desperate all week, and now I had him right there. He was so close. I needed more. I needed all of him.
I groaned onto his mouth as I reached up and pushed my hands into his hair. The feel of it on the pads of my fingers was almost electric and I ground my hips into his as the sensation travelled through my body. He followed suit, running his fingertips over my arms and around my hips.
It was brief, but I felt him stiffen, arching his back as his fingers travelled around and up my back, a small grunt the only indication he gave of there being something wrong.
I stopped and pulled back, my eyes searching his for signs of what had caused it. “What?”
“I touched your hip. It is nothing. I... I am fine.”
He leaned in to kiss me again, but I pressed my palm against his chest and shook my head. “What about my hip? That birthmark?” I remembered what had happened with Silas He’d claimed to have had cramp when he’d done the same. “What is it with that damned birthmark?”
Pressing his hand into the small of my back, he tugged me closer. “It is not a birthmark and I am fine.”
The way he tugged me dragged me right over his cock and for a split second I imagined lowering myself onto it. I needed it, I ached for it, but I wanted the truth about that bloody mark more. Why were they so weird about it?
I backed away, lowering my feet to the floor, but maintained eye contact with him. He didn’t move.
“Why does my birthmark make you all weird?”
Rather than answer, he rested back on his elbows and looked at the ceiling. I was sure I heard him sigh before he answered me.
“We do not know why, but it causes us pain if we touch it, and the pain does not go away. Or, we do not think it does.”
“It did. But only while you were dead,” Silas explained. “It came back when you looked at me, and it’s still there now.”
I only caught half of his explanation. I was too busy putting my heart back in my chest after it had leapt out of my mouth. Silas and Amos had returned and were standing by the balcony door. They hadn’t bothered to announce themselves.
“You scared the living piss out of me!”
I’d turned to face them and staggered back when I saw the fucking cat standing between them, rubbing its face against Silas’s leg. He kicked it away and it hissed. The sound made me step back, but I misjudged the space between the beds and fell backwards, landing in Rhett’s lap. He was still hard.
“How long have you two been there?”
Heat was creeping up my face, but I didn’t move from my position on Rhett’s lap. That would mean moving fractionally closer to the cat, and it was too close already. I couldn’t help noticing that they were each holding swords. I quickly diverted my gaze to Amos. He looked perfectly at ease as he looked at me and Rhett, a smirk on his face.
“Long enough to know it’s a great view from here. Having fun, Rhett?”
I scowled, but he didn’t answer the question or seem to expect me to move.
“Why is that fleabag here?” I looked to Silas for explanation since he’d antagonised the thing.
“Answers, Fleabag.” He didn’t sound too pleased and avoided looking directly at me, flaring my temper. “Tell her.”
I snorted and slid onto the bed. Rhett sounded like he was trying to clear his throat as I did, and the heat in my cheeks increased. “Are you serious? You want me to believe that fucking cat can talk now?”
“You believe your hair can grow eight inches in a moment, your body can be repaired from severe damage, and that items, and people, can materialise from nowhere.”
I turned my head to look at Rhett, eyes narrowed. He couldn’t just keep his smart-arse remarks to himself, could he? I was about to ask when I heard an unfamiliar voice.
“Tell her what, exactly?”
I turned my head slowly. The cat spoke. Or something.
Whatever it did, I heard it, and I locked up. I couldn’t move. I just stared toward Silas.
Silas bent almost double, his dangerous looking sword angled toward the ground where I presumed the cat was sitting. His whole body was tensed, particularly around his shoulders, and he looked terrifying. “A single word out of turn and I will skin you. Talk.”
Without warning, the cat jumped up on the bed, and I unfroze, lifting my knees up beneath my chest. Silas noticed and frowned.
“He won’t attack you again, Maia. He likes his hide.”
I’m pretty sure my eyes were like saucers, and I couldn’t
drag them away from his face. The dangerous edge to his voice, the ripple of those taut muscles beneath his shirt, the way he gripped the sword—all awakening some primitive part of me I didn’t know existed. I shut it down. I could feel the bloody cat staring at me, its tail flicking in my peripheral, even though he was answering Silas.
“I was sent to Portobello road to locate you three. When I had, I made myself comfortable in the shop with Mrs. Barnes. She really is very dear to me and will worry if I am not indoors by nine, Silas, so please lower that awful Khopesh. Barbaric tools. I digress. I located you and kept watch until such a time as the girl could be steered here. I was tasked with driving you together, which I have done successfully it would seem, given that you all appear to be very cosy in here.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” My fury reduced any fear I had of the little shit to ash.
Well, that and the muscled, sword-wielding ball of testosterone opposite, who seemed to dislike the thing as much as I did.
Cats are smug. As fuck.
And the expression on his furry little face as he looked from me to Rhett, who was still leaning back on his elbows sporting a very visible and impressive semi, as though I were some sort of paid service he’d just enjoyed, pissed me right off.
Now, I’ve said before that I’m slow on the uptake, and I honestly was under a lot of stress, so it only just occurred to me that Rhett and Silas seemed to do whatever I wanted.
Quite literally.
I wanted long hair, I got it.
I wanted the pain to stop, it did.
I’d asked for answers, I was getting them, even if I didn’t fully understand it yet.
I’d said I wanted to feel better, and there it was.
I had requested that the cat be drowned in a pond. Of all of them, the dead cat was the only one I hadn’t gotten. These guys delivered…what? Wants? Needs? Took requests?
“Silas. Kill it.”
A wicked grin spread over his face, a feral look blazing in his eyes. My stomach clenched. Yeah, I’d kind of worked it out, and he liked that I seemed okay with it.
The cat had the grace to look concerned, his ears flattening on his head. “You cannot kill—”
Trickster’s Hunt Page 10