by Linda Howard
“He worked for Veton,” she said in a clipped tone, “and he did not come into this world alone.”
Ah. So she already knew the answer to the question he had been asking Nevan. She could have spoken before, he thought irritably; then he could have dispatched the other Hunter without hesitation.
He pushed the irritation behind his mental wall to accompany his lust. Neither was useful. Instead, he immediately processed this new information.
The Tower. He wasn’t surprised. Chaos was capable of anything, which was the reason for its existence. He was less concerned about Veton’s involvement, though, than he was about the news there were other Hunters. They would be able to locate Strength as easily as he had, and he might not be able to protect her from a multipronged attack. “Then we have no time to waste,” he said curtly as he sheathed his knife. “I will return you to Aeonia now. Is the Alexandria Deck nearby?” Getting her to safety was of paramount importance.
But Lenna shook her head. “Not yet. I need to see the boy to safety and bring his mother’s murderer to justice.”
Her resistance was an unpleasant surprise, one he hadn’t anticipated, and one he couldn’t allow to stand. The other Hunters must be waiting for their fellow to accomplish his task, but they wouldn’t wait long. They would be able to sense that Strength was still here, and they’d realize Nevan had failed.
“Not possible,” he said, dismissing the problem of the human child, who simply didn’t matter. “The Emperor has requested your immediate return. We will collect the deck and—”
She interrupted him with a cold look and an upraised hand, as if she would stay him. “I forbid you to transport me until all my tasks here are completed.”
Forbid? He was a Hunter. She couldn’t forbid him to do anything. There were laws that governed him and his existence, but servitude to the Major Arcana wasn’t one of them. They could hire him, but they couldn’t rule him. She had to know that, which made her statement even more annoying.
He hadn’t realized until now just how annoying such willfulness, such determination, could be; he could only thank the One that he wasn’t bound to obey her. “I don’t work for you. I work for the Emperor. His orders carry more weight than yours,” he said as he strode to her.
She drew back, her blue eyes taking on a sharp warning. “The child—”
“I’ll see to him,” he said briskly, cutting her off. He didn’t have time for any of this nonsense. “When you are safe.”
The boy held on to Lenna’s waist, clasping it with everything he had as he peeked up at Caine with a mixture of awe and fear in his big dark eyes. Caine realized he’d have to forcibly pry the child away from her, presenting him with yet another annoying delay.
“No,” she said, her jaw setting. “I want to—”
“It doesn’t matter what you want, not this time,” he snapped, interrupting her yet again. He stood so close to her he could feel her body heat, even on this cold day. He towered over her, a head taller and twice her size in volume. Major Arcana or not, she didn’t have the physical strength to stop him; if he wanted to wrest her away from the child, he would succeed.
He had noticed the bag she carried securely across her body. She couldn’t have traveled to Seven without the cards; the deck was required for her return to Aeonia, as it had been required for her departure. Knowing that, would she keep the deck with her? He knew he himself would. Logically, she would have the cards in that bag. There was one easy way to find out.
Teleporting was as effortless for a Hunter as thought. Caine placed a firm hand on her shoulder, and with his other easily moved the child away. He lifted his hand from the boy, and—
Nothing happened.
Their return to Aeonia should’ve been instantaneous.
The child gave a high-pitched shriek and lunged for Lenna. Hastily, before the child could touch her, Caine tried again.
Nothing.
He swore under his breath, frustration raw in his gut. Obviously she didn’t have the deck with her. She could have hidden it anywhere, and given her insistence on staying here, she’d refuse to tell him where it was. She’d resist telling him anything about the deck. He tried again. There should have been a flash of awareness, a burst of energy felt in every cell of his body. Instead, there was … nothing.
He said a very pithy Seven expletive.
The child had once again latched on to Lenna, and this time Caine didn’t bother moving him away.
He glared at Lenna. No words were needed. She had a maddening expression of satisfaction on her face as she said, “The deck brought me into this world. It is necessary to transport me home again.”
He already knew that, and he snarled a frustrated sound. “Take me to it. You must go home.”
She smiled, a lovely smile that hit him hard and low. “As soon as I’ve taken care of Elijah and fulfilled my promise, I will be glad to go with you.”
The surly Hunter was unhappy with this turn of events, but she didn’t care. While she appreciated that he had saved her life, she had given Elijah her promise of aid; what kind of person would she be if she then simply left the child to fend for himself without trying as hard as she might to stay here? Lenna was glad she hadn’t decided to store the complete deck in her bag, that she’d had the forethought to separate the cards; otherwise she’d be back in Aeonia, facing the Emperor.
Her relief when the Hunter had failed in his attempt to teleport her had been so intense she had almost laughed, which he definitely wouldn’t have appreciated.
Being happy and relieved was one thing; gloating at a Hunter was something else. They were immensely dangerous beings, rough and violent, and indispensable to the universe, which made them arrogant. On the other hand, because they traveled the universe and all the planes, having the aid of one such as he would be invaluable. He had the option of simply leaving her here, but Hunters were renowned for never walking away from a mission: they accomplished it, or they died.
“I am Lenna,” she said, omitting her title because obviously he already knew it. He would also know her name, but proper introductions were still called for. “This is Elijah. What is your name, Hunter?”
“Caine.”
Elijah straightened away from her as he gaped up at Caine, and his dark eyes rounded in astonishment. “Hunter?” His voice rose in excitement. “I’m a Hunter, too, and so is Lenna. We fight for justice, like all the other superheroes.” He swiped a hand across his tear-streaked cheek. “Sorry. Hunters don’t cry.”
Caine looked down at the boy. He was so tall the child barely reached his waist; and so close Lenna could feel the heat of his body even on this cold day. “No,” he said, the words clipped. “No, we do not.”
“Can I have one of your guns? I’ll be careful.” With a small finger, he poked at an unusual weapon with which Lenna wasn’t familiar. “Can I have that one? It looks kind of like a Super Soaker. Is it a Super Soaker?”
“It is not. It’s a liquid laser blaster. And no, you may not have one of my weapons.” His head swiveled as he alertly surveyed their surroundings, and she knew he was searching for the energy of the other Hunters. “We can’t stay here,” he said to Lenna. “You aren’t safe.”
The other Hunters could be on them without warning. She knew that, and in the back of her mind she had been braced for their appearance. Caine would fight, and from what she’d seen he was a superlative warrior, but he’d be outnumbered. She, too, would have to fight, and though she had some skill she wasn’t a Hunter. “They can find me anywhere,” she pointed out.
“Not necessarily.” He looked down at her with his inscrutable coal-dark eyes. “I can shield my energy from other Hunters. If you are close to me, the shield will enclose you, too. But you will have to stay within the shield.”
“How close?” She meant the question in the most prosaic of ways, literally asking for a measurement of space. She dealt better with absolutes, in knowing exactly what was expected of her, rather than risking her life on
differing definitions of close.
“Very,” he said, and clamped his arm around her waist as he pulled Elijah to him with his other hand. She felt a rush, a sharp zing of energy, and a dizzying sense of enormous speed that was nothing like when Elijah had called her here through the Alexandria Deck. In what was less than the blink of an eye, their surroundings coalesced around her; they were still in the wooded area—or a wooded area, as she had no idea if it was the same one—but the trees crowded more thickly around them. While the Hunter could not teleport her between worlds without the Alexandria Deck, he could—apparently—teleport her within this world.
At some point during that flash of time, she had placed her hand on Caine’s shoulder to anchor herself. She could feel the thick pad of muscle, the heat and sense of coiled strength seeping through his clothing to her fingers. Every nerve ending in her body was awake and tingling in reaction to the energy he was using to both shield and teleport them.
Her stomach clenched and her knees went weak. The sensation was so similar to that of sexual desire that heat pooled between her legs, and she reflexively tightened her pelvic muscles as if he had pushed his penis inside her.
Oh, this would not do.
He had dropped his arm from around her waist as soon as they teleported, and now she removed her hand from his shoulder. She immediately felt more grounded, more in control, as if touching him interfered with her ability to concentrate. How odd; she had known Hunters had an energy field, but she hadn’t realized it was so strong. But then, she’d never actually touched a Hunter before, so her knowledge had been incomplete.
She must remember this. It could be one of the Hunters’ secret weapons, the ability to confuse thought with a touch.
Or it could be because he was so very … male. She had noticed, of course. She wasn’t just a card entity; she was a living woman. But because she was Strength, in one instant she realized all this, and in the next instant she gave him a calm look and said, “Elijah is—”
The child himself interrupted her. “Whoa! That was awesome! Can you teach me how? Poof! Nobody ever told me grown-ups could do that! It’s a secret, isn’t it? Grown-ups keep lots of secrets. Poof!” he said again, waving his skinny arms in excitement. “That’s even better than Iron Man, because he has to have his suit or he can’t do anything.”
Caine looked as if he were in pain, but instead of deflating the child, he said, “You aren’t old enough to … ah … poof. One must be old enough to drive before he can poof.”
“Oh.” Elijah looked severely disappointed, but also faintly suspicious, as if he didn’t necessarily believe that time restriction. She suspected this wouldn’t be his last attempt to find out Caine’s secrets.
Lenna waited a beat, then directed the conversation back to her desired subject. “I’m sure you are anxious to have this task done and move on. Our first objective is to see to Elijah’s safety, and to the apprehension or elimination of this … Uncle Bobby, the man who murdered his mother. I believe he has cohorts—another man accosted us in Elijah’s house, but we escaped.”
“How?”
“I kicked him,” she replied with a slight lift of her eyebrows, leaving it to him to decipher her exact meaning.
He grunted, then moved on to what he obviously saw as a more important topic. “My first objective is to keep you safe from the other Hunters. They can’t find us now, but obviously we can’t simply stand in the forest all day. It’s cold. We’ll need shelter and food. The boy is shaking with cold already.”
Concerned, Lenna looked down at Elijah and saw the truth of that statement. She herself withstood the cold very well, but Elijah was small. “Very well. What do you suggest?”
He gave her a slightly exaggerated expression of astonishment, just enough for her to catch his sarcastic response to her cooperativeness. She shrugged; whether or not he liked her stance on staying to protect Elijah wasn’t something that concerned her. The child needed her help, and she had promised it.
“We’ll take the child to a safe place—” he began.
“No,” she snapped, not losing her temper but barking out the word with the authority she was accustomed to displaying. “We can leave him nowhere. I told you, the man who tracked us in Elijah’s home had ill-intent against him. He witnessed a murder,” she added in a lowered voice, hoping the boy would not hear. Her eyes flashed, hard and angry. “Elijah called me into this world to help, and I will not abandon him.”
Caine’s already grim mouth pressed into a straight line. “I can take you anywhere on this plane and leave him behind,” he said in a cold, flat tone. “Never forget that.”
“And never forget that you need the deck to take me back,” she shot in return. “I give you my word I’ll cooperate when we have stopped the people who mean harm to him.” Not if—when.
Caine had seldom been more annoyed in his life than he was right now, but he didn’t have much choice. If she had been anyone else—meaning someone with a softer will and less determination—he could have overridden her protests and done his job. He couldn’t do that with her, because she was Strength. She had set her course, and damned if he could see a means to sway her from it. If she changed her mind, it would be because of her own reasons, not his.
He would have to keep her safe on Seven, where she was as noticeable as the blazing sun. At the moment she was at least appropriately dressed like any ordinary human woman of this world, but her bearing was anything but ordinary. Her looks weren’t ordinary. She glowed. Not brightly, but anyone who wasn’t an idiot would eventually notice the glow wasn’t a trick of the light. She was attempting to blend in, but she never would.
He wanted to be rid of her more than he’d ever wanted anything, but instead he had to keep her within arm’s-length for what promised to feel like an eternity. He’d have to bathe with her, sleep with her—
Bet she hadn’t thought of that.
The perverse satisfaction he got from that thought helped ease his frustration, but he couldn’t stop himself from muttering, “My damn bad luck you have to be Strength.”
She gave him a cool look. “You prefer weak women?”
He kept his answer simple. “Yes.” It was a lie, but what difference did it make to her what kind of woman he preferred? “They do what I tell them to do. I like that.” He showed his teeth in something that only pretended to be a smile.
“Then you do have a problem, but your problem isn’t mine.”
He glanced down and saw Elijah staring up at them with round, worried eyes. The boy had no one now except Lenna, and though he was young he wasn’t so young that he didn’t understand most of what they were talking about. Faced with those apprehensive dark eyes, and seeing how the kid was shivering, Caine elected to leave their disagreement for now.
“Enough of this. I’ll take both of you somewhere safe, and warm.” First things first. He put his arm around Lenna again, pulling her in close to him. She felt disturbingly small and frail to him, but that was deceptive. She wasn’t tall, her bones were small, but her muscles were smooth and likely more powerful than people would expect. Her skin was surprisingly warm, her body supple against him.
Every muscle in his body tightened, and hot wave of sheer lust surged through him.
Just what he needed. He clenched his teeth and swore long and viciously to himself. He wasn’t a man who dealt in self-deception, though. He wanted her. He admitted it. Lenna was gorgeous and tempting; he’d have to be dead not to respond to her, and he was far from dead.
Tough shit. That was a phrase often used here on Seven, and it was remarkably appropriate. Their worlds and positions were so different they had almost nothing in common other than being carbon-based life forms. She was of the Arcane. He was a mercenary, and he intended to remain one.
She distracted him by putting her hand on Elijah’s shoulder. “Is Elijah protected by your shield, too?”
“No,” he said, clipping off the words because he was still so damned annoyed. “The othe
r Hunters can track you and me by our energy, which is not of this world, but they can’t track the child.” The child could be under their noses or miles away, and no Hunter would be able to find him.
Lenna nodded, satisfied with that answer. “You are more familiar with Seven than I am, Hunter. What do we do next?”
He gave the only answer he could. “I’ll take you to a safe place first. Then we find Uncle Bobby.”
Chapter 7
Too much time had passed. Esma was beginning to feel on edge. Judging by the expression on Stroud’s face, he felt it, too. She reached out with her senses, dismayed by what she felt—or rather, what she didn’t feel.
“Nevan is gone,” Stroud said. He took a few steps toward the woods but stopped, because there was no point in investigating. They both sensed the same thing. “Teleported out of this world or dead. So is she.”
They had known that the Emperor would send Caine after Strength, but they had hoped the wrinkle Veton had provided would slow Caine down for at least a day, or two. Instead, the time difference in their arrival and Caine’s had been minutes, which could be catastrophic. Damn Veton, for overestimating his power. On the other hand—he was chaos, after all, so nothing he touched would mean there were no problems. His reason for being was to compound the problem. She should have remembered that.
So now they had Caine to deal with. They had both felt him, and now they didn’t. She could feel nothing—not Nevan, not Caine, not Strength.
She had no idea what that meant, because the options were so varied. Hunters weren’t easy to kill, but they could be taken out. It would be next to impossible for a human to kill a Hunter, but Lenna might’ve, if her powers here were strong enough. Another Hunter could do the job, too, especially if that other Hunter was Caine.