Darkness & Lies: A Brotherhood Novel (#1)

by Brandi Salazar

  “Maybe I did. Who’s to say?” Behr shrugged, enjoying Erias’s uneasy shifting. “So, your highness, what can I do for you today? Besides freeze my nuts off. Jesus!” Behr pulled the collar of his coat up, clutching it to his chin and drawing more attention to his face.

  Erias studied the… thing smothering Behr’s face a second longer before tearing his eyes away in disgust. Beards were one thing. Face huggers were a whole different entity.

  “I have an assignment. I’m heading into town. Since I can’t be in two places at once, I need you here.” He started away before the urge to take a razor to his face consumed him entirely.

  “Yeah, sure, alrighty then. I’ll just be here if you need me. Dying of hypothermia,” Behr grumbled as he walked deeper into the chambers. He could already hear the muffled screams of the wraiths trying to claw their way out. “Oh yeah, this should be fun.”

  Chapter 5

  Cheyenne rubbed the towel roughly through her hair as she worked out some of her rage. That stupid piece of shit had seriously cut down on the time she had to work with here. Two days! Two days down the drain, and for what? Some muscle bound He-Man who thought he owned a historical treasure? Bullshit! She was going to show him. This time tomorrow she and her team were heading right back up that mountain and claiming what was theirs.

  Tossing her towel on the counter, Cheyenne grabbed her comb and set about detangling her hair. Realizing she had forgotten her robe in the bedroom, she went to retrieve it. It was lying on the end of the bed right next to her luggage where she had left it, but that wasn’t what grabbed her attention.

  Stopping in her tracks, Cheyenne noted the alien black gym tote on the floor at the foot of the bed along with an extremely large pair of black lace–up boots that definitely didn’t belong to her size nine feet.

  “Wow,” a male voice said from behind her before clearing his throat.

  Cheyenne whipped around, coming face-to-face with an extremely handsome, utterly delectable male specimen. Relaxing on the queen-sized bed that should be empty, the man was all legs and potent sexuality as his deeply brilliant blue eyes seared her naked flesh. And with that thought…

  Horrified, Cheyenne stumbled back in her haste to retrieve her robe, hitting her heel on his overly large boots, and went careening backward toward the floor. She braced for the impact that never came.

  Puzzled as to why her derrière wasn’t bruised and battered; Cheyenne eked her eyes open and found herself staring into eyes the color of the bluest skies set into a chiseled face of perfection and the most kissable full lips she had ever laid eyes on.

  He should have just let her fall but when he’d seen her tumbling back, Erias had panicked, and without thinking he’d leapt from the bed to catch her. He was regretting that decision now.

  With his arm wrapped securely around her bare waist and her naked breasts pressed against him, he could hardly breathe. The way she was staring at him, her smoky eyes hooded and obviously, longing for him, was nearly his undoing.

  Before he could catch himself, Erias dipped his head and took possession of her mouth. It was the most incredible kiss he’d had in ages. Her lips were soft and gentle as they moved against his. Erias pulled her closer so he could feel every inch of her delectable body against his.

  Cheyenne wasn’t sure what had happened. One moment she was falling to her death and the next she was wrapped in a wealth of hard muscle. Although she was truly digging the way they rippled under her fingers as he moved against her, this was a total stranger with his mouth all over her, and she was butt-ass naked in his arms. With a forceful shove, Cheyenne twisted out of his hold and fell the rest of the way to the floor.

  “What the hell do you think you are doing!” she screeched. He stared at her with glassy eyes. If she didn’t know any better, she would say he was drunk. “Who are you? Why are you in my room? Get out!” Scrambling to her feet, she snatched her robe and covered herself.

  “Slow down, lady. I’m not here to hurt you.” Erias rose unsteadily to his feet as he tried to work the fog out of his head from that searing kiss. He noticed s had covered herself, but the fire snapping in her eyes and the way she clutched the robe to her body warned him that she was a woman on the edge. He needed to find a way to calm her before she went over the edge and had him arrested. Not that any bars could hold him, but it would put a wrench in his plans of which he couldn’t afford right now.

  “Don’t try to placate me, pal.” She inched closer to the phone resting on the night stand. “I want to know how you got in here.”

  Raking a hand through his hair, Erias offered her the lie he had thrown together on the way there and hoped she wasn’t smart enough to see through it.

  “All the rooms were booked so they doubled us up.” He shrugged, walking back to his side of the room and flopping down on the bed.

  Cheyenne glared at the man’s nonchalant demeanor as he lay there with his arms folded behind his head and his legs stretched across the mattress, his socked feet crossed at the ankles. He was the epitome of calm while she was seething with anger at her room being all but given away.

  Stiffening her stance, she eyed him speculatively. “You’re lying,” she spat.

  Erias wasn’t fooled. She had a good poker face; he'd give her that, but at the end of the day he could read people like no one’s business.

  “Am I?” he smirked. “Call Ranga, he’ll confirm it.” Lucky for him, he knew everyone and their grandmother around these parts. He could rattle off names all day, not that any one of them had an inkling of knowledge about him. He’d have to play it cool and hope he could call her bluff.

  Crossing her arms over her chest, she appeared to be sizing him up. To land another blow to his manhood? He wasn’t sure, but Erias continued to smile and wait to see how it all panned out.

  “Where’s your key?” Cheyenne jutted her chin out defiantly; sure she had called his bluff until he held out his hand and produced a small copper key with a worn, brown leather tag complete with the room number stitched in.

  Still not fully convinced, she went to the closet and dug in her purse. “You could have stolen mine.”

  Erias just grinned at her flustered state. Little did she know he was the master of illusion. So long as she didn’t want to inspect it up close; he was golden.

  Cheyenne was severely disappointed, not to mention highly pissed off, when she found her copy right where she had left it. Peeking over her shoulder, she saw her new roommate dangling his own key out in front of him while wearing a huge shit-eating grin on his insanely handsome face.

  It took everything in her to fight the urge not to round his bed and slap the smug smile from his face.

  “Done in the bathroom, roomie?” he taunted.

  “I’m taking this up with management,” Cheyenne gritted, crossing the room to get to the phone.

  “Go ahead, but take it from me, you’ll just be wasting your time.”

  Ignoring him, Cheyenne picked up the phone and pressed the star to connect her with the front desk. When nothing happened, she felt like screaming. Slamming the handset back onto its base, Cheyenne cut a hot path to the door determined to get someone to listen to her and get this obvious mistake straightened out.

  Before she could reach the door, the man blocked her way. “Move,” she demanded, “before I make you.”

  He laughed at her determination. “Make me,” he challenged.

  Cheyenne looked up, way up, and met his gleaming eyes without fear. “Don’t push me, buddy. It’s been a long day. I lack the patience to deal with this shit. Right now the only thing I want to do is climb into bed and get a good night’s sleep. The last thing I want to do is share my room that I paid for with someone else. Now, please move out of my way, so I can get this issue resolved, and we can all rest easy.” She tried to move past him only to have him move in front of her again.

  She gave him a peeved glare, and the way her brows furrowed making little creases in her forehead made Erias want to
scoop her up and take her back to his bed.

  “Trust me on this one, lady. The only thing you’ll find down there is an empty desk. There isn’t a soul around that’s going to help you tonight. We’ll have to wait ‘til morning before anything can get straightened out.” Damn, he hoped she bought that.

  Cheyenne narrowed her eyes on him. She wasn’t sure she bought that. For all she knew, he could just be a really good liar, but then, she had tried to call the front desk herself and hadn’t gotten a response. Maybe he was telling the truth, but then he could have broken into her room while she was in the shower, fabricated this huge story to wheedle his way in just so he could murder her in her sleep. Stranger things had happened.

  “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll check it out for myself, thanks.” Surprisingly, he stepped out of her way and allowed her to leave.

  Erias shook his head in mild amusement as the door sealed shut behind him with a soft snick. He had hoped that this mission would be easy, and he would have been able to sway the woman to see his reasoning. Even so, as Erias had learned early on, things in life were rarely easy. No matter, he would just have to put forth a little more effort.

  With a heavy sigh, Erias closed his eyes and projected his thoughts to the floor below. People milled about chatting idly and drinking heavily. The staff was busily tidying up for the night.

  Reaching out to them, he projected his thoughts onto their feeble minds, bending them to his will. In a matter of moments, everybody in the room was sound asleep. Sensing the female’s approach, he snapped his fingers and the room emptied. Total silence pervaded.

  Having made that small accomplishment, he headed for the bathroom for a quick shower.

  Cheyenne could have sworn that she had heard laughter and people conversing, but as she entered the large banquet hall, there wasn’t a soul in sight. How puzzling.

  Rounding the thick stone columns she made her way over to the make-shift sign-in counter and rang the little bell for service.

  While she waited, she allowed her sites to roam about, taking in the little details of the old, withered structure. Cracks and small fissures ran nearly every inch of the roughly stuccoed walls. Thick, rough cut beams held the high ceiling in place and hand crafted iron candelabras hung from the ceilings casting an eerie glow about the place.

  A slight chill to the air caused her to shiver, and Cheyenne wrapped her arms around herself. Where was everyone? Ringing the bell again, she waited impatiently for someone to answer.

  Erias was just entering the room when the red-faced female burst through the door and stormed over to her bed. She threw back the duvet and climbed in.

  “How’d it go?” he asked bemusedly.

  Cheyenne was more than peeved at not being able to find anyone to help solve her problem. A man in her room was not how she had planned on spending her vacation. Was he even paying for his half? She’d be damned if she were going to foot the bill for a room that had been invaded by someone else.

  “I think you already know the answer to that one,” she grumbled. When she heard the slight chuckle, she flipped over, prepared to give him a piece of her mind when all arguments failed to get past her lips.

  With his back facing her, he was the picture of perfection. With just a towel wrapped around his waist, there wasn’t much to be left to the imagination. His shoulders were broad and finely muscled. Deep grooves of thick, corded muscle lined his arms, and his skin was a deeply tanned bronze coated in rivulets of moister from his recent showering.

  Oh, what she wouldn’t give to run her tongue across those muscles, catching each of those droplets one by one. And when he turned around to face her, she had to catch her breath and fight the urge to pant at the slick perfection of his bulging biceps, perfectly formed pecks and stone cut abs. Damn, if the man wasn’t a god.... She had never seen another being made of such perfection.

  And his face…

  Cheyenne wanted to inhale it. To nibble on those delectable lips for hours, wrestle his tongue for world domination and tangle her fingers in his deeply black shoulder-length hair that hung enticingly around his face in thick, wet locks.

  “Oh I know. I just wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth,” he smirked, immediately inciting rage and stifling anything she may have been feeling moments ago.

  She opened her mouth to argue when he suddenly dropped his towel, leaving his bare body fully exposed to her virgin eyes.

  Good lord! Cheyenne dropped her gaze to the coverlet to escape the extreme embarrassment and vivid fantasies that were flashing through her mind. Even with her downward gaze, she couldn’t escape him. Her peripherals wouldn’t allow it!

  “Don’t worry, lady. We’ll get everything worked out first thing tomorrow morning. Until then, what do you say we get a good night’s sleep?” Erias slipped between the sheets and took one last fleeting look at the woman’s shame filled face before he flipped out his light and settled in.

  Several moments later he eked his eyes open, the faint light from her table lamp piercing his lids. “Hey, you wanna turn that light out? People trying to sleep over here.” She peeked at him wearily to which he lifted an expectant brow. With a huff, she stretched back and snapped it off. “Thanks,” he called through the darkness. A grunt was her response. With a pleased grin on his face, Erias fell fast asleep.

  Chapter 6

  A strange pinging sound like a small bell echoed through the halls as Erias walked the long, narrow passage toward The Gate. He couldn’t figure out what it was exactly, but he could tell it was getting closer the further in he walked. Moments later, as the reflective black granite wall came into view, he found its source.

  “Behr.” He frowned. “What the hell are you doing?”

  Behr gave a subtle shrug and continued texting. “Just passing time.”

  “Texting?”

  Giving him a dismissive look, Behr returned to his typing as if Erias’s imposing figure didn’t bother him in the least. Not that he was at all surprised. Having known each other for the better half of three hundred years, Behr had seen to the ugly core of him and back and wasn’t at all intimidated by his presence.

  “What else is there to do up here besides freeze my balls off? Seriously, is it too much to ask for a blanket?”

  “Yes,” Erias quipped, feeling just slightly bad for not having considered it himself, but only slightly. “Is it too much to ask for some eye contact when I speak to you?”

  “Yes.” Another ping sounded as a new message came in. Behr grinned as his thick fingers flew over the minute keypad.

  “So which is it tonight, call girl or stripper?” Erias asked, referring to Behr’s own insatiable appetite for all things female. And he did mean all things.

  When he first met Behr, he had stumbled across him in his master’s barn among bales of hay and farm life. He was still trying to figure out whether or not that sheep was really just keeping him warm or if there wasn’t a more sinister explanation behind Behr’s snuggling with the animal. He never asked and Behr never offered. He was thankful for that.

  His response was clipped at best. “Neither. Housewife.”

  “Hmm,” Erias pondered, closing the distance the rest of the way and standing alongside him. He peered down at the small, well-lit screen that looked as if it were drowning in a sea of flesh as Behr’s thickly calloused hands enveloped it. “Bored, or blind?”

  “Definitely bored, but that all ended the moment she laid eyes on these babies.” He lifted his arms and kissed the bulges of his biceps. “Couldn’t resist, naturally.”

  “Naturally.” Erias rolled his eyes in amusement. A fellow member of the Brotherhood, his ego was no less deflated than the others. Sometimes it seemed Erias was the only one who maintained a firm grip on reality.

  “Jealous again, I see.” Behr grinned, his face lit up by the bright screen lending an added depth of malice to his naturally maniacal face.

  “Of course I am you egotistical bastard. Now put your cock away for fiv
e minutes and listen up.”

  Grudgingly, Behr slipped the phone into his coat pocket and rose to his full height, which was still a head shorter than him.

  “Damn,” Erias grumbled now that they were standing face-to-face. He shook his head in exasperation.

  “What?” Behr demanded, narrowing his gaze.

  “Nothing. I just forgot to bring a razor.”

  “Shut the fuck up, E, and tell me what the hell brought you up here. Feel the need to freeze your balls off too? If so, you can just set them over there in the corner with mine.”

  Erias shook his head in mild amusement. “You are such a drama queen.” He held his hand up to stop Behr’s rebuttal. “Look, I came to make sure you weren’t getting distracted and were still holding down the fort. Clearly, you are.” Producing a cup of steaming hot coffee, Erias handed it over.

  “Thanks, boss. Truly, your warmth and generosity slay me.”

  Erias narrowed his eyes at him. “Completely my intention, and yet you still breathe. Interesting.”

  Behr blew against the hot liquid before sipping gingerly at it. “Damn, boss. If I thought you’d look as good in a maid uniform as this tastes, I’d hire you to bring me coffee in bed every morning.” Ignoring the petulant glare, he wisely changed subjects. “So, how’s the babysitting going?”

  Erias tamped down the urge to smile when he thought back to the feisty redhead lying naked in his room back in town. “She’s a handful; that's for sure, but I’ve managed to slip in under the radar so it shouldn’t be too hard to keep her in line and away from The Gate.”

  Behr shot him a doleful smile. “So what you’re saying is you are going to seduce her and keep her bedridden until her time is up here, and she is forced to leave.”

  “Basically.” There was no point in denying it. That was exactly what Erias had planned, and it wasn’t as if he would have any trouble accomplishing his goal. The woman was practically salivating for a taste of him, and oddly enough; he was feeling a bit needy himself.