by Addison Fox
“You think they were here to hurt you? Some sort of advance warning system?”
“Without question. Troy and Victor were here to discover our weaknesses so a group could breach the hotel.”
Chapter 7
Rafe wasn’t sure of the exact moment when the air between them had shifted, but something had. What had been fraught with tension and fear when they walked into the greenhouse had changed—altered, actually—into a wary sort of camaraderie. His mother would have said it was a result of them sharing a near-death experience in the lobby, but Rafe wasn’t that fanciful.
Nor did he believe it was some cosmic force pushing the two of them together, which his mother would be all too quick to endorse, as well.
No, it was something else. Something that went far deeper than attraction or lust or even survivor’s guilt. It all rested with her childhood. The very thing he’d feared would make her a likely asset to the Hunters had done the opposite. Dealing with the tragedy of her family life had made her strong beyond measure, forging a deep wellspring of grit, moxie and honor.
Evangeline Kennedy was no more working against him than Gabe was.
But was he prepared to work with her? He’d hidden so much of his life for so long, the idea of sharing who he was with another was more frightening than facing an entire band of Hunters.
Did he have a choice?
“You still haven’t explained why you Re—” she hesitated before pushing forward “—Rejuvenated early.”
“I don’t know why. Gabe’s asked me the same thing and I don’t have any answers for it.”
She moved forward and laid a hand on his arm. His skin tightened under the gentle outreach before a wave of awareness shot through him. He could smell her—that potent combination of flowers and earth that was uniquely Evangeline—and he was captivated. “Were you feeling badly? Have you been sick?”
“No.”
“What are other reasons you might regenerate early?”
Her questions were the same as Gabe’s, yet from her they held the distinct notes of concern. His brother’s tone held far too much accusation for his liking. Which was monumentally unfair to Gabe, his long-standing partner in protecting their culture and their family.
Brushing off the tension, he had to acknowledge there were several reasons he might Rejuvenate early, yet none of them seemed a fit. Age or illness could have an impact, as could excessive travel between time zones. His body was hearty and resilient, but as he’d tried to explain, he wasn’t immortal. The fire that burned beneath his skin held many properties, most of them healing, but it took a lot of energy to maintain.
The problem was, he had experienced none of those things.
Which left sexual attraction.
He’d been honest when he’d explained that he had the same passions as any man. He lived a hearty life and he enjoyed women. But he’d also learned long ago to control himself and a few weeks without sexual release wasn’t likely to harm his body or throw him out of kilter.
Deep-seated sexual attraction was a different matter, but he’d be damned if he was going to share that tidbit. Especially since he hadn’t been in the throes of unfulfilled attraction when his regeneration came upon him.
You’re feeling a bit different now.
Something sly and unfailingly honest whispered through his mind. He was attracted to Evangeline—hell, he had been from the moment she’d walked on the property—but even her arrival hadn’t altered his quarterly rebirth.
“Will you change again? When the solstice comes?”
“No. I should be good until spring.”
“But you Rejuvenated nearly a month early. Won’t that change your next regeneration cycle?”
“My body knows how to regulate itself.”
If she were skeptical of that news, she hid it, instead focusing on a row of tools at the edge of her work space. The items that had been left out in haste she now placed in neat holders, all specially marked. She kept her gaze on her task instead of on him when she finally asked one more question.
“What is the purpose? Why do you do it?”
“It’s a rebirth of sorts. Not that much unlike normal human cell regeneration, but with even more pronounced benefits. The speed with which it happens is sort of a full-body protection.”
“And the outcome of that?”
“I’m stronger. Faster. My reflexes and senses are superior.” As if to prove his point, he snaked out a hand, effectively capturing the small pair of needle-nose pliers she was already reaching toward.
“Hey!”
Rafe turned the pliers around, then handed them to her. “Just making a point.”
“So how do you die?”
“The same way as anyone else. Age, mostly. Killing blows are another. There’s no amount of Rejuvenation that can effectively alter a bullet to the heart or brain or a killing strike to a major artery.”
“And the fire? It’s not just when you Rejuvenate. You used it back there when we were under attack.”
“My fire has its own properties to heal. It can also repel danger and protect me and all I can place in my aura. I can control its heat and its power as long as I have enough time to focus.”
“So a surprise attack is the worst thing that could happen to you?”
Her questions were all fair—a mix of curiosity and what he sensed was a desperate desire to make some sense of what had happened—but there were some things he couldn’t answer. Or wouldn’t. He might accept Evangeline was part of what was going on, but even he couldn’t bring himself to share with the daughter of a Hunter all the ways to make it easier for him and his people to die.
* * *
When Evangeline walked out of the greenhouse a half hour later, she wasn’t sure if she’d fallen down the rabbit hole or been absorbed by an alien spacecraft. All she did know was that she’d been in the dark for much too long about her parents and her childhood and it seemed as if Rafe Stavros was the key to unlocking that mystery.
Add on the steady buzz and hum of an attraction she couldn’t deny, and she had the makings of a full-blown life explosion.
“Which is pretty much your life in a nutshell.” She muttered the words to herself, surprised when Rafe moved closer, his hand at her lower back.
“Everything okay?”
She’d suggested they make a quick stop at an area behind the greenhouse she was developing for outdoor events and he’d agreed. On some level, it felt like a reprieve—before they had to go back to the formality of their work lives—and she sensed a slight easing in him as they wove around the brick path toward the small enclave.
Even with the relative calm, Rafe was so focused on any possible threat around them she was surprised he’d heard her.
Oh, yeah, right. Superior reflexes and senses. Damn man could probably hear a dog barking over in Henderson.
“I’m fine. Just processing all you told me.”
He’d already put his jacket back on and the material spread across his shoulders in a straight line. “I understand.”
“No, I don’t think you do. You seem to feel like my questions are designed to make you feel less than, and that’s not my purpose.”
“I don’t—”
Evangeline whirled on him, effectively blocking him from walking any farther. “You don’t what? You say you want me to be comfortable, yet you don’t seem comfortable when I ask questions. I’m curious, Rafe. I want to know more. To understand what shapes you and makes you who you are. I have a right to want to understand, especially since you were the one who brought my parents into things.”
“Of course.”
Since she saw Contrite Rafe, oh, about never, she took the moment to enjoy herself. The man was a vision. His dark silk suit was immaculate and expensive, and the crisp white
of his shirt, open at the throat, only accentuated that aura of power and wealth. Add on the chiseled jaw, dark-as-sin hair and lips a sculptor would weep for and you had the makings of a rather impressive package.
On impulse, she ran a long finger down the line of his jaw. The barest hint of beard stubble against her fingers. “I do have a right to want to understand.”
“You do.” His hand shot up, holding hers in place. “You also need to understand I don’t share this part of me. This part of my life. With anyone outside my family.”
“Then I guess it’s a big day for both of us.”
“In more ways than one.”
Before she could sense his movements—and in this case she was hardly going to argue over being the object of those whip-quick reflexes—he leaned in, his mouth pressed to hers. The moment their lips met, something warm and amazing speared through her.
Attraction.
Desire.
Life.
She’d been living in darkness for so long she’d barely realized what she’d been missing, but Rafe brought light and need and a renewal of her spirit.
Her work comforted her. She was driven by it and by her love of horticulture, but if she were honest, it had become a refuge, as well. Being in Rafe’s arms pushed her to be more. To take more.
To take all.
She ran her hands over his shoulders, weaving her fingers through the hair at his nape. Corded muscles bunched at the top of his spine and she allowed her fingers to drift there for the moment, enjoying the strength she felt beneath all that warm skin.
He was a man, just as he’d claimed. One with the form and the musculature of a human male, but now she knew there was something more, as well. Even as she tried to get her head fully around what he was, she couldn’t deny the appeal of what she felt wrapped up in him. Broad, thick shoulders. Firm, sensual lips. Slim hips that pressed against her with an insistence that set her on fire.
Oh, yes, he was a man.
Heat and fire suffused her body, having nothing to do with Rafe’s physical traits and everything to do with how he made her feel. Desire, like liquid gold, filled her up with a delicious fullness that made her body throb with longing. Oh, how she wanted him. The quiet strength and the overt arrogance, the subtle grace and the oft-unconcealed conceit—all made him who he was. A powerful man with an even more powerful secret.
And he’d shared it with her.
He’d let her in and that meant more than she could ever describe.
Her abstract thoughts faded as he pushed them both further. His tongue swept through her mouth, the hard thrust against her mimicking what was surely to come between them.
What she knew, she could no longer deny.
She wanted him.
His hands roamed over her body, hot and dangerous, traveling a sensual path from her waist to her spine and over her rib cage, his thumbs teasing the underside of her breasts. She sucked in a hard breath; the teasing probe of his thumbs—so close to her nipples, yet not touching her in public—a delicious torment.
Evangeline tried to surface from the sensual depths but each time she attempted it, Rafe pulled her back down. The man was a master, somehow soft and hard all at once, as he coaxed responses she didn’t even know she possessed.
A light breeze whispered over her skin and she had the abstract thought that they were standing on a public walkway, in the middle of the hotel property. It might be a secluded area, but anyone could still see them. Guests. Security cameras. Her staff.
So why was she finding it hard to care?
One more element of her personality Rafe had managed to change simply with his presence. She wasn’t sure how it had happened, but he’d found a way in.
And she never let anyone in. Ever.
Past boyfriends. Fleeting friendships. Even the few extended family members who’d tried looking out for her after her parents died. She’d kept them all at arm’s length, never allowing anyone a chance to get close.
Yet all of that had changed with Rafe.
Not only had she let him get close, but she wanted him even closer. Desperately so.
The thoughts that kept her company throughout his sensual assault dimmed as she sensed more than felt a fleeting change in him. Before she could fully register what was happening, he dropped his arms, then pushed her behind him, just as a high-pitched giggle filled the air.
She stared over Rafe’s shoulder, her height giving her enough advantage to see who, or what, had him acting with such speed.
“I’m so sorry to interrupt.” The words dripped from a nasty grin that had her skin crawling.
“Somehow I doubt that.” Tension lit up Rafe’s frame from head to toe, and once again Evangeline was fascinated by the warrior that lived beneath the refined, elegant suits. The barely leashed violence she’d sensed at different times was on full display and there was no mistaking the power that lived inside of him.
Although there was a light breeze, the Nevada sun shone high and bright in the sky, warming the air. She couldn’t believe it was anything more than a fanciful notion on her side, but the sun seemed to add to his strength, elongating that frame even more as Rafe stood at his full height.
“You’ve been nosing around in business that’s not yours.” A gun appeared from behind the man’s back, waving and glinting as it caught the sun. Hair stuck out from his head at spiky angles and his eyes darted from her face to Rafe’s and back again. The man practically danced on the balls of his feet as he delivered his pronouncement, the erratic, back-and-forth swaying of his limbs a sure sign of his depravity and general instability. “Saving damsels and kids in fires. Saving this pretty lady from the power of my master. The hero routine has drawn some attention.”
“So it was Chaos’s hand inside the hotel.”
“He’s everywhere.”
Those solemn words fascinated and repulsed as Evangeline took in the odd sort of reverence that limned the attacker’s face with a beatific light. Without warning, an image of her father filled her mind’s eye. She hadn’t thought about this moment in years, yet the instant she did the memory came back, fully formed.
“Sit here, my Evangeline.” She ran to him, anxious to sit on Daddy’s lap. He rarely invited her to do so and she loved the way it felt to lean her head against his big chest.
She settled where he patted his knee, surprised to feel a lot of bones at her back when she attempted to nestle in. He didn’t feel at all like the large daddy she remembered, but she hadn’t sat on his lap in a long time, too. She must be forgetting what it felt like.
“I want to tell you a story.”
At the offer she nodded and ignored the sensation of bones cradling her. This was her daddy and he wanted to hold her and talk to her and tell her a story. Even if he felt hot and sweaty and smelled sort of sweet, like cherry cough syrup. Ignoring that slight sense of discomfort she focused on the moment. With him. “Tell me the whole thing. No stops.”
He laughed at that before tightening his hold. “No stops. I promise.
“In all the earth, over all the lands, there lives a force. It lives inside of us and outside of us and it’s the most powerful force in the universe.”
“Do you mean God?”
Her question had him stumbling, his arms squeezing around her. She felt squished and at his firm “no” she held back the other questions that bubbled to her lips, just like the way the water bubbled in the fountain at school. This was his story and she’d better remember that.
“Okay.”
His squeeze relaxed and he began to tap his fingers on the side of his knee near her legs. “The force is Chaos. And it’s more powerful than anything you can imagine.”
“Chaos.” She whispered the word, rolling it over her tongue. It sounded okay but there was something in her daddy’s voice that wa
sn’t okay.
It was the same sound he had when he talked to her mom about a “score.” She had no idea what that was, but every time he talked about it he sounded different. Like there was something else inside his mouth, wrapping around his words.
Which was dumb.
But it was still true. She knew when things sounded different. She knew when her parents would have a fight because their voices would get weird just before. And she knew when the seasons were going to change because she could hear the grass and how it sounded different in spring and summer and fall. And in winter she didn’t hear it at all. She was a good listener and she spent more of her life listening than talking because talking could get her in trouble. Like asking about God.
“Chaos, Evangeline, is more powerful than anything. It can divide people. Countries. The world and beyond. It is the source of all power.”
“Okay.” She nodded, wanting him to believe she understood, even if it seemed like a silly thing. Dividing countries was what led to war. She heard about it on the news that her mother always had droning in the background. Even though she didn’t like the stories, she always felt bad when she saw the pictures on the TV.
“Repeat my story back to me, sweetheart.”
Daddy’s voice pulled her out of her memories. “Tell it back to you?”
“Yes, like a game.”
“Your story is about Chaos. And how it’s the most powerful force in all the world.”
Pride had spilled from his gaze that day, along with a maniacal fervor she could still remember. A hard shiver gripped her spine and she kept her hands at Rafe’s waist where he’d placed them.
Chaos.
The opposing force that Rafe and his people battled. She might still be processing Rafe’s explanation of who he was and where he came from, but she had lived with the knowledge of what Chaos did to people, its—his?—bleak, miserable influence on human lives a dark blight.
Whatever she’d believed—and there was still a small part of her that hadn’t wanted to accept it all—there was no denying what her father was. He’d carried an addictive personality that had been manipulated and used against him. While she couldn’t fully forgive him for his choices, she wasn’t immune to the injustice of it all.