by Sue Wilder
When his heavy body rolled over her, predatory energy jumped from his skin and penetrated hers. His hips ground her into the floor, and she could feel the fever in him, heavy and pleasingly rough. Her breath was catching in her throat and she thought she was telling him how to touch her when he used his teeth, lightly tugged her nipple, stroked his tongue to sooth the ache that was not pain. They were devouring each other, drinking in the essence and unable to slake the thirst.
But he wasn’t fast enough and Lexi found the zipper on her jeans, released it and shoved the material down past her hips. She tried to kick the jeans free and failed. They tangled around one ankle. She left them there. More, she just needed more, and that need for him was shocking.
He was not a silent lover. Words she didn’t understand rose in his throat—she thought it was Italian but she didn’t know, didn’t need to know, the intent was clear. The weight of him was intoxicating.
She played her fingers along the waistband of his jeans and Christan rolled, took her with him. His fingers tangled in her hair, gripped her head, guided her mouth against his chest. The scent of his skin ignited tangible, desperate needs and she dragged her tongue across the dark tattoos that writhed beneath the skin. Heard his groan when she traced one dark curling line up to his shoulder and nipped him. It was the most erotic sensation she’d ever experienced, touching those tattoos.
Heat consumed her, filled with fascination, lush desire, drawing her into his strength, his potent masculinity. Memories, wild and sensual, rose untamed in her mind, rushed through her veins and into the most feminine core between her thighs. She bit harder and he thrust against her with such a pagan rhythm fire licked across her skin. She needed him inside so badly she whimpered.
“Look at me,” he commanded, his eyes, like his voice, reflecting rough emotion, an impenetrable truth. She was gripping his shoulders, aware that he was pushing her away. Her body cried. Her eyes burned. He released his grip in her hair.
Somehow, she was on her knees beside him, her body bowing in confusion, and she’d never felt more alone in her life.
The low sound he emitted was nothing but violence and rage as he rose into a crouch.
“Christan—” She reached out, but he pushed her hands away.
“Look at me!”
When she did she saw the immortal in his eyes.
“I can’t do this,” he ground out.
“Why?”
“I have lived a long and violent life, without regret until it comes to you. Look at me—see what I am.” The death of something vital was in that voice. He set her farther away, a reminder that he had little humanity left in him while she was too human. “Do not hope for happy endings with someone as far from you as I am.”
He shifted so suddenly her heart took flight. She was staring again at the lion from the forest path, an apex predator beyond her reach, and the force of that reality disintegrated all common sense. He was magnificent, and so wildly unconstrained she curled into herself to keep from touching him. She had loved this man so many times, lost him. He was as much human to her as he was immortal, but part of him had gone over an edge she couldn’t see or begin to understand. He was slipping from her grasp as she watched, slipping as he had so many times before, and when she looked into those primal, distant eyes, she knew. Knew that they had forced each other down this twisted road for so long, and so far, there was no finding the way back.
Lexi pushed herself upright, her body raw, exposed with no defense except the clothes she’d tossed around the room. Fingers trembled as she picked up the pieces and stumbled to the bedroom. Humiliation compressed the air so thickly she couldn’t breathe, the sexual ache so deep she pressed the heel of her hand against herself for relief. She was dragging on a pair of dark jeans and matching sweater when he came into the room.
“We have to go,” he said with tight emotion. “Now.”
CHAPTER 25
They were in the warm night, running down a shadowed street before Christan could speak to her again. He didn’t trust himself. The delusion in the kitchen was over. He’d expected her to react; she’d been too damn aware of him not to be aroused. But when she responded with such wild hunger Christan hadn’t known which of them was the aggressor. He’d wanted only to absorb her, taste that sweet pleasure, feel her tiny bites against the tattoos beneath his skin.
She hadn’t known which ones would arouse him, the way they would arouse him, and her tongue had been indiscriminate. Even now he fought the aggression, the imperatives from another time. The demand for blood. Or for her, naked and spread beneath his hands while he trembled with carnal needs.
She made him crazy—he had no other excuse. But he wanted her, knew she would have joined him willingly. Knew, also, that despite the heat and mutual need, it would have felt like making love to another man’s wife.
He’d felt that way before, when the secrets had gone too deep and Gemma turned her back to him. When their bed became a battleground in a war he hadn’t understood until it was too late. The master of war, in all his arrogance, had failed to see the one tactic that would win the field of valor.
It was the connection between two lovers that made the act important. And there was no connection, not yet, not between him and this woman in this lifetime. Only a past bleeding through.
Christan had hidden aspects of himself, kept the secrets in every lifetime, other than the first lifetime, and even then, he hadn’t been totally honest. He wondered, now, if he was capable of honesty when it came to her. He was not the man Gaia thought him to be. He certainly wasn’t the man Gemma thought she knew, not now, and he never would be that man again.
Christan pulled Lexi down an alley, his grip punishing, feeling as if they were further apart than ever before, the gulf between them beyond emotional. It was what they were. What she was. What he was. They were heading toward the Museo di Storia della Scienza. When he stepped around the corner she resisted. Christan glanced down and read the wariness in her eyes.
“Arsen called,” he said.
“I didn’t hear the phone.”
“Telepathically.” As if that was normal. “He found Katerina Varga. She’s sitting in an outdoor café.”
Christan pulled Lexi closer, but it wasn’t from the desire for physical contact. They merged into a crowd of tourists and he didn’t want to lose her. Moving around the piazza, he kept to the shadows, avoiding the lights that spilled wavering shafts of yellow onto the cobbled stone. In this area of Florence, the streets were narrow and the traffic was limited to pedestrians. There were small alleys, rows of bikes stacked like dominoes. Arched tunnels connected buildings, creating dark spaces where enemies could hide. Non-violent defense would be impossible.
Lexi’s hand trembled, delicate beneath his grasp. Christan looked down and loosened his hold slightly. He didn't want to let her go.
“Christan.” Arsen’s voice was clear in his mind. “Ahead of you, café on the right. She’s sitting at the back table, out of the light.”
“I see her,” Christan answered. “How did you track her?”
Arsen didn’t answer.
To Lexi, Christan said, “She’s there, wearing the blue top, black hair at her nape.”
“I see her.” The girl was in her early twenties but with a guarded expression, making her look more experienced than her years. “Do you want me to approach her?” Lexi asked. “Or is Arsen going to do it?”
“Not Arsen.” Christan knew his second wouldn’t want to do it. He felt Lexi try to pull her hand from his grasp.
“Is there a photo of Kace on your phone?” she asked. Christan looked down at her, puzzled.
“Why?”
“I’ll go. I can show the photo to Kat. Will you let me do that? Borrow your phone?”
Christan didn’t answer.
Her voice was soft, gentle. “Christan, do you want to go instead?”
“We’re not sure it’s safe.”
“Then I’ll be the least obvious. I won’t
be reckless.” Her fingers stroked against his arm. His eyes narrowed when she reached into his jeans pocket and retrieved the phone.
It happened so quickly, she was across the piazza before he could react.
As Lexi hurried across the cobbled distance, she heard Christan's muttered curse and didn’t stop. He hadn’t wanted her out of his physical control. She ought to feel angry about it, but she didn’t. Instead, she felt as unsure with their relationship as he appeared to feel. What had happened in the kitchen had been impulsive, she realized it now, as much her fault as his, but they still needed to work together.
Katerina was watching her approach. She looked young and wary, but confident. As Lexi slipped into a vacant chair at the small table, the girl rose to her feet.
“Please wait, Katerina” Lexi said. “I only want to talk.”
“How do you know my name?”
“We have a mutual acquaintance.” Lexi pulled out Christan’s phone and thumbed open the photo of Kace. “Do you recognize this man?” she asked, even though she’d watched the surveillance footage and knew Katerina did.
The girl looked at the image on the phone, glanced around and then sat down. She did not relax. “He introduced himself at the museum the other day, suggested we share coffee.”
“He’s been hunting you.”
“I’ve suspected it.”
“Then I hope you’ll trust me, Katerina.”
“Why?”
Lexi slid the phone back in her pocket and folded her hands. “I talked to Renata.”
“I’m surprised Dante let you through,” the girl said. “You must have connections.”
“The good kind.”
“There are no good connections.”
“It was Renata’s choice, and some of the connections are good.” Lexi’s voice gentled. “Dante’s good, the way he cares for her—that much was obvious.”
Katerina didn’t answer.
Lexi said, “I want to help you.”
“Thank you, but I’m fine.”
“I’m sorry you feel the need to hide.”
Katerina did not seem receptive. She reached out and deliberately pressed her finger into the memory lines on Lexi’s wrist. “You’re having dreams?”
“Yes. They haven’t all been pleasant.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To make you an offer of safety.”
“I’d rather trust myself.”
“I understand,” Lexi said. “but if you intend to hide, pay attention to the places that attract you and stay away from them. Kace isn’t stupid. He’ll figure it out and track you.” She paused. “Like we did.”
“Track me how?”
“We’re all drawn to elements from our past lives and you seem to be drawn to Etruscan history. There will be geographical areas that will feel familiar and safe. Others will feel tense and unfriendly. Go for those. The negative energies probably won’t be from past life influences at all. They’ll be emotional imprints that aren’t even connected to you.”
Kat’s mouth twisted. “You’re an expert?”
“Yes.” The simple truth.
“You saw what they did to Renata.” The girl fell silent as a group of laughing tourists walked by. “You’re the one who should be watching where she goes, because they’re after you. Last I heard, the mate to Three’s enforcer has a special bounty on her head over the rest of us.”
“How would you know?”
“I’m not as isolated as you think. I realized who you were the minute I saw you, and everyone knows they’re here.” Katerina nodded toward the shadowed alley. “An enforcer and his second-in-command, together in the same city? It’s all over the street, but it doesn’t matter because the immortals will destroy whoever they can. And they’ll use the girls as bait.”
“Arsen is here to help.”
“Then tell Arsen take you home.” Katerina’s voice was brittle. “And stay away from me. They follow you, they find me, too.”
Someone laughed in the distance. There was the sharp interruption of crockery and silver, crashing to the cobbled stone. Voices followed, offering embarrassed apologies. The night closed in around them.
Lexi said, “I can help you stay safe.”
“No. You can’t.” Kat was adamant as she rose to her feet and gathered up the papers spread out around her.
Lexi saw Christan moving. She grabbed the pen that Kat left behind and scribbled on a paper napkin, pushed both at Kat when the younger girl turned.
“This is my personal email, and the number of my cell phone. Is there any way I can contact you?”
But Kat disappeared into the shadows like a fading ghost. Christan’s hand closed around Lexi’s arm and he bent his lips to her ear. “Run,” he whispered, and pulled her in the opposite direction.
CHAPTER 26
Lexi looked up into Christan’s savagely dark face and reached out with her senses, trying to find the emotional imprints, but there were too many complex layers of love and betrayal, fear and murder overlying everything else. She thought she sensed a threat moving toward them from the side, but Christan detected it too and altered their direction. Her feet stumbled over the uneven pavement. Christan’s aggressive pace increased. Lexi kept even with him, gripping his hand.
“What happened?” she asked despite her rapid breathing.
“The predicted response.”
“To what?”
“The little disagreement we cleared up this afternoon.”
“And Arsen?”
“He’s following Katerina to keep her safe.”
“She won’t want him there. She told me they know you and Arsen are here, that there’s some interest in finding me.”
“Yes.” A slight pause. “This is an effort to get to you.”
“But you’re not going to let them.”
“No,” Christan answered. “I’m not going to let them.”
The night sounds faded. Tall stone buildings and arched passaggios closed in until the entire world seemed made of gray stone. They kept to the deepest shadows. Lexi caught the menace of a pursuer once, reacted to another threat in the distance. Her breathing grew labored and she kicked her endurance up another notch. They reached a road edged with buildings that were silent and dark, an office complex, shut down for the weekend.
“I need you to listen,” Christan said. “This is a fight that won’t stop after tonight, no matter what the outcome.”
“Who are they?”
“Three’s enemies.”
“Why fight here?”
“One’s security is weaker and the targets softer.”
“You knew that when you came to Italy.”
“The same way you knew you wouldn’t follow the rules.”
Christan pulled her around a sharp corner and she cooperated, feeling a twinge of guilt. They were heading toward an enclosed square. Without emotion, Christan told her about a garage door set into the stone wall. It would be hard to see, he said, but the building was to the left of where they would enter and she should go in that direction. He was calm. Lexi noticed how the cadence in his voice changed as he shifted into an implacable place.
“The door is not locked,” he added, “even though it looks that way. Lift the latch and remove the bar. Inside is a Range Rover with the key in the ignition. I would have you drive as far away as you can as quickly as you can and not look back.”
“What about you?”
“I will be... busy.”
Lexi stiffened at the implication.
“It is far more important to me that you get away,” he continued. “You have my phone. There is a second phone beneath the front seat, untraceable. Luca’s number has been programed into contacts. Call him when you are far enough away to be safe. Be sure that no one has followed you, and don’t stay in one place while you wait for Luca’s men.”
He was giving her instructions as if he expected her to follow them. “I’m not leaving without you.”
Christan ignored
her. “Luca will know what to do. He will get you back to Three. She won’t let you stay at Arsen's compound. Do what she says.”
“I’m not letting some immortal tell me where to live.”
“She’s already made arrangements.” A flash of lightning overhead, violent and white-hot, illuminating the sharp planes and deadly concentration on Christan’s face. A few seconds later thunder crashed, reverberating off the confining walls of the buildings. Christan had turned from her side. He was beauty and perfection, surveying the way they’d come before he urged her forward.
The dark menace was gaining in strength and Lexi ran, shutting down all outside distraction, jumping over discarded bricks and dodging around the pile of lumber. Christan’s breathing never changed as he paced himself behind her. Lexi could feel the coiled threat, the muscles bunching as if ready for the kill. She didn’t want to see the look in his eyes.
Lexi felt him slow when they reached the open square. Buildings surrounded them on four sides. The roads leading away were narrow and dark. Roosting birds flew into the air like dead leaves in the wind. Lexi searched for the garage, saw the heavy double doors buried in a shadowed wall, dug in for the energy she needed to reach it.
Behind her, Christan was braced in a defensive stance. Two figures were moving through the shadows. Lexi’s fingers fumbled on the antique door latch before she dampened the heat of panic. It was enough. She pressed inward on the heavy metal bar and then lifted upward.
In the dark, she heard the chilling voices, the icy warning, shivered beneath the pressure waves that ripped deep clefts in the air. Then a loud animal scream, sounds she had never heard and hoped never to hear again. She closed her mind to the wet ripping and the rising iron smells of savaged flesh. Until this moment she hadn’t comprehended what men like Christan did, not even in her most vicious dreams.