Quinn narrowed his eyes. “I’m not blood-bonded with Drew. I can’t get in his head unless he lets me.”
“Then blood bond.” Vaughn leveraged himself off the window sill, cutting off his own view of the kid. “Drew needs to be protected from himself.” He walked over and stood beside Ian. “I have to take care of this situation with Ian, and I can’t involve Drew.” He ground his jaw, and Gideon felt the intense conflict in the man, his need to address whatever situation Ian had alerted him to warring with the need to protect the youth he considered his son.
“We all have to do what’s right for the greater good,” Gideon told him. “It’s what we do. Take care of your situation. It’s what you need to do.”
“I’m not Order,” Vaughn snapped. “I don’t sacrifice one innocent to save millions. Those aren’t my values. I don’t give a shit about the greater good. That’s not what this is about.” He jerked his chin at Quinn. “You in or what?”
Quinn nodded. “I’ll go get Drew now. He’ll help us with Jacob.”
Vaughn gave Quinn the briefest flash of a smile, then he turned toward Ian. “Ready?”
Ian slammed his fist into his hand and grinned. “Fuck, yeah.” He jerked his chin at Gideon. “We good?”
Gideon glanced at Lily, and she looked up immediately, as if she’d sensed his perusal. She gave him a warm smile that went straight to his gut, and Gideon knew there was no decision to be made. For reasons more complex than Ian was sharing, he needed to find his woman, and they’d all just have to deal with the consequences. If Ian went rogue, they’d do what they needed to do and kill his sheva again. But hell, Gideon hoped it didn’t come to that. “Yeah, do your thing, Ian.”
“Good luck, Fitz,” Quinn said. “Keep in touch and let us know what you need.”
Ian grinned, his eyes blazing with a life that Gideon hadn’t seen in him for eight months. “You bet.” He slammed his hand on Vaughn’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”
The two warriors sprinted out of the room, their boots pounding down the hall as they hauled ass out of the mansion, brought together by a shared urgency and two different missions.
Quinn looked at Gideon, a grim expression on his face. “If this goes wrong, we’re going to lose Ian for good. He can’t handle losing his sheva again.”
Gideon ground his jaw. “I know.” He walked over to the window and looked out. Drew was circling Gabe while Zach watched. The youth had put on twenty pounds of muscle in the last two weeks, amassing strength at a rate far faster than he should have, given how recently he’d come into his powers. He moved with a grace and aggression that was already lethal, and the expression on his face as he stalked Gabe was deadly and emotionless. Gideon felt a ripple of foreboding.
Quinn walked up beside him, and the two blood-bonded warriors studied the scene on the grass. “What the hell’s going on, Gideon?” Quinn said quietly. “We have a woman who is apparently coming back from the dead repeatedly, a young warrior who is stronger and more violent than he should be, clawed rogue Calydons who can teleport, and an angel who’s being hunted by them. There’s too much out of alignment right now that we can’t get a handle on. It can’t all be coincidence.”
“No, it can’t.” Gideon glanced over at the metal cot Jacob was sleeping on, shackles holding him down. “We’ve got no choice. We’ve got to wake him up and get some answers.”
Quinn swore. “We can’t wake him up. We’ll never hold him long enough to get anything from him.”
Gideon scowled. “We’re going to have to try soon, because I’m not going to sit around on my ass waiting for hell to hunt us down. We need to be ready.”
Ready for what, he didn’t know.
But they needed to find out.
Chapter Nine
What had been hunting him?
Kane stood at the edge of the woods, his senses straining to track the creature he’d sensed in the woods. Whatever he’d sensed had been the vilest of evil, and it swept through Kane like acid ripping through his tissue. Adrenaline roared over him as he searched the woods with his preternatural senses, trying to get a read on what he’d just seen. It felt familiar, like he’d recognized it, like his soul knew what it had been. But what the hell was it?
“Hey.” Ryland jogged up beside him, his machetes clenched in his fists. “What’d you pick up?”
“I don’t know—” Suddenly, Kane was hit with a brutal stab of pain, as if a dagger had just been plunged into his ribs and ripped through his skin. “Jesus!” He grabbed his chest, staggering from the sudden pain. The pain spread through him, right through his gut and down his legs, as if it were tearing through his muscles, ripping them from his very bone. Violence spewed through him, and his head was suddenly filled with images of bodies being ripped to shreds, covered in blood, strewn across the barren earth. He shook his head, trying to clear the vision, but it became worse. He could hear screams, the agonizing screams of people being torn from life by hell—
“Shit!” Ryland grabbed his shoulders, holding him as Kane twisted in pain. “What the hell’s going on with you?”
“I don’t know,” Kane gasped—
“Down on your knees, boy!” Nonny was suddenly in front of him, her wizened face blazing with intensity. “Sarah, get your ass over here. Thano, get some water from the fountain. Destroy the damned thing if you have to. Get it now!”
Kane’s knees dug into the rocky terrain, and he felt blood trickling down his temple as Thano took off. The visions were arcing though his brain now, the worst carnage and slaughter, horror beyond the imaginable. Violence and outrage spewed through him, along with the need to leap up and kill. He needed to destroy, just like the visions in his mind.
He looked up and saw Ryland crouched beside him. A snarl curled Kane’s lip and his flail erupted into his hand. “You need to die, you bastard—”
“Back off, Santiago,” Ryland snapped. “What the fuck is your deal?”
“Sarah!” Nonny barked. “Get over here!”
Sarah crawled over to him. “Kane?” Her voice was worried, but the mere sound of it was like an infusion of peace and serenity, ripping through the pain like a white light through blackness.
“Sarah,” he gasped, reaching for her. He caught her hand, and yanked her into him. She tumbled against him so hard that their bodies smacked together. The moment Kane held her in his arms, he felt his whole body react in shock to her warmth. “Jesus, Sarah.” He tangled his fingers in her hair and buried his face in her neck, trying to concentrate only on the feel of her body against his.
To his disbelieving relief, Sarah slipped her arms around his neck and pulled him close, resting her face against his cheek. Her skin was warm and soft, like this great gift of peace and freedom. But the visions in his head were still there, the violence, the—
No, Kane. Focus on me. Sarah’s warmth wrapped through his mind, and he could almost feel her prying his mind from the grip of the visions. Come back to me.
Kane honed in on her voice, using the sound of her soft whisperings as an anchor, pulling him back from the edge. Slowly, the visions began to fade, and he became aware of desire pulsing within him, an awareness of the way her body was crushed against his. Her breasts were flush against his chest, her arms holding him tightly, her heart beating rapidly against his ribs. The darkness fled, the violence vanished, and all that was left was Sarah. He gripped her hair and pulled her head back so he could look at her.
Her blue eyes were flushed with worry and desire, sensual attraction that went right to his core. But there was wariness in her expression as well, and he knew it was because she’d sensed the extreme violence within him. Her eyes looked haunted, and her skin was ashen. Suddenly he was furious that he’d been distracted from getting water for her. when she was in such dire straits. “You need the fountain.”
Sarah’s gaze left Kane’s face and went to his forehead, and her brow furrowed in concern. “God, Kane.” She touched his head, and pain shot through him. He became aware of
the pain again, and the blood cascading down his face. He was bleeding, even though nothing had hit him? What the hell?
Not that it mattered, not with Sarah so weak. He suddenly needed to focus on her, to do something that made sense to him. He grabbed her and lurched to his feet, his head still spinning as he turned her toward the pile of rocks where Thano was swinging his halberd through the base of the fountain, sending pieces of rock cascading though the air. Sweat was streaming down his body, and his muscles were flexed with the effort, but there was no water. “Damned fountain,” Thano said as he paused to check.
Ryland sprinted over to Thano and slammed his machete into the rock. The rock splintered as the two men tore it apart, but there was still no water.
Kane lurched to the fountain, and fell to his knees, Sarah’s need pulsing through him. Had to find the water. Had to help her. Had to save her. Had to focus on Sarah, not the taint screaming through him. He stared at the fountain and opened his senses to the rock. He breathed in scents so subtle that they were like secrets carried in the droplets of air. He heard whispers of sounds, the almost imperceptible gurgle of water. He felt the dampness on his skin…and he knew exactly where to go.
He called out his flail and dragged himself to a flat rock several yards south of the fountain.
“No,” Thano shouted. “Over here, Kane!”
Sarah pulled herself beside him and put her hands on the ground. She stared at him, disbelief in her eyes. “I can feel it, too.”
His body screaming in pain, blood cascading over his face, over his chest, and down his legs, Kane reared back and slammed the flail into the earth, summoning every last bit of strength in his body. The impact was tremendous, and the earth shook beneath them as the weapon decimated the rock and plunged out of sight beneath the ground, leaving a gaping wound in the earth almost three feet wide.
He didn’t have to look. He knew he’d found the water. He grabbed Sarah, scooped her up in his arms and rolled them over the edge without even checking to see what lay below. The edge of the rock dug into his back and then they were over, plummeting straight downwards. Sarah gasped and sucked in her breath, and then the cold water closed over their heads.
The moment it touched Kane’s skin, he knew it wasn’t just for her.
It was for him as well.
*
The relief from the water was instant, surging over Sarah with a life-giving purity that jolted her body into awareness. It had been years since she’d been fully submerged in the water, and it felt incredible. She closed her eyes, letting the current toss her as the cleansing water poured into her body, firing up her cells, infusing her with the healing energy and power she’d needed so badly.
Strength surged into her, and with that came hope. New life. Chances. She had time again.
Kane grabbed the wall of the underground tunnel, jerking them to a stop against the current of the underground river. He turned her in his arms so she was facing him. His face was dimly lit by the sunlight that was streaming through the hole in the tunnel’s roof, but they’d already drifted far enough from the hole that the sun was faint and distant, casting his face in shadows swathed in light.
His gaze was intense on her, his eyes dark, and she became viscerally aware of his hard body locked down around her, holding her ruthlessly tight against him. The water slid over her skin, like a sensual caress, igniting all the nerve endings in her body.
Kane’s eyes were hooded, fierce with pain and agony, but also a desire so intense that her entire body vibrated in response. “The pain inside me is gone,” he said. “What is this water?”
She realized that he’d been washed clean of the blood, and he wasn’t bleeding anymore. She touched his head, and he didn’t wince. “It shouldn’t affect you like this,” she said. “Only me.”
“What is it?” he asked again.
She shook her head. “It’s the life force of angels. It’s hope. It’s faith. It’s all those good things in life that give people the strength to get up each day and cope with what they have. It’s the blood that flows through me.”
He narrowed his eyes, holding her tight as the water gently bumped them against each other. “So, why did it take my pain away?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.” She raised her eyebrows. “I don’t suppose you’re part angel, are you?”
He laughed softly. “You really think there’s a chance of that?”
She didn’t need to answer. They’d both felt the evil consuming him. “Demons and angels are cut of the same cloth,” she said. “We just go in different directions.” She frowned. “But angel water would burn a demon.”
“You mean, like this?” He held up his hand, revealing a crimson streak across his palm. “I got this when I was feeling the mist from the water.”
“Oh…” Foreboding rippled through Sarah. “But it’s not burning you now.”
“No. It’s not. It burns me one minute, heals me the next. I feel like I’m near death, and then a minute later, I’m raging with violence and pain. My head feels like it’s splitting in two, and I don’t know what the fuck is going on.” His eyes darkened then, and he shifted position, pinning her up against the wall of the cave. His pelvis pressed against hers, his hand locked down on the rock next to her shoulder, blocking the water for both of them. He was so imposing, his broad shoulders gleaming and wet as the water cascaded off his skin. “But you do. Tell me now, Sarah. Tell me who I am.”
She swallowed, aware that they were alone in the tunnel. She could hear her grandmother shouting at them, asking if they were okay. She could hear the rumble of Thano and Ryland’s deep voices as they checked out the hole.
“We’re good,” Kane shouted. “We’ll be out in a few minutes. Sarah needs to recover.”
There was a whoop and a holler of victory from Nonny, and Sarah heard her ordering Thano and Ryland to back off and give them space. Sarah’s heart began to pound at Kane’s closeness, and suddenly she didn’t want to be in there with him. All she could think about was the night he’d saved her from her brother, the intensity of the physical connection between them, the way he’d stripped through her defenses and made love to her so passionately and so intently that she’d fallen completely under his spell.
The angel water had marked him. It would only mark demons. Only demons.
“No.” Kane moved closer, his bulk blocking out the sunlight. He grabbed her wrists with his free hand and pinned them over her head. “No more games, Sarah. No more shutting me out.” He bent his head, his mouth inches from hers, so his breath was warm and tempting against her lips. “Who the hell am I, and why in God’s name can I think of nothing else right now except tearing off your clothes and driving into you until you scream my name and become a part of my soul for all eternity? You have an answer for that one, too, I bet.”
So much was raging through Kane’s mind that he could barely think. The violence that had been haunting him had eased the moment they’d hit the water, and the pain had settled, but in its place was a rising lust that was nearly crippling in its intensity. He pressed Sarah’s wrists more tightly against the rock, breathing in her scent. He felt alive, more alive than he ever had been in his life. The emptiness was long gone, and he was filled with desire, lust, passion and life, and it all centered on the woman in his arms.
His blood was thundering through him, and he was viscerally aware of her breasts crushed against his chest, of her hips pinned by his, of the desire pouring off her.
All he wanted was answers, and yet all he could think about was her body pinned beneath his. With a low growl, he caught her lower lip in his teeth, needing to touch her, to own her, to make her his. “Tell me what you know.” He wasn’t moving, wasn’t letting her up until he had answers. To all of it.
She took a breath and met his gaze. “Kane, I don’t know for sure—”
“No more excuses, Sarah.” He tightened his grip on her, his adrenaline beginning to race. It was time. He knew it. Right now, he was
going to get the answers he’d been seeking for so long. “Tell me what you know. Why do I fit in here? What did I see in your woods and why did it affect me like that? Why did that water burn my palm, but no one else’s?” His voice vibrated with urgency. “What the fuck are my scars from?”
Sarah stared at him, and he knew then that she was going to tell him. “There are demons in our woods, Kane. What you saw was a demon.”
He narrowed his eyes. “An actual demon?”
“No, well, a Calydon—”
He swore. “I already told you, I’m not a demon—”
“All Calydons were originally created by demon taint, and you know it. The water that the original warriors drank two thousand years ago was from a fountain poisoned with demon taint. It turned those men into powerful warriors who were always haunted by their dark side, always on the edge of going rogue.”
Kane had to acknowledge the truth of her words, because all the Calydons since the original crew were burdened with that violent side hidden beneath banners of honor and protection, even the Order members. “That doesn’t mean we’re demons.”
“The Calydons outside our village, like your teammates, are generations away from the original demon source, so they’re not demons,” Sarah said, cutting him off. “But the ones who hunt this town are different. This town was originally created as a haven for angels. We were drawn to it, and so were the demons. They came here to destroy us, and they conscript the men from our village into doing their work. The Calydons in our village are first generation, and the demon taint runs thick in their blood.”
Kane narrowed his eyes at the information, already planning to share that with his team back at the mansion. “And what does that have to do with me? You called me a demon, but I’m Order. I’m not from this village—”
Darkness Reborn (Order of the Blade #5) Page 13