Hostage to Pleasure p-5

by Nalini Singh

  “But if he’d pushed for much more,” Dorian said, seeing the tightrope they’d walked, “the Council might’ve become suspicious enough to investigate, and discovered his rebel activities.” Leaving Keenan utterly vulnerable.

  “Yes.” With that Ashaya got out and began to walk toward the man who, in changeling society, would have been her mate.

  Dorian didn’t like it. Gritting his teeth, he slid his own door up and reached her just as she got to the rigid figure of Zie Zen.

  “What are you doing here?” Ashaya asked, not touching him, not making any contact at all.

  Zie Zen put weight on his cane and stood. “I have information for you.” He glanced at Dorian. “Confidential information.”

  “Wait.” Dorian called out to the others, clearing the warehouse. When he turned back, Zie Zen looked at him questioningly. “I stay.”

  The Psy male held his gaze for several long moments, then nodded. “Your shields are very strong.”

  Dorian wondered if the old man was trying to make him angry by implying that he’d attempted some form of mental persuasion. Psy were more than adept at exploiting the “weakness” of emotion against the other races. Instead of getting angry, Dorian folded his arms and shrugged. “Lucky for me. Now talk. We don’t have much time. This place is clear for the moment, but that won’t last.” Chinatown was a safer meeting spot than pretty much any other part of town, but, as the SnowDancers had recently discovered, spies were everywhere, even where you least expected.

  Ashaya shot him a quelling glance. “Treat Zie Zen with respect. He is as much a warrior for my people as you are for yours.”

  It was a slap down—delivered in a very prissy ladylike voice—but a slap down nonetheless. Dorian’s cat liked the show of feminine strength. “Respect is earned.” But he toned down his aggressiveness.

  The old man looked from him to Ashaya, appearing to see more than he should. But when he spoke, it was all business. “You’ve made yourself the number one priority for the Council. They’ll attempt to capture you first. If that fails, the death squads will be set loose.”

  Dorian felt his leopard flex its claws. “How good’s your information?”

  Zie Zen looked to him. “I was told we have a mutual acquaintance. He can’t risk contact with DarkRiver at present, even that which appears for business alone.”

  Anthony Kyriakus.

  “Then your information is good.” He was aware of Ashaya looking from him to Zie Zen, and, though her expression didn’t change, he could tell she was irritated. Ms. Aleine, he thought with an inward grin, didn’t like being left out of the loop.

  “Ashaya.” Zie Zen’s attention shifted. “We had a plan in place to extract Keenan.”

  “Not fast enough.” Ashaya’s jaw set. “Any more waiting and he would’ve been permanently damaged by the circumstances of his confinement. They were hurting him.”

  “I’m not going to argue with you about Keenan’s welfare, but you took another step we weren’t prepared for.” Censure, delivered in cool Psy tones, but Dorian recognized an elder’s criticism when he heard it.

  Funny, he was no longer thinking of Zie Zen as Ashaya’s husband of sorts. The relationship was clearly something quite different. He got more proof of that when Ashaya looked down at her feet.

  Well, hell. Dorian’s eyes narrowed—he’d never been able to make her back down. But, he thought, even he—tough-shit sentinel that he was—bowed his head in front of his mother. He’d bet on Zie Zen not being Keenan’s father, even in the cold, scientific way of the Psy.

  “It was the only way,” she said at last. “I had to make sure Omega would never be completed.”

  “We both know that Omega is not, and has never been, an active project. You also know that we were working to remove even the idea of it from the arsenal.”

  This time, Ashaya’s spine went stiff and she looked up. “Too slow.”

  Zie Zen held her gaze. “You lied in order to gain publicity. What we can’t understand is why, not when you’ve never before shown any political aspirations.” When Ashaya remained mute, he said, “Amara has been co-opted by the Council.”

  Ashaya’s defiance seemed to disappear. “No. She’s too smart to get caught.”

  “Something tripped her up.” Zie Zen reached into his pocket.

  Dorian didn’t make any aggressive moves—he worked with weapons almost every day; he knew the older man had plain paper in his pocket.

  “Here.” The Psy male passed an envelope to Ashaya. “It’s a message from her.”

  Ashaya stared at the envelope as if it was a live snake. “I don’t want it.”

  “That’s irrational behavior. She’s the only one capable of reinitiating the Implant Protocol and undoing everything you’ve achieved.”

  When Ashaya still refused to accept the letter, Dorian reached out and took it from the other man. “I’ll make sure she reads it.”

  Zie Zen gave a slow nod. “Make certain she also gets her shields back in place. She’s breaking.”

  “No.” Dorian would not put Ashaya back behind that wall of ice. “She’s becoming who she was always meant to be.”

  Zie Zen’s eyes flickered, before snapping to Ashaya. “You haven’t told him.”

  Dorian felt a prickle at the back of his neck, the honed instincts of a hundred predators before him. “Ashaya?”

  She gave him a look that could’ve cut glass. “This is not your business.”

  And that was when Dorian crossed over a very defined line in his head. “Yes,” he said. “It is.”

  Zie Zen glanced at his sleek silver timepiece. “I must go.”

  “Your pickup about to arrive?”

  Zie Zen nodded. A second later, a Psy male in a black uniform blinked into place. Ashaya glanced at the Tk-Psy but didn’t say anything as the man nodded once at Dorian, then teleported both himself and Zie Zen out of the warehouse.

  “Don’t you care that they know about your pack’s part in this?”

  “They have no real information to use against us.” Dorian shrugged. “And the Council knows we hate their guts.”

  Ashaya refused to look at him as he moved ever closer. The heat of him seeped through her back and into her bones as he stopped behind her. She waited for him to speak but he said nothing. She’d noticed that about him. Dorian always waited. Knowing the tactic didn’t make it any less disconcerting.

  A breath whispered past her ear and she knew he was bending down. His lips touched the sensitive skin of her nape. Light, so light, they could’ve been butterfly wings. But she felt them. They burned. And still she didn’t move.

  “You lied about Omega being an active project.”

  Relieved at the topic, she said, “So?”

  The next question wasn’t so easy. “What was Zie Zen talking about? What haven’t you told me?”

  She kept her silence even as she felt her body begin to burn from the inside out.

  His fingers brushed over her. Gentle, teasing touches along her neck. Invitations to surrender… to sin. “Stop,” she whispered.

  “Why?”

  “Because I can’t break open. Not fully.” Every time her internal shields dropped, Amara whispered to her. Ashaya was in no doubt that her sister already had a lock on her physical position.

  Heat, sweet, teasing heat against the lobe of her ear. The brush of lips that looked so hard when he was angry, but felt velvety soft. It made her shiver. “Dorian, you have to stop. I told you, I can’t simply forget Sile—”

  “Why?”

  He was so close, the lean hardness of him pressed against her like living fire.

  She swallowed. “I can’t.”

  “Why?” Insistent. Adamant.

  “Because if I do,” she said, shattering a silence she’d kept for more years than she could count, “then Amara will find me.” She hoped he hadn’t noticed her minute hesitation. Because it wasn’t for herself that she feared—she would live if Amara found her.

  Kee
nan wouldn’t.

  And even that wasn’t the true horror of it.

  Dorian pulled back. “Explain.”

  Ashaya wondered where to start. She’d just opened her mouth when Dorian’s cell phone began beeping. He kept one hand on her hip as he checked the readout. “It’s Jimmy.” A pause, followed by a rapid-fire conversation. “Yeah? When? Okay, get the hell away from them. No, that’s all I need.” Hanging up, he filled her in. “More Psy on the streets—they obviously know you’re here but not where.”

  “Amara.” She knew in her gut that the information had come from Amara, but her sister wouldn’t have given them the exact location. That wasn’t how the game was played. “She—”

  Dorian cut her off. “You can explain later. Right now, we need to get you out of the hot zone.”

  “Why can’t we stay here?”

  He squeezed her hip and the sensation was an electric current crackling over her body. “Telepathic scans might be illegal, but these aren’t boy scouts we’re dealing with. All it’ll take is for them to scan one person who saw you in the car. Come on.” He grabbed her hand.

  To her surprise, he didn’t lead her toward the parked car. They headed to the back of the structure instead. He pushed open a small door and pulled her through to the bright sunshine of the early summer’s day. She was still trying to acclimatize her eyes to the light when they went through the back door of another building and then downstairs.

  “Where are we going?” she gasped as they jogged down the narrow corridor and to the door at the end.

  “Wait and see.” Giving her a sharp grin, he twisted open the lock on the door and began to pull her through.

  She had just enough time to see the exposed earth walls, the wooden beams holding up the ceiling, the darkness, before her mind revolted. “No! Dorian, no! Please!” She dragged her feet, but he was too strong and his momentum threatened to carry them through the door and into the pitch-black of the tunnel.

  CHAPTER 25

  The second he heard Ashaya scream, Dorian came to a complete stop. She slammed into his chest as he turned instinctively to catch her. The air punched out of him but he was more worried about the damage to her. Psy bones were far weaker than changeling or even human. It was the trade-off nature had apparently made for their powerful minds.

  He held her to him as he ran his hands over her back, silently calling himself every name in the book. “Jesus, I’m sorry.” He couldn’t get the absolute terror in that begging “please” out of his mind. He’d made this proud, strong woman beg, and he hated himself for it. “Are you all right?”

  He thought she might’ve nodded against his chest but didn’t take any chances, running his hands down her arms to check for injury. “Shaya?”

  “I’m fine.” She pushed away from him and though she tried to appear unfazed, there was a broken wildness in her eyes that he couldn’t bear to see.

  “Hold on.” He grabbed her hand again, felt her stiffen. And realized he’d lost her nascent trust through his own idiocy. “I’m taking you back upstairs,” he said, tugging her up the same flight he’d pulled her down only seconds ago.

  Neither of them spoke until they arrived back in the gloomy belly of the warehouse. It was piled up with boxes, but light came in through several narrow windows near the roof. He heard Ashaya release her breath in a rush. “Thank you.”

  The sincerity of it made his gut clench. “Don’t thank me.” He reached for his cell phone. “I almost made your mind snap.”

  Ashaya pulled at his hand. Tightening his hold on her, he turned. “Yes?”

  “I’m not that brittle.” Her face was smooth, showing no sign of her earlier panic. “I had to learn how to keep it together. I was underground in that lab for a long time.”

  He felt a layer of deepest respect coat his understanding of this woman who’d gotten to him from day one. “How did you do it?”

  “When something has to be borne, there’s no choice.” She looked to him. “You know that better than anyone.”

  He gave a slight nod. His latency—what it had cost him, what it demanded from him—was something he rarely discussed. He was who he was and people had learned to accept that. But Ashaya had a right to an answer after he’d scared her that badly. “And you had a son to protect.”

  Her face softened in a way that was everything female, speaking to a part of him that had nothing to do with lust and everything to do with tenderness. “Yes. The worst mistake the Council made was taking him from me.” She held out her free hand. “Give me the letter.”

  He handed it over, amazed but unsurprised by her strength. “What does it say?”

  “ ‘Hide and seek, hide and seek. Boo! I seeked you!’ ” Ashaya glanced up. “It’s what I thought—she has a lock on me, but she hasn’t told the searchers the precise location.”

  Nodding, Dorian punched in a familiar code on his cell. “I need an extraction. Quiet.” He gave the details of their location.

  “The Rats’ tunnel—” Clay began.

  “Not an option.”

  The other sentinel didn’t argue. “I’m sending one of the vans to pick you up. It’ll be”—a pause—“an old ice-cream one.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You can swap to a normal vehicle once you’re out of the immediate danger zone—it’s the Council’s spies, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah. You heard anything?”

  “They’re sniffing, but they don’t have the scent. We know where they are and we’re letting them know that, too. Five minutes.” Clay hung up.

  Dorian told Ashaya what was happening, then picked up the thread of their earlier conversation. “Now, tell me about your sister and why she can track you when the others can’t.”

  “It’s complicated.” She pulled at her hand. “Please, let go. The more physical contact I have with you, the harder it becomes to maintain what shields I have left. One slip and the Council won’t have any need to physically hunt me—they’ll find and cage my mind.”

  Releasing her hurt. The leopard clawed at the inside of his skin, until Dorian could almost feel skin break and muscle tear. “Start.”

  She looked at him with cool brilliance. “You have a habit of doing that—treating me like someone subservient. I’m not.”

  “I’m used to dominance. It’s part of what makes me a sentinel.” Only the strongest of the pack became sentinels. They had to be the alpha’s protectors, his enforcers if need be.

  “Then become unused to it in my presence,” was the immediate response. “I’m not part of your pack and even if I were, I would hold equal rank.”

  He felt his lips curve upward. “That certain of your strength, Shaya?”

  “I saw the respect you showed Tamsyn. Yet she’s nowhere near as physically strong. Therefore, your pack gives women high rank. Given my abilities and focus, yes, I’m certain.”

  He bowed his head in a slight nod. “Point taken. But I still want to know about your sister and you still have to tell me. Right now you’re a refugee seeking sanctuary. DarkRiver’s giving it to you for a number of reasons, but we won’t do it blindly—protecting our young comes first. Choose.” He held back the other truth—that she was going nowhere without him. The leopard wanted to keep her. And that, Dorian knew, spelled a very special kind of trouble.

  “What about Keenan?” she asked, eyes locked with his. “If I don’t tell you what you want to know, will you withdraw protection from him, too?”

  He heard the smooth engine of an arriving van. “I think the real question is—will you keep hiding what we need to protect him effectively?”

  She sucked in a breath just as he jerked his head toward the door. “Transport’s here. Come on.”

  He was aware of her jogging behind him as he ran to the door and pushed it up. The van had been backed up right against it. “In,” he ordered, pulling open the vehicle’s back doors. As she scrambled inside the seatless interior, he closed up the warehouse and followed, pulling the van doors shut behi
nd him. They were moving an instant later.

  “Where are we heading?” he asked, recognizing the driver’s scent as that of Rina, Kit’s sister and one of the younger DarkRiver soldiers.

  “Out to the Presidio. Jamie’s gonna meet us there with a car for you. Okay?”

  “Works.” He propped his back against the side wall of the van, aware of Ashaya attempting to do the same across from him. Stretching out his legs, he braced his feet on either side of her. She didn’t hesitate to put her hands on him. “You couldn’t find something with better suspension?” Not that he minded Shaya’s touch, but his teeth were about to rattle out of his head.

  “Oh, hold on.” A few mechanical groans, the slight jolt of wheels retracting, and then the ride smoothed out. “I turned on the hover-drive. Barker told me this vehicle’s not really meant to be run on wheels. Sorry, forgot.” A sheepish sound.

  “You’re doing fine.” Rina was under his direct command, and now that she’d figured out he was immune to her sensual nature, she was turning into a good protector for the pack. If the girl learned to control her quick-fire temper, she’d become one of the best. He switched his attention to Ashaya, keeping his legs where they were. “Better?”

  She nodded, looked toward the front, then shook her head. Strangely, he understood. She would tell him her secrets but not with a witness. He’d accept that. But he’d keep nothing from his packmates that they needed to know—Ashaya was smart enough to have figured that out.

  “Did you troll the message boards like I asked?” he said to Rina, keeping his tone low because changeling hearing was acute in close quarters.

  “Yeah. Hold on.” Rina made a sharp turn. “Found out something you might be interested in—you know how we thought there had to be backup root servers since the Internet was only down for thirty seconds?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Word is there’s a network of paranoid computer hackers who’ve made it their business to set up secret fallback servers all around the world.”

  Dorian considered that. “Paranoia isn’t always a bad thing.”

  “So says a computer geek,” Rina teased. “Anyway, Ashaya’s broadcast is doing the rounds—we uploaded a perfect version to make sure. Council seems to have given up trying to keep it under wraps.”