“I don’t have an ‘or what’, just quit it. I’ve done exactly what you asked and I’m scared. This touching feels…it’s not necessary.” She didn’t know the words. It wasn’t threatening and it sure as shit wasn’t peaceful. It was a complication in the crazy fiction world that she could barely keep up with as it was.
“You need it,” Lore corrected gently. “I need it. We’ll talk about this when I get back.”
“Then go,” Kenna directed firmly as she glared up at him. Refusing to be a distraction or a victim was all she could offer to help now. “I’ll be here.”
Yuri interrupted as Lore scowled down at the woman in his arms. “Sir, the lady has a point.”
Both Lore and Kenna glanced up sharply at the interruption. The naturalness of their discussion was remarkably unnatural and Yuri’s comment forced them into awareness.
Lore let her go and stepped away from his intoxicating little witch.
“All right.” Lore resumed putting on protective gear. “It would be good if you went to the joust with me. It’d give us more time to figure out what’s going on.”
He turned to Yuri. “Do you think Julianna could find a costume for Kenna while we’re gone?”
“Of course. I’ll call her after you leave,” Yuri responded.
“Good.” Lore glanced at Thomas. “Ready?”
Both men were done except for the helmets tucked under their arms. Thomas nodded.
Kenna hadn’t moved from where she was standing, so finding herself back in his arms should not have been a surprise. Thick arms pulled her into his body and his mouth landed firmly on hers.
Those persuasive, mobile lips gave her no options as they moved over her surprised gasp. He was in her, invading with a sensual thrust, sweeping her into his world as if she belonged there. Kenna clutched his shoulders because she felt as if she were falling, but she wasn’t. The hard male holding her would not allow it.
Lore drank her taste. Christ, he was not done with the discussion or anything else. He certainly wasn’t done with her.
* * * * *
Deep in the night on the other side of the planet, a tall figure of a man relaxed in a shadowed doorway, watching the perpetual motion of a soulless downtown street.
His dark form brought frowning glances and a shiver from cynical eyes normally comfortable in these hours when a city’s business turned to sin.
There was no discernable movement and yet the figure of a man froze into primordial stillness. The sound he made could not be registered by human ears, but the ally dogs erupted in frenzied barking. Abruptly the place he had occupied became the chilling absence of life. Normal space folded back into the doorway. He was gone.
There hadn’t been time to deal with personal issues when faced with disaster. Being physically involved with handling the situation was anything but relaxing for him, yet he would rather be the guy taking care of things than the one waiting to see if it worked. Waiting was a hell of a lot harder.
Reaching the location took very little time, it was a fucking small community, barely more than the medieval baronet it had always been. The word “tunnels” had narrowed possible locations. Add to that a site that would be crowded during the festival and it had to be under the cathedral in the ancient burial chambers. A quick sweep and they’d located the device. It wasn’t even hidden, just left in a corridor directly under the cathedral nave.
Now was when the sweating started. Ignoring everything but the lump of deadly intentions in front of him, Lore finally removed the casing from the timing device. There had been a few safeguards, nothing he hadn’t seen before.
Strangely easy to deactivate kicked up his shit-storm radar. Carefully moving to the other side of the device, he hunkered down to peek under the simple timing pieces. Yeah, there was more.
Lore went to verbal communication. There had to be a recording in as many mediums as possible. The radio was on Yuri.
“It’s not a nuke. It looks like one, smells like one, but it’s mostly radioactive junk. Under that is something else. The casing was a disguise,” Lore continued. “Removing left side panel.”
A few seconds later he had his answer. One he was not going to broadcast on any wavelength
. “
I’ve disabled the delivery system. We’re coming out,” he informed them.
“Lore, I feel your concern. It’s higher now than when you went in,”
Kenna said softly in his mind. There was a deadly calm about him, but he was rushing out of the tunnels. Something was very wrong.
“There are few things worse than a nuclear bomb. This might be one of them,”
he answered shortly.
“Don’t leave that room,”
Lore commanded her. Then concern softened his tone.
“You’re dead on your feet. You haven’t slept since the night before last. Sit down, Kenna. That’s what I need from you.”
Kenna was standing by one of the couches. She sank onto it as his words reminded her how tired she was. There was nothing more she could do. Logically she grasped that, but it didn’t take away her connection to Lore. His battle state of mind wouldn’t let her relax.
It seemed as if it took forever for the door to swing open, Lore and Thomas entered, helmets and vests removed. Yuri was by the door.
“What is it?” Yuri questioned sharply.
Lore didn’t pause as he proceeded directly to the conference table and the normal-looking telephone. His eyes had flicked briefly over Kenna, but he was all business. “The bomb’s primary yield looks bio.”
Yuri didn’t need any more information, but Lore hoped Kenna wouldn’t fully understand what that meant. The global threat of a singular nuclear warhead was unthinkable, but the latest thing in bio cotangents could far surpass it. Those nasty little bio beasts could jump around the globe far too fast for anyone to “contain” the epidemic. An idiot who used one would kill himself in the end, but everyone else would be dead too, so no joy there. Hopefully this wasn’t one of those.
Lore picked up the phone. “Get me General Hillier, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
As he spoke, his body turned so he could look at Kenna. She was tightly curled into a she-ball of stress, jewel-bright eyes fastened on him.
His conversation wasn’t as long as she would have thought, spoken in military jargon mostly. The guy on the other end grasped the speed talk apparently. Then Lore said something she did understand.
“There is a note. They have more of the agent. This was a threat. Supposedly he has an airborne delivery system. The note was in the body of the bomb. He knew I’d be the one opening it. It was addressed to me.” Lore paused. “No, left it there. Could have been a trap.” Another pause as he listened. “Good. One of my men will be there to take the team to the device. Yes, thank you.” Lore hung up.
Kenna had slowly uncurled and was sitting stiffly with her feet on the floor. “Are we still in danger?”
“Yes.” Lore put down the phone and came straight to her. “The note mentioned you. Apparently this was an exercise to push you into revealing your talents,” Lore continued as he went down on one knee in front of her. He was physically closer than he could have been sitting beside her. His hands fisted on the cushions beside her as he surrounded her yet carefully didn’t touch her.
“It threatens to detonate a second device if you do not get on the six forty-five flight to New York.”
“Oh my God,” Kenna breathed. Her hands clutched tightly in her lap as his calmly delivered news blew up in her mind into jerky fragments of logic. Of course she would get on that plane. Why her? This really was a kidnapping. How would bad guy do it with so many people around? Bad guy had a plan. Look how intricate the beginning of his plan had been. Wait. If she weren’t as talented as bad guy thought, she’d be dead, along with everyone else in this country. Was that the real plan? To kill her? Why?
“You are not getting on that plane,” Lore stated, his deep, confident tones cutting across her panic. “This is a terrorist.”
“But…” Kenna struggled to keep up with the hope his words offered. Not getting on that plane sounded so good.
“Listen to me, Kenna. You are what this guy wants. He went to a lot of expense and trouble to trigger your telepathy. You are an outstanding telepath, but it’s not like there aren’t others. Conclusion, there is something else. You have it. He wants it. He’s willing to kill millions to get it. He is not willing to kill you. Putting you on a plane gets you out of range for him to detonate and cover evidence he thinks he left here. As long as you’re on the ground, there will be no explosion.”
Kenna concentrated on controlling the trembling. She wasn’t shaking in fear. Fear had fled the building an hour ago. Terror was the only emotion brave enough to hang around, except for the too-stupid-to-live ones.
At this moment, the thing she wanted more than anything else was to slide forward into his arms, which would be the too-stupid-to-live part. As if his holding her would make her any safer.
“Will your people find the other bomb?” Kenna wanted to know.
“Eventually. Right now that’s not our problem. We need you visible in the middle of the festival. We’re going to act like we never found the note.”
Lore paused as something that might have resembled a smile in an alternate universe touched his face. It made Kenna shrink back a fraction. There was lethal intent in his tone as he continued softly. “Game on.”
Lore stood and gently grasped her clutched hands, pulling her up. She had no confidence in her knees being able to perform normally but apparently he did. Surprisingly steady on her feet gave her time to digest his statement.
“Game? What game? This isn’t a game,” Kenna protested hotly.
“Sure it is,” he responded smoothly, once again the picture of concentrated purpose. “Bad guy told us what he wants. Arrogant mistake. We’ll go to the joust. You’ll be sitting with me as if nothing has happened. Now we force him to alter his plan, make another mistake.” He outlined his plan in bullet statements. Confidence dripped from each word.
Lore turned to the two men in the room as he finished removing the bomb suit. It was the warrior in fatigues and a black t-shirt who continued. “Yuri, the U.S. team is wheels down in under two hours. Make it low profile. Thomas, you’re at the joust as planned. Keep the note between us. The U.S team will see it, but I know them. There will be no leaks.”
Both men nodded, but it was Yuri who spoke. “No time for you to change here. Arrangements have been made for both of you at the event. Julianna is waiting for Miss MacKelsey.”
“Excellent. Thank you for taking care of that.” Lore led them out of the room, his large hand folded around hers naturally.
“I’m bait? Things never turn out well for bait. Anything called bait dies right before the real target gets blown to bits,” Kenna explained to the man with a firm grip on her hand. Fighting him would have been stupid and she wasn’t that much of an idiot…yet. Behind them strode Yuri and Thomas. It felt vaguely like being herded.
“No, honey. You’re the prize. It’s the rest of us who are bait. He has to get rid of us to get you.”
His logic made sense, but it didn’t do a thing for the terror reaction. Kenna didn’t want to be the reason someone died, almost as much as she didn’t want to die. When had she stepped through a portal into the land of warriors and hunters?
Being attracted to her captor was some sort of insane syndrome she’d read about, but she didn’t think it could start long before one was captured. Also, she had to admit her hand in his grip wasn’t exactly involuntary.
Wait, did this make her his stalker? No, but she kinda suspected she could be if he weren’t forcefully dragging her with him.
They exited the spacious hall into a large, round entrance. Beyond a set of lovely double doors with intricate leaded glass windows sat a black limousine. In front of those doors stood a small group of men, in the center of which was an angry-looking individual who seemed to be talking fast. He was perhaps six feet tall with elegantly graying hair slicked back in an expensive cut. As he turned a frowning face to them, it seemed titled authority draped all over him.
Kenna’s eyes were drawn to the angry man, the others faded. Her hand tightened in Lore’s as the impact of this person’s gaze hit her. Her feet stopped moving until Lore released her hand to swing his arm around her shoulders, tucking her into his side and moving forward.
“Gentlemen,” the low timbre of Lore’s voice inserted iron into his greeting as they stepped into the marble entry.
“Your highness!” The elegant man managed to make the cultured tones of his voice convey dismayed shock. “I’ve been very concerned. Where were you? None of these men seemed to have a clue.”
“There was something I needed to take care of. Thank you for your concern but there was no need,” Lore responded smoothly.
Kenna clenched her teeth and glanced away from the man. He was projecting anger and something else. When he looked at her, she felt a creepy kind of disgust mingled with real fear. She worked at blocking impressions from him. Not that she was very good at blocking. Hadn’t been aware it was possible before Lore had done it so effectively three days ago when she first arrived. Since then, she’d been working on it but could not quite cut the man’s aura out of her consciousness. He made her feel sleazy. There was no doubt his response to the sight of her had been superior revulsion, as if she were a bit of trash stuck to Lore’s shoe.
“I’m concerned that your little friend might not be an appropriate companion. Let me suggest…”
Lore continued walking, passing the man as he responded, “Relax. I don’t need help finding a date. Miss MacKelsey is my guest and will be fine.”
“But, sir, there are formal matters that must be attended to in this event. I have no idea what Ms. MacKelsey’s qualifications are. Do you? Besides her obvious physical attributes?”
Lore stopped, his body turned to subtly to place Kenna behind him as he faced the angry man. “Careful, Gregory,” Lore warned in a silky tone that could only be called frighteningly calm. “Don’t make me respond publicly on this matter. Miss MacKelsey is not someone you need concern yourself with.”
Gregory’s face tightened at the command in those words. Or perhaps it was the warning tone that made him more a child than a man. Kenna still couldn’t block the malevolence that slithered around him.
“Your highness, the car is waiting,” Yuri spoke into the strained silence as Lore coldly regarded the angry face of his advisor, effectively ending the confrontation before it escalated.
“Thank you, Yuri,” Lore murmured.
His tone flat with command, Lore continued to Gregory. “I know you have things to take care of here. We will see you after the joust.”
Gregory nodded stiffly.
Yuri held the door as Lore and Kenna moved through it. Thomas followed.
The limo driver hurried to open the back door. He came to an abrupt halt, his eyes on Kenna. For a moment he froze in what appeared shock, and then he bowed deeply to the entwined couple. Lore nodded while Kenna frowned as the limo door was opened by the bowing man and Lore led her to it.
“Aren’t you supposed to go first?” she whispered. Abstractedly she recalled that royal customs were complicated. It was hard to figure out normal concerns when touching this man.
His impact on her was intensifying. It had to appear wildly illogical to normal people that they’d jumped into an intimate relationship, but it was almost impossible to worry about appearances when she was the focus of his attention. He addressed her using endearments, and it hadn’t been demeaning, the words were much too natural and, well, she did have the advantage of reading his intention as he said them. Defending her to the arrogant man had created an incredibly tense situation. She hadn’t been the only one who could read Lore’s intention behind each word. It had been clear to the “normals” as well.
There was no defying him as he swept her into his world, but she didn’t
want
to defy him in a real sense. And even though she had no complaint about what he was doing, there was a deep suspicion that her free will was gone, lost in the whirlwind that was Lore taking care of Kenna. Everything had changed.