She snuggled closer. “So, tell me if I’m right about this. Their gift to your genetic makeup lets you come back from wounds that normal humans can’t, but only for so long. After that, something changes.”
He told her the brutal truth. “We become like the worst kind of Other, ready to kill anything that moves. That’s why when we’re injured or killed, they strap us down on steel tables with heavy duty chains. Depending on how we do when we wake up, they either feed us or kill us. Nothing in between.”
He half expected her to move away. Instead, she moved her body over his to sprawl over his chest. Then she kissed him on the mouth softly, until she teased his lips apart and her tongue darted in to find his. The kiss was long and wet and the sweetest gift anyone had ever given him.
He wrapped his arms around his woman and held her as close to his heart as he could get. For the first time in his life, he faced the shadows that made up his world without feeling alone.
Deep in this cavern, it was impossible to gauge how long she and Blake had been asleep. Brenna shifted slightly, feeling a bit stiff and sore. That shouldn’t surprise her; she and Trahern had given each other a good workout last night. She hadn’t been a total innocent before, but she’d never had a lover who came close to the way Trahern made her feel.
“What are you smiling about?” Blake’s voice rumbled through his chest where her head lay.
“How do you know I’m smiling?” Without a window, the room stayed dark unless one of them turned on a light.
“I can feel it.” He lifted her chin to plant a kiss on her mouth.
“I’m smiling because of you and—well, all of this.”
He rolled onto his side, hooking his leg over hers. “So you like this, do you?”
She punched him lightly on the arm. “You don’t strike me as a man who needs to go fishing for compliments. You must have women howling at your door.”
“There haven’t been all that many. Paladins aren’t generally the marrying kind, so women tend to shy away from us. Any woman can do a hell of a lot better than someone who kills for a living.”
Tears filled Brenna’s eyes as she thought of generations of Paladins, living to fight with no love or compassion in their lives to compensate. It broke her heart to know how that must feel. If it were up to her, Blake would never forget that the woman in his bed cared about him.
She was about to give him a very specific demonstration of that when a klaxon went off outside the door, loud enough to wake the dead. Blake all but shoved her aside as he lurched out of bed, kicking his feet free of the blankets. He felt his way to the door and flipped on the overhead light. Brenna sat up, blinking against the sudden brightness. “What’s going on, Blake?” She tried not to feel hurt about his rough treatment.
“The barrier. It’s down.” He was already jerking on his jeans and shirt. “They don’t sound the alarm unless it’s bad. I’ll be back when I can.”
He might be in the room still, but she knew he was already gone. This was what he’d been trying to tell her. As long as the barrier was in jeopardy, he had to fight.
He opened a small closet in the corner and hefted a sword, checking its balance. How convenient: loaner blades. He tried two more before closing the door, then he left without a backward look.
The horn outside kept blaring; what should she be doing? Certainly not huddling under the covers. Throwing back the blankets, she walked across the floor and headed into the bathroom. She turned on the shower to heat up while she brushed her teeth.
The chill of the room kept her moving at a brisk pace as she showered, dried off, and dressed. She ran a quick brush through her hair after toweling it as dry as possible.
But now that she was dressed, there was nothing left for her to do but make the bed and straighten out her suitcase. She hesitated before doing the same for Blake, wondering if rifling through his duffle was a bit too personal. Then she laughed at herself. She knew the man well enough to have hot sex with him all night, but not well enough to fold his shorts without asking first?
But then their current situation was only temporary. Sure they enjoyed sharing some hot sex between the sheets, but Trahern had been clear that they weren’t going to spend the rest of their lives together. If she was going to protect her heart, she needed to set some limits.
The klaxon shut off; the sudden silence almost as much of a blow as the loud horn had been. Once the ringing in her ears stopped, she could hear other sounds all too clearly, sounds that had her nerves shrieking and her stomach roiling. There was no mistaking the clang of steel against steel out in the cavern and the screams of pain as someone went down, bleeding and perhaps dying.
Trahern had said the Paladins would all likely survive an attack, but she wasn’t convinced. Healing quickly was one thing; resurrecting the dead something else entirely. The noise grew louder, then just as quickly faded into the distance. Their room was only a short distance up a tunnel that led to the main cavern; there was no telling how close the fighting had come.
She took a deep breath and slowly turned the doorknob to take a quick peek. Her senses were immediately assaulted by the noise and smell of battle. The sickly, acrid scent of blood—and lots of it—carried through the air. The smell made her want to shut the door and hide, but a man was moaning in pain close by.
Blake would probably be seriously angry with her for leaving the dubious safety of their room, but she had to know if she could help. The immediate hallway was empty. She all but ran toward the cavern, knowing she was risking far more than a long lecture from Blake or Jarvis. As she neared the end of the tunnel, the noise grew louder as swords clanged and men yelled in two languages. One she recognized as her own; the other was more guttural and hard on the ears.
She edged forward until she ran out of wall. One look out into the cavern, and she knew she would never be quite the same again. Due to television, no one was ignorant of the horrors of war, but that was only a pale shadow of what it was like firsthand. It seemed like a scene straight from hell, all chaos and cacophony.
The Others were easy to spot since they were dressed in black and gray, which matched the uniformly dark color of their hair. Their skin was almost unnaturally pale, standing out in stark contrast.
The Paladins wore mostly jeans and shirts; a few were in sweats, and one was bare-chested and wearing flannel pajama bottoms. The fighting seemed to ebb and flow, with first the Others gaining ground, then dancing back as the Paladins relentlessly pushed them toward the barrier.
There were bodies on the floor, a few Paladins, but far more Others lying contorted in pain or death. She frantically searched the cavern for Trahern Finally, she spotted him standing back-to-back with Jarvis. Each of them swung a broadsword in huge arcs, keeping a circle of determined Others at bay. Several of their brethren had already fallen before the Paladins’ blades, but still they came.
Yesterday she had watched them do this in practice; now it made her sick and afraid. Though Blake had been telling her the truth all along, nothing he’d said had prepared her for the horror of it all.
She wanted to scream, but fought it back. The last thing the battling men needed was the distraction of a hysterical woman. What could she do to help? She might be crazy for even wanting to try, but only someone totally heartless wouldn’t want to ease the suffering before her.
She finally spotted a badly wounded Paladin only a few feet away, crawling in her direction, leaving a trail of blood behind him. For the moment, the fighting had moved in the other direction. Without giving herself time for second thoughts, she charged out into the cavern and grabbed the man by the arm to drag him to safety.
“If I help, can you stand?”
He nodded, grimacing in pain. It took them a couple of tries, but finally he was on his feet and leaning far too much of his weight on her shoulders. Together they managed to walk the short distance to the tunnel, and when they were out of sight of the cavern, she eased the wounded Paladin onto the floor.
“I’ll be right back.”
She ran to her room and scooped up the rest of the clean towels. She found a first aid kit in the weapon closet, and grabbed her leftover medical supplies before running back to her patient.
He was where she’d left him, his face dripping with sweat despite the chill in the air. She knelt beside him and opened the kit. The supplies inside seemed hopelessly inadequate for the open slash wounds on his arm and leg: the leg of his jeans was already soaked in blood, as was his shirt.
“I’m going to cut away your jeans.”
He bit his lower lip and nodded.
She used bandage scissors to uncover the large gash in his upper thigh. The ragged slash had laid his leg open to the bone. He had to be in agony, but he only moaned as she picked out the threads of denim stuck to the wound and cleaned it as best she could. Then she applied clean gauze and wrapped the leg with surgical tape to hold the bandage in place.
By comparison, the wounds on his arm seemed minor. She focused on stopping the blood that kept welling up from the cuts, and it gradually slowed as she got them bandaged. To her amazement, as soon as she got the last bit of tape in place, her patient pushed himself up off the floor.
“What are you doing?” She couldn’t believe he could move, much less stand.
He nodded toward the cavern. “It’s not over yet. Thank you, whoever you are.” After planting a quick kiss on her cheek, he was gone.
She stared after him as he limped away, leaving her with a pile of bloody towels and the scattered remains of the first aid kit. What should she do next? Wait until the next bloody Paladin came within reach? What good did it do to patch them up if they were just going to dive right back into the thick of things? No doubt it was a question that people like Dr. Young had been asking themselves for years. Brenna gathered the mess in the hallway and retreated to their room.
Witnessing the battle, even for such a brief time, was a huge piece of the puzzle that Trahern had been trying to help her understand. Paladins healed quickly. Paladins fought Others. Paladins weren’t completely human. They lived solitary lives near fault lines and volcanoes, keeping the battles they fought hidden from the rest of humanity. The list went on and on.
He was proud of what he’d become, and understandably so. On another level, though, deep down inside him, he was convinced that he was losing his hold on his humanity. But no man treated a woman the way he had treated her, both in bed and out, without having pretty strong feelings for her. And if he cared about her, then there was hope for him. She refused to believe otherwise.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, she did what women had been doing for an eternity: she waited for her man to come back from the war.
T
rahern surrendered his sword to the armorer. “Sorry about the condition of the edge; I blocked a couple of blows from a battle ax with it.”
The resident weapons man ran his hand along the blade. “It did its job; that’s all that matters. I’ll restore it tomorrow.”
“Thanks for the loan. I left mine in Seattle.”
“No problem. From what I hear, they were damn glad to have you swinging it out there today.” The man turned to put the sword away. “And I know at least one of the guys is grateful to that woman of yours.”
The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. “Really? How’s that?”
Something in his tone—or maybe it was the way his hands clenched into fists—warned the armorer that he’d unwittingly blundered into dangerous territory. He backed away from the counter and closer to the sword behind him.
“Seems she found him bleeding on the cavern floor and pulled him into one of the tunnels to patch up his leg and arm. She did a bang-up job because he returned to the fight. Last I heard, the Handlers were fussing over him, but he’s going to heal without having to die first, thanks to her.”
“I’ll pass along the good news to her.”
Trahern forced his hands to relax, despite the sick fear in his gut. What in the hell was Brenna doing out in the cavern? The woman must be crazy, because he knew she wasn’t stupid. What if she’d been the one to catch a sword blade across her leg or arm? She could have bled to death before he’d even known she was hurt.
He’d planned to stop in the showers and clean up before returning to their room, but to hell with that now. If she’d seen the battle, it wouldn’t come as a surprise to her that he was covered in blood.
Battle always left him testy and buzzed, and he had planned to leave Brenna alone for the rest of the night since he felt like a ticking bomb. But if she couldn’t be trusted to stay put, she was a danger to herself and to others if the barrier went down again.
He left the armorer, anger and adrenaline sizzling inside. Cleanup in the cavern was already under way, with the Guard standing watch as the dead and wounded Paladins were turned over to the Handlers. The bodies of the Others were already gone. He’d never asked what was done with them and didn’t care.
When he reached their room, he didn’t bother knocking.
Inside, Brenna sat on the edge of the bed, her hands folded in her lap. Judging by the pallor of her skin, her brief skirmish with his reality had left her badly shaken.
Good. She
should
be scared.
He walked straight into the bathroom to take a badly needed shower. At that moment, he didn’t trust himself not to hurt her—not intentionally, but because battle fever still bubbled through his bloodstream.
Before the door shut completely, Brenna forced her way into the room.
“Don’t.” It was as much warning as he could muster.
“Shut up, Blake. By now you should know I don’t respond well to orders.”
She lifted his T-shirt, torn and splattered with blood. Her expressive face showed no fear, only concern for his new bruises and a couple of shallow cuts. Her hands felt so damn gentle as they checked him for further injury, their touch a healing balm to more than just his wounds. He closed his eyes. Already he could feel the battle fever fading away, to be replaced by something that burned just as hot from a different source altogether.
He caught her wrist to stop any further explorations before he lost control. “I need a shower.”
She gave him one of her temptress smiles. “Do you need someone to wash your back?”
His good intentions died a fast death. He still planned on giving her hell for risking her life, but that could wait until later. Right now, she’d be lucky if he didn’t take her against the wall with no finesse or foreplay.
“I’m not in the mood to be gentle.” He released her wrist, giving her one last chance to back away.
She didn’t hesitate. Raising up on her toes, she wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled him down to meet her halfway for a hungry, hot kiss. Their tongues dueled for supremacy, but it didn’t matter which one dominated. Both burned with a fire that only one thing would quench.
He stepped back long enough to undo the front of her jeans and slid his hand deep inside. Damn if she wasn’t already damp, all the invitation he needed. He yanked her jeans and panties down to the floor; Brenna smiled and kicked them free, spreading her legs in invitation. He knelt down to lift her leg over his shoulder. He smiled at the hungry expression on her face as she dug her fingers into his shoulders, waiting for him to do more.
“Please, Blake!”
He leaned closer to the curls at the juncture of her legs and kissed the inside of her thigh. Using the lightest touch he could manage, he slowly stroked his fingertips up her leg, stopping just above her knee.
Brenna tangled her fingers in his hair and forced him to look up. “I never thought you were a tease.”
“Honey, I’m a lot of things you don’t know about.” He trailed his fingers up the back of her thighs to cup her bottom and squeezed, bringing her tender folds closer. As Brenna trembled, he tongued her gently, but she was poised right at the brink of climaxing, so he backed away, much to her audible frustration.
He rose to his feet and tugged her hands down to the buttons of his fly.
As she teased and rubbed the front of his pants, he pulled her against his chest to nibble the warm pulse at the base of her throat. She worked the buttons open, one by one, until at last he was free. She cooed with delight as she cupped him and caressed his hard length. If he let her continue, everything would be over long before he’d run out of ideas of how to torment her.
Tugging her hands away from his body, he lifted her against the cool tile of the bathroom wall. With a single thrust, he melded his body to hers. He pistoned inside of her, driving them both beyond the limits of sanity. His breath was ragged as he burned off the last of his adrenaline, loving the way she panted and clung to him, digging her nails into his shoulders.
Before he lost complete control, he withdrew from her body. She clearly wasn’t happy when he set her down, but he’d led her out to the bed in the other room.
“Sit down.”
For once, she did as he wanted without arguing. Kneeling between her feet, he stripped off her shirt. He loved the curve of her breasts peeking over the edge of her bra and showed his appreciation with quick little kisses. Once again, it wasn’t enough for his demanding lover. With a flick of his fingers, he undid the front clasp of the bra and it joined her shirt on the floor.
She tugged his mouth down to suckle her breasts. He knew he should be more gentle on her delicate skin with his callused hands, but judging by the little sounds she was making deep in her throat, she didn’t mind in the least.
“Lie back, Brenna.” Once again, he lifted her legs onto his shoulders, spreading them wide. “You are so beautiful.”
She knew he was exaggerating, but she was too overwhelmed by the way he was pleasuring her to argue. This time the touch of his tongue was harder, more demanding, as he breathed his heat right at the center of the inferno he was building inside her. He combined his kisses with sliding his fingers deep inside her. Better, but still not what she wanted. Her body needed more, much more, to fill her up inside.
He picked that moment to run his tongue over her sensitive nub in the same rhythm as he stroked his fingers. Her body tightened, waiting for that one final touch that would send her flying…But once again he stopped just before that happened.
“Blake Trahern!”
He laughed, sounding all too male and satisfied with himself. Just to further frustrate her, he took his own sweet time in putting on a condom. Then, with a predator’s smile, he crawled up her body, taking time to plant hot, wet kisses on her nipples before nibbling his way up to her mouth. He poised right at the entrance of her body. She thrust her hips up, encouraging him to take her. He kissed her on the tip of her nose and finally, with several sharp thrusts, buried himself in her body.
He slowly pulled almost all the way out, leaving her feeling bereft. When he plunged in again and again, pleasure streaked straight through her. She chanted his name like a mantra, his thrusts picking up speed as he pounded his pleasure into her. Then she captured his mouth again, her kiss matching the rhythm of his thrusts.
Her legs locked around his waist as he rode her hard, until finally he slipped a hand between them to rub his fingertips over the center of her need. She threw her head back and keened her joyous satisfaction. The sweet sound drove him over the edge, and his body poured out his release.
It took a while for the world to right itself. He loved the feel of Brenna laying limp in his arms, their bodies still joined.
Unexpectedly, she giggled. “I guess that answers the question of whether you’re all right.”
He laughed loud and long. When he caught his breath, he told her, “I can’t remember ever being more all right. Damn, woman, you sure know how to make a man feel welcome.”
He planted a final kiss on her mouth before gently withdrawing from her body. “I still need that shower.”
“I’ll join you.”
He wasn’t about to argue. There was a world of possibilities involving hot water and soap-slicked skin.
Cocooned in the warmth of the bed, Trahern took a deep breath. “You shouldn’t have come out of the room until you knew it was safe.”
She’d been expecting this lecture ever since Blake had returned, looking grim and cold to the soul. Though he was right, she didn’t regret the frightening glimpse into the hell he lived with on a daily basis. How could anyone live, knowing his life would be full of battles and pain?
“I can’t promise I won’t do it again.” She looked him in the eye. “And I won’t have you trying to protect me from the parts of your life you think I can’t handle.” She poked him in the chest to emphasize her point.
He sighed. “Brenna, the Paladins’ secrets have been safe from the outside world for generations. If we were to start broadcasting our existence, there’s no telling what would happen. At the very least, the military would want to get their hands on us. We can’t afford to be defending ourselves on another front. There are few enough of us as it is.”
“Fine,” she snapped, then scooted as far away as the bed would allow. How dare he lump her in with everyone else? “Keep your secrets from the outside world. But, considering everything we’ve been through in the last few days, I hardly consider myself to be part of that group.”
He immediately wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back against him, spoon style. “Damn it, Brenna, don’t twist my words around. I was just trying to say that I’m not used to sharing myself with anyone. Men who have served with me for years don’t know me as well as you do.”
That admission went a long way toward assuaging her anger. “I’m not asking for more than you can give, Blake, but knowing the truth is what enables me to cope. You don’t have to hide who and what you are from me. Even when you leave, your secrets will be safe with me.”
The shrill ring of the phone prevented any more conversation. Blake reached over her to pick up the receiver. “Trahern here.”
Judging by the sudden tension in his body, it wasn’t anybody he was glad to hear from. A few seconds later he slammed the phone down and rolled away from her. The chill in the room had nothing to do with the limestone cavern that surrounded them.
“Blake?” She put her hand on his bare shoulder.
His only answer was a heavy silence, but at least he didn’t try to shake off her touch.
“I can’t help if I don’t know.”
She moved closer, draping her arm over his chest and sharing her warmth with him. Slowly, some of his tension drained away. After a bit, he finally spoke.
“Jarvis said Mr. Doe has made progress on your father’s disk and spreadsheets.”
That was good news, wasn’t it? So there had to be more. She settled in to wait him out. Finally, she gave up and prompted him to speak. “And?”
Trahern lunged to his feet. “And I have to go take a bunch of fucking damn tests!”
“Tests? Why?” She held her breath, not sure how to help when he was like this.
He took a long breath and then another one. “There was an incident back in Seattle, involving a Paladin from outside the region.”
“What happened to him?” she asked.
“He turned Other with no warning at all and had to be put down.” Trahern’s eyes held the chill of a winter sky.
She focused on Trahern. “What’s that got to do with you?”
In a burst of anger, he kicked his duffle across the room. “Because of him, every time I fight, I have to report to the nearest Handler and let them run tests.”
“What kind of tests?”
He started pacing. “The kind, little girl, where they decide whether I’m still human enough to live or if I must die. Right then, right there, no quarter given.”
Sympathy wouldn’t help him. Temper might. She left the bed to confront her angry, hurting Paladin. “So what are you worried about?”
Stunned didn’t do the look on his face justice. He stared at her as if she’d just grown a second head. “I just told you what happened to that Paladin in Seattle!”
“I’m sorry he died, but he’s not you.” Right now she was more worried about the man in front of her. She hadn’t thought that anything frightened Blake Trahern, but obviously the tests did.
“Died is such a nice, sanitary way to put it.” He glowered down at her. “They held him down, kicking and screaming, as they shoved in a needle of toxins to kill him permanently, the same way they would any other dangerous animal. Laurel Young was the one wielding the needle. It almost destroyed her, too.”
He ran his fingers through his hair. “Now, fool that she is, Laurel spends most of her waking hours trying to find ways to hold off the changes that are part of our basic nature. Because one of these days, it just might be her lover who gets the needle.”
He walked into the bathroom and slammed the door.
She noticed he didn’t lock it. For the moment, she’d allow him some privacy, but if he didn’t come out soon, she’d go in after him.