Darkest Caress (14 page)

“Don’t.” He shrugged out of her grasp, caught her chin in one hand. His gentle grip belied his tight expression, the raging, primitive heat in his eyes.

He’d made it clear he didn’t want her touching him anymore, but she desperately needed to. His reaction confused and hurt her. “What’s wrong? You’re still hurting.”

Rather than answer, he shook his head and kissed her gently to stop her questions. The tenderness of it tied her in knots. Why was he withdrawing from her like this?

Easing away, he pressed her shoulders back against the pillow, held her stare as he framed her face between his palms. His eyes were a beautiful, glowing blue. Hypnotic. But the guilt in them made her nape prickle. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “Sleep,
mo ghrá
.”

The words had barely registered before the black curtain of sleep crashed down and obliterated everything.

* * *

Xavier’s eyes snapped open in the darkness. He jerked upright in bed with a gasp tearing from his sunken chest. The dream. He’d
seen
them. Heard them.

The Coven Leader had marked the female. Time was running out.

His breath sawed in and out of his lungs in shallow rasps as he groped for his phone on the night table, located the number he was looking for. “Have you found them?” he demanded when Rick picked up. He couldn’t get his pulse under control.

“I told you I’d contact you once I did.” The man’s tone was cold, hard.

Xavier wanted to reach through the phone line and punish him for his insolence. If Rick thought he was in hell now, he was sadly mistaken. Xavier held the power to make his every waking moment its own separate agony if he chose. He reined in the urge with effort, forcing himself to breathe, to calm his racing heart and thoughts. The man was more useful to him at full strength. “How many properties have you searched?”

“All but three. All dead ends.”

“I know what she looks like.”

A pause. “How do you know that?”

Xavier’s hand tightened around the phone. “Don’t
ever
question my abilities.”

Rick let out a rough sound of irritation. “What. Does. She.
Look
. Like?”

The need to punish him surged higher, filling Xavier’s mind, his lungs. Power surged through his body, making every inch of his skin tingle.
No,
he told himself. That kind of punishment would not work on this man. The Iceberg would never be motivated by pain. Only by the crippling, visceral fear of knowing his mortal soul hung in the balance, dependent on him carrying out the orders given.

Xavier took a slow, deep breath and called up the memory of the woman’s face. “An oval-shaped face,” he began, “with a fair complexion. Shoulder-length light brown hair with a bit of wave to it. Her eyes are green-hazel.” He swallowed past the sudden tightness in his throat. “And she’s got a mating mark on the left side of her neck.”

Rick sucked in a breath. “If he’s marked her, then they’ve already bonded.”

“No,” he growled, every fiber in his being denying the charge. “I would’ve felt it. He’s marked her but she hasn’t marked him and I don’t know why. There’s still time.” But it was slipping away fast. No male could withstand going without his mate’s mark when he’d already bonded to her. Rick probably had only hours to find her before she naturally completed the bond.

“Why would she not mark him?” Rick asked suspiciously.

“I don’t know, but he’s not with her. I feel it.”

Rick snorted. “If what you say about Empowered males is true, he’d never leave her after marking her.”

“He’s not
with
her, I tell you.”

“So then he’s going to be even more vulnerable. I should go after him instead and end this whole thing right now.”

“
No
.” His muscles shook, his heart racing with the helpless sense of urgency. He was trapped here. Couldn’t go anywhere. Couldn’t search out the woman himself. “The woman. Just her.” She was the key. The key to everything. The boy from the prophecy had said so.

A pause. “Any idea where I can find her?” The words were laced with sarcasm.

“I thought you had three more properties to check.”

“Yeah, so? They could all be dead ends too. And if he’s not with her, that’s not going to help.”

His head came up. “Do you have pictures of the real estate agents for the remaining listings?”

“Yeah, but just three of them. I’m sending the pictures now.”

“Wait.” He rushed into the adjoining room and opened his laptop to retrieve his e-mails. He scrolled through the files. Nothing in the first one seemed familiar. Nor in the second.

On the third, he glimpsed the image of the female realtor the estate was listed with. Oval face. Light brown hair. Hazel-green eyes.

For a moment he felt dizzy. The blood rushed in his ears as he sucked in a sharp breath. “It’s her.”

Nida, Lithuania

Nairne’s thighs burned pleasantly as she climbed the last few yards to the top of the dune. At the very pinnacle she turned to face the view, let out a delighted gasp. The seaside resort town of Nida lay before her, nestled against the Curonian Lagoon. Families dotted the promenade and curving beach. The wind pressed at her back, tugging tendrils of dark hair from her ponytail as it blew off the Baltic Sea on the other side of the narrow sand spit.

She took a deep breath of the salty air then closed her eyes, tilting her face to the sun. A wide smile stretched her mouth. She’d always wanted to come here. Finally standing on the dune overlooking Nida was a dream come true.

Something about this place had always called to her. It had magic in it that went beyond the pagan tradition or folklore she’d been relentlessly researching. She could almost feel it tingle over her skin as she basked in the warm summer sunshine.

After enjoying the view for a few more minutes, Nairne tucked the image of the perfect summer day away in her head then started back down the dune. This time she climbed down the Baltic side, heading toward the sea. Whitecaps rolled on the sparkling water as far as the eye could see. Waves curled, crashing onto the sandy shore, sending ribbons of foam scattering up the beach. This side of the Spit wasn’t as crowded, and Nairne was glad. At the water’s edge she walked along the wet sand, looking for treasures. It had stormed the night before so she found pieces of blue and green sea glass embedded in the sand. A few yards up the beach, she spotted something even better.

A glistening honey-colored lump lay on the sand. She rushed up and grabbed the sliver-dollar-sized chunk, studied it carefully. The piece of Baltic amber caught the sun’s rays, almost seemed to glow in her palm. It was red amber, fossilized tree sap from a forest that had burned long ago.

Jurate’s tears.
From the mermaid sea goddess whose father had destroyed her amber palace when she fell in love with a human fisherman. Legend said it was why amber continued to wash up on the beach here after a storm.

Nairne slowed her breathing and focused on what she held. Nothing happened. No flashes, no fragmented images came to mind. She opened her eyes, unsure whether to feel disappointed or not.

Nairne tucked her new treasure into her windbreaker pocket then continued up the beach when her cell phone rang. It was her office.

“We’ve got another DNA sample here that you’ll be interested in,” her colleague informed her.

Nairne plugged her other ear with a finger and hurried away from the water, up the sloping sand back toward a path that skirted the foot of the dune. “Go ahead.”

“It’s like the others you’ve compiled in the database. Looks like strong Celtic and Northern European descent. Maternal DNA closely resembles some of the others you’ve earmarked.”

The battering wind faded the moment she stepped behind a small dune. “Great. I’ll look at that as soon as I’m back.”

“Wait, there’s more.”

Nairne paused at the urgency in the woman’s voice. “All right.”

“This is from Dr. Mackintosh, and he wants you to analyze it personally right away. He’s particularly interested in any Baltic heritage links.”

Was he? So, she shared a common interest with the handsome doctor she’d heard her colleagues go on about since she’d started at the lab a few weeks back. It seemed like every female in the office fancied him. Apparently the man was something to look at. Most of her office was desperately in lust with him. Nairne had never met him and had no interest to. Right now her work was the driving force in her world.

She tucked an errant lock of hair behind her ear. “Aye, best e-mail the files to me then and I’ll get to it as soon as I can.”

“I already did. They should be sitting in your inbox.”

Nairne sighed. Looked like her summer holiday was going to be interrupted. Ending the call, she strode up the footpath toward Nida and the pretty little boutique hotel she’d be staying at for the next week. A hum of excitement raced through her blood. What would the new DNA sample show? Would it be close to what she’d been searching for? A link to her own bloodline, and maybe to her family lineage. To her great grandmother’s ancestors. There had to be others like her and Nairne somewhere. Others with secret abilities like the ones she’d read about in the ancient scroll.

* * *

Liv sighed and stretched in her bed, her body deliciously sated and sore. Bright morning light streamed through her bedroom window, engulfing her in a warm yellow glow. Daegan’s scent remained strong in the room but when she turned over he wasn’t there.

She sat up. The ensuite bathroom door was open, the room empty.

“Daegan?” When he didn’t answer she frowned then grabbed her robe from the closet. Pulling it on, she headed out into the kitchen. She didn’t smell any coffee brewing or bread toasting. “Daegan?” she called louder, feeling the stirrings of panic.

The kitchen was empty and spotless. Nothing had been moved since she’d cleaned it last night.

She walked to the sliding glass doors that led into the backyard. He wasn’t there either. Had he gone out somewhere?

Maybe he’s not coming back.

The thought was like an arrow to the heart. She sat down stiffly on the sofa, wrapping the warm folds of her robe around her. Though she refused to allow herself to get dramatic about him sneaking out on her, she couldn’t help the hollow feeling in her gut. Last night had been the most intense, incredible experience of her life. She’d never felt so close to anyone, had never opened her heart like that. Would he really just walk away without so much as an explanation? After he’d been so considerate and amazing?

He’d held her like she was precious. Soothed her, given her breathless orgasms despite his own obvious need. When he’d finally made love to her properly he’d been right there with her, sharing the gift of his hunger and pleasure. And when he’d finally given her the rough edge she’d craved, nipping her hard on the neck—

Liv gasped and touched her fingers to the tender spot on the side of her throat. Jesus, he’d bitten her. Hard, then kind of nursed at her neck afterward. Almost like he’d been…drinking from her.

No way.

She jumped up and ran to the bathroom. Flipping on the lights, she looked in the mirror, craning her neck to the side.

“Shit!” Her eyes widened when she saw the quarter-sized mark where he’d been sucking. At first glance it looked like a hickey, a faint bruise surrounded the dark circular mark. She leaned closer, her eyes refusing to believe what they were seeing. It looked like a faded tattoo. A round, almost Celtic-looking design of some sort. A knot, maybe.

She rubbed at it, winced. Whatever it was, it was damn sore, and it wasn’t coming off.

Maybe all it needed was a good scrubbing, she thought, trying to figure out how Daegan had put it there. Liv grabbed a washcloth and soap then scrubbed at it for a minute before checking again. No good. Still there.

The cloth fell into the sink with a fleshy plop. Water dripped in a monotonous, hollow echo that seemed to fill the bathroom.

Jesus, he’d marked her. Literally marked her somehow, then taken off without a word like she meant nothing more to him than a meaningless woman he’d picked up at a bar.

Liv stared at the tattoo and swallowed hard. What the hell was it? What did it mean? Her body might have stopped clamoring for another orgasm but the reason for the mark was pretty self-evident. He’d done it to make the sexual need go away. Was she bonded to him now?

She didn’t know quite what she’d envisioned about what bonding meant or how it would feel, but it hadn’t been this aching emptiness. Like he’d abandoned her.

And even if they weren’t bonded, he still had a lot of explaining to do. Whether he wanted to or not, the cowardly bastard.

Liv marched into her room and fished her cell from the pile of clothes she’d dumped on the floor in her haste to get undressed last night. Battling her growing anger, she found his number, dialed it. How dare he take off on her after half-convincing her they were mates and finally spending the night in her bed.

“Daegan,” she said in a crisp voice when his voicemail picked up, “I don’t know where you are but you need to call me
right now
. You left something on me and I want to know what it is. I think I deserve that much.” With a frustrated sigh she tossed the phone onto her bed and stood there, not knowing what to do. She was too worked up to go back to sleep. Plus her pillow and sheets smelled like him anyway. But the thought of washing them made her chest ache.

An awful sinking feeling took hold. He couldn’t be gone forever. The tender spot on her neck had to mean there was something more between them than just a sizzling one-night stand.

* * *

Fighting a yawn when the front doorbell pealed, Cade set down a box of special ammunition he’d been checking. It was only seven in the morning on a Sunday, so he had no idea who it could be. Definitely not the woman he’d left sleeping in her apartment downtown an hour ago. He’d scrubbed her memory before slipping out the door like the sorry excuse for a male he was.

The doorbell rang again.

“Coming,” he called. Damn, someone was impatient this morning. He jogged up the stairs, down the hall to the door, surprised to find Olivia on the front step when he opened it. “Hey, good morning.”

“Morning,” she mumbled, looking past him to gaze around the foyer. Her voice was rough and her eyes seemed a bit red, like she’d been crying or something. “Is Daegan here?”

“Uh…not sure.” He’d only gotten home half an hour ago, but Daegan’s Porsche hadn’t been parked out front. Cade let her inside and shut the door. “Haven’t seen him since last night. I thought he was with you.”

“He was.” Her gaze went to the main staircase leading to the upper floor. “Is he in his room, maybe?”

“Maybe.” Though if Daegan had been “with” her the way Cade imagined, it didn’t make sense that he’d taken off on her, considering they were supposed to be mates. Slinking out a woman’s place on the morning after was
his
M.O., not Daegan’s.

Liv walked past him, disappeared up the main staircase. A few seconds later he heard her knocking on the master bedroom door, then her footsteps coming back down the stairs. Her jaw was set when she came into view. “He wasn’t there. The room’s empty and the bed’s still made.”

Cade tucked his hands into his back pockets, masking his growing concern. “Maybe he had something to take care of.” Though what the hell could be more important to Daegan than bonding with his mate?

She lowered her head. “Maybe, but he won’t return my calls.”

What the hell? “Liv, what happened?”

“I don’t know. He stayed the night with me,” she said, her cheeks turning slightly pink, “but when I woke up he was gone.” He started to ask something else, but her eyes flashed with anger as she pulled her hair away from her neck. “This was on my neck when I woke up. What is it?”

Cade’s eyes widened when he saw the fresh mating mark on her pale skin.

“Come on, Cade, I know you know what it is. So explain it to me before I snap.”

A prickle of alarm spread through him. Males were ultra-possessive of their bonded mates and didn’t leave them unprotected without a good reason. They’d
never
leave them so soon after the marking, unless it was an emergency. And they certainly didn’t leave them alone and confused without understanding what had happened between them. Cade cleared his throat, chose his words with care. “Uh, does he have one too?”

She frowned. “What? I don’t know. How would I, when I haven’t seen him since last night?”

Ah, Christ.
“So you didn’t mark him?”

She looked even more confused and Cades’ heart sank.

He tried a different angle. “Do you feel…connected to him right now? More than before?”

Her chin lifted, a sheen of tears glittering in her eyes. “I don’t feel anything right now except pissed off and used.”

Cade fought back a wince of empathy and barely kept from scrubbing a hand over his face. This was bad. Very bad. “It’s his mating mark, Liv. It means he’s bonded to you.”

“He bit me,” she accused.

Cade nodded, feeling damn uncomfortable. This conversation should definitely be between her and Daegan, not him.

“It hurt for a second, but his mouth seemed to stay there for quite a while,” she added, a fierce blush swallowing her face. “Did he feed off me? Drink my blood or something?”

“
No
. God, no. We’re not vampires.”
Jesus Christ, Daegan, you’ve fucked this up so badly already.
“His teeth punctured your skin, but that’s all. No drinking, I swear. Once he marked you, a symbol appeared at the site, bearing his initial.” Peering harder, he made out the intricate D amongst the Celtic knot.

“So he was basically marking his property,” she said dully, making Cade fight back a grimace. Liv shook her head. “I can’t believe he’d do this to me and then just take off without saying anything.”

Neither could Cade. Where the hell had he gone in
that
kind of shape? A bonded male wandering around without his mate claiming him in turn?

Wherever he was, Daegan was suffering a kind of sexual frustration beyond anything Cade cared to imagine. Poor bastard must be in agony, and feeling violent enough to tear someone’s head off. Worse, he’d become increasingly unstable until Liv marked him, finishing the bonding.

Cade’s heart sped up as he ran through the possible ramifications of that. “Did you check outside everywhere?”

“Good idea.” She stalked past him to yank open the door.

He flinched when it slammed shut behind her, then whipped out his phone. Running through the house to check all the rooms, he waited for Daegan to answer his cell but kept getting the voice message. On the third attempt down in the empty gym, he lost his patience. “It’s me,” he snapped. “Where the fuck are you? Call me ASAP before I start doing the search and rescue routine, or I swear to God I’ll kick your sorry ass when I find you.” He might kick it anyway next time they met, just for scaring the shit out of him like this.