Darkness & Lies: A Brotherhood Novel (#1) (7 page)

“A good tan is just as important as history any day
,
Chy. You of all people should know that,” Cathy interjec
t
ed from her outlook point several feet away.

Cheyenne glanced down at her too pale skin and had to concede the notion. If only she should could tan as easily as they did, but instead she always ended up with a mottled farmer-ish type tan that more often than not began as a raging burn.

Moving ahead, they followed the narrow hall deeper inside the mountain. “Shit, I can’t see a thing up here. Hey
,
Chy, give me your light would ya?” Kris asked as he led the way.

Digging blindly through her pack, Cheyenne han
d
ed him her Maglite.

“Headlamps on everyone, darkness looms ahead,” Cheyenne warned, fastening hers to her head.

“Joy of joys,” Tabitha said caustically. “How I love exploring the unknown when I can’t even see my own hand in front of my face. Tell me, how are we supposed to di
s
cover anything when we can’t see anything?”

“Majick.” The deep, throaty, distinctly male voice ruptured the impenetrable sea of black around them and ricocheted off the walls making it impossible to discern what direction it was coming from.

Cheyenne spun around
,
seeing only small, lumine
s
cent balls of light from the others’ head gear that left her temporarily blinded. Not that she had had hope of seeing anything in the first place. Where was he? Behind them? In front of them? It was impossible to tell.

“Hands!” she screamed at her team. One by one they quickly reached for each other
,
forming a line in which they were all linked. Tabitha whimpered while Tim tried to whisper soothing assurances. The rest of the team was deadly silent, understanding the need to get their bea
r
ings against the ocean of darkness. “Who are you? What do you want?”

The man made a tsking sound as the
thundering
of his heavy boots came closer. Cheyenne’s heart beat a fra
n
tic tempo as her thoughts scattered to the welfare of her team. What had they gotten themselves into? She loved their explorations and the easy banter they shared, but right now, with what she
knew had to be a crazed killer—
because come on, who in their right mind, besides the eight of them, would be hanging out in a creepy, run down, a
n
cient ruin on top of a m
ountain just for the fun of it?—
she wished they were all back in the safety of their respective homes watching television.  

“What I want is for you to leave. Now.” His tone was forceful and demanding.

Cheyenne was having none of that.

Stiffening at his obvious threat at doing them bodily harm, Cheyenne found her inner strength, directing the a
n
ger from years of female oppression onto him. “Well
,
pe
o
ple in hell want ice water. Who do you think you are telling us what to do? I suggest you move aside
,
creepy man
,
and mind your own damn business,” Cheyenne demanded.

“M-maybe we s–should just leave,” Cathy said wo
r
riedly in the mousiest, most unimposing voice she could muster.

The man ignored her
,
letting out a rumble of mild amusement. “Lady, I am your worst nightmare if you choose not to heed my warning. I suggest you listen to your friend here and move along.”

Cheyenne could tell he was closing in, though his approach was now completely silent. She suddenly felt something akin to prey. He was the hunter and they were the hunted, though her instincts were telling her that she was the primary target here.

“You’re threats don’t scare me, pal. Save it for the next group ‘cause we ain’t buyin’,” she claimed, hoping to God that her less than st
eel nerves wouldn’t betray her.
“Come on guys, we don’t have to take this crap from some shadow dwelling mountain squatter.”

In the next
heartbeat,
Cheyenne was separated from her team with her back pressed firmly to the stone wall b
e
hind her. At
least,
she assumed it was behind her, but in the pitch black as they were it was hard to keep
one's
bearings
straight.

A wall of hot flesh seared her front from chest to
thigh,
and a large set of hands formed manacles around her
wrists,
which were pinned at the sides of her
head.

Hot breath washed over her ear as the man leaned closer. “It wasn’t a threat, lady. It was a promise.”

Cheyenne’s own breath was held captive in her chest as her blood heated and gooseflesh erupted over her body at the low, sultry timber of his voice. She couldn’t understand the insane reaction her body was having to the
stranger 
before her, but as the short whiskers on his jaw scraped deliciously across her cheek
,
she felt some of the fight fizzle out of her
,
replaced by the overwhelming desire to press herself closer and inhale the masculine scent of him until she was drunk from
it.

Erias’s own body heated as the petite woman’s chest rose and fell against his. He could feel her heartbeat racing like a hummingbird’s wings through her many layers of clothing. The sweet scent of honeysuckle filled his nose as he breathed deeply of her.

With his enhanced Guardian vision, Erias could see in the dark even better than in daylight and looking at this woman now, her patrician face, flawlessly pale peach skin framed by deep
Auburn
waves that fell just past her
shou
l
ders; he
could see that she was terrified, though
she
was doing a fantastic job of hiding it. He was kind of impressed
,
actually.

Erias leaned in closer
,
intent on filling his lungs with her intoxicating aroma
,
when a sudden shooting pain assaulted his groin and quickly traveled to his
legs,
which trembled uncontrollably. Doubling over, he threw a hand out to the wall to catch himself as the female slid out of his
hold.

With his testicles practically lodged in his throat, he gasped for air. Suddenly, she was beside him, leaning into his ear, her warm breath teasing his senses.

“Lesson one: keep your hands to yourself.”

He chuckled despite the pain and the overwhelming urge he had to throw her over his knee and give her a good spanking. “I shudder to think what lesson two would be.”

“Let’s hope you never have to find out.” Cheyenne spun away
,
feeling a sense of giddiness at her success
. F
i
nally, three months of self
–defense classes had paid off.

“For the sake of not being murdered,” Hadley squeaked, “I vote that we get out of here.”

“I second that,” Tim said from somewhere in front of her.

“Uh
,
yeah
,
Chy, I don’t know what you did, though I can guess, and I have to say
,
I agree with them. We should go before he recovers himself and decides
to take our heads or something,
” Kris’s shaken voice said from b
e
side her.

“Okay,” w
as all Cheyenne offered. The last thing she wanted to do was give away any details of where they were staying or the fact that they would be back. The last thing they needed was that psycho showing up at their B&B or waiting for them when they came back.

Erias dropped to his knees and cupped his balls as soon as they were gone. Damn it, but that woman had one hell of a knee on her. It felt like they had been shoved into his esophagus. As it was, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be pissing straight for days.

At nearly six-foot-
eight, he had mad respect for a woman her size that could drop a man like him and have him practically calling for his mommy. Not that he was. He was way more man than that.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Erias pulled himself to his feet and pulled his cell phone from his jacket pocket. Listening to the droning ring as he waited for the line to pick up, he revisited the moments before his future children were decimated, and smiled. That woman was tr
u
ly a piece of work. She had a fantastic face and curves to boot. Milk definitely did that body good.

“Hello,” the gruff,
half-asleep 
voice
answered.

“Behr, it’s me, Erias.”

“Ah, E. To what do I owe the pleasure this time?” Behr said caustically.

Erias gritted his teeth as he tried to mai
ntain co
m
posure and not send a g
od blast through the phone to burn the smart ass into submission.

“I need a favor.”

“Well,
duh,
I kind of figured that one out all on my own when I woke up to my phone buzzing incessantly and looked at the clock. Then I thought,
gee. I
wonder who would be calling me at three a.m.
Then
I said, Behr, you better answer it. Most
likely,
it’s Erias with another of his ball busting
expeditions,
and he wants you all over it, co
v
ering his ass like a cheap whore.”

“Yeah, a cheap whore
that's
bound to give me the clap,” Erias tossed back. “Look, I need you to guard The Gate for a bit.”

“The Gate?” Behr coughed, all signs of play having flown instantly out
of
the window at the mention of it. “As in
The
Gate.”

“Did I stutter?” Erias snapped into the phone. “Get your ass down here, pronto.”

“Excuse me
,
I’m not your lap dog. You don’t just call me up and demand my services. You don’t say jump and expect me to say how high.”

“I did and I am. Get your ass down here before I fry it,” Erias growled.

Half a second later, Behr was standing before him
,
pulling on his leather duster and tugging his long,
shoulder-length brown
hair into a queue. His
expressive
blue eyes look up at him
expectantly.

“What the hell is wrong with your face?” Erias sneered.

Behr laughed. He knew it would bother E to the heavens and
back,
and th
at’s precisely why he grew it.
“It’s called a goatee,” he said
,
sm
oothing his palm over his chin.
“The ladies really like it. Can’t keep their hands off of me.”

Erias rolled his eyes. “You look like you ate a shit sandwich.”

“Maybe I did. Who’s to say?” Behr shrugged, e
n
joying Erias’s uneasy shifting. “So
,
your highness, what can I do for you today? Besides freeze my nuts off. Jesus!” Behr pulled the collar of his coat up, clutching it to his chin and drawing more attention to his face.

Erias studied the…
thing
smothering Behr’s face a second longer before tearing his eyes away in disgust. Beards were one
thing. Face
huggers were a whole diffe
r
ent
entity.

“I have an assignment. I’m heading into town. Since I can’t be in two places at once, I need you here.” He star
t
ed away before the urge to take a razor to his face co
n
sumed him entirely.

“Yeah, sure, alrighty then. I’ll just be here if you need me. Dying of hypothermia,” Behr grumbled as he walked deeper into the chambers. He could already hear the muffled screams of the wraiths trying to claw their way out. “Oh yeah, this should be fun.”

Chapter 5

Cheyenne rubbed the towel roughly through her hair as she worked out some of her rage. That stupid piece of shit had seriously cut down on the time she had to work with here. Two days! Two days down the drain
,
and for what? Some muscle bound He-Man who thought he owned a historical treasure? Bullshit! She was
going to
show him. This time tomorrow she and her team were heading right back up that mountain and claiming what was
theirs.

Tossing her towel on the counter, Cheyenne grabbed her comb and set about detangling her hair. Reali
z
ing she had forgotten her robe in the bedroom, she went to retrieve it. It was lying on the end of the bed right next to her luggage where she had left it, but that wasn’t what grabbed her attention.