Darkness Unbound (30 page)

Ashor scowled at Dakar and announced, “Shay and Cy were kidnapped.” He faced off with Dakar again. “Perhaps, you care to explain her actions? Why did she take Cy? Unprotected!”

“Like she paused to think beyond her need to follow whatever clue she found to locating Cy’s ring,” Khyan mumbled. “That woman and impulsive are synonymous.”

Dakar punched Khyan with a cringe-worthy nose crack.

Khyan griped his hemorrhaging face. “Fuck, Dak. You broke my nose.”

“Why did Shay take Cy somewhere? Who kidnapped them?” Astrid asked.

Ashor replied, “Hashishins have them. Shay dragged the kid off to some town south of here over some bullshit that has to do with Cy’s ring and a library. She’s an archaeologist by training and promised to help Cy find his missing totem, his ring.”

Astrid forced a deep breath, aware of the suffocating urgency of this situation. Cy was not only the key to all their spells, but also the little twerp had wriggled his way into her give-a-shit category. Then there was Shay. She’d come to like Shay after a few ladies’ nights. What had she been thinking? Certainly the girl was rash, but from what she’d gathered from Shay, she’d only just gotten her life in order after a multiple-century fuck-over curse from Djoser. If Shay died, then so did Dakar.

Astrid noticed she wasn’t the only one on hyper alert. A tick beat a fast tempo in Kane’s jaw. These two kidnapped ranked high on his list of victims that he would go to the end of the earth to find—a kid and a woman. God, she loved him even more just for that.

Kane asked, “How exactly did this happen? We haven’t been gone even an hour.”

Ashor said, “Right after your team left to take care of those daemons in the northern U.S., another daemon appeared south of here. Dakar and Khyan left to deal with it. The plane hadn’t arrived back when you returned from your excursion. She must have dragged Cy out minutes after you returned.” Ashor asked Dakar, “Why couldn’t she have waited? Twenty minutes and then this wouldn’t have been an issue. Or come talk to be me about this?”

Dakar mumbled. He paced.

Khyan uncovered his nose to say, “You try dictating to that woman what she can and cannot do, especially when she gets her mind set on a plan.”

“Okay, moving beyond the whys of this, did the Hashishins make a demand?” Astrid asked.

“No. No communication from them,” said Ashor. “We know it was them because Shay told Dakar telepathically. You got anything new from her, Dakar?”

Dakar shook his head. “I believe they gave her a potion.” His wild gaze darted to the door as if about to bolt.

Khyan gripped Dakar’s upper arm. “We will find her. I can track her
bochnori.
” He wiped at a bit of blood still trickling from his nose. “I can’t believe you broke my nose.”

“What’s a
bochnori
?” Astrid whispered to Kane.

No clue
. Then he asked out loud, “What’s a
bochnori
?”

“Ensorcelled tattoo-thing,” Christian explained.

“What does that mean?” Kane asked.

“It’s their special thing. Their mojo. You got dragons. They got living tattoos. I don’t get it beyond that,” Christian said.

Dakar said to Khyan, “We do not even know to where they are traveling. You can track her
bochnori,
but that might take days. We do not have days.” He slammed his fist against the wall with a force that rent a deep divot in the plaster.

“True.” Khyan whispered something in a language Astrid didn’t recognize.

“Where’s Scott?” Astrid sighed, wondering why men always lost their minds when a woman was in trouble. Six magi and none with a plan.

“What’s he got to do with this?” Ashor roared. He whipped out his phone and scrolled. “Nothing. No demands.”

“I need to speak to Scott. Then we can find out where Cy is.” Astrid met Ashor’s rage-smoldering gaze, which intimidated the shit out of her, but she refused to let her apprehension show. She folded her arms across her chest.

“Get your son up here, Eric,” Ashor bellowed.

Eric stepped from the shadows in the doorway and nodded.

“Tell him to bring his computer,” Astrid yelled as Eric departed.

In the silence that descended as they waited, Kane moved close enough to Astrid to bring her back into contact with him again. That connection soothed her. Despite his confusion, he was still her number one.

You better shut down whatever’s going on in your brain, Bella, ’cause I’m about four seconds shy of saying fuck this and dragging you upstairs
, Kane rumbled in her mind.

She smiled up at him.
That sounds way better than this.

“What’s funny about this?” Dakar yelled.

Astrid shook her head. Her cheeks burned.

It’s so cute when you blush
, Kane rumbled in her mind.
And I’m getting good at causing it.

She play-punched him on the shoulder. “Stop it.”

Christian smiled broad enough that a dimple highlighted each side of his face. “So, you guys finally…” He winked.

Astrid narrowed her eyes at him, threatening punishment for his teasing.

“Maybe both of you will be less prickly.” Christian chuckled.

Dakar rounded on Christian. “You jest at time such as this? Shay is your daughter.”

Christian scowled. “I’m here. I’m worried. But what can I do? This is probably the gods mucking with us again. I’d think you, of all people, would realize this. All we can do is see where their bullshit leads and hope we get to keep going in this life.”

Dakar backed against the wall with a curse.

Scott glided in. A sweatband restrained his long, limp blond hair off his face. He set a closed laptop down on the conference table and faced Astrid. “Whatcha need?”

“Where’s Cy?” Astrid asked.

Scott slow smiled. “Yeah, I figured you guys would eventually ask. Based on how quickly he’s headed toward the southern U.S., my guess is he’s on a plane.”

“Have you magikal abilities? How would you know that?” Dakar demanded.

Scott rolled his eyes. “Astrid had me implant a transmitter into him. Beneath the skin. So, even if whoever kidnapped him stripped him naked and took his prosthesis we could still find him. I found this mega-cool unit out of France that most scanners won’t pick up.” Scott beamed.

“You IDed him like a goddamned dog? Why would you do that?” Ashor demanded.

Astrid said, “He was on my team. He was at risk. I took steps. He didn’t seem to mind. We can remove it at a later time, if he sees it as a problem. Kira said it was okay.” She hated being defensive. How could he question what was now a brilliant decision?

“Kira was in on this?” Ashor yelled.

“Don’t you guys talk about anything?” Astrid asked. She took a step toward him. “Maybe you’re too busy doing…other things?”

Ashor’s face colored red.

Astrid bit her lip against laughter. “Right. So, assuming whoever took them is on their way back to Hashishin headquarters in North Carolina, we need to plan to get them out of there. We know this is to bait us into confrontation. Scott, did you get the schematics on the Hashishins’ place downloaded from my file before the Company locked it?”

Scott nodded.

“Well…let’s see ’em.” Astrid crowded close to Scott. He pulled up plans she’d memorized weeks ago when they’d first entered the place to get Cy out. She mumbled. “The place will be on high alert.”

Kane asked, “Is this the same place that they took you? Where they tortured you? Sounded like that center was destroyed?” He moved in close behind her.

“No. I wasn’t in North Carolina. I think they’ll go home. To Asheville where they held Cy.”

“If they get a sniff of us there, they’ll probably kill the two of them. Can you portal in close?”

Astrid bit her lip. “Last time didn’t they put up an invisible magikal wall? What if there’s some other magikal force field or something over the place? Who knows what it could do to you guys.”

Ashor cleared his throat. “And to you. We should expect another warded protection shield or worse this time.”

“It’s probably safer to portal into the periphery and then you guys do whatever you did last time to get the wall down,” Astrid suggested.

“We beseeched a god,” Dakar said. “I think it unlikely any of them will respond again.”

“They might respond to you,” Ashor said, eyeing Astrid.

Astrid met Kane’s gaze. “Maybe. I haven’t exactly asked for any of them to appear. They just do.”

Kane announced, “We’ll work on the god situation, if we need to. In the meantime who’s going on this?”

Ashor nodded at Astrid and Kane. “You two go. Take Dakar and Khyan. The rest of us will stay.” His eyes met those of Khyan for a moment. Quietly he added, “We cannot afford to lose all of us over this, should Djoser pull out a whopper surprise again. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry,” Kane said. “We got this one. This time he will go down.”

****

“Hold up,” Kane called to Astrid as they exited the conference room. He gripped her wrist and pulled her into an unfamiliar room on the first floor. The click of the door’s lock sliding into place echoed through the unfurnished room. He hoped the brown and yellow flowery seventies curtains were remnants of the house’s previous occupant. Even he couldn’t imagine any of the other guys having taste that ran that far south of poor.

Astrid crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not doing this again, Kane. I can take care of myself. I’ve done so for years.”

He stalked toward her. Her rebellious scowl pushed his need to claim her into the stratosphere. After a throat clear he said hoarsely, “I know you can. And I…shit...” He blew out a long sigh. “That’s not why we’re in here. Your protection will always be my top priority. You can bet your ass if you do insane again that I will do…whatever I must.”

“Then, why are we in here?” Her eyelids drooped and her eyes slid to his lips.

“Don’t do that.” His body lit up with need to answer that invitation. He wanted to kiss her and then slam so deep inside her that she’d be screaming his name within seconds. After a good mental shake he said, “With us going into God knows what that’s guaranteed to be…hell, I don’t know what to expect. This has been a non-stop funfest of whacked since it started. Who knows what’s in store for us. But, I need you to know…” He swiped a hand through his hair. “Shit, this is tough. I’m just going to lay it out there. You’re it for me.” He chanced meeting her gaze, uncertain what he’d find, half certain she’d butcher his heart.

Her hand snaked around his neck, slowly reeling him in. He barely caught her whisper. “Same here.”

He said, “It’s been that way since we first met. Since you first waggled your toned ass at me and told me you were in charge of my team.”

“I never waggled.” She pulled him close, angling for a kiss.

He snorted. “Oh, yes, you did. You made sure I looked.”

Her head snapped back. She grinned. “Maybe I wanted you to look. Your
this-is-my-show
attitude irritated me.” When her warm lips pressed against his, pressure splintered his skull.

He gripped his head. And stepped away from her. Images and memories flooded his brain. They weren’t his recollections, or were they? He remembered his mother’s stiff dead body while he knelt on a dusty floor surrounded by the stench of human refuse. But his mother was blonde, not dark haired, and she’d died in a hospital. That wasn’t his mother, but it was.

From far away he heard Astrid yelling his name. He fought beyond the images to get to her voice. He focused on her beautiful face with her aquiline nose and long pale eyelashes. He recalled her tearful gaze from long ago, another first-time moment when he’d been summoned forth, however inadvertently as he later discovered. And some shit named…Colin. Who the hell would cheat on this woman? Back then he’d been Zannis. His visit with Amun-Ra replayed as if it’d been yesterday, which it almost had. He remembered what he was, his parentage, and about his son.

Everything in him stilled as the pieces of his past and present shuffled into order. He slid to a solid ass plant on the floor and lowered his hands from his face.

She knelt in front of him and wiggled between his legs. “Talk to me. I can’t get into your mind right now. This is freaking me out, Kane.”

He moved nothing other than his eyes and scanned around the room until his gaze fixed onto her. “I remember.”

“What does that mean? You remember what?” Astrid bit her lip.

She was worried. More than worried, she was shaken. He lifted the emotion from their mental connection. “I remember him or should I say me. Zannis. His entire life. My life. All of it.”

“You remember him?” Astrid blew out a ragged sigh. Her cheeks turned an amusing shade of dark red. “All of it?”

He traced a finger across her lips. “Every second of that night he got with you. Hell, I don’t get this. I feel like there’s another person in my head, but it’s not another. It’s me. Only not me.”

“Oh.” Then she rushed to add, “I didn’t know you then, Kane. I mean, I didn’t know you as you are now. As Kane.”

“I’m not accusing you of anything. I’m just saying, I remember all of Zannis’s life. I swear we’re going to have more than one night and a few stolen moments this time around. There’s so much I’m going to do to you.”

She gasped. Her lips parted.

He couldn’t resist a taste. He wove his hand through her hair to cup the back of her head, and took advantage of her parted lips. She leaned into him, her puckered breasts pressed tight to his chest. He was so hungry for her that it was all he could do not to rip his zipper open and yank off her pants. Then he’d be inside her. He devoured her lips in a way that was probably too hard, too possessive. But he didn’t care. The chemistry between him and this woman was damn near incendiary. Her soft moans detonated any hint of self-control he had where she was concerned.

Her hand lowered the zipper before he could get there, probably picking up his need off their mental pathway, or maybe she was just as desperate for him.

Raggedly Astrid moaned, “I need you, Kane.” She rolled away to kick off her pants and underwear. She needed this fast, before he changed his mind and became serious. She suspected he wasn’t done talking. She liked what he’d said so far, but feared what came next. His typical MO was business first. She’d take advantage of their attraction before he turned rational. She needed to bind him to her. Then perhaps he wouldn’t talk about anything painful. And wouldn’t consider doing something reckless that might land himself in the afterlife. All she knew right now was that she couldn’t wait to have him.