More Than Life (Arcane Crossbreeds) (15 page)

And Raife.

Chapter Ten

Raife was near a panic, sitting outside the vacant Schaffer estates, when Katya’s mind lightly brushed over his.

Straddling his motorcycle, his fingers clenched around the handles, he cast a glance at Kel. She was watching him closely.

He nodded at her questioning look.

He took several deep breaths to calm himself. He didn’t like how Katya could cut herself off so cleanly from him. It left him edgy and angry. Her presence was light. Unsure. He didn’t want to scare her off.

“Katya?”

There was a long pause.

“I think I’m in trouble.”
With the words, her emotions flooded into him. She was terrified. She felt threatened. Hunted. His stomach tensed.
“And I can’t shimmer.”

“Tell me where you are, baby. I’ll come to you.”

“Lower Nob somewhere. There were four, but I think I picked up two more on the cable car.”

“Lower Nob,” Raife snapped off and quickly pulled his helmet into place. He could hear the growl of Kel’s bike as she shadowed close behind him.

“Stay with me, kitten.”
The buildings spun and blurred in his peripheral vision as he pushed his cycle on the treacherously sloped streets of Russian Hill. He could see the rise of Nob Hill in the distance, no more than a mile away. The thought of Katya in danger made it feel like all of San Francisco separated them.
“Look around, what do you see?”

“I ducked into a parking garage. It’s under renovation. An old hotel, I think. On Post.”

Raife sent the directions to Kel as they crested Powell. They weaved between the moving traffic and the parked cars. His rear tire skidded to the side, and he braced his foot out as he turned onto Post.

His heart pumped raw determination through his body. His dragon was waiting, eager to be released. Up ahead, he could see a huge Dumpster dominating the sidewalk beneath a construction chute attached to the side of the building. Caution sawhorses were set up at the entry of what looked to be a deserted parking garage.

This had to be it.

“We’re here, kitten.”

Raife drove his bike between the sawhorses and revved it up and around the ramp. He could smell the scent of blood but couldn’t tell if it was hers. He circled the next rise and saw them.

Six men. And Katya.

She looked magnificent. Her eyes were the inky black of a Guardian, and claws curved from the tips of her long fingers. What she lacked in training she made up for in pure ferocity and instinct
and
speed. At least she was smart enough to know she couldn’t match them in strength. She was trying to stay out of range. It helped that the men were trying to keep from hurting her; some of them were even fighting among themselves. The thought barely registered when one of the men wrapped his arms around her from behind. Then Raife was jumping from his bike with a roar and running to her. He pulled his helmet off and swung it in one fist, smiling as it cracked into the bastard’s skull.

Raife grabbed another by his shirtfront and lifted him from the ground, tossing him across the garage. The asshole hit the concrete wall and then jumped to his feet and out the open side of the building. His feet dangled for a moment as he caught the side of the building and pulled himself up. Most likely to the roof.

One of the remaining men grabbed the shoulder of his companion, and they both disappeared. Sanguen? No, most likely crossbreeds. He flicked a glance to his partner, but Kel had taken out one and was toying with another.

Breath hissing and triumph spiking his system like a street drug, he jerked around and pinned Katya with his gaze. His dragon clawed at its fleshy prison, demanding Raife reestablish ownership of their mate.

Instinct pounding a deafening tempo in his head, he strode purposefully over to her and lifted her from the ground into his arms. His mind drove into hers, and she openly accepted him, her mind a cacophony of desire and anger and fear. Each bled so completely into the other that he couldn’t separate them as he descended into the fiery depths of her mind.

Her legs lifted and wrapped around his hips, her fingers burrowing into his hair as he continued walking with her until he had her pressed against the wall. A satisfied growl built in his chest when her hands fisted against his scalp as she tried to maneuver closer to his body.

She belonged to him.

Their lips met, and he could feel the razor edges of her fangs as he delved his tongue into the hot recesses of her mouth. There was a sharp slice of pain, and then his mouth was filled with the metallic taste of his own blood and her hungry little mewls.

Fire licked down his body, and his fingers swept over the delicate curve of her spine to grip her hips desperately as the damp heat of her mouth slid over his jaw to his neck. One single burning caress of her tongue was the only warning he got before her fangs sank into the throbbing pulse in his neck.

Each time she drank from him was more exquisitely pleasurable than the last. Closing his eyes, he drew the scent of her deeply into his lungs and ground his pelvis into hers. Fuck, he was as hard as the helmet he’d cracked that asshole’s skull with. And hungry, his dragon driving him to reassert his ownership, to stake his claim on her again.

She felt too hot and right as he drove his hips against hers, her own hunger pouring down fire, saturating him in her desire.

Veins protruded in his arms, his fingers burying into the soft flesh of her ass as he rocked against her. Her limbs tightened convulsively around his hips and shoulders as she climaxed in his arms, the feel of her pleasure rolling through him, nearly pulling him over with her. He managed just barely to pull back enough not to humiliate himself by coming in his damn jeans.

Her lips moved over his neck, her tongue languidly stroking over her bite mark.

The dragon in him subsided at the warm, solid feel of her in his arms and mind. She was safe and, for the moment, completely connected to him.

“Damn, Merrick, you could have at least waited to jump her until all the bad guys were gone.” Kel’s voice echoed drolly in the empty garage as she slid her cell back into the holster at her waist. “Way to leave a girl hanging. And, hey, don’t worry your pretty little head, loverboy. I called for cleanup.”

Katya stiffened in his arms, her mind drawing away from him.

Raife sighed. At least she’d called out for him when she was in trouble. It was a start.

“I NEED HELP.” The words felt tight and uncomfortable, but they rang true enough in the private office of Kyeros Forestor. Especially after the morning Katya’d had. Once she’d managed to pry herself off Raife, she’d demanded he take her to the director of Incog. It was the last place she knew to go.

Kyeros flicked a quick look to Raife.

Angling her chin up, she pulled pride around her shoulders and smoothed her hands over the dirt-and-grease-smudged scrubs she’d “borrowed.” There was a small tear and blood marring the right leg of her pants. She straightened it and shifted her weight to her left hip. “I don’t have money, but I have skills you might find useful.”

Katya shot Raife a covert glance. He was leaning against the wall near the door, arms crossed over his massive chest. He was a masculine picture of nonchalance, but she could feel the surge of emotion that beat against his calm exterior. She couldn’t identify what it was exactly without merging deeper with him. She didn’t trust him—or herself—enough for that, but, unlike before, she couldn’t detach herself completely from him.

“I see.” Kyeros flicked his gaze at Raife again before he leaned back in his chair. The creak of the leather filled the room. “I have your file, Ms. Schaffer. I’ve no doubt your skills will be more than adequate payment. There will be some caveats however.”

Katya nodded. She somehow suspected she wasn’t going to like his stipulations, but she had few other options. It appeared more than one faction of the Arcane wanted her, and she didn’t know who she could trust. She wasn’t even sure she could trust Incog, but it was the lesser evil at this moment.

“First, I think, under the circumstances, you should avail yourself of one of my secure suites on the upper level. It will make it easier to protect you. And second, Agent Merrick will be assigned to your security. Where you go, he goes.”

Katya jolted upright in her chair and barely managed to conceal her wince as a sharp pain lanced through her thigh. She wanted to protest, and even parted her lips to do just that, but Kyeros lifted a hand to silence her.

“I do not make a habit of indulging sensitivities, Ms. Schaffer. In my line of business, it can get you killed. So I’ll be perfectly frank here. I cannot imagine what you endured these past months, but you are, in fact, mated to Raife.”

This time Katya did attempt a protest, shaking her head. She hadn’t consciously chosen to be mated to him, and she couldn’t accept that level of commitment when she didn’t know what role he’d played in her ending up in that research facility.

Once again Kyeros cut her off. “This is not a topic that is open for discussion.” His voice was sharp, and she felt a sudden shift of power in the room.

“I take exception to the way you are speaking to my mate, Forestor.”

Katya turned to look at Raife. The threat in his voice had every hair on the back of her neck rising. He had pushed away from the wall, his arms hanging at his sides. Those amber eyes were electrified.

Kyeros had come to his feet behind his desk, and his eyes were locked with Raife’s even as he spoke to Katya. “As you can see, as long as he perceives a weakness in the strength of your bond, he will be unstable. This is a delicate time during the bonding process, and I cannot risk either of you to your stubbornness.”

With a sigh, she reached out to Raife, touched him with her mind. At first he didn’t respond. His mind was perfectly and totally focused on what he saw as a threat. She could read his need, his complete determination to protect her at all cost, even if that cost was his boss. Or his life.

Resigned, Katya reached deeper into him, and it felt like a physical touch. She was immersed in him until she couldn’t feel her own skin. In order to accept him, she would have to accept that level of connection, and she didn’t think she could. The risk was too high. Her heart started to pound, and panic singed the edges of the calm she’d been working to maintain since she woke this morning.

Raife pulled back before she could, and she darted a confused look at him. His eyes were focused on her. For a moment, something shadowed his golden depths, and she felt an overwhelming sense of shared longing. She didn’t need to link with him to understand it. Something had been lost between them in these past months, and she felt the loss as much as he.

“Okay, let’s get down to business, shall we?” Kyeros reseated himself and folded his hands on his desk. “Start with where you rendered one of my employees unconscious and stole her clothing.”

Katya winced. “I apologize for that. I…” Shaking her head, she smoothed back unruly strands of her hair. She was completely exhausted, and her body felt battered and bruised in ways that would never be visible. “I woke up frightened. I wanted to go home.”

Home. The word made her ache and feel a cavernous sense of emptiness the hole in the research facility could never duplicate. Raife shifted restlessly but kept his distance.

“The place I grew up was empty, so I went to the Bay House citadel to find answers.”

Forestor nodded, his eyes expressionless. “Explain to me what occurred at the Bay House citadel this morning. My sources report there was a disturbance.”

If a large wingback chair flying out of the second story window could be classified as a disturbance. Katya sighed. “I went there to speak with Elder Grayson, to find my uncle. They made claims that just can’t be possible.” Katya surged to her feet and winced as the skin of her thigh pulled tight with a pinch. She’d healed mostly, but the piece of silver just beneath her flesh pushed little sharp pains through her thigh as she gingerly paced away from them. “They said before I ended up at that…that…place, I was bonded to a Sanguen from Wales, that he came for me. I don’t remember any such thing.”

The nostrils of Forester’s thin patrician nose flared as he appraised her. “You believe they are lying.”

“No.” She sighed at his disbelieving look. “Maybe. I don’t know.” Katya turned and pushed her disheveled hair from her face with an impatient brush of her hand. “I only know I clearly remember being in Raife’s apartment.” She cast a glance at him through her lashes. “Then I remember waking up strapped down to a cot in the lab. My memories of my time in that place are razor-sharp. Why would I not remember being bonded? Or my uncle’s ascension ceremony when he was made an elder? How could I not remember being kidnapped by Rebels?”

Forestor’s head tilted just slightly, his eyes shadowed. “Rebels?”

“Yes, my uncle claims I was taken from my bloodmate by Rebels. Some kind of blood vendetta, one that evidently resulted in my parents being killed twenty years ago.” With a confused shake of her head, she related the entire story her uncle had given her.

“I was there.” A muscle ticked in Raife’s jaw as he studied her for a long moment. He always avoided the subject of that night and refused to offer any details. “I don’t know your uncle’s game or what happened to your father, but your mother’s killer was a male Sanguen who was very much under the influence of something nasty.”

Pacing stiffly, Katya tried to recall that night. She remembered golden eyes with elongated black pupils and a deep, soothing voice in her mind. That was it. Her first memory was of Raife. Of feeling safe.

“Even if he were telling the truth, I was only four. Why would Rebels be interested in me after all these years? I don’t know a thing about them besides what I was told, and that wasn’t much.”

Forestor stroked his hand down his beard. “Rebel activity has increased the past fifty years or more. They don’t seem content to live under the radar anymore. There have been rumors from some substantial sources that prominent bloodlines who have been members of the Arcane Alliance since the beginning are now changing their loyalties and assisting the Rebels.”