The Breed Casstiel's Vow (18 page)

His steps were smooth and languid; he stared at her
intensely with heat in his eyes.

She had two choices, stay and hold her head up high
while trying to convince him to come back, or turn around and run.

She lifted her chin defiantly and looked him dead in the
eyes. She had never been a runner, and naked or not, she wasn’t going to start
now.

As their eyes locked she saw that his were on fire with
desire for her, their heat burning into her skin, making her want to look away,
but her pride steadied her.

“What’s your name?” he whispered.

“Nora,” she answered firmly, as the strange feeling that
had plagued her stomach for the last hour finally disappeared completely.

He swept his eyes over her naked body. Part of her
wanted to cover herself with her hands, but a deeper part told her to let him
look.

She wanted him to look at her in all her glory and see
how beautiful she was. She wanted his approval and for him to desire her.

Never since the attack from Billy had she wanted a man
in this way; always choosing to be ‘one of the guys’ instead or simply having a
one night stand.

“You are so beautiful Nora,” he whispered sensually, his
eyes growing to a deeper, darker green by the second.

This was not at all how the conversation should be
going. She needed to focus and get her job done, but somehow she just couldn’t.

 He held her captivated, and like a moth to flame,
she couldn’t look away.

Once she looked deeply into his eyes she could see past
everything. Past his
un
kept appearance, his
malnourished body, she saw the man he could be.

She saw how perfectly muscular he had been before he had
starved himself. If he cut his long brown hair, and gained his weight back, he
would be more than deliciously good looking.

Instead of hiding her body or covering up, Nora through
her shoulders back, and dropped her hip.

She wasn’t going to waste time thinking about what was
going on and why, all she needed to know was that this felt right. It felt good
to have his eyes on her, craving her body.

Something about him was drawing her in. She had rejected
hundreds of men without a second thought, why was this one so difficult?

“Shit,” he barked, shutting his eyes tightly and looking
away, almost as if it pained him to look.

Turning his face from her was like a cold slap of
reality, suddenly everything came flying back. They were in an abandoned
subway, Tessa was alone with the hunters, and she was supposed to bring Quinn
back to the embassy, not seduce him.

Not be seduced by him.

She heard a rustling of clothing and looked up,
convinced he was running away, but instead he handed her the white zip up
hoodie he had been wearing.

“Here, put this on or I won’t be able to concentrate
enough to talk to you,” he grunted still looking away from her. His jaw was
clenched tightly, and his hand shook slightly as he held out the piece of
clothing.

Now that she remembered everything that was going on it
seemed ridiculous that she had been thinking of anything else but the situation
they were in.

She hastily threw the hoodie over herself, feeling it
fall to her knees, and zipped it up. Once he heard the zipper Quinn took a deep
breath and focused his attention on her again.

However, now that his shirt was off it was her turn to
do the admiring.

His chest, though thinner than it should be, was covered
in rippling muscle. Only the lightest dusting of sandy brown hair covered his
pecks with a straight line of hair that ran down his belly button then below.
Nora’s fingers itched to touch him, to trace that line of hair all the way down…

“Listen to me,” he interrupted her thoughts, “I’m not
saying any of this to be hurtful, I’m saying this to help my family,
don’t
you understand? You think it’s a coincidence those
hunters showed up here?”

“No I don’t understand, how is running away helping your
family? And what are you
saying,
the hunters are here
for you? What happened to you?” she asked, more concerned than she wanted to be.

“I don’t have time to explain, honestly the less you
know the better,” he spoke softly, and reached out to stroke her face.

His fingers, though calloused, were gentle on her skin.
His touch didn’t hold any of the lust that his eyes had, but instead was sweet
and admiring, as if he would be happy with this caress alone.

That’s when she saw the wound, a deep nasty gash right
below his armpit.

“Holy shit, did Cass stab you?” she demanded, fury
rising up unexpectedly in her.

“No, this is old. I just re tore it when I ran out of
there,” he immediately dropped his arm to hide the ugly wound.

The loss of his touch sent a deep yearning through her
body. She wanted to force him to touch her again, felt like she never wanted
him to take his hands off of her.

She shook her head and refocused.

“What do you mean it’s old? You’re Breed, it should have
healed easily by now,” she was becoming more confused by the moment.

Why was he faster than anyone else in the Breed? What
was his connection to the hunters? Why couldn’t he heal such a simple wound?

“I don’t know what I am anymore. All I know is that I’m
bad news, and you and my family need to get as far away from me as possible,”
his eyes pleaded with her.

“Why can’t you just come back to the embassy? They can
help you with whatever’s wrong, we can work it all out,” she had never been
this
weak
over a man, always having the upper hand,
always keeping her frosty composure, never allowing herself feelings.

“The embassy,” he slowly
repeated,
a far off look on his face.

“Didn’t Balor’s pack explain to you about the embassy?
Did they teach you anything about us?” she felt a deep sympathy for how truly
lost he must be.

“I wasn’t with them long enough for them to explain much
to me, I only vaguely remember the embassy, my transition into the Breed was
harder than most,” he replied looking strained, “I have to get out of here
Nora, the longer I stay here the more you’re in danger.”

As she looked into his eyes she knew that he truly
believed what he was saying, he was running from something deep, something he
felt like only he could bear the burden of.

“Listen, remember this address, it’s where I live. If
you ever need help, or if you ever want to see me again, come here. I promise
you the embassy can help you more than I have time to explain,” she frantically
rattled off the address, not sure if she was more worried about his safety or
the fact that she may never see him again.

“Alright I’ll remember it,” he said soothingly then
reached for her face again.

Warmth spread through her as his hand rested on her
cheek. She felt a comfort she had never experienced before as their skin
connected. She closed her eyes and breathed in his scent, trying to memorize
everything about this moment, the first moment she truly knew peace in over a
hundred years.

“Promise me I’ll see you again,” she whispered keeping
her eyes shut tight. She didn’t want to see the word no in his eyes; couldn’t
bear to feel the rejection.

She felt his lips gently press against hers. It was the
softest kiss she had ever had, softer than she would have thought a man was
capable of giving, and just as she relaxed and gave herself up to it, it was
over, and he was gone.

~

“Aright, which one of you wants to die now, and which
one of you wants to die later?” Kain asked nonchalantly as he toweled blood off
his hands and neck.

The two hunters left standing
were
the two that had tried to run away from the very beginning. With the intensity
of the questioning they were going to have to go through when they got back to
the embassy, it would have been better for them to have died fighting along
with their pathetic allies.

“Fuck you, you freak of nature,” the hunter with the
gunshot wound to the leg spat at him.

“
Ahh
, I love a volunteer,” he
sighed happily, then shot the second hunter between the eyes.

“What are we doing with the bodies?” Ghost asked
,
dragging the last one into the pile they had made.

Kain stretched and flexed the arm that was rapidly
healing from the gunshot wound as he thought. The whole situation in the
tunnels had completely caught them off guard, something that didn’t happen very
often.

“You said this place connects to the sewer somewhere?”
he bent to lace up his boots, “let’s strip and dump them.”

“How dare you!” the hunter blurted out, his face purple
and contorted with rage, “we’re humans! The superior species, you can’t just
dump us in the sewers you animals!”

“We should have kept the other one,” Jax wheezed from
the floor where he lay flat on his back, his face tightly grimaced in pain.

“Are you still laying there?” Kain asked, as he pulled
his shirt over his head.

“I’ve got to heal a lung asshole, it takes longer,” he
snapped, the pain of the injury making him unusually short tempered.

“I know I know, but you’re gonna have to be in charge of
guard duty while we drag these bodies
outta
here,” he
extended his arm and pulled Jax easily to his feet.

He had helped his friend re dress after changing to his
human form, and was happy to see the crisp white t-shirt he was wearing didn’t
have any fresh blood on it. If Jax’ body hadn’t been able to quickly heal the
wound on its own, they would have had to make a second mad dash for a medical
helicopter.

The hunter scoffed aloud.

“I’m not a prisoner; I am a king among men! You can’t
leave me with this genetic
accident,
he’s an idiot who
couldn’t even dodge a bullet-”

The cracking noise Kain’s fist made when it connected to
the hunter’s teeth ricocheted down the tunnel

“That’s so much better,” Jax sighed
and relaxed against the gritty wall behind him.

“If he manages to wake up from that before we get back
just knock his ass out again,” he grunted.

“Don’t forget Nora, she’s going to have to ride back
with us,” Jax replied shutting his eyes.

“Yeah I guess she will,” he sighed, not thrilled at all
to be stuck on babysitting duty again, “I have a feeling things are about to
change big time around our department.”

“They’ll grow on you. You’ve got to learn to like women
again sometime, you can’t be a lonely old prick forever,” Jax winced as he
laughed.

“We’ll see about that,” he muttered, then walked off to
join Ghost.

~

Casstiel continued to cradle Tessa, refusing to put her
into a stretcher. If she died, she would die in his arms.

None of her wounds were very serious, but humans lost
blood so quickly even a small wound could claim her life if they didn’t get her
to the embassy soon.

“How much longer?”
He growled,
the anxiety of the situation making his chest ache, and his lungs burn. His
skin was crawling, he couldn’t breathe properly,
he
needed to get her to safety.

“ETA is thirty seconds sir,” the medical responder
sitting across from him informed.

“Remy’s ready?” he barked out, barely keeping his voice
from quivering.

“Of course sir,” the pilot called.

It would be the longest thirty seconds of Casstiel's
life. More now than he hated the hunters who did this, he hated himself.

He hated that he let her walk away angry, dismissed her
feelings, and believed there would always be a tomorrow for them.

As long as Tessa was a human, there was no guaranteed
tomorrow. At this point there wasn’t even a guaranteed ‘them’.

She could wake up from all this and hate him, and he
wouldn’t blame her. He should have been able to save her. Protecting your mate
was one of the most basic of instincts in the Breed and he had failed.

He wished more than anything he could have taken each of
the bullets for her, he would have done it gladly.

Cass felt the helicopter descending and used the same
control he had perfected over the years of being in charge of a defense
squadron to calm his emotions now. He needed to keep it together for her.

As soon as the helicopter hit the roof he was bolting
into the medical wing.

Thankfully Remy was waiting for them.

“Three gunshot wounds,” he rattled off, describing each
wound in detail.

“I know
,
Ghost called again
while you were en route. Just relax and let’s get her in my room,” she replied
calmly, her face the picture of serenity.