The Cursed (League of the Black Swan) (4 page)

Some called him the man who should be sheriff, and it was rarely a compliment.

She’d never called him anything but Mr. Oliver. And yet here they were.

A cacophony of shouting and crashes sounded from the bar, and she hurriedly shut the door behind her. Luke glanced from the closed door to her, raising one silken eyebrow.

“That anything to do with you?”

She lifted her chin. “Why do you ask?”

A corner of that seductive mouth quirked up, and he shook his head. “Stubborn, I see.”

She clenched her teeth against the wave of hostility that crashed through her. It wouldn’t help her case to punch the private eye.

“Can we go to your office? I need . . . to hire you,” she said, unable to say the
other
H-word. Unable to ask for
help
. She had money. She’d get more out of her savings account in the morning and mail Mrs. G back her cash. All she needed was to find that little girl, rescue her, and then maybe get out of town without being killed.

No problem.

Her shoulders slumped. She didn’t even know how to begin to explain all this to Luke. Luckily, he didn’t ask.

“Let’s go,” he said.

Just like that. Like women always came crashing into him asking for help in the middle of the night. She almost laughed at herself. They probably did.

He stood waiting, silent and watchful, although he tilted his head when the sounds of what might be a full-scale battle inside the bar grew louder. Luckily, she’d never heard that he could read minds, and she’d never been able to penetrate his, either, on those few occasions she’d tried. He was a strange anomaly, but she’d never been bothered by it. Until now, when she
wanted
to know what he was thinking.

What he was thinking about
her
.

“Let’s go,” she echoed, nodding firmly and taking a step toward him. She landed on her injured ankle and cried out, then tumbled face-forward toward the sidewalk. Strong arms scooped her up, and she found herself cradled against Luke’s hard chest, her nose pressed against his shirt, breathing in his scent of forest and spice.

“This is not how I expected this to go,” he said softly, almost as if he didn’t want her to hear him. “I think I’m in trouble.”

The door behind them smashed open, and Mountain Man stormed out, carrying an axe.

“I think we’re both in trouble,” Rio said.

Luke leapt onto the roof of the Roadhouse with Rio in his arms before the creature could raise its axe. He lowered her so she was sitting on the tiles, careful of her injured ankle, and barely refrained from kissing the top of her head or those tempting lips. The fresh, clean scent of her hair teased his senses, and his mind was reeling at how fast she’d destroyed his carefully laid plans to stay strong and resist temptation, like he’d told himself to do all the way across town.

Do the job and keep your hands to yourself, Oliver
, he’d repeated over and over like a mantra, expecting it would take so long to find her that he’d have drummed it into his thick skull. Every encounter he’d had with Rio over the past year or so had found its own place in his memory and dug in, resisting all attempts to uproot. She was smart, funny, and sexy as hell, and he’d known better than to have anything to do with her. So he’d kept his distance in the past, and he’d been determined to do the same while he figured out what the League wanted with her.

Well, she’d fallen into his arms in the first place he’d looked, so he’d screwed up his resolve in ninety seconds flat, and now—he glanced down at the big pile of ugly currently roaring threats at him—yep, this was going to be fun. He shook his head and stared down at Rio, deliberately
not
noticing how damn beautiful she was. How tired she looked. Too thin. Too pale.

Nope. Not noticing any of that.

“How the hell did you manage to run afoul of a Grendel?”

She blinked. “A Grendel?
A
Grendel? Wasn’t there just the one, and it’s long dead?”

He rolled his eyes. “Sure. And fairies are all little and sparkly like Tinkerbell. So how did you—”

“I’m not an idiot, Luke. And this? It’s a long story.” She grabbed the end of her dark braid and flipped it over her shoulder in a purely feminine
oh, we’re gonna have this out, now
gesture, and he was perversely pleased to see it. She was tough.

If the League wanted her, she’d need to be.

The Grendel roared out another threat, something about eating Luke’s testicles, maybe. Luke wasn’t sure. Grendels weren’t the brightest, even in their human forms. Just then moonlight glinted off a very large something in the creature’s ham-sized fist, and Luke dove for Rio, pushing her flat against the roof just as the gun went off.

“He has a gun,” she said. “An axe
and
a gun.”

“I noticed that,” he murmured, distracted by the feel of her body underneath him. He was going to hell a thousand times over for this, but he hadn’t been this close to a woman in longer than he cared to admit, and he took a moment to simply enjoy the feel of her body against his.

“Luke, he has a
gun
,” she repeated, her eyes enormous in her pale face. “We need to
do
something before he figures out a way to get up here.”

“Grendels don’t like heights,” he said, breathing in her scent, touching his forehead to hers before rubbing his cheek against her silky skin. “I swore to stay away from you, you know? Swore to myself. And here we are.”

She put her hands flat on his chest and pushed with all of her strength, so naturally he leaned in even closer.

“Here we
are
on a
rooftop
with something that wants to kill or capture me
right down there
,” she said, biting off every word. “Also, what are you talking about? You’ve never had any problem staying away from me, as I seem to recall.”

The Grendel picked that minute to get off another shot, and Luke briefly wondered what had happened to Miro, dismissed it as temporarily unimportant, and jumped to his feet.

“You. Stay there,” he ordered Rio, who glared at him but didn’t try to sit up.

“You. Shut up, I’m coming,” he shouted down to the Grendel, trying to be heard over the creature’s increasingly inhuman roars. The damn thing seemed to be trying to shift to its monster shape. Nobody needed that. Bordertown had seen enough of nightmare creatures lately, with the chimera infestation last month.

Luke eyed the distance between them and leapt through the air, somersaulted over the approximate axe-reach of the Grendel, and landed lightly behind it. Superior fighting skills were one of the bonus powers that he’d gained over the centuries. No black magic involved in increased strength and agility. No danger he’d invoke the curse.

The Grendel roared again and wheeled around to face Luke, the axe in one meaty paw and the gun swallowed up in the other.

“I have no fight with you, wizard,” it growled. “Give me the woman, and I leave you in one piece.”

“You don’t want her,” Luke said, as his hands drew fire from the air until they burned with hot, blue flame. “She’s puny. Why don’t you go find yourself a nice Grendel female and settle down? Raise a few ugly babies?”

The creature made a convulsive twitching motion all over its body. Luke knew the change wasn’t far off, and a full-on Grendel in its monster form was damn near indestructible.

“This is your last chance, fool,” he said, raising his hands so the flames were clearly visible. “Back off or die.”

“The boss said bring Rio Green. I will bring Rio Green.” The Grendel’s words sounded like they were being forced out as it swallowed its tongue, but Luke still understood. Barely.

“Aha! Wrong Rio. This isn’t Rio Green,” Luke said, glancing up to make sure
his
Rio, Rio
Jones
, was still out of harm’s way, and then gritting his teeth because, of course, she was neither his nor safe. She was leaning so far over the edge of the roof it was a wonder gravity hadn’t pulled her down to land on his head.

“Rio, I told you to stay down and back,” he shouted. “This is merely a case of mistaken identity.”

She shook her head and shrugged.

Shit.
He’d heard rumors about her penchant for aliases.

“Kill you now,” the Grendel growled. Its head was nearly completely transformed into something that would make Godzilla scream and run, and it slashed out at him with hands that were now tipped by six-inch-long, deadly sharp claws.

“I don’t think so,” Luke said, pulling one hand back to blast the thing.

“Find out who it works for,” Rio called down.

“I don’t think it’s feeling all that helpful right now,” he pointed out, as the creature’s body shuddered all over and expanded until the Grendel resembled a pile of boulders with fangs. “I’ll be killing it now.”

“We need to know, Luke. His boss kidnapped a little girl. A little
human
girl.”

He froze and looked up at her, and the Grendel took the opportunity to slash at him again, this time swiping his ribs even as he leapt back and away from the full brunt of its powerful arm.

“Damn, that hurts, you big pile of nasty—”

The Grendel lumbered forward and slashed at him again, but Luke managed to avoid this one.

“Rio, I don’t think it’s in the mood for talking anymore.”

“Fine. Just . . . be careful,” she called down, sounding furious. With him, with the Grendel, with the situation, who knew?

He gritted his teeth but then had to laugh. Rio’d been in his custody for only five minutes, and she was already driving him nuts. He didn’t even try to fight the grin spreading over his face. Instead, he raised both hands and shook his head at the Grendel as it lowered its head and charged.

“Too bad for you, buddy. I tried to give you a chance.
Ignatio.
” The fire coalesced in his hands and poured outward in twin streams of blue flame, arrowing in on the snarling monster and punching straight into its chest. The force of the fire drove the Grendel backward through the air a dozen feet until it smashed into the wall and fell, dead, into a burning heap.

Luke leapt up onto the roof and pulled Rio into his arms again, in spite of her protests, and then jumped down, careful to channel air currents to cushion their landing so as not to jar her injured ankle.

“You’re bleeding,” she said. “Did it hurt you?”

He stared at her, briefly wondering why she had sparkly stuff flashing around her eyes, before he decided the reason really didn’t matter. He hugged her closer to his chest and inhaled her scent.

“Pretty,” he said, smiling down at her.

Rio’s eyes narrowed. “Why do you suddenly look and sound drunk? Luke?”

The back door slammed open, and Miro trudged out, a rag wrapped around his head and one eye swollen shut. He stopped and looked down at the burning body of the Grendel, took a deep sniff, and then smiled at them with a whole hell of a lot of teeth.

“Yum. Barbecue.”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Rio said. “Put me down. Now.”

Luke tightened his arms around her and nuzzled her neck. “No. Mine.”

“Miro, do you know anything about Grendels?” she asked, sounding a little breathless.

Good.
Luke liked it when she was breathless. Naked and breathless and—oh, wait. He’d never gotten her naked yet, except in his dreams. Why was that again?

“Need you naked,” he mumbled, lurching forward a little. “Whoa. Who moved the ground?”

Miro ambled closer and stared down at Luke. “Yep. Grendels have poisonous claws. Wouldn’t kill this one, but probably leave him drunk and stupid for a while.”

“’M already stupid,” Luke volunteered happily. “Stupid for you, Rio Jones Green. Or is it Rio Green Jones? Heh. Green Jones Green Jones Green Jones.”

He wobbled again and almost dropped Rio.

“Put me down, Luke,” she said again, this time with a sweet smile that turned his brain to mush. Or made it mushier. Or something. Wow, that venom felt like a three-day whiskey bender.

He carefully lowered Rio to her feet and then leaned against her when the world kept spinning, nearly knocking her over. She winced and lifted her injured ankle off the ground but got a tighter grip around his waist.