UnholyCravings (3 page)

Tara was concentrating so hard that she didn’t realize that
she wasn’t alone until large fingers closed over her wrist.

Something was disturbing his sleep. Soren grumbled and tried
to ignore it, but the presence was persistent and he started clawing his way
back to consciousness even before he was aware of what he was doing. He felt
soft fingers against his face. They were caressing his skin in soothing
circles, easing away any tension in his neck and shoulders. They were feminine
fingers and they felt nice against his skin. Very nice.

He opened his eyes and stared into the most beautiful heart-shaped
face he had ever seen. Her eyes were closed and her ebony hair hung loose around
her face. It was a short, blunt cut, the kind that was longer around the face
and shorter in the back. She had long, thick lashes and ruby-stained lips. He
had a sudden urge to kiss those lips, to feel them against his skin and around
his cock.

Wait a minute.
Where was he? Who was this?

Soren pushed aside his growing desire and grabbed the girl’s
wrist. “Who are you?” he asked.

The woman gasped and opened her eyes. “You’re awake.”

“Obviously.”

“I’m Tara. Are you Soren?”

“I-I don’t know. Yes.” Soren squeezed his eyes shut and
rubbed his temple with his free hand. “The name is familiar. Yes, I’m Soren.
Everything’s so fuzzy.”

She shifted closer on the bed. “That’s understandable after
the hit you had to the head.” She touched his temple with her free hand,
causing him to wince. “You were running from
deahmans
.”

“From what?” He opened his eyes.

Tara pulled back, fear flashing through her features. “
Deahmans
.”
She tried to stand. “Your eyes.”

“Don’t go.” She was trying to leave. Anger surged through
him. Soren sat up and locked his hand around Tara’s arm as she tried to stand. “Tell
me who you are and what’s happening to me.”

His voice sounded low and gravelly, even to his own ears.
Tara inched back from him.

“Your eyes are red.”

He blinked. Everything seemed brighter somehow. More vivid.

“It’s your
deahman
,” she said.

“How do you know?” He didn’t try to deny the darkness inside
of him. It would be foolish. Besides, a part of him wanted to embrace the evil,
revel in it.

“My queen’s spirit-mate experiences similar changes when his
inner darkness reared its ugly head.”

“Spirit-mate?” Soren let go of her arm and squeezed his eyes
shut. Fuck, his head hurt. It felt like a tractor trailer truck had driven over
his brain.

Tara visibly relaxed and sat back down on the edge of the
bed. “I trust you won’t hurt me, at least not in your current state.”

“What are you talking about, woman?” He opened his eyes and
looked at her. Big mistake. The woman was beyond gorgeous. His inner darkness
howled and his cock thickened. Then he caught some movement behind her.

“What are you hiding behind your back?”

“Nothing.” Tara moistened her lips as she dipped her gaze
from his face to the open tear in his shirt.

“How did this happen?” He asked as he stuck his finger in
the tear.

“I told you, you were running from
deahmans
.” Tara
reached out and brushed a stray hair from his temple. “You’re fighting it, aren’t
you?”

“Fighting what?”

“The darkness inside of you.”

How did she know so much? “Yes.”

“Good. Not everyone has the strength to fight it. Many just
succumb to the taint and it eats them alive. If you fight it, there’s a chance
you could survive.”

Soren’s cock jerked as he locked his gaze with hers. Never
before had he felt emotions so strong. Soren fought the urge to throw Tara down
on the bed and fuck her senseless. Shit, what was happening to him? He flexed
his fingers as need wound its way through his body, hardening his muscles and
making his cock press painfully against the zipper in his jeans.

“You’re losing the battle, aren’t you?” She inched closer. “I
can see it in your face.”

“I can handle it.” It was a lie. Soren wasn’t sure how much
longer he was going to keep the urges at bay. When his taint had this much
control, only violence would tame it. Violence or…

“Kiss me,” she said.

Soren shook himself from his thoughts. Did he hear her
right? “What did you say?”

“Kiss me. It’s the only way I know to calm the voices in
your head.”

“How did you know—”

Tara made a frustrated noise and ran her hand around to the
back of his neck. Before Soren could protest, she covered his mouth with her
own and closed her eyes.

Her lips were the kind a guy could get lost in. Firm yet
feminine, smooth and soft. A deep hunger blossomed in his core. He fought it
back, afraid that if he lost himself in the darkness, he’d hurt her.

Then she ran her tongue over the seam of his lips, coaxing
them open. It was wet and warm and oh-so-inviting. Soren couldn’t deny the
temptation any longer. He responded, sliding his arms around her waist and
sweeping his tongue into her mouth.

She tasted feminine and sweet, like a dessert. Something
that was bad for your health and yet you couldn’t seem to resist.

Tara groaned and slid her hands over his shoulders. She
smelled like cherries. He loved cherries. He placed his hands along the sides
of her waist, feeling the smooth curve beneath his fingers. The air heated
around them, and he fought the urge to tear off all her clothes and sink his
cock deep inside her channel.

Then he felt a presence, something soft and bright, touch his
mind. He recognized it as her. Tara was pure and good and it had been a long
time since he held anything so innocent in his arms.

Soren had been suffering for a long time, longer than his
time in hell. His body was bruised and his spirit broken. He needed her, and he
sensed that on some level she needed him too. This woman, this kiss, was the
anchor he needed in his turbulent life. He wanted to wrap himself up in all of
that goodness and forget the past, forget the hopelessness of the future. He
wanted to live in the moment. He wanted her.

Her scent surrounded him, and sexual tension filled the air.
Soren slid his hands down over her hips, over the seam of her pants and around
her ass. She slipped her fingers down to his waist and beneath his belt. Was she
going to touch him? If so, he might come right then and there in her hands. He
couldn’t let that happen. This was too good to end just yet.

He leaned her back onto the bed and covered her body until
every inch of her torso touched his. She squirmed against his warmth and he
pressed his hard cock against her lower abdomen. She once again wrapped her
arms around his neck and he lost himself in the moment, enjoying her taste, her
touch. It was nothing short of heaven.

His control on his emotions slipped and something in the air
changed. Darkness poured into his mind. His mood became dark and his thoughts
became primal. He was going to fuck her not once, not twice, but as many times
as his darkness needed to be appeased. He’d fuck her in missionary, then turn her
over and take her from behind. Then he’d tie her up and do wicked things to her
body just to hear her beg for mercy.

Yes. Take her. Mine.
A low growl vibrated in the back
of his throat, surprising them both. They broke the kiss and stared at each
other, their breath coming out in labored gasps.

He could tell by the heat in her gaze, the urgency in her
features, that she wanted it just as much as him. Shivers of excitement ran
down Soren’s spine as he pictured her crying out in pleasure as he thrust himself
deep into her body.

Tara reached up and dragged him down on top of her. He moved
with her and together they sprawled out on the bed.
Mine.

In the back of his mind, Soren heard a click and then felt a
cool rush of air against his skin. Before his mind could process the new
information, he was pulled off the perfect woman beneath him and thrown through
the air. He cried out in surprise as his back slammed into the wall. Then
blackness swallowed him whole.

Chapter Three

“What do you think you’re doing?” Tara asked.

“He was molesting you.” Samir’s look of disgust made her
wince. “I was protecting your virtue.”

He was doing no such thing and they both knew it. Samir was
just irritated that Tara was getting some action and he wasn’t.

She lifted her chin. “I liked it.”

Samir swore. “He’s our
mission
, not some male escort.
After being in hell all of that time, they’re probably tainted. You’re lucky he
didn’t try to hurt you.”

Tara thought of Soren’s red eyes and how they stood out
against his pale skin and dirty-blond hair. He looked so hungry, so primal. A
tendril of heat wound its way down her center and settled between her thighs.

“I could have handled it,” she said. “It’s not like I’m
totally innocent about the ways of
deahmans
.”

Samir rolled his eyes. “Come on, Tara. Wake up.
Deahmans
feed off lust and violence. Everyone knows that. You were making it stronger.”

Yes, but…
It was more than that. Tara felt something
else stir inside Soren while they kissed, something human. She glanced at the
still form on the floor.

“I think you hurt him,” she said. She itched to go to his
side, but knew that Samir would just bitch at her more for showing compassion
to a
deahman
.

“Your mission was to find out information, not suck his face
off.”

Tara pulled her gaze away from Soren and turned to Samir. “I
was
finding out information. Or did you forget that an
Iatros
can
find out more about a person through one kiss than they can from hours of
conversation?”

Samir smirked and Tara guessed that he was remembering when
they had first met, and how on a dare Tara had used her talents on him. The man
had a filthy mind and when she called him out on it, he only asked if she
wanted to make all of his dirty thoughts come true. She balked at the idea, of
course, which only made him laugh.

“Very well,” he said, changing the subject. “What did you
find out?”

“We have to see if he’s hurt first.” She gave in to the
temptation and knelt beside Soren.

“I didn’t throw him hard.”

Tara blocked him out and examined Soren’s crumpled body. The
poor guy got a small bump to the back of his head to match the one on his
temple, but the rest seemed okay. Unfortunately, the bump knocked him
unconscious once more.

She sighed. “Help me bring him back to the bed.”

Samir grabbed Soren from her arms and dumped him on the bed
next to his brother.

“I’m surprised the other didn’t wake up with all of the
noise you two were making,” Samir said.

“I think that there was something magical in that blast, and
that, combined with their taint, is messing with their heads,” she said.

“So they really are tainted?” Samir retreated toward the
door and picked up the coffee cups he had tossed aside in his surprise. “I was
just guessing.”

“I don’t know. I think so.” She hugged herself, remembering
the thick black fog in Soren’s mind. “There is an evil presence residing in
their minds, that’s for sure.” She watched Samir pick up the empty coffee cups.
“I remember Arianne talking about a similar situation with Darien. I think that
the twins might have touched the demon stone.”

Samir tossed the trash away and frowned. “Then we don’t have
much time. They’ll be starting their conversion soon, if they haven’t already.
If they manage to complete it, they’ll have to be killed, and we’ll lose
valuable information.”

They’ll have to be killed…
Dread washed over Tara as
she turned to the twins on the bed. “Yeah.”

The whole situation was frustrating. She hadn’t spent so
much time tracking down the twins only to lose them to the darkness. The only
way anyone knew to slow the transformation from human to
deahman
was for
an
Iatros
to bind her spirit to them during the mating ritual. The
Iatros
magic was a natural antidote to the darkness of the spirit inside them.

There were risks with such an undertaking, however. The
binding was final and unbreakable. Even if Tara wanted to give up her freedom
for such an act, she wasn’t sure it would work. The magic inside her body chose
her spirit-mate for her. She had no choice in the matter. She had learned as
much when she had tried to bind to Samir.

Tara frowned. She had felt a strange pull when Soren was
awake and kissing her. Could it be her magic choosing him for a mate? It was
hard to tell.

If Soren was her spirit-mate, then perhaps she could save
him, but where would that leave Donar? It would take a strong
Iatros
to
bind two souls as theirs. Tara had only heard of it happening once before. All
her life Tara had been weaker than the other
Iatros
her age, always
feeling inadequate to their stronger power. She knew that she lacked the magic
to save them both.

Her heart ached as she shifted her gaze to Donar. Even at
rest, he looked tormented. Out of the two, he seemed to have suffered the most.
If their files were correct, Donar was the decision maker, the leader of the
twins. Soren depended on him. Did Donar hide his pain for the sake of his
brother? Tara had no way of knowing for sure, but she suspected he did. Her
research indicated that on many assignments Donar had put aside his own pain
and anguish to help out his team. She suspected that this time was no different.
It was sweet, really. She liked to think of Donar as more or less the father
figure, a second-in-command to Darien’s lead on the FBI team.

How could she save
both
Soren and Donar? Her heart
protested at the thought of letting such a giving man suffer.

“I say we leave them here and call your precious queen to
pick them up,” Samir said.

“What?”

“You heard me.” Samir nodded to the door as a gleam flashed
in his eye. “Ever since your friend Arianne has been in charge, you’ve been
miserable. You owe these people nothing.”

“True, but—”

“But nothing.” He stepped forward. “Come away with me, we’ll
go on a grand adventure.”

“What kind of adventure?”

He shrugged. “Who knows? That’s the beauty of it.”

Tara shook her head. “But they’re my clan, my family.”

“Fuck family. Look where family got me.”

Tara frowned. She didn’t know a lot about Samir’s past, but
she did know that his father was a drunk who slept around and slapped his wife.
His mother suffered from depression, wallowing in self-pity until she finally killed
herself when Samir was a young child. “Your family’s different.”

“Mine was physically abusive. Yours is mental. The results
are the same. We’re outsiders, Tara.” He held out his hand. “Come.”

He was right. All her life, Tara had felt that she was a step
behind the other
Iatros
. Her wings were never as big, her magic not as
strong.
And yet…
“Why me?”

He wiggled his fingers and smiled. “Why not you? You know
how to fight. You’d be useful.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“I know you. You like the adventure and challenge of your
missions. It’s only one small step to stop working for Arianne and Darien to
going out on your own.”

“Like a mercenary?”

He lowered his arm and shrugged. “It’s just a word. Think of
all the fun we’d have.”

Tara glanced at the men on the bed. They both looked so
helpless lying there. If she called Arianne and arranged a pickup, who would
protect them until the
Iatros
guard got there? There was already one
mole in the FBI. There could be a second within the
Iatros
ranks, one
that no one knew about. Who would protect the twins from the unseen dangers and
teach them of
Iatros
custom and culture?

She knew that she couldn’t run away with Samir, not yet
anyway. While she wasn’t thrilled with how the other
Iatros
made her
feel inadequate, they would still come through for her in a pinch. Besides,
there was more at stake here than the
Iatros
traditions. If the
deahmans
found a way to keep the portal open, then they would invade Earth with an army
so huge that the
Iatros
would be unable to stop it.

“The
Iatros
have done nothing but hurt us. Come with
me.”

It was tempting, but… “Why do you dislike the
Iatros
so much?”

He shrugged. “It’s in the past. I’m my own person now and I
do as I please. I don’t have loyalties to anyone.”

“You’re here with me now. That has to count for something.”

He smiled. “Only because you are on a grand adventure. You
need me.”

“This is true.” She chuckled. “And here I liked to think it
was my feminine side that attracted you.”

“That too.” Samir winked at her and glanced at the men on the
bed. “You’re not going to leave them and run away with me, are you?”

“No.”

He sighed. “I’ll stay until this queen of yours arrives,
then I’ll go. You can make the decision then as to whether you wish to leave
with me or not.”

“Fair enough.” Tara nodded toward the door. “In the
meantime, maybe you could get us another round of coffee.”

He smiled, his whole face brightening. “Yes, coffee.” He
started to leave, then stopped and turned to face her. “Should I get some for
them as well?”

Tara frowned. “I’m not sure if they drink coffee or not.”
She shrugged. “Why not? If they don’t drink it, I will.”

“That’s my girl.” He turned to go. “I’ll scout out the alley
next door again and see if we can find any clue as to where those two
deahmans
may have gone.”

“Sounds good.” She walked with Samir to the door and watched
him step out into the hallway. “Samir?”

“Yes?”

She wanted to say that she wished it had worked out between
them, that she wished that her magic would have bound their souls together and
they could have been mates. She didn’t love Samir, but she was comfortable with
him and they were compatible. They had similar backgrounds and shared the same
world views. It wouldn’t have been a perfect match, but it would have been a
good one.

She wanted to tell him all of this and more, but the words
stuck in her throat. There was just no… chemistry between them. No excitement.
Not to mention the fact that her magic didn’t seem to want to bind with him,
something that she found frustrating.

She didn’t like knowing how much control her magic had on
her life. It was unnerving. Why couldn’t she just weave the souls together on
her own? Why did she need some mystic approval?

So many of her kind believed in destiny. Not her. Free will,
baby. Tara made her own decisions and chose her own path in life. None of this “destined
mates” crap. That was for the romance novels, not for her.

And yet, when it came to Samir, that wasn’t the case at all.
Her magic had chosen for her by refusing to bind her soul with her friend and
she had to hope that it had made a wise decision.

Samir had taken the news of their non-binding well, acting
as if he had heard his electric bill was an extra fifty dollars. Not the
reaction one would expect from a spirit-mate. He was disappointed and a little
upset, but he got over it quickly. A little too quickly for Tara’s taste.

“Make my coffee with extra cream, will ya?” she asked him.
Those words came easier. They weren’t laced with embarrassment or regret.

“Sure thing.” Samir winked at her and disappeared down the
hall. She watched his large, muscular body move with the ease and grace of a
predator and tried to draw up some fragment of desire. There was none. She
sighed and closed the door, returning to the men on the bed.

She pulled out her phone and pressed the number one on her
speed dial.

“Sparrow here.” A smooth, masculine voice hummed over the
line. Her FBI contact had a deep and sensual voice, one you would expect to
hear on one of those sex therapist type radio shows at one o’clock in the
morning. After listening for five minutes, you wanted to pour your heart out to
him and earn his approval.

Tara smiled. She had been working with Sparrow for a while
now, one of the few men Darien and Arianne had trusted within the FBI. He had
proved his worth ten times over, and had access to technology that the
Iatros
didn’t have. They needed him, and Tara suspected that he was well paid for his
efforts.

“It’s Road Runner. I have the prize,” she said. She had
agreed to the code name of Road Runner only after significant arm twisting. It
was either that or Tweety, and she would much rather be named after a fast bird
than one who had an annoying, screechy voice.

There was a brief pause. “Are you sure?” he asked.

“Fairly sure. They match the pictures in their files. Both
look a little older and more beat up then I remember, but there is a sense of
familiarity.”

“Let me talk to them.”

“They’re unconscious now.” She told him the story, leaving
out the part about her kissing Soren and Samir throwing him against a wall.

“Did you check for the tattoos?”

“No. There’s no need. They both have the diamond earrings,
and one of them confirmed that his name was Soren.”

“Anyone could wear earrings, and he could be lying. You need
to check.”

“No.”

“Why?”

Tara hesitated. “Because they’re in a rather intimate place.”

“It doesn’t matter, we have to be sure.”

He seemed rather insistent. Tara looked back at the men on
the bed and nibbled her lower lip. She remembered the firm press of Soren’s
lips, how his hands spanned her waist. Most of all, she remembered him easing
her back on the bed and covering her with his hard, muscular body. If Samir
hadn’t interrupted them…

“Have you tied them up?” Sparrow asked.

“No.”

“You mean that they are just
sitting
there?”