Absolute Surrender (40 page)

A’Damiel ignored the wall. He sent his senses out, scanning behind the chamber for the fucker he came for.

“Doubtful it’s him,” Bel said. “Place looks deserted. So are you going to release these souls?’

“Why? They chose their path. Not my business. But Andras is.” After all, he’d bound the shithead to this place.

A’Damiel’s heightened hearing picked up a reedy moan. Narrowing his eyes, he stared at the wall on his left. A wave of his hand and the marble slid open to reveal an inner chamber, so dark he couldn’t see a bloody thing. But in seconds his eyes adjusted to the blackness all around him. He found a table with papers strewn on it and there, in the far corner, he saw a figure cowering.

Female. The ripped tunic she had on barely covered her thin body. Blood trailed down her cheek from a deep laceration, and more slashes crisscrossed her arms and chest. She scooted away as he came closer. She appeared to be around sixteen. The scent of fear thickened the dank air and skyrocketed when he crouched in front of her. A’Damiel pushed aside her greasy hair, surprised to see her neck untouched. Just as well because he wasn’t in a mood to clean up Andras’s mess. This female would have turned into one of his minions.

But looking at her took him back to when he first found Echo in that basement. She’s been so young, traumatized, and almost in a catatonic state. He pushed away images of a charge who no longer belonged to him. “Let’s go,” he told the girl.

Wary eyes looked out at him from between chunks of dirty brown hair as he rose to his feet. “I can’t leave. He’s put a spell over the doorway. It hurts when I try.”

A’Damiel walked back into the main chamber, his gaze flat. “You can either attempt this again or stay here.” He turned to leave.

“Wait.” The girl lurched to her feet, stumbled, and grabbed the table to steady herself. She scooped up the papers on it, clutching them to her chest, before shuffling to the door. Then she just stood there, dread in her pale eyes.

A’Damiel reached out, grabbed her skinny arm, and hauled her out, ignoring her screech of panic. The instant she passed through the opening, her fear abated.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

A’Damiel didn’t respond. He opened a portal and sent her off to the mortal realm. Once the gateway closed, he headed out of Andras’s hole of depravity, Belphegore trailing behind him.

“Report on what happened while I was away,” A’Damiel ordered, heading toward Greed’s dwelling.

“What can I say? I miss sleeping on Echo’s bed, since she’s moved to the castle.”

A’Damiel stopped and glared at him.

“Just saying,” Bel said, grinning.

“If Echo ever told me otherwise, I would have to kill you. Where’s Bob?”

“I sent him back in all his pudgy glory since I can’t enter the island. Anyway, I did a little snooping when I got back after Echo got hurt in the subway.” Bel stuck his hands in his pants pockets. “Where were you anyway?” he asked. “I tried to get a hold of y—”

“I had business to take care of,” A’Damiel said, cutting him off. His hands fisted, easing the pain in his palms. No one could ignore a summons from one of the
Ancients.
Least of all, him.

Bel nodded. “Lazaar acted on his brother’s behest. What is wrong with that stupid fuck? Andras is bound and a damn
demonii
. Why would Lazaar risk the wrath of the
Ancients
?”

A’Damiel hadn’t liked it at all when he was ordered by the
Ancients
not to kill Andras, but to bind him. The bastard was up to something. “What else did you find out?”

Bel shrugged. “Not much. Lazaar ran off when that warrior of Echo’s flashed into the subway. She got hurt and the oracle patched her up. But her mate refused to leave her behind with Lila. That’s about it.”

“About that mate thing. Why didn’t you warn me?”

“You said keep her safe when you weren’t around, not tell you who she fell in love with.”

A’Damiel stared at Bel. The sound of crinkling drew his attention. He glanced down and saw a paper sticking out his coat pocket. He pulled it out and stared in surprise. Then he realized the girl had to have slipped it in his pocket before she left. Her stealth surprised him. He opened the scroll and scanned the contents.

Shit!
So
not what he wanted to do, but the blue-haired bastard had to know about this.

CHAPTER 26

Dawn cast a gray light in the room when Echo awoke. Her head ached a little and her eyes still burned from the tears she’d shed last night.

Expecting to be alone in bed, she turned and found Aethan asleep beside her. He’d gone out on patrol after they’d arrived last night. She let her gaze drift over him, enjoying the moment because she rarely got a chance to see him unguarded and vulnerable.

The navy sheet pooled low around his waist, revealing miles of tawny-gold skin. His chest rose gently with each breath he took, his lashes rested like dark arcs against his skin, and his sensual mouth relaxed in sleep.

She played with his hair. The strands, a striking blend of different shades of blues and black, slid like a silken waterfall between her fingers.

His heavy arm reached out, looped around her waist, and brought her closer to him. The feel of his hard, warm body against hers, his erection pressing on her thigh, and just like that, desire awoke.

Unable to help herself, she leaned in and brushed her lips across his.

His gray eyes flickered open, filled with warmth, desire. His mouth captured hers in a hot kiss. His hand skated down her body to caress the curve of her hip. He pushed her on her back and deepened the kiss. Sliding his hand under her nightshirt, he cupped her naked breast, squeezing gently.

He shifted and settled between her thighs. Pushing her nightshirt up, he trailed kisses down to her stomach. His lips glided around her navel, to the edges of her cotton panties, over them, and down to the center of her damp core. He pressed down with his tongue.

Echo grabbed his hair and hung on as sensations consumed her like a tidal wave.

“Aethan. Wait–wait.” She didn’t want to do this if he wasn’t prepared to go all the way. She didn’t want a one-sided lovemaking, unable to touch him.

Too late. He yanked her panties down her legs and tossed them aside. His mouth came down on her. Echo gasped, forgot what she wanted to say as he drew her passion right to the edge, keeping her there with his relentless torment. Driving her wild with his touch, he made her sob for release. Her hands fluttered over him, pushing at him, then tugged on his hair as desire built to a fever pitch and she fell, her orgasm gripping his finger.

While shudders still racked her body, he came back up, kissed her gently and then lay beside her. Tears tightened her throat. The emptiness filling her chest made her stomach pitch.

Is this how it would always be? Fill the needs of her body but not her heart? Pleasure her and watch her fall while he stayed apart from her. Every sensation she’d come to associate with him, the sparks that heated her blood, the tingles that normally raced through her, were missing. Almost like someone else had made love to her.

She rolled over, away from him, and faced the window. Her skin burned in humiliation as icy numbness filled her chest.

The mattress shifted. “Echo—”

“Don’t.” She slid off the bed and hurried to the bathroom, aware his gaze tracked her. And prayed he wouldn’t follow.

He didn’t.

Standing under the cascading water in her nightshirt while steam fogged the shower, she blocked out everything but the gaping hole in her chest. When she found she could breathe again, she shut off the water, pulled off her soaking nightshirt, and wrapped a bath towel around her, then hesitated.

No use hiding
. She stiffened her shoulders, opened the door, and stepped into an empty bedroom. Unbearable pain took hold of her. No. She wouldn’t fall apart, she wouldn’t—but tears filled her eyes. She couldn’t do this anymore, couldn’t stay with Aethan, be in a relationship that had no future. No hope.

***

The day at work passed far too quickly for her. Jimar hadn’t been happy about her sudden resignation. He’d insisted on a two-week notice period. She just wanted to get it over with and, with misery eating at her, she’d agreed.

She dragged her feet when it was time to leave, knowing Aethan would be waiting for her. Unable to put it off any longer, she left the gym and headed up the steps, her heart thudding dully.

He’d parked the Range Rover on the opposite side of the street and leaned against it, watching the gym entrance with a grim stare. Men passing on the sidewalk eyed him warily. The women gaped at him in sheer fascination, drawn to his sexual magnetism and that angelic allure.

Aethan had tried to teach her to shield her allure, which was a miserable failure. It wasn’t pheromones, after all. Well, she didn’t care. She’d been taking the suppressant Gran made for her, so she’d just stick with it.

He straightened when he saw her.

Echo stood on the curb, watching the afternoon traffic, her heart not ready to face what was to come. She buttoned her coat against the chill that seemed determined to take over her body. Clients shuffled up the steps behind her and she mumbled in response to their goodbyes.

Aethan crossed the road and took her gym bag, ushering her toward the Range Rover. She’d expected some kind of argument from him, about leaving that morning without informing him. But he remained silent for the entire journey, one hour of sheer torture.

Finally he parked the car in the enormous garage. She didn’t get out like she normally did. Instead, she wrapped her arms around her waist, staring at the black Lamborghini Reventón parked in front of them. The one she’d driven a lifetime ago.

“We—” She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “—we need to talk.”

“Echo, I know you’re upset—”

Upset? It didn’t even begin to describe how she felt. She couldn’t be near him without begging him to make love to her. She was wound up so tight, any more and she would snap.

“It’s beyond that now. I can’t do this anymore. I tried, and I just can’t.” She fumbled with the door handle and scrambled from the vehicle, slamming the door behind her.

He caught up with her seconds later and grabbed her arm. His eyes flared with frustration. “Don’t make this any more difficult than it already is.”

“
I
make this difficult?” She glared at him. “Tell me how? ’Cause you sure as hell won’t let me touch you!” She tried to hold back the bitterness and failed. “If I just needed sexual satisfaction, I could see to it myself, or find a one night stand. It’s just as gratifying and empty. At least, I don’t have to suffer the humiliation afterward.”

“Echo, no—”

She shook her head, cutting him off. “Do you know what it feels like, yearning for the one person who means more to you than anything else in this world but he won’t let you in? You’re left with nothing but a longing for what could have been—” She stopped, took a deep breath. “I can’t live like this anymore.”

Breaking away from him, she pushed open the door to the basement and hurried past the gymnasium to the elevator.

He followed behind her, stepping into the elevator. The silence hung heavy and strained between them as the door swished closed.

“Echo—”

She shrank into the corner of the metal box they were caged in. She didn’t want to breathe in his tormenting scent. Didn’t want his excuses.

“Every time I reach out to you, are you going to disappear or tell me to get out? I’ve touched you, felt your powers sweep over me.
I. Didn’t. Get. Hurt!
Do you hear me?”

“Don’t you get it? I will be inside you—
inside
you. There’s no escaping then. And I will not take that chance.”

“So, your solution is to touch me with no emotions involved? Like you did this morning?”

“What the hell would you have me do?” His temper blazed. “Tell me! I saw what my powers do, how it shocks the human heart. I can’t risk you. I won’t!”

Pain made it hard to speak as she asked the question that had been gnawing a hole in her heart since their first night together. “Where do you go when
you
need relief, Aethan?”