Amethyst Bound (2 page)

Amethyst Bound

seeking the source.

The source…

And there he stood. Not a place, but a man, and even
as I watched, he transformed into a great silver beast and
swept up into the sky, breathing fire down upon the land.

He set the pace, and we others followed.

We flew and left nothing but devastation in our wake.

I awoke tucked inside my hidden crevice, swallowing a gasp.
Shit!
Night had fallen away and the workers were back in the temple. I was safely hidden in my little hole, but how long would I stay that way once they discovered the missing artifacts?

How had I fallen asleep? I was never so reckless.

Never
. I felt the weight of the pendant and slowly clasped the offending jewel. I needed to get it and the box into the small bag I had strapped at my waist. And then I needed to get my ass out of Dodge, or Tiahuanaco, where this oldest temple had been discovered.

The pendant was warm to the touch, as if it had soaked up my body heat, and after hours of being tucked securely between my breasts it wasn’t much of a surprise. But what was a surprise was how it seemed to be glued to my skin.

No matter how I pried at it, the pendant remained stuck to me.

Damn. Now what?
I slid my fingers around the edges in the hope I could pull it free, and all I found was a perfect oval seal, holding it tight.

But there had been no glue. Surely I would have felt it before, and I hadn’t. All I’d felt was the cool amethyst and the texture of the dragon. That must have been what inspired the strange dream.

What else besides glue could bind the thing to my L. Shannon

7

skin?

My mind whispered one word.
Magic.

There was no such thing. The only supernatural occurrence I’d ever seen was my own ability to get in and out of tight places without being caught. And as far as I knew, blending wasn’t magic. I didn’t know what it was or how it worked, but not by magic.

Still, the pendant clung to me in a way I didn’t understand. Maybe it was some ancient booby trap set by the people who’d made the pendants? One archaeologist had said this temple might be more than ten thousand years old, but he’d been hushed quickly by the others. Not that I cared where the damn thing came from or even how it became stuck. All that mattered to me was getting the pendant unstuck. I had to get it free before I could finish the recovery job. I wasn’t about to take back one of the artifacts attached to my body. If this employer was like most, he would have no qualms about cutting it from my flesh, and I wasn’t about to let that happen.

Prying at the pendant did nothing.

I needed help.

My gaze darted to where Davis entered the temple.

Now, that was a temptation. He would surely know more about the artifact than any of the other eggheads, but how could I get him to help me without getting caught by the guards?

Take him.

It was the only option. From what I’d seen, he wasn’t going to let me walk out with the pendant no matter where it was stuck. No, he was too goody-goody to help a thief.

Dr. Davis would have to be captured and given no choice.

I wasn’t big into violence or personal crime but was capable when the job called for it. An ancient pendant 8

Amethyst Bound

attached to my body? Yep, this job was screaming for full-on response.

I started to formulate a plan, but my success relied on Davis being last out again. From what I’d seen and overheard, he was always last to leave, and I prayed he stayed in character for at least one more night.

As the hours passed, I studied the doctor and calculated what would best motivate the man to help me. I let my fingers stroke the intricate carvings on the box.

They had to provide the information needed to get the pendant off. At least I hoped they did.

And the doctor would help me decipher the glyphs.

Finally the other workers left and only Dr. Davis remained. He bent low over his notebook, appearing oblivious to the time and his surroundings. Completely unaware as I crept down from the shadows and moved silently behind him.

Then he burst from his still pose and sprinted across the temple to the storage area where I’d found the box.

His hands moved frantically over the shelves of the artifacts yet to be cleaned until he found the bare place that my theft had left behind. His fingers settled there as if waiting for the missing artifact to reappear. He was in for a big surprise.

I shadowed him, sliding my slim, sexy knife up against his throat while holding the artifact before him to get his attention.

This should have kept him passive and listening, but instead Davis jerked to the side and dove for the box. It took all my skill to not slash his throat open when he spun toward the weapon. I leaped back but held my suddenly meager knife up before me.

“Who are you?” he asked.

L. Shannon

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Excellent question
. The name Antonia tickled my lips.

But I swallowed the bizarre urge of honesty. I’d long ago decided to never again be scared little Antonia Giovanni. I steadied my stance and asked, “Does my name matter?”

“No, it doesn’t. What are you doing here? Why did you take the
Tawasuyus?
It’s far too precious to be handled by an amateur.” He reached for the box once more, surging forward until my knife pressed against his chest.

I kept the box just out of his reach and waited for him to back off. “I came for this box and I will leave here with it.”

“That’s what you think.” He didn’t back off even a hair. The knife caught on a shirt button, cutting it free with a quiet ping.

I took a deep breath. This was not going the way I expected. How had he turned the situation around on me?

I couldn’t hold back my frustrated sigh. “Just tell me what the glyphs on the box say, and maybe I won’t have to take it.”

His gray eyes narrowed. “Why do you care?” I slid my knife into its sheath. Taking a deep breath, I stared into his smoky eyes and calculated my options.

None of them looked good. Rule number one was back in play. It was time to do whatever was needed to get the job done.

Chapter Two

Time to choose between truth and lies.

Usually the easy answer was to lie, but I couldn’t think of a single fib that would convince Davis to translate the glyphs. So I did the unexpected. I told the truth. “I need your help to get this unattached from my skin.” I yanked down the neck of my tank top and flashed him.

He leaned forward until his face was inches from my chest.

Dear God, he smelled good, and my body responded, making my already perky breasts tighten and high-beam the oblivious doctor. Even more out of character, I felt heat rush to my cheeks. I was probably a very unprofessional shade of pink.

The man’s warm breath feathered over my chest. He rumbled something in his throat that I couldn’t make out and then his fingers hit my skin, circling the pendant just as I had done so many times during the past few hours.

His fingers didn’t feel anything like mine, though. His touch left me trying to remember how long it’d been since I’d put enough effort into a relationship to get intimate. Or had sex of any kind. It had been a while, obviously too long.

But as his fingers continued their innocent exploration and swirls of desire settled low in my abdomen, one more surprise hit me from nowhere. I didn’t want just any man.

I wanted Davis.

L. Shannon

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And the fool was oblivious to the devastation he was wreaking on my body.

How typical was that for me? I couldn’t walk into a bar and pick up an easy lay. No, I needed a conquest who would be a challenge to even get his attention. I firmed up my control, steadied my breath and leashed my wayward desires. There would be time for pleasure later. For now, my only need was to be free of the pendant. “So, Doc, what’s the verdict?”

“It’s not glue, is it? Hmm…”

“No.” I might not be the brightest bulb in the box, but even I wasn’t dumb enough to glue a priceless pendant to my chest just to catch the eye of a man. Of course, now that it was there, and he was hovering with his nose between my boobs…well, now I could enjoy the moment.

I tipped my chin down and to the side so I could see his face at least a little.

His tongue licked his upper lip, hesitating in what might have looked idiotic on most men, but on Davis looked cute. He straightened but continued to stare at my chest with a puzzled frown. “What did you do?” I tugged at the thin chain that was all but useless now.

“All I did was put it on.”
Sheesh
… My voice was little more than a purr of arousal. When had
that
happened?

“That’s it? You just put the pendant on?” I nodded and resisted the urge to roll my eyes at his doubt. As if I could make up a story like this. I wasn’t that imaginative.

“Hmm…” His gaze finally left the pendant and wandered down my body. Maybe he finally noticed that the pendant was attached to something warm and fleshy.

Would he find my lean body sexy? With my luck he went for curvy. I pushed aside the insecure notion.

12

Amethyst Bound

Insecurity wasn’t my thing. I was more the jaded-and-untrusting type. “Well?” I couldn’t keep the slight bite from my tone.

He shrugged, which wasn’t the response I was hoping for. “I have no idea.”

“What does the box say?”

“The
Tawasuyus?
What does it have to do with the pendant besides having a common symbol?”

“The amethyst dragon was inside the box.” His gaze jumped to mine. “Impossible. We haven’t figured out how to open the
Tawasuyus
yet.”

“I opened it.” I wasn’t altogether sure how, so maybe I shouldn’t have claimed the deed.

His expression remained skeptical, with one eyebrow drawn up. “Show me.”

I reached for the box, which I’d set on the nearest table, and he jerked as if he wanted to jump in and save it from me. My fingers brushed over the lock and it clicked open again, this time without me even threatening it with the lock pick.

“Impossible,” he whispered.

“Obviously.”

He peered inside the box, looking very much like a little boy on Christmas morning. “There are more…”

“More dragons, yeah. I don’t recommend putting them on.”

“Very funny.”

I didn’t think so, but maybe he had a better sense of humor than me. “I’m hoping it might have some information on the sides of the box, but I can’t read those symbols.”

“Maybe.” He carefully turned the box to one side, then to the other, studying the glyphs. “Let’s see. I think there L. Shannon

13

might be some relevance here but…” He pulled out a pair of glasses and a small brush from his shirt pocket. “These are power symbols…and chaos, destruction, birth, fire.” Davis mumbled more to himself than to me, so I sank down out of sight while the guards made their first pass through the room. They called out hello but didn’t seem surprised when Davis didn’t answer them.

“Not Incan…not Tiahuanaco, either.” His fingers caressed the carvings almost lovingly. Mmm, very nice fingers, long, tanned and strong. How would they feel on my body? Would they be gentle or commanding? They petted the box carefully, almost reverently. Would they touch me like that? As if I were precious to him?

“I think it’s a prophecy of the apocalypse. These symbols empower the wearer to become something…a being that will destroy the world in fire.” He pulled out some fine paper and used his pencil to copy the etchings.

That caught my attention. “Do you mean to tell me that the people who wear these pretty charms will somehow turn evil and destroy the world?” Sounded like a pretty wild myth to me, but Davis spoke as though he believed every word. I pulled at the pendant again and still couldn’t budge it from my chest. And then there was the strange dream about burning the land with dragon fire…

“I mean to say that you put the thing on and are now part of this prophecy.
You
are going to destroy the world.” I jumped to my feet. “I will not! I didn’t even know about the stupid prophecy.”

“Let me see…yeah. Right, look where I’m pointing.” I bent over, squinting at the etched symbols, and instead noticed how his warm breath blew against my cheek.
Focus!
The markings were in the same glyphs as 14

Amethyst Bound

everything else, and I didn’t have any clue what they meant. “What’s it say?”

“‘Too bad.’ It says ‘too damn bad. You put it on. Now it’s too late.’”

I had to pick up my jaw at his irreverent tone. I didn’t expect him to be respectful of me, but I thought he would at least be serious about the box. “It does not. You are so full of shit.”

“Maybe it doesn’t, but it should.” I studied his expression. He
was
serious—seriously pissed. Yeah, okay, I’d stolen one of his toys, but jeez. “I don’t believe in the prophecy, so I can’t be forced to be part of it.”

“So take the pendant off.”

“Don’t be an ass. You know I can’t.” I glared at him. I didn’t need his attitude.

His hand caught my shoulder. The grip was a shade harder than firm. “So what else will you have no choice in? You have no idea what you’re now involved in. I bet you haven’t even noticed that you’re glowing.”

“I’m not…” But I
was
glowing. I stared at my hands in wonder. There was a slightly purple—amethyst, really—

glow to my skin. I quickly pulled on my gloves to cover up the strangeness.

“You can’t cover all your skin, and every inch showing has that same glow.” He stared at me with an intensity that brought the butterflies back to my stomach.

It might be the scientist studying a subject, but it felt like a man looking at a woman.

My stomach flipped over. What was happening? Could he be right about the pendant having power over me? The thought left me cold, scared. Made me want to run even if I couldn’t see the danger, even if the danger was glued to L. Shannon

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my own damn chest.

“Can you tell me anything more…anything that might get this thing off me?” If not, I might as well leave. I didn’t need to hang out with him. I also didn’t need to take him with me if he couldn’t offer any more information.