An Apocalyptic Need (21 page)

The portal’s opaque, pulsing face thinned beneath the special energy and showed Grimm the wizard’s destination on the other side. It was like looking through the window into Dante’s last circle of Hell.

And at the very center of that Hell was Cari, hanging from the ceiling in a metal cage that Grimm could see was crafted from mercury enhanced iron. Grimm’s magics would have no effect on the metal. He swore as his gaze took in the roiling mass of zombies stalking her, their feral gazes fixed on her as they churned and thrashed, ripping each other apart in an effort to gain a closer spot to the cage.

Cari sat at the center, her legs crossed and her head bowed. It looked to Grimm as if she were praying.

He didn’t blame her. He’d be praying too if he found himself in that predicament.

Grimm’s muscles twitched with the need to move, to rescue her from the deadly predicament beyond the portal. But he knew that once he’d entered that concrete and iron encased prison all hell would break loose and he’d be fighting for his life as well as hers. He needed a plan.

As he considered and discarded several ideas, Cari’s head lifted and her gaze shot toward the ceiling above. He followed the line of her sight and felt the first stirrings of terror as he realized what she was considering.

Magic energy was useless against the cage. She couldn’t blast her way out of it. The only thing that might be able to break the cage open was brute strength.

There was plenty of that stalking below.

Grimm’s bowels tightened in horror as he watched her stand up and reach toward the thick leather strap tying the cage to a large metal ring in the concrete ceiling. He screamed her name and threw himself into the portal just as she shot a beam of condensed, silver energy into the leather strap, severing it and sending the prison plummeting toward the ground, into the frothing masses of ravening zombies.

She crumpled as the heavy cage slammed into the zombies below and rocked, the zombies that hadn’t been crushed beneath it immediately scrabbling forward to fling themselves onto the bars, pulling and shoving it as bloody spittle flew from their deadly maws.

Cari crouched on the floor, trying to balance herself as the monsters attempted to breach the bars to get to her.

“Cari!”

Her head came up and her horrified gaze found him as he stepped from the portal. She shook her head and started to stand.

Big mistake.

The zombies shook the cage hard and she fell toward them, several pairs of black-clawed hands waiting to grab her hair and flesh and rip at it.

Grimm sliced a long knife through the neck of the nearest monster, then placed a foot in its chest and sent it flying to knock a couple of its friends to the ground. He leapt over the downed zombies and fired energy into the group that was tearing into Cari.

Her pain-filled screams sliced like razors across his nerves, turning him mad with the need to reach her.

A massive hand encircled his arm, dragging him to a halt just as the door to the cage was ripped free and the zombies converged on the breeched prison, roaring with excitement.

Grimm sliced the hand off the zombie holding his arm and then sent energy into it, exploding its head like a melon. He buried the knife in the chest of a second zombie and shoved it away. He ran toward Cari, listening for her screams and knowing that the silence he was hearing was a terrible omen.

Grimm exploded three more monsters on his way to Cari and sent a dense blade of energy into the crowd around the cage.

“Cari!”

She hadn’t screamed in seconds. Her silence was terrifying. Grimm fired into them again and peeled off another layer, sending them smoking and headless to the floor, but it wasn’t enough.

He’d never get to her in time.

A breeze wafted over him, filled with her sweet scent. He sliced the heads off three more monsters as a soft roar expanded outward from the roiling epicenter that was Cari’s fallen cage. Grimm stopped, amazed as the roar deepened, throbbing against his ears, and her sweet scent enveloped him, soothing his fears.

The zombies around Grimm stopped too and one by one they turned to stare at the pile around the cage. The throbbing built to a painful point and Grimm became aware of a darkening around him, as if a black fog had moved in.

“Grimm.” Her voice was music, vibrant with energy and throbbing with power. He turned and saw only shadows. But he felt her presence as if she were standing right next to him.

A small, pale hand suddenly shot from nowhere and grasped his wrist, yanking him into the shadows.

Cari was there, her green-gold gaze bright and feverish. “I thought you’d never get here.”

Grimm grabbed her slim shoulders and pulled her into a kiss that was filled with fear and desperation. But it quickly turned to something with far more heat and Grimm nearly forgot they were standing in the midst of about a thousand zombies.

Her lips were pliable and hungry beneath his, her body warm and soft. Grimm tasted her lips with his tongue and she opened for him, letting him tease an extra level of heat from her response.

Reluctantly he broke the kiss, resting his forehead against hers. “You scared the living shit out of me.”

Her laughter was husky with need. “I scared the living shit out of myself. But I couldn’t think of any other way to get out of that damn cage.”

“It was brilliant.” He touched her lips with a fingertip. “And unforgivably reckless.”

She shrugged. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

He grabbed her hand and they moved toward the portal, easily maneuvering around the zombies who’d been struck blind as far as Cari was concerned. They couldn’t see either of them inside Cari’s shadows.

“You’ll have to tell me how you did this. It’s pretty cool.”

Cari shook her head. “I’m not
sure
how I did it. Something the wizard did opened…something inside me.” She looked at him, her face filled with fear. “I had no idea it was inside me, Grimm. I always believed I was a limited.”

He stepped through the portal, pulling her with him. Cari dropped the masking shadows and threw back her head, breathing deeply. “Oh god, I’ve never smelled anything sweeter.”

Grimm lifted an eyebrow, his gaze sliding to a mound of horse manure on the ground near their feet.

She laughed. “Even
that
smells wonderful right now.”

He dragged her close for another kiss, deepening it until all he could think was that he needed to get her clothes off and make love to her. She slipped her fingers through his hair, molding her body to his.

It was Cari who broke the kiss. “I know we need to save the world and all that, but…” She skimmed a fingertip over his lips, leaving behind a sweet tingling that traveled south and curled into his balls. “All I could think about in there was you, Grimm. About having you as my sex vassal. I didn’t take nearly enough advantage of that when I had you captive.” She touched his lips with hers, her voice deepening a notch as she went on. “I’d like to remedy that now. If you’re interested.”

Grimm stared into her beautiful hazel eyes for a beat and then slipped a hand along her cheek, skimming it into her hairline. He pulled her close, their lips so near a soft breath breached the distance and heated the chill night air between them. “I thought you’d never ask, captain.” Then he lowered his mouth to hers and gave in to the apocalyptic sized need he’d been dying to embrace since the moment he’d met her.

Cari tugged him toward a copse of trees just outside of town. He frowned as she dragged him to a stop and started unbuttoning his shirt. “Here? Don’t you want our first time to be in a soft, clean bed?”

“I want our first time to be
now
, hunter.” Her fingers slipped and tore at the small buttons, irritation finally giving way as she grabbed both sides of his shirt and ripped it open. She leaned into him, resting her lips in the spot between the firm mounds of his pecs, inhaling his scent.

He lowered his head to rest on hers as her lips returned to the smooth, milk chocolate expanse of his chest, tasting and nibbling her way toward his hard nipples.

She covered one with her lips and he groaned, his hands sliding over her shoulders, pushing the worn cotton of her dress away from them.

She rested her teeth over a hard, dark-chocolate nub and he stilled, only the rise and fall of his chest giving proof of his agitation. Cari tugged the nipple gently at first, then harder as he moaned.

Grimm took her lead and ripped the borrowed dress open, sliding it down her arms and leaving her in only a thin white, chemise. He rubbed her breasts, tweaking her hard nipples through the light fabric. When she started to unbutton his jeans he groaned. “They wore too many damn clothes in this time.”

She laughed, her fingers finally releasing the button from its hole, and reached for his zipper. She gave him a suggestive grin. “Only the top layers.” Cari waggled her eyebrows and his sexy brown gaze widened. “Don’t tease me, captain.”

She laughed again. “Trust me, I wouldn’t tease about that. It was pretty much all I could think about when I was hanging above those nasty zombies in that cage.”

A shadow passed over his handsome face, but Cari was too interested in getting him naked to pay it much attention. Unzipping him, she slipped her hand inside and grasped the thick, rock-hard erection bulging through. He was so hot and so big and…she popped him free and nearly sighed. The head of his cock was a fleshy chocolate enticement. She wanted more than anything to lick it.

She started to drop to her knees. To her vast surprise, Grimm’s hands wrapped around her shoulders to stop her. Cari looked a question at him and the expression on his face nearly made her cry. “Don’t do this, Grimm.”

He shook his head, stepping away. “I haven’t been completely honest with you, captain.”

She frowned. “Whatever you’re going to tell me, I don’t care.”

He held her gaze for a long moment and then expelled a sigh, scrubbing one big hand over his bristled jaw. “I think you might. You know I used to work for the Authority…”

She reached for him again. “I know. That isn’t a problem, Grimm.”

He looked away, his fists clenching as he struggled with some kind of emotion. It looked a lot like regret, but Cari couldn’t imagine what he’d be regretting. “If you’re going to tell me you did something bad to be thrown out of the Authority, I don’t care, Grimm.” She stepped closer and grasped the edges of his shirt, tugging them gently. “I know what kind of man you are. You’re decent and kind. So what if you’ve made a mistake…”

He grabbed her wrists and yanked them away. “It’s not a mistake, Cari. It’s me. It’s what I am.”

She shook her head, confused.

He looked so angry that Cari almost stepped away when he moved closer, grabbing her arm and lowering his head toward hers. “I have more in common with those monsters you just escaped than I have with you.”

She stared at him for a long moment, anger building. Things had been so good between them. And now he was trying to destroy what they’d found. “Don’t you dare, Grimm. If you don’t want me, just say so. I won’t like it, but I can at least respect it.” She stepped away, started to pace. “But I won’t fall victim to the easy lie.” She lifted her hand, pointing a finger that shook slightly from emotion. “I won’t be treated like I’m stupid.”

He stood perfectly still for a long moment, his sexy gaze suspiciously bright. Then he lifted his palm and called his magics, spinning them into a razor thin column above his hand. She watched as he lifted his other hand and slipped it over the column of sizzling energy…watched it slice him across the palm…and cried out for him when he barely grimaced.

Then he let the magic slide away and covered the distance between them, holding his palm out for her to see. Thick, black blood oozed from the cut. “I’m not human, Cari. I’m a dead thing, just like those zombies. I was created from death magic by an evil witch who wanted to create armies of the dead and take over the world.”

Cari shook her head, turning away.

But he wouldn’t let her deny what he was. He grabbed her jaw in two steely fingers, dragging her gaze around to his. “I’m one of the monsters, captain. And you deserve so much better than that. You deserve someone with nothing but life to offer.”

His intense, brown regard pinned her, daring her to deny that she was repulsed.

And god help her she couldn’t say the words.

She
was
repulsed at the idea of what had been done to him. She was disappointed. She was…afraid. Cari stepped back, her gaze sliding away. “I…”

“No. Don’t say anything.” He sounded so sad, so beaten, that Cari’s heart broke for him. Still, she couldn’t look into his eyes. Couldn’t tell him it didn’t matter. Because in that moment it did.

“Don’t try to deny what I just saw in your eyes. I’m so sorry, Cari…”

She turned and walked away, trying to put much needed distance between them. She just needed time to think…to decide… A moment later she turned back, intending only to ask for that. For time.