Angel's Assassin (14 page)

She opened her mouth.

“Don’t ask,” he interrupted. “Because I won’t
tell you.”

“Do you have so many secrets?”

Even here at the edge of this field,
surrounded by open air, the sweet scent of roses wafted to him. Her
smell. Lord, she was enticing. “More than you can imagine.” Damien
lifted his hands to remove the ribbons that bound her hair tightly
in the braid.

She pulled away and almost turned, but
stopped.

Damien ran his fingers through her hair,
through the sun-touched locks that were more precious than gold,
softer than velvet. He put his mouth close to her ear. “You look
lovely with your hair down.”

Aurora inhaled a slight gasp.

His hands glided through her hair, gently
working through any resistance. He brushed her hair away from her
shoulder, his fingers softly skimming her neck.

She was not resisting! She stood before him,
letting him take down her hair. He would have to move slowly.
Slowly, so as not to frighten her. He dipped his head, running his
lips along her throat. She tasted salty and smelled of sweet
innocence.

Aurora tilted her head slightly, giving him
better access to her neck.

And he took her invitation, kissing her neck.
He ran his tongue languidly up to her nape and then down again.
Damien set his hands on her shoulders, gently with a feathery
touch, so she wouldn’t even notice. He gently nipped her neck and
she gasped in startled excitement as he began to suck her tender
skin. His hands slid easily down her arms, arms pressed so tightly
against her sides that his fingertips touched the soft globes of
her bosom. He pulled her tight against him so she could feel the
heat of his body, feel the hardness of his manhood.

Aurora gasped, rolling her head to her
shoulder as the tender caress of his mouth moved to her ear,
sending shivers of delight throughout her body.

The little nymph even moved her bottom
against his manhood. How he longed to take her right there. How he
longed to throw up her skirts and have her, but he forced himself
to move slowly. He didn’t want to frighten her. He didn’t want her
to bolt. He wanted to touch her skin, her body. Slowly, his fingers
began a soft caress of her arms, moving up and down between her arm
and the side of her breasts, feeling the soft fullness of them. Her
muffled groan encouraged him and he lifted his forefinger to run it
over the sensitive tip of her breasts. A gentle intake of her
breath allowed him to press a little harder as he slowly traced her
nipples. He circled them, moving his fingers round and round them
until they were hard pebbles. Then he allowed two fingers to circle
her nipples in larger and larger circles.

Aurora closed her eyes as wonderful tremors
raced down her body. His lips were working magic on her neck and
she could not summon the will to stop him from touching her. Her
knees weakened.

Damien moved his hands beneath her breasts,
cupping them, allowing his thumbs to take the place of his fingers,
rubbing, caressing, gently squeezing.

Aurora felt the change in his caresses then.
More demanding. More intense. There was no pretense about what he
was doing. His hands moved up to cover her breasts. She whirled out
of his hold and backed away.

Damien was not to be put off. A dark
intensity burned in his eyes. He stalked her.

Aurora continued to move away until her back
hit a tree. She turned to move, but Damien’s arm blocked her path.
She whirled the other way, but his other arm was there, trapping
her.

“Admit it,” he whispered, his voice
husky.

Aurora pressed herself back against the tree
and lifted her gaze to meet his.

“You liked it,” he coaxed softly, delight
shining in his eyes.

“No,” she answered fervently, again turning
to flee.

This time, Damien stepped in close. Their
bodies weren’t touching, but he was so close he could feel the heat
from her body. “Liar.”

Aurora shook her head, denying his
accusation.

“I’ll prove it.” His lips were almost
touching hers, so close. “You will lift your lips for me to
kiss.”

Aurora shook her head. She looked away, her
eyes darting across his bare chest as if searching for a way of
escape.

Damien bent his arms, bringing his face close
to hers. He moved his lips near her forehead, not touching, but
wanting to. He slowly lowered his mouth down over her cheek to
hover over her lips. He could feel her sweet breath on his lips. He
wanted to taste her, feel her against him. He was so hard he
thought he would explode.

Her lids drooped over her eyes. “Damien,” she
whispered in a shaken voice.

“I know you want to,” he coaxed. “Let me kiss
you. Lift your lips to me.”

Her mouth was open, her breath coming in
shallow gasps. She lifted her head just slightly but not enough to
be a surrender. Her nose touched his, sending tingles of desire
through his body. It was such an innocent gesture, so
tentative.

His lips skimmed hers. She was so
tantalizing. So breathtaking. Just a kiss. One kiss. “Aurora,” he
called.

Aurora lifted her eyes to his, lifted her
lips to his, giving in to the temptation.

Suddenly, a whizzing sound and then a loud
thunk broke the spell. Damien looked down to see an arrow lodged in
the tree beside Aurora’s knee!

A
urora grunted
as she hit the ground hard on her stomach. Damien landed on top of
her, shielding her after he pushed her down toward the safety of
the ground. Her dress caught and she looked up. Damien reached back
and yanked it free, ripping it from the arrow pinning it to the
tree.

“Keep your head down!” Damien hissed at her.
He looked up in the direction the arrow had come from, quickly
scanning their surroundings.

Aurora followed his stare, but could
see only the trees and bushes in the forest. Darkness and panic
threatened to overwhelm her, threatened to drive rationality away.
Memories resurfaced in her mind and she clutched Damien’s arm. Was
it the same assassin from her childhood, the killer who murdered
her mother? Was it
him
?

Damien eased himself from on top of her to
rest beside her. “Get ready to run for those rocks,” he told her.
“Keep to my left, close to the stream.” His voice was calm, but
clearly held a sense of urgency.

She nodded, glancing at the rocks near the
water. Two large boulders, double her size, rose from the ground
forming a shallow cave.

The mare whinnied, drawing a glance from
Aurora. The horse stumbled and went down on her hind legs, an arrow
lodged in her rump. Imp nervously shifted away from the mare, but
his reins tightened around the tree branch.

“Imp!” Aurora gasped and rose to her hands
and knees.

“No!” Damien hissed, pulling her back down,
keeping his grip on her arm. “He’s trying to draw you out. We have
to get to cover. Now. Follow me.” Damien rose, lifting Aurora from
the ground by her arm, and sprinted for the rocks, pulling her
along with him, keeping his body between the archer and her.

She heard a ‘whizzing’ sound and recoiled
instinctively, panic and fear nearly freezing her limbs. Damien
pulled her on.

They reached the rocks and Damien pushed
Aurora between the two large boulders, placing his body before her.
The archer would have a clear shot only if he swam the river and
shot an arrow at them from the other side.

Aurora heard Imp neighing nervously and
looked around the boulder. The mare lowered itself to the ground
and rested on its bent legs. Blood trickled from the arrow wound.
The arrow didn’t appear to have punctured major organs.

Imp tried to pull free of his reins but
couldn’t get away. The warhorse didn’t stand a chance trapped out
in the open.

Damien lifted his foot and reached into his
boot to pull out a dagger.

Something on Damien’s thigh caught Aurora’s
gaze. It looked like a rip in his dark leggings, but it shone with
wetness. She reached out to touch the material. His leggings were
torn with a small slash. She gasped as her fingers came away wet
and stained red. “You are hurt!”

“I’m all right,” he growled. “Leave it be.”
He glanced at the struggling horse and raised the dagger.

Aurora gasped in alarm and caught at his arm.
“Don’t hurt him!” she cried, fearing he meant to kill Imp so the
animal would not be a distraction to her.

Damien tugged his arm free of her hold and
flung the dagger. The blade twirled end over end as it raced
through the air. He hit the mark dead on, cutting through the rope
binding the horse to the tree.

Imp backed up a few steps from the tree,
reared and then bounded away through the clearing.

Aurora breathed a sigh of relief. The
reprieve quickly died as she realized their escape would not be as
easy. How could they get back to the castle with an assassin in the
forest? Her fingers closed over Damien’s strong arm, holding him
tightly. The assassin was probably hiding somewhere in the brush,
waiting for the best time to strike. Or was he repositioning
himself for another shot? Damien had no weapon to fight him. His
sword lay out of reach on the rock, useless.

Aurora lifted her gaze to Damien. He was
looking around, searching the area. His eyes were so focused, so
intense. She knew he would save her. As he had the other times. The
thought seemed to settle her nerves, to calm her.

Suddenly, the mare gave out a loud neigh.
Aurora peered around the rock to see the horse go stiff and fall
over onto her side. Dead. Aurora stared in shock. There was not
much blood. Why would the mare have died so quickly?

A chill went up her spine and her eyes
widened. Poison. Her gaze shifted to Damien’s wound. “Damien,” she
gasped, fear and dread slithering its way to her heart. “The mare
is dead.”

Damien looked at her, then at the animal. He
slowly glanced down at his wound. When he looked back at Aurora,
concern lit his eyes. “Wait here,” he told her. “I’m going to try
to move up the stream and get around whoever’s trying to kill us.
Stay here.”

Sheer black fright swept through her. In her
mind’s eye, she saw shadows come alive and black, black eyes. “No,”
she whispered. “Damien…”

He looked down at her, giving her a
reassuring grin. “Do you really think I could leave you for
long?”

Her body trembled with apprehension and she
threw her arms around him, holding him fiercely. Tears rose in her
eyes. A well of fear and grief consumed her. Damien could be dying!
Even now, poison could be rushing through him. How could he fight
poisoned arrows from a hidden assassin? How could he fight the
poison already in his body? This was an enemy no fighting skills
could defend against.

Damien pulled away and cupped her chin,
lifting her face. “No one will hurt you,” he promised and stepped
away from her. He turned, crouching low. He moved toward the
stream, practically crawling through the grass and dirt to get
there. Once at the bank, he moved into the water, barely making a
ripple. Then, he was gone, out of her sight.

Aurora pushed herself deeper into the alcove
the rocks made. Around the rocks, sunlight filtered through the
leaves to throw long shadows across the leaf-cluttered ground.

Just like your mother, a voice inside her
whispered. You weren’t smart enough. You weren’t kind enough. Now,
someone wants to kill you. You are just like your mother.

In her mind, it was a different time. A
different place. It was dark and she was a child again. Her mother
had pulled her back to the mill, her grip tight on her wrist. It
was so dark, so many shadows sheltering the horror of her past. She
wasn’t scared then. But she was terrified now. She tried to push
the memory from her mind, but it refused to be swept aside. One of
the shadows moved, separating from other shadows. A silver flash.
She looked up. The shadow had eyes! Dark, dark eyes. Evil eyes.

“Can Damien come out to play?”

Aurora looked up, shaken, unsure for a moment
whether she was in the past or the present.

A darkness shifted and moved across the rock.
Aurora gasped. A big man stood before her, blocking her escape. His
bald head reflected the muted sunlight. His large fist wrapped
around a sword, the blade flashing a hot silver.

Blinded by memories, she shivered, a sob
escaping her lips.

He smiled; a gap in his front teeth let his
tongue stick through the hole. Her gaze slid from the dirty white
of his grin to his dark, dark eyes. In her mind, she saw different
eyes. Both eyes held pure evil, but these eyes were different. The
man standing before her wasn’t the same man. He wasn’t the man who
had killed her mother. That knowledge pushed down her fear and gave
Aurora a surging, desperate hope. She lifted her hands, shoving him
hard with all her might.

It was like pushing rock. He didn’t budge,
didn’t move. He grabbed her hand, pulling her out into the open.
“Aw,” the man sneered. “Damien’s left ya all alone. Always knew he
was a fool.” Aurora kicked at his shins, pummeled him with her
other hand.

“It’s time for me to end this game.” He
lifted his sword.

Aurora opened her mouth and screamed in
horror.

D
amien hurled
himself at the assassin, knocking him away from Aurora. He grappled
with the man, rolling over again and again across the ground, their
arms locked in a deadly embrace. Finally, Damien planted his foot,
bringing them to a halt. He grabbed the assassin’s sword hand and
banged it hard against the ground. How dare he touch Aurora? He
delivered a stunning blow to the man’s smug face. Then, he pounded
the assassin’s hand against the ground again. Once, twice, three
times.