Dark Desires After Dusk (5 page)

“Kidnap women? I can hardly keep the chits off the jock as it is, pet.”

Eyes wide, she said, “
Chits? Pet?
Are you from the nineteenth century or just trying to be misogynistic?”

“I'm from medieval times, and I never have to
try
to be misogynistic.” He slammed on the brakes, and cranked the four-wheel-drive gear, peering at her hard. “It just comes to me natural, like a gift.” Stomping on the gas once more, he sent her flying back into the seat as they lurched forward, racing over pristine greens.

“Why did they want to hurt me? I've never done anything to deserve this!”

“It's not what you've done—it's what you are.”

“A math instructor?” she said in a strangled tone.

“You're a Valkyrie now. And a special one at that. Your mum must've been one.”

“Valkyrie! My mom was a pie contest winner! And she was
human
. She died two years ago.”

“Then your biological mother must have been one.”

She was shocked into silence for a moment. How had this demon known she was adopted? “I didn't even know her.” Holly had always imagined her as a scared teenager who'd had the incredible good sense to leave her baby on the most wonderful doorstep imaginable. Now this demon was saying that her mother was a Valkyrie? “What exactly
is
a Valkyrie? And how did you know I was adopted?”

“Questions later. Right now we've got to get through the swamp.”

The dark line of brush loomed. “I don't see a road!”

“There's a service trail,” he said, then added in a casual tone, “It might be a shade grown over.”

“A shade! Are you certain there's no other way to get out?”

He nodded. “The property's surrounded by bayou and swamp.”

“What are the odds that we'll make it through?”

“I give us one in fifteen.”

Her eyes went wide. “I wouldn't take those odds!”

“You would if there's
zero
chance otherwise.”

“Oh, God,” she muttered, feeling around the seat. “Where's the seat belt?”

“Broke a few years back.”

“And you didn't get it fixed?” she snapped.

“Don't usually ferry around mortals, then!” he thundered back.

Struggling for calm, she said, “Cadeon, I do not see even a hint of a trail.”

“Demon senses. I can find it.” But he pressed his straightened arm over her chest as they closed in.

“Y-you're not really going in there?”

“Trust me.”

This being had saved her life, had even taken bullets for her, and yet there was something so markedly
untrustworthy
about him . . . .

He flashed her a rakish grin with barely noticeable fangs. “Though if you're the praying type, now might be a choice time.”

H
olly catapulted forward against his arm as the truck burst into the brush.

Leaves and branches slapped the windshield as the cab bounced. They smacked something that left feathers and squawked an angry retreat.

She turned, clutching the seat-back to scan behind them. “They're just going to follow us, trap us back here!”

“Their nice, fancy SUVs are lower to the ground than older trucks like mine. With a little luck, they'll bottom out. At least before we do.”

Over the sound of their wholesale destruction of native flora and fauna, she asked, “Why are you helping me?”

“I'm a mercenary—my current gig is to keep you alive.”

“
A mercenary?
Who's paying you? Who would know to hire a demon to protect me from a demon threat?”

“There were also the leeches.”

“How could I forget?” She pinched her forehead. “Who paid you?”

“We'll talk about it later.”

“At least tell me why those demons chose me. I am the most boring person you have ever met!”

He met her gaze. “Not anymore, halfling.”

She glanced behind them again and saw headlights. “They're coming.”

Biting out words in a language she'd never heard, he sped up even more.

“Cadeon, is it safe to go this fa—”

Shots rang out, plugging the back of the truck and her side-view mirror. His big hand palmed the top of her head and shoved her down, making her slump in the seat.

When shards from the mirror speared at her window, she shrieked.

All around them, the glass shattered; he gave a roar of pain. Cracks forked out over the windshield before it exploded as well, raining glass chips against them.

“Mind the shrieks, pet!”

“How did I do that?” she cried, frenziedly brushing glass off herself.

“Nature of the beast,” he grated. “Valkyrie shrieks crack glass. Lesson learned, yeah?”

When she spied blood trickling from his ear, she bit her lip and brushed glass off him as well.

He seemed shocked by her care. “Now, there's a sweet halfling. But a little lower and to the right would be sweeter—”

“Watch out!”

The trail was gone. Murky black water covered at least a three-meter-long span of it.

“Hold on!” He yanked her upright, his arm crossing over her again.

“Why are we going
faster
toward it?”

“So we don't bog down!” he said just before they hit.

She flew against his arm once more. With the windshield gone, water sprayed over the hood, shooting against their faces.

The front of the truck dove down. Water poured into
the cab. Mud, lily pads, and several crayfish were scooped up as though with a net. The engine roared with effort as they chugged through to the other side.

Back on semisolid ground, Cadeon shook his hair out like a beast. “I can't fuckin' believe we just made that!”

*   *   *

Holly dragged her soaked hair from her eyes, then swiped the end of the shirtsleeve over her wet face, clearing the spattering of blood from earlier.

He grinned at her. She gaped at him.

Headlights on their trail again. Those vampires were dogged. They must think that the demons had already had their way with her. They couldn't risk that all good or all evil would be in the form of a demon. “Bugger me.”

She shrieked again.

“The language? Is that it? 'Cause—”

Like a shot, Holly launched herself into his lap, whimpering.

He swallowed, intensely aware that she had her knees spread over his groin and wore nothing under the shirt. At any other time, he'd be loving their position, might have manufactured a scenario to get her just like this. But he could barely see around her bobbing head.

“It's only crayfish!”

“N-no, not only—”

The truck dived sharply into a gulch before rearing up. Then down into another and another. Cade grabbed for her waist; she listed to the side. “Watch your knee with the goolies, pet—”

He'd cupped her between her thighs.

As he felt her soft flesh, giving and hot again his palm, he growled low. The engine was clamoring, the truck
bouncing, and they still met eyes. Hers grew wide as she shoved his hand away. But she still didn't get off him. “Not only crayfish!” she cried.

“Then what is it?” he snapped.

“Th-that!” She pointed down to the sloshing pool of water covering the floorboard.

A small water moccasin was along for the ride, swimming dazedly among the crushed Red Bull cans, looking as freaked out as she was.

Cade dared a quick snatch for it, but it slithered under the seat. He'd never thought he'd say this, but . . . “Off me, Holly. Back to your seat. Just keep your legs up.”

She shook her head. “Not until it's gone!”

“Then you're going to have to drive.”

“Okay,” she said shakily, taking the wheel as he edged under her.

His hand shot under the bench. “Come here, you little fuck.”

“Cadeon!”

“Ah, come on, halfling!”

The truck began to slow. He jerked upright, facing backward, and was blinded by the nearing headlights. “What in the bloody hell are you doing?” he barked at her.

“Something moved in the water down there!”

“Holly, you slam that pedal down or you die! Clear?”

With a visible shudder, she stretched her leg far down, barely reaching the pedal, tamping it down with her toes. Each time she was jounced in the seat, the gas let off, but she doggedly kept at that pedal.

He snared the moccasin. Knowing that his female would have to see it to believe it, Cade held up the snake as it merrily envenomated him. “Here, look. Visual confirmation.”
He tossed it out the window hole. “Now, move your little ass over here, and let's lose these miserable pricks, yeah?”

“Yeah?”

When she shimmied over his lap, he resisted the urge to plant her there, then took the wheel. As they crested a small rise and started back down, he spied another washout. He sped up, yanking her into his side. “Hold on to me.”

She wrapped her slim arms around his torso, burying her face against him. Tension shot through him, desire for her eating at him, even now.

He was holding her.
Forty miles per hour
. His female.
Forty-five
. He tightened his arm around her as the frame of the truck vibrated, sounding like rocks rattling in a tin can multiplied by a thousand.

The truck hit the washout at nearly fifty miles per hour, plowing through the water. Midway through, the engine strained, sputtering.
Water in the exhaust
. He floored the gas.

“Come on, baby,” he muttered. He smelled incongruous smoke. Churning, churning, and then . . .

The old girl surged out the other side. When he glanced back and saw the trailing SUV bottom out, he couldn't resist a pat on the cracked dashboard.

“We lost them. Truck's not so bad, then, is it?” he said. “Holly?” He frowned down at her in confusion. She was still holding his torso like he was a tree in a storm. As if she needed him for comfort.

Cade couldn't remember the last time anything had felt a fraction so good.