Embrace Me At Dawn (25 page)

“
What the fuck?” Shock shouted. “Anka!”

Lucan shouldered his way through the door and lunged for her, sliding his arm around her shoulders protectively. “I won’t let him hurt you.”

She looked up into his resolute blue eyes, sending him an almost apologetic glance. “He won’t.”

“
Get your fucking arse over here right now,” Shock demanded.

“
Don’t listen to him,” Lucan urged.

But she didn’t really have a choice. Because Shock had protected her when Lucan couldn’t. Because they’d long been friends. Because Bram had insisted that she remain with Shock and take her energy from him. Because she owed him her life.

“
I must,” she said softly. “I’m sorry.”

Lucan clutched her tightly. “No. Damn it, Anka. Come home with me. You don’t need him. I’ll take care of you.”

God, how sweet but naive of him to think they could make love once and resume any semblance of their past relationship. That’s what he wanted; it was all visible in his searching gaze. If he only knew… But she didn’t have the courage to tell him all her dirty little secrets and drive him away for good. She ached to cling to the fantasy that he could still love her forever.

“
Lucan...” She caressed his stunned face with her apologetic gaze, wishing so badly that he could understand, yet knowing that he never would, before she slipped out of his embrace.

“
Anka!”

The yearning in his voice hurt her, but she steeled her backbone and made her way to Shock.

He stood on the lawn, all leather and badness, fists on his hips, drilling holes into her psyche. His probe into her head was neither painless nor subtle. Anka allowed him in, endured his thrashing through her memories. He quickly found what he sought and replayed her encounter with Lucan this morning. Teeth clenched and lips a thin line of displeasure, he closed the distance between them and grabbed her arm.

“
You let him fuck you.”

Maybe she could have argued that the sex hadn’t been premeditated or that he’d simply caught her in a weak moment. She might even have convinced Shock that she’d been running low on energy and needed more in order to continue training. In the end, she gave him her thoughts. She refused to lie to him.

“
Yes. As you can see.” She raised her eyes up to the signature surrounding her, blaring Lucan’s bright colors in his face.

“
You want to explain?” he growled.

The others were watching now, stopped dead and staring at the scene unfolding on the lawn. She could feel their gazes stuck in her back like little blades, none sharper than Lucan’s. “Not really. And definitely not now. There’s an emergency.”

“
This is pretty fucking important, wouldn’t you say?” Shock dragged her against him, then winced. “Bloody hell, you still smell like him!”

A growl resounded behind her, and she didn’t have to turn around to know Lucan charged toward her, trying to rescue her from the big bad Shock. Instead, she pulled her arm from his grasp, refusing to be in either man’s clutch. Revenge came first.

“
We’ll talk later.”

She turned and stepped into Lucan’s path as he bore down on Shock, looking ready to tear the leather-clad wizard limb from limb. She planted her hands on his chest and shoved him back with a push. “This isn’t important now.”

“
The hell it isn’t.” The anger that rolled over Lucan was palpable, so thick it was nearly tangible. His nostrils flared and his brows thundered down into a dark vee as he looked over her shoulder, directly into Shock’s face.

She could almost feel his smile mocking Lucan and wanted to slap sense into both of them. “Bram declared an emergency. We can’t afford this petty fighting amongst ourselves. Neither of you have ever been jealous of the time you spent with another warrior training.”

Shock opened his mouth to protest, and she knew what he meant to say, that she and Lucan hadn’t exactly been working on the rigors of sword play unless his “sword” inside her counted. She snapped her fingers, unwilling to let a single syllable about that fall out of his mouth.

“
Shut it. Later. It was a mistake. It won’t happen again.”

“
The bloody hell it won’t!” Lucan shouted and tried to charge past her to attack Shock.

She threw up a force field between the two of them, thanking her lucky stars that Felicia must not be near. This was one trick she’d forced herself to learn and learn well after her abduction. She put it to good use now. Because energy brimmed through her, she could keep it up, concrete thick and impenetrable for hours upon hours. It might take that long for either of them to see reason. She sighed impatiently.

“
Stop it now, both of you! Bram brought us here to deal with a problem, not for you to tear one another’s heads off because…why, Shock? I generated energy with someone else?”

“
It was far more than that, damn it,” Lucan insisted.

Yes, it had been. And the moment the thought crossed her mind, Anka felt Shock’s formidable magic ripping at her shields. Wincing, focusing to hold it together, she did her utmost to keep Shock and Lucan apart. Her mind whirled, trying to find a peaceful end to this dilemma.

“
Stop being wankers,” Bram barked from the manor’s front door. “Inside. Now!”

Lucan and Shock continued to stare at one another as if murder was in their near future. Bram’s directive didn’t faze either in the least.

“
Morganna is attacking an SUV full of humans at Hadrian’s Wall.”

Neither wizard backed down an inch. Bram cursed and made his way onto the lawn.

“
So unless you want all those humans to die and for the event to be plastered all over the telly and the rags again, you two need to stop arguing over the pretty witch and fight the bad one.”

Shock twitched. Lucan pressed some of the tension out of his shoulders. Still, neither backed down.

Anka frowned, pain streaking between her temples. Holding up the force field between these two brutes was sapping her strength and making her head ache. She closed her eyes, brow furrowing, and tried to focus on keeping the wall in place. If she didn’t…well, each had threatened to kill the other. She believed they meant it.

“
What the hell is the matter with you two?” Bram shouted. “You’re hurting her!”

Both their stares latched onto her. Lucan’s gaze seared her face as she felt the blood leaving it. Shock shoved his way into her head, thrashing around.

Almost at once, they both backed away. Shock’s fingers curled into fists. Lucan’s chest heaved, his face contorting with rage. But they held themselves back. For her. She might not deserve their consideration, but at the end of the day, she was grateful for it.

Tentatively, she began to drop her shields. Neither charged past them, as she had feared. They simply stared, both willing her to sidle closer, choose one over the other. They behaved like bloody children with a favored toy.

Shock growled at the thought, and she resolutely ignored him, turning away from both of them and marching toward Bram. One by one, everyone filed into the house, into Bram’s office, where he paced restlessly. Mason stood in the corner with Duke, both on mobile phones wearing strikingly similar frowns.

“
For the past half an hour, Morganna has been holding hostages. The news outlets are racing furiously to the scene. We need to reach Morganna before they do, save the humans, and do it quietly. She’s likely looking for Merlin’s potion, scouring landmarks old enough to contain a vial my grandfather would have hid over a millennium ago. When Stonehenge didn’t pan out…I suppose she thought to try this next. I’ve no idea how we approach her without dying. Ideas?”

Duke snapped his mobile shut. “She’s already killed one man. Time is of the essence. The minute the BBC arrives, this goes beyond our ability to control it.”

The tension sucked the air out of the room instantly. Everyone looked around for a too-silent moment. Bram broke it by tapping his fingers on his desk.

“
Marrok, do you still have the weakening bracelet Merlin made for Morganna? The one with the amethysts I gave you when you were convinced that Olivia was Morganna reincarnated?”

The big warrior shook his head with a silent apology. “’Twas destroyed along with my little cottage. We’ve since searched the rubble and found naught. Sorry.”

Bram nodded, a gesture of acceptance. But no one thought for a moment that he was happy about it. “Duke, did you discover anything useful when you and Felicia went back to the cave Morganna had been imprisoned in?”

“
Nothing, unless you count a knee-deep layer of rocks and dust. Anything that had been in there was likely forever crushed when the ceiling caved in.”

Bram bit back a curse. “And no sign of the Doomsday Diary. Damn.”

Duke shook his head. “None.”

Anka listened with sinking dread.

“
Bloody hell. So we have to confront her without having any means to slow her down or placate her?”

“
It looks that way,” Lucan piped up suddenly. “I think you should stay behind.”

Instantly, Bram shook his head. “We’ll need every warrior we’ve got to handle her.”

“
She’s out for your blood,” Lucan reminded him.

“
Exactly. If she’ll trade me for the tourists, maybe we’ll get somewhere.”

“
Why hold the tourists hostage at all? None of them can possibly know where Merlin would have hidden her killing potion,” Anka pointed out.

“
Good question.” Bram frowned, looking for an answer, then turned to Duke and Mason. “Has she made any demands that you’re aware of?”

The brothers looked at one another, reluctance all over their faces. Finally, Duke sighed. “Sabelle or you.”

“
Bram,” Ice growled from across the room.

“
Agreed. My sister stays far away from this bitch. In fact, where is she now?”

“
With all the wives, including Felicia, at our caves,” Ice answered.

“
Sabelle and Tabitha are trying to relax Felicia enough to allow them to use magic in her presence. They’ve been working on the exercise for a week now. They’re making progress. But I won’t send any of them there to face Morganna, even my Fe,” Duke murmured.

“
They’re safe in Swansea,” Ice reassured everyone especially himself. “Even if Morganna plotted to nab the women, Felicia will stop the ancient bitch from getting anywhere close.”

Anka didn’t ask aloud if it was possible that Morganna’s magic could cancel out an Untouchable’s dampening abilities. Likely not, and no sense in worrying every warrior here about the safety of his mate. Morganna had her human hostages. That would occupy her for a bit, surely.

“
I agree with Lucan, Bram,” Anka spoke up. “I think you should stay here. In fact, I think all of you should stay here and let me go instead.”

Every male head in the room turned to her as if she’d grown a set of horns and suddenly sported a third eye.

“
No!” Lucan and Shock barked in tandem.

Bram wasn’t any less subtle. “Have you gone mad? When you don’t have the information Morganna wants, she’ll only grow impatient and kill you.”

Though the lot of them was generally brilliant, they were still male and could be a bit thick at times. “But I’m female. We’re all familiar with her well-documented distrust of men. She might not like that I can’t help her right away, but I can pretend to befriend her. I can promise her that I’ll help trap you, Bram. I can win her trust long enough to release the hostages. Because, let’s be realistic, we’re not going to capture her without a plan. We’re not going to entrap or keep her until we know her weaknesses. We’re not going to kill her without that potion. Your time would all be better spent finding the location of that elixir. If I can placate her for now…” Anka shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I?”