Eternal Embrace (17 page)

Joey tilted her head, then with a big grin, she stepped back and the pipe from the warehouse appeared in her hands.

“Damn, you’re getting good at that, I might have to watch my stash of Bailey’s, huh?”

At the mention of her favourite drink, she leant forward and kissed him. “You better watch a lot more than that, babe.”

He shut down the instant need for her for the more pressing desire to get her out of the tunnels. “Joey, you can get this lock off, like you removed my chains. Think on it,” he added when she blinked and a blush stole over her cheeks. “It’s all new to you, but try. If you can’t, I’ll use the pipe while you call something to change into. The skirt is hot, but those heels need to go if we’re running.”

She smacked her forehead and winced, so damn cute he ached.

“I keep forgetting—”

“Don’t apologise, just try, for me,” he urged her.

Victor yipped softly and Joey smiled. “For all of us, huh?” She grew quiet immediately after the smart remark and seconds later the lock clinked open.

“Damn, that’s good,” he told her. He jerked at the door, but the hinges didn’t move. “Rusted shut,” he grumbled at her look of concern.

“You mean I opened it for no reason?”

“Practice. Now change those clothes while I use your pipe, okay? Boots, jeans, top, jacket too. You should grab a hat or hoodie in case it rains. Something to protect you in case we need it.”

He tried to use his own abilities but they were sluggish, as if the blow to the head still scattered his senses. He worried it was a bit more than that, but took the pipe from Joey and started to use it to pry the ancient metal gate open. He kept his thoughts to himself. Joey only sent him the urgency to get out of here. She didn’t need to worry about his doubts. The chains they’d used took time to shake off. That might be what was wrong. The lingering of those spells might still be weaving their nastiness too.

“How long will you be unable to shift, Jaxon?”

He knew she wasn’t in his mind, so he shot her a grin.

“Shit you’re too smart sometimes,” he grumbled, then shoved at the gate until with a loud screech of metal on rock two bars broke. “That’s it,” he panted. “Get your asses out there.”

Joey slapped him on the ass, then traced her fingertips along his spine. His body, already tuned up for her, shifted into high gear.

“Shit, don’t do that. We get free, then we can see whose ass needs paddling.”

She laughed and brushed a kiss over his jaw, but ducked through the bars, dressed in a black hoodie, black skin-tight jeans and black boots. Viktor followed her and Jaxon was a second behind. As soon as he straightened, Joey took her pipe from him and he took his sword from her.

“Head off after Viktor, baby.”

“Here, wait,” she murmured with a small frown. A second later one of his shirts appeared in her hands. “You need this, I think, although you look pretty hot,” she said, handing him a long-sleeved T-shirt and one of his hooded sweatshirts.

He took the time to kiss her firmly, before he pulled the clothes on. “We need to get out of here. There will still be spells guarding the place, so listen to me, your instincts, and follow the wolf.”

“I will,” she said, sounding so calm and trusting he wanted to kiss her again.

His instincts shouted that this wasn’t over. Not even close. He grabbed her hand and they raced off after the wolf, through another crumbling archway. He caught a glimpse of the starry sky and cursed. They were in Russia. Or near enough. Shit, that did
not
make their situation any better. The ruins around him appeared ancient. If he had to guess, humans had deserted this place long ago. But he feared it wasn’t empty any longer. There was no way Gerald had captured them only to leave them here alone. Besides the obvious men chasing them, there had to be more to this place.

Viktor took a left ahead of them, running under a low open-air building lined with ancient trees. From the distance, he could still hear the alarms and closer, he suddenly heard the sound of men shouting.

Joey shot him a fearful look.

“Just stay close and use that pipe. Shift if they try to grab you, even if it’s only a foot away.” He’d never tell her to leave him again. She’d nearly bitten his head off the last time. He’d never leave her again either. “Stay close to me, do you hear?”

She nodded, not slowing her fast run. The wolf suddenly skidded to a halt ahead of them, growling low in its throat, and launched into the air, tackling a red-bearded man to the ground before the guy had even fully come into view around the corner. Two more men burst through arches on the opposite side of the crumbling ruins, shouting a warning over their shoulders to more men, he presumed.

“Shit, just stay safe,” he growled to Joey, and shoved her behind him, scanning the area quickly. “There, go up there and if any of these assholes get close, bash their heads in,” he said, lifting her easily to the high arch between two griffin statutes.

“Right, and don’t get hurt again,” she said fiercely. Her hazel eyes burnt into his for a space of a few heartbeats. With his throat tight, he turned away from her and met the men with a quick, deadly offence. There wasn’t time for this—he knew it, felt it in his bones. The longer this took, the more of a chance they’d be back in those cells. There was no chance he’d let that happen.

He cut one man’s leg out from under him with a downward slash of his broadsword, switched hands, decked the other man in the chin and brought his sword around to cut into his torso.

The man fighting off the wolf screamed gutturally until with an audible snap of bones his neck broke under the pressure. Another man entered the little area and immediately backed away, but he lifted his hands and a green haze blurred him from head to toe.

Shit. Magic
.

The burnt brimstone and evil smell of death clung to the guy. Before Jax could manoeuvre to him, the mage shot out a bolt of red at Joey. Heart in his throat, Jax turned with a yell, but Joey deflected the shot with her pipe and shifted to his side with a stumble and cry.

The return shot didn’t hit the mage, but both he and the mage froze, staring at Joey for a few seconds.

“What? What was I supposed to do?”

The wolf snarled and saved his life by giving him enough warning to duck and spin to face a tall, dark haired man. Jaxon grabbed a handful of dirt, threw it at the mage’s eyes and drove his shoulder into his stomach followed by a quick vicious punch to the mage’s nose. As soon as he backpedalled with a muttered oath, Jaxon hauled him close and bit into his neck, draining him to a dangerous degree, then dropped his unconscious body with a growl.

“Shit tastes like garbage.”

“Oh!” Joey stared over at him with a shocked look, but wiped his mouth with her sleeve. “I can’t believe you just did that! He could have killed you,” she spluttered.

He didn’t bother telling her the same. He grabbed her hand and started running again. The blood worked to ease some of the residue left by the magic, but he still couldn’t shift them out of here. Viktor broke out into an open area again, but dived past an archway between two long, tall shrubs. Immediately, the hedges on each side surrounded them, and ahead he spotted more.

“Wait, wait.” He stumbled to a slow lope. “This is a labyrinth. Are you sure you know the way through this?” he demanded.

Viktor snorted as if he’d lost his mind to question him.

“Fuck that, are you
certain?
Because…” He broke off at the sound of running feet. He glanced at Joey’s expectant face. She watched him with complete trust. Shit killed him. He turned back to the wolf. “All right, but if you fuck this up, I’m going to leave that collar on.”

The wolf sneezed.

“Jaxon,” Joey laughed. “Stop threatening him. He’s helping, right?”

The wolf grinned.

“Sure thing.” He drew his finger across his throat at the smartass wolf when Joey turned to look behind them. “Let’s go then.”

Viktor took off. Jaxon urged Joey ahead of him, watching as the wolf took several rights before slowing at a fountain to sniff around the ancient carving, then loped off down another right again.

So far, Jax figured they’d been free for twenty minutes. Gerald had to know where they were, yet he’d sent his men and not shown up. It made no sense.

The maze had to be a trap, but the farther they got into it, the faster the wolf ran until Jax was side by side with Joey, tugging her along the twisting path after Viktor.

Joey stumbled next to him, and caught his arm to stop from falling. She barely missed a step. He considered tossing her over his shoulder, but one look at her determined face and he ditched that idea. She wanted to do this and, so far, she’d been one hell of a teammate.

“You’re doing great, Joey. We’re somewhere in Russia,” he told her.

She gave him a shocked look, then glanced around the maze. “How can you tell that?”

“The stars. Always know where you are, darlin’. When we get out of this—”

The wolf yelped ahead of them and Jax dropped Joey’s hand to get in front of her. No one stood in the maze, but Viktor limped over to him, licking at his front leg. Along the ground, Jax spotted a wire, blood red now where Viktor had hit it and sliced his leg.

“Trip wire,” he muttered, squatting to see the line better. Viktor stalked up next to him, nosed the line and growled deep in his chest. “Not good, but I don’t think you tripped it. Any other way out?”

Viktor studied the path, then sniffed over to the side and started digging in the grassy turf under the shrubs to his left. His front paws ripped the turf, throwing bits of grass and dirt behind him as he kept at it.

“What is he doing?” Joey asked, breathless and beautiful at his side.

“I have no idea. The Lykae mind is odd.”

The wolf snorted but didn’t stop digging. Suddenly he heard the wolf’s paws hit something other than soft dirt. Viktor stopped and stepped back. Jaxon hunkered down, with Joey peering over his shoulder. He brushed dirt aside to reveal what looked like a square wooden door of some kind.

“A trap door?”

Viktor snorted, and nudged him with his wolf head.

“Even if we manage to get in that hole, it probably ends back where we started,” he grumbled.

Joey rested her chin on his shoulder. “Well, what else can we do?”

“A hell of a lot. This might lead anywhere, wolf. What the fuck do you want us to do with this?”

“Jaxon, could you please stop harassing him? We should try to get the collar off, huh?”

She moved closer to Viktor, but from the distance, they heard a shout and the thud of running feet and she froze.

“Right. Here, let me see the collar,” Jaxon ordered, leaning closer. “It looks solid. Like a solid piece of wire, not really a collar at all, but thin, hidden really in all that fur, man.” Viktor snorted again, but let him trace the metal and tug on it, trying to break it.

“You can’t break it off him, Jaxon? Can I try to remove it?”

He shook his head. “I can’t get it off, and you’d better not try.”

Joey moved closer, examining Viktor’s neck closely. “It looks like silver, but silver’s not that sharp,” she said, twisting it out of the way to reveal the way it’d cut into Viktor’s neck. “It’s even sliced his neck, maybe from him trying to get it off?”

“Maybe,” he murmured. “Look, is this way safe? Are you certain? Once we go down there, how the hell do we know it won’t take us right back to them?”

Viktor pulled away, bit into the hedge, and ripped off pieces of shrubbery. He clawed and bit until with an excited cry, Joey helped him.

“He wants us to disguise which way we went. We can cover this with the branches and hope…”

“Hope they are fooled by a hole dug in the middle of the shrubs?”

Both of them stopped to give him almost identical ‘what the fuck’ stares.

“Shit, okay, we’ll try this,” he grumbled, pushing Joey aside and motioning with his hand for the wolf to back off. He sliced big chunks through the hedge, making a four foot opening.

“All right, now, the false trail is laid.” He motioned to the trap door and cut more of the lower branches of the shrub above it so he could lift the lid. “I’ll go first and you, Mr Mangy, are at the rear this time.”

Joey snorted at the same time as Viktor, but Jaxon ignored how cute she was, and bent to lift the rusty metal ring at the centre of the trapdoor. Pulling, he tested the weight. The thing was solid. “Stand back,” he ordered and waited until Joey’s tiny boots backed off before he raised the lid an inch. A harsh choking smell rose from the hole.

“Damn,” Jax muttered, lifting the lid higher and trying not to breathe. The smell faded after that first blast and carefully, he dropped the lid on the grass. “Okay, when I say so, Joey, you sit on the rim, and I’ll catch you.”

Joey nodded. He scanned the area once more, then just when he would have signalled them to move, he heard the thud of boots on the grass. Not growing closer, but not leaving off either.

Taking a deep breath, he jumped inside, landing only a few feet down on soft, solid dirt. He spotted nothing around him besides the narrow walls of an underground tunnel system. Clean for the most part, but ancient and better, unused. He stepped carefully to the side nearest him then back, examining the prints he left behind. Satisfied, he turned and called to Joey.

“Now, baby, sit on the edge and—” A muffled thump sounded from above him and the wolf snarled, disappearing from view. “What was that?”

“Nothing, nothing, come on,” Joey urged, sitting on the edge and practically jumping into his arms.

Viktor jumped in seconds after her. Jax lifted himself back up, spread the destroyed shrub around their footprints, and dragged the lid over them, keeping his hands out to cover it as much as possible with the shrubbery. Satisfied he’d done all he could, he let the lid fall with a dull thud over their heads.

As soon as he did, blood hit his senses.

Not any blood either.
Joey’s.

Chapter Fourteen

Jaxon spun Joey around and planted himself right in her face so fast, the air left her on a whoosh. Viktor snarled, but eased off almost immediately. She didn’t. Neither did Jaxon.