Hacked (Warriors of Light Book 5) (3 page)

Other doors opened, and the car shifted as more people climbed in. “Quit squirming around,” Demaratus ordered, his voice deep. He was next to her. “Why are you panting like that?” he asked, sounding vaguely confused.

“I’m claustrophobic and afraid of the dark.” No lies. Just brutal truth. “You know that, though.” He had seen her through so many dark times, well, the dream him, at least. “I don’t like this. Please, just take the bag off my head? I feel like I can’t breathe.”

“Lady, I have no idea who you are beyond the name the Marines gave us about fifteen minutes before they rang your doorbell.” Still, he rolled the bag up in a way that let some light in and allowed her to breathe easily, but she still couldn’t see where she was going. And they were moving, she realized suddenly. “Don’t attempt to throw the hood off, or I’ll put you on the floor and hold you there.”

Holly was confused, something she rarely was. She had dreamed of this man. She even knew his name. Sure, in her dreams he had been from ancient times, so that couldn’t possibly be
this
man, but somehow she knew he was. She knew that this was the man who had kept her company when she was a child, knew that he was the one who’d kept her sane when she had ventured into electronics. This man was the one that had her pulling back and into herself, but he didn’t know her. She didn’t move. She didn’t do anything but gulp greedily at the cool air around her.

“Slow your breathing. There’s no reason to suck it in like it’s going out of style,” he said beside her.

“Five minutes,” someone up front announced.

A couple warm fingers pressed to her throat, over her racing pulse point. “You’re going to hyperventilate if you don’t calm.” The large, rough hand moved to the back of her neck, where he squeezed the muscles for a time before releasing. He massaged the area slowly.

She closed her eyes and let her head fall forward. He’d done this when she had been freaking out as a child, too, in her dreams. “I’m trying to calm down, but you try having a gun pressed to your head and a bunch of oversized GI Joes pulling you out of your home, and then we’ll talk about not freaking out. How do I know you aren’t taking me somewhere to kill me?”

“If we wanted you dead, we wouldn’t have used the hood to obscure your view of the destination.” His thumb and fingers were working up and down the length of her neck, along her spine.

They took a turn a little too hard and she felt herself falling toward him. But his grip kept her more or less upright. Then they came to a sharp stop. His hand dropped away as doors were opened, then slammed shut. Hers opened a moment later. The seat belt was removed, and a big hand on her arm guided her out to the ground.

“Thank you, Demaratus.” Holly spoke his name even though no one had said it aloud. She simply knew it. She stood still and took a deep breath. “Okay, where are we going? I really suck at walking on good days, so having a hood on my head is only a disaster waiting to happen.” She heard a snicker and shrugged. “I can’t help it. I’m a bit of a klutz, and I embrace it.”

“You won’t fall. Walk,” Demaratus told her. He didn’t acknowledge the use of his name. He lifted his hand up higher on her arm and led her along at a slow pace. She knew he was making sure that he could catch her if she stumbled. There was asphalt under her, but even a smooth surface wouldn’t stop her from taking a tumble if her feet had other plans.

She was walking along at his side, and that’s when it happened. Perfectly straight asphalt was nothing compared to her clumsiness. She tripped and would have fallen if he hadn’t wrapped his arms around her and caught her. Where her shoulder hit, she sensed heat before she was hauled back upright. “Sorry. I told you that I wasn’t exactly the most graceful person. Give me a computer and I’m a goddess, but make me walk, and I suck.”

He put his arm around her and scooped her up. Carrying her, he moved at a quicker pace, bouncing her a little with each stride. He only slowed when he seemed to be climbing up something. Then she was in another seat, with another seat belt put around her waist, and what seemed like headphones dropped over her ears.

“Oh now, this isn’t fair,” she grumbled. She felt someone sitting at her side. It wasn’t Demaratus. She pushed the sudden hurt away. These men were essentially kidnapping her, so why would she care about them? “So, tell me, boys, is this something you do often?” She couldn’t hear them, but they could hear her, and she was going to make sure that they knew she was still there by talking. A lot.

Whatever she was sitting in began to vibrate. The person at her side suddenly left his seat, and someone else settled next to her. Wider than the last one and warm. Demaratus, she was sure.

“Do what?” came through the headphones to her.

“Kidnap women. Are we in a helicopter? If so, keep the bag on my head. I’m afraid of heights, too.” She had a list a mile long of the things that scared her.

“We’ve never kidnapped anyone before.” This time it was Demaratus’s voice in her ears. “As they say, there’s a first time for everything. And yes, we are in a helicopter. If you need anything to drink, let us know, but be aware there are no facilities on this thing, so we’d have to open a door, hold you out there, and let you do whatever was needed that way.”

“Oh now, that is just so totally gross.” She frowned and laughed at the same time. “You guys are seriously not funny. Nothing to drink. Just knowing that I’m in the air is enough to wig me out, thank you very much. Thanks anyway, DC.” Another moniker she had given the man who looked like him in her dreams. Demaratus Corinth was how he had introduced himself. The motion of the helicopter made her briefly sway toward Demaratus.
There’s that heat again. Strange.

“You will explain how you think you know me later,” he said quietly. “For now, it might be best if you closed your eyes and tried to sleep. We’ll be in the air for a while, without anything to do up here.”

“Jesus, you did that in my dreams, too. You’re a bossy bit of goods,” she grumbled. Oddly enough, she did find herself yawning. The warmth from the massive man at her side had her calming, even while the more logical part of her railed against it. He felt so right. She had grown up with this man in her dreams. She had lived with this man giving her his faith and his support, and even now she felt herself giving in to the comfort that he offered.

He cut the restraints loose from her wrists. “Since I know you won’t be going anywhere given our current location, those are not required.”

She moved her hands so that she could rub at the skin. “I always talk. I’m a talker, and when I’m not talking, I’m coding, and when I’m not coding, I’m talking to all things electronic. It’s just who I am.”

“I’m beginning to see that. I should have brought a gag.” He spoke in a tone she thought might have been teasing. “Sleep, Ms. Smith. We have a few hours ahead of us.”

Chapter Two

When Holly woke up next, she felt like she was floating. She was so warm and held close to a tightly muscled body. One of her arms was looped around a neck, she realized at the same moment she clued in to the fact that she was being carried.

“About time you woke up,” a low rumble told her.

When she blinked her eyes open, she was inside of a hallway that reminded her of a high-end hotel. The fact that she wasn’t wearing the hood any longer clicked a few seconds later in her sluggish mind.

“Hey, you.” She snuggled in closer to Demaratus. This was a dream. That’s what it had to be. “I don’t think that I’m ready to wake up yet, DC. I like being in your arms too much.” She yawned. “Three years, two months, and seven days, that’s how long it’s been since I saw you last. Where have you been?”

“Ms. Smith, this is not a dream. You are awake, mostly anyway, at the moment. We are at the base, where you will be questioned. Depending on your answers, you will either get a pass or fail. Be very careful with my boss. He doesn’t like humor, or smartasses, either.”

Why couldn’t the dream Demaratus be the one that she was waking to? The one from her dreams comforted her. He kept her safe and he cared for her and didn’t question her every motive and move. “Sounds like a very dull boy.” Holly smirked. “Humor is good for the blood, keeps it pumping or something like that.” She was scared shitless and her way of dealing with that was by talking. “And I’ve never been good with tests.”

He gave a hum of sound as he continued to stride along the really long hallway. When they reached an intersection, he swung left and headed down a few doors. Finally, he stopped, let her legs drop, and unlocked one using a code she couldn’t see, since he’d moved to keep her view blocked. It didn’t even have sound, so she couldn’t figure it out that way. Pushing the door open, he waved her in, reaching past her to turn the lights on inside what appeared to be a very comfortable and homey apartment or condo.

“This is nice,” she said as she looked around. She walked away from Demaratus to stand before a painting of an ancient Grecian vista. “I’ve dreamed of this place. Tall grasses surrounded it, trees, and the sounds of quiet. I know, odd, but I swear that the quiet there had a sound. How is that?”

“Nothing out in nature is ever truly quiet.” He moved past her up a short hallway and pushed another door open at the end. “This way,” he called to her.

She moved with him, studying things as they walked along. “Where are we, anyway? Who is your boss? This definitely isn’t military. It’s more homey than that. Wait, shit, I didn’t accidentally hack the mob, did I?”

“We’re in my suite of rooms. This is the bedroom. The bathroom is through there, if you were interested in cleaning up. My boss is in a meeting right now but will let me know when he’s free. You probably have about ten minutes.”

“Oh God, I did hack the mob, didn’t I? I really don’t remember doing that.” She was in so much trouble right now. If she had been able to get into one of the
family’s
systems, then she would never again see the light of day.
Crap.

“We’re not the mob.” Rolling his eyes, Demaratus muttered under his breath in that same language he’d used with the blond guy at her place. Ushering her into the bathroom, he showed her where the towels were and a new toothbrush if she felt like cleaning her teeth. Stepping out, he pulled the door mostly closed. “We’re much worse than the mob ever could be,” he added.

“Oh great, you even have the freaking accent,” she grumbled. “Seriously, I haven’t done anything really too bad.” Okay, so she might have put out some crooked companies’ information for the police to find, but she really hoped that wasn’t what this was about.

He was waiting for her in the bedroom when she finally exited. Feet apart, hands behind his back, he was staring right at her. “Feeling better now?” he asked.

“I would feel even better if I knew that I would get out of this alive.” She walked toward him and reached out tentatively so she could touch him. “I feel like I’ve done this before. How do I know your name? I know that I do. You are Demaratus. I’ve dreamed of you for years. Why? You have to know, because I’m clueless on this right now.”

His gaze dropped to where her hand rested on his chest, and he shook his head. “Until this morning, I’ve never seen you before. You seem to know me, but I’m sorry to say that I know absolutely nothing about you.”

“Oh.” She moved back a step, allowing her arm to drop. Holly shoved her hands into her pockets and walked back to the painting on the wall. She forced down the hurt that she was feeling. She had no reason to feel hurt. It was silly, in fact. Instead, she needed to concern herself with getting out of there and going home. Where she would be alone again.
Right, that holds so much appeal to it. Not.

She felt him at her back a moment later, the heat of him along her spine. “You seem upset by that. Why?” he asked her in a curious tone.

“Because I’m a stupid, stupid woman,” she admitted and closed her eyes again. “Ignore me. This hasn’t been the best day.” She sighed. “Being taken from my home at gunpoint isn’t exactly what I call stellar.”

“You were over my shoulder, not at gunpoint. Though the bit about it not being a good day, I won’t argue with. Definitely not how I’d originally planned to spend it.”

“Yeah? What did you have planned?” she asked. It was the craziest thing, the way that he calmed and relaxed her. It was almost like the man had an inside track into her mind. “My day was going to be like any other. I would do what I needed to do for my job, which happens to be finding the flaws in large corporations’ firewalls, and then I was going to work on my latest project. Some unknown author has stuff together for an awesome series of books.” She frowned, turning to look up at him. “Although I haven’t finished all of the books yet.”

“They were not files for an author or a book. You shouldn’t have posted the site, either. We’ve taken it down temporarily, until we can find a way to disable it permanently and wipe all the information you put up on the Net.”

“What do you mean it wasn’t an author’s research? Was it for someone’s thesis paper, maybe? And how could you have taken my site down?” Then again, the alarms had started to ping, which was what she had been about to look into when the Marines had rung her bell.

“It wasn’t for any paper, book, or article. It was never supposed to see the light of day, until someone decided to stick her nose where it didn’t belong and appropriate it. The information in the files is top secret, classified, and cannot ever be viewed outside of this base. One of the Marines is relatively knowledgeable about computers and introduced a virus, I think he said, to the site. It’s down until the Web administrator can attend to it.”

A classical piece of music began to play. Digging into his pocket, Demaratus pulled out his cell and, with a glance to the screen, put it to his ear. “Yes? On our way.” He hung up. “He’s ready to see you now.”

“Damn, that means I’ll be sleeping with the fishes tonight.” She wrapped her arms around her body once more. All of this over manuscripts that she had found online. She couldn’t seem to reconcile why in the world someone’s novels would get her in so much trouble with the United States Marines and these men that seemed to operate as some branch of the government. The worst part was the fact that not only was her dream man real, he hated her. Taking a deep breath, she nodded and stepped even farther away from Demaratus. “Okay, take me to your leader.” She couldn’t believe she had said that and not giggled.

He lifted a brow at her words and shook his head. Putting his hand on her arm, he guided her out of the rooms and back into the hallway. He led her through the place, up an elevator, then down another long hall. Knocking on a door, he pushed it open when a gruff voice called out to them. Demaratus steered her into an office, where an even larger man stood next to a desk and stared at her without any expression.

“Oh crap,” she whispered as she gazed at the huge man. “I’m so dead.” She had known that this day would come. She knew one day she would hack someone’s system and they would find out, but she hadn’t expected to be so young when she died. “Hello,” Holly said with a small wave of her hand. “I don’t like to swim, so I would really rather not sleep with the fishes, please.”

“What the fuck is she talking about?” The big guy turned his death-infused stare to Demaratus.

“She can’t get it out of her head that we’re a mob family. Concrete shoes, swimming with the fishes—you likely remember that from that one movie the cowboy made us watch.”

“Right, of course.” Shaking his head, he pointed at a chair. Holly took it to mean she didn’t have an option about sitting her ass down. He moved behind his desk and sat, while Demaratus settled in at her side and kicked his long legs out in a relaxed pose.

“Well, come on, who else would have the hoorah to have Marines at their disposal as well as a helicopter? Other than the government, that is. And none of you strike me as any of those lying asshats.” She rolled her eyes. “You should see some of their e-mails and black-budget shit. I mean, seriously crooked. Like, there’s this one fund that’s hidden like whoa, deep,
huge
deep, and it has billions funneled into it.”

The big guy looked slightly confused. “Does she always talk this much?”

“Apparently,” Demaratus said. “She’s also nervous, given the fact she’s convinced we’re going to whack her and dump her lifeless body into the ocean.”

Not exactly how Holly would have put it, but close enough. Forcing her mind back to the moment, she focused on the guy who, according to Demaratus, was the boss around there.

“Well, Ms. Smith, let’s get a few things straight right now. We are not the fucking mob, nor are we affiliated with the government. We have someone on staff that does special projects for the government to bring in extra resources to assist our organization as required. We’ve had a platoon of Marines here for a while now, helping us out with some of our jobs.

“The files you broke into belonged to someone who used to be our IT person. She betrayed us and is now locked up for the rest of her natural life. Due to the work we do, we have to remain under the radar. We are fighting a war that the American people know nothing about. If they did, it would end up costing more lives than have already been lost in this battle. If the wrong people read that site you put up, or anything else you may have leaked out, we could potentially be exposed.

“In that case, we would have to terminate all operations here and return to Europe. Then North and South America would quickly become no-fly zones, and we wouldn’t be able to render assistance with what is coming. At the end of the day, Ms. Smith, it all boils down to one thing—the death of every living human being on the two continents, and eventually worldwide, by something no one even believes in, or
can
believe in, without going completely insane.”

“So, what she wrote about the monsters in the early files was right? That they were trying to free Hades from his imprisonment?” Holly felt her hands trembling and shook her head. “The last six or so years, the information that she was writing became odder and odder. I thought it was all part of the books, but it wasn’t, was it?

“According to what I read, she had been turned away by one of the guardians. I can’t remember which one at the moment, but he took a human lover for a while. She killed him. Something about a medallion in the guy’s shoulder. He had been ran through with a sword and died, but was brought back to life?” She recalled the man now. He had been an African shaman, if the file was to be believed. “He died trying to protect his lover. She, I guess, was never found after that?”

“All true.” Demaratus didn’t even twitch at her side while his boss spoke. She could feel him watching her, though. “I’m Mercury. In the beginning, it was only me running around attempting to keep the evil at bay for the goddess. But times changed, as did the hearts of man to take in darker thoughts and loosen the chains that held them at bay. The Dark Lord hasn’t yet been freed, but he’s still working on that with his followers and those he’s tempted to his side. If he does break free, the world will turn to absolute chaos within days. Not years, not months, mere days. Demaratus is one of the guardians battling this evil. Technically immortal, unless a key piece is destroyed or removed.”

“The last file she had uploaded was about a woman, Phoenix. She seriously hated Phoenix because of the danger she posed to someone else. Sophie? Sophia? Something like that.” Holly shrugged and looked to Demaratus, then back to Mercury. “Okay, question, why have I been dreaming about this man all of my life? And secondly, you really need a better firewall and encryption on your system, or someone else is going to hack you. You need a hacker to ensure your system’s safeguards. Not a Marine. No offense.”

“We believe Helen changed some of the settings, but we can’t prove it. As we are all less than knowledgeable about such things, we wouldn’t know where to begin. I had to have a Marine do the work to find you, and even then it was testing the limits of his knowledge.” Mercury looked over to Demaratus and sighed. “You are linked to him in some way. Every one of the guardians has a tie to a woman known as a vestal virgin. You are one of the thirteen, I’m betting. Have you been close enough to him to feel an unnatural heat from one particular spot?”

One of thirteen, no, that couldn’t be her. Holly had never been special in her life. She had been different because of her ability with computers but that was it. If she were one of the thirteen, surely someone would have been in her life before now, right? No, they were wrong. They had to be wrong … didn’t they? Then she thought about the freaky effect she had on all things electronic if she wasn’t careful. The dreams, DC showing up … his strange heat, whatever that had to do with anything. She shifted in her seat and bit her lower lip. “He was really warm, and when we were in the helicopter, he felt really hot on his lower side.” She pointed to where her liver would be. “Like, hotter than the rest of his body. But all over he’s hot, too.”