Heart of Iron (41 page)

The knife scored across her shoulder. It felt like ice, sizzling once, the pain swiftly fading. Colchester curled over the club she wielded, then drove forward, smashing into her body.

Lena hit the floor hard. The breath smashed from her lungs, his body riding hers to the floor in a tangle of skirts. She could feel his cold breath on her face, his hands tightening around her throat. Maddened eyes glared down at her.

No fear. There was no fear in her, even as her vision narrowed, darkness threatening to loom. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his knife, discarded on the rug. Groping for it, she caught the handle in her fingertips as Colchester put all his pressure on her throat.

The room darkened. Numbness spread through her until all she could feel was the knife handle. Clenching her fingers around it, she drove it up, straight into his chest.

He screamed, his hands springing from her throat, the short handle of the blade sticking from his chest. Rearing over her, coughing bluish blood, he met her gaze. “Take you…with me.” His fingers closed over the knife and he wrenched it from his chest in a surge of fresh blood.

Lena screamed as the blade rose.

The knife never fell. Instead, an explosive sound ripped through the room, fresh blood spattering her.

Colchester roared in pain, his left arm missing from the elbow down. Black flooded into his eyes, a sign that the demon in him had taken control. He’d feel no pain now, barely even notice the blood that poured from the stump of his ruined arm. She must not have hit his heart.

Looking past him, Lena stared at her rescuer in shock.

Smoke curled from the muzzle of a pistol and Rosalind stared at her grimly. She wore black leather from head to toe, men’s clothes that somehow suited her, covered over with a long black coat that flared at her hips. A neat little cap covered her distinctive hair and a mask hid the lower half of her face.

Turning, Colchester grabbed the knife from the floor—from the ruined fingers that lay on the carpet—and flung it.

“Look out!” Lena screamed.

Rosalind staggered backward, clutching at the blade in her side. “This wasn’t supposed to happen,” she whispered, the pistol dropping from nerveless fingers. “We found out, only this morning, what they’d planned. The transformational was gone and so was…so was my younger brother, Jeremy.”

Colchester staggered toward her. “You’re a humanist,” he snarled.

Lena rolled to her feet as Rosalind’s knees gave out. “No!” She darted forward, driving her body against Colchester. They both went down.

Colchester grabbed her hair with his remaining hand and yanked her head back. Lena clawed at his face, catching a glimpse of the black soulless misery of his eyes and his shining white teeth as he went for her throat.

“NO!”

The bellow shook the air. Blunt teeth sank into her throat, biting hard enough to tear the flesh. Lena screamed.

Then suddenly rough hands tore Colchester away from her. Will towered over him in all his fury then turned and flung the duke into the wall.

Colchester dropped to his feet. He met Will halfway, staggering from blood loss but no less dangerous. Lena saw a flash of silver as he tugged a knife from his boot with his remaining hand.

“Will!” she screamed. “He’s got a knife!”

Will blocked the swing, his fist straining as he forced the duke’s arm back. Slamming him into the wall, he drove the blade toward Colchester’s face.

“Let’s see how you like the taste of the blade,” he snarled and drove it into the duke’s throat.

Lena turned away as Colchester made a gurgling groan. The bright scent of hot, fresh blood filled the air and the rasp of the blade as it cut through his windpipe.

The body hit the ground with a meaty thud, the head almost decapitated. Lena looked around, her chest rising with her harsh breath. Will’s fist was bloody, the knife clenched in his fingers. A dark, violent expression rode his face and he turned slowly to look at Rosalind’s slumped form.

Lena darted between them, holding her hands out. “Will. No.”

Bright copper burned in his eyes. He stared at her, lip curled.

“She saved my life,” Lena told him. “She shot him.”

“She’s the person behind the bomb.” He took a menacing step forward.

“I came to stop it,” Rosalind corrected. With a deep breath, she yanked the blade out of her side and winced. Blood bubbled against her waistcoat. “I was too late. We never wanted this. After the smoke clears, the Echelon will comb the city hunting for whoever did this. We can’t afford the scrutiny. Not yet. We’re not strong enough.”

“Did you find your brother?” Lena asked, helping her to her feet.

“There’s no sign of his body upstairs. He must have escaped.” Rosalind’s voice was flat. “I knew he was fond of Mendici. I allowed it. I should have realized the mechs had poisoned his mind, filled him full of glorious stories. They sent him to deliver the transformational. The bastards sent him to die.”

The world was beginning to intrude. Shouting and screams. Footsteps pounding through the corridor outside.

“We have to get going,” Lena said, taking Rosalind by the sleeve and looking up at him. “If they find us here over the body, they’ll kill us. He’s a duke. Nobody can know what happened here.”

A violent quiver went through Will’s body. His eyelids lowered, a lazy, dangerous look at Rosalind that sent Lena’s heart into a paroxysm. “If it weren’t for you, he couldn’t a grabbed her.”

Rosalind bent low, snatching something off the ground. Grabbing Lena around the waist, she hauled her back into her body, shoving the pistol under her chin. The muzzle bit into her soft skin and Lena froze.

“Don’t move,” Lena warned him. “She’s got the same bullets you were making for me.”

“Firebolts. Take off an arm or worse,” Rosalind snapped.

“Let me go.”

“And have him tear my head off?” Rosalind snarled. “Not bloody likely.”

“He won’t hurt you,” Lena said, catching and holding his gaze. “I give you my word that he won’t hurt you.”

“I’ll give her to you,” Rosalind said. “But if you make one move toward me, I’ll shoot her first. I swear.”

Lena staggered into his arms as Rosalind shoved her in the small of her back. She barely had time to think before Will pushed her behind him, using his own body to protect hers.

“Will!” She snatched at his coat, wrapping her arms around his waist. “I promised her you wouldn’t hurt her.”

“But I didn’t,” he whispered. “This is twice you’ve threatened her life—”

“I saved it once,” Rosalind replied, pointing the pistol straight at his chest. She licked her lips. “That counts, doesn’t it?”

“Barely. You wanted to kill Colchester more than you wanted to save Lena.”

“I’m a practical woman. Two boons for the price of one.”

“You ever come near her again and I swear I’ll rip your head off.”

The pistol lowered a fraction. Rosalind clapped a hand over the wound in her side, bending over a little. “I promise. She’ll never see me again.” A faint grimace. “I have certain things to put in order, it seems.”

“How are you going to get out of here?” Lena asked. “Without the guards seeing?”

“Same way I came in.” Rosalind crossed to the bookshelf Colchester had half torn from the wall. She swung it open, revealing a hidden staircase. “The whole place is riddled with tunnels. We stole the schematics months ago. Come.” She gave Will a wary nod. “I’ll get you out without anyone seeing. We can part ways at the bottom. That makes me even, no?”

Lena rubbed the small of his back, coming out from behind him. “Will?” They had to get out of here without anyone seeing them.

He nodded to Rosalind. “You go first. Where I can see you.”

Twenty-eight

Opening the door to Leo’s steam carriage, Will helped Lena into it. Violent shivers shook her body and her eyes were distant. When he’d asked her what was wrong, she’d tried to summon a smile and a shrug. Before he could chase her thoughts down, Blade and Honoria appeared.

Blade and Leo had gotten Honoria out, then Leo had gone back in to help. Smoke poured from the building and the tower guards were frantically trying to assert control.

Time to get out of here. Before people started pointing fingers.

Blade helped Honoria into their own carriage. There was barely room for two more and Will wanted to be alone with Lena for a moment. He hadn’t had a single chance since the explosion, and the urge to drag her into his arms, to make sure she was all right, was driving him out of his mind.

Giving swift instructions to the driver, he eased into the carriage and shut the door. It lurched into motion, cutting out of the queue and into the streets. Will jerked the blind closed.

Lena blinked, finally coming out of her reverie. “You do realize this is Leo’s carriage?”

“The walk’ll do him good,” he replied, pushing aside her skirts and easing onto the seat beside her. “Lena.” A hesitation. “Are you all right?”

She smiled, but he caught her hand. “No,” he said. “Don’t give me that smile. I know you’re upset.” Stroking her dirty gloves, he reminded her, “I can smell it.”

Her gaze dropped, her shoulders slumping. “He’s finally gone.”

“Who?”

“Colchester.” Bright tears shone in her eyes. “I feel so overwrought, Will. I’ve been watching over my shoulder for months, knowing that he’d be there, knowing that even if I was in company I was never safe. When he looked at you and smiled today, it frightened me so much. I thought he was going to do something to you. But it was the explosion. He knew about it. I don’t know how. At first I thought he was my contact in the tower, but now I don’t think so. He was disgusted when he realized Rosalind was a humanist.” She tugged one of her hands from his and wiped her eyes. “I’m glad he’s dead,” she said fiercely. “But I can’t stop shaking. I can’t believe we’re both safe. That you’re safe.” Her fist tangled in his shirt. “I nearly lost you…”

Dragging her into his lap, he buried her face against his shoulder. He hated seeing her cry. “He can’t ever hurt you again.”

“I know,” she whispered. Her hands slid over his shoulders, frantic with need. “Touch me, Will. Remind me that you’re here. That you’re mine.”

“Always,
mo
cridhe
,” he whispered, finding her mouth in the shadows.

Lena kissed him as if she’d never let him go, her mouth hungry and her hands insatiable. Will gathered bunches of her skirts and dragged them out of the way, settling her on his lap. His cock raged behind the flap of his breeches and he ground her against him, tongue clashing with hers. This was heady. This was life. Every hot, sweaty, gasping moment of it.

He bit her throat, tugging on the drawstrings of her drawers. Lena gasped, rocking against his fingers, urging him on.

“Hurry,” she whispered.

He dragged them down, but she was straddling him and the material bunched around her thighs. Snarling in frustration, he tore them in two, sinking his fingers into the fleshy curve of her arse.

“God,” he groaned. “Have to…taste you.”

Tumbling her back onto the seat, he knelt between her thighs. Thick dark hair tumbled over her shoulders and she gasped as he dragged her hips to the edge of the seat, tossing her legs over each of his shoulders. Shoving her skirts up, he cupped her arse and plunged his tongue deep into her quim.

Lena’s cry was music to his ears. He wanted to drive away her tears, to claim her as his woman once again. Tasting her, sucking and nibbling at her, he listened to the breathy sounds of her gasps and felt the tension tightening in her body. He wanted to learn every inch of her, to teach himself how to please her best.

Nails raked his shoulders. “Stop!” she gasped. “I want to—”

He tongued her deep, suckling the wet pearl of her clitoris between his teeth. “Want to what?”

Lena shuddered, her knees clamping around his head. Panting with need, she dragged her gaze to his. “I want you,” she whispered. “Inside me.”

“In a minute.”

“
Now
.”

It was the determination in her voice that undid him. He tugged his breeches open and freed his cock, palming it in his hand. Shoving up, he filled her with a single thrust, dragging her closer to the edge of the seat.

So tight. So wet. So hot.

Lena cried out, her thighs clamping around his hips. Clinging to his neck, she dragged his face to hers for a devouring, hungry kiss, no doubt tasting the muskiness of her own body. Will’s hips moved of their own accord, plunging into her, his entire body shaking with need. God, she felt so sweet. He wanted to fuck her hard, to drive her down onto the cushions of the carriage and fill her with his cock.

Little urgent gasps broke between them. Lena’s body undulated against his, driving him wild with need. He held her against him, grinding the base of his shaft against her. Shudders racked her body, and her inner muscles tightened around him. She liked that, liked what he was doing to her. He could feel the edge of something building within her, feel it in the sudden gasping inattention she gave their kiss. See it in her widening eyes as she cried out silently, her body jerking around his.

A little fist tightened in his chest. His woman. His. Nobody could take her away from him now and he couldn’t hurt her. She could be his forever. Hope swelled in his chest as he ground his teeth together and shuddered. So close. He rode her through the storm, giving himself up to the sensation that streaked through him.

Lena wilted backward, dragging him with her. Will kissed her lips, earning a halfhearted response as his body slid from hers. She made a wordless protest, but he tucked his cock back in his breeches and dragged her into his lap.

His breathing slowed, his heart thundering through his chest. Will buried his face in the warm mahogany lengths of her hair and breathed in the scent of her.

Lena tucked her face against his throat, curling up in his lap. She stroked his chest, splaying her hand over his heart then held it still, as if listening to the beat of it. “What happens now?”

“Now?”

A slight hesitation. “With the treaty?”

He could barely think, his eyelids threatening to shut. But she hadn’t been paying attention to anything that had happened since they scrambled out of the cellar. “Blade said they’re gonna reschedule it. If the explosion hadn’t torn apart half of the blue bloods too, it mighta been a different story. The verwulfen might’ve blamed the Echelon and likewise. Barrons wants to get to the bottom of it.”