Memory of an Immortal Heart (Immortal Hearts) (42 page)

Just
good things. Meeting you.

Brand
reached over, cradled her cheek. Eva licked her lips. Then Joshua arrived back
from the motel office, juggling the room keys in his hands. He banged a gloved
fist on Brand’s window, and Eva jumped. “Hurry up you two! It’s fucking
cold
outside!” Brand didn’t so much as twitch, smoothly withdrawing his hand,
callused fingers brushing gently over Eva’s cheek so she shivered.

This
time, they were on the motel’s second floor. Eva relaxed until she realized
that Joshua had only rented one room. One room with double king beds, but
still
…

She
turned to find Joshua grinning as he slouched against the wall. “What? Why did
you do this – this is as bad as that dratted train car!” Eva’s words
exploded in a frustrated half-snarl. She dropped her duffel to the floor.

Joshua
smirked. “Couldn’t be helped.”

“If you
think I’m going to
share
a bed with any of you…” Eva’s words choked off,
she stared at the double beds in dismay.

If she
was going to sleep with anyone it was going to be – well, she didn’t dare
sleep with Brand, not with the other two present.

She
admitted it. Sometimes she just wasn’t accountable.

Definitely
not last night, and definitely not where Brand was concerned.

Joshua
arched a brow and looked like he was about to laugh. Brand, entering the room
behind them, lightly cuffed Joshua on the back of the head as he moved past,
saying, “No. Joshua’s going to be a gentleman and offer to take the floor.”
Joshua snarled a protest.

“But
we’re still
sharing
…” Eva broke off and shot Brand a pleading. There was
no way she was going to get over her attraction for Brand if they had to share
a room. There was no
way
she’d be able to hide how much she wanted him,
if he was sleeping in the next bed over. If the room was filled with his scent,
his body.

And
worse, trying to deal with that with Joshua and Kevin present?

God.

“We’re
more secure this way. I won’t worry about you being kidnapped in the middle of
the night,” Brand said in an incredibly neutral tone that had no hope of
reading.

She
closed her eyes. Okay. That might be true. It probably was true. In fact, it
was a bit of a
relief.

She
would just have to – somehow –
deal
with it.

Eva
woke the next afternoon to find Joshua slouched in the chair across from her.
His boots were propped on the motel’s small wood executive desk and he was
watching some sort of Japanese game show on TV while eating cold Chinese.

Eva sat
up and stared at the food. Her stomach growled. Her mouth watered.

“Get
your own,” Joshua said, eyes fixed on two combatants winding their way through
a brightly-colored obstacle course.

“Where?”
She narrowed her gaze.

Joshua
pointed to a mini-fridge tucked into the corner of the room. “Brand and Kevin
brought supplies back before they went out again.”

Eva’s
stomach sank. “Out.
Again?
”

Joshua
snorted, deftly picking the beef from his carton with chopsticks. “Don’t look
like that. They’re mapping the Asylum, not attacking it. Not yet anyway,” he
muttered, then winced as one of the contestants got clobbered.

“They
found it? They are there already?”

“Early
this morning. You were sleeping.”

Irritation
coursed through Eva. She straightened and slipped her feet from the covers.
Rainey
was in that Asylum. With Rohe. They didn’t have time to wait. “They don’t
need
to map it out. I already know what the Asylum looks like. I already know where
we need to go to get my
sister
,” Eva snarled as she stood in front of
Joshua, fists propped on her hips.

He
looked up inquiringly, then ate another piece of beef.

Eva
scowled. “Well?”

“We
were hoping,” Joshua said dryly, “
not
to get caught by Rohe and her evil
minions. Unless you’d prefer to spend more time in her tender care, and drag
the rest of us with you? And by the rest of us, I mean a half-trained Tracker,
Stronghold’s overworked Ayin…and the love of your life, me?” Joshua spread his
arms wide and left the question hanging as a cocky grin stretched his face. Eva
flashed her teeth at him.

“You’re
annoying.”

“I’ve
heard that before,” Joshua said easily, picking through the carton. “They all
change their mind, sweet cheeks.”

Eva
growled, grabbed a towel, and stomped off to the bathroom.

Brand
thought Joshua was his cross to bear? More like
her
cross to bear.

Eva
ripped her clothes off and slammed into the shower before twisting the dial
with more force than necessary. It spun too hot, and she snarled as water
burned her skin, retreating to the corner to wait as the temperature
stabilized. Her hands cradled her breasts and she shivered with that
ever-present near arousal as her fingers brushed the bruise Brand had left.
Though when Eva touched it, it had nowhere near the effect as when Brand kissed
it the other night.

Wait.
Eva
frowned.

Brand
had given her that bruise three days ago. It should have healed by now.

She had
spent the last few days stumbling around in misery – then fear and
horror. Now, Eva looked at her chest – and shrieked.

“
What
…?”
A mark. A symbol? Someone had drawn some kind of symbol on the inward slope of
her left breast. With ink. “Joshua. Fucking joker’s gone too far. If he thinks
this is
funny
…” Eva muttered, trying to control her wrath. The pervert
had
touched
her when she was asleep. “Wait till you see what I do to
you…” She scrubbed fiercely at the symbol.

And
gasped, dropping the washcloth over the drain. Pure lust shot through Eva, her
skin tightened, nipples sharp and ready. It was as if Brand cradled her body
into his; as if he had taken her breast into his mouth, had slipped his finger
between her thighs and was
teasing
her. As if, somehow, Brand were here,
and not…not…wherever the hell he was. Eva’s body shook. “Oh my god.”

The
water level crept up to her ankles as Eva stared down at the red-black linework
and
knew
.

“This
is
real
.”
This
was no prank. Whatever the hell the marking was,
it had to do with Brand. It had to do with what Brand
wasn’t telling her
.

Worse,
it had to do with that bruise he had left on her body and why he had freaked
out when he thought he had bit her.

Not
even Rohe had left a mark behind. Not like this. Not something that, in her
soul, Eva knew was
permanent
.

Fear
and fury hit Eva in quick succession – she desperately grabbed at the
fury and held onto it.

The
emotion cascaded through her, cutting off her arousal. She slammed her palm
into the shower dial, stopping the water as she shoved the door open and
splashed from the pool of water. She didn’t bother to unplug the drain.
Instead, she grabbed a towel, wiped off the mirror and stared at the marking in
the streaky reflection.

Smooth
red-black linework crawled over the inner slope of her left breast; it looked
like some kind of symbol, or tattoo, but Eva had no idea what it stood for. It
was centered over the juncture where Brand’s teeth had pierced her skin, the
linework extending from the edge of her right breast to the border of her left
areola.

“Fuck.”
Eva raised her fingers to touch it – then thought better as she
remembered her last stunned reaction. She didn’t swear often, but…
“Fuck.”

It
looked like that tattoo on Khael’s neck. But shaped differently.

Her
rage skyrocketed.

“
Joshua!
”
she shouted his name and heard Joshua curse, feet hitting the floor. “Joshua!”

The
wooden bathroom door shattered open beneath Joshua’s fist, a steel dagger
gripped in his left hand and chopsticks in his right, his expression deadly.
His intense gaze darted about the windowless bathroom searching for a threat
– dropped to the pooling water – then he turned to Eva in irritation.

“What
the hell, Eva? You made me drop my lunch.”

Eva
glared at him. “What the hell – what the
hell?
” despite herself,
her voice escalated, and she knew if she didn’t breathe, she was going to start
screaming soon. She didn’t care. She pointed to the tattoo on her left breast.
“I’m the one who gets to ask
that
question. Now you tell me:
what the
hell is
this?
”

Joshua’s
eyes had already dropped to her breasts.

The
appreciation in his gaze transformed to shock. “Eyes up,” Eva snarled,
belatedly realizing that he wasn’t just looking at the tattoo, and saw the
amazement in Joshua’s expression turn to dismay as she swiftly pulled a towel
around her body.

“Damn,”
Joshua eased back from the door, apparently not listening to her. “Brand
Marqued you.”

Then Joshua,
the same hard-ass Joshua who acted like her nemesis half the time, blushed and
turned his back. As if suddenly
he
had developed a conscience when it
came to her. The scent of his discomfort filled the air. “I shouldn’t be here,”
he muttered, clenching his scarred hand into a fist as if he were trying to
retain his grip on something. “You shouldn’t have shown me that.”

“I
don’t care.
What is it?
” Eva snapped. She ignored the deadly edge to her
own voice as she started toward Joshua.

Brand’s
cousin backed into the main room as if Eva carried the plague. “Ask Brand,” he
muttered.

“How?
He’s not here. He doesn’t tell me anything – tell me what it is!” she
demanded. “Brand left me here to risk his life and do who-knows-what, scouting
out Rohe’s Asylum. It’s not like
he’s
going to explain. So
you’re
going to!”

Joshua
gave Eva a narrow look. “No.”

She
growled, low in her throat, and clutched the towel tighter with an impending
sense of doom. “
Why not?
” Then, more quietly, not quite able to keep the
tremble from her voice, “Joshua…please. What did Brand do to me?”

Joshua’s
expression stilled. He sighed, his expression settled…and suddenly, he looked
much more mature than Eva ever would have guessed him to be…mature and
resigned. Eva sucked in a breath.

“This,”
Joshua finally said, after a long second of studying Eva with distant gray
eyes, “has gone on long enough. Someone needs to explain to you about Brand,
Eva. And hell. It looks like it’s going to be me.”

Eva
sank to the edge of the bed as she fixed her gaze on Joshua. “What isn’t Brand
telling me?” she asked, the unbearable need to
know
growing inside her
until not even she understood it. “What is this mark on my chest?”

The
need to know blocked out everything else.

Joshua
swiped a hand through his sandy hair. He leveled a look back at Eva before
picking up the remote to switch off the TV. When he pivoted back, he was
fidgeting with a dagger. His expression wasn’t angry, just thoughtful.

He’s
stalling.
Eva narrowed her eyes. “I’m waiting.”

Joshua
looked up. “Brand’s fucked up, Eva. Maybe he thinks you need time. Or that he
needs time. Or that he doesn’t fucking deserve you. I don’t know what’s going
through his head, but what I do know is that he needs
you
. That bastard
needs you. And hell if I understand, but I think he’s running scared. So don’t
you dare abandon him just because you’re angry.” The last was an order.

Eva
snarled even as she tried to understand Joshua’s words. “Brand’s not ‘running
scared.’ He doesn’t have anything to be
scared
about.”

“Doesn’t
he?”

Eva bit
her lip, dissatisfied and more than upset. “You’re wrong,” she said bluntly,
smashing down a small sense of pain. “Brand
doesn’t
need me. He has a
family, a Gens. Friends. As for
deserving
me,” Eva smoothed her fingers
down the towel, “the only one who should be concerned about deserving me is
me
.”

Joshua
curled his lip, gray eyes flickering, then said bluntly, “You’re right. It
isn’t a matter of deserving. It’s a matter of bonding. Of amati.”

“You
mean lovers. Sex.” Eva spoke flatly. “Of course you would think it was about
sex.”

Joshua
flashed her a feral smile. “Sex is sex, Eva. The amati bond is different
entirely.”

The
amati…bond?
Dismay sank through Eva even as she arched a brow,
challenging. “Different how?”

“It’s
about love,” Joshua said so bluntly, so starkly, that Eva stared.

“You’re
serious?
”

Joshua
growled, gaze flickering gold, and Eva closed her mouth on her disbelief.
Okay,
he’s serious
.