Powerful Moves [L.U.S.T.] (Siren Publishing Classic) (24 page)

“But going to bed early cut into your time with Michael because he can only live in the dark.”

Elena nodded. “Gideon would stand his ground. Can you imagine easy-going, always-quick-with-the-joke Gideon standing up against the prim-and-proper Michael about anything?” She laughed and didn’t wait for Tavius to answer, though she heard him chuckle, too. “Every time it happens I can’t help but sit back and grin. Michael and I would sneak time together. Then we’d get caught and they would go at it again.”

“Funny, Michael struck me as the one to coddle you more than Gideon.”

“He did, does, always has.”

“He loves you.
They
love you.”

Do you love me
? The question sprang to the tip of her tongue, but she bit it back. It didn’t matter one way or another how he felt about her. It wouldn’t calm her anger at being left behind.

“I love him. I love both of them.”

“They did a good job raising you, keeping you safe.”

“They did that.” Elena lifted her head so abruptly it made her brain swim as realization slammed into her. “And they still are, aren’t they? Michael ordered Elliot to keep me here, didn’t he? You wait until I...” She trailed off as she focused her thoughts and gave a push to connect with Michael. She felt only the chill of a solid steel metaphysical door. “Damn him. He’s blocking me.”

“Probably because he knows you’re pissed.” Tavius didn’t smile, but she heard it dancing in his voice. “If I were him I wouldn’t want you in my head right now either.”

Elena shot him a seething look that brought the smile to his lips.

“Muirnin.” He caught her waist and drew her in, laughing. “Do you have any idea how sexy you are when you’re angry?”

“Remember that energy I’m stockpiling, the stuff I haven’t let go of yet?” She let the warning hang in the air between them. It did little to deter the man. “I’m not all too happy with you right now either.”

“I can make you happy with me.”

She hated the way everything inside her stirred at that softly spoken declaration. Her anger dissipated as the power that she had come to realize was simply the magic of him, of them, coiled around her.

“It’ll take a lot more than slow moves and sweet touches to do that this time, Zolan.”

“How about lights and stars, music and dance?” He smiled against her lips as he leaned in to kiss her.

Elena didn’t doubt he could make her see, hear, and do all of that and more. Already, when she pulled back she saw his face light up in the darkness, saw the stars sparkle in his expression. “Wow, you are good,” she teased, then instantly grew serious when the look on his face changed to one that sent icy fingers of fear clawing down her spine. “Tavius, what’s wrong?”

“That lightshow wasn’t me.” He let her go so abruptly she took a full step back to steady herself. “There’s only one thing I know that produces that kind of effect.” He turned to Elena, and everything inside her went still. “Somehow they’ve already built the blaster saber.”

“Shit. Tavius, that’s where they are. We have to get there now.” He hooked her waist again before she could move and yanked her against him.

“So much for making you happy with me,” he muttered. “This is only going to piss you off more, but the only place you’re going is back inside.”

The last word barely registered in Elena’s mind before she saw the inside of the cabin around her. “A little warning next time would be nice.”

“That’s what I gave you.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Now, stay put.”

Elena’s temper flame sparked a new.
Stay put?
As if she were an obedient dog whom all he had to do was tell to stay and she would roll over on her back in her eagerness to do her master’s bidding?

Not a chance, buster
.

Before she could utter a response, he let her go and turned to the others. “Let’s go. I know where they are.”

Those who didn’t have the talent to teleport locked arms with those who did, and all vanished from the cabin except Elena. She sputtered a blue streak as she spun on her heel, stomped one way and then the other. The anger she’d absorbed wanted to leak through her ears, but she held onto it tightly. A deep breath and then another and she felt more in control.

She spun again, this time stalking to the door. She flung it open, bound and determined they would not leave her behind, only to smack into a solid wall of nothing when she attempted to step outside.

“Son of a bitch.” The curse rang through the silence of the cabin like a bell of fury. The shield would be Duncan’s work. Cosby Duncan wasn’t the most powerful agent in LUST, but he held the most varied powers, leaving one to always wonder which one he’d tap into next. Casting a protection shield around a cabin would fall under his no-doubt-amused expertise.

Red lined her vision as she stared through an open space she couldn’t penetrate. “Damn it. Damn it. Damn it!” More out of reflex than intent, she pulled her cell from her pocket and almost gaped at it when the screen told her service was available. She speed-dialed Cedric.

“I know I’m going to sound like a pouty two-year-old, but the bastards have locked me in a cabin while they go after the bad guy,” she said in lieu of a greeting when Cedric answered from his hospital bed. “I don’t suppose you can get through this freaking shield from a distance.”

“Yep, my pout meter just rang about fifty times with that one. Michael’s orders, I take it.”

Was no one surprised by this? “If he wasn’t already dead, I’d kill him with my bare hands.”

“Always did have an inkling to see you and one of the twins go at it. They taught you almost everything you know. Figured it would be cool entertainment to see how well you learned.”

“Ha ha.” Elena took a deep breath, let it out slow. “You didn’t answer my question. Can you break this shield?”

“Nope.” Simple, succinct, that was Cedric.

“Fine.” Elena scowled. “I didn’t call you to pout. I need to know what you see. What’s been shown to you that I don’t know?”

“Nothing.” His tone was as flat as the word.

“Something is wrong. I can feel it.” Her gut started twisting in knots the second Tavius spotted the light in the sky. Dread did that to her, but it wasn’t the dread of Tavius leaving her to face Le Mort and The Whisperer. It was something else, something far worse.

“I feel it, too.” His flat tone turned to sheer irritation. “If you’re looking for a prophecy, you aren’t going to find it here. Your predictions will probably hold more weight than mine right now.” He sighed audibly, his breath making a wind sound through the cellular line. “My ability has been on the blink for a while now, Elena. That’s what has been bothering me. The attack didn’t have anything to do with the problems I’m having with my talents, at least not this particular ability. I got that Le Mort would come here, that Tavius would come after him, that you would fall in love with the guy... That last one I still can’t figure out, by the way. But I haven’t gotten anything else since.”

Elena wanted to reach for him, to hold her dearest friend close to her. She knew better than to tell him it would be alright, knew the emptiness that consumed a person like them when one of their powers went on a vacation. Instead, she said, “Hell of a time for your fortune-cookie factory to close, Steele.”

“Tell me about it. I’ve been jonesing for a serious batch of peanut butter chocolate chip for days.”

“I don’t think they make that flavor fortune cookie.” Elena smiled despite the anger and concern waging a war inside her. “You knew I would fall in love with him, huh? You could’ve given a girl some warning.”

“Like you would’ve believed me. Prophecy abilities or not, you would’ve told me I was off my rocker if I’d told you that you’d meet a man from another realm while you hiked through the woods and fall hopelessly in love with the fucker.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Elena sighed. “It is hopeless.”

“Maybe,” Cedric agreed. “Maybe not. I didn’t see that through to the end. You will, though. That’s not prophecy talking but a guy who knows you won’t quit anything until it’s done.”

“Thanks for nothing,” Elena grumbled. “And Cedric,” she added over his chuckles, “I love you.”

“I love you, too, but I’m not the man you need to be telling that to.” He cut the connection with a finality she felt in her bones.

“Maybe not, but you’re the man I
can
say it to,” she muttered.

Sighing and resigning herself to her fate, she started toward the table. She stopped midstep when an arctic cold that had nothing to do with the Alaskan temperature outside settled over the room. She felt a secondary breeze flutter against her cheek, saw a shadowy haze, and kicked in her super sight just as Le Mort materialized in front of her.

“I heard once that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” His voice was soothing, melodic, a lot like Michael’s but dripping with a power that told her his didn’t possess the elegance naturally as Michael’s did. “I have held beauty many times. I even held the most beautiful of all.”

“Did you wake her with a kiss, or did she fall into eternal sleep to avoid your ass?” Elena liked that the fear racing through her veins didn’t show in her voice. She liked it more that she sounded unconcerned, bored even.

How did the bloodsucker get through Duncan’s protection shield? She wanted to ask but figured it would clue the vampire in on her fear. She couldn’t take him on her own. She didn’t kid herself into thinking she could. Le Mort toured over her. He held more powers and far more experience. She could only pray she was smarter.

Le Mort angled his head. “You speak of the fairy tale Snow White, I believe.”

“Reading up on childhood tales to pass the centuries in another realm?”

“I’ve enjoyed much literature over the years. I can see why they are so besotted with your beauty. What is that lovely saying? You have all three of them wrapped around your pretty little finger.”

“As opposed to another little saying that says flattery will get you everywhere. Trust me, Regulus, that one is a crock.”

“Ah, but it is not flattery I speak, sweet Elena.” He closed the distance between them faster than she could blink.

The memory of Tavius doing the same thing raced through her mind. The powers weren’t the same. Le Mort’s ability to move faster than the eye had everything to do with being a vampire and nothing to do with the power of teleportation like Tavius. The action brought on the memory, nevertheless. She didn’t try to hold onto it now. Doing so would only make her want to hold onto Tavius.

I told you not to leave me alone here
.
Just wait until I get my hands on you
.

She couldn’t promise herself she would wring his neck even then. Wind her arms around that neck as she yanked him down and kissed him until he professed his undying love for her, perhaps.

Le Mort skimmed the back of his thumb down her cheek. Elena fought the urge to shiver. Icy shards rained through her very core at his touch. As did a wave of power, acidic and dark enough to leave her feeling haunted.

“It is the sweet irony that they have made it all so very easy for me.” His smile would’ve been handsome if such evil hadn’t tainted his lips. “I need only take you to have all three, Michael and his despicable brother, Gideon, and the nuisance Tavius Zolan, on their knees.”

“If you know anything about any of them then you’ll know killing me will only make all three of them hungry for revenge.” Hungry. The word brought Le Mort’s accomplice to mind, and she suppressed a violent shudder. “Where’s your wolf?” She didn’t turn her head but scanned the tiny cabin with her eyes. No one else was in the room.

“Armand? It saddens me to say I recently found his company to be more of a nuisance than what was practical.”

“You killed him.” Were all that lived and passed in Le Mort’s path disposable to him? “Michael, Gideon, Tavius, and the rest won’t stop until they take you out, Le Mort.”

“I don’t intend to kill you, sweet Elena, at least not yet. I have a more useful plan for you.”

The glide of his finger down her cheek this time brought with it a dizzying sensation that stole her breath and her consciousness.

She came to slowly at first until she felt the rush of wind beating against her face. She barely stifled a gasp when she opened her eyes to find herself hovering hundreds of miles in the air. Not hovering, she realized with a blink. Flying.

“I suggest you not squirm, sweet Elena, lest you wish to fall to an untimely death.” Le Mort’s tone was mocking, his hold around her waist firm as he flew them over Atlanta.

Elena didn’t comment. What could a girl say when she found herself in such an uncompromising position? She’d flown with Michael and Cedric before. The sensation of being so very far in the air, so free, was like nothing else in the world. She didn’t feel that wonder with Le Mort. She felt a sickness brought on by a terrible foreboding of things to come.

Le Mort brought them down softly on top of the Bank of America Plaza in downtown Atlanta. The second her feet touched the rooftop, she stepped from his embrace.

He moved to the edge, looking out over the city as if he ruled it all. “There are no buildings like this in the realm of Terra. The cities there cannot come close to this beauty.”