Prince of Power (6 page)

Anton ignored her cringe and faced forward. He bit hard on his own tongue to keep from saying more. The sharp bite of his nails digging into his palms and the cold leather of the car seat were satisfying against his skin. Familiar. Pain and discomfort he could handle. He might not like it, but it was familiar. “Let's just get on with the plan, Tyra.”

“I didn't mean to offend you.”

He thought his head might explode. And how could he be sweating when it was forty degrees outside? “Tyra, I don't really think that makes a difference, does it?”

“Anton.”

He shook his head. No. He didn't intend to say anything more on the subject. Letting her know that she had hurt his pride was enough. What if he let on that what really hurt was the continuing idea that he was less-than in her eyes by virtue of his birth alone, and that not a single thing he did would change that? It was far more than he could expose of himself.

“You said traffic's awful this time of day. We should really get going,” he said. “C'mon. Drive.”

“What do you mean you don't know where it is?” Tyra's grip on the steering wheel was so tight that her knuckles blanched and then turned red. Tension inside the black Land Rover she'd taken from the estate's fleet of vehicles kept climbing even as the sun dipped low in the sky. She pointedly ignored the low growl that was Anton's response.

They wound through the back roads of Ash Falls. Over hills and past farms that weren't very active now because it was January. The sparse scenery scrolled past them, and the more rural things got, the more Tyra's nausea and unease grew. This driving into the middle of nowhere—and the “I'm not sure, it's around here somewhere” crap Anton was pulling with her—were shredding what little trust they'd started to build.

“Do you honestly need me to explain it again?”

Yes, she did. “I'm a little slow sometimes, Anton.” More accurately, she still didn't entirely believe him. Checking whether or not he was lying would be easy, if she were willing to touch him. But between the kiss and the strangeness that had happened back at the surplus store? Nuh-uh, no thank you. Not yet, anyway.

He shifted in the seat. “You don't expect me to believe that, do you? You still don't trust me. What do you think I'm doing, luring you into some kind of trap? What, like I've got us tooling around in the woods to kill time until I can rendezvous with the rest of the coven?”

Uh. “I don't think that.”

“You do, don't you? Good grief, Tyra, I get why you have your doubts, but I'm doing everything I can here to prove I'm on the level. Sweet Jesus, if I was really out to kidnap or kill you, this wouldn't be the best way to go about it. What about… hmm, I don't know… maybe
when
you
were
in
a
coma
?”

One side of her mouth lifted in a sneer.

“Or what about the fact that I've spent the past two days crashing in your bedroom while we hashed out a plan to go after my father? I could have snuck out during the day to go take out half the vampires on that estate while you were taking a shower. I could have gone after your king and queen. I mean, come on, what better way to make your kind vulnerable than to take out your leader? Be easy for the wizards to pick the vampires off like frightened rats without the king's military to protect 'em.”

He was absolutely correct. That had been the reason Thad was so desperate to find Isabel after their parents passed. Their race had always relied on strong leadership. And she could admit that part of her felt oddly comfortable in Anton's presence. Another part, however, couldn't stop thinking about the very bad ways that this entire situation could go wrong. “I took a very quick shower.”

She glanced at Anton in the passenger seat from the corner of her eye. Even in the scant evening light, an angry red flush was clearly visible on his face. Maybe it was inherent in the rivalry between their two races, but boy, they could really push each other's buttons.

“You must trust me on some level or you would have had my head days ago, so I have to wonder what all of this is really about.”

“Because I can't afford to be wrong.” Tyra's palm slammed the steering wheel. Damn. She hadn't meant to blurt that out. A surge of adrenaline whooshed through her body as the words flew from her mouth, like they were being yanked out forcefully. She shook all over and couldn't seem to stop.

“Pull over,” he said.

She did. By God, she actually did. As much as she usually bristled over being told what to do, she jerked the car to a stop right on the edge of a grove of evergreens.

Anton lifted his hand, let it hover, and then pulled it back. Apparently she wasn't the only one who thought they kept tripping over each other. Or maybe he just didn't want her to read him. Not that she would even try right now. She could barely manage her own emotions at the moment.

She looked around. “Where are we, anyway? It looks like we're practically in Maryland.”

“We're probably close.” He unbuckled and stepped out to look around, leaving Tyra with a disturbingly attractive view of his lower body's anatomy framed by the opening in the vehicle's passenger doorway.

Lord, what was it with her and dysfunctional men? Was she honestly the kind of too-dumb-to-survive female that would find herself attracted to a man who had originally been sent to kill her? Okay, not kill.
Kidnap
. Nearly as bad, in the grand scheme. Hell, there was nothing new about being a female who dug the bad-boy type, but this made her past relationship with Siddoh look like a case study for healthy and well-adjusted.

Light was fading fast. Tyra pried her gaze from the hug of Anton's BDUs on his muscular ass and got out. Funny how she'd never thought of those pants as particularly sexy before. The evening was quiet and peaceful, smelling of pine and snow and far-off fires in cozy homes. It was an interesting counterpoint to the purpose of their presence in these woods. The whole tableau made her long for a warm bed and blankets she could crawl under and pretend none of this mess existed. “So,” she said. “Where to?”

“Well, this thing…” Anton dug into his pocket and produced a gold signet wizard ring. He grimaced when it slid over his pinkie knuckle, and Tyra couldn't suppress her own shiver. That ring represented death—either the wearer's or her vampire brethren's—and seeing Anton push it onto his finger like that was hard to make peace with.

“It acts kind of like a divining rod. The portal moves. Sometimes week to week or night to night. We feel around, and either we'll sense some of the higher-up wizards or my ring will lead us to the portal. We find the portal and we find my father.” Anton's intense gaze appraised her from across the Land Rover's black roof.

While she met his gaze with confidence, guilt gnawed at her insides. Evil lineage aside, Anton seemed to be a decent guy, and she hadn't given him a lot of choice in what they were about to do. “Anton, just help me find the portal, and then you can go. I don't want you to have to go up against your own father.” Okay, so there was still a niggle of doubt. What if Anton's decision came down to his father or Tyra, and he chose daddy dearest?

Maybe the doubt was more than a niggle.

“Tyra,” Anton said quietly. God, his voice was so deep.

He came around to the front of the car and faced her. After a moment he lifted his hands, hesitated, and then grasped her shoulders firmly. A flurry of emotions flowed into her: fear, anger, determination, and a massive truckload of very raw
need
. It wasn't sexual, not exactly. More like an intense emotional desire she couldn't quite name, but it manifested in her body as something sensual—and now was so, so not the time.

“I don't think you've been listening. Everything that I have gone through: the wizards leaving me for dead in the woods, letting you drink my blood, watching over you while you were in torpor, bringing you here to find my father. All of it has been because I am trying to keep you alive.

“For that matter, I'm trying to help keep your whole fucking race alive because what my father has done is vile and I am disgusted by it and I am trying to right a
wrong,
here. Now.” He stepped back and pegged her with a daring look. “I am coming with you, and that's not up for negotiation unless you intend to take me out right now.”

And if she did that, she wouldn't find the portal.
Shit
. Tyra parted her lips to answer, but a white flash and a bang from deep within the woods caught their attention. Anton hauled ass toward it. “Anton. Shit.” He was fast, too. Not to mention unarmed. How stupid. She shook her head and took off right behind him, as fast as her supernaturally powered legs would go.

***

Anton peered around the trunk of a large tree while two wizards fumbled with what must have been newly acquired powers. They were so engrossed that they had no clue he was there. Seconds later, Tyra bumped into his back and he grunted softly. “If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to knock me down,” he whispered.

Truthfully, he'd be lying through his teeth if he said he didn't appreciate having her warm body pressed against his back.

Her response was to wrap her arms around his waist and press her body flush against his again. Hell. Even with his eyes trained on the two wizards a few feet away, he was asshole enough to shift accidentally on purpose so that his ass rubbed against her a little more. His dick was nudging against his button fly in no time.

He glanced down in time to see the pants in question disappear from his own view. Okay, it was dark, but it wasn't
that
dark. This must be one of her powers. Most vampires only had one or two, but she had more than that. It was the reason why his father had wanted to “acquire” her.

Ick.

The shock didn't last long. In contrast to the winter chill, Tyra's hands were warm against Anton's cold skin, and her moist lips brushed against his ear. “Shh. I can make it so they can't see us, but I don't have a mute button.”

Uh-huh.
“Okay.” Dammit to hell. They were on their way into what was most likely a losing battle, and he couldn't get his act together. He hadn't foreseen that being a twenty-seven-year old almost-virgin was going to bite him in the ass when he was finally in close proximity with his dream woman… vampire… woman. It was
far
too late to go back in time to bang those hookers his brother had gotten for him. Whatever.

He turned his head. Their lips were uncomfortably close when he said, “If you look carefully, you can see a dark circle where those two are standing. That's the portal. We can wait until they move on and then go through.”

“Or we could go ahead and take them out now,” she whispered.

He shook his head. “No, we need to be patient here.”

“I'm not impatient. I'm talking about taking out two newbie wizards before they go out into the world and inflict damage on any vampires.”

Anton turned more so that he could whisper directly into her ear. Much as he tried to ignore it, the move nestled his left butt cheek right into the soft place between her thighs, and the ache behind his button fly got more intense. Tyra, however, didn't seem to notice at all. Perhaps his father had gone about things all wrong with his “males only” policy. If Tyra was anything to go by, women clearly had better focus.

Too impulsive maybe, but focused.

He managed to find his voice again. “You need to keep your powers fully charged until we go up against my father.”

Her body got very stiff against his. “There's no ‘we' in this. I told you, I can handle your father.”

Had she not been listening? He grasped her arm and dug his fingers in. “You are completely stupid if you think I'm going to let you go in there without me.”

“You don't have any powers,” she hissed.

Well, he did have the ability to heal. He hadn't mastered it, though, and it wouldn't help him fight. And he hadn't mentioned it to Tyra yet, lest letting her know that he had participated in the claiming ritual would destroy what little credibility he had with her.

The two of them stood there gripping each other in the darkness, their stares locked angrily in the glows from the occasional flash of the wizards practicing nearby. “You're really planning to die in there,” he whispered.

He couldn't believe she actually rolled her eyes at him again. “Of course I am. I thought we had established that.”

“I thought you were at least going to
try
. He thinks I'm dead. I can distract him. You might be able to take him out before he attacks you.”

She held up a hand. Soft fingertips brushed his lips. “If he's as powerful as you say, then you and I don't really stand a chance. My hope is to put him out of business without the deaths of any more of my kind. I don't want any more of us to die.

“And even though I should, I don't want you to die, either. Besides, you keep saying he has been after me all this time. If I fail, I need you to survive so you can go and tell my family. So you can give them the same information that you gave me. Okay?”

His fingers tightened on her arm. “Not okay. We go in together.”

“You can't stop me,” she said with a lift of her chin.

He pulled her body tighter against his. “Well, I've gone through a hell of a lot so far to keep you safe, and for damn sure I'll give it my best try now. It's bad enough that I said I'd let you find the portal. If you think you're going in there without me, you've got—”

Fiery pain lanced through his body, cutting across his back and the tender, fleshy part of his side. Suddenly it was impossible to breathe, and dizziness descended upon him like some kind of locust swarm. He opened his mouth to tell Tyra to run, to just get the hell out. Maybe if the errant wizard blast didn't kill him, she could come back later when it was safe. All that came out was a faint, raspy groan.

“Shit, Anton. You're hit bad.”

The ground rushed up to meet him, and before his face got intimate with the dirt and dead pine needles, the two young wizards turned to advance on their location. Tyra's nifty cloaking device must have stopped working.

That couldn't possibly be good.