Red Night ((Book 1) Timewalker Chronicles) (10 page)

“The woman took it, sir.” Oh, God. He’d seen her. She must have dropped her guard in her panic. Fear pushed her legs to move faster. Her mind was in utter chaos. She couldn’t focus her thoughts enough to bend the light again. They could see her!

“What woman?” The Colonel’s voice filled the hallway. “Shit. Move! Move!”

Alexa glanced back over her shoulder in time to see the Colonel’s gun pointed at her. Cradling the deadly case of M-6 to her stomach, she wrapped her left forearm over it like armour. She could die, but the case had to survive. Intact.

Two bullets whizzed by her head. The Colonel yelled at her. “Stop! Don’t make me shoot you.”

Not a chance in hell she was letting this case out of her hands. She dashed around the corner toward the elevators with the men hot on her heels. Her birthmark blazed on her chest, a reminder of her destiny. She kept running.

“Damn it.” The Colonel’s words reached her a second before his third shot seared her left shoulder. Pain sent her staggering against the wall but she held onto the case. Only death would pry it from her fingers now. She reached over blindly and pushed the call button with the butt of her gun, then wrapped her right arm protectively around her cargo. Blood dripped down from her left shoulder, smeared the outside of the silver case, tarnished its perfection.

How fitting. Little killer bugs. Blood for blood.

Patrick stalked toward her. Turning, she leaned her right shoulder against the wall between the two elevators for support. She needed Patrick in her sights. Gun raised, the solid wall was all that kept her aim steady, pointed right at him. He stopped. For now. His gaze darted farther down the hallway, then settled on her face. “Come on, bitch. That’s not playing nice.”

The devil gave her no warning, just shoved the barrel of a gun against the base of her skull. “Drop it.” Patrick’s partner sounded like he could be could yawn as easily as blow her head off.

Spots swam before her eyes and her ears were ringing. She held onto the gun for all she was worth. “I don’t care about any of this. Just let me go.”

“Can’t do that, my dear. You have stolen property and I need to take it back.” The Colonel stopped when he reached Patrick’s side. They were about twenty feet away. She was caught like a fish who’d already swallowed the hook. The Colonel held out his hand. “Give me the case.”

Her skirt was stained red from the steadily running blood. She swayed, then caught herself. The jerk with the gun didn’t shoot her, but no one was coming to save her. No one knew where she was. Luke was right. Some help would be nice. Too bad he wasn’t here to gloat over it.

The elevator dinged. Her ride was here. Time to save herself.

Or die.

Funny how staring death in the face could clear a girl’s head.

Swaying forward like she was going to faint, she let her arms fall limply to her sides. With a flick of her wrist, she tossed the case toward the opening elevator doors. Relief flooded her when the bugs landed just inside the doors.

Halfway to the ground she disappeared. She hit hard and rolled onto her back. Her foot connected with the gunman’s left knee, buckling his leg. He fell away from her into the hallway with a curse.

As fast as she could, she pulled herself forward on her elbows. Every movement jarred her shoulder, shattered her focus so they could see her. Crawl faster!
Damn this dress.
Legs tangled in the soft folds, for once she actually hated the feminine vanity that now trapped her. Her shoulders just cleared the doors when the weasel’s hand shackled her ankle and pulled her arms out from under her. She landed on her injured shoulder and cried out in pain. Rolling onto her side, she kicked her attacker. Patrick barreled toward her in a dead run.

A gunshot rang out. Patrick staggered forward dragging one leg. Another shot tore into his opposite hip. He crashed into the unforgiving floor, chest heaving for air.

Half of Luke’s torso darted out from inside the elevator. He shot the man holding her ankle. She didn’t bother looking back to see if he was dead. Rolling into the elevator, she curled into a protective ball around the case of M-6.

“Stay down.” Luke crouched beside her. Matthew ran toward them from farther down the hall. Rage etched deep lines in his face. He held the Colonel’s keys in one hand, and Alexa’s abandoned knife in the other. Luke’s gun held the Colonel pinned in place. The old man dropped to one knee and reached for his weapon. Luke fired. The doors slid closed, erasing the Colonel’s stunned face, the hole in his forehead, from her vision. The elevator lurched to life beneath her as Matthew’s scream penetrated the thick elevator doors. The Colonel was dead.

“Luke…”

“Just shut-up and don’t move, or I’ll shoot you myself.”

She laughed. It hurt. “I love you.”

He shook his head. “Just shut-up, Alexa.” His jacket hit the floor. The elevator doors opened, then closed. They were moving again. He ripped one white sleeve from his arm and tied the material around her bleeding shoulder. “If you ever scare me like that again…”

Apparently, he couldn’t finish the thought. His words were rough, but his hands were gentle as he helped her sit up and lean back against the elevator’s wall. She stopped trying to talk and just let relief wash over her. They were alive. They had the virus. And as soon as they could get back to the lab, M-6 would be wiped off the face of the Earth.

Luke spoke into a microphone wrapped around his watchband. “Eleventh floor, Sean. Two mercs and the Colonel shot. Kline’s there, too.”

Alexa could almost feel the collective force of movement in the building as the complete focus of thirty armed men and women shifted to the eleventh floor. Luke listened, then shook his head. “I’ll explain later. Just get down there.”

Stop. Doors open. Closed. Her stomach lurched when they started moving again. “Who’s Sean?”

“A friend.”

Silence. Stop. Doors slid open. Doors slid closed. “Where are we going?”

“I had to push every damn button to try and find you.” His fingertips caressed the hair that had come loose around her face, then tucked the stray strands behind her ear. “Ten floors.” A shudder passed through him. “You’re lucky it wasn’t eleven. I wouldn’t’ve made it in time.”

“How did you find me?”

With shaking fingers he pulled her hand to rest against the mark on his chest. Her mind calmed. The pull between her heart and his, the binding force, stole her breath for a moment. Talk about being branded. “Thanks.”

“Anytime.” The doors slid open behind Luke. He pulled her to her feet and stepped out onto the main floor. “Come on, angel. Let’s get out of here.”

“How sweet.” Matthew Kline was waiting for them, panting from his sprint down the stairwell. “I’ll take that.” He wrenched the case from Alexa’s hand. The gun he held to Luke’s head made sure neither of them protested. Matt’s maniacal gaze rested on her for a moment, then dismissed her as unimportant. “You can go.”

Wrenching Luke’s arm behind his back with a jerk he shoved him back into the elevator. “You’re going upstairs with me. We’re going to finish this.”

No time to think. Luke watched her raise her skirt. Acceptance flashed in his eyes. He was giving her permission to miss. It made her love him more.

“Matthew!” Alexa’s challenge rang through the air.

Matthew Kline looked up an instant before her knife buried itself in his eye socket. Never mess with a woman who knows how to throw knives.

Luke stepped away and let him fall.

Alexa threw herself in his arms. Cheek nestled against the heated mark on his chest, she breathed him in. His head rested on top of hers. Comforting hands gently slid up and down her back. “Damn it, woman. What am I going to do with you?”

She smiled in answer, “Take me to bed for a solid week and ravish me at your leisure?”

“For starters.” His lips devoured hers. Every bit of adrenaline running rampant in their systems was redirected into the heat of that kiss. When he lifted his head, neither one of them could breathe. “I love you, angel.”

She stared into his eyes. He stared back. Forever was looking pretty damn good.

“How do you know?” Luke was lying on his side. He nuzzled her bare breast and decided that a week wasn’t nearly long enough to keep her in bed. With his free hand, he caressed her abdomen, stared at her skin in wonder. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” Alexa smiled and ran her fingers through his hair.

“But how do you know?”
A daughter.
A baby girl who would steal his heart and wrap him around her tiny finger the first moment he saw her.

His wife’s gentle laugh was full of feminine secrets. “I’m all-powerful and all-knowing.”

“I’ll show you ‘all-powerful’.” Luke rolled on top of her, pinning her to the soft green sheets beneath them. A full moon illuminated her naked body and perfect skin through the large bay windows of his bedroom. Her eyes were unreadable, their expression lost in the darkness of the room. She looked mysterious and sexy as hell. Her hair spread around her like a halo of liquid silver. Like an angel.
His angel.

Like a moth to a flame, his tongue traced a path over her skin to the Shen above her breast. He traced the heated circle, savoring the taste of her flesh, the answering burn of his own mark as hers flared to life. She arched her back, thrust her nipples into the air, begging for attention, driving him on. Her smooth legs spread beneath him, then lifted to wrap around his thighs so his hips dropped into the cradle of hers, the tip of his cock pressed into her slick wet heat. She was more than ready for him.

The knowledge forced a groan from him. He sucked her nipple into his mouth, flicked the tip with his tongue, then sucked hard, fast, with a rhythm he’d learned would drive her crazy. She writhed, tried to lift her hips off the bed to take all of him.

He wanted to go slowly, to worship her, to thank her for the miracle now growing inside her body. But the wet heat pulling at him drove every sane thought from his mind. With one hard thrust he surged into her. A shocked cry of welcome fell from her lips and Alexa opened for him, pulled him deeper. She was incredibly hot, tight. Her muscles clenched around him in both demand and invitation. He tightened his stomach muscles and pressed hard, rubbing against her most sensitive spot as he thrust and withdrew, steadily increasing the pace.

Luke sought her lips with his. Of their own accord, his hands sought hers and held them entwined on either side of her head. The heat of her mouth beckoned. He thrust his tongue inside, mated with hers, plunging deep in unison with the forceful driving of his hips. The Shen burned on his chest as if it were on fire, spreading the flames to every millimeter of skin that rubbed against hers.

Luke let go of her arms and pulled back to take in the sight of her writhing beneath him in passion. He would be lost for all time in the pleasure of her body, the fierceness of her spirit. The words poured from his heart, from his very soul. “I love you, Alexa.”

She froze beneath him, then her smile melted him on the spot. “I love you, too.”

Her hands wandered up his chest, pulled on his nipples. The touch jolted his senses, shot through his body. She pushed her pelvis against his, took him even deeper. Slowly, her tongue caressed her lower lip. It was a deliberate enticement, and he was beyond resisting, didn’t want to fight the inferno rising to take them.

With a growl, he lowered his head to hers, plundered the sweetness of her mouth. He intended to hold something back, to protect the new life stirring inside her womb, but her soft voice demanded he push harder, begged him until he wanted nothing more than to bury his body so deeply into hers that she’d never get him out.

Alexa met every thrust with one of her own. Her tongue dueled with his for supremacy, staking
her
claim. She cried out her release and he followed her over the edge into bliss.

When they recovered, he pulled her to his side, her head resting in the nook of his shoulder. Her hands traced devilish patterns of desire onto his chest, tempting him to rise again.

He clamped his hand over hers to stop the sweet torment. “How do you know, Alexa?”

Sexy, delicate shoulders lifted in a little shrug. “I can’t explain it. I just know.”

“And you’re sure it’s a girl?”

“Yes.”

A daughter with blue eyes and silver hair.
Beautiful. Luke drifted off to sleep with a smile on his face.

* * * * *

White fog wrapped around Luke in welcome. He was dreaming again.

The Archiver beckoned. The ageless one. The man in white. The man with secrets. The man who made promises...and kept them
.

What? He wanted to shout until his voice was hoarse, but he knew the man never answered questions. Luke would see only what he was meant to. Maybe the Archiver needed reassurance, was worried about Alexa. “She’s safe. M-6 was destroyed. I’ll take care of her. You know I will.”