StrategicSurrender (17 page)

Shop windows exploded, car alarms all up and down the street
were set off from the vibration and mass chaos ensued. Hayden dragged Kiera
vertical by levering her up from under her shoulders and unsteadily she found
her feet. Sally still shot at the wizards as they scattered, her face a mask of
snarling rage.

Despite the fact Sally and Kyle fought on their side, Kiera
found herself more than a little afraid of the tiny woman. Delicate and brittle
on the outside, this witch clearly had a core of steel tempered in the harshest
of flames.

“Come on!” Hayden shouted into Kiera’s ear, though she could
only dimly hear him after the enormous explosions from earlier.

The crew of wizards had melted into the background, the
still-burning car having drawn the attention of pretty much every living soul
on the street. Sally shot the hell out of everything that moved, which appeared
to further motivate anyone inclined to linger or gawk to swiftly change their
minds. Sirens could be faintly heard in the distance and Kiera decided they had
exacted more than enough damage for one afternoon.

Hayden half ran, half dragged her farther into the
alley—away from the flaming car and any remaining wizards from the crew—and
safely past Sally and Kyle. The two Guardians continued to cover them as they
retreated. Kyle shot another series of smaller balls of fiery energy into a
series of trash cans lining the front of the alley, the contents exploding and
dissuading anyone inclined to follow or attack them.

Sally by this stage appeared to be just going through her
shotgun shells for the sheer fun of it and lay down fire randomly as she, Kyle,
Hayden and Kiera all made their escape. Kyle led their small team through a
winding series of alleys, small driveways and back streets. After a few turns
Sally finally stopped shooting, though she remained clutching her pump-action
shotgun as if she were cradling a baby.

As they continued to run, noise finally penetrated Kiera’s
ears once again. She had a minor headache from all the loud sounds and blasts,
but as she recovered Kiera didn’t care about that, simply grateful for having
been saved by the two Guardians. It wasn’t until what felt like a lifetime
later that Kyle finally led them into a small, green park area where they could
congregate under a group of trees and catch their breaths.

Neither Kyle nor Sally appeared the least winded. Hayden
breathed heavily and sweated lightly but appeared as if he could have continued
far longer. Kiera, however, panted, her body covered in sweat. She bent over to
try to relieve the pain in her side from the stitch she had been suffering from
for the last few minutes.

Kiera finally stood, her legs shaking only a little as she
caught her breath, and noticed Hayden was pressing his wounded shoulder with a
small grimace.

“Are you okay?” she asked as concern washed through her.
“Did you re-tear your wound? Should I look at it?”

“I’m fine,” Hayden insisted gruffly. “It’s just aching. I
can wait ’til we get somewhere safe.”

Kiera backed off and nodded, determined to check it out at
the earliest safe opportunity. She turned to Sally and Kyle, who once again
stood side by side and almost on guard. Sally cradled the shotgun in her arms,
ready and almost twitchy as she scanned their surroundings. Kyle appeared by
far more relaxed but still on high alert.

“Thank you so much for what you both did back there,” Kiera
said gratefully. Sally merely shrugged casually in response.

“Was fun,” she replied simply, the matter clearly closed to
her mind. Kyle snorted as he glanced quickly at his partner. He grinned
wickedly before returning his dark-blue gaze alight with laughter back to
Kiera.

“There’s nothing much Sal and I enjoy more than a good
fight,” Kyle laughed. “Keeps the blood pumping. Will you both be all right from
here?”

“Yes,” Hayden returned promptly and held out his hand for
Kyle and Sally to shake. “And thank you again.”

Kiera repeated her thanks as she too shook the Guardians’
hands and stood silently next to Hayden as they both watched the two blond
wizards cross the park, speaking quietly between themselves.

“She’s a little scary,” Kiera said, referring to Sally.
Hayden shrugged diplomatically.

“Sally is good at what she does, but she can be quite intimidating
until you get used to her ways,” Hayden agreed. “She and Kyle are both
excellent Guardians though and have a number of contacts. They should be able
to come up with something I hope.”

“I was thinking of something a little earlier,” Kiera changed
the subject slightly. “About that crew that have been following us and growing
in size. I don’t think they are regular Assassins, but obviously they are
mercenaries or killers of some form. I have a friend who might be able to reach
out to this group and maybe even scare them off our backs. Melissa is not
always—what?”

“Your contact, this witch Melissa, has she recently
partnered with an Assassin named Daniel Cranston?” Hayden asked roughly, his
brows arched in surprise as he stared at her.

Kiera felt a jolt of astonishment herself.

“Yes,” she replied. “Do you know Melissa? She’s not
particularly well-known in…erm…our sort of circles.”

“I met Daniel and she a few months ago on my last
assignment. They were wrapped up in that business with Ben,” Hayden explained.
Kiera’s mouth opened on an O of surprise as a few small pieces of that
particular puzzle clicked into place. She nodded her head silently as Hayden
chuckled.

“It truly is a small little world we live in,” Hayden mused
with an ironic smile. “I have spoken a number of times in recent months with
Daniel. I can’t quite say we’re friends—that might be taking our blossoming
acquaintance a bit further than the wizard would be comfortable describing
it—but we are certainly on friendly terms.”

Kiera grinned crookedly, amused by their overlapping social
worlds.

“I’ve helped Melissa out on the sly a number of times,” she
admitted. “Like you, we’re somewhere between friends and acquaintances. But
both she and Daniel have a far broader understanding of the mercenary and
Assassin’s world than I think either of us can lay claim to.”

“We need to call Kate and Josh and update them too,” Hayden
reminded her gently. “Now the crew has lost out on their ambush of us it’s
quite likely they will turn their attention to them instead.”

Kiera sighed and felt exhaustion overwhelm her for a moment.
Hayden wrapped his arm warmly around her and Kiera clung to his waist and lay
her head on his warm, solid chest. She breathed in his spicy, masculine scent and
they just held each other silently for a moment, relishing the simple act of
breathing and being alive after such a close call.

Tilting her head up, Kiera lifted her hand to glide her
fingers through Hayden’s silky soft black hair and guided his lips down to meet
hers. Taking their time, they tenderly kissed each other, their lips moving
fluidly along one another’s as they tasted and explored.

Hayden’s arms tightened around her and Kiera’s heart
accelerated. Standing up on her tiptoes, Kiera pressed her head harder against
Hayden’s. He gathered her closer to him, their bodies already pressed flush
against one another. Taking more of her weight, Hayden winced and groaned,
pulled back reluctantly and rolled his shoulder stiffly.

“Oh,” Kiera murmured, distressed that she had completely
forgotten about his wound.

“No, it’s all right,” Hayden insisted. “Let’s head back to
the cabin, make those phone calls and get the ball rolling on this.”

“You’re going to make a career criminal out of me,” Kiera
teased. “I’m getting rather good at boosting cars, you realize.”

Hayden wound a finger around one of her curls and tugged it.

“Next time we come into the city I’ll make sure to bring
enough for a deposit on a rental,” he promised. “I can’t have you brought up on
charges before the Tribunal any time soon. I don’t think the elders have the
least desire to see any of us in the near future.”

Kiera snorted, the thought highly amusing but very true.

“Let’s go,” she replied. Hayden took her hand in his and
they continued to walk across the small grassy area back to the main road in
search of a car they could “borrow” for the next day or so.

* * * * *

Kiera sat on the large, comfortable bed in Hayden’s bedroom
at the cabin as he spoke on the phone to Kate. As soon as they had removed
their shoes and socks, climbed up on the bed and kissed once again briefly,
Hayden had pulled away, determined to make the phone calls before either of
them passed the point of stopping.

Succinctly he recapped what had occurred after they had met
Kyle and Sally in Dan’s Diner.

“And so I don’t know if there are two teams of them, one
purely on Kiera and myself and one specifically after you and Josh, or whether
they are just going to turn their attention solely onto you two, but I thought
you’d appreciate the prior warning,” Hayden finished as Kiera removed his shirt
and peered at his gunshot wound.

The skin around the injury was still an angry red, though
Kiera could not detect any puffiness or other discoloring that would suggest
infection. Also a bonus was the fact there was no real seepage from the closed-over
hole itself. Kiera hazarded a guess to herself that the redness was from all
the exertion and strain Hayden had put his shoulder through over the last few
hours, but it did not appear to have done any real or lasting damage.

“Yeah, Kiera is going to call an acquaintance of ours to
start looking into that,” Hayden replied, presumably referring to Melissa and
Daniel. “We can take care of that from—oh, are you sure? I was assuming Joshua
was keeping your hands full.”

Kiera snorted and stood up from the bed. Quickly she
stripped out of her jeans and T-shirt, bra and panties and helped tug Hayden’s
pants and boxers down his legs. When they were both decadently naked, she
climbed back onto the mattress, leaned over Hayden’s chest and pressed the
gentlest, most feather-light of kisses to his bruised and battered shoulder.

Hayden’s fingers threaded through her dark curls and Kiera
looked up to catch her lover’s gaze, heat blossoming in her eyes. Hayden
grinned wickedly at her, his attention obviously diverted away from the
conversation he currently held with Kate.

“Yeah, Kate,” he mumbled, his mind obviously not fully on
Kate and Josh or Melissa and Daniel anymore. “The six of us meeting up to
exchange information and devise our next move is a good idea. We’ll get back to
you with the time once we confirm things with our contacts. It will probably be
early tomorrow morning, though. We’ll organize for it to be somewhere on the
outskirts of the city so none of us have to drive forever to reach there. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay, we will talk later.”

Hayden hung up the phone with a loud clang and groaned
lightly as both his hands cupped Kiera’s skull. Straddling his waist, she
gyrated her hips teasingly as Hayden rolled them both until he lay between her
spread legs, Kiera now on her back.

“I thought I could do all the work again,” she mock
complained with a pout. Hayden laughed, kissed her passionately.

“Nope, this time I want to taste you, feel you all around me
and let my hands roam where they will,” Hayden insisted.

“Oh,” Kiera replied as she pretended to think about it.
“Well, I suppose if you
really
feel obliged…”

Kiera shrieked with laughter as Hayden licked his tongue
slowly down from the underside of her breast, over her flat belly and down to
the ticklish edge of her inner thigh. Playful now, Hayden nipped a lightly
biting kiss to her sensitive skin and Kiera happily retaliated by tugging
gently on his hair.

Bending over, she bit softly into his not-hurt shoulder, a
small sting of teeth meant to tease him but not break through his skin. A
playful war broke out between them as they mock wrestled each other, more
interested in licking, caressing and tasting each other than actually winning
anything.

Hayden chortled in delight as he discovered the underside to
her breasts were ticklish and particularly sensitive. Kiera waged her own
battle and finally was rewarded with the knowledge that the base of Hayden’s
neck was ticklish and the soles of his feet were particularly sensitive.

Minutes passed and they were both breathing heavily,
laughing and aroused as Hayden managed to pin Kiera down with his body.

“Now this is power,” he crowed, appearing thrilled with his
success.

Kiera wrapped her small hand around the base of Hayden’s
shaft. During their play it had become fully erect and moist at the tip. She
grinned evilly and enjoyed the way Hayden’s hips thrust up into her hand as she
fisted him tightly.

Stroking him eagerly, she pumped him as Hayden canted
himself into her caress.

“No,” she breathlessly contradicted him. “
This
is
power.”

“I stand corrected,” Hayden agreed.

Bending down, Hayden stole a breathtaking kiss before he
tenderly removed her hand from around his cock.

“This time is for you, sweetheart,” Hayden murmured. “I
almost had a heart attack when you were insisting to Elijah that you would hand
over your memories in exchange for my freedom. Promise me you won’t do that
again.”

“I love you, you big goof,” Kiera replied, undaunted. “If
I’d needed to dance on my head to get your freedom I’d have tried to. But
thanks to Kyle and Sally we both made it through. We definitely owe them.”

“Unquestionably,” Hayden agreed as he lowered his lips to
suckle on her nipples. Kiera shivered, her breasts lusciously sensitive and she
lifted her thighs to cross her ankles around the base of Hayden’s back.

Teasingly Hayden dipped the tip of his cock head into her
wet, welcoming heat only to draw back. In and out they both parried one another
until finally Kiera reached her hand down to draw him deeply inside her pussy.
They both moaned deliciously, Kiera loving the feel of Hayden piercing her so
deeply.