Stygian's Honor (25 page)

As the door closed behind her, he turned to the two men watching silently.

Her father didn’t remain silent for long.

“I know what you’re after,” Audi Johnson rasped furiously, careful to keep his voice low. “Stay out of my daughter’s bed, Breed. She deserves better than the likes of you.”

“Better than a Breed?” He gave a short, mocking laugh as he was now forced to face the reason for the man’s dislike. “Well, now, doesn’t that just suck, because I’m exactly what she’s going to get. And keep.”

“Don’t bet on it,” Audi snapped. “She has better sense than to allow herself to be fooled by you for long.”

Stygian stared at the two men then, sensing their determination to see him out of Liza’s life, forever.

It wasn’t going to happen.

“For Liza, I’ll ensure she’s unaware of the fact that you disapprove of the man she’s chosen, because it would destroy her should she ever learn that you believe she’s too inept not to allow herself to be fooled, or that you believe the man she’s falling in love with is somehow inferior,” he growled. “But never doubt, Mr. Johnson, should you ever attempt to destroy what I’m building with your daughter, I will make
certain I take her so fucking far away that you’ll never have the chance to hurt her again. Do I make myself clear?”

Audi’s lips curled in disgust. “She would never go.”

“Yeah, she would,” Stygian assured him. “Her confidence as a woman and a warrior has stemmed from your belief in her. If she finds out you’ve lied to her, that your belief in her was an illusion, then you’ll destroy her. When you destroy the young girl that still lives and breathes in her soul, then you’ll destroy the ties that have held her to this area so firmly. And when you do that, I promise you, she will leave with me.”

He didn’t give them a chance to retaliate before he turned and pulled the door open. Stepping into the outer office, he faced the knowing sadness in Liza’s gaze and the worry and fear in her mother’s.

The animal inside him rose with predatory awareness.

She knew. A part of her was aware that more had been going on in the office than he or her father would want her to know.

Taking a seat in the outer office, close to the door, Stygian sat back, determined to bottle the anger and pretend it didn’t exist.

He should have expected it, he realized. It was a common problem to those Breeds who had mated human women. Even those who professed a lack of prejudice suddenly found it in surfeit whenever their daughters, or close female relatives, found themselves mated to one. As she worked, her father came and went, moving about the offices and taking care of business as head of security for the Nations headquarters and the president of the Navajo Nation. Audi maintained the illusion of politeness, and Stygian followed suit. But hell, Liza was no fool, and she was so damned intuitive that he swore she would have made an excellent Breed.

It was just after lunch and her determination to work through it, that she closed down her computer and straightened the papers on her desk before lifting her gaze to him.

“I’m ready to go,” she told him. “I e-mailed Ray and asked for half days for a while, and he’s agreed.”

“Besides, he and her father both know Liza needs
to concentrate on her safety now,” Jane stated gently as she followed her daughter and rose to her feet from the couch across from Liza’s desk.

Stygian had little doubt that the change of hours had been the mother’s idea. She’d been nervous, antsy, each time the elevator pinged an arrival, and Stygian knew each time the doors slid open that Jane had braced herself for trouble.

She was terrified for her daughter’s safety, even more so than her husband was.

“Very well.” Stygian nodded, relieved at the decision. “I’ll call down and have the car brought around.”

“There’s actually an elevator that goes directly to the underground parking area.” Jane smiled back at him. “I’ve talked to Audi, and your driver can have his parking slot next to those elevators for the time being. That should eliminate any problems that could arise. The underground garage is used only for Ray, high-security visitors, and the tribal chiefs, and it’s heavily secured. Everything’s already been arranged and the guards on duty have been informed.”

Stygian had been aware of the parking garage and had made a note to discuss parking arrangements before they left for the day. Having it taken care of by Liza’s mother was a relief. The primal anger the other man had roused inside him earlier still had yet to settle.

Stygian held back his surprise. Her mother had remained in the room with them, chatting with Liza whenever her daughter had time and keeping coffee in full supply.

“Thank you, Mrs. Johnson.” He nodded cordially.

“No, thank you, Stygian. And you call me Jane.” Moving to him, she took his hand between hers and stared up at him, her eyes damp with emotion. “Just take care of my baby. Anything you need to ensure her protection, you have only to let me or her father know and it will be taken care of.”

Stepping away, she turned back to her daughter, said her good-byes and returned Liza’s hug fiercely. “I’ll be here when you come in tomorrow,” her mother promised.

“Mom, that’s not necessary.” Surprise filled her voice. And fear. She didn’t want her mother there. In case there was danger, she didn’t want her parents anywhere near her.

“It’s very necessary, Liza,” her mother assured her firmly. “You’re my daughter, and I will be here. Now, rest, and we’ll talk tomorrow.”

He knew now where Liza had gotten her stubbornness, he thought in amusement as Liza gathered her purse and briefcase and moved to him.

She was more distant than she had been earlier, though, as they made the ride to the lobby and walked toward the SUV parked outside the doors. Opening the back door, he helped her in before following her. Nodding at Flint as he glanced in the rearview mirror, he gave him the go-ahead to leave before reaching over and covering Liza’s hands as they clasped in her lap.

She was fighting something, fighting some fear or uncertainty that perhaps even she didn’t understand. He could feel her confusion, though, and that dark pain brewing brighter and hotter deep inside her and, he suspected, causing the silent retreat.

He hated the lack of emotion and sense of warmth that was always a part of her.

How the hell did she do it? Was it voluntary or subconscious? And where the hell did she go?

Rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand, warming the cool flesh, he released the unusual, if quiet, sound of a primal question.

It was a sound he had never made before, one he’d never heard—somewhere between a half growl and a low questioning breath of a hum. As though the animal he carried inside him was calling out to her itself.

Her head whipped around as her heart gave a hard leap.

The animal he was raged inside him before that spark of her inner spirit showed itself in the surprise and eased his anger.

Just a spark. Just a hint of the woman she was.

And what he sensed coming from her all but froze his soul in terror.

For a second, he didn’t sense the woman he knew, in any way.

For the briefest moment, it was a stranger he felt, a stranger he touched.

With his gaze locked with hers, her entire being open as Stygian gave the primal animal he was free rein to call to her, he realized he had opened a door inside her that he had never imagined existed, and for one heart-stopping second he swore he was going to receive an answer to he animalistic call.

And just that quickly, it was over.

Whoever, whatever, had nearly stepped forward, retreated just quickly.

“Is everything okay?” Liza asked, and he sensed her confusion, her uncertainty over what had just happened.

He didn’t know what it was. He had no idea how to identify or describe what he had just felt, what he had just glimpsed inside her.

But he was determined to find out. One way or the other he would learn exactly who or what he had found hiding so deep inside the psyche of the woman he loved.

The woman he was determined to mark as his mate.

CHAPTER 12

Audi watched from the window as the SUV carrying the daughter Audi had traded his soul to protect twelve years before heading back to the hotel.

Fists clenched, his jaw aching from tension, he nearly flinched at the knowledge that she was sharing a room with that Breed.

Stygian Black.

If he wasn’t Liza’s lover yet, he would be soon.

“What are we going to do?” he asked the friend that stood beside him, knowing they hadn’t expected this.

In all the years they had been protecting the girls they called their own, they had never anticipated this.

“They’ll be protected.” The same grief that twisted him filled Ray’s voice as well.

“What are we going to do, Ray?” His question hadn’t been answered. “Their protection at this moment in time isn’t in doubt. Their protection, if our secrets are learned, is quite another thing.”

Glaring at the man he had weathered a war, a prisoner of war camp and the politics of the Navajo Nation with, Audi realized they were finally facing the consequences of the choices they had made over the years.

Ray breathed out heavily. “Remember those articles we read on the Breeds and mating? And Father’s suppositions that such rumors were true?” he finally asked.

Audi closed his eyes briefly.

God, no.

If those stories were true, then no doubt he had lost his daughter forever.

“Isabelle,” Ray said his niece’s name roughly. “She no longer uses her own doctor, but a Breed doctor exclusively. She exhibits all the signs of a Breed mating, and when Terran questions Malachi, the Breed merely stares back at him silently. What more proof would a man need?”

Would Liza tell him if such a phenomenon had occurred within her where the dark Breed Stygian was concerned? She was incredibly loyal to friends, he knew. If she mated with the Breed, then her emotions would be even more so involved.

Her loyalty would no longer be to her family first, but to the Breeds instead.

And if her loyalty was to her Breed first, then she could unknowingly end up betraying them all. And possibly destroying her.

Audi could handle the unintentional betrayal, after all, she had no idea of the secrets she harbored. After all, he and Ray had committed no crime, nor had they done anything that would betray their daughters. It was what it would do to her, it was the fact that the daughter he loved would no longer exist, that threatened to destroy him.

Hell, it would destroy him. He and Jane both. It would destroy them in ways that there was no way Ray and his wife could possibly understand. Unlike Audi and Jane, they hadn’t developed the closeness and the bonds with their daughter, Claire, that existed between them and Liza.

Liza was his and Jane’s life. They had worked tirelessly to protect her, to ensure her happiness, independence and well-being.

And now, it was all being threatened.

God help them if they lost her, because Audi knew, they would never survive it.

It wasn’t going away.

The involuntary separation of mind and body, of emotion and self. And she couldn’t seem to find her way back.