Tangled Fates (20 page)

He had returned to their forest abode, exhausted and distraught. What type of Healer was

he if he couldn’t even find a cause for the illness? The desperate pleas of the mother rang in his

ears, as did her angry vitriol.

Mia had been there to comfort him in his insecurity, and also talk some sense into him.

“You are not a god, Cohen,” she had said, as she tangled part of her smoky form with his, as if

she were holding his hand. “You have your gift, and you use it to the best of your abilities. You

cannot help everyone. Our world is not set up that way.”

And she had been right. He did what he could for those he could help, and he did it well.

He studied Annis as she dipped the spoon into the Styrofoam container. “I meant what I

said on the street, Annis,” he said quietly. “Every word.”

Annis nodded and finally met his eyes. “I know you did, Cohen, and I thank you for

explaining yourself to me. How you treated me was wrong, but at least I understand why a little

better.”

He wanted to take her head in his hands and kiss her beautiful lips.

Instead, he got more soup. A noodle slipped off the spoon and they both watched it as it

snaked its way down his smooth, skin to the resting place just above the waistband of his pants.

“I’m sorry,” Annis said quietly.

The sexual tension between them had grown. Did Annis feel it?

Slowly, she reached out, her hand going for the noodle. As her fingers came in contact

with his skin, a moan escaped his throat and an erection popped in his pants. Her touch lingered a

few seconds longer than necessary, then she pulled away, bringing her gaze to his.

Neither said anything, and Cohen fisted the sheet to keep himself right where he was,

fever and gunshot wound forgotten.

Slowly, Annis leaned into him and pressed her lips to his. She pulled back as if she had

just kissed a rattlesnake and brought her hand to her mouth, surprise crossing her face. After a

brief moment, she brought her mouth to his again, her lips moving hesitantly over his, and it felt

so right, so good.

Her hand caressed his cheek and moved down to his shoulder. He let go of the sheet and

took her head in his hands, his brain screaming to push her away, his body telling him otherwise

as it was consumed with flames of desire.

He wanted a taste, just a small taste. Something that he could remember and think about

in the future, something that would perhaps bring a smile to his face, or quench a bout of

loneliness. Just a small taste and then he would stop this. He parted her lips with his tongue, and

another moan rose from his throat. She tasted like cinnamon.

Before he was a goner, which would be at any God-given second, he pulled away. Annis

opened her eyes, confused.

“We can’t do this,” Cohen said in a hoarse whisper. “I want to, but we can’t.”

Annis said nothing, but disappointment flashed across her face.

“I . . . I made an oath. Right after I found out Mia died, I made an oath that I would honor

my mating vows for the rest of my existence.”

“A
Tambaran
?” Annis asked, pulling away.

“Yes.”

She studied his chest and stomach as though she was looking for the scars, but none were

there.

She turned away.

“Annis . . . I—”

“There is nothing to say, Cohen. Thank you for telling me where I stand.”

She got up and disappeared into the next room.

Chapter 31

Annis sat on the couch listening to Cohen’s soft breathing coming from the next room.

She didn’t know if he slept or sat in thought.

A tear trickled down her face as she touched her lips. The kiss she had shared with Cohen

had been the kiss Liberty described to her. When their lips met, her whole body had crackled, her

heart raced, and heat flowed through her as if her blood was on fire.

She had found the passion that she hadn’t experienced with Blake.

Perhaps she was destined to travel through life alone. Surely, there were many people

who did this, whether through their own accord or if they just couldn’t find a partner in life. If

she were one of these people, she would have to accept it.

She had been surrounded by people her whole life, yet she was alone. As she walked

SR44’s bustling city streets as a child, she had been swallowed up by the hustle and flurry of the

golden cities, yet in a world of her own. It was the same in the military. Yes, she had been

accepted, but as the only female there hadn’t been any bonding with anyone. She was spoken to

when needed.

Annis had a friend in Liberty, and the other females in the house. However, they were all

happily mated and wanted to spend great deals of time with their respective mates, which Annis

understood, and envied.

Taking a deep breath, she turned her head and looked into the bedroom. Cohen lay on his

side, his brow furrowed. She wondered if dreams troubled him or if it was pain.

One did not break a
Tambaran
, especially a Warrior. To do so would mean shame

beyond words. The oath couldn’t be broken, but the one who the oath was made for could release

it. Mia was dead, so there was no way for that to happen.

Sighing, she lay down on the couch, hoping sleep would overtake her quickly.

Chapter 32

Blake paced the War Room in the Phoenix silo waiting for everyone to gather.

Now that he had time to calm down a bit, he realized that the best course of action was

certainly not to go in with guns blazing. First, they had nowhere to blaze into, but hopefully

Talin would be able to take care of that with the tracking on Blake’s phone.

They needed to sit down and try to talk some sense into these idiot fuckers. It wasn’t only

their belief that the Six Saviors were responsible for the decimation of SR44 that needed to be

addressed, but also the fact that those cocksuckers were running around killing humans and

carving the SR44 language into their backs.

Blake and Talin had taken a look around deep within the FBI files on the web, but

nothing had been mentioned about the case. Either they hadn’t put the file into the computer yet,

or it was buried so deep Blake and Talin couldn’t find it.

“Hey, man,” Noah said, entering the room, his orange eyes blazing. “How’re you doing?

Last time we talked you were pretty jacked up.”

Blake nodded. “Yeah, I was cranked. I’m solid now, though. My head’s on straight and

I’m thinking clearly.”

Noah clapped him on the shoulder. “Good. We need clear-headed thinking, not knee-jerk

reaction.”

“I-I’m just worried about Annis.”

Noah was silent for a moment. “Most of us are worried about both Annis and Cohen.”

Right. Cohen. He tried to manage a little worry for the guy, but fell short.

“Of course.”

Thankfully, the conversation ended with the rumbles of deep male voices coming down

the hall. Blake took his seat and waited for the rest to do the same.

“Okay, guys, let’s get this meeting started,” Noah said, and everyone went quiet. “So,

here’s where we are. Micah wants to mount my head over his fireplace. He’d like to use the rest

of you as fertilizer on his roses. We’re all here waiting for the call from Annis, but I’d like to

kind of get some thoughts on our next step and iron out a couple of possible plans.”

“I say we get the trace and take them all out,” Hudson said.

“If there’s a way to resolve this peacefully, then I’d like to head down that road,” Rayner

said.

“Agreed,” said Jovan.

Hudson rolled his eyes and mumbled “pussies” under his breath.

“Let’s look at the layout of the land,” Talin said, who had showered two days in a row

now. “According to Annis, Cohen’s been shot, and my guess is that he doesn’t have any of his

voodoo powder with him or it wouldn’t have been brought up as an issue. If we go in like we’re

Ares, not only is there a good chance we’ll get hurt, but there’s an even better probability that

Cohen ends up dead.”

“Who’s Ares?” Rayner asked.

Talin rolled his eyes. “God of War, Rayner.”

“Don’t you eye-roll me, my friend. I haven’t bothered to take the time to study human

mythology.”

“Greek.”

“What?”

“Greek mythology, Rayner!” Talin said, exasperated.

“What-fucking-ever. Don’t eye-roll me again.”

“Okay, guys, knock it off,” Noah said. “Let’s get back on track. And, Rayner, you should

read up on Greek mythology. You’d love it. Anyway, I’m kind of lining up behind Rayner and

Jovan on this one. I say we try to resolve it peacefully.”

“Jovan and Blake tried to play nice in that sandbox, and both agreed that The Platoon

didn’t have any trouble pissing on the shovels,” Hudson said.

“Well, we also need to address the fact that they are killing humans,” Noah said, “and

find out why.”

“And if they were all dead, all problems would be solved.”

Noah exhaled loudly and studied the table in front of him. “I agree, Hudson,” he said in a

quiet voice, “but I just can’t bring myself to willingly kill five of my own kind. There aren’t

anymore of us left.”

A deafening silence settled over the table.

Blake cleared his throat. “Well, I would suggest that if you want to have a sit-down with

them, we pick the spot and a time so we can relay it to them.”

Noah nodded. “I was thinking—”

Blake’s phone blared, the ringtone of Michael Jackson’s “Bad.” What the hell? Last time

his phone rang, it had been a good old-fashioned phone-ringing sound. How the . . . ?

He didn’t have time to think about it, but he registered the smirks around the table as

Talin got up and headed for the bank of computers in the corner.

“Hello?” Blake said.

“Hello, Blake,” Annis said in a quiet voice.

He was relieved to hear her voice, yet he could detect the strain in it. “Hey, Annis. You

okay?”

“Yes.”

“And Cohen?”

“He’s alive.” There was a low voice in the background, then she said, “Micah wants to

know when you intend to hand over Noah.”

Blake looked over at Noah. There hadn’t been a plan set into place, so he was going by

the seat of his pants. He had a feeling that if he stalled until they could get a plan in place, it

wouldn’t bode well for Cohen or Annis.

He checked his watch. They needed somewhere public, yet private.

“Put it on speakerphone, Blake,” Noah said.

Blake set down the phone and hit the speakerphone button.

“Can you hear me, Annis?” he asked.

“Yes.” Her voice sounded far away and tinny.

“Hi Annis, it’s Noah. How’re you holding up? How’s Cohen?”

Everyone strained forward to hear. “Cohen is hurt badly, Noah. I am fairing okay. Micah

would like to . . . meet you.”

“Is Cohen going to make it?”

Before Annis had a chance to answer, they heard Micah say, “Give me that phone.”

They waited.

“Who is this?” Micah asked.

Blake’s anger flared, and he couldn’t resist fucking with the guy.

“Hey, Micah. Dude. How are you? It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other. This is

Blake.”

There was silence.

“We met at the Black Cuff a while back. Maybe ten months or so. How are you, man?”

Jovan laughed silently, and Rayner and Hudson grinned. Noah had his head in his hands.

“I want to talk to Noah.”

Noah’s gaze pierced the phone. “Hey, Micah. It’s Noah. I’ve heard a lot about you, and

I’m looking forward to meeting you. I was hoping that could be tonight.”

“Noah! The one male responsible for the decimation of our beloved planet!” Micah was

yelling now. “I’m going to kill both Annis and Cohen, and then it’s your turn. It was because of

you and the Saviors that our home is no more, and I intend to make you pay for your treachery! I

will deal you a very slow and painful—”

Noah stood up, anger coming off him in waves. “You listen to me, you crazy

motherfucker!” Noah yelled. “You go ahead and kill them! I don’t give a shit! He’s a male

without a mate, and she’s got a defective body! They’re no good to me, so put a bullet in their

heads and it will save me the trouble of having to meet your ass!”

Oh, Christ. Blake knew what Noah was doing. Cohen and Annis were Micah’s only

leverage of getting his hands on Noah, and if they were dead, his chances of ever laying an eye

on Noah were gone.

But sweet Jesus. That was some hardcore bargaining. Blake looked around the table, a

knot of worry settling in his gut. If anything happened to Annis . . .

All the Warriors stared at Noah in disbelief.

Noah stared straight ahead at the screen, waiting to see what would happen.

Micah was silent. “Meet me at the Black Cuff tonight at ten. Don’t be late, Savior.”

Noah’s shoulders sagged a little, and he closed his eyes. “Fine. I’ll see you then.”

He pushed the off button and tossed the phone back to Blake. “Let me know if you get a

trace on that, Talin,” he said, then strode out of the room.

Rayner let out a low whistle.

“Holy shit,” Jovan muttered.

Hudson nodded. “Yep. That’s why the guy is in charge. He’s got the triple-B’s.”

“What’s that?” Blake asked.

“Big. Brass. Balls.”

Chapter 33

Annis woke to male voices overhead, then footsteps moved across the floor. The door at

the top of the stairwell opened, and the heavy pounding of boots came down the steps. She stood