The Stone Warriors: Damian (24 page)

Cassandra was waiting for him in the hallway, looking as exhausted as he’d ever seen her.

“I’m sorry,” she said immediately.

He gave her a puzzled look.

“I should have killed him myself. It wasn’t fair to ask—”

“Cassandra,” he said, interrupting her. “I thought we were partners?”

She frowned. “We are, but what—”

“That means we each do those things we do well. His death meant nothing to me. Can you say the same?”

She stared at him a long moment, then shook her head. “I’ve killed. You know I have.”

He nodded and waited.

“Thank you,” she said simply.

Unable to stop himself, he walked over and stroked her pale cheek. Her eyes closed as she leaned in to the touch, and a single tear escaped. Damian cupped her chin and lowered his head to capture the salty drop with a touch of his tongue, his mouth lingering over her soft skin, skimming down along her jaw to brush his lips over hers in a quick kiss. But when her lips opened beneath his, he couldn’t resist. He deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue between her teeth, exploring her warm mouth, feeling a surge of satisfaction at her soft moan, at the responding stroke of her tongue against his. But it wasn’t the time or place. And this was Cassandra. Too much had happened between them for any of this to be easy.

He ended the kiss gently, reluctantly, going back for more before finally breaking away with a final touch of lips that was like the quick kiss he’d intended all along. She licked her lips, as if savoring his taste, and he nearly groaned.

“Cassandra,” he murmured, his voice deep with a lust he tried to conceal.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. And there it was. All of the heat and desire he was feeling mirrored back at him. She blushed and looked away. “We should get out of here. We’ll aim for Chicago, and hope I figure out something more specific before we get there.”

The corner of his mouth lifted in a grin. “Can I drive?”

Her answering smile was weak, but it was there. “I’m driving.”

DAMIAN SAT IN the passenger seat of Cassandra’s SUV, the seat pushed all the way back to accommodate his long legs. It was a big vehicle, but tonight it felt too small, a sensation that had nothing to do with his size or hers. It was emotion that was filling every inch of space, unspoken feelings, frustrated desire. He wasn’t a particularly intuitive man, but he’d seen the hunger in her eyes after he’d kissed her. Hell, he’d seen that same hunger before, when he was buried inside her, with her pussy creaming all over him. But that was just sex, chemistry. And he’d never doubted the chemistry between him and Cassandra. If that’s all there had been, it wouldn’t have mattered what insults they threw at each other in the heat of an argument. If anything, anger would have made the sex burn even hotter.

But there was more between them than that. He’d seen proof of that tonight, too. There’d been torment in her eyes when he’d told her to shoot Graham while the man still had him at gunpoint, when she’d believed he was about to die no matter what she did.

He could have warned her that the idiot would never succeed in getting the fatal shot off. But then, maybe
he
was the idiot for getting caught at all. He was only grateful there’d been no witnesses, or he’d never have lived it down. Cassandra knew, of course, but he trusted her to keep his secret. And wasn’t that what it came down to? Trust?

Which reminded him . . . he’d have to tell her about the item he’d taken from the treasure room, because he’d be meeting Nico to turn it over to him, and Cassandra wouldn’t forgive him if he snuck away to meet Nico on his own. There was already so much between them, keeping them apart. A secret like that might sound the death knell to any future for the two of them. Assuming they had one left at all.

He sighed and stretched out as best he could.

“Would you rather sit in the back? I don’t mind,” Cassandra said, concern for him evident in her voice, though why, he didn’t know. If anyone had been traumatized by the night’s events, it was her, not him.

“I’d rather stay up here.”
With you,
he added mentally, then leaned forward to stare through the windshield. It had rained earlier, but the sky had cleared, leaving a pitch-black night. “How can you drive in this? I can’t see a thing, and my eyesight is extraordinary.”

That made her smile. “Of course it is,” she murmured. “I’m used to driving at night,” she told him, then glanced at the exterior temperature read-out with a frown. “This could be bad, though. Can you bring up the weather report on the radio?” She rattled off three numbers. He fiddled with the controls until he found the right button, then adjusted it until the numbers on the display matched the ones she’d given him. The sound was scratchy, the signal distorted, but he caught a few words. Multi-car pileup, black ice, and several closed roads. Next to him, Cassandra cursed.

“That affects us?” he asked.

She nodded, reaching out to touch the vehicle’s central display, zooming in on the map there. “There’s a massive accident up ahead.” She pointed at a big yellow symbol. “See that? That’s the accident, and look at all that red between us and it.”

He studied the map. It had just as much detail as the one he’d pulled up on his laptop, which he found amazing. “That’s us?” he asked, pointing at another marker.

She nodded again, then swore as their SUV was suddenly floating, as if on water. But it was far too cold for water out there, which meant . . .

“Ice,” she said tightly. “Black ice, we call it. It’s from all the rain we had earlier, combined with these freezing temperatures. It’s not common this time of year around here, but it happens.” She shook her head in disgust. “I don’t think we’re going to get very far tonight. But the good news is, neither will our enemies. That accident was more than an hour ago, which means they’re probably just as stuck as we are. If we’re really lucky, they died in the crash. But at least we know they’re not getting through.” She tapped more buttons on the display. “It won’t help if we get killed in a crash, or freeze to death on the side of the road, because we insisted on following the Talisman, so we’ll have to . . .” The picture on the display changed to reveal a list of hotels. “Damn,” she breathed.

“Is there a problem?”

“Not a decent hotel among them,” she muttered.

Despite the storm that had turned the road to ice and was now keeping them from their prey, he wanted to laugh. Cassandra valued her comforts. She wasn’t worried about the ice endangering their lives at this very moment. She only cared about the quality of their lodgings for the night.

“We’ll just have to suffer,” he murmured, trying to keep his amusement from showing.

She gave him a sharp glance. “Okay, look, I need to pay attention to this road, so you’ll have to start calling. It’s a touchscreen, and that’s a list of hotels at the next couple of off-ramps, starting maybe half a mile from here. We won’t be the only ones looking, so you might have to go down the list, but the more stars the better. Find us a room.”

Damian didn’t quite understand the process, but once he touched the first hotel on the list, he realized the in-dash system was linked to her cell phone and could make calls for him. He grinned. The strategist in him simply loved the technology of this era.

It was more than two off-ramps before they found a hotel with a room. Cassandra insisted the price was outrageous, given the accommodations, but the authorities had closed the road up ahead, which made it likely that this was their last chance to avoid sleeping in their vehicle. He had no doubt there were times when Cassandra had slept in the back of the SUV, but he’d seen enough of it to know that the two of them wouldn’t fit, no matter how familiar they were willing to get.

He had very fond memories of getting completely familiar with every part of her long, lean body, and, if he was honest, admitted he was looking forward to doing it again. He was willing to move beyond the insults they’d flung at each other earlier, and suspected that Cassandra’s defensiveness had more to do with her own insecurities than any real anger at him. It was almost as if she’d been looking for a reason for them to argue, because she didn’t trust what they had between them.

When he considered what Nico had told him about her history, or rather what he
hadn’t
told him, certain things became clear. Some man in her past—most likely the ex-husband—had fucked with her head, making her feel less than desirable, of little value as a woman. And that was absurd on the face of it. She was beautiful and intelligent and possessed a courage that put her life in danger almost every day in order to protect a population that didn’t even know it needed protecting.

He’d like to get his hands on whoever it was that had destroyed her sense of worth. Even more, he’d like to get his hands on every inch of Cassandra to prove once and for all that she was as desirable a woman as he’d ever met. And not only his hands either, he thought, stealing a private look at her in the dark vehicle. His cock twitched at the thought of all the things he’d like to do to her.

But while Cassandra definitely still wanted him, she seemed to accept the end of the relationship as inevitable. She acted almost as if it was better to get it out of the way, to avoid prolonging the pain. He didn’t accept that. Which meant he was going to have to seduce her . . . again. And all while chasing bad guys over half the country on ice-covered roads.

Cassandra angled toward their turnoff, swearing when they slid uncontrollably down the long ramp, and managing to slow them down just before they hit the busy road below. They hit the curb hard enough that their vehicle jerked with the force of it, and she muttered a string of curses. But Damian turned away with a smile. It seemed he was going to have time for that seduction after all.

CASSANDRA COULD barely hold her head up by the time they found the hotel, got checked in, and finally made it to their room. Their only room. Sure, they’d shared way more than a room for the last two nights, but everything was changed now, even if she didn’t want it to be. Or wait, she
did
want it to be, didn’t she?

She didn’t know anymore. When they’d first argued, when she’d said those horrible things to Damian, and he’d finally gotten angry, she’d been relieved. It was better for them to end now, better for both of them, before things got any more complicated and people got hurt. People like her. She couldn’t afford to let another man into her heart, couldn’t risk that horrible vulnerability.

And, as for Damian, he and Nick had both made it clear that he was a player. Nick had even warned her away from him. Damian hadn’t settled down with one woman in his previous life, so why would he do anything else now? Especially now, when he’d been trapped in that stone for so long. He’d want his freedom, all of it. Including the freedom to fuck as many women as he wanted. And God knew the women would line up for the privilege. Why settle for her when he could have all of that?

But now he’d confused her all over again by being so sweet this afternoon, by kissing her like he still wanted her. What was she supposed to do with that?

Unfortunately, they had no choice tonight. There was only one room, and practically speaking, it was more secure for them to stick together anyway. Sotiris or his flunkies—it was still very unclear to her whether the sorcerer himself was involved in whatever plan was afoot—knew she and Damian were coming after the Talisman, and he might consider it to be well worth the effort to stop them before they disrupted his plans.

“What do you think their target is?” Damian asked, as they rode the elevator up. Their room was on the tenth floor, and she was just too exhausted to worry about climbing stairs tonight. “Graham said ‘north’ but he specifically mentioned Chicago.”

“I don’t trust that,” she said tiredly, wishing this was all over with already. Had she ever been this exhausted on a hunt before? Had the stakes ever been this high? She sighed. “I mean, I think they really did go north, but Chicago could mean anything. It’s a huge city, with a huge suburban population. Not to mention that there are several major airports on the northern corridor. We need to narrow it down.”

“How do we do that?”

The elevator door opened. She grabbed the strap of her duffel, intending to hitch it up to her shoulder, but a jolt of pain had her crying out in surprise before she’d gotten it even halfway. Damian took it from her, and she let him. She was so tired, so overall aching, that she’d nearly forgotten her injured shoulder.

“You need to go easy on that arm,” he scolded her. “You don’t have to do everything alone, you know.”

Her lips tightened in an almost automatic response, because for the last five years, she’d done exactly that. She’d worked all alone and loved it. There’d been no one to argue over her choices on the big things, or quibble over details on the little ones. She’d been a one-woman army, and she’d liked it that way. But then Damian had shoved his gorgeous self into her life and made her feel lonely for the first time since she’d joined the FBI and been recruited by Nick.

No risk, no pain. That had been her heart’s motto, and it had worked for her. She’d been happy. But Damian made her yearn for more. Made her want things she’d thought were safely locked away forever.

With a resigned sigh, she watched, as he hefted the bag as if it weighed nothing. “Show off,” she muttered and picked up her much lighter backpack. Then she headed left down the hall to their room, where she fumbled the key card into the lock. Damian pushed open the door from behind her, placing a big hand on the panel above her head and giving a shove.

The room smelled like every mid-range hotel room she’d ever stayed in, and there had been more than a few of those, despite her preference for five stars. Outside of the big cities, five-star accommodations were hard to come by. Her steps dragged as she moved down the short entry hall. She passed a standard bathroom setup on her left, but came to a stunned halt when she hit the main room.

Sharing a room with Damian? She’d make it work. But sharing a
bed
? And not
just
a bed, but a bed that was like something out of every teenaged girl’s fantasy. It was huge. A four-poster with a mile-high mattress and a mountain of lacy pillows. She glanced around in confusion. Was this the hotel’s version of a honeymoon suite? Well, shit. That certainly explained the hotel clerk’s smirking grin when he’d checked them in downstairs. The damn bed took up most of the room and, as big as it was, it seemed ten times bigger in her mind’s eye. She swallowed a groan. She could survive letting him carry her duffel, could even survive his luscious and confusing kisses. But this? She walked past the bed and stared at the narrow strip of carpet in front of the wall heater.