Avenger (9 page)

Nikki stared at the books and notepads. That’s when she sensed it. “Hounds.”

“I forgot to mention that if a seeker doesn’t find you quickly, hell hounds will be released to help in the search. Since they drop in and out of the midplane after you’ve used it, they can sometimes get to you more quickly.”

“Time to go,” Raven said, pulling Nikki to her feet. All positive thoughts were gone.

They threw the front door open, but it was too late. The hounds were making their way across the snowy meadow, their hideous black forms and fur-matted paws beating against the ground. Seven hounds in all, the most Nikki’d ever seen at one time. Her lungs sucked the cold outside air and it chilled all the way down, causing her T-shirt to feel way too light. Christopher had offered them warmer clothes the night before, but there was no time to get them now. “What do we do?”

Behind the hounds, a smattering of wings materialized, dropping from the sky at such a rate it forced another breath into Nikki’s already full lungs. In the mix she spotted Mace.

Three Halflings flanked him. From the distance, she couldn’t make out faces, but she didn’t need to. She knew Vine by his hair. Glimmer’s bow and quiver of arrows were held ready as she ran toward the cabin, aiming at the hell hounds closing the distance to Nikki. Winter, her dark hair streaking behind her as she ran, pointed to the lead hound, and Glimmer let her arrow fly.

It cut through the air and found its mark. With a yelp, the hell hound skidded to a halt and turned to face Glimmer. Blood ran from its side in a red-black river.

“Get her out of here,” Mace screamed to Raven. “We’ll follow you when we can.”

Chapter 7

R
aven lifted Nikki in his arms and leapt into the sky.

She squirmed against him as she looked down and saw the fight. Hounds moving toward the Halflings, Glimmer sinking another arrow, and Vine leaping onto one hound’s back. “Raven, we have to go back. We have to help them.”

“No. If the hounds found us, the seeker might be close behind. And if you get so much as a scratch … Our best chance is to get you away from here.”

Nikki couldn’t help the convulsions that started in her stomach and wrenched outward, finding voice in a desperate wail. She clung to Raven.

“Don’t cry, Nikki,” he whispered, and pulled her into more of an embrace than a hold. His wings flapped against the mountain air, causing the two of them to rocket toward the midplane.

She couldn’t stop shaking, and realized part of it was relief. She’d seen Mace. That meant he was alive.

“Mace and the others will find us when they’ve killed the hounds.”

“How?” She couldn’t think clearly — the image of Mace landing, his powerful legs propelling him toward her, and his authoritative voice booming the words, “Get her out of here” kept rolling over and over in her mind.

“Christopher will tell them where we’ve gone.” His voice was almost soft.

“What if the seeker gets there before they can kill them all?”

Raven stopped in midair — like hitting the brakes after careening down a roller coaster’s deepest hill — and considered her for a moment, then rocketed west so quickly it jolted Nikki’s head straight back.

He dropped onto a mountaintop. Raven set her on her feet, and when she wobbled he grabbed her shoulders to steady her. “We’re about a hundred miles from the cabin, so this should be good enough.”

“What are you talking about?”

He picked up an ice-covered stick and examined the meaty part of her upper arm. Before she could protest, or even react, he raked the stick across her skin. Searing pain filled her senses. “Raven what are you —” But as bright red blood appeared on her arm, she knew.

Raven dredged the tip of the stick in the blood and dropped it onto the ground.

A second later, they were airborne again.

“Sorry about that,” Raven said, nodding down to the scrape. “Your blood’s on the ground, and apparently that’s irresistible to the seeker. It should draw him here. Hopefully, Christopher is right and it’s spilled blood, not blood on you, that is easiest for him to track.”

Her gaze followed his below her shoulder. A jagged line marred her skin. “You did the right thing.” But even she wasn’t convinced by those words. He traveled farther west then shot straight up.

Before long, they entered the midplane.

There was no question they were in another realm. The midplane — the zone between heaven and earth — resembled the world she’s always known — with trees, hills, rivers and forests — but all of it was bathed in a warm golden glow as if the sun had burst and scattered its particles into the air. It was beautiful, serene, and only safe for a short while, since they were being tracked.

Raven touched down at a stream and released Nikki slowly. “Doing okay?” He studied her. Her shell-shocked eyes and bewildered look proved she was unsettled from seeing Mace and Glimmer, and it made him wonder if he was doing the right thing.
She is alive. That’s all that matters
.

She squeezed her upper arm. “My arm stings a little.”

He took her by the hand and led her to the water. “Let’s wash out the cut. That wasn’t exactly a sterile hunk of wood.”

She nodded and he reached a hand into the water. He drew his cupped palm toward her, but paused. Raven’s gaze left the wound and considered her face.
What if …

Nikki peered down at the wound and nodded. “I agree. Don’t rinse it.” He felt her pull back slightly. “It’ll leave my blood in the stream.”

He let the liquid drain through his fingers then wiped his hand across his jeans.

Of course, there were
other
ways of helping heal a wound. Not that he should try. But as she squeezed her forearm and frowned down at the cut, he knew
should
didn’t matter.

Before she could protest, Raven licked his lips and pressed them to the cut.

She flinched, a hiss escaping her lips. “Raven, ouch.” She pulled from him, horror filling her golden eyes. “Why did you do that? My blood is on you now. That makes you a target, genius.”

Her lips were a hard straight line, but as she clutched her arm with her free hand, her eyes ablaze, all he could think was,
Man, she’s hot
. Hot mad, but also hot sexy. He allowed himself a half smile. “Did you know your cheek dimples when you get angry?”

She smacked his arm. “This isn’t funny, Raven. That burned! And was … incredibly stupid!”

She dropped her attention to the wound. It had healed, like he knew it would. Nikki blinked a few times, then ran her hand over the tiny, silvery scar.

Raven sniffed. He knew Mace had done the same angelic healing thing when she’d burned her hands.

“You healed my arm with your spit.”

“Wow, it sounds really gross when you say it like that.”

“It burned, Raven. Why did it burn? Mace kissed my hands after the lab fire and it was far from painful.” She grabbed his chin with her finger and thumb and peered into his mouth like the answer was there, resting on his tongue.

He pulled away from her, though part of him wanted her to continue her scrutiny. “Yeah, well, Mace is a little purer than I am.” Raven shrugged and sat down on a rock. “Bitter blood in me.”

“But your eyes have lightened, so you’re not close to falling into darkness anymore, right?” It was both a question and a plea. Nikki dropped to her knees on the ground to look him eye to eye. Maybe to make sure she understood the whole iris-darkening thing. Either way, he liked her like this, all interested in him and full of questions. Especially when she leaned in a little closer. “Vessler fought me on the lawn of my house, and you and Mace knew I was a Halfling because you watched my eyes darken.”

“I was there, Nikki. You don’t have to tell me what happened.”
But keep talking
. She’d dropped her hands to his knees; heat from her fingers radiated through his jeans and vibrated into his gut.

“Your eyes were slowly darkening until …”

“Until I met you.”

She withdrew her hands quickly. “But they’re light now.”

“Things can change in a heartbeat, baby.”

She grabbed his upper arms. “Raven, don’t joke about that, okay?”

Yes, his eyes had lightened. When Raven began the journey to keep Nikki alive, his eyes were nearly black, a sign he was shifting to the darker side of his nature. A side she made him no longer crave. “Everyone is one breath away from choosing evil, Nikki. For me, it’s just a shorter trip.”

She didn’t like hearing him talk like that, he could tell. Well, too bad. It was a fact. If Nikki really had chosen Mace, what did he have to live for, anyway? To fight for?

Tears welled in her eyes, and she tilted her chin back to hide them.

Raven forced out a long breath. If she only knew what that
combination of fearlessness and fragility did to him. “The lock was rusty.”

Her tears ceased. “What?”

“On the metal door at the museum. The door was rusted around the lock. That’s how I could rip it open.”

“So, you didn’t tear metal?”

“No. We’re strong enough to bend metal, but rip it open? Not likely.”

Her eyes narrowed, but a smile was teasing at the corner of her mouth. “Why’d you tell me?”

He shrugged and stood. “Seemed like the right thing to do.”

Nikki tugged on his pant leg until he reached down to help her from the ground. “See, Raven? You’re not nearly as close to the abyss as you think you are.”

He wished that was true. “Come on, let’s go to a concert.”

The pounding thud of both bass guitar and drum took turns vibrating Nikki’s lungs. “Really loud,” she said, cupping her hands over her ears.

Raven was leading her around a hallway that ran the length of the stage. “You’re a Halfling. The more you tap in, the stronger your senses are.”

Tapping in — the full realization of her power and ability — would be nice, especially if that ushered the arrival of wings. Nikki shrugged her shoulders up and down a few times. No. Nothing felt different.

Raven skid to a stop and looked down at her from his six-foot-plus stance. “Don’t worry, you’ll get them soon enough.”

Embarrassment warmed her cheeks.

“I love this song,” he said.

Nikki listened a moment. Yeah, she’d always liked it too, but a few decibels quieter. Something about the look in his eyes made her happy inside. His eyes. Those round lakes of fervency and fire that could turn velvet soft in an instant. So many emotions could traipse across their diameter, it seemed wrong not to give them a few moments attention.

The light in the hallway was dim, only adding to his persistence. Yes, that was the other thing about his eyes. Whether they were studying the terrain for escape, sorting details necessary for conquest, or stopping her heartbeat with their softness, those eyes held more persistence than some armies. Suddenly, she felt bad for the way she’d treated him earlier. Raven was Raven, and part of what made him that was his determination — even in pursuing her. She’d warned him to stop or she’d leave, and he stopped. Very contrary to his nature. But, he’d done it. For her.

Always for her.

He didn’t come any closer, but somehow the moment felt more intimate than it had seconds ago. His eyes closed, shutting off that well of optic emotion. He breathed deep. When he spoke, his words were soft as silk and far away. “The first time I heard it on the radio, I’d been out snow skiing in the Swiss Alps. I returned to the ski lodge, and it had been …” His eyes snapped open and looked not so much at her, but through her, like he was reliving a beautiful memory through her irises. “I don’t know, it had been, like, a perfect day.”

He exhaled and her mouth went dry, because she realized as he talked he’d had very few of those kinds of days.

“The sun was just coming up, and it washed everything in
gold; the lodge, the mountains, even the snow. I’d found some untouched powder on a mountain I’d never noticed, and —”

“And you claimed it as your own.”

He blinked himself fully from that moment and fully into the present.

“Yes.” That was all he said. And it was enough.

“I’ve never snow skied.”

“I’ll take you.”

Nikki felt something smooth run over the back of her hand and glanced down. Somehow, their fingers had interlocked. “Kiddie slope, please.”

He moved toward her, but only marginally. The kind of move that could be a press of gentle wind, or the twitch of a muscle … or the motion of a man trying to keep his distance.

“You have eternity, now, Nikki. You’re a Halfling.”

Yeah, eternity if someone didn’t murder her. Unfortunately, she seemed to attract the murderous types. But it wasn’t that part of his words that snagged her attention.
You’re a Halfling
. Eternity she would spend with her match. Mace. Or Raven. She’d been so sure, so certain, but now …

Well, now, Raven was doing the one thing she didn’t need him to do, and it was the one thing she’d asked him to do. Step back. Give her space. Stop pushing.

In his normal state, he was way too cocky, way too cute, and way too irresistible.

But this was worse.

He’d stripped all that, and she was getting a glimpse at the man beneath the ultra-cool exterior. And she liked what she saw.

“It’s about us, you know.”

Nikki frowned, hoping
he
hadn’t caught a glimpse into
her
mind.

He nodded above. “The song. Spreading your wings, you reach the horizon. My heart feels like it’s gonna die. You disappear into the morning and once again I cry. As you fly.”

“It’s about Halflings?”

Raven winked. “Well, she claims it’s about me, but I’m not the only Halfling Kaylyn has ever known.”

Arrogant Raven was back in full form and sort of shattering the moment. Nikki threw out a breath. She turned and headed deeper down the hall. “This song is
not
about you,” she grumbled.

After a series of twists and turns, they reached a backstage door guarded by a guy dressed in a black T-shirt with the words EVENT CREW written in tall yellow letters. It may as well have said STOP.