Dawn of a Dark Knight (25 page)

In her authoritarian doctor tone, she replied telepathically
, I’m here to help Ethan, of course.

His tone gentled.
You sure you’re up to it? He’s…pretty bad.

Kira’s gaze locked with Ashor’s.
I know. But I need to try.
She didn’t know if she could help with her body so weak. But Ethan’s life-force flickered. Time to try.

Tension radiated from Ashor. He may be still as stone, but he was poised to pounce. Apparently, he wasn’t into her helping Ethan for some reason. Her gaze locked with his. Smokey heat darkened his eyes. As if he touched her, lust surged waves of electrical pulsations through her body until even her extremities were throbbing.

She snapped her lids closed.
I want to do this, Ashor. Chill.
She chanted to herself,
must focus, must focus
…

Finally, healing energy flowed into Ethan. Rapidly, she closed the slash that penetrated into Ethan’s abdomen and cut through his spleen, which was the source of most of the bleeding. After moving the gastrointestinal contents back into the intestines, she repaired the macerated bowel. A pneumothorax caused accumulated air to compress his lungs, making his breathing labored.

A surreal floating sensation warned her she’d expended as much as she could. The healing energy indicated Ethan would live, if they got him blood and fluids.

When she was done, Ethan met her gaze and opened his mouth.

Kira shook her head. “We can talk later. I’ve done what I can. V is going to give you a blood transfusion.”

To V she directed, “Give him the transfusion and then he should get at least a liter of balanced electrolyte solution at a moderate drip.”

V scrunched up his face and shrugged as if confused.

“That’s Ringer’s or something like that. Just IV fluids.”

He nodded.

“It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to give him pain relief and some antibiotics, which I’m sure you’ve got on that impressive shelf of supplies over there.” She nodded at the intact cabinet across the room.

V shook his head. “Drugs don’t work well on us. Our bodies process them too fast. I can give it to him, but he’ll need a dose three or four times what a human would get. In general, we don’t get bacterial infections. So, the antibiotic? Probably not needed.”

“Then at least give him the pain relief. I’d like him to sleep for a while.” Ethan’s eyes remained fixed on her. “I want you to accept the sedation this time. Sleep it off.”

Ethan nodded. “Thanks.”

Swaying in exertion, Kira threw a hand against the wall for balance. The ground was about to become her best friend.

Ashor materialized, lifting her into his arms.

She rolled into the safety of his heat and whispered, “So tired…”

When Ashor touched her, his body jolted as if someone hit the on switch. Desire punched through him like a shockwave. Her expressive blue-green eyes sucked him in as if she was seeing straight to his soul and judging. That made him nervous. He didn’t want her to know about his human hunt-and-kill problem, even if all his victims had been Hashishins.

Yet, he wanted to express how grateful he was for what she had done. How extraordinary he thought her skill. How everything about her made him crazy, and he would literally die for her, if she asked it of him. But he couldn’t vocalize anything. His mind and voice went on communication strike.

He cleared his throat. And just when he finally found his voice, she passed out.

Damn but he was far more distressed about her in this ultra vulnerable state than he expected to be. The exhaustion was normal after burning up such energy. But that didn’t make it right.

Possessive aggression exploded in his brain. Emotions he’d never experienced tore at his control. Jealousy. And fury at Ethan. Had he felt that euphoric high when Kira’s energy swept through him? He would pound the already half-dead magus to full-dead just for the possibility. Ethan had taken too much from her and stolen what was his.

Ashor shook his head. Ethan wasn’t the enemy. The
kem-seki
didn’t care as it ramped up his rage
. Kill him.

Shit.
He backed away from Ethan with Kira pressed against his chest. Once his back hit the wall, he reached for
seichim
, hoping for control.

Seconds later he sighed in relief as he shoved the
kem-seki
back into its box. He watched Ethan’s chest rise and fall. He didn’t try to delude himself into thinking anything he or V had been about to try would’ve helped. Ethan had a one-way ticket to dead until she’d stepped in. He was proud of her. Yet again, she’d saved another one of them.

The gods had dictated her destiny when they activated the mark on her wrist. And they’d chosen well. Her gift of healing was pretty goddamn incredible. And that was without the amulet. The bottom line was he could not be with her
.
Fuck.
How could this insane lust-thing between them be wrong?

He had no clue how to stop the possessive craze that at the moment prevented him from being able to do something as simple as put her down.

The subtle scent of honey almond floated up his nose. With a lean-in, he discovered it came from her hair. Beautiful.

Looking over to V, Ashor said, “We need a group meeting. Let’s say at daybreak. Can you arrange this?”

With a grim look, V inclined his head in consent and said, “
Da,
I make it happen.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

His large hand stroked down her side coming to rest along her thigh. She snuggled into the heat of his body, as if she could melt into the rock-solid chest. Her senses zinged from the contact. Her body screamed for more.

Wait a sec. She was awake, not dreaming.

Pushing to a sit, Kira discovered she was on Ashor’s lap. His hand fell away from where it had been softly stroking her hip.

Dark brows were drawn low. His lashes hid his eyes, which remained fixed on her hip. And she didn’t miss the massive erection pushing the zipper of his dark jeans against her thigh.

“Feeling better?” he asked, his voice gritty.

Her heart flip-flopped. “How long was I out?”

“’Bout thirty minutes.”

He had held her for a half hour?
Kiss him,
her hormones screamed. Her mind said,
No kissing. You’ve got a catastrophe to avert
.

“I need to speak with Vance.”

“Why?” His body stiffened.

“He’s a problem. Imagine what he’ll think when he sees Ethan’s miracle recovery. Somehow, I’ve got to convince him to leave. I think Javen can make him forget.”

“Javen?” His aura went red and dark. Violent. Jealous.

She bit her lip to prevent a smile. He cared. And far more deeply that he’d probably admit.

“I have every confidence you could bully Vance into whatever you wanted, but I think Javen can use his
special ability on Vance.”

“What special ability?”

“His mind-thing.”

“A mind-thing? I thought his mojo was fighting.”

“You’ve got to be kidding. You don’t know? How long have you known this guy? He can muck around in people’s heads. How can you possibly not know this?” In her mind she added,
Stop looking at me like I’m about to get it on with Javen. I need his help. He might have a great ass, but I don’t want to touch it.

You’re the one that noticed his ass to begin with.

Kira sighed. “Give me a break. His ass has nothing on yours. Trust me.”

“Bad for him you took note of it at all.” Ashor wiped all expression from his face, although his anger crackled in the air between them. He moved her out of his arms and stalked to the door. “I’ll get Javen.”

When he returned a few minutes later, he scowled at Javen before leaving.

Javen maintained his post on the opposite side of the room throwing Kira a distrustful glower. The same crazy madness that resided in Ashor simmered beneath Javen’s surface. A slight intrusion pushed within her mind. In response, she slammed up a barrier she felt reasonably confident he couldn’t breach without making it obvious he was spying. Intuition told her if Javen could enter a person’s mind, he could probably make alterations in there as well.

She walked toward him.

Javen threw up his hands. “Oh, no. You bloody well keep to that side of the room. Ashor may be down the hall giving us the appearance of privacy, but I guarantee if you get any closer, there will be a bloodbath.”

She backed toward the sofa and sat.

“That’s better.” Javen began the process of hand rolling a cigarette. “Now, what do you want with me?”

“I need you to erase Vance’s memories. Make him forget all of this and go home.”

He dropped the cigarette and cursed. He swiped it off the floor and scowled. “I won’t ask how you know I could do this, but no.”

“Why the big secret? I think it’s pretty cool. And why not?”

“I haven’t found it to be a particularly useful skill.”

“You can scan through a mind and barely let the person know you’re there. It’s got to be difficult to sort through all the chaotic thoughts. ”

“The last time I attempted to induce amnesia the man forgot a lot more than what I suggested. Poor bastard couldn’t recall his own name and died of a stroke a week later. I passed out for two days from the backlash migraine.”

“Was that when you were less practiced?”

“It’s too risky.”

“Let me help. I should be able to help you not to pass out and control your pain.”

His scowl morphed into a no-fucking-way. Although intimidated, she pressed on, “Vance is now attractive to the Hashishins. Imagine what he’s noticed about you guys? Making him leave and forget is our best option. You haven’t got much to lose. If you don’t try and he babbles about something odd that happened here, Hashishins may torture him to death for the info. Think of him as a practice dummy.” She sensed the moment Javen’s deliberation changed to consideration. She rose from the sofa and moved to stand in front of him. “Please try.”

He nodded tightly. “No guarantees. The Hashishins will probably kill him anyway out of sheer spite. Aside from that, I’m high as bloody kite right now on some new turbo-charged meth. Who knows how that could affect things.”

****

Kira pushed into the kitchen and halted. The tension in the air registered about twelve on a ten-point scale. Vance paced. Christian tracked him with deceptively bored eyes from a nonchalant lean against a counter. Sweat dampened the chest and armpits of Vance’s tailored, light blue shirt. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing a heavy bandage over his previously slashed wrist.

Vance stopped and gave her a fierce glare that slid into a sneer of revulsion. She backed up a step, shocked. This was a new side. And, confirmed her instinct not to reveal her not-so-normal abilities.

“What the hell are you doing with these freaks?”

Javen said, “Christian, go have V to fix you up. We’ll take it from here.”

“Thanks,” said Christian who seemed almost giddy to exit.

He wore the same blood-soaked shirt. She reached out to catch his arm as he passed by. Quickly, she repaired what she could in the few seconds of contact.

She grabbed Christian’s arm to stop herself from going down when a wave of weakness hit.

He caught her and softly said, “Thanks, but you didn’t need to do that. Want me to get Ashor?”

“No. For right now, let’s try to keep him out of this. He’s, uh…not in the best mood. I’ll be okay.” She smiled reassuringly. Depletion drummed through her and she staggered, stabilizing herself with the counter Christian just vacated.

Vance shuffled away from Javen. “If you’re recovered, Kira, why aren’t you returning to Baltimore to get away from these crazies, especially that Ashor guy? He tried to kill me. Did they tell you that?”

She massaged her forehead against a budding headache. “I don’t think I can go back to Baltimore.”

“What do you mean you’re not going back? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to see whatever caused that blood bath in the other room. You can’t even begin to imagine what that Ashor guy did to the man that had a knife to your throat. There was blood everywhere like a horror movie. Only, it was real.”

Vance stopped his tirade. His eyes glazed over. The revulsion was back. “You’re screwing him, aren’t you? Is this the reason you’ve become a cold fish in bed?”

Her cheeks blazed. “That hasn’t happened.” The word “yet” hung ominously in the pause after her statement. She cleared her throat. “Why don’t you have a seat and we can talk about this?”

“You want to screw him. How many months has this been going on?” He advanced fast, and grabbed her wrist with a twist.

She gasped against the pressure. Bones were within seconds of snapping. She pulled and twisted, but was unable to get free. Were she a bit less woozy, she’d unleash a can of whoop-ass on him. Her heart thudded loudly when she caught the insane glint in his eyes. Her peripheral vision saw Javen moving in fast.

In a flash, Ashor exploded into the kitchen. He punched Vance, knocking him to the far side of the room while simultaneously catching Kira against his side. He gently pushed her into a chair. Within seconds, he had Vance by his throat.

“I warned you,” Ashor murmured as he squeezed. Gurgling was all that erupted from Vance as he clawed at Ashor’s hand.

“Crap,” she said. Moving to Ashor, she placed her hand on his back. “He’s an asshole. We know that, but I’m okay. Let him go so Javen can do his thing.”

“The shit doesn’t deserve life.”

“Please.” She touched the arm crushing Vance’s throat, and absorbed some of Ashor’s violent energy.

The fury in Ashor’s gaze receded. He threw Vance away from him, but kept his body between her and Vance.

Vance stumbled into the kitchen table, struggling to breathe. “You’re crazy. You’re all crazy! Who are you people?”

Ashor gave a slight nod to Javen. He then lifted Kira’s wrist, gently massaging. “How bad did he hurt you?”

“You prevented any permanent damage. Don’t worry.”

Sweat dotted Vance’s forehead as he backpedaled away from Javen. “Stay away from me with your weird eyes.”