Demon's Embrace (7 page)

The wind was in the right direction.

In one motion, she spun and sent the heavy laptop bag with the laptop in it flying toward one of the men even as she pulled her other hand free to direct the burst of pepper spray into the face of the one closest to her. He swore furiously, temporarily blinded as she dropped to her hands and swung her legs around in a leg sweep, taking his out from under him. Caught off guard by an attack from an unexpected quarter, he went down.

She had her own surprises to offer. Years of self-defense classes.

Even as she scrambled to her feet again, she ducked and dodged away from another of them. Trapping his arm as he grabbed for her in the crook of her own, she turned into his motion as she threw her shoulder into it, used his momentum to keep him going as she bent to throw him, slammed him to the ground. As he went down she spun into a flying back kick that took out the next.

The one thing they hadn’t expected was a fight from her.

A part of her was exultant that all those lessons had paid off.

Her foot hit the man’s armored helmet jarringly but it was still enough to knock him off balance for a moment.

Ash, seeing another come at her from the corner of his eye, spun and took that one with a quick slash of his sword before joining her.

Their eyes met for just a second, Ash’s clearly surprised and, Miri thought, quite pleased.

She grinned, absurdly happy with herself. She’d taken martial arts all her life and been forced to use it a time or two.

“When you’re the smallest and smartest kid in third grade you’d better be able to fight,” she gasped, setting herself as she looked briefly into his sharp handsome features. “I couldn’t then. But I
learned.”

Ash smiled. It was good to know. They fought, he and his mate, back to back. Like Gabriel, she was a force to be reckoned with all on her own.

Pain burned in his arm where a bullet had pierced and across one thigh but it wasn’t hopeless. Not now. Not with Miri with him.

Now with all these out in the open where he could see them he could chance the use of magic and must if they were to have even a chance at escape. With a gesture, he gathered lightning in his hands and loosed it.

The parking lot lit up with blue-white light, arced from one gun to the next, the men holding them jittering as the muzzles of the guns rose to empty harmlessly into the night sky as he and Miri backed toward his motorcycle

Shifting back to human form – a tail and wings being difficult to manage on a motorcycle and a tail being uncomfortable in jeans – he dressed himself with a quick spell, swung on and started it in virtually the same motion as he mounted while Miri scrambled up behind him. The moment her arms wrapped securely around his waist, he gunned it and shot for the exit.

The question was whether the enemy had had time to block it.

“No, that way,” Miri shouted, pointed to one of the narrow concrete walkways with their dips to accommodate wheelchairs.

With a nod, he turned the bike. She knew this place better than he.

Ash shot them down the narrow walkway through the trees into the heart of the campus.

At this hour of the night, it was too late for the studiers and too early for the partiers to be returning. With the chill in the air only the most dedicated students would be out.

They burst out into another parking lot, the orange glow of the sodium lights illuminated them clearly. There was no help for it.

Steering for the exit, Ash gunned the bike, shot them out onto the narrow street between the school buildings, taking the bike over the grass of one of the commons as a car raced to cut them off. He burst out in front of it by inches. Few cars could come close to the speed and horsepower of the bike, it had been custom made just for him, the body of composite materials stronger than steel, with the best engine they could find.

He left the car in the dust but another popped out ahead of them, tried to cut them off.

Dodging and darting past those who tried to intercept them, weaving the bike through and around the cars, Ash headed for the open highway. There would be traffic there, not much at this time of night but no stop signs or turns. It was a straight shot, he could open up the bike there, use its speed and power to their advantage.

Everywhere he turned, though, there was another car racing to try to cut them off.

Miri clung to him on the bike. She forced herself to keep her arms wrapped loosely around his waist so she wouldn’t hamper his movements, moving with him, all too conscious of the hard muscles of his body beneath her hands. Despite the outer cold, his body radiated heat, kept her warm despite the chill of the night.

They raced through darkness broken only by moonlight and streetlights. All Miri could do was trust to Ash’s skill, tightening her hands only slightly as one car came that fraction of an inch too close, so close she swore she felt the chrome brush her leg but then Ash whipped the motorcycle around it
to shoot down the ramp and onto the highway.

Ash opened the motorcycle up and her head snapped back as the bike accelerated.

Taking the risk that no police officer could keep up with him on the bike, rounding a curve Ash turned off the headlights and taillights to give their pursuers one less means by which to follow them and crouched low over the handlebars to present less of a silhouette. He was grateful they were in less traveled territory where the streetlights were farther apart.

Even so, they’d have to take a brief rest soon, if only for Miri. The excitement of battle and flight would be wearing off now and exhaustion would follow. Already he could feel her hands loosening a little, her body not as tense against his back.

He was fairly sure they’d lost their pursuers though and there were a dozen exits those who chased them would have to search, in case they’d turned off the highway once they’d lost sight of them. That would force the hunters to check of them, he hoped.

Pain had long been a part of Ash’s world but it had been a while since he’d been in such a fight and even he felt hammered where the bullets had battered his armor. He bore numerous small wounds from ricochets, not to mention the wounds in his bicep and thigh, both of which still bled sluggishly. They had to find a place to rest and soon. With the loss of blood, exhaustion from the fight and the use of magic, he was very nearly spent, with no way to restore the loss except to find some brief respite to allow the magic inherent in his body to do its work.

Despite Miri. Someday she’d be able to relieve that need but not yet.

If that was the path she chose to take… Nothing was sure, that was life.

The thought of her filled him. He was all too conscious of her body against his back, her arms around his waist. It seemed as if he’d been hard from the first moment he’d seen her.  The connection with her was there but the choice hadn’t yet been made. There’d been no time. It was and had to be hers to make. He wouldn’t force it.

Almost involuntarily, he glanced into the rearview mirror to look at her.

She’d laid her head against his back. All he could see of her in the mirrors was her pretty hair swirling in the breeze.

Somehow, he’d manage despite the pain. It would hardly be the first time. He was too tired to consider food at the moment. Besides, it would only help a little, some fuel came from the world around him, food gave him little. His true mate…she would provide all the sustenance he would need.

In the distance, he spotted the sign for a small picnic area ahead. Beneath the trees it was heavily shadowed. Behind the picnic table there was enough space for the bike and that was all that was necessary. There was a clear view of the highway in both directions. It would do.

He dared not take them to a conventional hotel, motel or some such. It was far too easy for someone with Templeton’s money and power to track them to such a place.

“We’ll have to sleep rough,” he called over his shoulder.

Against his back, Miri nodded.

He drove the bike beneath the trees and turned it off, glancing each way to be sure he still had a clear line of sight along the highway.

Miri was almost too tired to care but she was grateful for Ash’s hand in getting off the bike. She was even more thankful for the port-a-potty tucked discreetly beneath the trees. When she exited from it she was almost ridiculously relieved to see a sleeping bag laid out beside the motorcycle, only barely visible by the light of the single streetlight illuminating the entrance to the little parking area.

Filtered through the trees and leaves blowing in the light breeze the light was uncertain but it was enough to see Ash crouched to check over the motorcycle.

She walked toward him, looking at the sleeping bag. “Where did that come from?”

Looking up, Ash saw the direction of her eyes. Although he knew that Miri accepted the idea of magic, and had seen him conjure his clothing, he knew she hadn’t had much time to process the reality of it all. He didn’t want to push her.

“Saddle bags.”

“Only one?” she asked.

He nodded.

“You sleep,” he said, “you need it more than I do. Daemonae require it less.” Which was true. It didn’t make him any less tired. “I’ll stand guard. I think we lost them but I’d rather be sure. It’ll be dawn soon, anyway, there isn’t enough time to share guard duties, only an hour or two.”

Miri was too exhausted to argue. Her life had taken too much of a sudden and strange turn. Everything that had happened that night just seemed to wash over her in a tidal wave of emotion and sensation. It was almost too much to handle. Hargrove’s persistence, the revelation of Gordon Templeton’s possible involvement, the fight in the parking lot. Although they hadn’t been trying to kill her as they had been Ash, she’d still taken her share of bumps and bruises.

She hadn’t missed the fact that she was their target but was still having a hard time wrapping her mind around the idea. She was just a physics professor. Yes, she had this weird talent, it just seemed so bizarre.

Her gaze was drawn to Ash. Warmth rushed through her just at the sight of him.

The uncertain light from the old streetlight played over his features, emphasizing the sharp obdurate angles, the harsh beauty of them.

His shoulder was against the tree, his powerful arms crossed, his posture attentive and alert.

Daemonae.

She remembered the sight of him when he’d…shifted. Wings expanding, his body powerful, his expression fierce and furious. And her visions in that brief, intense moment when they’d first touched. A surge of need and lust lanced through her. In an instant, her pussy dampened at the memory, at the thought of that magnificent body poised above hers in the moment before penetration. Her belly fluttered, almost in anticipation.

Whatever else she knew, she knew her visions were true.

It was as if some part of her knew him, as if she’d been waiting her whole life for him. All her life she’d believed in love at first sight, had somehow always believed she’d find it, despite the relationships that hadn’t worked out. As insane as it might have sounded to someone else, somehow she knew he was the one for whom she’d been waiting.

It was strange but oddly comforting to have someone be so protective of her.

“This is all real?” she said, abruptly.

As weary as she was, it all seemed strangely surreal.

Ash reached out and drew her to him. His body was warm, solid.

“As real as I am.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead.

Warmth filled her, eased her anxieties.