Eternal Nights (30 page)

For a moment, she thought he was going to ignore her warning, but Wyatt shook his head and took in their surroundings. “We’ll keep going straight,” he said, and he sounded more choked than she had. Before she could breathe easy again, he added, “Don’t think I won’t remember what you said.” His free hand came up to tip her face to his. “Don’t tease, Kendall, because if you offer, I’m not saying no. Got it?”

Before she could do more than wonder over a side of Wyatt that she’d never seen till now, they reached the point where the hallways crossed, and out of habit, Kendall glanced both ways. She didn’t know who was more surprised, the two men coming down the hall to her right, or her and Wyatt.

He didn’t have to tug her; she was running a split second after spotting the thieves. One of the idiots fired, and she could hear the other berate him before they were out of earshot.

They ran past an open chamber door and around a corner. Kendall could feel herself becoming winded already. Damn. Had to be the lack of food.

She knew the temple dampened sound, but she could swear she heard the sound of the men running after them. “Faster, Bug,” Wyatt said, and she dug for more speed. Her small burst lasted until they reached a fork in the hallway. They didn’t pause for even a nanosecond before he pulled her to the left.

A stitch started in her side as they ran around a large curve in the hall. Her body didn’t appreciate her pushing it harder when it was sorely lacking in resources. Their pursuers were still behind them, and she strained to hear where they were. She couldn’t pick up anything, not over her own harsh breathing.

They neared another corner, rounded it, and stopped short.

There, not twenty feet in front of them, gaily decorated in gemstones, was another dead end.

Chapter Seventeen

Kendall saw Wyatt eye the way they’d come, but the fork they’d gone by was too far back—the smugglers had to be past it already—and the last chamber they’d seen was even farther away.

“Get against the wall,” he ordered grimly. “In the corner.” Drawing his knife, Wyatt positioned himself in front of her, blade in one hand, pistol in the other.

Kendall did as ordered, but wasn’t happy about him acting as her shield. As she tried to catch her breath, she looked around wildly for some escape, something they’d missed. She couldn’t let Wyatt die, not because of her.

Those men had to be close, had to be, and she wished for some sound cue to let her know how near they were.

She was getting ready to draw her own pistol, to fight beside Wyatt, when she spotted a triangle pattern of stones near her elbow that looked familiar. In her dream, she’d put her hand on this identical thing and the wall had become transparent.

Without hesitating, she laid her marked palm over the gems. The vibration increased instantly, filling her body with enough energy to make her blood feel as bubbly as champagne.

The wall opened fast, silently.

“Wyatt,” she whispered fiercely, “come on! ”

He glanced over his shoulder, saw the open wall, but he didn’t move. Kendall grabbed him by the waistband of his pants and gave a yank. One tug was all it took to prod him into action, and she released him, darting into the opening. There were no lights burning inside, but she didn’t turn them on. Illumination from the hall revealed a matching triangle on the inside, and as soon as Wyatt was in, she put her hand over it.

The wall seemed to be closing much slower than it had opened. Surely, the thieves would reach them before the damn thing shut. She willed it to move faster.

Wyatt stood facing the gap, pistol drawn, prepared to fire if the wall didn’t shut in time, and Kendall stared past his shoulder. Her eyes were glued on the corner, waiting for those smugglers to round it.
Hurry, hurry, hurry,
she urged.

The gap continued to narrow, and Wyatt shifted, keeping his weapon trained into the hall until, with an nearly inaudible scraping sound, they were entombed. No sooner did she breathe a sigh of relief when she heard the smugglers outside the wall.

“Where the fuck did they go?” The voice was muffled.

Reaching past her, Wyatt took her wrist and gently removed her hand from the stones. In the darkness, she couldn’t see a thing, but he’d remained oriented enough to know where she was.

“They gotta be hiding around here somewhere,” the other man said. “We’ll find them.”

Her adrenaline began to ebb, and Kendall swayed as lightheadedness replaced it. Before she could catch her balance, Wyatt’s arms were around her and he held her against him. For some stupid reason, she felt emotion slam into her. He always took care of her, protected her. He’d been willing to stand in front of her and shield her from the bullets as long as he could.

She reached out and hugged him back. One or both of them could have died—her mind circled back to that fact repeatedly. She might have gone to her grave without feeling his body over hers, inside hers, and that loss suddenly was more than she could bear. The reasons to sleep with him were legion, the reasons to play coward seemed as insubstantial as cotton candy. Men like Wyatt Montgomery didn’t come around often. He was one in a million and she’d have to be a fool to keep running from him.

“Keep looking,” voice number two ordered, but he sounded farther away from the wall now.

Kendall leaned forward, resting her cheek against Wyatt’s heart. It was pounding rapidly, showing that for all his outward cool, Wyatt had experienced an adrenaline surge himself. There was something reassuring about that, and she held him tighter.

They didn’t move. Of course, since it was dark and she’d been focused on the threat coming toward them, Kendall hadn’t looked around before the wall had shut. They could be standing in a room or a corridor—she had no clue—but she wasn’t going to turn on any lights. What if the glow somehow seeped into the corridor and alerted the thieves to their presence? Unlikely? Yes. Impossible? No. She was erring on the side of caution.

Holding Wyatt in such absolute darkness made her other senses sharpen. There was the gentle stroke of his fingers running up and down her back, the soft sound of his respiration, and the way her body seemed to fit against his just right. His heat seeped into her and settled between her thighs. God, she wanted him, and she was tired of denying it.

They continued to stand silently, to listen. The henchmen didn’t give up easily, and kept searching the area for quite some time. And while the two men looked, she and Wyatt waited. Kendall wanted to sit down, but she didn’t move, even after it grew quiet. She flexed her fingers against Wyatt’s back and indulged herself in a few fantasies while they bided their time.

It had been silent outside for a long while before Wyatt said, “Turn up the lights, Bug, and let’s see where we are.”

Kendall obeyed immediately, then gasped. She pulled away from him and turned slowly, gaping at the sheer magnificence of her surroundings. White polished marble with the softest dove gray inclusions lined the corridor as far as the eye could see—floors, ceilings, walls, everywhere. About twenty feet away was a pillar so beautifully carved, it was a work of art.

Almost in a daze, Kendall walked forward, her right hand outstretched until it rested against the cool stone of the column. Carefully, she traced the fingers of her other hand along one of the ridges in the pattern and felt herself calm. “Home,” she murmured, the word escaping without her consent.

“Let’s go.” Wyatt’s voice was hard.

Shaking off the trance, Kendall looked at him. His face was blank, but something told her he was pissed off. Deciding to ignore his mood, she pointed to the bejeweled wall through which they’d entered. “You don’t mean go back out there, do you?”

He scowled. “No. I reckon we have a whole new section of pyramid to explore. Let’s see if we can’t find an exit in here.”

Wyatt took her hand, linking their fingers and drawing her close against his side. There was something possessive about the gesture, and if there’d been another man present, Kendall would have thought he was wordlessly staking his claim to her.

His pace was faster than she would have liked. She wanted to look around, to absorb every detail, but he wasn’t allowing that. This time, reminding herself that she could come back later didn’t make it easier to walk past statues and mosaics of gems. Everything here was more beautiful, more elegant, more perfect than anything she’d seen before in the temple.

Thank God the thieves hadn’t been able to gain access. She had no proof of this, just instinct, but Kendall would bet every last dollar in her grad school fund that those bastards hadn’t looted this area of the pyramid. Somehow, some way, that pattern on her hand was the key into the inner sanctum, and no one else had it except her. Her lips curved with satisfaction. She would protect this section from anyone and everyone—even the Western Alliance and their social scientists.

No one was desecrating this sacred place.

*** *** ***

Wyatt kept his jaw clamped shut so he wouldn’t say anything that would either piss Kendall off or ignite her suspicions. The damn temple was calling to her like a siren song, and though he’d fight for her, how the hell did a man battle against a pyramid? And she was so blissful to be here again. Shit.

Berkant had been willing to settle for half of Zolianna, but Wyatt wasn’t that magnanimous—he wouldn’t share Kendall. This life, he was going for broke. He’d either have everything he always wanted with her or he’d have nothing.

Already, Wyatt felt her reluctance to pick up her pace. He never thought it would come to this, not again. Last time— He gave Kendall a gentle tug to pull her away from a statue that looked like a lion. Last time, they’d both lost. Not again.

They reached a large open area. She stopped, and so did he. There was light coming in, and yet if one looked at it from the outside, the pyramid was one hundred percent solid stone. Wyatt put his hands on his hips and leaned back, but it was impossible to identify what produced the fake sunlight. Lowering his gaze, he looked around, taking in as much of the vicinity as he could see.

The atrium had plenty of greenery. The aliens had brought a lot of the outdoors into this building, but only in a controlled, manicured way. For Wyatt, the beauty of nature was untamed, not landscaped, and though he’d been fretting over Kendall the entire time he’d been outside the walls, he’d liked being away from the artificialness of the Old City.

“Come on,” Bug said, and this time she tugged him.

For a moment, Wyatt resisted, then decided to see where she was leading him. It wasn’t far. Toward the center of the atrium, there was a collection of platforms arranged in an arc. He counted eight that he could see and assumed that the arc was part of a circle and there’d be just as many on the opposite side. Kendall stepped up on one and he followed.

Almost instantly, a stone balustrade rose from the floor and surrounded the edge of the raised dais. When it was at waist height, it stopped, and the whole platform began to rise. Wyatt was ready to grab Bug and leap before they went too high to get off without injuring themselves, but then he realized she was doing it. He could feel her directing the energy, using the same power that operated the lights and water within the Old City.

Elevator. They were on the alien version of an elevator. Curious about how it was engineered, Wyatt leaned over, trying to get a better look below them. They came to a halt, and Bug grabbed his arm. “Don’t do that. It’s not safe,” she told him.

Reluctantly, he stepped back from the railing, and as soon as he was balanced, they resumed moving. Wyatt fought the need to scowl. Kendall hadn’t remembered much of anything out in the middle section of the pyramid, but here it seemed to be a different story. There was no way in hell she could have taken one look at the collection of daises and thought elevator.

Bug brought them to a smooth landing and the front banister came down. He was scoping out the place when she exited the platform and moved down the hall. Wyatt scrambled to catch up with her. “Damn it, don’t walk off on me like that!”

“Okay,” she agreed easily.

Given her absolute calmness, Wyatt felt a bit foolish for getting upset. “Sorry. We need to stick together.”

She nodded, but Kendall was already looking past his shoulder, trying to see beyond him, and Wyatt felt his heart skip a few beats. No way was he losing her. He held out his left hand and waited until she finally took it. “Now we can go.”

Her palm vibrated continually, but she didn’t seem to notice and that bothered him. He didn’t want all this strangeness to be so ordinary to her. He didn’t want her to slide further into the world of the temple, to discover she liked having powers, and that she wanted them as much—or maybe even more—than she wanted him.

Then she looked at him, gave him a grin that made her eyes light up, and said, “Come on, Wy!”

Damn, Bug was going to make him insane. From time to time, he’d wondered how Berkant could have allowed Zolianna to string him along the way she had—he had an inkling now. Hope. He’d felt it when Kendall had smiled at him and used that endearment. Had his alter ego felt that too? Had Berkant believed that if he just hung in there, he’d win his woman?

Berkant, for a brief moment, had felt satisfaction. Zolianna had agreed to leave the temple and live with him. Wyatt, though, saw it as a hollow victory. It hadn’t been love that convinced her to leave; it had been her pregnancy.

They walked past door after door, and Kendall showed no interest in checking out what lay behind any of them. She wasn’t allowing herself to be sidetracked from some destination. As much as he hated this newfound confidence, Wyatt knew she had to get them out of the temple. He’d lost track of the days, but he was sure they were running out of time to warn Major Brody and his family.

Kendall turned right when they reached an intersection, and quickened her pace down the long hallway. At the end was a set of double doors.

When she reached them, Bug pulled her hand free and pushed them open. Then, before he could do more than grasp the fact that they stood in front of a massive indoor garden, Kendall grinned at him. “Dinner is served,” she told him, then darted inside the chamber.