Forever Burning (12 page)

She stirred where she was lying, her head on his chest and one leg thrown over him, the sheet covering half their bodies. Archer didn’t have the heart to wake her. He was about to call out that she was busy when the door opened, followed by a feminine shriek.

“Oh, my God, I’m so sorry.” The woman was a beautiful brunette with big brown doe eyes.

“Wha—” Scarlet pulled her head up and tried to tug her long hair off her face, without success.

“Scarlet, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. Zane never said—”

“Don’t worry about it.” Archer smiled. “I’d shake your hand in greeting but…” he nodded at Scarlet still wrapped around him.

The woman laughed, proving to him that she had a sense of humor.

“Don’t worry about it. When you do get up, Dimi has called a meeting in the living room.”

With a final smile, the woman backed out and pulled the door shut behind her.

Scarlet still sounded groggy, but she’d managed to get her long hair out of her face and she was looking up at Archer. “What did Ath want?”

“Meeting in the living room.”

“Bleh,” Scarlet said with feeling, and dropped her head onto Archer’s chest again. “Five more minutes, Mom,” she joked.

“Five hours—no, make that twenty four.” Archer grinned lasciviously, and rolled his hips to let Scarlet know he wasn’t the only one awake.

She laughed. “Didn’t you get enough?”

“Of you,
belan?
Never.” He lifted his head and kissed the top of hers.

She sat up. “Don’t tempt me, wolf, or I will stay in bed with you all day.” Slipping off the bed, she walked towards the bathroom, and he had the pleasure of watching her hips sway as she sauntered off naked.

He’d let her shower first. If he went in there with her, Dimi would have to come fetch them out of this room himself. That would be no good, because Dimi would have a vicious werewolf or two to deal with.

When Scarlet left the bathroom and went to the closet to get some clothes, he walked past her, stopping to steal a kiss before he hit the shower, too.

They needed to get this meeting out of the way, because he wanted to tell Dimi and the others his plan.

Yes, Scarlet was back, but Jasmine had to be stopped before she attained her goal of godhood.

If they waited until she’d done that, they wouldn’t be able to stop her. Killing an Eternal was difficult, but killing a god was impossible, or as close to impossible, as it could be in this world where myth and magic were a part of everyday life.

When he came out the bathroom with a towel around his waist, Scarlet wasn’t in the room, so Archer walked across the hall to his own room to go get some clothes.

She’d probably gone to get some food. He’d find her when he went to the meeting. That thought kept him from marching through the building in a towel to find his mate.

The separation had affected him more than he realized, and after the night they had spent together, the bond between them was stronger by far.

Archer would have to figure a way to keep her out of the fight with Jasmine. He couldn’t risk losing his
She
again, because if he lost her, he would follow her into the mist of death. Of that fact, he had not one doubt.

He decided he’d forbid her from going. She was his mate, and she had to obey his order. Yes, that was what he was going to do.

Chapter Twelve

Archer stopped in the doorway of the living room and scanned for Scarlet. His eyes found and focused in on her automatically.

She was sitting on a two-seater couch next to Heath, sipping a cup of coffee, and laughing at something Erik had said.

Love for her swelled in his heart, and he reached up and rubbed his solar plexus with the palm of his hand because for a moment, it felt like his heart would burst with the feeling.

How had he gotten so lucky? He was damned if he knew, but he wasn’t going to question it. He was going to enjoy every moment of the rest of his eternal life with his female at his side.

He walked over to where she was sitting and glared down at Heath until the other Outsider looked up and grinned.

“Did you want my seat, Archer?”

Archer said nothing, so Heath stood up and shifted to an open armchair, the smile on his lips announcing his amusement.

Archer nodded a thank you and sat down next to Scarlet, pulling her closer to him and under his arm.

She glanced at him but didn’t move, taking another sip of her coffee instead.

Archer took a mental attendance and was glad to see everyone was there—well, everyone except Zane.

With reluctance, he removed his arm from around Scarlet and stood.

“Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” He walked out the living room and into reception.

“Put the answering machine on, we need you in the living room.” Archer tossed the order at Zane.

Zane looked up from the file he’d been inputting into the computer and nodded. He rolled his chair to the switchboard and pushed a button, then stood.

Archer didn’t wait for him, but turned around and went back to the living room that had become their impromptu meeting hall.

Scarlet stood this time, and took his hand as he got to her.

She smiled. “I want to introduce you to the phoenix that helped me get home again.”

“Archer, this is Ath, Kell and Dani.”

Archer nodded and smiled at each of the females.

“Thank you all for bringing Scarlet back to me.”

Ath smiled from her place next to Erik on the couch. “You are welcome, and we did hitch a ride back with her, after all.”

Archer returned her smile, but then his expression sobered as Zane entered the room.

“We have something very important to talk about.” Dimi was sitting on one of the armchairs nearest the fireplace, and he had a cup of coffee in his hand instead of the customary vodka bottle. “How we are going to get rid of Jasmine?”

Archer felt his brows climb in amazement, but he quickly put a lid on his visible response. “In essence, yes.” He started to pace, trying to get his thoughts in order.

Scarlet left his side and went to sit on the couch.

Archer stopped and turned so everyone in the room could see him. “I went to see Jasmine at the Resting Peace Cemetery.” Archer waited for the anger, and was surprised when he didn’t encounter any.

“We aren’t stupid, Archer. When you disappeared yesterday, we knew it had to be so you could go see Jasmine and get Scarlet back.” Dimi’s deep voice rumbled in his chest.

“And you didn’t come after me?” Archer’s voice raised an octave in surprise. He would never have let one of the others be so stupid. He would have been there and stopping them before they could be idiots.

“We trusted that you wouldn’t do something stupid, and since you are back here, we assumed you didn’t,” Poe said from his place on the back of a dining room chair that he’d brought into the living room.

Archer drew his hand through his hair and looked shame- faced. “You were wrong.”

His words got a gasp from Sophia. “Archer, you didn’t.”

Cold silence answered her question.

She stood, walked over to him, and punched him on the shoulder. “You couldn’t wait and trust in us, or even Scarlet?”

Archer didn’t flinch. He’d deserved the punch, but he glanced over at Scarlet to see if he could read her expression now that he’d admitted that he’d made a deal with Jasmine. She seemed to be trying to avoid looking at him, so he couldn’t read her, and he had to fight the urge to go to her and try to explain.

Sophia pulled her arm back to deliver another punch, and he grabbed her fist in his hand, not squeezing but holding her back. “Before you bruise me anymore, I did have, and I
do
have a plan. One that’s going to rid us, and the phoenix, of the threat that Jasmine represents.”

Sophia took her hand back and went to sit down. That was all the answer he got, and when he glanced over at Scarlet, she gave him a smile of encouragement.

He smiled back at her, then turned to the room again. He explained what had happened, telling them everything, including the part about the weeping angel statue.

When he glanced over at Dimitri, he saw the demon was crying. Archer pretended he hadn’t seen it when Dimi reached up and rubbed his face to hide the evidence of his emotion.

“So, tonight you have to meet Jasmine at the cemetery to open a portal to the phoenix world?” Tate asked to clarify.

Archer nodded.

“It won’t work,” Ath spoke up and then blushed when everyone looked at her. “Sorry.”

“No, don’t be sorry. You are part of this meeting, and your opinion is valued,” Dimitri said, and Ath nodded in response.

“To open the tear, Jasmine needed Archer’s connection to Scarlet. Because Scarlet is his mate, it would have been strong enough…”

Archer’s head snapped towards Scarlet to see what she thought of the revelation that she was his
She-wolf
. Scarlet looked at him but didn’t give anything away in her expression.

Does she know?

He almost missed the rest of what Ath was saying, so he focused on her, and decided to worry about what Scarlet thought of the situation later.

“But Scarlet is on this plane now, so there is no connection, so Jasmine won’t be able to open a tear.”

“That’s good news,” Tate said.

“Yes it is,” Dani agreed.

“No, you are all missing the point.” Archer went to sit next to Scarlet with a sigh.

“Jasmine wants a phoenix, so her necromancer can enslave the phoenix, and she can become a goddess.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “There are four phoenixes in this plane right now. So we have to get rid of Jasmine before she gets her hands on one of you, and I think the best time to do that is tonight at the cemetery.”

There were murmurs of agreement.

“Then, we set up a trap for her. It’s about time someone did something about that evil bitch. Guess we are it,” Heath stated as he stood.

“I’m going to the supply room. Let’s get weaponed up. We’ll work out logistics in the meantime.” Archer said.

Dimi was the first person out of the living room and into the passage. His sudden bellow stopped everyone else before anyone could move.

“Heath! Your dog left a present on my damn floor.”

A grin split Heath’s face. “Tink is only a puppy, Dimi, so give him a break.”

“How about I break
you
next time there is shit on my floors.”

Heath laughed and left the room to clean Tinkerbelle’s mess.

“We need to talk.” Archer leaned in and spoke close to Scarlet’s ear. When he saw goose bumps run up her neck, he suddenly felt the need to do more than talk, but he reined himself in and took her hand to lead her to her room.

* * * *

Scarlet let Archer lead her to her bedroom and pushed the door closed behind them. She was sure he was going to talk about the fact that he’d made her his mate without so much as a
by your leave,
or at the very least that what he was going to do was start kissing her and let things lead to more interesting things than kissing.

What she
wasn’t
expecting was that he’d stop in the middle of her bedroom floor, turn to her and say, “Tonight when we go after Jasmine, you and the other phoenix have to stay here. I’m going to leave Heath here to stand guard, but it’s going to be up to you to keep the other phoenix from doing something stupid.”

Scarlet was dumbstruck. For a moment, she didn’t have a response.

He nodded as if he was pleased that she wasn’t arguing. “Good, Heath should be enough to—”

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” The words burst from Scarlet’s mouth without her even thinking about it. “How dare you try and bench me for this.”

Archer did a double take, then moved closer to her, placing his hands on her upper arms.

“Scarlet, please.” He looked genuinely worried. “I

don’t—”

She stepped back, shrugging her upper arms out of his hands. “I don’t care what you do or don’t want.” She drew her brows down in anger.

“You are a high handed asshole,” she spat out, feeling the urge to hit something.

“Scar—”

“Shut up,” she interrupted him again. “First, you go and marry us without even asking me. Now you are standing here, trying to tell me I’m not allowed to go up against a creature that threatens me and my race?”

Archer opened his mouth, but Scarlet shut him down again by repeating her previous words.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?”

Archer’s body stiffened, and he took two steps forward. He loomed over her so that she had to crane her neck to see him, making her step back and find her back against the bedroom door.

He reached up and caged her in, pinning her against the door with his body.

“Let me out, you—”

His mouth descended, and she tried to fight him off, but the force of his kiss melted her thoughts and turned her resistance to compliance. Scarlet found herself kissing him back with all the heat he was giving her, and more.

Archer broke the kiss when they were both breathless and panting. “That’s better,” he said when she didn’t argue.

“Jasmine is trying to capture a phoenix. What kind of stupid, dumbass move would it be to hand her one on a platter?”

He was right, from a strategic standpoint.

“But...”

“No buts,
She
of mine, you are staying here with the other phoenix, and the rest of us will take care of the threat.”

“Archer—”

He leaned down and stole a quick kiss. “Don’t try and sweet talk me,
belan
. I’m not losing the woman I love to a psycho wannabe goddess.”

With those words, he gripped her arms and lifted her out of the way. He had to, because Scarlet had lost the ability to talk or move. He opened the door and stepped out the room.

“Be vigilant,
belan
. Don’t let anyone into the building while we are gone, and for God sake, keep the phoenix here.”