Into the Light (The Admiral's Elite Book 2) (22 page)

“Becca? Becca we’re here. What happened?”

Her mouth opened and a hoarse moaning scream escaped. He didn’t have to see to know Ryan had heard the words she’d uttered as well. “It burns.” The big man sucked air in through his teeth and held his breath. Michael knew what he was thinking. That she was cracking up. That she hadn’t gotten over the fire demon like they’d all thought.

Only he knew what even Becca didn’t want him to. How could he not? There were nights on the road when they slept together, when she would wake in a sweat refusing to say what was wrong. Or lying and telling him she was nervous about the upcoming mission or some sort of other falsehood meant to deflect his concerns.

He too had a secret he hadn’t told anyone, including Becca. The demon
had
killed her. For nearly a full minute her heart stopped beating. It had been the longest minute of his existence. He’d even considered biting her, drinking
her
blood to complete the exchange that would alter her forever. Even though he knew she wouldn’t want it, facing her death, he’d been willing to do anything to save her. But instead, he’d pleaded with her.

It hadn’t been his proudest moment but he did it without shame. He’d begged her to come back to him. Unable to touch her burned flesh without doing more damage, his only recourse had been words and he’d fired them all at her as she lay, fading in his bed. Telling her he loved her; he needed her. That she was the only person he cared for and she’d brought him back from a mindless abyss where he’d been hiding from himself for decades. All things he would never in a hundred years admit to her if she were conscious. Though now he considered it, seeing that she’d gone to that dark place again. How had this happened when she was awake?

Tipping his head, Ryan shuffled over to the door. Still partially open, he peeked through the opening and spoke behind him. “We should go. Things are getting hot out there.” The strain in his voice was clear.

Seeing that there was no bringing her back in time to run, Michael lifted her small body and held her tight against his chest. Ryan looked quick, saw that he was ready and opened the door. Michael followed close behind and they blew past the hostess stand without taking the time to recover their coats.

They were just settling into the car, Ryan in the front, Michael and Becca in the back, when flashing lights rounded the corner up ahead coming their direction and colored the winter wonderland.  New falling flakes reflected the lights until the very air was filled with nothing but red, white and blue. Ryan waited until all of the officers were out of their cars before starting theirs, not pulling out until the last one entered the club. Detective Salvo walked among them. Then, carefully, he turned the car around in the street and headed back out of town.

Chapter 22

Becca came back to herself, feeling the images of smoke and fire and the agony of having her clothing and hair melt with her flesh fade. Slowly her ears registered the sounds of tires on asphalt and a humming motor while her hands felt underneath her the smooth, cool leather of their rental. Sitting up already, her hand squeezed the one beside her to let him know she was conscious. Not that he needed the alert. He would have known by her breathing, as would Ryan. Opening her eyes, she figured out that they were in the back, which meant Ryan was at the wheel.

“Pretty bad, huh?” Michael asked her gently.

She could hear the carefully guarded concern and was inwardly mortified. “I don’t know what happened.” Becca rolled her face up, finding it easier to stare at the dark dome light above her than to look at either one of the men she’d failed by fainting while on duty. “One minute I was heading for the ladies room. The next, I was on the floor.”

“You said you were burning,” Ryan cast over his shoulder. Catching her eye in the rearview, he held it for a second before both turning back to the road. “We know you were thinking about the fire demon.” Watching for her reaction, he flicked his eyes between the road and mirror.

Covering her face, she inhaled deeply and rubbed her gritty eyes. She swore she could sleep for a week. Not that she would close her eyes anytime soon. If she did, she was sure to have more dreams about the demon and there was no way she was going to bring that on if she could avoid it. Although if she was having waking nightmares, she was pretty much screwed anyway.

“It must have been something about that place that reminded me,” she mumbled.

Neither man said anything. Becca closed her eyes to keep from catching the disappointment sure to be in both sets of eyes. Deep breaths aided her façade of calm. The seat beside her shifted slightly and Michael’s cool hand slid in hers. His silent offer of support was almost too much for her and she squeezed her eyes shut to block the leakage that threatened to spill. They needed her to keep it together and do her job, not fall apart and leave them with two down. Gabrielle wasn’t snapping out of it anytime soon.

When the car stopped Becca sat up, knowing they couldn’t be at the motel yet.

“What’s going on?” Ryan threw the car into park and turned around.

Had she not been anxious about the forced discussion, Becca would have laughed at seeing the giant man have to twist nearly in half at the waist and dip a shoulder to clear the steering wheel. As it was, she sat frozen. “I told you, I had a,” she paused, “a flashback. It’s fine now. I’m fine.” Her stomach churned. Not only was she lying, she was terrified for her sanity. As well as for the safety of her unit. What if they’d needed her tonight? Her heart threatened to take off, and would have had Michael not been holding her hand. “Were you guys in trouble tonight?” Her words were tight. “I, I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”

Michael squeezed her hand and Ryan waved her concerns away. “It wasn’t a big deal. I almost shredded a guy because his girl was into me and Mike here just about got himself raped on the dance floor.” He tried to shrug but got caught on the steering wheel and had to settle for tipping his head to the side instead. “Nothing we couldn’t handle.”

Becca felt her mouth fall open and she gaped at them both.

Michael’s face was guarded and she felt her guilt shift to anger. “When were you going to tell me about
that
?” She jerked her hand from his.

Features showing no signs of remorse, Michael eyed her steadily. “I thought I’d wait until you were conscious before I hit you with that one.”

Ryan’s raucous laughter filled the car.

The sudden urge to get the hell away from both of them was unstoppable and Becca leaned over, shoving her door open hard enough it snapped back and hit her knee. Grunting at the impact and throwing an obscenity in the now roaring Ryan’s direction, she hobbled out of the car and struck off down the road. Mercifully, no one followed.

For the first mile, Becca fumed. The second mile she was sullen. By the beginning of the third, she’d made her peace with what had happened and had thoroughly chastised herself for being a raving bitch. Ryan said they were
both
confronted by overly passionate people and it sounded like they dealt with their situations appropriately. She had no right to be angry with either one. The only one who deserved a kick in the tail, was her. The one who had been lying to those who needed her and left them in the lurch when she should have been doing her job.

About the time she’d come back to her senses, Becca was nearly back at the motel. Up ahead, she saw a light bouncing toward her. For a second she considered that it could be one of her unit until the flashlight tipped her off. None of them needed such an apparatus on even the cloudiest of nights. Instincts and training were hard to undo and Becca felt her muscles tense in preparation should she need to defend herself. If she were any other human woman, walking in the dark alongside a country road in the middle of nowhere at this hour would have been suicide. Fortunately, she wasn’t normal. Her mouth twitched at the grateful feeling that accompanied that.

It was the first time she let herself consider the upside of not just the after effects of Michael’s blood inside her, but the longevity of it. The fact that she was a witch to boot. She’d taken the news better that Michael was a vampire, and Ryan and Gabrielle were werewolves. Maybe it was time she made an effort to learn more about what she was instead of trying to ignore it. It might give her some different options for managing her sight and even jumping. She could
use
her strengths instead of cursing them.

The light approached, bouncing like a flashlight being carried by someone on foot. Her brain was already calculating height and gender by the aggressive approach, level of the light, and time between bounces that hinted at stride length. By her guess, it was a man. Average size, moving steadily at an unhurried pace.

“Hello,” she called out, announcing her presence right before the light hit the ground in front of her.

“Are you all right?” she tried to engage him. Certainly
he
couldn’t be afraid of
her
? Women were conditioned to fear strange men, especially at night. Not the other way around.

No answer.

The light remained unmoving, illuminating the uneven surface of gravel on the shoulder and ice piled in a rising grade away from the street. Becca slowed her pace. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.” She spoke lightly, hoping to convey the irony she felt to the other party. “I’m unarmed.” Knowing she had several advantages over the other walker, she was comfortable making the lighthearted overture.

Suddenly, without warning, the light switched off. 

Becca stopped and her vision flared as if the light had gone back on right in front of her face. She was blinded once again. Crying out in surprise and pain, her hands flew to her temples in an effort to stop the sudden headache that went with the blindness.

There were no footsteps, no crunching of gravel and snow marking someone’s approach. And yet there was a feeling that someone was there, hovering over her. Agony ripped through her intestines as her sight flared and, without thinking, knowing only that she needed to see what she faced, she jumped.

Her vision cleared, showing her a glowing pale rust-colored light illuminating a body curled in the fetal position on the roadside that she recognized as her. Quiet filled her mind and the feeling of disconnected nothingness struck her as she floated inside this one’s head. Fires flared hot around her and at first she thought she was having a nightmare again only these fires didn’t burn her. These fires were a part of her and she walked in them. At her feet, curled up and making funny sounds was a small girl lying in the road. Energy pulsed within her and she wanted to touch it; she knew that if she touched it she would consume it. Her hand reached down and the glow followed, illuminating the girl’s features. The hand floated, fingers outstretched over the eerily lit face. Becca’s face. The girl’s eyes widened and she started to scream. One blink, then two and then she was gone, ejected roughly back into her tormented human form.
Frozen, jagged rocks poked her body as she writhed.

An engine’s hum filled her ears and she was back. Her vision restored, she twisted toward the sound and saw headlights glowing in the distance. Still panting and weak, nausea threatening to bend her over any second, hiding was out of the question. Coming around the bend, the headlights hit her with their full strength and, scrambling on her haunches out of the road, she turned toward the light, raising a hand to shield her eyes from their blinding beams.

The engine slowed, the car pulled over and she felt her shoulders relax when the door opened and Ryan called out, “You done with your tantrum?”

It was the second door she waited for. Keeping her eyes squinted near closed, she shuffled toward him, dragging her feet to make sure she didn’t trip over the shoulder where the asphalt met the rough.

“Michael?” she called out uncertainly. “Michael, I can’t see you.”

Hearing her strained tone, he was at her side. “What’s happened?” he asked her urgently. His hands ran over her body, searching for injuries. Any anger over her failure at the club was instantly forgotten at fear of harm.

“I don’t know.” She opened her eyes all the way and straightened, all hints of nausea gone at his touch. Confused, she looked up at him and felt very small. “I don’t know.” Pointing directly ahead of where they stood, she stammered, “There was a man. A light. I said hi and he vanished.” Without knowing why she did, Becca kept her jump into the unknown private. The memory of glowing orange coming from the body she was in scaring her as much as any vision of a fire demon.