Phoenix (5 page)

Sydney shook her head. “Well, now I feel silly for asking if you’d be okay in jeans and a sweater.”

“
Umph
,” he replied at the same time as he swayed violently in her arms. “Hi Bruce, good to see you too buddy,” he said with a trace of sarcasm, though his arm never faltered in its grip on her.

“You’re comfortable,” she murmured into his ear, the pain of the past forgotten for the moment.

“You smell delicious,” he replied without a trace of humor.

“What?” she asked in confusion, pulling back slightly and tilting her head up to look at him.

She found herself looking directly into the endless blue of his eyes. The intensity behind them was unexpected, making her inhale sharply. Cold biting air froze her throat as she did, preventing her from saying anything more.

It didn’t prevent Uriel from cupping her face in his hand, the warmth flowing through her cheek. Nor did it stop him from dipping his head and pressing his lips to hers.

Her eyes rounded in surprise before closing swiftly as she melted into the kiss. His lips were perfectly soft, and again the heat he exuded surprised her. She made a mental note to get used to that, though she was careful not to let it distract her. It took her a moment to remember that he only had the one arm and couldn’t hold both her face and her body like she was used to. To compensate, she flung her arms around his neck and pulled herself closer to him, doing her share.

“You taste wonderful as well,” he said with a wink as they parted for air.

“I find that somewhat hard to believe since I had tuna for lunch,” she said, arching an eyebrow at him.

“No you didn’t,” he argued.

“Did too.” She stuck out her tongue at him.

He looked upward and his faced scrunched up into a look that said he was concentrating. After a second his eyes flicked back to hers. “I’m gonna need to verify that,” he said, a grin tugging at his lips.

“And how do you plan to do that?” she asked slowly, wary of the mischief she could see written on his face.

“Like this,” he said softly and kissed her again. Hard.

She responded, grabbing his head tightly as their kiss deepened. Her lips parted to allow his tongue to explore her mouth, and she couldn’t stop the moan of delight that vibrated within her as it happened.

Much
later, they broke apart, each of them with expressions of happiness and delight on their face. Sydney couldn’t see her own, but she expected that it looked similar to the happiness written all over Uriel’s.

“So,” she began, breaking the ice on what might happen next.

Bruce barked.

“Getting cold boy?” Uriel asked, reaching down to give him another scratch behind the ears. His eyes never left hers. They were fixated on her, and she found she liked the attention. “We should take him home.”

She nodded. “Yeah, probably a good idea. He doesn’t have you to keep him warm,” she said slyly. Uriel blushed slightly at the compliment and the butterflies in her stomach went wild with delight.

Uriel held out his arm and she settled into the crook of it as they trekked back through the woodlot to her house. Even as they did, her brain was going crazy despite the calm in her steps.

She had kissed him.

The thought echoed through her over and over again. After the way she had purposely kept her distance in their two sessions, she had given in.

You knew it was going to happen when you agreed to see him outside work.

Well, perhaps she had thought it
might
happen. But to know that they were going to kiss wasn’t a given.

You’re going back to the house with him now. What do you think is going to happen then?

Holy shit. Sydney hadn’t consciously thought that far ahead. She was bringing Uriel back to her house. He was going to expect her to sleep with him.

Was she?

There was no question that she wanted to on the physical end. He was sexy as all hell, easily the best-looking man she had ever been with. She couldn’t say that a missing arm was on her wish list of features, but after being in her field for so long Sydney had come to realize it didn’t matter. If Uriel was going to be sexy, he was going to be sexy with one or two arms.

But more than his looks, it was the way he looked at her. Sydney was used to looks of respect and friendship from men. She was smart and good at what she did and knew that they came with the territory. But with her height and somewhat larger figure, she rarely, if ever, received the looks Uriel had given her just moments ago.

Pure, untempered, and raging desire. He
wanted
her. There was no other way to put it. The shifter walking next to her truly desired her. Sydney Hightower.

She wondered what she was going to say when they got back to the house. Was she going to invite him in? Or would he be a gentleman and decide to wait?

Uriel

Was she going to ask him to come inside? What was he going to say? Should he wait?

Uriel’s mind was ablaze with questions and thoughts, but most of all, with doubts. She hadn’t freaked out when he kissed her, true. Or when he kissed her again. But that didn’t translate automatically to being willing to bed him. Perhaps she was just being polite and when they got back to the house, she would say no thank you and tell him to get lost.

On top of that, there was the question of whether she truly was ready to sleep with him. He’d known her for barely forty-eight hours. Even if she was swayed by his good looks, did Uriel really want to push the evening in that direction? She might think that he was only interested in her for sex.

While he couldn’t hide his desire for her, he wasn’t sure he’d done enough to convince her that was far from the
only
reason he liked her. She had a fascinating brain, a quick wit, and wasn’t willing to let herself be pushed around. Combine that with her stunning looks—he was practically drooling over her long legs and soft, round behind—and she was like the most addictive drug out there. Every chance he got, Uriel wanted more. More time to talk with her. More opportunity to be close to her. Heck, he even liked when she made fun of him.

So the real question to him was: did he go in if she asked? He wanted her to know he valued her for more than just her body. Uriel knew he could say it and mean it, but that didn’t mean that Sydney would completely believe him. Not in the society they were accustomed to.

Damn, I hate having to jump through obstacles like this. Why can’t I just say what I mean?

As they cleared the forest, Uriel realized the decision had been taken from his hands.

“Damn,” he whispered, as the running truck in the driveway registered.

“Who’s that?” Sydney asked from beside him. A sliver of nervousness had crept into her voice.

He squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, letting her know that it was okay. “Those are my trainees,” he said grumpily. “I’m not sure why they’re here though.”

“How did they know where to find you?” she asked.

“Gabriel probably sent them out, with that being one of their objectives.” He sighed, frustrated with the way his evening had just been cut short. Whether he had slept with Sydney or not, he had hoped to spend more time in her company. Now, it seemed, he had work ahead of him.

“Do you have to go?” The question came out hesitant and slightly timid, as if she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to ask it either.

Or perhaps she wants to spend more time with you, but doesn’t want you to think it’s an invitation to go to bed with her.

Either way, he couldn’t. “No, unfortunately. Work calls, it seems.”

“I thought you were on leave because of your arm?”

He flashed her a regretful smile. “Just from my normal duties. Training never stops, and for that I’m on call all the time.”

“Really?” She gave him a rather unimpressed look.

“Tell me about it,” he said with a chuckle. “But we need their help, so this has to take precedence, as much as I hate saying it.” His voice was almost a growl by the time he finished, putting emphasis to his point.

“Why do you need them?”

He frowned. “Ask me that another time, okay?” He wanted to tell her, but he didn’t know her well enough yet to trust her with such sensitive information. If she wasn’t already aware of what was going on in the Valley he would need to broach the subject carefully, so that she didn’t panic.

She blinked. “Oh, okay.”

“Just not enough time to explain it all right now,” he assured her, which was the truth, if not the complete version. He hated doing that to her, but his own life depended on it, as did that of all his friends. He would get over it. When her life depended upon it, he would tell her as well. For now though, she was safe.

“I’d like to see you again when I get back though,” he told her. She smiled and agreed, and they traded numbers to stay in contact.

“Do you know where you’re going?” she asked as they hugged and parted. “How do you even know you have to go somewhere?”

“Call it a hunch based on the way Gabe’s done this to me before,” he said in a monotone voice.

She laughed, rose up on her tiptoes, and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Don’t be gone too long,” she said silkily, before changing her tone suddenly, “Bruce misses you already.”

Shaking his head with laughter he shooed her off to the house. Once she and Bruce were safely inside, he turned and headed over to the car.

“What the fuck guys?” he growled, opening the driver’s side door. There was a shifter there, but one look from Uriel sent him scrambling to the back seat.

“Seriously, you couldn’t have picked a worse fucking night.”

Jared, the former driver and nominal head of the platoon of Sentinels in training spoke for the others in the vehicle. “Gabriel told us to. No offense Uriel, but I’m not about to disobey him.”

He snorted. “You can still tell him that that’s rude to me. That’s not disobeying, just informing him that he’s being a dick. I’m sure even you can manage to do that politely.”

There were snickers from one of the other occupants in the truck.

“Find that funny, do you Connor?” he said, turning in his seat.

“Not at all,” the other shifter assured him, trying to keep a straight face.

“So where are we going tonight?”

“No idea,” Jared answered. “But he gave me this.” The shifter handed a brown manila envelope over to Uriel.

Frowning, the Stone Bear opened the package and read the handwritten instructions from his boss.

“Interesting. Okay. Jared, you’re driving. Follow me.”

Uriel got out and walked over to his own car. He slammed the door harder than he needed to and brought the vehicle to life.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” he exclaimed, slamming his fist into the armrest, though he was careful not to do it hard enough to break anything.

He glanced at the instructions once more.

Uriel,

Sorry to put this on you, but we’re all going to do it. I’ve split the Sentinels into three groups. Each of us will take them up to my cabin and stay there for a few days. Run them through some team building and wilderness drills. Also, make sure to watch to see if any of them exhibit any reactions to knowing the cabin. It might help us to identify the mole.

-G

“A few days?” he complained to nobody, gunning the vehicle forward and through a turn until he was facing back up the street. “This is bullshit,” he growled and headed for the mountain.

The reminder that they had a mole—if it was one of the men in the truck he was desperately trying to keep up with—now knew where Sydney lived. Not good. He would have to have a word with Gabriel about that, and tell his boss to stop sending them out to track down people. They had just inadvertently put Sydney in potential danger because of it. He frowned at that thought, making a mental note to tell her sooner rather than later what was going on in Genesis Valley. She had the right to know now.

Focusing on the drive he made his way quickly up into the mountains to the cabin Gabriel maintained up there. Pulling to a halt outside, he walked back down the trail, waiting for the other truck. They were taking their sweet time. Eventually they came into view and he just shook his head at them.

“Come on, everybody out,” he ordered. They hurried to assemble in front of him. “So, where are we?”

He looked at the four of them closely. They hadn’t been told that Gabriel owned the cabin, but if one of them happened to slip up and say they were at “Gabriel’s cabin,” then he would know who the spy was. None of them decided to make that mistake for him, unfortunately.

“A cabin in the mountains?” Jared volunteered, looking around at the others and the area around them.

“See fellas,” Uriel said, taking the friendly instructor route. “That’s why he’s the head trainee. He sees these things.”

The others coughed and covered their laughs.

“We’ll be sleeping inside tonight, you lucky bastards. Other than that, Jared, you’re in charge.”

Jared nodded. “Right,” he said, turning to face the other three shifters. “Connor, you unload the truck. Justin, check out the back of the cabin and that shed over there.” He pointed off to the left of the cabin where a large shed was set back into the trees. Josh, you and I are going to make a circuit of the forest. Let’s go.”

Uriel nodded in approval from where he had leaned against his truck as he listened. Much of the training the Stone Bears, and now the Sentinels, underwent was military in nature. They were, after all, a guard unit that had to be ready for any number of different scenarios.

Their motto was always to train for what you least expect to be doing. He watched as bears ripped from the two shifters and went ambling off into the woods at a solid clip. Knowing they wouldn’t find anything, and that Jared would report to him if there was, he went inside and kicked off his shoes, preparing to rest for the remainder of the evening.

None of the shifters had shown any signs of familiarity with the place that he had picked up on. Besides, to their knowledge, none of the shifters who had attacked him and Kierra here had survived, so it seemed unlikely that they would recognize it.

That wasn’t what was bothering him though. Reaching into his back pocket he pulled out the piece of paper with Gabriel’s note on it. Spreading it out on the coffee table in front of him as he best he could with one hand, he re-read it. It didn’t make any sense. Why would Gabriel write the letter? Why wouldn’t he send him a text, e-mail, or phone call? All of those were faster and far easier options, and less likely that the Sentinel trainees would crack open the unsealed envelope and read it too.

Unless he’s trying to tell you that the unsealed envelope
is
more secure than your phones.

Holy shit.

That would be just like Gabriel too. He must have found something out today that indicated his phone was being tapped. Whatever it was, it must have happened recently.

Jared entered the front door and reported the area secure.

Uriel nodded. “Jared, when did Gabriel notify you of this excursion?” he asked far more calmly than he felt. He reached out and grabbed the note, focusing on his fingers as he folded it back up. It took longer than it should have, but as long as Jared didn’t see it, the time didn’t matter.

“Perhaps an hour before we found you. Why?”

“No matter,” he said with a wave of his hand. “See to your men,” he ordered as Connor came barging through the door with the last of the bags.

“What are we going to do up here boss?” Connor asked, sitting down in a chair across from Uriel as he waited for Jared to bring the rest of the shifters inside.

“Team building,” he said by way of explanation.

Connor waited patiently, but Uriel wasn’t going to reveal any more just yet.

“Okay,” Connor said, not quite succeeding in his attempt not to roll his eyes at the cryptic response.

Uriel smiled internally. If he was going to be forced out here for several days, he was going to make the most of it. Both for his sake, and theirs. Though they probably won’t think so at first, he thought to himself.

The four of them were going to hate him tomorrow. He smiled broadly and left the room.