Rise of the Gryphon (10 page)

“Careful,” she warned. “Or we’ll be right back where we started.” But she’d said that in a breathless voice that was so damned sexy it rode along his senses, stroking him even harder.

Evalle whispered, “What’d you do to . . . uhm, stop me from attacking you a minute ago?”

That broke the tension threatening to snap his body in half. He sucked in a deep breath and straightened away from her, anything to keep from pulling her up against him. “I used a spell to wrap you and dilute the power, but it’s probably only temporary. I doubt it will hold long. We need to get that thing off your arm.”

She wiped a hand over her face. “In the meantime, I’ll be . . . dangerous to be around.”

He could see where this was going. “I’m not letting you out of my sight. I’m not concerned.”

“You should be. I’m not Bernie. I
can
kill you.”

He had more faith in her than she had in herself. “I’ll take my chances.”

She got that stubborn look on her face, but she didn’t argue with him. “That armband had to be why Imogenia was acting erratic when we first met her. I thought she was on some cooked-up drugs. Think she was using a spell to block her reactions?”

“Possibly, and one much stronger than mine.”

“She could have told me about
this
. She might have told us the truth, but she was twisting the words. Probably pissed that I got the upper hand on her.” Evalle pounded her fist into her palm and started pacing. “I’m going to find that bitch and break her—”

“E-
valle
.”

She snapped her head around to him and snarled, “What?”

Ah, hell. “You’re letting the bone influence you again.”

Her mouth opened and closed. She started to say something, then just growled. “Crap. I have to talk to Macha and VIPER. If I go around Sen with this thing, it’ll end in a bloodbath.”

Of her blood. “You’re taking it off.”

“I have to
gift
it to someone. Remember? Who am I going to give it to?”

“Me.”

“We already had that discussion. No. Besides, I wouldn’t give this to my worst enemy.” She rubbed her arm. “I’m tired, Storm. I need to go home and get some sleep.”

Telling Evalle he wanted her close to keep her safe would probably set her off again, but he couldn’t leave her alone with her wearing the powerful artifact. “You’re staying at my place.”

“No.”

Didn’t she realize this was not up for debate? She wasn’t safe being out alone, when anyone could trigger a reaction from her. “Why not?”

“I don’t want a replay of Sex in the Country.”

“You know I won’t do anything.”

“I’m worried about what I might do to
you
, Storm, plus I need to talk to Macha before she hears about these games another way and thinks I’m holding back information.”

Had she lost her mind? “Talk to
Macha
while you’re wearing an ancient bone that shoves your pissed-off level into hyper speed? She’s dynamite and you’re a hot fuse. She raises your hackles when she’s in a good mood, and right now she’s at the end of her patience with Alterants. Snarl at her once and she’ll destroy you with a flip of her finger. You can’t do this.”

Evalle leaned forward, her mouth rigid as she gritted her teeth against unleashed anger. “I
am
doing this, so let’s hope your spell helps channel my inner passive child.”

Yeah, right. She didn’t have a passive bone in her body and there wasn’t a spell on this earth that would turn her into a docile woman.

S
torm drove through downtown Atlanta with one hand on the steering wheel and his other toying with a strand of Evalle’s dark hair while she slept in the passenger seat. This woman had breathed life back into his heart. Had made him care about living again.

How was he going to keep the hardheaded Alterant safe?

If his visions and his spirit guide were right about the witch doctor from South America being close, he had to figure a way to keep that bitch away from Evalle, especially with Evalle’s control compromised.

Turning off Marietta Street, he drove down to an area below the main street levels. His truck tires bumped over the rails of an old train track that gave history to the iconic Underground Atlanta entertainment mall.

Jostled mildly, Evalle slept like the dead, just as she had for the whole trip back from the mountains. He didn’t want to wake her, but she had less than fifteen minutes to get inside her apartment before light leaking over the eastern horizon turned into full-blown daylight.

He didn’t want to leave her either, but he’d finally relented when she’d argued she wouldn’t rest if she spent the whole time worrying about what she might do to him.

Also, with her safe in her underground apartment he’d have time to do some tracking.

Driving across the last section of the cracked concrete lot where knee-high weeds sprouted, he parked in front of a crumbling brick building that shielded Evalle’s basement home.

And sat there for several seconds, indulging in a stolen moment. Just the two of them. No one to save. No one to kill. What he wouldn’t give to make this time stretch into infinity.

He leaned over the console and kissed her softly.

She woke with a start, alert. Her bright green eyes met his. He’d taken her sunglasses off when she’d fallen asleep. They were parked in the dark shadow of the building, where no light would harm her eyes.

Evalle breathed deeply and smiled.

Sunshine came in many forms. The ball of fire that burst into the sky daily had nothing on one of her smiles. She leaned forward and kissed him back, fingers gliding into his hair, then curving around the back of his head to pull him closer.

And just like that, he had the erection from hell.

He held her face, tasting slowly, when he practically shook with wanting her. When he traced his fingers down to her shoulder, he slipped his hand around her neck.

Her skin started to heat, but he was ready this time and broke the kiss. Or tried to.

She wrenched him closer, kissing with more urgency.

“Evalle . . . honey,” he murmured when he could get a word out. “Have to stop.”

“No.”

He didn’t grab her this time. No sudden moves unless he wanted to go airborne. Instead, he said, “The armband.”

She paused, kissed him again, then paused once more, hesitating with indecision, but this time she pulled away and released a sigh weighted with frustration.

He could sympathize. Frustration had become a natural state for him, but it appeared that some of his spell was still holding. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“Yes.” She snagged her glasses off the dash and shoved them onto her face before opening the door to get out. He met her at the front of the truck.

Light glowed in the eastern sky, but she had eleven minutes left until the first rays of the sun broke the horizon. He wanted eight of those but wouldn’t push her for more than she could handle right now, so he stood a few steps away, hands loose at his sides.

Had to be ready for anything.

She crossed the few steps separating them and lifted her fingers to his chin, then her lips to his, kissing him gently. Pinning his hands at his sides to keep from touching her took all the control he had left.

A man could only resist so much.

When she moved back, she kept her fingers on his face. “I’m ready for . . . more. For us.”

Words he’d dreamed about hearing. “You have no idea how much I’d like that to be the case but—”

“But nothing.” She lifted her glasses long enough for him to see her clear gaze before she dropped them back into place. “This is
me
, Storm. Not the bone. You said to trust you. When I get this thing off my arm, I want to try . . . with you.”

Those words hadn’t come easily.

Her pride had prevented her from taking the plunge before now and either making a fool of herself or harming him. But that same pride forced her to face her fears. To meet him on equal footing. With Evalle’s deep sense of honor, she’d follow through no matter how much the idea might terrify her.

Humbling to be given a trust so precious.

He’d never let her get to the point of feeling terrified, and he believed she had plenty of control over shifting when she was fully in charge of her actions.

No woman could stack up next to this one.

Wrapping his fingers around her hand, he turned her palm to kiss the soft pads. “I’ll be here when you’re ready, but not until you really
are
ready. Right now, I just want that thing off your arm before you try to kill Sen or Macha.”

She laughed. “Let’s hope I have more control around those two than I seem to have around you.”

He’d like to be near when she saw those two. “Where’re you meeting Macha?”

“Upstairs here in the building, on the roof.”

Evalle would be in her apartment until dark, which would give him time he needed. “Come to my place before you go to VIPER.”

“I don’t want you signing on with VIPER again. Not for this Alterant issue.”

“I’ll be looking for you.”

She rolled her eyes and grumbled something acerbic under her breath. “This is my fight. Even if you sign on with VIPER again, only two people can get into the beast championship with this armband. I’ll probably have to argue hard to get on that VIPER team, but Macha’s opinion should sway Sen. I’m telling you right now that I’m not going to vote for you to go, so you have no reason to come back to VIPER.”

“With my background, I’m the best piece of intel on these beast fights, and I plan to dig up more on the ABC.” That made Storm the prime candidate to be entered as a fighter. Something Tzader would agree with. The only other choice would be entering Evalle, but she couldn’t shift into her Alterant beast state, so she couldn’t possibly fight another Alterant and win.

Didn’t matter. Storm was going with her regardless.

She said, “Then share what you find out with me and I’ll give the information to VIPER.”

“We’ll talk.”

“It’s a good thing I’ve got my inner beast under control, because I have the urge to beat some sense into you.”

He gave her a quick kiss. “You’re out of time. Get inside and don’t forget to stop by after you talk to Macha.”

Shaking her head, she lifted her hand, fingers pointed toward the metal door that covered her elevator. The door slid open and an oversized elevator appeared. All
directed by her kinetic power. When she stepped inside, she turned around. “Where’re you going?”

“Home.” He hadn’t lied. He was going to his house first to grab a shower before he headed back to the area where the Beast Club had been held in the mountains.

Then he’d shift into his jaguar so he could track the slightest scent.

He’d find Imogenia and persuade her to tell him everything about that bone that she hadn’t shared the first time.

I
mogenia dragged Bernie along on his spelled chain leash that clanked every time he caught up to her. She should make him shift and carry her, but he’d whine about that.

Worthless excuse for an Alterant.

Couldn’t even kill a jaguar.

Thorns on a bush caught her dress and snagged a hole.

Next time I make a deal, it won’t include traipsing all over a mountain in the middle of the night.

With the sun finally ready to appear, Imogenia picked her way along the base of Oakey Mountain, relieved this miserable morning would come to an end. How was she going to gain Noirre majik with this wretched beast?

Why couldn’t she have captured an Alterant with some backbone?

A man like that jaguar shifter who’d kicked Bernie’s butt.

She passed through a copse of trees that shivered in the wind and entered a clearing she’d visited before midnight on her way to the Beast Club.

Rattling erupted all around her, as if hundreds of rattlesnakes circled where she stood.