Seducing Eve (Guardians of Atlantis) (5 page)

She squatted next to him. “You’re hurt. Where can I find bandages?”

His gaze raked her up and down and he grinned. “Don’t suppose you have any hidden in that get up of yours?”

She blushed to the roots of her hair. “No.”

“I’ll be all right. There’s an abandoned medical station not far from here. I can patch myself up there.”

She bit her bottom lip. She could help him. She could heal him right here. It was her gift. She rested her palm on his shoulder, contemplating. If she helped him, would he help her? Would he get her out of here and back home?

“I’m…sorry.”

“For what?” he asked. He leaned his head against the wall, his eyes closed.

“For causing such hell,” she said. “You got shot because of me.”

He snickered. “Well
, the damage is done. Franco won’t stop until he finds you.” His eyes blinked open and he focused on her. “And don’t worry about me. I’ve been worse.”

She’d never seen more brilliant green eyes as she did looking into Lucian’s. “
If he won’t stop looking for me, what am I going to do?”

He shoved himself up the wall, getting back to his feet. “Let’s worry about that later.”

“I can help you,” she said, thinking she would heal him. And then she immediately regretted that. She backpedaled. “I mean…when we get to the medical station. I can…clean your wounds for you. Bandage them.”

“That’d be nice. Especially since I can’t reach them.”
He flashed a confident grin.

T
hey heard pounding on the other side of the panel. Eve’s heart tripped in her chest. The men were trying to get to them. Lucian grabbed her hand.

“Come on. We’ve lingered here long enough.”

* * * * *

The lighted hallways only went so far. These tunnels were part of the old city before the Atlantean
forefathers built the new city to make it less like an underwater bunker and more like a real city.

Lucian wasn’t exactly sure what he intended to do with Eve now that he had her. All he really knew was Franco and his band of men would be hunting
them down. He, like Eve, was a fugitive now.

Damn the luck.

Sabre would be hacked off when he found out.

He hoped Raven made it back to northside unscathed. But knowing Raven, the man wouldn’t let anything get in his way. He’d fight his way through any blockade Franco and the others set up. The thought made Lucian smile.

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Eve asked.

He still held her hand as he limped through the corridor dusty from neglect. Here the walls had started to rust. When this part of the city was first built, the forefathers thought it would be great to have a view of the sea. However, they didn’t account for the pressure and in some places it had started to leak. There wer
e many airlocks in the old city. In case of a breach, it would keep all of Atlantis from flooding.

“Yes,” he said. “I know where I’m going.”

“It seems like a maze to me,” she said.

It was a maze. But Lucian was aware of every turn, keeping the map in his head as they made their way. He was trying to get to northside via the old tunnels.
He wasn’t sure what he was thinking by taking Eve there. Maybe she could stay with Eden. Sabre probably wouldn’t like having another female hanging around, though.

He stumbled and nearly lost his footing. Waves of heat emanated off his skin and he knew he was in bad shape. He just didn’t want to admit it.

“Lucian?” Eve wrapped a hand around his arm and came to a halt.

“I’m all right.” He said it through clenched teeth.

“You don’t look all right. You look pale. And you’re sweating.”

He refused to let the pain get to him. “Let’s keep moving.”

She steered him toward a wall where she pushed him against it. “You need to rest.”

“Can’t.”

As he fell against the wall, his knees gave out and he melted to the floor. She kneeled next to him.

“Let me see that wound,” she demanded, sounding motherly and concerned.

“It’s really okay—”

“Let me see it, damn it.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He leaned forward
. Tentative fingertips probed his back near the wound. He winced with the tender flesh and groaned. He kept his gaze on her face, saw her blanch before she regained her composure.

“How does it look, nurse?”

“Not good. It’s still oozing. And some of your shirt is…charred to the wound.”

“
Bastard shot me with a fire laser,” Lucian said.

“Let me see the one on your leg,” she said, all authoritative.

“Eve…”

“I mean it.” There was a hard glint in her eyes.

He acquiesced and turned his leg over as best he could to allow her to inspect the wound. Again her gentle fingertips probed the injury which sent shooting pain up and down his leg. He clenched his jaw tighter and tried not to groan.

“Well?” he asked.

“Same as the other.” She sat back on her heels and looked him over. “You’re in no condition to walk.”

He started to push to a stand. “I have no choice.
We have to get there.”

“No,
we don’t.” She pushed him back down by the shoulders. “You stay. I’ll go.”

He stared wordlessly at
her, his heart pounding. “You can’t. I won’t let you.”

“Well you don’t have a choice.” She stood
, towering over him with her hands propped on her hips and determination etched on her pretty face. As if daring him to defy her. “You’re staying here while I get to this medical place and get supplies.”

“Eve, I can’t let you go alone.”

She looked down the corridor ahead. “How far is it? You said it was close.”

“Yes, but—”

“Tell me how far and I’ll go and come right back.”

Stubborn girl. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Why?” She looked back at him. Her face was full of strength and an iron-clad intention. “You think a girl can’t do it?”

She threw down the challenge, did she? “It’s not that. It’s just…you’re not familiar with this place.”

“I’m not an idiot. If you give me directions, I can follow them.”

He huffed out a breath. She wasn’t going to take no for an answer. He admired her gritty and dogged determination.

“All right. Follow this corridor to the end. Take a right. The old medical lab will be one of the doors on your left. I can’t remember exactly which one. But there aren’t many. Two or three. Can you handle that?”

Eve looked back up the corridor. “Yep. I can. I’ll be right back.”

Without waiting for his reply, she took off at a quick clip, her bare feet silent on the stone floor.

* * * * *

This was Eve’s big chance. She was going to patch up Lucian and figure out how to get away from him. Then she’d find Abby and the two of them would get out of this city. She would memorize all these corridors to get out of here. She could do that. Couldn’t she? Even though every wall looked exactly the same and every corridor seemed to lead to another corridor. She was truly in a labyrinth. Who was she kidding? She wouldn’t be able to make it out of here alive. She had no map, no GPS, no way out. She was alone with Lucian as her only ally.

Lucian
. Tall, sexy, incredibly handsome Lucian with those gorgeous green eyes that could tear into her soul. As she hurried down the corridor, guilt set in. She couldn’t leave him there. She had to help him. He’d been kind to her. He’d gotten her away from Franco. He had a gun. He could protect her. He
had
protected her.

But what about Abby? What would she do about her? How would she get her out of that awful lab? Maybe she could plead with Lucian. Beg him to help her. Beg him to get Abby out of there.

She should have told him the truth about her healing powers. That all she had to do was put her hand on the nasty gash, close her eyes and imagine it healed. Imagine the flesh no longer red and oozing. It had been a gift she’d been granted with at birth. She’d always had the ability.

At the end of the hallway, she paused. This is where the lights ran out. She could go right or left and it was dark as dark could be
in either direction. She took the right like Lucian had said, putting her hand on the wall to keep her steady as she tiptoed through the shadows. Her bare feet were gritty from the dust. She didn’t know why she tiptoed but something about the deathly silence set her nerves on a raw edge.

She hated the dark.

She hated the dark silence even more.

All she had to do was find the medical lab, get the supplies and then hurry back. That was it. Easy, right?

Lucian had said the old medical lab would be on her left. She stopped, peered through the gloom across the wide hallway looking for a door. These were not the sliding panels like she’d already experienced. These were the doors with which she was familiar. Complete with knob. She saw one directly across from her and tried it. Locked. She moved down the hall, keeping her fingers trailing the wall. She tried the next door. It, too, was locked.

Then something ahead crashed, making her heart jump into overdrive. She yelped.

What the hell was that noise? She pressed her back against the wall, wishing she wasn’t wearing a stupid bikini and thin shirt. She was practically naked. What if there was some flesh eating monster there that wanted to feast on her?

She backed away one step at a time. Her heart still beat hard in her throat.

“Get a grip,” she said out loud to herself.

It was probably her imagination. Nothing more. She was being silly for no reason. Steeling her nerves, she started forward again. She took a step, then another, and then her foot landed on something cold, soft and squishy. She shriek
ed and jumped back looking down at her feet. But she couldn’t see anything. She couldn’t see what it was. She backed away quickly, sliding along the length of the wall.

As she started to turn back the way she came, back toward Lucian, she saw it then. The
creature slithered out of the shadows toward her snapping long teeth. It looked like an eel with a giant mouth full of razors and dark skin that blended perfectly with the shadows.

This time she screamed at the top of her lungs as she turned and ran. Forget the damn medical lab. She was getting out of here. One quick glance over her shoulder and she saw the thing following her.

Shit!

She ran as hard as she could back to the hallway full of light. Where Lucian would be. With a gun. She rounded the corner as if the devil himself were on her tail and saw Lucian hobbling toward her, gun at the ready.

“Lucian, behind me!”

“Stand aside,” he ordered.

She flattened against the wall as the creature bound around the corner and came at her at breakneck speed. She shrieked again and cowered against the wall. Lucian fired off several shots at it and it splattered all over. Dead. Black blood leaked from it, pooling on the floor.

Lucian hobbled to her the rest of the way.

“What…what was it?” she asked. And to her horror her bottom lip quivered.

She
hated
squishy things. She hated bugs. She wouldn’t even kill a cockroach because they were so disgusting. Lucian paused next to her, leaning a shoulder on the wall to steady himself. She could hear his labored breathing.

“Viperfish. The scientists engineered them to live out of the water in one of their experiments.
We used to have them in the city as pets. I thought they were extinct.”

“
Well, they’re not. And they’re gross.” She scrunched up her nose.

“Gross?” His eyebrows rose in question.

“Yeah. Gross. You know…icky.”

He snickered as he took her hand.
“Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

“Wait,” she said. “You’re still injured.”

“I can make it to the medical lab. It’s just up this way.”

But his face was pale and he looked like he might pass out any minute.

“What if there are more of…those things?” she asked and glanced at the ugly fish. She quickly looked away, forcing back the bile that rose in her throat.

“Then I’ll kill it.”

He started walking, limping along the way.

“Lucian, wait. There’s something I need to tell you.” He stopped and glanced back at her, question in his eyes. She took a deep breath.
She had to do this for him. It was the right thing to do. What good was her gift if she wasn’t going to use it? She hadn’t been able to save her parents but she knew she could save Lucian. And when he so needed it. “Maybe it would be best if I showed you.”

“Showed me what?”

She moved to stand behind him. She placed one hand on his shoulder and the other on the wound, her palm flat against it. He sucked in a sharp breath.