Shadow's Awakening: The Shadow Warder Series, Book One (An Urban Fantasy Romance Series) (27 page)

“I’m not going to kill you,” it whispered. “I have to deliver you alive. Alive and intact. Mostly. But I can have a little fun with you. If you tell me where the Warder is, I’ll take it easy on you.”

Hannah stilled. No way. Bad enough this thing was going to hurt her. It wasn’t going to use her to kill Conner. Still unable to reach her Tk enough to defend herself, Hannah tried throwing her head backward in a reverse headbutt. Her skull glanced off some part of its face. The grip on her neck didn’t loosen. Not knowing what else to do, Hannah let all her frustration and fear take over her body. Flailing her arms and legs, she kicked wildly at the Voratus.

“I don’t have time to fuck around with you. The Warder could be back any second. Too bad. At least we have the drive back.”

With little effort, the Voratus shoved Hannah in front of it and swung its heavy fist. The punch landed square on her jaw, an explosion of blinding pain that sent Hannah to her knees. She fought not to collapse to the floor as her sight grayed. Hannah blinked furiously, determined not to pass out. The idea of falling unconscious and waking up alone with this thing was enough to keep her eyes open. Vision blurred, she thought she saw it reach into its back pocket and pull out several plastic zip ties, already prepared to slip over her hands and feet. Before she could scramble away, it had her hands wrenched behind her back, the loop of the tie over her wrists. The distinctive zipping sound of the restraint pulling tight sickened her more than the plastic cutting into her skin. With a grunt, the Voratus used her bound hands to roll her to her stomach. He pulled off her flip flops and pressed her ankles tightly together. The bang of her ankle bones hurt just as much as her jaw.

Hannah tried to think through the pain and panic. The second zip tie was tight around her ankles now. She was immobile. Completely useless. Her slight Tk abilities seemed to have disappeared. Forget resonating. The small amount of power Hannah could grasp was as useful as throwing sand against a brick wall. She was so weak the Voratus wasn’t even aware she was trying to push his mind. All that training and the first time she was in a dangerous situation she fell apart. Too late, Hannah understood why Conner said she should always run first. Despite her lack of car keys and bad footwear, Hannah wished she’d listened to him.

The Voratus flipped her again, getting her in a better position to carry out to its car. Before it lifted her, it was ripped away.

Twisting her head, Hannah caught a glimpse of broad shoulders and dark hair. Relief blasted through her. Conner. The fear that he’d been killed had been as bad as the thought that he might not get to her in time. She didn’t blink at the crack of the demon’s neck breaking. A calix appeared in Conner’s hands from nowhere, flashing in the light as he jammed it deep into the Voratus’s chest. It captured the demon’s spirit with the same sucking sound Hannah remembered from the fight in the farmhouse. Moments later, Conner pushed the filled calix into his pocket, dropping the dead body on the cabin floor.

Kneeling beside her, he used one of the bloody knives to cut her free from the zip ties. Hannah sat up, rubbing at her wrists.

“Did you see any more of them?” Conner asked.

“No. Just those two.” Hannah got to her feet, aware that they had to leave immediately. She took a few steps to the hall by the bedroom door and grabbed their bags. “Do you have the keys?” she asked.

“Yeah. Did you pack? We need to get out of here.” Conner moved to her side, taking the bags in his left hand, leaving his right hand free. In answer, Hannah headed for the open door of the cabin, comforted by the warmth of Conner’s palm on her lower back. Seconds later they were speeding down the gravel drive without bothering to close the cabin door.

Chapter Sixteen

Hannah gripped the door handle of the SUV, chest tight as they whipped down the curvy mountain road. Her brain still catching up with the past few minutes, she pushed her tangled hair off her forehead. Flipping the visor mirror down, she examined her face for damage. Her cheek was swelling where the Voratus had punched her, but it wasn’t as bad as she’d expected. Must be the Shadow healing. Her eyes were wide and a little wild, but otherwise she looked normal. Hannah closed the mirror, pushing the visor out of the way. Beside her, Conner was rigid with tension, his jaw tight, knuckles white on the wheel.

“You okay?” he asked, risking a quick glance at Hannah. At their speed, he couldn’t take his eyes from the road for more than a second.

“I’m fine,” she said. “He hit me once, but that was it. I killed the first one. The one you got didn’t have time to do much. How did you know? The wards?”

“No. I went to tell Junie we were leaving.” Conner swallowed. “She was dead. I was on my way back to you when the wards went off. I should have thought to protect her.” Guilt saturated his voice.

“Conner.” Hannah had no idea what to say. He and his friend had both cared for Junie. Logically, Conner couldn’t have known she’d be in danger. But guilt had no logic. When her mother died, Hannah had understood that she wasn’t at fault. Yet she hadn’t needed Glenn’s taunts to make her feel responsible. If only Hannah hadn’t been so sick, caused her mother so much stress.

There was nothing she could say to Conner that would sound anything but empty. Instead of mouthing platitudes, she reached out and laid her hand on the back of his neck. The muscles were rock hard with tension. Conner sighed.

“As soon as we get down the mountain and the cell coverage is more stable, I have to make a few calls. I’m going to try to get the Oracle and see if I can connect you with the Shadows directly. I want to avoid taking you to the Citadel if I can. If I can’t get Zach, I’ll have to bring you in. You’re not safe on your own. If that happens, I’m going to tell them I found you hitchhiking on my way back from the beach. Don’t tell anyone otherwise, okay?”

“I thought you said they already knew something was up,” Hannah said, dropping her hand from his neck in confusion.

“They suspect there’s a missing Shadow and that he or she might be with a Warder. They don’t know anything. Only Kiernan and the Oracle know the truth. It’s better if we say we just met.”

“Yeah, okay,” Hannah said, looking out the window. The thick forest flashed by in a dizzying wash of green and brown. She’d never been prone to carsickness, but Conner was taking the steep, curving road faster than the SUV was meant to turn, rocking the vehicle from side to side. On top of the gross factor of slitting the throat of the Voratus, the motion sent Hannah’s stomach pitching uneasily. She looked away from the window and focused on her jean-clad knees instead.

So this was the end. Conner was done with her. So done with her that he wanted his people and hers to think they were strangers. Hannah tried to be sensible. They weren’t supposed to be in contact at all. Pretending they’d never met made sense. Yet she couldn’t help but feel tossed aside. As she’d suspected, everything between them had been on her side. Conner had been playing along. And why not? He was a nice guy and he got a few days of sex out of it. It wasn’t too bad a reward for saving her life. Hannah couldn’t be that mad. Yeah, she felt used, but he’d rescued her from the Vorati twice. Sex was the only thing she had to pay him back. Now they were even.

The car’s sickening rocking eased as their path straightened and Conner merged onto a wider road. As he’d said he would, he pulled out his phone and began to speak. Hannah’s heart softened when she heard him telling Kiernan that Junie was dead. As much as part of her wanted to rage at him for using her and then tossing her aside, Hannah couldn’t hate him. He’d helped out a stranger and lost a friend in the process. If he wanted to minimize the damage to his life when he sent her on her way, who was she to judge? And if she was being honest, she’d gotten what she wanted from him. They had amazing chemistry. Hannah had wanted to feel alive, to feel normal again. A few days of crazy sex with Conner had done the trick. With a sigh, Hannah closed her eyes and rested her head against the cool window. In a few hours, everything would change again. She might as well get some rest while she could.

Conner slowed his SUV on the street in front of the Citadel, waiting for the traffic to clear enough for him to pull into the underground garage. Now that they were here, he felt as if a boulder was about to fall on his head. Mind racing uselessly for any other option than giving Hannah up, Conner shut down the despair flooding his heart. He had no other choice. No good one. Showing how he felt would only make this harder. Conner came to a stop opposite a garage entrance and flipped on his blinker. Hannah looked up at the modern steel and glass facade in surprise.

“Why are we stopping here?” she asked.

“This is the Warder Citadel,” Conner answered. “At least, this is the Citadel for Charlotte.”

“Oh. You said ‘Citadel’ and I thought it would look like a fort or something. Older. This looks like an office building.”

“I know,” Conner said, laughing. “That’s what the rest of us said when Michael moved us here. But it’s convenient and it blends in.”

The opposing traffic broke for the length of a few cars. Conner hit the gas and pulled into the garage, slowing to allow the gate to rise in response to the tag on the windshield of his SUV. He parked in an open spot close to the service elevators. Normally he’d park in his numbered parking place and use the main bank of elevators, but today Conner wanted to avoid other Warders as much as possible. This time of day tended to see more of his fellow soldiers in the halls than any other. Late enough that those who had patrolled into the early morning were up and around. Early enough that they weren’t out on the streets yet. He didn’t think any of them would recognize Hannah as a Shadow, but the sight of Conner leading a strange woman through the halls of the Citadel would be enough to raise a few eyebrows.

As he’d hoped, the service elevator was empty. The ride to Alexa’s floor wasn’t as smooth or fast as it would have been in the main elevators. The thick, wide doors opened on a dark hallway. Conner slid his hand to the small of Hannah’s back, unable to resist touching her one last time. Before he lost his nerve, he pressed a folded slip of paper into her hand.

“My number and address,” he said. “In case you need anything.”

Hannah took it and opened it, staring at the scribbled numbers and words for a moment before folding the paper and shoving it into her back pocket without saying anything. Conner wanted to ask her to promise to call. Not to just walk away. He wanted to pull her into one of the storage rooms they passed and kiss her again.

That was a lie. What he wanted to do was drag Hannah out of the Citadel, take her to his place and keep her there, naked and chained to his bed, until he’d had enough and could bear to let her go. Sending Hannah away felt like the worst decision he’d ever made. She was a Shadow. Not meant for him. Didn’t matter. She felt like his other half.

If this had been about him, Conner knew he would have found a way to justify keeping her. He might have given in to selfishness and set them up for a life on the run from the Sicari assassins the Warders would send after them. But Hannah had a whole world in front of her that only the Shadows could show her. She had depths of power they’d never be able to uncover without the help of her people.

And then there were the Vorati who continued to pursue her. Someone had sent them after her. If they’d gone to that much effort, tracking Hannah to a remote mountain cabin, her pursuer wasn’t going to just give up. Conner wanted to think he could keep her safe, but he wouldn’t risk her life for his own pride and need. He’d always thought the saying “If you love something, let it go” was stupid. Yet here he was. Letting Hannah go. Not even that. Sending her away.

They turned the corner, leaving behind the dim hall filled with storage closets, and entered a hallway that might have been in any upscale office building in the city. Thick wool carpet cushioned the floor in an elegant pattern of squares and vines. The creamy beige walls, trimmed in white molding, were broken every few feet by paintings that even Conner could tell were original works of art.

For centuries, the Warders had had deep coffers. Not since the very early days had they been content to live like monks. Tired of fighting both the Vorati and poverty, in the Middle Ages the Directorate had instituted a new policy: the personal fortunes of victims of Vorati infection were claimed by the Warders as a fee for ending the infection. Never mind that most of the time the infection ended with the victim’s death. Was it the Warders’ fault that so many of the rich and powerful were prone to moral decay? A few hundred years later, the Warders had grown immensely rich. The policy had long been rescinded by the current Directorate. It hadn’t been a difficult decision. By the time they stopped seizing assets, the Warders were so wealthy it took only careful shepherding to maintain their healthy bank balances. These days, Warder Citadels were luxurious, their tools high tech, and their pay more than generous. They even had their own banking system, run by Warder treasurers.