Stygian's Honor (45 page)

“Yes,” the low, desperate cry slipped from her lips. “Hold me, Stygian. Oh God, don’t let me go.”

“Never,” he growled as his hips jerked in a hard, shallow thrust, forcing his cock deeper.

Slick, wet, her pussy clasped the iron-hard intruder as Liza began to move with him, riding him slow, easy, taking him inch by inch until the thick shaft was lodged fully inside her, stretching her with erotic strength.

Striking impulses of ecstatic pleasure raced through her.

Moving above him, rising and falling as sensation after sensation began to suffuse her senses, Liza gave herself to the spiraling flight to ecstasy and the mate moving beneath her with fierce upward strokes of his hips.

Primal and intense. Erotic and raging with a sensuality impossible to overcome, each upward thrust of his cock stroked, caressed, rasped against tender flesh and sent sparks of pleasure so heated, so filled with sharp, burning bursts of rapture that there was no resisting it.

No resisting the rapid, spiraling flight to the center of raging, exquisite bliss.

Exploding around her, inside her, the pleasure detonated with a force that stole her breath.

Her nails dug into his shoulders as Liza lowered her head, her lips parting, teeth locking in the hard muscle at the bend of his neck as his incisors bit into the mating mark left on hers.

A growl sounded at her ear, fierce and filled with primal dominance, as Liza felt herself sinking into the waves of sensation that electrified, exploded over and over, and sent a rush of fiery ecstasy tearing through her again and again, until she was left shuddering in his arms. The feel of the additional swelling in his cock locking him inside her as he spilled his release was another sensual rush of violent sensation that sent another, lesser explosion tearing through her.

It was like being surrounded by pleasure—plugged into pure sensation and feeling it racing beneath her flesh, through her veins, sizzling around her clit and streaking through her pussy.

Locked in his arms, she whispered his name, so intent on the sensations that she forgot to hold back the emotion.

“I love you.” She sighed breathlessly as the final pulse of pleasure shuddered through her. “Oh God, Stygian, I love you.”

And she did.

She loved him breathlessly, completely.

While she hadn’t been looking, he had stolen her heart, and she knew there was no chance of ever getting it back and being the same again.

Now, she only hoped she could survive it.

“I love you.” He kissed her temple gently before moving.

A sharp breath of reaction parted her lips at the rush of pleasure when he pulled from her. Still partially erect, his cock caressed across violently sensitive nerve endings, sending a rush of pleasure sizzling through her before it abated once again, sated for the moment.

“Lie here a second, babe.” He laid her on the bed before shedding his jeans completely and moving to the bathroom.

Returning moments later, he cleaned the slick, wet proof of their arousal from her thighs and the folds of her pussy with a damp cloth. Then drying her gently, he pulled the blankets over her before moving back to the bathroom.

The sound of water running brought a smile to her face.

When he returned to the bed and slid beneath the blankets with her, Liza curled against his chest, needing his warmth, needing him holding her. Feeling his hand sift through her hair, his fingertips rubbing against her scalp, Liza let herself sink into the comfort he was offering.

“Don’t let me get lost, Stygian,” she whispered as the exhaustion of the past days began to catch up with her.

Emotions, nightmares, fear and anger had plagued her, making her sleep restless, her dreams dark and impossible to remember when she awakened.

“I won’t let you get lost, baby,” he promised as he soothed her.

For once, there was no distance, no emotional storm, no desperation to hold herself aloof, and no arousal. There was just the comfort he was offering her and an overwhelming sense of safety.

“Sleep, Liza,” he crooned, his voice gentle, his hands incredibly tender as he soothed her. “Right here, rest against me, we’ll figure out our next move later. I promise.”

And he always kept his word.

Her eyes drifted closed, her breathing evened out and she allowed sleep to settle over her.

Maybe, was her last thought, maybe, in Stygian’s arms the nightmares would stay away. Maybe she could sleep, just
for a little while. Just long enough to find the strength to face what she feared was coming—

The destruction of everything she had believed she was—of everything her life had been.

Because life as she knew it was over.

CHAPTER 22

Stygian stared out over the desert landscape from the top of the spherical column of stone that rose above the valley floor, just behind the hotel, his gaze narrowed, his animal instincts humming in danger.

Something was out there—

“What are you hearing from your contacts?” he asked Dog quietly.

“I know they’re here, I just haven’t been able to find them. Since word went out that Cassie Sinclair was arriving in the area, more teams have been sent out, but like the others, they haven’t been glimpsed.”

The Genetics Council was sending out their best teams now, evidently. With the creation of the scent reduction drug, it was becoming harder and harder to track the bastards down too.

“They have to buy supplies at some point,” he stated. “Are there men in town watching for that?”

“We have several teams watching.” An edge of irritation colored Dog’s tone. “But what the fuck are we watching for and how do we cover every damned business that could possibly provide their supplies? And if they follow directive command and work with humans to supply their needs, then we’re fucked there.”

Wasn’t that the truth. Window Rock had dozens of businesses supplying outdoorsmen, hunters, weekend vacationers and the list went on.

“Why this area?” Stygian asked as he surveyed the land again, paying particular attention to the small canyon that ran alongside the road. “What are they looking for? There has to be more than just Honor, Fawn, Judd and Gideon. They have to be after something more.”

“Not sure, but there were signs of movement in the canyon night before last and several times last week. Loki has been flying over the desert, twenty miles in each direction, to track them. He’s been able to track and explain all movements but this one and another about four miles to the east of the hotel.”

Stygian rubbed at his jaw thoughtfully. “Any chatter?”

“Strangely, nada.” Dog shook his head. “If it hadn’t been for Loki, we wouldn’t know about this.” He nodded toward the canyon.

“This the same canyon Liza and Claire crashed into when they were fifteen. The one we took her to?”

“The same canyon we also found evidence of a sweat lodge in,” Dog told him. “You know, Navajo medicine is shrouded in history. There are a lot of things they’re rumored to be able to do though.”

“Such as?” Stygian asked absently as he stared through the binoculars into the canyon.

“I’ve had Chimera working with Joseph Redwolf for a while now, Megan Arness’s grandfather. From what she’s uncovered, there’s a legend that the memories of a dying warrior can be passed to a warrior who needs the skill or the information that could be gone forever. There’s no information whether it’s ever been done before, but the legend is there. She’s also learned that they’ve been shredding and burning records from more than a decade back, which were contained in a secured, secret location where the tribal chiefs are said to store the written history of their secrets and the recipes used for certain rituals, handed down since long before their lands were ever invaded by the white man.”

Stygian lowered the binoculars, his arms propped on the edge of the boulder he’d been resting against.

“The Navajo medicine men are rumored to still know many of the ancient rituals,” he said thoughtfully. “How close is that supposed secured, secret location to the canyon where the girls wrecked?”

“We don’t have a clue. Even Chimera doesn’t know where it’s at. But she’s smelled the ash on Joseph’s clothes when he returned from the desert. And he didn’t lie when she asked what he had been burning. He told her he was burning another’s past.”

Fuck.

Fuck.

He could feel it.

In his gut, Stygian could feel the vibrations of an interference that had likely saved Liza’s life as child, but could cost her that life now.

Liza?

To her friends, to her family, she was Liza Johnson. It was Liza Johnson’s memories she carried, but it wasn’t Liza Johnson’s personality. Just as it hadn’t been Liza Johnson’s destiny to be in this place, at this time. It was Honor Roberts’s. And now, Honor no longer had the very information that could save her life.

“At the same time the wreck occurred, two men supposedly from a unit Audi Johnson had trained while in the military showed up as well. Cullen Maverick and Klah Hunter. We suspect Klah is Judd.” Dog leaned against the boulder they were using as shelter, his gaze narrowing, the lines fanning out from his eyes, the marks of squinting into the sun, or his gaze narrowing on distant targets, stood out in stark relief as they narrowed once again.

Between his teeth he clenched a cold, thin cigar that he had yet to light. Crossing his arms over the desert-tan shirt that covered his chest, the Coyote watched Stygian assessingly.

“Stranger things have happened,” Stygian murmured.

Hell, he knew better than that.

Judd wouldn’t have left the girls without his protection. Even in the labs, both Judd and Gideon had risked their lives more than once to protect both girls. “There was a reported attack on two teenagers and a young man, matching Honor’s, Fawn’s, and Judd’s description, as well as two Native Americans accompanying them, six hours from Window Rock, less than twenty-four hours before the wreck,” Dog continued. “Several soldiers identified as working for Brandenmore Research were found dead as well, their bodies obviously having been dumped there rather than left where they were killed.”

“The underground network that has always helped the Breeds in escaping and relocation are rumored to be on Claire and Liza’s asses every time they leave the hotel. The Breeds that were here, before Liza and Claire came on our radar, say the members of that network are rumored to never leave a kill where it was made, if killing is necessary,” Stygian murmured.

“True,” Dog agreed. “We also have the fact that there’s a team shadowing Liza and Claire, a report that the two girls have always had shadows. Shadows our Breeds could never identify or track. They’re damned good, Stygian, if they can evade us.”

“I’ve glimpsed them,” Stygian admitted. “Each time I’ve sent Flint or one of my own team out to track them, they simply disappear.”

“What’s your gut telling you?” Dog asked when Stygian said nothing more. “What are your animal instincts telling you?”

The bastard knew exactly what his instincts were telling him, Stygian thought as he glared out at the desert once again.

“When it happens, no matter how much she suspects it, it’s going to destroy her,” he snapped, enraged at the thought. “She believed she was one person. Her parents, her friends, everyone treated her as though she were Liza Johnson. To definitively learn the truth will destroy her.”

“Not if Honor’s memories are still there,” Dog stated. “If she’s having nightmares, then no doubt they are. Someone
has simply overlaid Honor’s memories with Liza’s. They’ve done just enough to keep her safe and to keep her alive.”

“And now the Breeds will destroy that security,” Stygian retorted. “What a fine gift to give my mate.”

Dog breathed out roughly at the thought. “Too bad Liza’s medical records from the lab were destroyed. We know her DNA was changed by the treatments she received there, but we have no idea what it changed to. Have you asked her to have a Core Level DNA test done?”

“That’s not the answer,” Stygian argued. “As you said, we have no idea how Honor’s DNA was changed. It wouldn’t prove anything.”

“It would prove she’s not related to Audi Johnson,” Dog reminded him. “Just because she carries his familial scent doesn’t mean anything other than the fact that she lived as his daughter, in his home, for so many years. A Core Level test could reveal the truth.”