Summon Toren (Archangels Creed #3) (24 page)

Toren explained the situation with Samantha's home as succinctly as possible. "Samantha and I are concerned for Kassie and need to find a way to ensure her safety."

Kassern started to pace as if his mind were elsewhere and left Dorn to figure things out. "Does she have family she can stay with? Perhaps in another state?"

Samantha shook her head and wrung her hands. "Kassie was an only child and her parents were drifters so if she had any extended family, she didn't know about them. Her husband died four years ago and they never had any children. The ranch was her life. She brooded over the hands like an old bossy hen and treated me as the daughter she never had. My father, she just tolerated mostly. She just didn't make any other close connections, even with the women in her church groups." Samantha paused to swallow a sob and straighten her shoulders. "She's all alone now, grieving for her dead and in terrible danger. I can't leave her to that."

Dorn nodded and appeared to consider the facts and get nowhere. Toren snapped his fingers. "I've got it. Uriel mentioned that we need to establish a semi-permanent base to come back to between operations, a safe place for Peggy and her brood. Some of us will have work to do that requires some stable resources, like Lucian and his internet searching. And no doubt, we'll eventually have humans who are unsuited to active roles in battle."

Dorn nodded once more in agreement with Toren's reasoning thus far. "And?"

"So what if we bring Kassie here and make this the operational base until something else is arranged? She's a gifted cook and accustomed to preparing food for a group, so she could take over that task and spare us Devyn's culinary efforts. She'd probably also be willing to assist Peggy with her kids."

Samantha nodded eagerly. "That's the perfect solution! Kassie would love taking care of stuff like that."

Dorn lifted one hand in a signal to pause and turned to Kassern, still pacing. "Brother, go. Take care of her. We'll handle this."

Kassern's eyes glowed red with his gratitude. Rather than reply, he nodded and disappeared in a tornado of blood-red mist.

Dorn continued. "What are you thinking of for this
arranging something else
you mentioned?"

Toren ran one hand over the stubble growing back on his scalp. "Uriel mentioned working on setting up a main base of operation for us. To come and go without being seen, where we can do some serious training off the radar, set up a heavy defensive position. I’m thinking, as Peggy's young grow, they’ll need space to move and grow strong and not be seen. And through all that, we need someone we can trust to manage this base of operations."

Dorn studied his immaculate nails for a moment then gave a single nod. "I just got word that our compound will be ready in a week. I see no reason why that idea couldn’t work.” He turned to Samantha. “She can…make coffee?
And
cook?”

Sam’s eyes lit up bright white and Toren felt her joy all the way to his phallus. “Oh, yes the best, I assure you!”

“We'll give it a shot,” Dorn said. “Pending Uriel's approval, of course."

"You think he'll say yes?" Samantha's brow furrowed with worry.

Dorn nodded. "I don't see why he wouldn't. It's a logical plan and Uriel is nothing if not logical. But since we're talking about what the humans call operational security, we can't move ahead without approval. In the meantime, I'll send word to her Guardian to contact us immediately if anything looks wrong."

"No!" Samantha's eyes flared with a mixture of anger and fear. "That's not good enough! Anything could happen while you're waiting for approval."

Dorn flashed a look to Toren that clearly said
control your woman
.

Toren’s jaw hardened. "Right, Dorn." He fought the urge to roll his eyes. "I'm sure if your wife were concerned for a family member you would do whatever you could to help."

Dorn's eyes flared a little brighter. "Yes I would." He turned to Samantha. "I wish we could all go right now and get your Kassie. And if the souls of millions didn't hang in the balance, we would. But it's a vital point in this mission. If we don’t succeed in disrupting this operation, earth could be headed into a world war, which would give the enemy a serious advantage to turn up the chaos knob. The fate of souls is on our heads, and yours now. As painful as it is, we can't save one person at the risk of millions." He glanced to Toren for help, sincerity clear in his furrowed brow.

Toren sighed and drew Samantha closer. "He's right, baby. Going after her now could tip off the over lord that we're on to him. Samantha, he makes a lot of bad people do very bad things. Prostitution, drugs, gambling, human trafficking, weapons… Anything related to human vices."

Samantha looked up at him, tears flooding her beautiful eyes. She blinked, long and slow, and a trail of tears rolled down her cheek. Toren's heart clenched with her pain. "I understand." Her voice was so low it was barely audible. "Just promise we'll get her as soon as we can."

"Baby, I swear. We'll flash to the ranch the very second Hetarne’s operation is crushed." Toren put every iota of his honor into the words.

Dorn nodded. "We both promise it."

Toren couldn't help notice Dorn had carefully avoided the use of the more binding words
swear
or
vow
, or even
pledge
. That differentiation meant the aquamarine warrior would do his best, as long as the cost wasn't too great. Toren raised a brow to let the bastard know he'd caught the intention.

Troy chose that moment to tap at the door frame. "Sorry to interrupt, but it couldn’t wait. We have an update." He turned and went back to the living room.

Toren led Samantha after Dorn and by the time they entered, Troy had resumed his seat and turned toward the big screen TV where Lucian fiddled with a cable connected to one of the laptops. Dorn stopped to stand near one of the couches but Toren continued on to one of the big leather easy chairs and sat, drawing Samantha to sit on his lap. The TV screen flared to life, displaying an array of images and several blocks of text.

Resuming his seat, Lucian bent over his computer again to tap at the keyboard. "Okay, here's what we have. There will be a closed auction accessible by invitation only. That means the prospective buyers have been carefully selected and have certain interests in common." One of the images centered on the screen and enlarged. "I was able to access satellite imagery of the location. The auction will be held in this warehouse."

"How do we know it's the right location?" Troy placed a bare foot on his knee.

Lucian brought one of the text blocks into view displaying what looked like a transcript of a conversation. "Here." He highlighted part of one line. "These numbers designate GPS coordinates corresponding to the building. And before you ask, I verified past events and
locations to ensure they use the direct coordinates." Another image came up. "And here, one of a series of pics of various cargo vehicles entering the building. Also part of a pattern."

"Do we know what's going to be sold?" Toren forced himself to participate despite being torn between the mission and worry for Kassie.

The discussion went on with Lucian fielding all the questions. Ezekiel stayed behind his computer screen, occasionally pecking a few keys. Finally, he touched Lucian's arm and nodded.

"Ezekiel's been trying to find a way for us to get in to this exclusive auction. We can't go as prospective buyers. Hetarne only deals with people he knows personally."

Ezekiel set his computer aside and stood. "I called on some connections and found out they want some exterior security. Three men. I have to be one of them, since the guy arranging it knows me. We're just back from an operation in an unspecified South American nation, running security for an unspecified drug lord who had trouble from a rival. We took care of that issue for our boss, but a new rival rose and had him assassinated before we were paid. So we need a good payday, fast."

Dorn nodded. "Sounds good. Who are the other two?"

"That's your call. Come get me thirty minutes before time to roll. I need to explain to Skylar why I've been away from the bed so long." He didn't wait for Toren or anyone else to approve, just headed straight down the hallway to the room he and Skylar occupied.

As the discussion continued, Samantha's tension leached into Toren. By the time they'd decided the best way to proceed once the auction was underway, he was ready to explode. And worse, he'd been delegated to the sidelines. Dorn and Lucian were going in with Ezekiel, so Toren would have to be on hand in case they needed him.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

Sam's muscles ached with the need to go to Kassie. She bit the inside of her jaw, refusing to say more about it. She'd be damned if she got between the archangels catching that demon guy they wanted. But it seemed to her any kind of creature deserving to be called an over lord couldn't possibly be interested in some insignificant human woman, and was highly unlikely to notice if anyone went to that insignificant woman and took her away from a traumatic scene. And still there was nothing she could do. Just wait and pray.

She listened to the men making their plans with half an ear, while the rest of her mind wandered with random memories of Kassie. Dammit, she should have insisted on bringing Kassie with them when they left. Then she wouldn't be sitting here driven to distraction with worry. She really should be listening, in case she had to play some part in the auction.

"Since we have all that settled, now we need to figure out what to do for the situation with Toren's quad. He's on stand-by for the auction, technically freeing him up." Dorn glanced at Samantha. "I suggest he and Samantha go to her ranch and retrieve her family member."

What? Samantha couldn't believe her ears. Had the blue angel really said what she thought he had? "You're serious?" Excitement roared through her blood. "When?"

Dorn flashed something that almost looked like a smile which quickly faded. "You'll have to wait until we're established at the auction and ensure Hetarne's presence. We can't be sure how long that will take. But we figure most of the heavy weight spiritual scum will be focusing their guns on that arms deal, as important as it is."

The excitement ebbed at the angel’s
wait
word, leaving Samantha tired. No, exhausted.  

The meeting broke up and Dorn and Troy had a quick consultation before calling Ezekiel to join them. In a matter of moments they joined hands and all three dematerialized in a cloud of blue haze.

Samantha sighed for what felt like the ten millionth time and stood. "I can't stand doing nothing." She started pacing, taking advantage of the big room. “I can’t stand
seeing
every damn thing either, it’s creeping me the hell out, I don’t want to see people’s innards, can’t you…zap that out of me? Give me something else more useful and practical? Like a gun or knife?”

The expression Toren suppressed indicated the depth of his amusement at her concept of the powers she'd been blessed with. "I have no control over it. I’m sorry baby. Though if the pattern holds from those who've already gone through this, your new abilities will be specifically matched to some task you'll take on.”

God, he called her
baby
all the time and it never failed to calm her. And arouse her.

He rose and came to her. “I know waiting is one of the hardest things to do in any situation. And this is worse than most." He slid his arms around her waist from behind. "I'm sorry."

She gave in and let her body relax into his arms. "I'm sorry too. I know you would go ahead if we could."

He drew her back against his chest and dropped his head to let his mouth wonder along the side of her neck, nuzzling her for comfort. "I would. I care for Kassie a great deal. She's a uniquely good person and she seriously smoothed the way for me when I arrived at the ranch. I was so lost, I had no clue what to do."

Despite her worry, a smile tugged at Sam's lips. "I know.” She snickered a little. “The look on your face when you tasted coffee. Hilarious. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out where you were from that you'd never had coffee before."

He chuckled. "I made a note for the other archangels to sample coffee before they have it in front of anyone. The taste is truly unique." He rocked her in his arms a little. "Come sit with me?" When she nodded, he led her to one of the couches and sat, patting the seat beside him.

Sam sank into the deep coffee colored cushion, letting his greater weight pull her close against his side. He tucked his arm around her and rested his chin atop her head. The little kiss he planted there morphed into his lips sliding back and forth against the stubble of her regrowing hair in that one bald spot. She knew he kissed there because he loved her and that tempted her to forget the rest of the world. She could easily spend eternity lost in the sensations he created in her body.

Seeming to sense the change he created, his breath exhaled slowly and his fingers on her body went from simple caresses to sensual ones. It took only one second for her body to interpret what that could turn into, making her stomach flip-flop, hard.

Toren sensed that too.

“Oh wow.” Sam looked up at Toren and he leaned and pressed his lips into hers, his mind not detouring from where she clearly wanted it to be.

“What?” he whispered, still nibbling seductively at her lips.

The delicious distraction almost made her forget. “I…I can feel you.”

He brushed his nose along hers, trying to capture more of her mouth. “Mmmm. Then you know how much I need you right now.”

Sam closed her eyes through the pleasure that stormed her body. “Yes.”

Toren got up and lifted her to her feet and drew her to his side, pulling her to their bedroom. When he locked them in he turned and looked at her, his gaze a white-hot flame over her body as though he could see straight through her clothes. Could he?

“If I wanted yes,” he said in answer to her wonder.

She gasped. “I know you want to, so…”

He smiled and stared at her chest. “Yes. I do. And I am. But no, I didn’t before this. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever not done.” He bit his sexy lower lip and angled his head a little. “Undress for me. Slowly.”

Sam’s clit ached so hard from the husky command, she whimpered from it while immediately complying.

He seemed to
think
his own clothes right off his body. More fascinated with his body than the trick, Sam’s fingers trembled with the need to hurry while she took in his starkly beautiful nakedness. And hard-on.

She noticed controlling her eyesight around him was easy. Like his presence aided her ability. She dropped her bra on the floor after removing her shirt then went to work on sensually sliding her jeans down.

Toren began slowly circling her like a predator. Her skin felt the vibration of his mercury power flowing through him. She even felt it concentrated in his
cock!
Heaven help her.

“I know you can feel it...how bad I want you. How
hard
I want to take you.” He stood at her shoulder and rubbed his cock on her ass. She went to touch him and found her arms unable to move. She gasped in excitement. “You also know…” he stroked along the crack of her butt, “that I need to hear you scream from it.” He opened her ass cheeks and slid his hot length between them, groaning in her ear. Before she realized it, her back was in the corner and he lifted her on his waist. He looked between them where his cock was pressed against his stomach then moved her wet folds along himself.

“Oh God,” Sam moaned.

He groaned with lusty satisfaction, his hooded white gaze slowly burning up her body, stopping momentarily at her breasts before meeting hers. His sexy lips parted with eager breaths as he worked her sex over the thick ridges of his cock until she was burning up with need and thrashing her head.

Using his powers, he moved her arms over her head and pinned them to the wall. He again roamed her body with his gaze, a low growl tickling over her skin as he did. 

“Fuck me,” she whispered, licking her lips in hunger.

He looked between them and placed his thumb on her clit, wiggling it relentlessly at the speed of a vibrator on high. When she gasped helplessly near orgasm, he stopped.

He leaned and nibbled her nipples next. One then the other, making her beg. “Please fuck me.”

He bit her nipples hard enough to make her gasp, then licked and growled all over them. He finally grabbed her waist and moved her into position. He looked up into her face when he was ready and leaned in. He nibbled at her lips, his breaths heavy, cock poised at her opening. His groans were lusty, the intent to torment her clear in the sound. He stayed that way, kissing her lips with the threat of his cock plunging deep inside her at any second.

“God Toren,
fuck me.
Please
fuck
me.”

The emphasis she put on the F word made his gasps come harder, hotter,
faster.

Hands on her waist, he pulled her down onto his cock and her mouth flew open with her cry of dizzying pleasure. She thrashed her head, feeling him throb hard while deep inside her, his grunts sounding more like chokes as he fought the orgasm waiting to run him over.

Seeming to gain his control, he let his head fall back and moved his hips in reverse before thrusting them hard and fast, his cock slamming home and devastating her. She gave one scream from it and she knew that’s what he wanted. That right there. The way he wanted to break her with ecstasy as his weapon was diabolical in a very good way.

“Oh please. Fuck me, fuck me, please,” she moaned desperately.

He gasped and kissed her hungrily, like her mouth suddenly offered the last meal on earth and he had ten seconds to eat it. He finally gave in to her. He grunted with every hard and fast flick of his hips, right in her mouth. He never moved from her mouth even when his thrusts were so fast she screamed. He stayed right there, tasting, licking, sucking at her mouth.

Then she broke from that place inside her, losing track of time and place. Only aware of his orgasm as it hit, the sensation of his gentle nips on her mouth and chin as he came so very hard, his groans sounding like metal warping. 

Time passed, but she had no idea how much. Minutes, hours, or days. Time had no meaning as long as she was safely in Toren's arms. And that’s where she ended up somehow after their mind-blowing love making. Snuggled in his possessive embrace in the bed unaware of anything but the steady beat of his strong heart and deep even breaths. 

Until something made his body stiffen, interrupting the little forever. "It's time,” he whispered in her hear. “We can go and get Kassie now."

** ** **

Toren tried his best to convince his wife—how he loved that word—to stay behind while he went bring Kassie back to her. Even knowing his body suffered physical pain when he separated from her, a fact that gained momentum with every passing second—he had to try and convince her.

Of course she wouldn't hear of it. She actually threatened to beg Peggy into transporting her to the ranch if he refused to let her accompany him. The very thought of Samantha at Peggy's sometimes jealous and always unpredictable mercurial nature gave him chills. Peggy
might
do exactly as Samantha requested. But she
also
might flash her into the middle of a six-lane highway at rush hour or to the bottom of a river.

He let his head drop for an instant in a gesture of submission. "You win." He paused to give her a deep and lingering kiss, then flashed them out in a swirl of silvery particles.

The tool shed closest to the house seemed the best place to materialize without being seen. Once there, he paused a moment to probe the vicinity with his angelic senses on the lowest possible level. The method returned only the barest of information but was better than using his full abilities and giving the demons a big flashing arrow pointing to his location.

Samantha moved away from his side a little, prompting him to focus back on her.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for a weapon. Something doesn't feel right."

Damn. He hadn't explained it to her. "If you need a weapon, just think it. I'm not entirely certain how it will work with you, but instinct or something like it will lead you." He returned his attention to their surroundings.

A single human female presence in the house projected terror in a tsunami of emotion that rolled into Toren with enough force to nearly knock him over. Kassie!

Other, less than friendly, psychic fingerprints lay all over the place while the sulfurous stench of demon permeated the air. A horse squealed and hooves rang against wood as a man cried out in pain. Sounded like someone had encountered Samantha's Glory.

The temptation to flash Samantha back to the hotel was nearly overpowering. One glimpse of the stern determination in her face convinced him not to raise the question. Fine.

The need to keep Samantha safe forced him to consider their options in advance rather than just wading in and letting the situation dictate his responses as he normally would. "We'll have to get to the house on foot."

She glanced up at him, eyes widening in surprise. "Why not just flash into the kitchen? No doubt that's where she is."

"Initiating a flash generates a good deal of angelic energy. Enough to paint a big neon sign inviting any demons in the area to the party. With just the two of us, we don't want that kind of attention."

Sam nodded and put a finger across her lips in a gesture for quiet, then pointed to the shed's door.

Toren stopped to listen, not bothering with angelic senses. A moist
whuffle
sound repeated several times around the edges of the door as some animal sniffed out their presence.