Undying Hope (3 page)

He shoved her down with enough force that she fell back, knocking her head off the counter. She started to crawl toward Bastian. Nothing could happen to him. She’d never forgive herself. It was then she found a treasure. Her hand curled around a broom handle, and she came up swinging. The man caught the handle and brought the broom up, smacking her chin. Her head spun as she staggered backward.

“Stay down, bitch! You’re only making it worse for yourself.”

Haven slithered to the floor. A silver blade flashed before sinking into Vinnie’s throat. Kyros twisted the knife, and when he pulled away, there was a gargle of hot red liquid. Haven shook as blood splattered on her. She yelped when Kyros yanked her to her feet by her hair. The man flicked out his tongue and licked a drop of blood that had settled on her cheek. “I’m not sure which tastes better. You or blood.”

She gagged as she struggled to get away from his bruising grip. He laughed the same twisted sound. “Keep struggling, honey. It makes the kill so much sweeter.” He let out a vicious growl and lowered his head. Haven closed her eyes and clamped her mouth shut. She wasn’t going to be a victim again, no matter what he did to her. She wasn’t going to beg him.

A sound like thunder rattled the window glass, and the floor rolled as the diner door was blown open with a surge of raw, savage power. Ketchup bottles and napkin holders vibrated on tabletops. A deep, rumbling voice filled the diner. “Let the woman go.”

Kyros stopped his assault. A malicious smile curved his demon mouth, and his eyes glowed an unholy red. His head cocked as if to taunt the man who had walked in. He licked the side of Haven’s face. “Your little cry for help wasn’t secret after all.”

He pulled Haven tight against him and turned to face the most terrifying man Haven had ever seen. Kyros appeared small by comparison. The warrior’s muscles rippled and bunched under copper skin. His eyes were aflame with a golden fire. His hair fell over his shoulder in a long, thick braid. His face wasn’t pretty by any means, but it was the most beautiful thing Haven had ever seen. The man exuded menace, and his very presence was power and unyielding strength. One idea crept into her terror-filled mind. She and Bastian were going to live because of the mountain standing in front of her.

The warrior stalked toward them. “Let her go. You want me.” His voice was a deep, buttery baritone. “You think I somehow stole your book. That I took what you had managed to steal all those years ago. You don’t want her. I’m the one you’re after.”

Kyros’s grip loosened, but he didn’t let go. “She possesses an orphan. How do you know she’s not meirlock? Why will you never let me kill naughty girls?”

Confusion permeated Kyros’s voice, and Haven found herself holding her breath, waiting for the warrior to answer.

“You know what she is.” He paused, and his gaze flicked to Haven before returning to his adversary. “Dare you risk her belonging to me?”

Her mind was reeling from fear and the danger surrounding her and the strange conversation between the two men. “Please, let me go.” She hated her voice when it came out in a whimper.

The warrior’s eyes flashed, and one of his powerful arms snaked out, his hand clamping over Kyros’s throat. “Let her go. We can end this tonight.”

Everything inside of her roiled against the stark words of her savior ending anything tonight. The rational part of her knew this was insane, but the resignation of his tone twisted at her heart. She renewed her struggle to make Kyros let her go. She needed to get to the warrior. Something deep inside of her reached out to him, but Kyros’s grip tightened. She cried out as pain shot through her wrist.

The warrior moved. His body was a symphony of motion. Every muscle worked in harmony during the deadly attack. He sprang forward. With one swift motion, he pulled Haven away before colliding with Kyros. The bruising hands left her trembling body, and she stumbled behind the warrior and toward Bastian.

Kyros went flying backward. The window shattered. He skidded across the salt-crusted concrete sidewalk and out into the snow-covered street. He slowly stood while laughing. “A new pawn is added to our game.”

A violent swirl of air opened directly behind Kyros. Red and black lightning crackled around the vortex. Kyros gave an eloquent bow. “I look forward to it, Cadeyrn.” He stepped back, allowing the twist of angry wind to swallow him.

“Bastian!” Haven turned from the warrior and took one wobbling step toward the boy. A strong arm looped around her before she fell on her face. She shook her head, but that only produced a throbbing. “He’s hurt.”

“He’ll heal in his sleep,” the warrior said. “You need to be still so that I may look at your wounds.”

She twisted in his hold and then shoved her arms up between them. If her sensibilities were going to remain intact after what she’d just witnessed, he shouldn’t be that close. “Who are you?”

“Sit and I will tell you,” he said. His tone was final and commanding.

She ground her teeth together, but she sat. “Who are you?”

A half smile curved the corner of a sensual mouth. He bowed low. “I am Quinn Donovan. Might I have the pleasure of your name?”

“No, you’re not,” she snapped at him. Her head was hurting, Bastian was groaning, and she’d just fallen into a nightmare. “Who are you?”

His glacier blue eyes went fierce. “All right. Then who am I?”

“A figment of my imagination. That man tried to butcher me, and I’m in a hospital somewhere.” She took several controlled breaths to calm herself and give herself a chance to listen to her intuition. It kept her away from the Black Rose for the last three years. She curled her lip. That feeling of wanting to crawl into his lap and make his world right grew stronger. “If you
are
Quinn Donovan. I need your help.”

“Anything you need, all you have to do is ask,” he said.

He had some odd angle he was playing at. He’d just—well—she wasn’t exactly sure what that just was. She could hear a hum around him, but full words weren’t forming well enough for her to get a handle on them. Quinn appeared to be part of the epic battle her grandfather warned her about, but if her intuition was to be trusted, she wanted to be on Quinn’s side. “I need a warm place for me and Bastian to stay. We need food, and he needs medical attention.” She paused as she tried to figure out what was going on behind that mask of indifference on his face. “And I need someone to tell me what he is so I can help him with the change he’s going through.”

“Done, done, done, and done,” he said with a gentle voice. “He is an orphaned Undying male child. You are not equipped to handle the type of care and training he will need to survive to full maturity.”

“What does that mean?” she snapped as her mama bear hackles raised. “You are not going to take him from me!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said with perfect seriousness. “My home has enough room for all of us. I assure you I can be trusted.”

She wanted to believe him—to believe herself. Damn Mason for screwing with her. “What are you?”

“I am Undying. Just like the boy. I can take away his pain, and I can teach him how to use the power given to him.”

Haven focused on breathing to calm the rising panic. She’d said she was going to demand that Quinn Donovan help her. As crazy as asking for help from a stranger was, she didn’t have any other options. They couldn’t go back to the emergency room they’d snuck out of to get more pain medicine for Bastian. “We don’t do doctors.”

“My brother is a healer,” Quinn said. “I will call him when you and the boy are secured.”

“It might not be—” She took a step forward when Quinn walked over to Bastian and lifted him as if he weighed nothing. “You can’t just do that. What if you cause more damage?”

Quinn gave her a fierce look that had her pulling back. “The longer we remain here the better chances we have of being discovered.”

“Don’t you have one of those wind things?” Haven challenged him.

“Of course,” he said, as if trans-dimensional portals were normal. “But then I’d have to leave my Hummer in this neighborhood overnight.”

Haven was sure he was joking, but she wasn’t in the mood to appreciate the humor. “All right. What about Vinnie?”

Quinn glanced at the dead restaurant owner. His head bowed as raw grief emanated around him. “He’ll be given an honorable funeral.”

Haven didn’t like her lack of choices. While she hoped she could trust Donovan, she still wanted options in case something went wrong. However, no one could tell “no” to a man who could make the ground shake with the force of Quinn’s power. She was stuck seeing this out to its end.

The woman flitted this way and that as she went through the small motel room, gathering items belonging to her and the boy. They’d walked from the diner in the accumulating snow. Bastian had passed out on the bed closest to the door. Donovan had yet to acquire the woman’s name, and she still refused to believe he was Quinn Donovan. He could feel tendrils of her delicate, young power assessing him. She stopped in the middle of the room and looked up at him with soulful eyes. “How much of this can I take with us?”

In an instant, he was trapped by the unusual pale green of her irises. Their exotic shape enhanced each emotion as they played in the depths of her eyes. The soft elven features of her face started a stirring low in his gut. His gaze drifted to her mouth—supple lips teased him into taking a step forward to steal a taste. He willed himself to stop the motion. He swallowed hard as his unintended appraisal continued. Her delicate frame swelled and narrowed in all the mouthwatering right places, making him hard. He was positive this woman would look best dressed in only her wavy auburn hair falling down to her hips, built perfect for gripping.

His body shuddered when the
treòir
, his source of power within, made an odd little twitch. A giddy rush flowed through him like a jolt of electricity.

Was she?

No.

A possible greater connection with her wasn’t something he could deal with now. She needed help first. He’d sort everything out when he had time and space away from her to think logically. If she was who he thought she might be, his plans to end his days could come to a grinding halt. The entire Undying Nation would become unstable if she was his mate. That needed to be avoided for as long as possible.

He must have stood there for too long staring at her because she backed up a step. Then he forced a smile and grabbed a bag off the bed nearest the door. “Anything you desire you may have.”

Her nose wrinkled up even as a smile played in the corner of her eyes. “You’re unusual.”

“Funny coming from someone without a name,” he said as he scanned the room for any odd trinket she may have overlooked.

“Haven,” she whispered. “The boy is Bastian.” She took the last remaining bag of their meager belongings off the bed. “How do you know you can help him?”

Donovan lifted Bastian over his shoulder and stopped by the door. He glanced out the window to assure the Hummer was still where he’d left it. He had stopped believing in coincidences long ago. Standing here with an Undying child in his arms, and a woman with lifebond magic, was the exact reason fate had him choosing that parking space while he’d been hunting Kyros. His attention went back to Haven. “I am what he is.”

She sucked in a sharp breath and slowly nodded. “And what is that exactly?”

“Undying,” he repeated for the eighth time since the diner fifteen minutes ago.

She snorted at him. “I don’t understand what that means. Something like a meirlock?”

A pulse of
treòir
energy vibrated through the room. “When have you come into contact with a meirlock?”

Her eyes went wide as she stumbled back a step. “I-I’m sorry. I’ve only heard the term used to describe a man…my grandfather knows.”

The room vibrated again. Donovan gritted his teeth in the effort to keep his power from frightening his lifebond further. “Kyros is meirlock. The word literally means lawbreaker.”

She studied his face for a long moment. “Why would someone as powerful as you help perfect strangers?”

“Bastian is of my kind,” he said choosing his words carefully. “Without an older male to teach him the proper ways of our people, he is destined to be a meirlock and would be marked for death.”

Her back went straight as her expression hardened. “He’s a good person. There is no need for anyone to mark him for death. He just needs something I don’t think I am able to give him.”

“Aye,” Donovan agreed as he opened the door. “As an older male of our people, it is my responsibility to take the boy in and guide him so our king does not have to give him a death sentence.”

“I still don’t get why that means you would help us,” she said as she moved toward the door. “I am trying to trust you, and I want to believe who you say you are, but I’ve been searching for Quinn Donovan for nearly two years to help Bastian. How did you suddenly fall in my lap and rescue us from Kyros?”

He closed the motel room door before taking to the Hummer. He settled the boy on the backseat and then joined Haven behind the vehicle. “I heard your call for help and responded before the dragon was able to get here.”

Haven waited for him to open the hatch. “Dragons? There are dragons, too?”

“There are several different clans of the Undying. The wolf clan and the dragon clan are but two, though the dragons are the only ones who can shapeshift.”

She put her bags into the back as a black wolf ghosted out from between two parked cars.

“Quinn! There’s a wolf!”

Donovan opened the back door of the hummer for the wolf to hop inside. “This is Nikon. He is an old friend.”

She squeaked. “By your…friend, you’re part of the wolf clan?”

“Aye,” he said, knowing he was somehow doing this all wrong and not giving her the right information. The more he told her, the more upset she became. “Nikon and Medea would no more harm you than they would their newborn cubs. I understand this is confusing, and more questions come to you than I can answer satisfactorily. Give yourself time. This world you enter is complex.”