Текст книги "Black Magic"

Автор книги: J. Tyler

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Текущая страница: 2 (всего у книги 3 страниц)

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Mackenzie studied Kalen as they walked in the darkness, their boots crunching on the gravel lot. The man was, hands down, the most intriguing guy she’d ever met.

Considering the guys she worked with, not to mention that at thirty-one she had a few years on Kalen, that was saying a helluva lot.

The Sorcerer/Necromancer might be only twenty-three, but the sorrow in his kohl-rimmed, jewel-green eyes was ageless. He carried his ancient power as easily as he wore his long, battered duster, silver pentagram pendant, and black-tipped fingernails—comfortably and without apology.

His beautiful face was an arresting combination of youth and maturity. His pale skin was smooth, unlined. Dark brows arched over large eyes framed with long lashes, and his nose was straight. His jaw was strong, with a faint shadow of stubble, his shoulders broad but not too much so, hips narrow. He was on the tall side, a bit over six feet, built lean, like the panther he was. Jet-black hair fell in long, messy layers to his shoulders, and she thought he’d look right at home with an electric guitar slung low at his waist.

Yep, the total package attested to the fact that this was no boy, but a man.

A man who’d captured her undivided attention from the moment she’d met him as the Pack’s newest recruit, weeks ago. He’d been homeless, adrift and starving—not only for food, but for a place to belong. For people who cared about him. She sincerely hoped he’d found what he was looking for.

Because that meant he’d stay. At least for a while.

Yes, she knew it was silly to pin too many hopes on snagging an elusive man like Kalen. She didn’t need to be told he’d had it rough, that his story, if he ever saw fit to share it, would be a heartbreaking one. Nick and the Pack knew some of Kalen’s past, but they wouldn’t gossip about something so private. Nor would she want them to, but she couldn’t help but be insanely curious about the Sorcerer.

She longed to know him—in every way.

What would he look like naked?Gorgeous, no doubt. All sleek muscles, a firm, tight ass begging for her two hands to squeeze it as he—

“Here we are,” he said, interrupting her fantasy.

Somehow they’d arrived at the back lot near the woods and were now standing behind her car, and she hadn’t even noticed. Clearing her throat, she peered at him in the darkness. “Thanks for the armed escort.”

“No problem,” he said softly. For a moment he went quiet, simply gazing at her as though he wanted to say something. Or perhaps close the foot or so between them and give her a slow, delicious kiss.

Do it, she willed him. You know you want to!

As if he’d heard her silent entreaty, he stepped a little closer. His eyes never leaving hers, he raised an arm and reached out, smoothing back a lock of curly hair and tucking it behind her ear. Then his fingers grazed her cheek, traced her lips.

Heart tripping, she stood mesmerized by the sight of him, the expression of pure need on his face, body electrified by a simple caress. Any second, he’d move in for that kiss . . .

But then he gestured to her car, taking a step back. “Go ahead and get in. I’ll follow you.”

Smothering the sudden pang of disappointment, she nodded. “Okay.”

He turned and she watched him stride for one of the compound’s SUV’s, admiring how his duster billowed behind him like a cloak. A really cool one, appropriate for a modern-day Sorcerer. She was so intent on her study of him, she almost missed the muffled grunt that sounded from somewhere behind her.

But Kalen heard it, and whirled, his face a mask of horror as he shouted, “Mackenzie, run!”

And so, like an idiot, she spun to look for the threat. The sight that greeted her turned her legs to noodles, and caused a scream to lodge in her throat. She’d seen one of these creatures before, but only inside Block T, the cell area where Nick had kept one incarcerated in hopes of gaining more information about it.

Standing at the edge of the woods, not twenty feet away, was a huge creature with leathery, bat-like wings and a pushed-in face full of razor-sharp teeth. It rushed forward with a screech and she ran toward Kalen. But she moved too late.

Pain blossomed in her shoulder as the thing struck, knocking her to the ground. She hit hard on her hands and knees with a cry, hearing Kalen’s angry yell over the creature’s roar. Kalen hauled her up, gave her a shove toward the SUV.

“Get in!”

She ran, but the thing was right behind her, swatting Kalen to the ground as it took off in pursuit. Oh, God! Please, please let him be all right!

Reaching the back of the Escalade, she barely had time to dive underneath the back end before the creature hit, shaking the whole vehicle violently. Crawling to the middle, palms stinging, she drew in her arms and legs as much as she could considering there wasn’t much clearance between her body and the undercarriage of the SUV.

Panting hard, she saw the shadow of the thing’s bulk as it crouched. One yellowed eyeball peered under the bumper at her and she whimpered, heart pounding. With another shriek, it swiped its arm underneath over and over, trying to get at her. One pass sliced a tire and it began to hiss, losing air.

“Hey, you ugly bastard!” Kalen yelled. “Eat this!”

A bolt lit up the night, and Mackenzie heard the creature scream in pain this time, saw its bulk leap away from the back end. The thing scrambled away from the vehicle and she was terrified it was going for Kalen. Moving as far from safety as she dared, she looked from under the SUV and her breath caught.

Kalen and the creature were locked in battle, the Sorcerer’s duster lying discarded on the ground, she guessed so he could move more easily. Blood ran down one arm from a deep gash. The silver pendant gleamed on his chest, and his hair tumbled wildly about his face, which was twisted in a feral snarl. He was completely focused on destroying their enemy. Confident. In that moment, she had little doubt he’d succeed.

But she was still afraid. This creature was an unknown, and his brethren had wiped out half of Alpha Pack six months ago, right before Nick took over as the team’s commander. Since then, they’d failed to learn what these creatures were, where they came from and who they answered to, if anyone.

This one wasn’t any more inclined to share than the others had been. His only focus seemed to be annihilating both of them.

The creature lunged at Kalen, and he jumped out of the way, a glow of blue light appearing in his palm. He hurled the sphere and it exploded in the beast’s face, causing it to roar in pain and rage. Slivers of what she could only describe as electricity spread in jagged fingers from the point of impact to encompass the entire beast. Power sizzled over the creature’s hide and it began to leap from foot to foot, shrieking, eyes wide.

The pungent stench of burning flesh reached her nostrils. The shockwaves of electricity vanished and the beast slumped to the ground, panting. Then a long Sorcerer’s staff appeared in Kalen’s right palm and uttering a spell in Latin, he pointed the end of the staff toward the creature that was struggling to rise. It never got the chance.

A single bolt of brilliant orange-red light shot from the end of the staff, blasting the beast in the chest. The torch-like fire ate through its chest, incinerating what she assumed to be the heart and in seconds, it fell. This time it was dead. Smoke rose from the creature in wisps and she felt an inexplicable wave of sadness.

Kalen shared no such sentiment. Nudging the beast with his toe, his expression was cold. “Good riddance.”

She crawled from underneath the SUV as Kalen began a chant. The creature’s body began to break down, shrivel, until finally it disintegrated. Another whispered word from the Sorcerer, and the ashes swirled into the air and vanished into the night. His staff disappeared and he strode for her, closing the distance quickly.

Grabbing her upper arms, he began to check her for injuries, patting her limbs. “God, Mackenzie,” he rasped. “Are you all right?”

Suddenly she became aware of the burning pain in her left shoulder. She’d forgotten about it, but now that the adrenaline rush was over, it totally eclipsed the stinging in her palms and knees from sliding on the concrete when she dove under the SUV. “My back. I think it scratched me.”

Moving around behind her, he cursed. “The fucker got you. Looks like he caught your shoulder with a claw. We need to get you back so Dr. Mallory can take care of it.”

“Hey, I’m a doctor,” she said.

“But you can’t reach your back, and it’s not smart to treat yourself. You know that, but I think you’re in a bit of shock.”

“You think?” she retorted.

“Come on,” he said, taking her hand and pulling her toward the SUV. “Let’s go. We’ll have somebody come and get your car later.”

She shook her head, tugging him in the direction of her car instead. “The beastie slashed one of the tires on the Escalade. We’ll have to take mine.”

“Goddammit.” He sighed. “Nick’s gonna shit monkeys.”

“It’s not your fault some ugly-ass bat decided to try and eat me for dinner! Hell, if you hadn’t come to fetch me home, he would’ve succeeded!” She actually felt the shudder that went through Kalen.

“Don’t remind me. Keys?”

“Right—oh, crap. My purse.”

During her getaway, it had gone flying. Kalen found it near one of the SUV’s back tires, where it had no doubt fallen when she’d dived under headfirst. He handed it over and she found the contents intact, including the keys, which she handed to him.

After retrieving his duster from the ground, he shrugged it on and opened the passenger’s door, waiting for her to climb in before closing it. A normal thing for a man to do, but it made her feel warm. Cared for. Just like him coming to her rescue, battling the deadly creature. She shouldn’t read anything into it, though—any of the men of the Pack would do the same for a friend and comrade.

Was Kalen a friend? At the very least, she hoped so.

He pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward the compound. The drive would take almost half an hour, and she selfishly wished it was longer. She stared at his profile in the darkness, drinking in the gorgeous man beside her.

“Jesus, I can’t believe nobody heard the noise and came out back, or just happened along.”

“Well, the music is pretty loud in there,” she said thoughtfully. “Besides, the whole thing lasted maybe five minutes, tops.”

“I guess you’re right. We got damned lucky, all around.”

They had, and the close call hit home, making her shiver.

A hand found her knee. “You want my coat, honey?”

The softly spoken question, the endearment tinged with no little concern, made her heart do a funny flip. He’s just being nice. “No, I’m okay. I’ll feel better after a hot shower and a couple of ibuprofen.”

He shot her a look rife with concern, and he didn’t need to voice what they were both thinking—Melina Mallory, the other doctor at the compound, might want to throw in a rabies shot and a whole kitchen sink full of other vaccinations as well.

“We both need these scratches looked at,” he said.

“How’s yours?” She couldn’t have seen the slice on his left arm from here, even if he hadn’t been wearing his coat.

“Not too bad.”

He didn’t seem inclined to elaborate, so she dropped the subject. For now. The doctor in her was much more worried about his wound than her own, and she wouldexamine it, whether he wanted her to or not.

Unwillingly, her mind turned back to the moment she’d seen the creature standing there, death in its eyes. God, she’d been so terrified. And then Kalen had rushed right in, taking on a monster many times his size, placing his life on the line.

For me.

That thought led to another one.

“How did you know that thing was around? Or did you just come there to see me and—”

“Wait a second,” he interrupted. His back straightened and his hands tightened on the steering wheel as he slowed the car a bit, looking around. Beyond the headlights there wasn’t much to see. Just thick, impenetrable forest draped in a cloak of gloom.

And whatever waited beyond that had him spooked.

“What is it?” she blurted.

After a few moments, his mouth thinned into a grim line. “There’s something else between us and the compound. Something bad.”

Oh, shit. “Is it another one of those creatures?”

“I don’t know,” he said quietly. “But I think it’s looking for us. I’ve got to turn the car around and find a place for us to hole up. See if you can reach Nick on your cell, tell him what’s going on.”

On a side road, he pulled in and turned the car around, pointing it in the direction from which they’d come, while she fished her smartphone from her purse. She woke up the screen and found Nick in her list of contacts, punched his name, and hit Send.

Nothing happened. No ring.

She glanced at the screen again. “Damn. The call failed.”

“Try again.”

She did, three more times. “I can’t get a signal. Now what?”

“Try mine. It’s in my coat pocket on your side.”

Digging in the pocket at his hip, she retrieved the phone that Nick had assigned to Kalen. She knew because they all carried the same type, and Kalen hadn’t had much to his name when Nick had hired him. Certainly not a phone.

But it was of no use, either.

“Crap! What’s the plan?” she asked him.

“There’s a motel not far from the Grizzly. I’ll head there, get us a room. I can place wards over our location that’ll conceal us from whatever this fucking thing is that’s stalking us, until we can reach Nick or one of the others.”

“You can’t do that now, if I pull over and drive?”

He shook his head. “I can cloak the car, but then we’d still be a moving bubble of nothingness on the radar, so to speak. A big tipoff to whatever is out there that we’re the ones he’s after. A stationary hideout is best so I can blend us into the surroundings.”

“Oh. Makes sense.”

She just wanted to be off the road and out of sight. They were way too exposed out here in the middle of nowhere, in the dark surrounded by forest. Kalen was a powerful Sorcerer, but his hands were on the wheel, his attention split between the mysterious danger and the road. Anything could ambush them, and it could be all over before the vehicle came to a stop.

They rode in silence, past the bar, and her eyes strayed toward the building where she’d been having such fun just a short time ago. Despite the trouble with Billy and his buddies, she was happy to see Kalen. She’d let herself hope for . . . what? Getting to know him better? Kissing him, for sure. More would’ve been fantastic.

And now they were running from danger, unable to reach their team.

“Did you tell Nick where you were going?”

“No, I borrowed the keys for the SUV from Jax. I told him I was going to the Grizzly to meet you, but I didn’t say why. Dammit!” He was obviously kicking himself for that oversight.

“That you had some sort of bad vibe?”

“Exactly.”

She hesitated for a few seconds then decided what the hell. Go for it.“Is that the only reason you came?” she asked quietly, studying his reaction.

After a long moment he spoke, his voice low. “No. That’s not the only reason.”

Again, to her frustration, he didn’t elaborate. The man was one part sexy as hell, two parts mystery, and damned if he intended to clear up the mystery part for her any time soon.

But the Sorcerer won’t be able to hide fromme . Not for long.

Mackenzie jumped, pulse leaping. She swiveled her head, scanning the inside of the car, expecting to see a strange man, one who’d just spoken directly in her ear. Or was it only in her head?

Kalen glanced at her. “What’s wrong?”

“I thought I heard . . . Nothing.”

“What?” His voice was sharp.

“I—I heard a voice in my head.” God, that sounded crazy.

“A voice? What kind?”

“I don’t know.” She sighed. “Could’ve been my imagination.”

“Going by the odds so far tonight? I’d guess it wasn’t. Was it a male voice?”

“Yes, but I didn’t recognize him,” she said thoughtfully.

“What did he say?”

“He said the Sorcerer—you—wouldn’t be able to hide from him for long.”

His eyes widened. “Why the hell would he talk to you and not directly to me? I—shit, never mind,” he spat. “I know why.”

When no explanation seemed to be forthcoming, she waved a hand. “Care to enlighten me?”

“Later.” At her scowl, he patted her leg. “I promise.”

“Fine.” She sighed, rolling her eyes. Squeezing information out of the CIA had to be easier than getting it from Kalen.

A few minutes later, they pulled up at the Wallace Motel, which the locals affectionately called the Wall-Banger. Reportedly for good reason, though she wouldn’t know. She’d never had a desire or a good reason to stay at the aged motel, until now.

Kalen ran inside and got them a room, then returned to the car less than five minutes later with two card keys in hand. “Room 121, on the end.”

They parked and hurried inside, eager to get out of sight. Kalen flipped on the light and then closed the door firmly behind them and engaged the locks. Without wasting one second, he moved to the center of the small room and closed his eyes, holding his arms out from his sides. He chanted a few words, and then dropped his arms.

“It’s done. The wards are in place, so we should be safe until we can reach Nick or one of the team.”

“Why don’t we just use this phone?” She gestured to the one on the night stand.

“We can’t risk using public phones to discuss our business,” he said. “The lines aren’t secure.”

“Oh, right.” She felt like a fool. “I should’ve known that.”

“No big deal. You’re used to patching us up, not being involved in the action.” Stepping close, he squeezed her hand. “Let’s go in the bathroom and see if we can’t get your cuts cleaned out. Don’t want them to get infected.”

“Sure.” The word emerged as a croak. Lord he was standing so close, smelled so freaking fantastic. She wanted to wallow in him, wrap him around her like a blanket.

Instead she settled for being nursed. Quite a change for a doctor, and she didn’t hate the attention. He led her into the tiny bathroom, positioned her next to the sink, and unwrapped a complimentary bar of soap. Next, he grabbed a plain white wash cloth and turned the water on warm, wetting it.

“This place is shabby, but it’s clean,” he observed.

“Thank God. I’d hate to avoid being killed by whatever that beast was, only to be brought down by some weird bacteria I caught at the Wall-Banger.”

For the first time, he laughed, and the timbre of the husky sound shot straight to her toes. And other places, too. She stared at him, transfixed by how his full-fledged smile transformed a tragically beautiful face into a stunning, drop-dead, cream her panties one.

“The Wall-Banger?” he repeated with another laugh.

She blinked, attempting to focus. “Um, yeah. That’s what the locals call this dump. They rent rooms by the hour, thus the nickname.”

“That’s too funny. Here, let me see your hands.”

Pulse racing, she held them out, palms up. They were abraded from her baseball player slide, the skin angry and raw.

“Not too much blood,” he observed. “Mostly a lot of dirt.”

Taking one wrist, he moved her hand under the water, letting the warm stream wash away the loose grime. Then he lathered the soap with his own hands and gently began to wash hers. She hissed at the sting and he murmured soothing words about how brave she was, both before and now. Coddled her. Nobody had done that for her since her dad when she was little.

But from Kalen, the action took on a whole different intimacy.

Whether he noticed how the tiny room seemed to close in she wasn’t certain. He simply worked slowly and carefully, until her hands were clean and patted dry. They didn’t look so bad now.

“The scratches will fade some by tomorrow, but . . .” He trailed off, frowning at the small wounds. Before she could ask what was wrong, he whispered another of his incantations.

To her amazement, the scratches faded until they were almost nothing. “Oh my God! How—you’re a Healer?”

“No. I can do small patch-up jobs and take away some pain, but that’s all. My healing talent is nowhere near Zander’s level, not even in the same ball park. And I can’t patch up myself,” he said, gesturing to his own bruised face.

Zander Cole, one of the wolf shifters, was the team’s Healer, and a highly valuable one at that. He was capable of healing extensive, life-threatening injuries—though at great personal cost to himself.

“But they don’t hurt anymore,” she enthused, wiggling her fingers. “Thank you.”

He shrugged. “Let’s see what we can do about the cut on your shoulder. Turn around for me.” She did, and he sucked in a breath. “This is a bit uglier than your hands. I need for you to take off your shirt. Is that okay?”

She nodded. He might be the new guy on the team, but she trusted him with her life. Hell, he’d already saved her butt, so what did she have to lose? She grabbed the hem of her red tank top, but when she tried to lift her arms, her left shoulder screamed in protest.

“Ow!”

“Easy, honey,” he said, his palm rubbing her back in a comforting gesture. “Let me do it.”

Working carefully, he lifted the shirt and eased it over her right arm first, and then over her head. From there, it was simple enough to slide it off her left arm, where he let the material drop to the tiled floor.

“That shirt’s a loss. So is the bra. The clasp is dangling by a thread back here, and the whole thing’s in my way.”

Face flushing, she shrugged her good shoulder. “Then take it off.”

Doctors didn’t embarrass easily when it came to otherpeople baring skin in order to be examined or treated. It was quite another matter to be on the receiving end. She flinched as he flicked the clasp and the pressure of the elastic vanished. The scrap joined her top on the floor and she automatically covered her breasts.

She didn’t consider herself overly modest, but right now someone could’ve fried an egg on her forehead. She stared at the wall, glad he was behind her where he couldn’t see how flustered she was to be standing there topless in the same room with the man she’d lusted after for weeks.

As before, he cleaned the wound as gently as possible. It hurt, though, much worse than the scrapes on her hands. At one point she gave up trying to keep herself covered and gripped the edge of the sink, tears of pain pricking her eyes.

“I’m sorry, sweet thing. Just a bit more, okay?”

Five more agonizing minutes, and he was finished. Tossing the cloth on the back of the sink, he ordered her to remain still for another few seconds. A soft stream of Latin left his lips and the slash on her back began to tingle. The sensation lasted briefly and was gone.

“There. It’s not perfect. Zan could’ve made it vanish altogether, but it’s better than having it bleed all over.”

Turning around, she examined her left shoulder in the mirror. The creature’s claw had raked an ugly furrow about a half-inch wide from the top of her shoulder, over the shoulder blade, and a few inches below. A few more and it might’ve damaged the nerves in her spine, possibly severed them.

As it was, Kalen had closed the cut enough to form a scab that made it appear the wound had been healing for a week or so. “I’m impressed. And it feels a ton better, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“How’s your arm?” she asked.

“It’s not as bad as I thought. I’ll clean the cut later.” His gaze dropped to her chest and his eyes widened, body going tense. Lust etched itself on his face for a fleeting moment, and then he gave her a sheepish smile. “Christ, where are my manners?”

Exhaling a deep breath, she watched him exit the bathroom. In the bedroom, he removed his duster and laid it over the back of an old chair, and then pull off his black T-shirt. Walking back to her, he held it out. “Wear this. It’s clean, except for a little bit of blood where his claw tore my sleeve.”

She took the shirt, but damned if she could take her eyes off his toned chest, sprinkled with just the right amount of curly black hair and the silver pentagram pendant resting over his heart. Washboard abs, too. He’d filled out, gained some weight since he’d been with the Pack. And those few pounds had been shaped into muscle, and gone to all the right places.

Shit, those long legs, and that bulge between his thighs—

“Mackenzie?”

“Hmm? Oh! Thanks.”

Turning around, she pulled on his shirt and was immediately assailed by his wonderful, spicy scent. Assuming they had to stay the night, how the hell was she supposed to sleep wearing clothing of his that smelled so damned good? Parking her rear on the bed, she watched as he dug out his cell phone and tried again to reach someone at the compound. Nothing. She did the same, with identical results.

“Must be a service outage somewhere,” he muttered. “Looks like we’re stuck here for the time being.”

Stuckwasn’t the word she would’ve chosen to describe being shut in with the sexy Sorcerer all night.

“Unless you want to just leave and make a run for it,” she suggested. “Maybe whatever it was is gone?”

“No, he’s still out there, waiting. I can feel him.”

“Then I guess we’re here for the duration. Want to watch TV?”

Alone with Kalen, and that was the last pastime on her list. But she wasn’t going to make a fool of herself by making a play for him.

He’s a coworker, Mac! And it’s never smart to sleep with one. Remember that. Strength, girlfriend. You can handle this.

Kalen flipped on the television and they settled on the bed, propped on pillows, watching a standup comedian on a cable channel. The show was funny, but her eyelids soon grew heavy. Too sleepy, worn out from their stressful ordeal, she let herself fall into oblivion.

What a freakin’ waste of a delicious Sorcerer.

Jax wasn’t surprised when, at two in the morning, there was a knock on the door to the quarters he and Kira shared. Nor was he surprised to find Nick standing on the threshold, frowning in concern.

His commander got right to the point. “Did you loan Kalen your keys to one of the Escalades?”

No point in lying when the man clearly knew the answer already. “I did. Isn’t he back yet?”

“No, and neither is Mac. I can’t reach either one of them on their cell phones. In fact, I can’t even contact Sheriff Deveraux. There seems to be an outage in the area—and not a normal one.”

“Shit.” A chill snaked down his spine. “We initiating a search?”

“Yeah. I’m not getting any premonitions except a vague sense that something bad has happened, and I don’t fucking like it.” The man sighed, raking a hand through short, dark hair a lot like Jax’s own, except Nick’s was beginning to turn silver at the temples. “Let’s take Zan and Ryon with us. Hammer will stay here and keep watch.”

“Good idea.” Four was a more comfortable number when facing unknown odds. Five would’ve been better, and his gut churned at the thought. Aric should’ve been with them, and it was his fault their friend had been taken captive. They’d find him. Jax had to believe that or he’d go insane with the horrible guilt. “Let me throw on some jeans and I’ll round up the others.”

“Meet me at the hanger.”

Then Nick was gone, leaving Jax to dress with warp speed. He stopped only long enough to give his sleepy mate a kiss and tell her not to worry.

As if. Their newest Pack member was out there somewhere, with Mac. Something was very wrong. Suddenly, Jax recalled the conversation he and Nick had about Kalen the very night they’d taken in the Sorcerer.

“Is the kid going to be okay?” Jax asked.

“Definitely not if he leaves, but even if he stays . . . I don’t know. His storm is still a good ways off, but it’s coming.”

“And when it arrives?” He was almost afraid to learn the answer, with good reason.

“Kalen will either find it in his soul to do the right thing, make the hard choice. Or he’ll destroy us all.”

Whatever had happened tonight, Jax had a terrible feeling this was the beginning. The rolling thunder before the storm.

And he had a suspicion that Nick knew it, too.

God help them all.