Sweat slicked his skin. He lifted his arm in an automatic block and felt the zing of impact up to his shoulder. A grin stretched his lips as he backed up, circling her on the sparring mat. “Youre getting better, Ember.”
“I still havent taken you down,” she panted, her sunburst eyes glowing with battle light and with the power she managed to keep just banked.
“Keep dreaming, baby,” he laughed.
“Im going to beat you, Gage Dempsey,” she declared, punctuating each word with an attempted strike.
When she snuck in a blow to his kidney, Gage stopped laughing and corrected his stance.
He lived for these sparring matches with Embry. He lived for any of the stolen time they managed to spend together, even if she just came to the dojo because she wanted to learn the ways of the Shadow Walkers and her father wouldnt teach her. He didnt know how Adan would react to the fact that he was teaching Embry to fight. Or the fact that his protégé was in love with his daughter. And Gage couldnt afford to anger his mentor. Not when he owed Adan everything. So other than this, Embry was off limits.
A blast of dry heat knocked him back two steps.
“Hey now, youre losing your cool. Keep the fireworks under wraps, padewan.”
“I will burn your ass, Obi-wan.”
Gage ducked as a roundhouse whispered by his head, countering with a low spin kick that caught and buckled her knee. From the mat, Embry scissored her legs around his and brought him down to her level. She swarmed over him like a monkey, struggling for any kind of hold, but he just rolled and twisted in her ever frustrated grasp. Which was amusing until the friction of her lithe little body rubbing against his caused another problem.
He pinned her with his body, pressing both her arms to the mat. Her long legs were wrapped around his hips like a vice, and Gage could feel his erection straining against his gi pants toward her heat. His breath shuddered out as he struggled for some kind of control. This was Adans daughter. She was practically his sister.
Gage tried to back up, but Embrys legs only tightened. He felt hi mself twitch against her, andhis face flamed in mortification. “Uncle,” he muttered, voice rough. “You win. Let me up.”
Embry tipped her hips experimentally against his, and he strangled on his own breath. His head dipped as he struggled not to react. She moved again.
“Don’t,” he barked. “Were not going to play this game, Embry.”
“Gage.” At her soft voice, he looked up and met her eyes. The gold ring that circled her pupil was pulsing. “Let go of my hands.”
He released her, planting his own hands on the mat and pushing up to keep them from touching her anywhere else. He tried to find somewhere else to look. Straight down put him on eye level with her breasts, and his mouth watered at the thought of suckling one puckered peak. Straight ahead gave him a full on view of them in the mirror, and his all too active imagination decided to treat him to what those tangled limbs would look like if they were both naked. Christ.
Her hands, soft and insistent, framed his face and forced him to look at her. And it wasnt a girl beneath him. Wasnt anyone he could convince himself to think of as a sibling. She was a woman, fully aroused, fully aware. Her extraordinary sunburst eyes stayed focused on him as she rose up and captured his mouth.
His arms and shoulders trembled. He was not so weak a fighter that he couldnt extricate himself. He should throw her off, end this madness.
But the taste of her seeped into his veins and fired his blood. She would burn him up from the inside out, leaving nothing but cinders. Yet he couldnt pull away.
She shoved at him until he rolled, reversing their positions. Rising over him like some kind of fire goddess, she pulled the tight t-shirt over her head, growling a little in frustration as it caught in the long tangle of auburn. The sports bra she wore zipped in the front. The zipper was already partially down, and her breasts strained against the cotton. He ached to fill his hands with them. Because he didnt trust himself, he clutched her thighs and held still.
She bent over him again, her hands sprinting over his chest. Everywhere she touched, he burned, a delicious edge one step away from pain that left him wanting more. If this was lunacy, he reveled in it.
“Gage,” she murmured, her lips barely brushing his.
“Mmm?”
“Touch me.”
Embry sat up, her eyes fixed on his in challenge, and slowly unzipped her sports bra. Her breasts spilled out as she shrugged the thingoff. “Touch me,” she ordered again, lifting both his hands and placing them over her breasts. A hum of pleasure escaped her, and he was lost.
He reared up to take her mouth as he shifted his hands to cradle her breasts. They were full and heavy in his palms, the nipples budding taut and hard beneath the stroke of his thumbs. In his lap she began to move to the rhythm of his stroking. On a gasp he broke the kiss and stilled her. “Youll need to stop that unless you want this over before its started.”
“I need you,” she whispered, and the plea brought him one step closer to madness.
Gage dropped his forehead to hers. “I have to know, Ember. Have you ever . . .”
“No. I wanted it to be you. I always wanted it to be you.”
Her first. God, hed never imagined she would want him.
Gage stroked the hair back from her temple. “Embry, I . . .”
“Let her go.” The voice echoed through the dojo and froze his blood, drying up the words hed been about to speak
Instead of obeying, Gage pulled Embry closer to shield her from the intruders as he watched them step out of the shadows. There were three of them, each clad in the dark gray or black that was the standard issue for Shadow Walkers. He didnt know them, but he knew their kind. After all, hed been trained to be one of them. As Adan wasnt among them, Gage could only assume the powers that be had finally found out about him and the vigilante missions Adan had trained him for.
“What do you want?” he asked, carefully easing up, keeping Embrys body pressed close to his as he shifted to put himself between the intruders and her, both as a means of protection and to preserve some measure of her modesty.
“I said, let her go.”
“Matthias, dont. He didnt—” Embry started.
“Shut your mouth, child. You werent supposed to be here.”
Gages mind whirled. So they were coming after me. They don’t want her. I can keep her safe if I can just get her out of here.“Will you be taking me to the Council?” he asked. He moved over a couple of steps, retrieving Embrys t-shirt and passing it back to her.
“And expose Adans little side project? I dont think so. Were simply here to take care of the problem before it gets any further out of hand.” This came from the Walker to Matthias left. He was lean with the ropy muscles and long-fingered hands of a wraith.
“Take care of the problem,” said Gage. “Meaning me.” Behind him, he felt Embry stiffen. Before she could speak, he clamped his hand down tight on hers in warning. He knew every inch of this dojo, could visualize it under any condition. Right now he opened his mind, searching for the shadows. There was a sliver, behind him. Not much, but it might be just enough for him to dematerialize them both out of here. Without knowing him, they wouldnt be able to follow. Not fast enough. He could get Embry away, keep her safe.
“Do you have any idea how many rules Adan violated with you? Bringing a human into our world?” The demand came from the Walker on the left. His dark face was barely differentiated from the shadows in which he stood. The outlines of his broad body were still blurred.
“I know he gave me my life.” Gage edged backward, trying to push Embry into a corner.
“A mistake we intend to rectify before it destroys him,” said the wraith.
“No!” The heat behind him was instant, scorching.
Gage turned toward her, shouting, “Embry, no!” But the fireballs were already flying from her hands toward the two flanking Walkers. They phased out even as Matthias dove forward and caught Gage around the waist.
Matthias was the bigger man, but Gage was younger, faster. He twisted and threw the Walker into a wall, already scrambling toward Embry.
She was a living flame, more than ever the child of her fire elemental mother. Heat and light pulsed off her in waves, expanding, beating in a terrifying rhythm as the nimbus grew and grew.
If she went nova, shed kill them all.
Gage dove into the light, feeling no burn, no pain, just desperation to save her. If he could drag her out of the light and into the shadows, he could get her away to safety. Drawing on the darkness, he reached out for her. “You have to shut it off!”
“No, you dont underst—”
His hands closed around her arms. For a heartbeat everything stilled. Then, agony ripped through him, an insatiable inferno of pain as everything she was projecting shot into his body and ripped him apart.
Embry shoved the barely there dress and ankle-breaking pumps into the bag. Good riddance, she thought, far more at ease in the jeans and knit top she now wore. A quick pass through the rest of the room showedthat shed gathered up everything. Her single duffel bag was packed and ready to go.
She wiped the room down for prints. Not that the IED used such primitive methods. If they came looking, they would find the characteristic traces of her magic in the room from when shed nearly lost control with Gage. That spark would be as damning as a signature to those who knew how to read the scene, and there was no way to wipe that. And there really wasnt anything she could do about the broken coffee table other than clean up the mess and let the hotel charge her credit card. So it was best that they get moving as soon as possible. Except she couldnt lug Gage as a deadweight all the way to the car, not without arousing undue attention and suspicion.
Two long, restl ess hours had passed since hed taken the antidote. How long is this going to take?The potionmonger from whom shed obtained the antidote hadnt said. If Matthias hadnt recommended him as a source, Embry might be worried shed given Gage some kind of poison. She moved back to sit on the edge of the bed.
He looks like he’s fighting a war, she thought, watching his face. What was he remembering?
Picking up one of his hands, she was startled at the sight of his palms. They held none of the usual lines but were, instead, covered in smooth, white scar tissue. Burns.
Embry closed her eyes and could still feel the desperate terror of that night. Shed been trying to save him the only way she knew how—by banishing the shadows with light. The dojo and Gages quarters were housed in a building with no windows or doors. If she eliminated all shadows, wrapping him in light, they couldnt touch him, couldnt take him into the shadows and away forever.
But hed seen the aurora and mistaken it.
You have to turn it off!
The moment hed grabbed her, something had changed. The nimbus of light shed woven condensed and shot into him, slamming him back into the wall hard enough to crack the plaster. Then hed slid limply to the ground and lay still. So still.
Matthias had walked over, checked his pulse, and shaken his head.
Matthias had lied. Hed let her live for ten years with the corrosive guilt that shed killed the man she loved, until it suited his purposes to tell her otherwise. The bastard.
With one hand, she reached out, tracing her fingers over the contorted muscles in Gages face, as if she could ease the strain. “Im so sorry.”
“Embry!” The scream burst from his mouth, and her heart jumped into her throat.
She leaned forward, intending to comfort, but he shot up, tackling her backwards.
Her breath whooshed out as they landed hard on the floor, his hands tight around her throat. Power swelled inside her, but she held it in check long enough to see his eyes clear, his face shift from rage to horror. He released her and scrambled back. One hand clutched at his head as he stared first at her, then looked wildly around the room, struggling to get to his feet, to raise his fists.
Embry sat up, clearing her throat. “Its okay. Were safe.”
He stumbled a few paces, looking as punch drunk as Archer had, and fell to his knees.
Embry scrambled to him before he could rise again, grabbing at his forearms, “Gage look at me. Look at me.” When he did, she could see the panicked fury in his eyes. She reached out to touch his cheek. “Were alone. Theres no one here to hurt us. Were safe. Were safe.”
“Ember?” His eyes searched her face, and she wondered what he saw.
“Im here.”
Her breath whooshed out again as he crushed her to him, almost cracking her ribs with shaking arms as one hand cradled her head. The combination of strength and gentleness all but undid her. It took every shred of self control to hold her body stiff in his embrace when she wanted to stroke and soothe—anything to ease his transition.
At length he stopped shaking. His frantic pulse slowed, and he loosened his grip, seeming to become aware that she was not returning his embrace.
“Embry, what the hell is going on?”
His eyes seemed clearer, more firmly grounded in the now than when hed first awakened. “Ill explain everything on the way.”
“On the way to where?”
“I need your help. Can you walk?”
“Probably. Why do I feel like I just went ten rounds with Chuck Liddell with both hands tied behind my back?”
“Its a side effect of the antidote,” she said, heaving him to his feet.
“Antidote to what?”
“The Lethe potion.”
Gage slumped unsteadily against her. “The what?”
“Lethe. Like the river in Greek mythology. To make you forget.”
“Forget . . .I dont . . .” He shook his head.
“Itll be clear in a while. But we have to move. We wont be safe here for long.” She snagged the duffel and led him out the door.
They were alone in the elevator, so she asked, “What do you remember?”
He frowned, his eyes seeming to glaze over a bit as he tried to think. “They hurt you,” he growled. “They hurt you, and I couldnt stop them.” His voice was ragged, and the self-condemnation on his face raked at her heart.
“They didnt hurt me,” she told him. It wasnt the sort of lie she minded telling. Not under the circumstances. “You, on the other hand, were another story.” The doors slid open to the lobby. “Cmon. I need to check out, and we have to get going.”
He moved more steadily as they crossed to the counter. To the average observer, he probably just appeared hung over or tired. Embry plastered a bright smile on her face and tucked one arm more firmly around his waist as they approached the desk clerk. “We need to check out.”
“Room please.”
“Nine seventeen.”
The receptionists fingers flew over her keyboard. “Will that be charged to the card we have on file?”
“Yes. And um, we needed to let you know we had a little . . . uh . . . issue with the coffee table.” The smile threatened to crack her face, but Embry cuddled up to Gage and hoped they looked honeymoonish or something. “Just charge me for the replacement of that too. Whatever is necessary.”
The womans eyes flicked to where Gage had dropped his head and was nuzzling Embrys neck. Only the fact that she was supporting the bulk of his body weight let Embry know that it was a cover up.
The clerks eyebrows rose. “Very well. Please sign here.”
Embry signed the bill.
“Please come again.”
The black Dodge Charger was gleaming with a coat of droplets from the flash summer shower that had blown through an hour or so before. Using the keys shed liberated from his jeans pocket, Embry opened the passenger door and more or less dumped Gage into it. When he opened his mouth she said, “Youre in no condition to drive,” and shut the door.
She started to circle around to the trunk, but a flash of movement caught her attention just before she was slammed against the back end of the car.
“I knew you was trouble, you,” snarled Mick, eyes glinting a dangerous gold. “What did you do to him?”
Embry drew on the heat of temper, focusing it where the Wylks hands dug into her arms. “Thats none of your goddamned business.”
“Mick?” Gage shoved the car door open. “What the fuck? Let her go!”
“Stay in the car. Ill handle this. Let me go, Guidry.” She cranked up the heat until he pulled his hands away with a hiss.
Gage, naturally, didnt stay in the car. “Mick, what the hell are you doing here? Did you followus?”
The irate shifter glanced toward him and Gages jaw dropped. “Holy shit, youre Wylk.” He sagged against the car for support.
Micks eyes widened before narrowing and swinging back to her. “What kinda game you playin, ’tite fille?”
“One you have no place in. Why did you follow us?”
“I know what you are, and I gots to ask myself what some firecaster wants with mon ami, why she smells like anxiety and aggression instead of arousal when she drag him outta my bar. So I follow.”
“Mick, its not what you think,” started Gage, trying to steady himself with one hand on the door and the other on the roof of the car.
“Really? Cause it sure the fuck look like she been tellin you all kind of things she not supposed to. Not to mention you look like you either drunk off yo ass or been beat to shit.”
“She didnt tell me anything. She filled in the blank.”
“She what?” Mick demanded.
Fuck. Embry scrubbed both hands over her face in frustration. “He was under a Lethe spell. I removed it. End of story as far as youre concerned. Gage, get in the car, we have to go.”
“Who da fuck is Gage?”
“That was my name before.”
“Enough with the explanations. We dont have time for this,” insisted Embry. She opened the trunk and tossed the duffel in.
“Whos after you?” asked Mick.
“No one yet, but theyre going to be if we stand around here lolly gagging. Go away Guidry and forget you ever saw us.”
The Wylk stepped forward. “If you think Im just gonna let you take him—”
“Shes not taking me anywhere. Im going willingly. Ill be fine, Mick. Just let it be.”
“This aint over,” he said, but he backed off.
Gage collapsed back in the car. Embry climbed into the drivers seat and jammed the key in the ignition. The engine cranked with a roar. “Okay, can you tell me how to get to your house?”
“My house?”
“You need to pack a bag.”
“For what?” he demanded.
“An extraction mission,” she said, pulling out into the empty street and leaving Mick standing in the shadow of a streetlight. “We have to go rescue my father.”