Rhyannon Byrd - Primal Instinct 04 (9 page)

“I can’t say that it would surprise me,” she murmured,
shaking her head.

“Ya know, I think that’s the nicest compliment
anyone’s ever given me,” he drawled, parroting her earlier words when he’d
complimented her driving. “But they’re not my women. They’re engaged to the
Buchanan brothers.”

“The Buchanan brothers?”

“Ian Buchanan was the first Merrick to awaken,
followed by his sister, Saige, and then his brother, Riley. Molly is set to
marry Ian any day now. They were supposed to get married last month, but had to
postpone when things started getting crazy. Hope is engaged to Riley, but I
don’t know that they’ve settled on a date yet. And the last I heard, Saige is
marrying Quinn, one of the other Watchmen in my unit, on New Year’s Day, though
he keeps claiming that he’s gonna drag her off to Vegas before then because he
doesn’t want to wait that long.”

“Wow. It, um, sounds like there’s going to be quite a
few weddings taking place around there.” Hooking her hair behind her ear, she
looked away and stared silently out the passenger’s side window, making him
wonder where she’d wandered off to in her head. The Kings of Leon’s lead singer
had just finished belting out another husky chorus about lust and loneliness
when she turned back toward him and spoke in a soft rush, as if she was in a
hurry to get the words out. “So how did you end up getting stuck with the job?”

“The job?”

“Protecting me and Jamie.”

Well, hell. Aiden ran his tongue over his teeth,
fighting the urge to fidget like a guilty kid. “What makes you think I didn’t
volunteer for it?”

She didn’t answer right away, as if she was giving
some careful thought to her response. The next song had already wound to a
soulful conclusion, the tires eating up another long stretch of country road,
before she finally said, “You just seem like the last man someone would send to
look after a schoolteacher and a child.”

Scowling, he lifted one tattooed hand to his long
hair. “Well, I can’t do anything about the tats,” he muttered. “But I’ll be
sure to get a haircut so you think I look respectable enough to be seen with
you.”

“I don’t—I mean, what’s wrong with your hair?” she
asked, sounding confused.

Shaking his head, Aiden wondered when he’d become such
a woman, allowing his freaking feelings to be hurt by her comment. “Look,
you’re the one who just suggested I didn’t look the par—”

“I meant your attitude,” she interrupted, cutting him
off as she gestured toward him with a fluttering of her fingers. It was one of
those wholly feminine gestures that a guy couldn’t have pulled off to save his
life. “It hasn’t really seemed as if you wanted the assignment or job or
whatever we are. In fact, I think your friends expected you to pass us over to
them. Is it that you don’t like kids, women or humans? Or a combination of all
three?”

Huh, so she’d picked up on that while watching his
exchange with Kellan. The woman was obviously observant for a human, which
meant he was going to have to be damn careful around her. He didn’t want her
getting inside his head. He just wanted to get her to Colorado, where she and Jamie
would be safe, while somehow managing to keep the animal half of his nature
from completely screwing up his life.

“Well?” she asked, prompting him for a response.

Aiden kept his attention focused on the long, moonlit
stretch of highway. “I like women and kids just fine.”

“But…not human ones? Is that it?”

“Yeah,” he muttered, knowing damn well that he sounded
like a prick. “That’s pretty much it.”

A soft, wry sound that didn’t quite make its way into
a laugh fell from her lips. “Um, ouch.”

His face felt tight, his mouth dry. “It’s nothing
personal, Liv.”

“Oh, no. Not at all.” Flexing his hands around the
wheel, Aiden figured he’d have to be deaf to miss the sarcasm behind those
simple words. “Will you at least tell me why?”

He worked his jaw, managing to scrape out a gruff
refusal. “The why isn’t important, so just drop it.”

She nodded, as if that was the response she’d been
expecting. “So, uh, whose brilliant idea was it to send you after us, then?”

“Kellan and I have been in Kentucky searching for the
Marker that Jamie’s wearing. Noah joined up with us two days ago. Since we were
closest, it made sense that we come after you.” Aiden kept to himself the part
about Molly insisting that he be the one to personally watch over them, unsure
why the little psychic had done it.

“And Molly was the one who told you about us?” she
asked, rubbing her palms along the tops of her thighs.

“That’s right.”

“You mentioned that Molly was…contacted.” She cast a
quick look into the backseat, then shifted her gaze back to his face. “Since
Jamie’s asleep now, I’d like you to explain what that means.”

Lifting his left hand, Aiden rubbed at the tight knots
in the back of his neck that seemed to be growing more painful by the minute.
“Molly’s human, but she has certain…powers,” he explained. “I’m not real clear
on all the details, but when she sleeps, ghosts are sometimes able to
communicate with her.”

Her breath sucked in on a sharp, shaky gasp, and she
turned her face to the side, staring out the window again. Softly she said, “So
Monica made contact with her? Did she tell her where Chloe is?”

“Yeah, Monica contacted her,” he rasped, uncomfortable
with the topic, wishing he knew how to handle this kind of crap. A certain
level of compassion would probably have helped, but that just wasn’t him. He’d
spent so many years honing his cynical, smart-ass attitude, he’d forgotten how
to be…easy. If he’d ever even known in the first place. “But she, uh, wasn’t
able to tell her where Chloe is. All we know is that she’s been taken.”

“And Monica told Molly that the Casus were coming for
me and Jamie?”

Aiden nodded, saying, “After seeing how ruthless those
bastards can be when they go after a target, we knew we didn’t have any time to
lose. So we headed to Lennox and tracked you down as quickly as we could.”

She took a deep breath, obviously working to take it
all in. “You make it sound as if there have been a lot of Merrick losses
already. Is it really that bad out there?”

“It’s gone from bad to worse,” he admitted in a hard
voice, “and things are moving faster every day. Saige Buchanan, who’s an
anthropologist, managed to get possession of some encrypted maps that give the
locations of the Markers, and has been able to decode a few of them. We’ve
already got four of the crosses in our possession, but there are still too many
that need to be found before the Casus, along with their Kraven buddies, get
hold of them.”

She turned toward him, her gaze settling back on his
profile, making him burn. “What’s a Kraven?”

“The Kraven are a species that’s half Casus, half
vampire, but who can pass damn easily for a human. There’s one named Westmore
who seems to be orchestrating this whole thing, pulling the strings from this
side of Meridian, which is what they call the Casus holding ground where the
shades are imprisoned.”

“Shades?”

“Because of their immortality,” he explained, “the
Casus can’t die in Meridian. They’ve simply wasted away to ‘shades’ of the
creatures they once were, which is why they’re forced to take human hosts when
they return to this world. We think Westmore has partnered up with a Casus
shade named Calder, but we don’t know much about him. What we do know is that
the Kraven are a nasty piece of work, and seeing as how they have the backing
of the Collective, as well—”

“They what?” she gasped, cutting him off. “The
Collective? But I thought the Collective was some kind of army of humans who
tracked down clan members and executed them.”

“It is,” he told her, flicking the wipers onto high as
the rain began to come down in a hard, steady pour. “But the human soldiers are
working with Westmore, which means they’re working with the Casus, as well.”

Twisting toward him in her seat, she pulled her left
leg beneath her and shook her head. “Okay, you’re going to have to explain that
one.”

Aiden could understand her disbelief. Hell, he hadn’t
believed it himself when he’d first been told. “From what I understand, it all
started because the Collective found the ancient archives—documents that
apparently hold endless amounts of information about the clans. They were lost
not long after the Casus were imprisoned and the Collective Army began hunting
down the clans.”

“How did they find them?” she asked. “And where?”

Frustration coiled through his body, cranking his tension.
“We have no idea, but from what we’ve been told, Westmore found out that the
Collective had discovered the archives, so he went to the Army Generals,
offering them a trade. In exchange for allowing him access to the archives,
their bank accounts and even their men, he offered them the one thing they
apparently couldn’t resist—the location of every ancient clan that remains in
existence.”

“Oh, m-my God,” she whispered, her stammer returning.
“C-could he actually do that?”

Aiden blew out a rough breath, hating that she was
afraid. And hating that he hated it, because it meant that he gave a crap, when
he knew he shouldn’t. “I hope to hell not,” he muttered. “But he already gave
the bastards four vampire nesting grounds. The Collective caught the Deschanel
completely off guard, and from what I understand, it was a complete slaughter.”

She shuddered, wrapping her arms around her middle.
“Have you ever f-fought against the Collective?”

Nodding again, he decided not to tell her exactly how
many of the human soldiers he had taken down over the years. Instead, he simply
said, “We may need orders to take down a clansman, as far as the Consortium is
concerned, but the Collective are free game.”

“Sounds d-dangerous.”

“It can be. But they haven’t given us much trouble
since Riley’s awakening last month. Idiots are probably wondering what they’ve
gotten themselves into, teaming up with those psychopaths.”

Quietly she said, “And so their greed will be their
downfall.”

“Who said that?” he asked, thinking the words sounded
vaguely familiar.

She gave a soft laugh. “To be honest, I have no idea.
The words just came to me.”

“Well, whoever it was, it about sums things up. By
making the deal with Westmore, the Collective Generals have created a hell of a
mess for themselves. Now it’s the Merrick and Watchmen against the Casus,
Collective and Kraven, with all of us in a race to get our hands on the Markers
before the other side.”

“Why do they want them?” she asked, resting the side
of her face against the back of the seat.

“We wish like hell that we knew. But some of us have
started to suspect it has something to do with bringing the flood. We just
don’t know how.”

“The flood?”

“When all the Casus escape at once.”

“God. That would be…” Her voice trailed off, and he
knew she was trying to think of a word that would do the horrific idea justice.

“Yeah.” Lifting his hand, Aiden scraped his palm
against the hard edge of his jaw. “That’s why we’re doing everything we can to
keep it from happening. Kierland Scott, Kellan’s older brother, is in Prague
right now, addressing the Consortium. You know who they are?”

“I know a little. Monica and Chloe told me about
them.”

Aiden was about to explain the purpose of Kierland’s
visit when he caught the flickering glow of a neon sign through the driving
sheets of rain. After being in the car with her for so long, he was covered in
Olivia’s scent, the drugging perfume seeping into his pores, filling his
head—and driving his goddamn beast to the edge. If he didn’t get out and give
himself some breathing room, the thing was going to shatter his control. And
then there’d be hell to pay.

Reaching down, he turned off the music, then jerked
his chin toward the sign. “That looks like a good-size motel up there. We
should probably go ahead and stop.”

“Will it be safe?” she asked, leaning forward to peer
through the windshield, as if to see if any monsters were lurking out there in
the dark.

“As safe as anything else we’ll come across.”

After heading around to the back of the building,
Aiden parked and turned off the engine, his tension cranking even higher now
that they’d stopped for the night. If he hadn’t been such a bastard, he knew he
would have told her that he’d wait outside until Kellan and Noah arrived, then
do the right thing for everyone involved and step aside. Every second he spent
in her presence was tempting fate. Tempting him to make a costly mistake. It
didn’t matter that he should keep his distance. Didn’t matter that she was
human and he didn’t trust her.

No, the only thing that mattered, other than keeping
her and the kid alive, was getting her under him—which meant that he was just
going to have to suck it up and throw together a game plan. He was good at
working through shitty situations. He’d had to be, or he wouldn’t still be
around.

And it could be worse, he thought. She could be
freaking out. Screaming and crying and blaming you for the mess that her life
is in.