Dark Descendant (8 page)

gun, making as much noise about it as possible. The diner was kind of noisy, but not so much

that Alexis couldn’t hear and recognize the sound.

I got the feeling Alexis desperately wanted to come across the table at me, but he just sat

there glaring instead. Then his gaze flicked to something over my shoulder, and his eyes

widened.

It was a classic distraction technique, but I couldn’t help taking a peek over my shoulder

anyway.

Alexis hadn’t been trying to trick me. Standing in the doorway, giving me a decidedly

neutral look, was Blake.

The hostess—who had to be pushing fifty—was giving him goo-goo eyes, and practically

every adult female in the place, not to mention a few men, were surreptitiously looking him over.

There’s nothing like a well-built pretty-boy to get the hormones working overtime.

Blake ignored all of them—even the hostess, who was trying to direct him to an open seat

at the counter—and started toward our table. I uncocked the gun, then scooted over in my seat so

I could have the wall at my back while keeping an eye on both men.

Blake had been only slightly less hostile than Jamaal last night, but he was barely paying

attention to me today. He and Alexis engaged in a hot and heavy alpha-male staring contest. I

could practically smell the testosterone in the air, even over the bacon grease and coffee. I’d have

liked to get out from between them, but there wasn’t anywhere to go.

When Blake reached the table, he casually leaned against my side of the booth, never

taking his eyes off Alexis.

“She’s one of ours,” Blake said, his voice as challenging as his stare. “Tell Konstantin to

mind his own business.”

Konstantin? Who the hell was Konstantin? And what was this “one of ours” crap?

Alexis raised his eyebrows. “If she’s one of yours, then why are you letting her wander

around the city unaccompanied before notifying Konstantin about her?”

“Get out. And leave her alone.”

I’d have snapped at Blake for trying to protect the “little woman,” only I wasn’t sure that

was what he was trying to do. It felt more like he was claiming his territory.

“I don’t answer to you,” Alexis countered. “And if she really belonged to Anderson, I’m

sure she would have mentioned the fact by now.”

“For the record,” I said, though I wondered if drawing attention to myself was a bad idea,

“I don’t belong to anybody, especially you assholes.”

Both men ignored me.

Blake shrugged. “Anderson has already decided she belongs to him. He sent me to fetch

her, so that’s what I’m doing. You have a problem with that, take it up with him.”

Still barely sparing me a glance, Blake reached out and grabbed my arm in a bruising

grip. I, of course, tried to pull away. But he was damn strong.

Alexis leaned forward, putting both his hands on the tabletop, his eyes practically

glowing with menace. “Let go of her and get the fuck out of here, or you’ll be sorry,” he growled. “Konstantin wants to talk to her, and only a fool would get in his way.”

Blake let go of my arm and smiled. He, too, leaned forward and put his hands on the

table. He was crowding my personal space, but he was doing the same to Alexis. If this went

much further, people around us were going to notice and try to break it up or call the cops.

I was considering how I might bring the tension down a notch when I felt a change in the

air. The diner suddenly felt about ten degrees hotter, and the crowd and traffic noise became

muted and dull.

Blake ran his tongue over those full, sensual lips of his, and even though I’d never been

particularly attracted to him, I felt a tug of desire in my nether regions. My pulse kicked up and

my breath hitched. The air filled with the musky scent of sex, and I pressed my thighs together in

hopes of erasing the ache that had built without warning.

Across from me, Alexis’s eyes darkened, and his mouth fell open. His breaths came in

excited little puffs, and sweat dewed his face. The look he was giving Blake screamed of

something very different from anger, and I’d bet anything he was sporting quite a tent pole under

the table.

“Don’t ever forget who I am,” Blake said in a chilling croon as he leaned in even closer

to Alexis. “Zeus’s line may be powerful, but even Zeus was helpless against Eros. Unless you’d

like me to take you into the men’s room and fuck you till you scream for mercy, you’d better go

tell Konstantin that this one is ours. Understand?”

Whatever Blake had been doing, he stopped abruptly. The temperature dropped, the

musky scent evaporated, and the crowd noise returned to normal.

Across the table from me, Alexis recoiled, his back slamming against the backrest as he

tried to put distance between himself and Blake. There was a wild look in his eyes, the lust that

had been there only moments ago completely gone.

“Konstantin would have your balls for a trophy if you tried it,” Alexis whispered, but

though that was supposed to sound like a threat, it wasn’t very effective when his face was so

white, and his eyes so wide.

Blake smiled easily. “Wouldn’t do
you
any good, now would it? Besides, you’d have to

tell him what happened, and I don’t see you admitting it. Now get out. If you’re still here when

I’ve counted to five, we’ll be partying in the men’s room, and that’s a promise.”

Alexis made a hasty exit before Blake got to two.

I’d have liked nothing better than to follow Alexis’s example, but I was under no illusion

that Blake would let me go that easily. He slid into the booth across from me. He beckoned to the

harried waitress, and she stopped everything to bring him a fresh cup of coffee.

“Would you really have done it?” I found myself asking, not sure why I cared one way or

another.

“Hell yes,” he answered with a sharklike grin as he poured an indecent amount of sugar

into his cup. “I’ve always hated that holier-than-thou bastard. He’d have loved every minute of

it, too, until his head cleared.”

I sure as hell didn’t like Alexis, but I couldn’t help thinking that what Blake had planned

to do to him was downright evil. I guess that thought must have shown on my face.

“Oh, please. Don’t feel sorry for him,” Blake said. “The Olympians have embraced rape

and torture as a goddamn art form, and he’s totally on board with that. As long as he’s not the

victim, of course.”

“The Olympians?”

“A bunch of descendants of Greek gods. They envision themselves as some kind of

master race. They also consider themselves to be the ruling body for all the
Liberi
.” He flashed me a sarcastic smile. “Not all of us see it that way.”

“And who’s Konstantin?”

“Their leader. He styles himself as their king, but I refused to call him that even when I

was
an Olympian. I’m sure as hell not going to call him that now.”

My mind boiled with an endless stream of questions. I settled for the one I decided was of

most immediate importance. “How did you find me? And how did
he
find me?”

Blake leaned back in his seat. “I’m guessing he found you because their Oracle had a

vision. And before you ask, the Oracle is a descendant of Apollo, and she sometimes sees the

future. Most of her visions are so vague and confusing you can’t understand what they mean

until whatever it is has already happened. But every once in a while, she sees something clearly.”

I nodded, swallowing my skepticism for the millionth time. “That doesn’t explain how

you
found me.”

He smiled and didn’t answer. He was definitely being less hostile now than he had been

last night, but there was a hint of malice in his eyes; he wanted the mystery of how he had found

me to creep me out. Unfortunately, I was giving him exactly what he wanted.

“All right,” I said, trying not to show my discomfort, “
why
did you find me?”

“Anderson promised you a follow-up conversation, remember?”

I had a feeling my effort to hide the chill that ran through me was in vain.

“Jack merely delayed the inevitable when he pulled his juvenile little trick and snuck you

out,” Blake continued. “I’ll give you a ride back to the house. You’ll be safer there anyway. It’s

off-limits to the Olympians.”

Another conversation with Anderson was not on my to-do list, and no matter how much

I’d disliked Alexis, I couldn’t imagine feeling “safer” at Anderson’s mansion. “What if I decide

to decline your generous offer?”

“I know you caught the edge of my aura when I used it against Alexis,” he said, his

nostrils flaring as if he scented my weakness. “The effect would be a hell of a lot more intense if

I directed it at you. You’d follow me anywhere, begging me to fuck you. I wouldn’t do it, but I’d

magnanimously offer to let you suck my cock during the ride to the house. You’d have a grand

ol’ time.” He smiled pleasantly.

I was sick and tired of being scared. The threat made my stomach do flip-flops, but I did

my best not to let my face show it. “Is threatening people with rape your answer to every

problem?”

“I do find it’s remarkably effective,” he responded with a dry edge in his voice. “And it’s

far less ostentatious than grabbing you and dragging you kicking and screaming out the door.”

I hated being bullied, but I didn’t have much choice but to give in—for the moment.

“Fine,” I said. “Let’s go see Anderson.”

Blake fixed me with a long, penetrating stare. I had a feeling he knew I wasn’t the type to

give up so easily. I gave him my best innocent look. I had no intention of setting foot within ten

miles of Anderson and his Hand of Doom, but I didn’t want to give Blake an excuse to practice

his unique method of coercion on me. I’d never realized sex could be so effectively weaponized.

I don’t know if my feigned innocence convinced Blake, or if he merely decided he was in

too strong a position for me to give him trouble. Whatever the reason, he slipped out of the

booth, and I was mildly surprised to see him throw a ten-dollar bill on the table. He hadn’t struck

me as the generous type, but not only was he paying for my coffee—and Alexis’s—he was

leaving the waitress a sizeable tip. He reached for my arm as I stood up, but I quickly danced out of reach.

“Keep your hands to yourself,” I warned. “I’m coming with you peacefully, but you

touch me and all bets are off.”

He gave me one of his malicious grins. My threat was an empty one when he could use

his creepy power to force me to come along, but I didn’t want him touching me if I could help it.

Getting away from him was going to be hard enough without having to break free of his grasp.

My threat might have had no teeth, but Blake didn’t try to grab me again. He led me out

of the diner and onto K Street, keeping a careful eye on me. I hoped he wasn’t parked too close,

because I needed some time to come up with an escape plan. The gun was in my backpack, so

even if I were willing to wave it around on a crowded street, I couldn’t. He was walking close

enough that I doubted I’d have the foot-speed to just bolt and hope to outrun him. Which meant I

needed a distraction of some kind. Something to keep him busy long enough to give me a

sizeable head start.

I scanned the streets and sidewalks for something that could help. Finally, I caught sight

of two tough-looking black guys leaning against a wall as they eyed Blake’s approach. Both

were big and imposing, and at just the right age to be eager to prove their manhood. There was a

predatory light in their eyes as they looked Blake up and down.

Like I said, Blake was a pretty boy, his hair moussed to look casually tousled, his clothes

obviously expensive. The classic metrosexual. To a bigoted young punk looking for trouble,

“metrosexual” meant “gay.” Despite the fact that he’d used his aura against Alexis, I was pretty

sure Blake didn’t swing that way.

Blake didn’t seem to notice the punks, not even when one of them whistled at him and

the other made kissy noises. From their body language, I doubted they were planning to do

anything more than harass Blake, unless he was hot-headed enough to engage with them. But I

suspected they would be just the kind of distraction I needed.

I looked straight ahead, pretending not to pay any attention to them. There was a

dangerous glitter in Blake’s eyes, one that said he was seriously considering stopping to teach the

punks some manners. I didn’t know if he had any powers beyond lust, but I suspected he was

more than a match for these two, despite appearances. I also suspected he was going to control

his aggressive urges, knowing full well that I’d make a run for it if he tried anything. So I

decided to take the choice out of his hands.

Timing my move carefully, I waited until we were just a couple feet short of the punks.

Then I slung my backpack off my shoulder and swung it as hard as I could at Blake’s back.

Since I hadn’t wanted to leave my expensive laptop sitting around the hotel, there was

plenty of oomph behind the blow. Blake grunted in surprise as he flew forward—right into the

two punks.

I didn’t wait to see what happened. I whirled around, shoving my arms back into the

straps of my backpack, then ran for all I was worth. There was a lot of yelling behind me, but I

ignored it, my arms and legs pumping for maximum speed. I probably should have dropped the