Chapter Seven
Sean stumbled away from the camp. Daisy didn’t mean it. He simply knew she didn’t, but his heart felt as if it’d been ripped from his body.
He never should have touched her. She was too beautiful. Too volatile.
Not to mention, as a backup agent, he pretty much sucked. Away from her range of hearing, he couldn’t tell if the bad guys stood right behind him.
He stopped cold.
Bad guys, and here he walked away, leaving her. She could take care of herself against one man, but there were others. His head had been so caught up in lust, then self-doubt, he’d forgotten why he was here. And Vince was behind it all, whatever this gathering of rogues meant.
He looked around, behind him, taking in all the details. Trees lined the path. Long shadows reached into the brush as the sun started to set. A chill ran up his spine, and he reached out with his psychic senses. Touching Daisy’s mind wasn’t an effort, but scanning for a connection with strangers was a risk. It could drain him, make him weak. But somebody was out there. He knew it.
He couldn’t telepathically trace anyone, but that didn’t ease his mind. There should have been a weak sense of the campers somewhere nearby. Had they left?
Jogging the rest of the way down the trail, he came into the clearing, picnic tables empty, cars still there. He tested the hood of the six cars, all of them cold. Foreboding building, he reached his Jeep and grabbed his mobile.
No reception for texting. The cavalry would not come. It was up to him.
He threw the mobile on the seat and shut the door. As he turned, a rush of color in the corner of his vision gave him warning. With a duck, he swiped out his leg. His hiking boot swerved along the ground and felled his attacker.
With a growing sense of outrage, he tackled the guy to the ground.
Stan. The tinker who’d run from the Cinder compound.
The middle-aged, nondescript man didn’t fight back, just relaxed as if he gave up. Eyes rimmed in red, face pale and drawn, he shuddered as his mouth opened and shut several times.
With effort, Sean formed the words he couldn’t hear. “Talk. Read lips.”
Stan’s face scrunched up as he interpreted the garbled words. It was such a pain in the ass to try to communicate with a stranger.
“I didn’t want to hurt you.” Stan shook his head, his gaze flittering around them in a frantic search. He looked as if he’d seen a ghost.
Sean snapped fingers in Stan’s face to get him back on track.
Stan visibly swallowed. “Vince. He said we were just collecting people without homes. Without families. We were going to be family for each other. You don’t know what it’s like to be out there alone, without a family. But when I came and told him that I’d rather stay at the Cinders, he freaked out. Sent some electro mage after me. He told me he’d kill me if I turned on them. Then he told me I had to come down and ambush you to show my loyalty. It was kill you or he’d kill me.”
“What did he do to others?” Sean’s throat stung, dry and sore from the unaccustomed use.
Stan shook his head violently. Sean had to point to the man’s mouth to get him to stop moving so Sean could still read his lips. “Sent them ahead. I don’t know where.”
“Get help. Call Cinder. They will protect you.” His tongue thickened around the words, but he must have gotten through since the man nodded and scrambled to get up.
Sean let him. As soon as he gained his feet, the forest shifted around him. The surety that Daisy was in trouble blotted out everything else. He opened his mind and pushed. She’d built a brick wall to keep him out, but he stumbled into her without resistance.
Sean.
She’d reached for him.
Pain hit, scorching through him and thumping through his chest. The adrenaline of taking down Stan left him. He trudged back toward the path.
Daisy. What’s happening?
She didn’t answer. Panic hit and sent him running. Following the most direct way back to Daisy, he left the path, running between trees and praying he didn’t trip on a root or limb.
Daze, I’m coming. Hang on. I’m coming.
A small spark of her tickled at the base of his head, but she was still groggy, not quite awake and conscious, but maybe she could hear him. He took all he had and blasted toward her.
Wail, Daze.
Nothing. No response. The tickling had faded. She better be okay. Vince would pay. Nothing in his vision made sense, his concentration on connecting to Daisy, but he didn’t care. He just kept trying.
Wail, love. Wail.
He forced himself to go faster. His lungs burned, his legs burned, his eyes burned. He ran through the darkening woods. Limbs and twigs slapped and grabbed at him. He’d taken only a few minutes to walk down the trail. It felt like hours getting back up.
Ahead, the clearing came into view with the last of the day’s sunlight.
Almost there.
He tripped. Went facedown toward the ground. Spitting leaves from his mouth, he surged up and toward the clearing, ignoring the searing pain from an ankle he must have twisted in the fall.
Daze! Daze, let it all out, baby.
She didn’t answer.
Terror like he’d never known clamped down on him. He struggled to breathe and faltered as he pushed into the camp.
Vince stood over Daisy crumpled on the ground. A man in a black hoodie gave him a smirk and a two-finger salute, sparks dancing on his hand, before disappearing down the path leading up the mountain.
Sean’s fingers curled into claws, his shoulders bunched and strained against his shirt. Hot, undiluted rage coursed through him. Hands going straight for Vince’s throat, Sean dived.
He slammed into the traitor. They hit the ground, and a thud shocked through his limbs. Vince grimaced as his head knocked into the ground. Without hesitation, Sean wrapped his fingers around the man’s neck and squeezed, pushing down with all his strength and weight. Vince clutched at Sean’s arms to pull him off.
The strategist’s face turned purple. His long, manicured fingers wrapped around Sean’s wrists. He managed to loosen Sean’s hold and nearly bucked him off. A flash of movement registered a second too late. Vince slammed a stick against Sean’s head. Pain lanced through his skull and down his spine. The force of the impact ripped the stick out of Vince’s hand. Sean shook his head, willing the specks of black away.
Sean drew his arm back. With careful aim, he brought his fist down, put all his weight behind it, and caught Vince on the side of the head. Right in the soft spot.
Vince slumped.
His angry surge of strength left in a rush. He rolled to the side and collapsed. Legs burning from the run, head aching from the blow, he struggled for the strength to breathe. Each movement of his chest seemed to take herculean effort, as if he lay under pounds and pounds of blankets restricting his movement.
Then Vince loomed over him. Gun aimed at a deadly angle, he put his foot on Sean’s chest and leaned in. “Keep your eyes on my lips, boy. Wouldn’t want you to misunderstand. I’m taking the banshee, but not you. You always manage to talk her into containing herself. I need her to be a force of nature. Nobody can stop her when she gives in to her power.”
Sean grabbed Vince’s shoe and struggled, but couldn’t move him. Sean had to save Daisy. He had to get this man off him and get her out of here. Unable to breathe, he tried to still his panic, but he couldn’t. Vince looked down on him and tilted his head. “You’re a little more desperate than I’d expect from you.” The look intensified. “You joined with her, didn’t you?”
Vince pulled back the hammer of the gun and Sean’s gut clenched. With no remorse, Vince enunciated carefully so Sean wouldn’t miss a word. “I’m afraid you have to die so I can have an unbalanced banshee.”
Clarity filled Sean. There was only one way now. It was either him—and Daisy—or this traitor, the man he’d once thought friend. A man whose talent was in strategy and who didn’t believe Sean would take that last desperate act—because he never had and his profile probably said he wouldn’t.
But survival and love didn’t follow the rules of conflict and war.
Sean didn’t hesitate. He gathered his mental forces and blasted Vince.
Vince’s hand jerked. The gun went off, the barrel kicking up and pointing harmlessly into the woods. Face contorted, the older man dropped the gun, clutched his head and fell to the side.
Sean could breathe, but he didn’t move, too intent on concentrating and rushing into Vince’s mind. Pushing in without mercy.
Vince hated Ray. He thought he should be in charge. He’d started to lose control of his antipathy when Ray didn’t allow him to keep a little fire tinker. Vince just wanted a hot little number to warm his bed. He’d been alone for so long. So long.
Then he’d found the electro mage. Such power. Instead of turning him over to CTF, he’d made a deal. The man would use his powers to follow Vince’s careful instructions on breaking and entering. In only weeks, he’d started his own empire, funded by stealing from those who’d never miss it.
Vince thought he deserved this. After years of service to the para-talent community, he wanted to retire with his own little empire.
The paths in Vince’s memories started to blur, cascade and implode.
Sean edged back out, struggling to let go. A piece of him seemed to snap and the connection to his victim broke. Vince’s mind had blanked. Sean’s mouth tasted bitter and acrid. The telepathic assault had robbed him of all his strength.
Shadows grew long. Still unable to move and losing the battle to remain conscious, he stared at the trees, fascinated at the movement of the shadows, entranced, until he realized what he watched.
There were men here, and they circled the camp. Vince’s rogues must have come back. With no way to get out of here, Sean was surrounded, but if it killed him, he’d get Daisy away.
Determined to protect her, he struggled to move. To get up. He couldn’t lift his head without a pounding ache and his vision edged with blackness. Black fuzzy blots swam in front of his eyes and he stilled the panic. Maybe the blow to the head had given him a concussion.
He tried to reach out with his telepathy. Desperate times called for desperate measures. He’d vowed to himself to never force his way into someone, but it was all he had left, to protect her. And he’d just proved it by scrambling Vince’s mind. Daisy had to wake up, get out of here and leave him to his fate.
He shoved. Hard.
Nothing but more lethargy and pain responded. He was too drained to use his talent.
A shadow stooped over him.
Sean screamed in his head.
Daze!
Chapter Eight
A soft call lifted Daisy from her sleep.
She scrunched up her nose and sniffed. Fresh air, leaves and the distinct smoky smell of a campfire. It all rushed back at her. The damn electro mage had knocked her out. The soothing brush of fingers through her hair could only be one man.
“Sean?” She tried to sit up, but dizziness assailed her. Clutching her head, she sought to make sense of the blurs in front of her.
“Take it easy.” That was not Sean.
She tensed, ready to shove at the dark shape that knelt next to her, but the recognition seeped in through her muddled head. “Griffin.”
“Yeah, Ray’s right behind me. Let me help you sit up.” His gentle voice should have soothed her, but Griffin didn’t do gentle soothing. That was Ray. Something was terribly wrong, but though her vision had cleared some and she could make out color, she couldn’t puzzle out the blurs. She blinked to clear away the fog.
“Where’s Sean?” Damn, but if her voice didn’t shake. She refused to be weak.
“What happened here, Daisy? We got here and found the three of you passed out on the ground.”
Trying to see something, she wiped at eyes. Her hands shook so badly she skimmed right over her face. She cleared her tight throat and put all the force she could behind her question.
“Where. Is. Sean?”
Not waiting for an answer, she pulled in on herself, closed her eyes and reached for him in her mind. She came up against a wall. A black space filled with emptiness. A bloodcurdling cry filled her ears and she knew it was her. A hum settled over her to match the terror ripping into her chest. So hollow, her soul emptied into an agony-filled void.
Sean was gone.
“Gone.” Her tone rose, undulating, uncontrollable.
“No. Daisy, calm down. Please, listen.”
“Sean.” She couldn’t breathe. She sucked air into lungs that wouldn’t expand, like a heavy weight crushed her. She curled up and put her arms around her knees, rocking. “No. No. No.”
The pain built. The hum gained momentum. A prickling ran up her neck and she snapped her eyes open.
Sean on the ground, pale, lifeless. That asshole traitor lay next to him. At that moment, Vince—a dead man to her—opened his eyes and groaned. His hand flew to his forehead as he winced and looked around in confusion.
“You.” She screamed at him. On her feet in a flash, her banshee grace returned to her. Her handler wasn’t able to soothe her, never would again. Her partner, her man, gone forever. Rage strangled her to get out. Her lungs filled.
With slow precision, arms held out from her side, she glided over the ground toward her prey. Her lungs filled; she was ready to let go, ready to watch with grim satisfaction as his head vibrated from the inside out.
“Daisy, you have to stop. Listen to me.” Griffin grabbed at her arm and she threw him off. She didn’t stop when her friend crashed to the ground.
“Leave, Grif. You don’t want to be here for this.” She’d give him about ten seconds. “Run.”
“Ray, get the shielding.” Griffin huffed behind her.
She laughed. They wouldn’t get it in time. Vince shuffled away from her, crabwalking with a panic tightening his handsome and refined face. “You should be scared, asshole. I’m going to wail until your body turns inside out. You’ll feel it too, bastard.”
That scum took Sean. Her Sean. She hadn’t been able to tell him she loved him. That she was giving up other men for him. She’d never, ever be able to tell him now. Tears filled her mouth, the salty taste surprised her enough to put a hiccup in her growing hum.
Vince fell back, his hands covered his ears as he grimaced.
Good.
She opened her mouth and took a deep breath. Her wail flew from her. His face contorted and he desperately clawed at his ears. His pale features weren’t so handsome anymore.
She ratcheted up her wail another notch and his body flopped on the ground like a hooked fish.
Heat filled her, giving her power, stroking her. Vengeance was so entirely sweet.
Arms straight at her sides, she put her head back and drew in a breath for the final blow.
“Take it easy, Daisy,” Ray urged, close behind. A sack came down on her, blocking out the sun.
Inside a soundproof covering that was effectively a straitjacket, Daisy let the wail loose. Ray hadn’t used this on her since she was a snot-nosed kid defying her new adoptive dad. He held her tight against him as she struggled to get away.
She screamed and bucked. Her hair tangled against the bag. She kicked at him until someone grabbed her ankles and held her tightly.
They’d done this before.
Tough love is stupid.
Hot and unable to resist, she shrieked her grief until the lack of air took her voice.
Then she sobbed. Huge cries from her belly.
Ray gently brought her to the ground and rocked her until she stilled. The practiced hands of Griffin swabbed her arm. She knew what came next. The needle. They were putting her out.
She lay in the arms of Ray as the drugs started their work. She didn’t care. Without Sean, she had no reason to stay anymore.
Her legal father mumbled to her, but she couldn’t hear him, didn’t need to. He probably ran on and on with complete nonsense words. The litany eased her body from its rigor, but the tears didn’t seem to want to stop.
With her last bit of consciousness, she pictured the contorted face of Vince and regretted that she hadn’t been able to finish her revenge.
* * * * *
She woke in her bed. Without bothering to check, she knew the door to her suite was locked—both the handle and the deadbolt on the outside. They would have left food in her little fridge in the dining area. As if she would ever be hungry again.
With a roll, she pulled her legs up and hugged herself into a tight ball and let herself think of him one last time. Then she’d shut that door and walk away. She didn’t care what happened to her, but she couldn’t stay here.
Sean’s voice had accompanied her telepathically on all her missions. He’d joke with her and talk as if they were friends. They had been. She’d not faced it for an entire decade, but he was her only friend. Ray was her father. Griffin her uncle. Clarissa had always been nice, but not close. Vince Nelson, an aloof man she rarely saw, who gave her mission advice and direction, never anything personal. And now traitor. The other talents gave her a wide berth.
Even while away from the CTF, where she dutifully kept herself calm and unemotional while she worked at a local bookstore, Sean occasionally touched her mind. Willfully ignoring it, she let him spy on her. She was the only one who could open to him like that. She was the only one who gave him the world, sounds. Why hadn’t she reached for him before it was too late?
Now she wouldn’t have his constant touch. Her friend.
She whimpered into her knees. Her love. Yes, to hell with it all, she’d loved him. She thought maybe he loved her, but now that was all gone. Who the hell else would love her? Like a lover, not as a daughter or a responsibility?
A light knock on the door interrupted her soft weeping. She hadn’t cried since she’d walked through the door of CTF. Now she couldn’t seem to stop. She ignored the knock.
The knock turned into a pounding. No. Wait. It wasn’t the door.
But that couldn’t be right. Nobody else could…
A big shove inside her head made her entire body lurch and that familiar presence made her nipples tighten, her core pulse.
Couldn’t be.
The brick wall around her mind, around her heart, around that kernel of herself, crumbled to dust.
Open the door.
She leaped for the handle, made her trembling hands work the lock and wrenched open the barrier. Before she could register what she saw—thinking she’d gone crazy and had started hallucinating—arms wrapped around her in such a constricting hug, pressing against her sensitive nipples and making her shudder—unable to speak with the pleasure pain. Or maybe that was because her throat was so damn tight.
They were on the bed in seconds. Sean splayed on top of her, tugging at her dress. Her nipples grew more sensitive, catching on the fabric sliding against her skin.
“Sean.” The word echoed in her mind, going to him and back, their connection snapping together as strong as a steel girder. She’d nearly lost this, this perfect weight of the perfect man pressing her into the bed and making her chest swell with unspoken emotion.
I thought you’d …
Shhhh. I threatened to take you away. I went a little crazy.
The thoughts tumbled between them. Not sure of the origin of them, she didn’t care. She reveled in the clean smell of him, in the relief that lifted the loss so quickly she felt she could float to the ceiling, but having her Sean kept her grounded to the bed. Body coming alive with desire, she still felt lighter than air.
She grabbed his head and held him still. With a long stare into his dark-brown eyes, she found the buried pain that faded with his grin. Without reaching for him, she knew the answer was there inside her. He’d suffered a concussion, his connection to her had been silent while he was out. He hadn’t died.
Sean was alive!
She kissed his cheek. She kissed his nose. She kissed his brows, his forehead, his chin, neck, everywhere she could reach.
All the while, deep grooves formed around his face as if he were pained while he frantically shoved up her dress and worked on his zipper.
Without preliminary, taking the invitation that he’d sensed while merged in her thoughts, he nudged the head of his cock inside her. The emptiness filled, making her whole, making her hot, wild, full of need. She wrapped her legs around his jean-clad hips and locked them—as if he’d try to get away. Arms flung around him, she clutched at his back, pulling and tugging at his shirt to get the thing off. She groaned and palmed, stroking his hot skin. His muscles bunched beneath her touch.
A moan escaped him but his stare never wavered.
Now that she had him, she was keeping him here, inside her, where he belonged.
Excitement thrilled through her veins, slicked her pussy and eased his way farther inside. With a silent gasp, he shoved all the way until their groins ground against each other and she melted around him. She took his mouth hungrily as the tension in her built. Then the wicked need to claim took her. She bucked her hips and jerked his jeans down so she could grab his bare ass. Without breaking the kiss, she taunted him.
I am going to rock your world
.
Sean sank his dick so deep inside Daisy, he didn’t think he’d find a way out, not that he wanted to. Her pussy clamped around him and he swore his eyes rolled back in his head. It may have been decades—or damn, it felt like forever—since he’d been inside a woman, but he didn’t think anyone had ever fit so perfectly. He didn’t know anymore. Daisy erased everything and everyone who came before her.
One last-ditch effort to keep his wits about him, he ground his teeth and tried not to move. He stared at her, cheeks blooming with color, lids half closed. Gorgeous. His arms shook with the effort to keep still.
Don’t have a condom
.
I don’t want one between us
. She smiled, sultry and relaxed while his entire body tensed, burning, eager to reach the finish line. Her acceptance and hunger for him to spill inside her coursed through their link.
Oh hell
. He pounded into her. Couldn’t stop the movement of his hips if the house fell down around them.
Because he was in her mind, he knew. She’d never had sex without a condom. Condoms she supplied and trusted. Sometimes she even used two. She’d been careful, safe, was clean. He’d been healthy and celibate for decades.
But she didn’t have birth control. Her mood swings couldn’t handle the hormones.
He surged inside her with pounding motions, completely out of control. Never had he felt this way, so good. So damn good. And the sounds. God, the sounds. Her panting, his grunting, the wet sounds of their fucking.
“Yes, yes, yes.”
Her throaty calls pitched him higher. He pushed up on his arms and absorbed her beauty. Her tits jiggled against the thin fabric of her dress with his every thrust. He moved in and out of her. Her pussy, wet and so damn hot, stroked his cock. This was his woman. His partner. His. This act nothing short of a complete claiming. With an impatient move, to get deeper, he pulled her legs up and around his shoulders. Kissing her leg, sucking and licking her soft skin, he plunged wildly inside her.
She clenched at his arms, ran her hands down his sides to hold his hips. Her touch sent him closer to the edge as she clawed at him. Heat rushed up his legs to tighten around his balls. He was going to come before she got warmed up. He needed her to come more than he needed to see tomorrow.
Damn. Touch yourself, Daze.
She didn’t hesitate. Sliding her hand down her belly, teasing them both with the taunting glide over her belly, she teased him further toward the point of no return by circling the base of his shaft as he moved inside, drawing forth her wetness to coat her fingers. When her hold left his cock, he nearly cried with the loss of the pleasure, but she found her clit and stroked, her mewling rising louder through their connection. He’d release so hard the top of his head would come off.