“Can you make it?”
Colt took his gaze off the black shiny door ahead just long enough to catch a glimpse of Miss Arliss. The ends of her flame-colored hair floated in the water, spreading out around her like fire on water.
His tongue was dry and almost too thick to speak. “I’m fine. You don’t need to baby me.”
She shook her head. “I know. We all have weaknesses. Water just happens to be yours.”
“Still ain’t right,” he grumbled. Inside Colt hated that weak part of him. Sure, normal people, even demons perhaps, had weaknesses, but not a Hunter. And so far, between the water and his attraction to Miss Arliss, he seemed to have two whoppers. But they were almost to the door. Once he got his hands on his pa’s portion of the Book, he’d be able to look at it and find out what he was supposed to do next.
The naiads turned feverish in their attempts to hold him and the succubus in the water. They undulated against him, their hands stroking every inch of him, but Miss Arliss’s touch was more solid, more warm and real. It didn’t just touch his skin, it touched something deeper inside him, making his heart pound not with fear or anxiety but with fierce determination.
They reached the outcropping of granite that formed the ledge before the door. Colt dug his fingers into the rock and pulled himself out of the water, laying his cheek against the solid rough surface and sucking deep, gasping breaths of air into his burning lungs as if he’d been under the water the whole time and the rock was his lifeline.
He reached down, offering Miss Arliss a hand to pull her onto the ledge beside him. Her small hand locked around his forearm as he heaved. There was a slap of wet cotton hitting rock as she lay on her back shoulder to shoulder with him, both of them breathing fast and heavy as if they’d run the distance rather than waded through it. Every muscle in his body burned.
“We made it.” Her words were simple, but the experience had been anything but.
Colt turned his head to gaze at her. Her cheeks were brilliant pink from exertion. “You make it sound like it was easy.”
Miss Arliss bent her arm, resting it on her forehead, her hair pooling in wet coils about her head. Colt reached over, removing one of the strands that stuck to her smooth cheek. “I don’t think I would have made it without you.”
Colt meant every syllable. He knew he wouldn’t have made it this far without her help, despite his training. No Hunter could have taken on those hellhounds alone. He couldn’t have challenged the strange lake full of naiads alone, and for that he owed her something.
She worried her full bottom lip between her even, white teeth. Desire stirred down deep. He knew what those soft wet lips felt like, how inviting and sweet they could be. He gritted his teeth and refrained from kissing her, but he was damned tempted.
A sadness filled her eyes he couldn’t quite figure out. Was she sad their partnership was almost at an end? The truth was, he had a hard time reading her. Up until now he hadn’t spent much time or effort to understand women. Enjoy them, certainly, but he knew he’d never be able to stay any one place long enough to make understanding a woman worth his time. Now it put him at a distinct disadvantage, which made his gun hand itch. He wanted to understand this unusual creature and make her understand that her efforts meant something to him.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is thank you.”
She shook her head slowly, the sadness seeping into her voice. “Don’t thank me yet.”
Colt struggled on the narrow ledge to stand without bumping her into the lake, then helped Miss Arliss to her feet. She gazed up at him as they stood chest to chest and toe to toe. “Colt, I hope whatever is behind this door doesn’t change things between us,” she said into his shirt, her breath warm through the fabric against his wet, chilled skin.
Colt knew better than to touch her. It would make him want things he couldn’t have—spending time with her, finding out what made her smile, being sappy and sentimental—things a Hunter didn’t have the luxury of doing with a woman, even if he wanted to.
Once they opened this door and he got his hands on those pages, everything for them would change. He’d get the Book and convince his brothers of the need to unite it. He’d find a way to free Miss Arliss from Rathe’s grasp. And she’d be human again, and he’d be ... moving on. Even if he didn’t have to overcome his reservations about her once being a demon, there was nothing he could do about who and what he was—a Hunter with a mission.
Colt spread his hands along the damp calico that wrapped her small rib cage, his fingers tracing over each dip and curve. Damn, for a demon she was delicate, but then she was tough as nails too. The soft feminine scent of her curled about him as her skin heated. He crooked a finger under her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. “I made you a promise. I don’t do that lightly.”
Her hands fluttered at his chest. “I know. It’s just that no one’s ever escaped Rathe before.” The heavy sigh she exhaled pierced right through him, squeezing his heart. “I’ve wanted to get away for so long now I’d almost given up hope. No one in the Darkin realm was positive the Chosen would survive Rathe.”
Colt gave her a confident smile born not out of false hubris, but painful hard-earned experience. “Rathe’s already tried to kill me once. He sent one of your kind out to bring me and my brothers in when we were just kids. Damn demon nearly drowned me, and just about cost my brother Winn his life.”
“That’s why you don’t like the water.”
Colt didn’t trust himself to say any more. Admitting his deepest fears to her had been monumental enough for him. He just gave one curt nod.
She stood there, staring up at him with wide eyes, shining green and jewel-like, brimming with trust. “If there’s anyone who could get me away from Rathe, it’d be you. I just know it.”
A little bit of pride fired up in Colt’s belly, the warmth of it wiping out the last of the chill from his dip in the lake. “Well then, what are we waiting for? You’ve been curious enough to know what’s behind this door. So, go on, open it.”
Lilly peeled herself away from him. As a demon, she knew praying was useless, but some habits were just too hard to break. She sent up a silent prayer to the God who’d forgotten her that the Hunter beside her was strong enough to stand whatever Rathe would send in retaliation.
She took a deep breath, then reached for the door. The glassy surface of the rock had no handle and no hinges. It was held shut by the supernatural forces at the Darkin’s command.
She held her hand against the cool flat door, reciting an incantation that should have opened anything related to the Darkin realm. The smooth sheet of obsidian didn’t so much as shimmer.
Behind her, Colt grumbled. “What’s wrong? Why isn’t it opening?”
Lilly glanced back at him. “I—I don’t know. That should have done it.”
“Try it again,” he said, an edge of desperation to his voice.
She obliged him, knowing it was folly. Focusing her whole power on the door, she recited the opening incantation again. Still nothing. It simply would not budge.
“I don’t understand. That should have done something.”
Colt stared hard, the blue of his eyes dark and stormy as he concentrated. “There’s something we’re missing.”
Lilly felt the heat of his avid gaze the instant it shifted from the door to linger on her mouth.
“A bargain with a demon is sealed with a kiss,” he said. His tone was huskier than it had been a moment before. His rough fingertips reached out, brushing a light, tingling touch over her lips.
A white-hot spark of awareness arced out and downward from the point of contact, running along her nerves and racing all the way to her toes and fingers. Lilly gasped, everything inside her tightening like a clock spring wound to the breaking point. Desire, dangerous and impulsive, swirled and eddied in the breath of space between them. Without another word, he pulled her hard and tight up against him. Lilly didn’t resist.
The first time they’d kissed there’d been surprise and suspicion. The second, he’d been so focused on his fear he’d been unable to block her and had responded more. But this time, this time when he kissed her, Lilly discovered something far more potent, more drugging in the press of his firm lips to hers. She tasted trust mixed with desire. The heady combination burned through her, heating her to the core like nothing else could.
“That was some kiss,” she said, the moment she could breathe again.
A light flared to life behind his eyes, making them glitter. “That’s it.”
“The last kiss?”
“No. But your kiss—”
“My kiss has opened the secrets of the universe?”
“No, but it may be what we need to open the door.” He put his hands lightly on her shoulders.
“A demon’s kiss?”
“Why not? It’s worth a try.” He gently spun her around to face the obsidian portal. Lilly took a deep breath and let it out slowly, sending up a prayer Colt was right. She pressed her lips, still hot and tender from his kiss, against the cool, smooth stone.
Like smoke in the wind, the black stone vanished in a shift of particles. Lilly yelped as she fell forward into the unexpected opening. Only Colt’s quick grasp around her waist kept her from falling face-first into the alcove.
The walls of the hidden room were studded with glittering crystals, making it look as if they had stepped inside an enormous geode. With the first footstep into the alcove, the crystals began to glow and sparkle, pulsating with green phosphorescent light. At the center of the little room stood a waist-high polished black marble pillar supporting a smooth wooden box.
The glossy surface of the age-darkened wood reflected the greenish light. The ornately filigreed golden hinges that resembled roaring lion heads and the clasp shaped like a triple cross glinted. All they had to do was reach out and grab it.
“Think it’s a trap?”
“Could be. But if it took a demon’s kiss to open the door, whoever put it here assumed it would take a Darkin to get this far. And I don’t know of a single supernatural, ’sides you, who’d actually want the Book of Legend reunited.”
Colt stared at the small wooden box, the greenish hue of the light reflecting in his eyes and giving his face a goulish hue and an intensity that shook her to the core. She’d do well to remember that while he’d needed her help down here in the tunnels, that would all end the moment he opened that box and got what he was after.
They’d no longer be on the same side after that. And she certainly didn’t count on him keeping his word to help her escape Rathe. He was a Hunter after all.
“Do you want me to pick up the box?” she offered. Her voice shook slightly, betraying her insecurity. He was so fixated on the box that he didn’t even answer her. Damn, she should have glamoured him when she’d had the chance. Without the piece of the Book, would she even have a bargaining chip to force his hand in helping her escape Rathe?
Colt flexed his fingers. Every sense was coiled tightly. Here on the edge of Hell, anything was possible. The floor could drop away, the walls could collapse inward. Worse, the water might rise, trapping them inside the alcove and drowning them. He’d stared so hard at the box, trying to see if there were any visible triggers, that his eyes had become gritty. He blinked and glanced at Miss Arliss.
Her calico dress had turned dark blue from their swim and was still dripping water around the hem. The wet cotton clung to her form, surpassing his imagination, and he had imagined plenty. Her pale skin was flushed a delicate pink, which made him wonder if the tips of her breasts would be rose or apricot. Her lush mouth was slightly open, her small hands balled eagerly in front of her, her eyes bright, like a woman aroused.
Colt tore his gaze away from her and forced himself to ignore the tight, heavy heat in his groin and his increased pulse.
She’s a succubus
, he told himself,
purposely designed to sway your thoughts and take over your body. Control. You need control.
He took a deep, shuddering breath and flexed his fingers. Retrieving the Book was too important to let inappropriate thoughts and feelings interfere.
Inside that box were the pages his father had guarded with his life—the knowledge Hunters had passed on for centuries from one to another beginning with the three brothers in medieval times who had broken it apart. Each brother had trained their own portion of the Legion in each generation. Some said the Book of Legend had a power of its own, but Colt had never believed it. Of course, he hadn’t believed in the prophecy of the Chosen either.
Now, given that the Gates of Nyx were opening wider, he hoped he’d been wrong. Defeating Rathe and keeping the realm of the Darkin from overtaking the world and enslaving humanity was going to take a hell of a lot more than three brothers said to be some mythical leaders. It was going to take a damn miracle. And in that box was the start of the miracle.
“Here we go,” he said more to himself than to her. He reached for the box, praying it wasn’t a trap. His fingers curled with reverence and surety around its thick corners. Gently he lifted it from the shiny black pedestal. The age-darkened wood was warm to the touch and worn satin smooth, as if it’d been handled by thousands of hands.