The Stone Warriors: Damian (14 page)

The downside was that, just as it enhanced his power, it was also bound into the four warriors. And when Sotiris had ripped them away. . . . Was that the real reason Nick had been hiding who he was for all these years? She couldn’t blame him for lying about it. It must feel as if pieces of his soul had been ripped away. Not to mention, the shocking loss of power for a man accustomed to being a virtual god.

“We must return to Nicodemus,” Damian said suddenly. “When Sotiris discovers his sniper has failed, he may target Nico instead.”

Casey frowned. “I don’t think so. He could have gone after Nick any time in the last two decades, when he first started working with the FBI to recover stuff like the Talisman. Why change that strategy now?”

“For the same reason he came after you today. Because one of you has the potential to disrupt his plans. When are we meeting Nico?”

“I’m not sure. He’s probably still in Kansas.”

“Cassandra,” Damian said, giving her an almost pitying look. “He’s here already. Though perhaps he hasn’t called you yet,” he added.

“How do you know that?” she demanded, frustrated beyond tolerance at being caught in a lie.

He grinned. “I didn’t until you just told me. We should go to him now. He’ll need our help.”

She stared at him, furious with him for tricking her, furious with herself for falling for it. “Later,” she conceded grudgingly. “Besides, Nick has plenty of protections in place; he doesn’t need our help. We can brief him tonight, after we get to the safe house. Our best bet is to focus on the Talisman. It’s at the center of all of this.”

She could see Damian’s jaw working as he fought the urge to argue with her. There was no argument he could make that would change her mind, but she could understand his desire to see Nick sooner, rather than later. After all, it had been centuries, and their parting hadn’t exactly been planned.

Still, the next few hours would be a lot more pleasant if she wasn’t dragging a sulking Damian along behind her. She stepped closer and put a hand on his arm. “The best way to protect him, to protect ourselves, is to find out who’s behind the attack.”

He nodded stiffly. “The decision is yours.”

It was probably the best she was going to get, so she simply squeezed his arm and moved on. “All right. First order of business is to find out as much as we can about the shooter.”

“How? He’s long gone.”

“Yes, but nothing happens in a vacuum anymore. Especially not in the age of terrorism in which we live. Our shooter had to get in and out of that building, and there’s bound to be security. I’m betting they have cameras on every door, every elevator. Maybe even the parking lot.”

“And they’ll share that with
you
?”

Okay, the way he’d said that was almost insulting. She bared her teeth at him in what passed for a smile. “Watch and learn, big guy. Come on. There’s no point in standing around here with targets on our backs. And we definitely don’t want to be here when the guy who owns this RV discovers the bullet holes in his vehicle.”

DAMIAN FROWNED in confusion when Cassandra drove them not to the shooter’s building, and not even to the safe house she’d spoken of, but to a modest inn called a motel. It was in reasonably good repair, albeit painted a garish turquoise with pink trim. But that aside, he didn’t understand her purpose in coming here.

“What are we doing?” he asked, when she parked in front of the glass-fronted motel office.

“You’ll see.”

And that was all she said, which was infuriating as hell. He understood the need for a chain of command. He’d even gone along with her decision to wait until later before briefing Nico. It was true what she said about his brother being able to protect himself, but Damian’s purpose in life had been to watch Nico’s back, and in his heart, he knew there was no more important task. But then, there were things he hadn’t confided to her about himself and Nico. He liked Cassandra and admired her courage, but some things were not his to share. Or, not
only
his.

“I’m going to get a room,” she said brusquely, and was out of the vehicle and heading for the office almost before she’d said the last word.

Damian sighed deeply. He could have gone to the office with her. He probably would have, if she’d given him time. But he doubted there was any danger, and Cassandra was more than capable of taking care of herself. Of course, there was her shoulder to consider. She wasn’t exactly at full strength. Cursing under his breath, he shoved open the door and went after her, covering the short distance in a few quick strides. She glanced back in surprise when he walked into the office, but then smiled. A genuine smile this time, rather than the grimace of earlier.

“Hey, babe,” she said casually, as if they were a couple on holiday.

Feeling reckless, Damian concealed a smile of his own and slipped up behind her, circling her slender waist with one arm and fitting his body against hers. “They got a room?” he asked, taking on the vernacular of some of the characters he’d watched on TV while waiting for her.

She stiffened at first, but then relaxed like the good operative she was. She wouldn’t want the innkeeper to suspect anything. “Yep,” she said, placing her hand over his and squeezing.

“Can’t wait, darling,” he murmured, nuzzling her ear.

Her nails dug into the back of his hand, and he had to fight the urge to laugh. Until she rubbed her ass against his groin, and he had to fight another urge altogether.

Fortunately, the innkeeper returned at that moment, and held out a key.

“Room 108’s already been cleaned, so you can have that one. Just the one night?”

“Yes, thank you.”

The innkeeper nodded. “Here you go, then.” He looked up and gave Damian a knowing wink. “There’s take-out menus in the room, in case you need ’em,” he said.

Damian grinned back at him. “Good to know.”

The man chuckled and turned back to his desk, already dismissing them.

Cassandra turned to leave, dislodging his arm, but Damian placed a possessive hand at the small of her back, urging her out the door. She went along with it until they were back in the truck.

“Very funny,” she muttered, starting the engine and backing away from the office. Their room was at the far end of the long, two-story building.

“The innkeeper seemed to enjoy it,” he said, not bothering to conceal his amusement. “Why are we here?” he asked again.

She sighed, but seemed to have forgotten her earlier insistence on playing him along. “The building where the sniper hid will have security. We’ll need their cooperation in order to find out anything, so I need to be someone else.”

“You’re donning a disguise?”

“Sort of,” she said, parking in front of room 108. “Come on.”

He followed her around to the back of the SUV. She opened the cargo door and leaned inside, but instead of grabbing the expected duffel bag, she went for a suitcase, which she immediately shoved in his direction, and a slim hanging bag, which she kept for herself. She reached to close the door, but Damian was already there.

“You need to be more mindful of your arm,” he murmured.

“I’m fine.”

“Yes, but you won’t be if you’re not mindful.”

“Anyone ever tell you you’re a smug asshole?” she asked, smiling up at him as if they were about to spend the day doing exactly what the innkeeper had assumed.

Maybe not the day,
he thought to himself. But when he got her alone tonight . . .

“Many times,” he said, answering her question. “But I’m still right about this. Your arm needs to heal.”

“Just take the damn suitcase and shut up, okay?”

He laughed. “Yes, darling.” He grabbed his own laptop case and slung it over his shoulder, then picked up the suitcase by the handle and followed her the short distance to their room.

Once inside, he looked around. There wasn’t much to see. It was nothing like the hotels they’d been in the last two nights, but it was clean enough. Cassandra followed him, shutting the door as he placed the suitcase on the lone bed, and then took the garment bag from her and hung it on the bathroom door. He turned to face her. “Okay, we’re here. Now tell me why. If we’re to function as a team, I need to know what we’re doing.”

She opened her mouth as if to disagree, then snapped it shut and nodded grimly instead. “You’re right. Okay, so I told you that Nick saved my sanity, that he was the first person who ever understood what was happening with me. I always thought I was wired wrong or something, like my body chemistry was different from everyone else. But then Nick came along and showed me a whole new world inside this one. A world that most people didn’t know existed. Suddenly, I wasn’t twisted, I was unique.”

“Nico sees the best in people and draws it out. It’s what makes him a good leader.”

She nodded. “That’s true, but his instinctive way with people also lets him use them for what he wants. And what he wants is all those magical artifacts that have been left lying around in caves and museum basements because no one knows what they are anymore. But he can’t just wander around the world searching for them, buying or stealing whatever he finds. He’s only one man, and the world is a big place. He has money and connections, which got him a meeting with the powers that be at the FBI, and he persuaded them that these devices were dangerous, that they could be used against the interests of the United States. And, for the most part, he’s right.

“Of course, I know now that he was also looking for you guys, and some of the things we found ended up in his private collection instead of being destroyed. But that’s not my point. My point is this.” She popped open the suitcase, reached into a side compartment, then pulled out a small leather folio and handed it to him. It contained a card with Cassandra’s photo on it, along with a golden badge that had writing and an official-looking image on it.

“That’s my FBI identification,” she explained when he didn’t react.

He looked up from the badge. “I don’t know what this means, Cassandra. What is the FBI?”

She stared at him for a moment, then made an exasperated noise. But she was obviously irritated at herself, not him. “Of course, you don’t,” she muttered. “Okay, I don’t suppose they had anything like this where, I mean
when
you come from, but the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is like a national police department. That’s a bad description, because they’re totally different, but it gets to the heart of what they do. They have federal powers, which means they can investigate crimes or whatever anywhere in the country, and they’re taken very seriously, especially now with everyone worried about terrorism.”

“And Nico works for them?” he asked, somewhat puzzled. The Nicodemus he’d known didn’t work
for
anybody. Others worked for
him
and considered themselves privileged to do so.

“Hmmm, it’s more like he works
with
them. Nick’s kind of a free spirit. But his team of hunters, me and a few others—that’s what he calls us—we’re all duly sworn FBI agents. We went through the academy and everything.”

Damian nodded. That sounded more like Nico. He’d always been one to use whatever officials he needed and to make them feel special in doing so.

“So, you’ll speak to these building security managers, and they will give you what you want because you are FBI. I assume you won’t tell them the real reason for your hunt.”

“I’ll tell them it’s a matter of national security, that lives are at stake. Which is true enough.”

He nodded. “But why are we in this room?”

“I need to look the part.” She turned and unzipped the garment bag to reveal some rather dull women’s clothing—a dark-colored jacket and matching pants. “This is what they expect to see.”

“I understand. Shall I help you disrobe?” he asked, raising one eyebrow in a leer that was only half-teasing.

She snorted. “With your
help,
we’ll never get out of here.”

“I am irresistible,” he agreed. “I shall try to contain myself so that you can prepare.”

She tried for a glare, but ended up laughing. “You do that,” she said.

With nothing else to do, Damian took his laptop from its case and stretched out on the bed to continue his research on this world’s weapons. He already had a mental list of which ones he’d like to acquire for himself, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t add more. He smiled happily and started reading.

CASEY EYED DAMIAN suspiciously. He’d taken all of that a little too well. She’d expected him to argue against Nick’s affiliation with “the man,” but almost as soon as she had the thought, she knew it didn’t make sense. He wasn’t some kind of social rebel from the 90s. Probably where he came from, where
Nick
came from, they
were
the men. Or at least Nick was. It sounded as if he’d had a lot of power, so why would Damian be surprised that he was hooked into the power structure of this world, too? Her scowl deepened. But now he was trolling through those weapons websites of his with a much too happy smile on his face. Like a kid in a candy store, picking out sweets.

She shook her head. That was a problem for another day. Right now, she needed to don her own powers-that-be mask. Bending over her suitcase, she dug out the sensible blue pumps that went with the pantsuit, and the plain white bra that she would wear under a crisp white blouse. The outfit was almost a stereotype uniform. Most female agents in the field wouldn’t be this buttoned up, but it helped her play the part, and, as she’d told Damian, it was what the building’s security people would expect to see.

Sighing deeply—she really despised wearing this stuff—she took her things into the bathroom to change. Not because Damian hadn’t already seen her naked. Hell, between last night, and then this morning in the shower, he’d licked almost every inch of her naked skin. Which was the problem. Not that anything about sex with Damian was a
problem
. The very opposite, in fact. But if she stripped naked in front of him in that tiny little motel room, she’d end up beneath him on the bed, and then they’d never get out of there this afternoon. Not exactly a hardship, she reminded herself as she eyed him speculatively. He did look awfully enticing lying there, almost chirping with glee as he learned all the elegant, new ways to kill people in this century.

He glanced up as she stood in the bathroom doorway studying him, and from the smug smile he gave her, she probably had a stupid dreamy look on her face.