Touch of Temptation (16 page)

Chloe had been unconscious when she arrived at the compound, so she hadn’t yet seen what the Wasteland looked like. Glancing around as Kellan carried her toward the place in the woods he said his friends would be waiting, she couldn’t help thinking that the strange, moonlit region was seriously messed up. Trees, which should have been barren, were still heavy with leaves, swaying in the icy breeze. The moon shone so brightly, it reminded her of a lavender twilight, the shimmering beams of light glinting against the snow-frosted ground.

“Does the s-sun ever shine h-here?” she stammered, her teeth chattering so violently she could barely talk.

“Not much, even in the summertime,” he rumbled huskily, the chilly wind whipping at the auburn strands of his hair. “The spells that trap the exiled Deschanel inside also dim the sunlight.”

“But how can everything still g-grow? There are trees everywhere.”

“You’re applying the natural laws of science to this place, but it doesn’t work that way. There’s so much
magic at work here, you never really know what you’re going to run into.”

“I wish they could have d-done something about the wind.”

Holding her tighter against his chest, his earlier anger seemed to soften as he murmured, “Just a few more minutes and I’ll be able to get you warm, honey. I can scent Seth close by, and he’ll have some clothes for us.”

“Who’s Seth?”

“The guy who took Raine out of the compound for me. She got banged up pretty badly in that blast and lost consciousness.”

As if impervious to the brutal climate, Kellan’s body radiated heat as he carried her into the thick forest, and sure enough, within minutes they came across Seth and Raine. The blond-haired, green-eyed male had wrapped a thick blanket around the unconscious psychic, her small body curled on top of another blanket that’d been laid over the ground. A butterfly bandage had already been placed over a gash in her temple, a thick sweater draped over her left arm and torso, while Seth knelt at her side, wrapping some kind of gauze around her injured right arm, an open first aid kit lying beside him. As Kellan called out a greeting, the good-looking blond pulled a flare gun from a nearby pack, then fired it into the air.

“What was that for?” Kellan asked.

“To let the others know I’ve got you,” Seth explained, flicking a quick look over Chloe, before lifting his hard gaze back to Kellan. “Now we can get started back right away, without having to wait for them.”

Lowering Chloe down to the edge of the blanket, so that her feet didn’t touch the cold ground, Kellan
wrapped his arms around her from behind, sharing his body heat as he asked, “Where’s my brother?”

“He and Morgan were just here,” the human replied, returning his attention to his task, the creases of strain at the corners of his dark green eyes evidence that he was trying to be as careful as possible, “but once they saw the two of you dropping out of that window, and knew you were okay, they took off to follow Westmore’s trail.”

“Who else came with you?”

“Aiden, Quinn and Garrick, as well as Noah and Jamison, but they’ll head back to the base camp now that they’ve seen the flare.”

“What about the Buchanans?”

Seth shook his head. “Saige stayed behind to work on the maps, and Molly and Hope have been helping her, so Ian and Riley are watching over them. Plus, they’re also looking out for Olivia and Jamie, since Ade wouldn’t trust any outside security with the job, and no way in hell was he bringing those two into the Wasteland.”

Finishing with Raine’s arm, Seth moved to his feet, and Chloe was surprised to see that he was nearly as tall as Kellan. Seth slid his curious gaze over her face, and Kellan said, “Chloe Harcourt, meet Seth McConnell, former Collective badass.”

She stiffened with shock as Seth reached out and shook her hand, his mouth curved with a wry smile as he noted her wide eyes. “Don’t worry, Chloe. I’m a badass for your side now.”

“So you, uh, saw the light?”

With a gritty laugh, he drawled, “Something like that.” Reaching down, he grabbed one of several packs that sat on the blanket and handed it to Kellan. “These
are some things that Morgan put together for you. There are shoes and clothes for both of you, as well as some water, food, a knife and a gun with five rounds of ammo.”

Taking the pack, Kellan replied, “Thanks, man. You’re a lifesaver.”

“Did you hit any trouble on your way out?” the soldier asked, while Kellan opened the pack and handed Chloe a pair of jeans and a sweater.

“We ran into Gregory right there at the end, along with some woman who’s helping him.” Looking at Chloe, he asked, “Do you have any idea what she was?”

Pulling on the jeans that he’d just given her, she said, “Some kind of witch, I think.”

“Why couldn’t she freeze you in place the way she did with me?”

“I’m not really sure.” Chloe quickly pulled on the thick sweater, then sat down beside Raine’s legs so that she could slip on a pair of heavy woolen socks that felt like heaven on her cold toes, followed by the sturdy hiking boots that Kellan found at the bottom of the pack. “But…”

“Yeah?” he prompted, when her voice trailed off into an uncomfortable silence.

Hoping he didn’t make more out of it than he should, she shrugged, saying, “It’s just that there are some witch clans whose power doesn’t work when going up against a more powerful witch. But it wouldn’t make any sense, in this case, because the Mallory curse binds any power I might have otherwise had.”

His gaze locked on hers, dark and intense, smoldering with something that looked strangely like triumph. “It
would make perfect sense, if the curse is finally coming to an end,” he drawled in a soft rasp.

Knowing she needed to tell him he was crazy, Chloe took a deep breath, ready to launch into her argument, when Seth interrupted them, jerking his chin toward the backpack that Kellan had set on the ground while he dressed. “What’s in the bag?” the soldier asked.

Kellan held her stare for a moment longer, warning her that the conversation wasn’t over, then looked at Seth. “We found the archives,” he told his friend, quickly slipping on a black jacket and reaching for the backpack, then slinging it back over his shoulder.

“Do you have the journal that was with them?” Seth grunted.

Kellan’s eyes narrowed, his voice a little gruffer as he said, “How do you know about the journal?”

“After you disappeared, my men got their hands on a Collective officer back in the States. I flew back last week to talk to him. Took forever to get anything out of the guy, but he finally broke. Couldn’t tell us anything about this compound, but he did tell us about a journal that Westmore had found with the archives. Evidently, it’s how the Kraven found out about the maps that lead to the Markers.”

Chloe sent the Lycan a smug look as she moved back to her feet. “I told you that journal was important.”

He answered her look with a slow, bone-melting grin that did wonders for her core body temperature. “I guess you were right.”

“I’m glad you found it,” Seth said in a low voice, kneeling down to dress Raine in the sweater that’d been draped over her chest. Chloe knelt down on the psychic’s other side to help him, both of them trying not to jar her
injured arm. “I was hoping we’d come across the journal in the compound, but I hadn’t even had a chance to tell everyone about it,” he added. “The second Quinn, Garrick and I hit Kierland’s camp, we set off for this place.”

“Why didn’t the three of you travel into the Wasteland with Aiden and the others?”

“We had to make a quick detour with the Grangers, so they came in ahead of us,” the soldier replied, thanking Chloe for her help before packing up his supplies.

A few moments had passed before Kellan eventually said, “Uh, Seth, you know the Grangers are vampires, right?”

Seth’s tone was dry. “Believe it or not, that
did
occur to me.”

Scratching his chin, the Lycan asked, “And you’re okay with that?”

As he moved back to his feet, the soldier slid Kellan a wry look. “I’m not up for an hour on the couch at the moment, but yeah, I’m okay with it. I won’t say I’m completely comfortable with the situation, but the Grangers seem like good guys. It’s too bad they missed the action here. We could have used them.”

“Where are they now?”

Seth caught the edge of concern in Kellan’s deep voice and snorted. “Christ, I didn’t off them,” he offered in a rough drawl, sliding the bag with the first aid kit onto his back. “They had something personal come up that they had to take care of, and when that’s done, they’re meant to be joining us back at the base camp. Which is where we need to be heading, the faster, the better.”

“Is it safe there?” Chloe asked, helping Kellan to fold
up the blanket that had been spread over the ground after Seth had lifted Raine into his arms, the psychic’s honey-colored hair spilling over his arm in a long, tangled fall.

As Seth settled Raine’s slim body against his chest, his jaw grew tight, and Chloe couldn’t help but notice that his expression looked somewhat…pained. “It’s not Fort Knox,” he finally said, answering her question about the base camp, “but it’s safer than any other place we could reach today.”

“Then the base camp it is.” Kellan grabbed the last pack, took hold of Chloe’s hand, and they set off together, the silence of the forest a blessed relief after the traumatic morning. Despite the fact that the Wasteland was a deadly place and their lives were still in danger, a sense of security settled into her system, and Chloe couldn’t deny that she felt safe with Kellan there by her side. He’d fought for her, fed her with his body and his blood, his touch as possessive as the hot stares he kept sliding in her direction.

She just wished she knew if his hunger was real.

And if it was…how long would it last?

The Watchmen Base Camp, The Wasteland
Wednesday, 5:00 p.m.

I
T TOOK A LONG-ASS
time for the group of four to reach their destination, Kellan and Seth taking turns carrying Raine throughout the long hours of walking, but they finally made it to the base camp late in the afternoon. While they’d traveled, Seth had told Kellan and Chloe about the confrontation he’d had with the Death-Walkers on Monday night, explaining that the creatures were growing stronger from their feedings. He also told them about the humans the Death-Walkers had killed in the French village, as well as the ones they had infected with their bites, the gruesome news sending a shiver of unease down Kellan’s spine.

Since Chloe had never heard of the Death-Walkers before, Kellan told her everything the Watchmen had learned about the vile creatures, even touching on their concern that for every Casus killed with a Dark Marker another Death-Walker was released from hell. When she asked if they needed to worry about a Death-Walker attack in the Wasteland, Seth had told her that the others didn’t think the creatures would be so bold as to try again. Apparently, the Death-Walkers had been scared out of the region the week before, when they’d tried to
come after Kierland and Morgan. But just to be safe, the soldier handed both Kellan and Chloe a flask of salted holy water, saying that it was better to err on the side of caution.

Kellan also asked how Seth, Garrick and Quinn had managed to reach the base camp so quickly the day before, considering it’d taken him days to travel through the Wasteland when he’d been trying to reach Westmore’s compound, and Seth had explained that there was a Deschanel vampire named Juliana Sabin who was helping Kierland and Morgan. Apparently, Juliana had shared some important geographical shortcuts with the Watchmen, and Ashe Granger had been able to pass that information onto Seth and the others before heading off with his brother, Gideon.

After the harrowing events of the morning, and such a long, grueling day of travel, the poison was wearing Kellan thin, but he fought to hide it from the others when they finally reached the camp, doing his best to put on a smiling face as he was reunited with Aiden and Quinn. While most of the group was a bit singed from the explosives Westmore had set off, they’d been lucky and managed to avoid any serious injuries—and although Kierland and Morgan were evidently still chasing down Westmore, Noah and Jamison had returned to the base camp, but were running patrol on the camp’s perimeter. Kellan couldn’t believe his friends had allowed Jamison Haley to come with them, considering he was still learning to cope with his newly acquired Lycan traits, but according to Aiden, there’d been no stopping the guy.

Seth took Raine, who was still unconscious, to the tent that had been set up for his personal use, and Juliana Sabin, the dark-haired Deschanel whose family had
been exiled to the Wasteland, went to help him treat the psychic’s injuries. After Kellan had introduced Chloe to everyone, the group all gathered around a roaring bonfire that didn’t produce any smoke—thanks to a special powder Juliana had sprinkled over it—eager to hear how the two of them had managed to make it out of the compound.

“Did you run into Gregory?” Quinn asked, handing Chloe a steaming mug of coffee, while Kellan popped the top off the beer Aiden had just offered him.

Enjoying the cold burn of the brew as it slid down his dry throat, Kellan nodded, saying, “We came across him just before we made our way out, and he wasn’t alone. Had some blonde with him.”

Aiden slid him a sharp look of surprise. “A woman?”

“Yeah.”

“Christ,” the tiger-shifter grumbled, pulling a tattooed hand down his face. “He’s got some psycho girlfriend now?”

Kellan took another swallow of his beer. “I’m not sure why she was there,” he explained, wiping his mouth with the back of his wrist, “but she was definitely helping him.”

“Was she Casus?” The question came from Seth’s second-in-command, a brawny soldier named Garrick, who was sitting on the other side of the fire, between Aiden and Quinn.

Shaking his head, Kellan said, “We think she’s probably a witch. She used some kind of power to lock me in place. Plastered me against the wall and I couldn’t move my arms or my legs.”

Aiden let out a rough curse, and Quinn murmured,
“So that must be how Gregory managed to cut his way through the compound. The witch was simply immobilizing anyone who got in their way.”

“The thing is,” Kellan added, pushing his hair back from his face, “I think this power of hers only works if she can see a person, because the instant the ceiling caved in, separating us, the spell was broken and I could move again.”

“Why did the ceiling cave in?” Garrick asked, throwing another log on the fire.

Kellan slid a lopsided grin toward Chloe, his voice a deep, husky rasp that brought a flush to her cheeks despite the bitter chill of the wind. “Because the little Merrick here collapsed the ceiling’s support beam and ended up saving my ass.”

Aiden tipped his beer toward her, a sharp smile on his lips. “You Harcourt women may look gentle,” he drawled, “but God help anyone who pisses you off.”

Everyone shared a low rumble of laughter, the moonlight providing a silvery glow to the rustic setting, while the firelight cast golden shadows over the formidable group of warriors. As the laughter faded, Quinn ran a hand over his shadowed jaw, saying, “I wonder why the scouts working for Juliana didn’t see this woman, or witch, when they spotted Gregory heading toward the compound.”

“If she’s powerful enough,” Chloe murmured, sitting cross-legged on the ground beside Kellan, her coffee mug cupped in her palms, “she might have been able to camouflage her presence with a spell.”

“Did the psychic know about her?” Garrick asked, sounding as exhausted as the rest of them.

Kellan shook his head again. “When he got closer
to the compound, Raine could sense that someone was traveling with Gregory, but she couldn’t get a clear read on who it was.” His voice roughened, his gaze piercing as he looked around the group. “We need to stay sharp, because there’s a good chance the bastard will be coming after us.”

Garrick looked confused. “But won’t he go after Westmore?”

Finishing off the last of his beer, Kellan set his bottle on the ground beside his hip, then braced his arms on his bent knees. “Depends on who he decides he needs first,” he grated.

Aiden’s tawny brows drew into a scowl. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“What Kellan’s trying to say,” Chloe explained, her soft voice edged with strain, “is that Gregory DeKreznick is the Casus who caused my awakening.”

A heavy silence settled over the group, and then Aiden cursed as he shoved his tattooed fingers back through his hair. “Shit, this is all we needed.”

“I think there’s a good chance that Westmore is going to be coming after us, as well,” Kellan added. “He isn’t going to be happy about losing Raine and Chloe.” Struggling to get a grip on his anger, he explained how the Kraven leader had planned to send Chloe into Meridian, which pulled another round of creative curses from the group, some of them phrases that Chloe had probably never even heard before.

“But won’t Raine be able to tell us if Westmore’s following Chloe?” The question came from Seth, who’d just made his way over from his tent, his grim expression evidence of the fact that Raine’s condition hadn’t improved. The soldier stood on the outside of the circle,
one broad shoulder propped against a thick-trunked pine, his long arms crossed over his chest.

In response to Seth’s question, Kellan explained that Raine’s powers didn’t work on Westmore, and Quinn asked, “What other blind spots does she have?”

“From what I understand,” Kellan told them, “it’s hard for her to see the ones she’s closest to, like her family.”

“Damn,” Garrick grunted. “That’s got to be frustrating.”

“Can she see the ones who attacked her?” Seth asked, the guttural words brimming with violence.

Sliding the soldier a questioning look, Kellan gave a slow nod, but before Seth could say anything more, Aiden muttered, “So even if ol’ Gregory
does
go after Westmore first, he’ll be coming after Chloe next. Like Kellan said, we need to stay sharp and be ready for whatever he might have planned.”

“We will be,” more than one of them said in response.

“The Wasteland is a treacherous place, even for those who know their way around,” Juliana Sabin murmured, suddenly joining the group and taking a place by the fire. Turning her gray gaze on Kellan, she asked, “How did you manage to reach Westmore’s compound without encountering any trouble?”

Wincing, Kellan scraped a palm over his whiskered jaw. “It wasn’t exactly easy,” he admitted. “When I ran into some vamps from the Reyker nest, I—”

“You crossed the Reykers’ land?” Juliana gasped, her gray eyes wide with surprise. “But…how did you manage to survive?”

“I, uh, made a deal with them,” he offered in a low
voice, wondering just how much the female Deschanel knew about the Reykers…and wishing he’d kept his effing mouth shut.

“What kind of deal?” Kierland’s deep voice came from just behind him, and Kellan choked back a few choice words at the crappy timing, knowing damn well that he was about to get grilled.

Looking over his shoulder, he sent a hard grin up at his brother. “’Bout time you showed up.”

Kierland slid a curious look toward Chloe, then arched one arrogant brow at Kellan. “You gonna introduce me or just sit there on your ass?”

“I missed you, too,” Kellan muttered in a dry tone, getting to his feet, then reaching down for Chloe’s hand and helping her up.

“Ignore him,” Morgan murmured, jerking her head at Kierland. “He’s just pissed because we lost Westmore, after chasing him all damn day.” With a warm smile on her beautiful face, the female Watchman threw her arms around Kellan’s neck, giving him a fierce hug as she wished him a belated happy birthday, then turned to Chloe and gave her a hug, too, chatting with her as if they’d been friends forever.

While the women talked, Kellan ground his jaw as he waited for his brother to lay into him, but instead, Kierland shocked the hell out of him when he said, “You got Chloe out, and from what I just heard on my way into camp, managed to find the archives, as well. You did good, Kell.”

“Was that actually a compliment?” he croaked, and Morgan choked back a laugh at his shocked expression.

“It might not have been pretty,” Kierland said,
slapping him on the shoulder in a masculine sign of
good job
, “but you accomplished what you set out to do.”

Feeling as if he’d slipped into some kind of alternate reality, Kellan took a deep breath and struggled to process the fact that his brother actually looked…
proud
of him, but it was impossible. He remembered only too clearly the look on Kierland’s face when the others had ratted him out every time Kellan had screwed up in the past. Not to mention his brother’s reaction when he found out about the monumental cock-up in Washington.

Probably sensing that he didn’t have a clue how to deal with Kierland’s praise, Morgan slid Kellan an understanding smile, then grabbed hold of his brother’s arm and made him take a seat by the fire. “Now, what was that you were saying before we interrupted?” she asked, sitting beside Kierland while Kellan and Chloe sat down again, as well.

Tossing beers to Kier and Morgan, and then a second one to Kellan, Aiden said, “Kell was getting ready to tell us what kind of deal he had to make with some nasty vamps while on his way to Westmore’s compound.”

Figuring it was best to offer up at least a measure of the truth, Kellan cleared his throat, then said, “The deal was pretty simple, really. In exchange for allowing me to cross their land, I had to let one of the Reykers feed from me while in
were
form. I guess it, uh, gives them a real power kick.”

More muttered curses filled the air, and Juliana turned a worried look toward Kierland, saying, “The Reykers are relatively new to the Wasteland, but they’re said to be even more vicious than the Carringtons. Not to mention extremely poisonous. If bitten, a poisoned
victim can’t pass the strain on through their blood, but they…”

“They what?” Kierland grunted, his deep voice thick with concern. “What does one of their bites do to a Lycan?”

“It just made me feel sick as hell,” Kellan interjected, before the Deschanel could finish her explanation. “But that was all. It’s wearing off more every day.”

Juliana sent him an odd look, and he gave a furtive shake of his head, silently warning her not to say anything more. She frowned, but didn’t contradict him, and Kellan quickly changed the subject, saying, “So Seth told me about the Death-Walkers, but what else happened while I was gone?”

While Quinn made another pot of coffee, Kierland brought Kellan up to speed on the things that he’d missed, ending with the story of how Noah had been attacked a little over a week ago, in the village just south of Harrow House. Since the human was still healing from his injuries, they’d tried to talk him into remaining behind with the Buchanans, but like Jamison, he’d refused. Of course, Kellan wasn’t surprised they hadn’t been able to get Noah to stay in England, knowing the human was worried as hell about his family. With the way the Casus were pouring out of Meridian these days, it was only a matter of time before someone in Noah’s family was used as a host, and he knew his friend was determined to keep that from happening.

“If Noah was heading into the village to find a woman,” Kellan said, finishing off his second beer, “then why didn’t he just take Jamison with him? That way they could have watched each other’s backs.”

“He tried,” Quinn murmured, “telling the kid it would
be good for him, but Jamison wasn’t interested. I think he’s still not sure about…you know, the whole wolf thing when it comes to sex.”

Jamison Haley was an academic colleague of Saige Buchanan, and the two of them had often worked on digs together in the past, since Saige was an anthropologist and Jamison an expert in archeology. When Saige had discovered the second Dark Marker in Brazil, she’d asked Jamison to take the powerful cross to Colorado for her, but Spark had captured him before he reached his destination. The assassin had handed Jamison over to Westmore, who’d allowed Gregory DeKreznick, who’d been working for the Kraven leader at the time, to torture him for information about Saige and the Watchmen. Jamison had refused to talk, and by the time the Watchmen had found him, he was nearly dead. Left with no other choice, Kierland had bitten the human, turning him into a Lycan in order to save his life.