Blood Ties (4 page)

He pushed those thoughts to the far corners of his mind, refusing to dwell on them or let them intrude on the few stolen minutes he had with her.

Deep contentment settled in his bones as she climbed to her tippy toes and dropped a light kiss on his lips. Mikel stepped back, pulling her with him into the rush of frigid water.

She shivered and cuddled in closer to his chest. “Come with me, Mikel. We’ll wash up in the brook. The water there is much warmer.”

By the time they swam back to the embankment, night had closed in on them. Mikel knew he’d stayed too long already. It was time to go.

His glance journeyed heavenward. Thick fog seemed to part in the darkening sky, exposing the full moon. A tinge of red dusted the clouds edging the pale moon.

Blood on the moon.

His guts shifted. His skin prickled. An intuitive warning. Self-preservation urged him to grab Dari and run. The pungent smell of fear and fresh coppery blood filled his nostrils. Suddenly he heard gunshots, shrieks of fear, and the thunderous sounds of heavy footsteps echoing in his ears.

Grayson had found her.

Dari twisted to face him. The look in her eyes told him she’d read the confusion, the alarm in his expression, and felt the tension rising in him. Her skin turned translucent, her eyes wide, terrified. Mikel adjusted his footing and widened his stance, preparing for combat. He reached for the dagger that he kept sheathed to his leg. It wasn’t there. For he was still in her dream world. And she was in danger.

She clutched his arm. “You hear it too.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Dari, wake up!” he shouted.

Chapter Three

“Dari! Wake up!”

Writhing on her bed deep in the Canadian mountains, her lids flew open, bringing her face to face with Wallis, a new member of her commune. “Dari! Wake up!” Suddenly, Mikel’s voice segued into Wallis’s. “You have to run. You have to get out of here.”

Her gaze flew from Wallis, to her door, and back to Wallis again. Disoriented, Dari clutched the blankets to her chest and jerked upright. She blinked her eyes into focus in her dimly lit shelter.

“Hurry,” he said, shackling her wrists in his palms, helping her to her feet. “You need to go. Now.”

Dari grabbed her linen dress from the foot of her bunk and hastily threw it over her head. She fought down the rising panic and struggled to clear the fog from her head. “What’s going on?” She followed him from her room and toward one of the many dark tunnels that led outdoors.

With his hand still tight on her wrist, they cautiously crept forward. “They’ve found you. I need to get you to safety.” Something in his curt voice triggered alarms in her head like a trip wire.

Breathless, Dari pulled up short, jerking her arm from his grip, and placed her palm on the damp rock wall of the dark passageway. Her eyes darted back and forth, assessing the situation, looking to see if they’d been followed. An insect crawled out of a crevice and nipped at her skin. Dari, never one to harm a living creature, didn’t whack at it, she simply shook it off and narrowed her gaze.

“Who has found me?” she demanded.

Wallis paused and turned to face her. The way his cunning eyes shifted, alerted her to his apprehension. His glance moved from her, into the depths of the dark tunnel and back to her again. It occurred to her that he was afraid. Of her, and of whatever waited for them at the end of the tunnel.

What was going on?

When he took a small step toward her, forcing her to step back until she was pressed against the rock wall, gut instinct warned her to tread carefully. Everything inside her screamed that he was not a man to be trusted. Wallis hadn’t been with the commune for long and Dari always had an uneasy feeling about him. He gave off an odd vibe that reeked of greed and distrust. She couldn’t explain how she knew that, or how she sensed it, she just did. Like she was able to read the emotions and thoughts of all the members of the commune when she put her mind and full concentration to it. Of course, she never breathed a word of her intuitive gift—or curse—depending on which way one looked at it. Heaven knows she was enough of a misfit as it was.

As she stood there glaring at Wallis, those feelings of distrust amplified, sending little alarm bells jangling in the back of her mind. She cleared her mind, an attempt to read his thoughts.

Out of nowhere, a rush of hot anger whipped through her. Anger so strong and intense, it surprised her. Not once had she ever felt such aggression well up inside her before. Her gaze dropped to his neck. To the pulse beating there. Involuntarily her lips peeled back, and she thirsted for his blood, her body urging her to slice into him and drain him dry. The way she’d exposed her teeth surprised him as much as it did her.

“The elders, where are they?”

She watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. He ignored her questions. “I’ll explain it later, Dari.” She didn’t miss the quiver in his voice. “Right now you must trust me and follow me to safety.”

Trust.
Everything about him screamed mistrust. Keeping her face blank, expressionless she nodded her head, appeasing him. When she drew a calming breath the acrid smell of fresh coppery blood reached her nostrils and her gut churned in response.

Taking her by surprise a disturbing image of carnage, bloodshed, and mutilated bodies flashed in her mind. Oh God! She gave herself a moment to absorb the information, then intuitive intelligence told her the elders were all dead. Murdered. Killed in their sleep. All of them.

“Of course, Wallis. Please lead the way. I’ll follow close behind.”

He hesitated, trying to read her expression, as though her sudden compliance and change of demeanor threw him off. He was twice her size, yet afraid of her. She felt it in every nerve ending, sensed it with her entire being. But why?

A moment later he said, “Let’s go.”

Her bare feet made no sound as they rushed across the rock floor. Ignoring the few, jagged pebbles that bit into the pads of her feet, Dari pushed on, waiting for the opportunity to make her move. She followed him for a few minutes, keeping close behind until the tunnel forked, branching off in two directions. She knew these secret burrows well, had spent decades exploring them. Wallis looked back to make sure she’d followed him. When he turned forward again, Dari quietly backtracked and darted into the other tunnel.

With every ounce of strength she possessed, she ran. She ran, putting as much distance between them as possible before he realized she had escaped. After a short while, she could see stars twinkling in the dark velvet sky. As she approached the mouth of the cave, she slowed her steps and cautiously peered into darkness. Her vision was extremely good at night. She could see things that her caregivers couldn’t, thus giving her the advantage. She crept from the passageway, ran past the cook’s gardens, behind the barns that housed their livestock and hid in a small cave she’d discovered years previous. Her own little sanctuary that led to an abandoned twentieth-century mine. A place she’d retreat to when she needed to be by herself. She rolled the rock away from the entrance and slipped inside, moving the huge rock back in place, to shelter her from anyone passing by. She had never been sure why she possessed so much strength, but at this moment she was thankful for it.

She sat quietly, listening. Her thoughts on fast-forward, sorting through the information. Who was after her? And why? Why would someone invade their peaceful commune? Kill its serene inhabitants?

The sound of shuffling outside the cavern stilled her thoughts. She listened carefully. Hundreds of voices erupted in her head. The same collective voices that seeped into her subconscious and turned her dreams into nightmares. She’d never heard them in her waking hours before. Collapsing forward, she pressed her palms over her ears, trying to lessen them to a dull roar. Trying to concentrate on only one voice at a time. She pinched her eyes shut, took and took a couple of calming breaths. Finally, she succeeded to wade through the voices. Tuning in the one that was closest to her. The one that was the most powerful.

“Step aside, Wallis, you fool. I trust you with one little task. What a small man you must be to be foiled by a woman.”

“She’s not just a woman. She has your blood, Grayson.”

Grayson
.

Dari’s breath caught, her heart slamming against her chest double time.

Why did she know that name?

Wallis rushed on. “The little bitch is smart and has inhuman strength.” She heard a pause and then some sort of licking sound as though he was wetting his lips. Dari almost felt sorry for him. Almost. “She’s powerful like you,” he groveled, obviously hoping to win points with this Grayson person.

It won him no points.

The sound of a sharp blade being drawn from its sheath made her shiver. A moment later she heard a thump and assumed it was Wallis’s body falling to the ground. The sound of gold coins jingled and fell to the ground beside him. Sharp, insidious laughter followed.

“Your coins will do you no good now, feeble servant.”

That voice. That name. Why was it so familiar? Had they crossed paths? If they had, surely she would have remembered.

Pressing her back against the cold, damp wall, she held her breath and continued to listen.

“Dari!” The chill in his voice turned her blood to ice.

Her heart crashed against her chest, her vision went blurry around the edges. How did this man know her by name?

“Come out here, Dari. If I have to send my men in there after you, I will be most upset, and punishment for disobeying a direct order will be unpleasant.”

His tone told her he was a man used to getting what he wanted, used to being obeyed, in control. As she stood in the dank cave, her mind raced, considering her options, immediately dismissing the one that was most obvious. No way would she go out there like he wanted.

Without preamble, Dari turned her back to the entrance and ran deeper into the pitch-black tunnel. Fear propelled her forward, toward the small circle of light at the other end. When she glanced back over her shoulder to gauge the distance between her and the mouth of the cave, she smacked straight into a muscular wall, a man’s chest. Before she fell backwards, strong arms gripped her waist, anchoring her in place, making escape impossible.

Oh God, now what? How was she going to get out of this? Her thoughts raced a million miles an hour. What atrocities did they have planned for her? Death? Or something far worse?

His hands tightened on her body. Suddenly, a strange calmness overtook her, and her mind settled, leaving her with one thought and one thought only.

Fight.

Taking herself by surprise, she fisted her hand and smashed it into the man’s neck, as though some deep-seated instinct had kicked in. As he stumbled backwards, she used strength and moves she didn’t even know she possessed. She did a roundhouse kick and slammed him against the rock wall.

She lifted her foot above his head.

Dari, stop.

The sound of Mikel’s voice in her head stopped her cold.

• • •

After Mikel broke the psychic connection with Dari, leaving her alone in her bed with no weapons to defend herself against the monsters that had somehow found her, he remained rooted on his rooftop turret. His mind raced and his heart pounded as wind whipped around his body.

Goddammit…

He shook his head, struggling to focus, to work through the panic and hysteria that was affecting his ability to think rationally. Every vein in his body filled with heated blood as rage started at his core and worked its way outward.

He pounded his hand on his stone wall. A few jagged pieces chipped free, plummeting to the ground and settling around his bare feet. “Nooo…” He felt helpless as he kicked the fragments away. His voice echoed in the still night, reminding him just how isolated he was, so far from the woman he loved. Dari was all alone, unprotected, defenseless, and he was miles away unable to safeguard her from danger—from an inevitable abduction—tore at his soul, at his very existence. Many centuries ago, he’d made a vow never to let anything happen to her, and he’d be damned if he stood by while those degenerate bastards hunted her.

Knowing he’d give his life for hers, he turned and stormed inside the castle. He had no choice but to summon Ayden from the village, have him prepare the shuttle he kept stored on Mikel’s rooftop, and fly Mikel to Dari. Nothing or no one would stand in his way of launching into the night sky with Ayden. Mikel dressed quickly, pulling on his coat and boots. He needed to go to her, to rescue her from Grayson and his vicious warriors, before they took her from his world and into theirs, where she’d never be heard from again.

Heavy boots pounding on the cracked and pitted stone floor, Mikel paced like a caged and taunted animal, waiting for Ayden to arrive. A quick glance at the antique clock informed him that he had but a few hours. Dawn would soon be upon him. If he reached Dari in time, he could rescue her and return her to his home before sunrise. Then Grayson and his men would be forced to seek shelter underground, giving him time to get Dari behind the safety of his walls, where he could regroup and formulate an offense before Grayson found them all and retaliated. Which, Mikel suspected, with Grayson’s persistence and extraordinary powers, would inevitably happen.

A low, feral growl sounded deep in his throat. A burst of fury fired through his body until he felt as if all his arteries would split wide open and spill his boiling blood. How in the hell had they found her location? Curling his fingers in sheer frustration, he pounded his fists against the stone wall once again.

It only took minutes for Ayden to come. Mikel pushed open his massive castle door and waited for Ayden to climb the steps leading to the entrance. He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding as his trusted friend and confidant arrived. Although Ayden looked to be approximately twenty-two in human years, he was an old soul, much wiser than most, with talents rare to human kind. Which led Mikel to believe he wasn’t human at all. Even though interplanetary travel was prohibited, for various reasons, including war, cross-species mating, and the fear of another Nallie incident, Mikel knew Ayden had come from far away. But he was Mikel’s friend, the only person he trusted, and had not turned him over to the military rule task force, like the laws demanded.