Captive's Kiss (3 page)

Better to put her down and walk away.

Her arms tensed around his shoulders as if she knew what he was thinking. But when she lifted her head, her kiss-swollen lips and sated smile made him hesitate. Maybe they could meet up again the next night. The seasonal lust would still linger for a day or two.

She wiggled, and he set her down. She pulled a piece of the torn thong from where it had gotten shoved in a fold of her pants and arched a brow at him.

“Sorry about that.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

A sultry grin tugged at her mouth. “It was worth it.” She pulled on the one pant leg she’d managed to remove, then slipped her foot into the high heel she’d kicked off.

Tanner couldn’t help it. Saige was standing there with no top, in skin tight leather pants with no goddamn panties. She wore a Goth style silver choker that had coursed with shots of green light out in the main room. If he thought she was fuckable ten minutes ago, now that he’d had a taste, she was an irresistible temptation.

“So, um…” She retrieved her corset and wrapped the thing around herself, pulling the zipper up. She adjusted the front, leaning forward slightly and cupping her breasts in the process, and he groaned. He was sure she didn’t mean it like a tease, but damn. “It was nice meeting you, Tanner.”

Nice meeting you? Right, because everyone at this damn club was here for sex and nothing more. Except the females who wanted mates. He cleared his throat. What was he thinking? He wouldn’t see her again. “Yeah. You too.”

She gave him a small smile, like she was waiting for something. Did she want him to be chivalrous and open the door? He reached for it-

“Hey, um.” She caught his hand, stopping him. “You, uh, need to…” She looked at his gaping fly, which he’d forgotten to close.

“Shit.” He tossed the used rubber in a trash can among a hundred others and righted his clothing. “That coulda been embarrassing.”

Her eyes twinkled. “No, not for you. The nymphs would take it as an invitation.”

He grunted. Nymphs were fun, but they fucked almost anything in sight.

Saige opened the door and he followed her out. Loud music still boomed and bodies writhed. When they reached the bar, she turned and smiled, her choker glinting in the colored light of the club. “See you around.”

He nodded. “Take care.”

She melted into the throng of creatures. He watched her go, unable to look away until she was completely gone. Her scent lingered on his skin, a heady combination of hot seduction with an unexpected tendril of promise. She’d spend time with him again, if he pursued her. He knew it. But one night was all it would be.

Saige pushed through the crowd, needing fresh air. The oxygen in Hades was saturated with arousal and her skin carried Tanner’s scent. Her lips tingled from his kiss and she could still feel his arms around her. Reaching the door, she shoved it open and stepped into the dark night.

She hadn’t wanted to use her power on Tanner. Not him. He was a good, honorable male, like Watchers usually were. That was part of the reason they never lacked for female company, at the solstice or any time at all.

They fought hard and played hard. Warriors to the core. Steadfast and noble.

Unlike her and the criminals she was forced to work with. She wasn’t a warrior, despite the fact that she, like all Lash, could summon demonfire in her palms. No, she was as far from warrior status as anyone could get. Her hours were filled with either deception or worry, and every day she’d race to the compound to check on Logan, praying her brother wasn’t sporting any new cuts or bruises.

And that awful situation was in direct correlation to the males she was able to bring back to the Viper nest. She idly traced the choker around her neck. The silver links resembled gnarled, thorned branches. It looked tough. Went along with the leather she wore. But held within in the branches, looking like an innocent black stone, was a tracking device. She couldn’t remove it and couldn’t leave the city limits, or the Vipers would take retribution on Logan.

Her captors, the Vipers, would have loved Tanner. They would have crowed in glee to have him fighting in their underground ring, drawing huge crowds and fattening their pockets.

No.
She wouldn’t. She had brought in several young Lash males recently, and she hoped that would placate the Vipers. And the Vipers weren’t here at Hades, so they would never know she’d had the chance to snag a Watcher, yet let him go. The scents on her could have come from any of the pushing, grinding bodies in the club.

But she had to return with
something
. A lead, a name, a future date or, even better, a male who could fight, could hold his own in the ring. If she didn’t, Logan would be beaten and then forced into a bout. He wasn’t a born warrior either and, like her, he’d had no fight training. He would die in that ring. She couldn’t lose him. They were all they had left in the world.

Swallowing hard, she thought of the Deserati bartender inside. She could come back at three, when his shift ended, and coax him to go with her.

She squeezed her eyes shut for a second. Opening them, she saw the residents of Halice all around, wrapped in passion. Thinking of the moment. Unaware, or seeming to be, of the ugliness that lurked beneath the streets.

She walked away from Hades, toward the roughest part of town. Not that the males there deserved what she was about to do, but neither did her brother deserve death.

Her heels clicked on the pavement. One day at a time. If she thought too hard about her life, about the mess she and Logan had landed in, it made her crazy.

Sleek metal buildings gave way to crumbling stone structures and cracked sidewalks. The crowds were nonexistent here. Just Saige and a handful of rats scurrying by. But rough voices carried to her ears. Low chuckling, and a burst of male laughter.

She crept closer and glanced around a rough wall into an alley. Two dark elves huddled, peering at something in their palms. They were counting…counting gold pieces, it looked like. Probably stolen. Saige eyed them, debating. She could take them both. Their minds weren’t as strong as the minds of the more fierce predatory demons, so she could overpower both of them and not be doubly weakened in the aftermath of her talent.

She shook out her hair and made a show of walking loudly across the mouth of the alley. “Oh!” She turned to the elves. “I didn’t see you there.”

They looked up, suspicion in their eyes, hands darting to their daggers. But Saige just stood there, playing the role of dumb blonde that she had perfected. And in seconds, their dark looks turned to lewd smiles.

“You lost, or are you lonely, female?” One stepped closer, black eyes roving her clothes. “This is your time of year to need a good hard fucking, isn’t it?”

“It
is
.” Saige bit her lips and looked from one to the other. “You boys busy?”

“Never too busy for a hot girl.” The second elf shoved something in his pocket, probably the gold.

Needing them just a little closer, Saige shifted her weight and pretended to teeter in her heels. The elves both rushed forward.

“Whoa.” She put her arms out the sides as if steadying herself. “Darn high heels. But I’m okay.”

“We’ll take care of you,” the first one grunted.

“Mmm, I hope you will,” she murmured, drawing on her power. They were within range now. She lowered her hands slowly, keeping her palms open at her sides.

The second one grinned and came close enough to graze his clawed fingers down her arm. “You’ll be fun. Can’t remember the last time I had some Lash pussy.”

Saige hit them with the full force of her power, sending a wave of energy that enveloped them. It didn’t knock them down; rather, it entered their minds like tendrils of smoke, blocking out their own conscious thought. They stood, blinking and dazed, expressions blank.

“You’re coming with me,” she said.

They nodded. “We’re going with you.”

She turned and led them away from the alley, continuing through the rundown sections of Halice. The few souls they passed didn’t spare them more than a passing glance. Saige didn’t bother with a twisting route. If anyone was foolish enough to follow, the Vipers would add them their collection of fighters and captives.

She stopped at a large low warehouse that sat at a bend in Halice’s river. The current slowed here and trash collected along the banks. A section of metal roofing shifted in the breeze-a deception to make the building look more dilapidated than it was. Under the loose sheaf, a sturdy panel was bolted in place.

Standing in front of the gray unmarked metal door, she pressed a buzzer. After one minute it opened on surprisingly soundless hinges, revealing a scowling Viper guard. He had the muscular humanoid build of a Lash demon but, like all Vipers, his head resembled that of a snake. Yellow slitted eyes narrowed at her, but he nodded in approval when he saw her two charges.

“Took you long enough, but at least you got more than one. Come.” He gestured for them to enter.

They walked through a room that had once likely been an office, where Saige stopped the elves. “We’ll take your weapons now.”

The elves stood still and docile as two more Vipers frisked them, removing several blades and the gold they’d been counting. Saige watched, motionless, with her arms held slightly out from her sides. Her turn was next.

With quick, disinterested pats, the guards checked her for weapons or amulets. Though they’d ordered her not to bring anything back here, upon threats of beatings for both her and Logan, they didn’t trust her.

Fine. Let them check. She wouldn’t risk either of their lives. Not when their tiny family consisted only of the two of them.

Next, the guards herded them down concrete stairs that descended deep underground. Moisture from the river made the air pungent and humid. Saige held tightly to the metal railing. She’d slipped on these stairs before and didn’t want a repeat, especially since she was in heels tonight and nearing the point where the use of her power would come back to bite her.

She was grateful when they reached the bottom and the Viper guard walked down a hall full of cells. They housed males of various species, kept imprisoned with spells that dampened their innate individual powers. They growled and spat protests at Saige and the guard. Many of them were there thanks to her. She kept her eyes on the green scaled neck of the guard leading the way and blocked out the angry words.

“Here.” The guard stopped, pointing at two adjoining empty cells.

“You, go in there. This is where you need to stay,” she said to the first elf. “And you, over there.” She guided the second one to the designated cell.

The guard locked the barred doors. The elves stood, still in a daze. When the effect of her mind-numbing power wore off, they’d be furious.

Just like the rest of the males she’d brought here. Did they deserve this? No. That wasn’t for her to decide, yet she’d lured most of them. Even if she’d found them lurking on the fringes of society or in the midst of a crime, that didn’t mean they’d earned this level of hell.

A wave of dizziness pushed at her. Saige turned and hurried back the way they’d come, back past the furious males who would probably die soon. Her ears burned from the descriptive threats they lobbed at her and which she completely deserved. Regret and nausea tumbled her stomach. She’d had no choice. To the Vipers, she and Logan were a means to an end, and the unfortunate males’ lives meant nothing more than dollars and odds in a fight.

By the base of the stairs was another gray metal door. She focused on getting to it, blocking out the creatures who would be thrown into a fight to the death and the awful role she played in their situation. She ignored the grimness of their surroundings and fought the darkness that was coming to drag her under.
Almost there.
Their door had no lock, but it least she and Logan had a door. She yanked it open and stepped in, slamming it quickly behind her. “Logan?”

“I’m fine.” He sat on one of the two beds in the room, eyeing her. “You?”

“I made it.” Knees wobbly, she stumbled across to the other bed. “Brought in two…dark elves…ugh.” Her face connected with the scratchy blanket as she collapsed. The room was dark, blending with the black that was creeping in at the edges of her vision. “I’m okay…” She’d made it to the bed. Logan wouldn’t have to pick her off the floor this time. She gasped as sharp pain sliced through her skull, then darkness descended.

C
HAPTER
3

B
RIGHT MORNING SUN SHONE DOWN
as Tanner did his best to beat the piss of out Raul in the outdoor sparring ring. Lash Watcher HQ had several such rings, indoor and out. Ian and Gabriel faced off in a neighboring circle. Evidently they’d all needed fresh air after last night.

Tanner’s jaw cracked as Raul’s foot slammed him. With a grunt he ducked and then charged, flipping his comrade to the ground.

Raul jumped to his feet, arm drawn back, and lunged. His fist connected with Tanner’s jaw
again
.