Read Darkness Awakened (Primal Heat Trilogy #1) (Order of the Blade) Online
Authors: Stephanie Rowe
Darkness Awakened (Primal Heat Trilogy #1) (Order of the Blade) (42 page)
“Stay behind. Don’t come with me. Walk away. Save us both because as hell is my witness, I’m not strong enough to do it.”
Grace was aware of the Order watching them, utterly silent, waiting to see what she would do. “You’re right,” she said. “I should walk away.”
“Should?” His voice was strangled.
She nodded, trying to ignore that devastating ache in her chest at the idea of leaving him, because it was trumped by the even more horrific idea that by staying with him, she was sealing his death. “If I do,” she said, “can you guys handle the illusions yourself? Can you promise you can save Ana?”
There was silence, and she saw the agonizing conflict in his eyes. If he set her free, he would lose her forever. If he didn’t, she would die.
It was Ryland who broke the stalemate. “Screw that,” he snapped. “We need both of you or this whole mission is going to fail.”
Grace started at the interruption, but Quinn didn’t even react, he was staring at her so intently.
“This is not about some freaking love fest,” Ryland continued. “It’s about Dante and Elijah, and saving the world and your own damn sister. The only thing that matters is finishing what we’ve started, and you both know it. We have a job to do, and it happens now.”
Grace shivered at Ryland’s interjection, at the truth of his words. He was right. Completely right.
Had she actually considered walking away from Ana to save Quinn? How would Grace have lived with herself if she spent the rest of her life alone, knowing that she’d given up fighting for her sister and Quinn because she’d been too afraid of some stupid destiny that wanted to control her. Since when had she gotten so sucked into the Calydon lore that she’d forgotten how to fight for what mattered to her? That wasn’t her, and she was taking control back. “I’m not giving up. I’m coming.”
Fierce respect fired in Quinn’s eyes. He said nothing, but he took her hand, his action a silent statement that he also agreed with Ryland. They had to go forward and risk everything.
There was a low murmur of assent from the Order, the team closed around them, preparing for Kane to relocate them.
Quinn took her hand and pulled her against him, pressing a kiss to her mouth, not relinquishing the pressure until her lips parted, taking a private moment in the middle of the crowd. The moment she welcomed him, he groaned and thrust his tongue deep inside. His hands dug into her hair as he assaulted her mouth with a desperation that shattered all her shields. She threw her arms around Quinn and kissed him back, throwing all she was into the kiss, telling him with her kisses and her body all that she didn’t have the courage to say to his face.
Grace pressed her body against Quinn. She basked in the hardness of his muscles, the sharp edges of his leather jacket as it cut through her shirt. She tasted his mouth, the warmth of it, the musky flavor that was him. She breathed in his scent, memorized the way it curled through her nose and softened her belly. She ran her hands over his shoulders and his chest, sank her fingers into his hair.
Then the world began to hum, and she knew Kane was transporting them. She scrunched her eyes shut and shut out everything but the feel of Quinn’s mouth on hers, the heat of his body as he loomed over her, enfolding her in his bulk. For this one moment, for this last moment, it was only them.
Quinn tucked Grace into the curve of his body and called out his sword as they arrived in the dark woods behind The Gun Rack after a quick stop at Grace’s place to adorn the men with copper bracelets. They’d ended up finding sixteen, stashed around the house.
He couldn’t stop thinking about the fact she’d had so many of those bands: torture implements that nullified who she was and made her violently ill. It had made him think about how much burden she’d been dealing with, spending her life worrying about her own heritage killing her and others. He hated that she’d suffered, despised that she’d had to fear herself. And now he was going to be the one to deal her the final blow?
Screw that. There had to be another way.
There had to be
.
He thought again of that brief moment during his uncle’s death. That whispered plea. The red glow leaving his eyes. Had Felix come back from being rogue or had it been the imagination of a young, traumatized rookie? Was there really a way, or was Quinn lying to himself? Lying to Grace? Would he be her doom after all she’d survived?
Son of a bitch. He didn’t want to be that man.
A cold rain was pounding through the trees, beating down on their skin like daggers. Mud was ankle deep, and the wildlife was silent. The Order members were still as they arrived in the woods, reaching out into the night with their senses to search for threats as they held their weapons ready, copper bands tight around their wrists.
“Everyone set?” Quinn asked. The bracelets had been too small for the men’s wrists, so they’d had to slice them open and jerry-rig them back together. Gideon had shoved the extras in his back pocket to slap on Zach if they could get close enough. Gabe would be warned ahead of time and they’d stash one for him to pick up once they got there.
“We’re good,” Gideon said. “Let’s do it.”
Quinn checked with Grace. “Do you feel your sister?”
“No. I’d feel her only if she was doing an illusion.” Rain was already plastering Grace’s dark hair to her head and glistening on her cheeks, so like how she’d been the first time he’d seen her. Still that same small frame, those tremendous silver eyes, that fierce determination. But now, Quinn felt none of the angst and despair he’d felt before. Just calm, confident focus.
He grinned. “You know you make me hot when you get tough.”
She wiped water off her forehead and flashed him a look of aggravation. “You never change, do you?”
His smile faded. “Just trying to lighten the moment. It’s what I do.”
“Well, instead of lightening the moment, why don’t you try something different?” She met his gaze. “Like fighting with passion instead of restraint. Weapons didn’t win this battle before, Quinn. Love did. Opening your soul and letting it all burn so fiercely that it strips you of everything you have left. If you were fighting with your soul, you never would have asked me to walk away before we came here. I won’t be like you, Quinn. I’m in this with my heart and my soul, and if I crash and burn, so be it. At least I’ll know I gave it everything I had.”
Her words reverberated in the air, a challenge not only to him, but to his team. It was the same one she’d issued at the campfire. The same one they’d ignored.
Only this time, it felt different. This time, the brands in his arms burned in response. Quinn recalled that passion that she’d unleashed when she’d generated the illusion that had saved him. He’d never felt that kind of intensity of emotion before, and it had galvanized him, giving him the strength to reach out to her and use his own abilities to protect her from the illusion. She’d made them stronger by not fighting what she felt, by making a choice based on passion, not intellect.
Quinn.
Gabe touched his mind.
We’ll be there in ten. You guys set?
Not quite.
Well, get on it.
Quinn relayed Gabe’s ETA to the team, then added, “Gabe thinks they’re meeting with Nate, but he’s not positive. Keep an eye out for Nate, but for anyone else as well.” He pictured Nate in his mind as he’d seen him in Elijah’s
mjui
, then touched the minds of all his men, showing them the image. Since they were standing so nearby, it was easy to connect with them, especially since they were all tuned into him. “Grace, check for illusions on everyone.”
He held the bridge to the other warrior’s minds for her as she checked.
“Everyone’s clean. Even Gideon’s is gone.”
Quinn’s brands began to burn, his instincts shouting a warning about a threat that none of them could sense yet. “We’re going to be surrounded soon. Vanish.”
The Calydons slipped off into the darkness, melting into the underbrush, their footsteps silent even in the mud.
Quinn wrapped his arms around Grace and took her up into the trees. “You’ll be safe up here. Let me know if you see Ana.” He was gripped with sudden fear for her safety, and he was filled with the ridiculous urge to haul her against him, keeping her in the shield of his protection, where he could keep her safe. His brands were burning fiercely at the thought of leaving her behind, screaming the warnings he couldn’t afford to abide by.
He had to focus. He had to do his job. He could not afford to be ruled by passion. He saw that now, despite his moment of weakness a moment ago. Passion would mean making choices that would doom his team, and even her sister. The strategic choice was to stash Grace in the tree and go do his thing, not whisk her off to some safe zone where he could keep her safe.
But he couldn’t shake the sense of foreboding at choosing to leave her behind in the tree. “Promise me you won’t come down from here.”
“Absolutely not.” Grace’s eyes blazed with determination. “What if you need my help? What if Ana does?”
His fingers tightened on her hips. “If you stay up here, I won’t have to kill to save you and complete the bonding.”
There was no softening of her stance. “I’m fighting for what I want, Quinn, and you don’t do that by hiding. If I need to come down, then I will.”
“Dammit, Grace!” He shook her slightly, his body vibrating with his effort to contain his emotions. “I’m not giving up on us either. If we don’t complete the bond, we still have a chance.” He met her gaze. “I want that chance, Grace. I want us.”
* * *
For a brief moment, Grace was undone by the intensity in Quinn’s words, at the urgency of his tone, at the fierceness of his hold on her. She felt herself tumbling into his vortex, her heart beating with emotion she’d never let herself feel before—
“No!” She pulled back, wrenching herself away from his plea. “What chance do you want, Quinn? The opportunity to separate after all this is over so we can spend our lives in agony, craving each other, living a half-life because we’re incomplete without each other, and yet can’t afford to be together?” She shook her head, her eyes stinging with tears. She felt herself break apart inside at the thought of leaving him. “I know that was the original plan, but that doesn’t work for me anymore. I can’t separate from you, Quinn. I
can’t
.”
He stared at her, then cursed. “Dammit, Grace. We have to.” His hands slid over her shoulders and cupped the sides of her neck, his touch a caress that made her skin burn. His voice was raw with emotion. “If I never kill for you, then I’d have you
forever.”
“It wouldn’t be a life, Quinn. I’ve lived my life terrified and broken since I was a child. Afraid of who I was. Afraid of feeling any kind of intense emotion that might trigger my illusions. But since I met you?” She pressed her hand to his chest. “I can’t fight what I feel for you, and it feels amazing. I’m alive for the first time ever, and I’m not going back. I want it all, Quinn, and I’m going to fight for it.”
“So, you’re willing to die? To lose it all?”
“You’re the one who’s been saying all along that we can beat the bond. Why are you giving up now? What has changed to make it so powerful that you want to run away instead of taking it on?”
Quinn’s eyes flashed. “Because I love you, Grace Matthews, and I know that I would give my life to save yours. I won’t try to stop that bond because there’s nothing that matters to me more than you.
That’s
why I’ve changed. Because I know I’m not stronger than the bond. I want it, I want everything it will bring me.”
“Death? Destruction?”
“No.” He took her hand and pressed his lips to it. “I want you, completely and forever. Nothing can stop me from falling into your soul, no matter what the cost, no matter what the future holds. I’d rather die in your arms than live without you. That’s exactly what destiny will offer, and instead of fighting it, I’ll take it if that means I can have one more minute with you. That’s why I’ve changed my mind.”
“Oh.” Her defenses crumbled. They just disintegrated right there, completely and entirely. “I love you, Quinn.”
“I know. I can feel it.” He took her hand and laid it on his chest. His heart was thumping like crazy, burning with passion. “Stay in the damn tree, Grace, because I’ve got no willpower when it comes to you.”
“No,” she said, digging her fingers into his muscle. “It’s that love that makes us powerful. That’s why we can win.”
She heard Gabe in Quinn’s head.
We’re here. Drew’s between us, and we’re heading down the embankment into the woods behind The Gun Rack. You guys in place?
Quinn swore.
We’re ready
. He looked at Grace. “I have to go. Stay in the tree.”
She didn’t give him an answer. She just grabbed the front of his jacket, and pulled him close. “Just so you know,” she said fiercely. “I’ll be extremely mad if you get yourself killed.”
He wound his fingers through her hair and pulled her against him, sinking his mouth onto hers in a deep, hot kiss. Then he pulled back, slipped out of her arms and was gone.
* * *
Quinn was stretched out on his stomach in the mud as Zach and Gabe slogged down the hill from the parking lot toward the woods. Drew was between them, his face was drawn and his eyes sunken with hopelessness, the rain matting his hair to his head. Vaughn wasn’t there, and Quinn scowled at the thought of what they must have done to Vaughn to get Drew away from him.
Zach cursed, and Quinn jerked his concentration back to the present. Zach had a fresh wound on his face and was limping, and Gabe was holding his arm as if it were broken. Vaughn hadn’t gone down easy.
Drew tripped and Zach yanked him upright, his face so stoic and expressionless that Quinn knew he was still under an illusion. Drew tried to yank his arm free and grimaced when Zach tightened his grip. Quinn brushed against the kid’s mind with a quiet reassurance.
Drew stiffened, and he looked around sharply. Then he straightened up and clenched his fists.
Quinn smiled, then faded into the bushes as the trio passed him. Drew would be ready. Quinn didn’t move to follow them, knowing his men were in place.
He touched Grace’s mind.
You still in the tree?
Yes.
He didn’t say anything else, and neither did she. What was there to say? Too much, and nothing at all.
My wrists are burning and I feel like shit
. Gideon’s voice was tense.
Same with Kane. I don’t know about the others.
Grace answered.
It means an illusion is trying to penetrate the protection the copper’s giving you. I think the burning should be an indication that the bands are blocking it. If you tell me where you are, I’ll come find you and check out for sure.
No.
Did Grace really think he’d let her get down and run around in the woods? No chance.
Gideon, go to her.
I’m on it.
There was silence in the night again and Quinn checked in with his team. All of their wrists were burning. He waited impatiently until he heard confirmation from Grace.
Gideon’s clean
. Grace sounded pleased.
The bands are working.
Yeah, frying my damn wrist right off,
Gideon muttered.
Quinn passed the word onto the others, and felt a shift in the night as they gained confidence that they were safe from the illusions.