Darkness Taunts (3 page)

Focusing my senses, I sent them out to search for anyone nearby. Not a single supernatural registered. Humans had to be much closer for me to pick them up, and they had to be feeling strong emotions for me to do even that much. If any of them were around now, I couldn’t detect them.

I jerked open the glass door to find myself in a luxurious bathroom. It had double sinks and a fancy toilet that would make me feel guilty for sullying it. Black towels hung from a golden bar attached to the wall. I grabbed one and dried my hair off before taking another to wrap around my body. It covered me from my chest to my knees.

A comb laid by the sink, but I didn’t touch it. Instead I ran my fingers through my long hair until it didn’t stick out all over the place. A bottle of lotion sat on the counter as well. I rubbed that into my arms while thinking furiously. Lucas wouldn’t grab me and dump me here unless he wanted something. What that could be, I didn’t know.

I decided to do a little exploring to see if I could at least figure out where he’d taken me. Maybe find a weapon while I was at it. He might have finally decided to kill me and just wanted me to sweat it out a little. I wouldn’t put it past him.

The bathroom turned out to be attached to a bedroom. It was decorated in a completely different style. The bed was large and looked comfortable, but it had a brass frame and a patchwork quilt on it. The armoire and nightstand were antiques with tall legs and hand painted designs. Doilies and floral vases sat on top of them. Not Lucas’ taste at all.

I sifted through a few dresser drawers and a walk-in closet. They had silk shirts, suits, slacks and other clothes reminiscent of his style, but it didn’t add up. His belongings with this furniture clashed. I walked out the bedroom door and onto a second floor landing. It overlooked the living room.

The high walls across from me were constructed of logs. A cabin, maybe? I checked the other room upstairs and found an office. No important papers or mail sat on the desk and the drawers were locked. A floor to ceiling shelf ran along the length of one wall. It had an assortment of history books and classic novels, but nothing of interest. He either didn’t use the room much or he’d cleaned up before my arrival. I looked for a phone, or at least a phone book, but didn’t find anything.

There were two bedrooms on the first floor. They had thick quilts on the beds, plaid curtains covering the windows, and more antique wood furniture. A full bathroom with a large tub was situated between the rooms. It’d been remodeled in a similar fashion to the first one upstairs. Cozy chairs and couches filled the living room. An unvarnished table sat in the open dining area with floral placemats set on it. The kitchen beyond it had all white cabinets with green marble counters.

I slowly spun around, looking at the open spaces of the first floor in confusion. Whose home was this? I expected sleek and modern from Lucas or at least some darker colors and leather furniture. This looked like a place an older couple had decorated.

What did he want and why bring me here?

I paced back and forth. He could come back at any minute. When he did, I’d be ready for him. Well, as ready as I could be without clothes. I was tempted to grab one of his shirts from the closet, but decided I wasn’t that desperate yet. Not to mention he’d been alive for twenty-five hundred years. He must have seen thousands of naked women during that time—including me. I didn’t care what he thought of my body and refused to act like it mattered.

Goosebumps started to pop up on my arms, despite my moving around. I went to the living room where a fire burned in the fireplace—he’d definitely planned this out. Everything was a little too staged for my liking.

I settled down on a bear rug in front of the hearth. How stereotypical. What had he done? Stolen the cabin from some innocent couple? Maybe he’d killed them and left their bodies out in the woods for the wolves to eat. Assuming this area had wolves. It would be useful to know where he’d taken me.

A large bay window shared part of the same wall as the fireplace. It had heavy green drapes hanging from it, but they’d been left open. I could see tiny flakes of snow falling in the moonlight—other than that, nothing but trees.

It had been a long time since my senses had a total break from supernaturals and magic. They bombarded me so often in Fairbanks my head ached most of the time unless I took something for it. The unexpected peace and silence lulled me. I dozed off without realizing it until a flash of light penetrated my eyelids.

Lucas appeared across the room with his back to me. I knitted my brows. What had happened to his hair? He always kept it cropped close to his head at maybe half an inch long. Now the wavy blond locks reached down to his shoulders. I hadn’t actually seen him in the shower, but he’d been over at Nik’s a few weeks ago and it was short. Could he have grown it out that fast? I didn’t think nephilim could alter their natural appearance in that short of time. At least, not without glamour, but I’d see through that and he wasn’t using it anyway.

He still hadn’t noticed me. He held a phone in his hands and appeared to be tapping on the screen. I saw that much before he shifted his feet and blocked my view. I needed to take advantage while his attention was diverted. The fire crackling in the hearth would help cover the sounds of my movement. A nephilim’s hearing was better than a human’s but not by much.

I stood up and grabbed an iron poker from next to the fireplace. Lucas could heal fast, and only an archangel could kill him, but he could still feel pain. I gripped my weapon and crept up behind him. My bare feet didn’t make a sound on the sturdy wood floor. Swinging as hard as I could, I slammed him over the head.

The poker hit with an audible crack and his cell phone hit the floor.

“Ow, what the…?” He spun around, gripping his head.

I inched away. Maybe I should have gone for the knee cap. His skull was even harder than I thought. I’d hoped it would at least temporarily knock him out. Most sups couldn’t have taken a hit like that without going down.

Lucas’ angry gaze locked on mine as he took a step toward me. No way did I want to find out what he’d do next. I swung at him again. He caught the end before it hit him and wrenched me forward. Grinding my teeth, I held on. He twisted it around until my fingers couldn’t take the pressure and let go.

The poker went flying across the room. I flinched when it slammed into the wall with a loud bang. Shit. He was really going to kill me this time.

We stood inches apart. There was only one way to take down a man as big and strong as him with no weapons. I kneed him in the groin. He doubled over and I ran straight for the front door. I’d rather take my chances in the snow wearing only a towel than find out what he’d do next. My bare feet skidded across the wood floor, past the dining area, and toward the entryway.

A heavy weight slammed me from behind. Our forward momentum sent us flying before we came crashing down. My shoulder smacked into the floor. I yelped when ribbons of pain shot through me. Lucas gripped my arm and twisted me to face him. Somewhere in our scuffle, the towel got lost. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to lie there like a lamb for slaughter just because I was naked.

I twisted my body around until my legs could get free. Keeping my left leg lying flat on one side of him, I bent my right and pushed off the floor. He tilted to the side and almost rolled over onto his back, but he caught himself and put his arms out wide. It played right into what I’d wanted him to do. I grabbed his right wrist and yanked it across my chest. Then I pivoted underneath him so one of my legs locked over his neck and the other over the top of his shoulders.

With his arms stuck between my thighs and his head shoved down toward my crotch, I squeezed as hard as I could in a straight armbar. No mercy. If he’d been human, he’d have been screaming by now. His elbow should have felt as if it was about to snap, but his bones were too strong for me to break. All I could do was hold on tight.

Some men might have gotten distracted by my nakedness and the compromising position, which might have worked to my advantage in this case, but he didn’t. He pulled on his arm and I grunted at the effort to keep holding him. It took every ounce of strength I had and still my grip slipped on his wrist. This was the first time I’d ever gotten the best of him, but it might be my last. He couldn’t die, but I sure as hell could.

Lucas tried to use “power” to freeze me, but the magic slithered past my body and snuffed out. At least not all of his abilities worked on me. With another strong yank, he pulled free. I didn’t even get a chance to blink before he had my arms pinned above my head and my legs locked under his. No chance of wiggling out of this one. The entire length of his body covered mine with not an inch of space between us. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the killing blow.

“Who the hell are you?” he asked.

My eyes popped back open. “You know who the
hell
I am. Why did you bring me here?”

“I didn’t bring you here and I don’t know
who
you are.”

He wasn’t lying, and something strange about him was niggling at me. The usual tingles I felt when Lucas and I touched weren’t there. He looked just like him with his broad shoulders, golden skin, and strong jaw. Only his blond hair was different because of the length. Plus he was wearing jeans, which Lucas almost never wore.

“Could you get off of me?” I gasped out. “You weigh a ton.”

Hey, if he was in the talking mood it couldn’t hurt to negotiate.

He shook his head. “Not until you tell me who you are.”

I turned my face away from him. He was so close I could feel his breath on my cheek. “I’m not telling you anything until you let me go.”

“Answer me.” He shoved enough compulsion into his voice that only a very powerful sup, or someone like me, could resist him. Confusion emanated from him after a few moments of silence. “A better question might be
what
are you?”

I groaned. “Lucas, you know what I am. God knows you remind me of it often enough.”

He said something in a language I couldn’t understand. It sounded like a curse of some kind. “You’re a damned sensor. I should have known.”

I swung my head back to look at him. His face was still close. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“If you’re who I think you are, it means I can’t hurt you. No matter how much I’d love to right about now.” His hands tightened on my wrists.

 “Ow,” I cried out. “I am breakable, you know.” That feeling of offness was growing.

A flash of light came from a few feet away. I looked over to see a more familiar version of Lucas standing with his arms crossed and an angry expression on his face.

“Micah, let her go. Now.”

Twins? My jaw dropped. I looked from one to the other. With so few nephilim left on earth, I had a hard time believing my eyes. My senses couldn’t tell them apart either. Maybe because they were identical twins and just like with DNA there was no difference in their signatures. Not once had anyone mentioned Lucas having a twin. He never volunteered information about himself, but Nik could be relied upon to spill some details on him. Apparently not this time.

Now that I knew they were two different men I saw my mistake. A tremor ran through me as Micah lifted himself away. I’d had a virtual stranger on top of me and not even realized it. His standing up left me completely exposed, but it took a few seconds before I could pull myself together enough to sit up and draw my legs in close. Both men stared at me with perplexed expressions.

Lucas sighed and started unbuttoning his shirt. I didn’t have the good judgment to look away as his fingers moved down his chest loosening the buttons. He tugged the ends out of his dark trousers where they had been tucked in and pulled the whole thing off. My mouth went dry and all sense of danger went away. I’d never seen his chest bare before and there was a lot to see. He had muscles in all the right places. Not so enormous as to look ridiculous like some of those guys on WWF, but definitely bigger than most men.

No, Lucas was strength personified by sheer perfection. The fact those thoughts were running through my head should have told me Micah wasn’t him from the start. The connection hadn’t been there. I’d felt nothing but fear and determination to take him down. With Lucas, everything was always a lot more confusing. We might hate each other, but it was a passionate kind of hate.

He stepped forward and handed me the shirt. I took it with numb fingers and worked my arms into it. Before I’d been determined to not wear anything of his, but I was still too shocked by the turn of events to worry about it now. It was big and it would cover me up. Plus the towel didn’t look very appealing lying on the floor. There were some track marks coming from the entrance that no one had cleaned up yet.

I took his hand when he offered it. My legs were shaky, but they managed to hold my weight. I flinched when his fingers grazed my shoulder to slide the shirt down. It was beginning to throb now that my adrenaline had worn off. The skin looked red and would probably bruise.

“Micah, what did you do to her?” Lucas’ voice came out in a way that made me think he barely had himself in check. Anger emanated off of him in waves.

His brother shrugged. “The woman tried to beat me with an iron poker. The only thing that would put a stop to her fighting was to pin her down.”

“You couldn’t subdue one mortal woman without hurting her?” Lucas asked.

“I tried using compulsion, but as I’m sure you know that doesn’t work on her.” He lifted his brows. “I hadn’t expected her to be a woman. That must have pissed you off.”

“What does he mean?” I asked. Micah had backed away from killing me for a reason. I had a feeling he knew a lot more than I did.

“Nothing,” Lucas said. “We have more important things to discuss.”

“Of course we do.” I rolled my eyes. “But since you so rudely dragged me out of my shower and left me here to be accosted by your brother, I think you owe me an explanation.”

He grabbed a travel bag off the floor and held it out to me. I recognized it from home. “A set of your clothes are in here. I’ll finish dealing with Micah while you go get dressed.”