Deliver Me from Darkness: A Novel of the Paladin Warriors (11 page)

He arched a brow, giving her an amused smile. “You going to scream and bring them racing in here?”

There was a brief moment of hesitation. “No. I just didn’t expect for you to show up here. Why did you?”

“Because of you, my dear Karissa.” He let the name slide off his tongue like a caress, enjoying the way it sounded. More enjoyable was the shiver that ran through her slight frame.

She edged back another step, drawing farther away from him and closer to the hall. He didn’t like it but could understand how she might be torn between the pull of the mate-bond and what she felt was logical.

“You, my dear, are the most popular girl in the city right now.” And whether she realized it or not, she was about to become even more so. Unless he could talk her into leaving with him now.

“They’re, um, still looking for me?”

He gave a nod. After he’d run into Gabriella, he’d had to sneak his way back through a half-dozen demons, two dozen vamps, and three merkers, all of whom had come out to prowl the rundown neighborhood where she’d lived. The demons were there to scent her out, of course. The vamps on the street were fishing for information—even managing to keep their canines hidden long enough to ask questions of the neighbors. And the merkers, well, they were there to make sure no one got any ideas about keeping Ganelon’s prize for themselves.

She shuddered, her gaze going back to the heavy wood doors. “I guess coming here
was
the best option then.”

He could sense the apprehension behind her words. Logically, she might think her words were true, but she too seemed to sense that there was danger here. But then, why had she come? He knew he made her nervous, but he thought she’d gotten past outright scared.

That
so, Roland? Then why did she just inch back another step toward a room filled with unknown men?

He frowned. “Did Calhoun talk you into coming here? Did he say something to make you think the loft was unsafe?”

She hesitated, then shook her head. “I can’t live my life locked in your apartment. You said yourself that those creatures are still looking for me. I need help. Logan and the other Paladin can provide that.”

The underlying message was that he couldn’t…because he was one of
them
. And thus, in her eyes, one of the people she needed protection from. Even now she was slowly edging toward the door again. His jaw clenched as he fought the urge to move across the distance and place himself between her and it.

“If you go in there,” he nodded toward the hall she’d just glanced at longingly, “there is no going back.”

Her head jerked back around to him. He had her full attention now.

“What do you mean?”

“Once you walk through those doors and make your existence known, they won’t ever let you leave again.”

She paused. He took the opportunity to close some of the distance that had cropped up between them. Her eyes widened. She started to step back, but after a worried glance over her shoulder, she jutted her chin and held her ground instead. “I don’t understand. Why would they do that?”

“Because they’ll want you,” he explained. Was he so vile that she’d risk the false security of the unknown over his protection? “Every man in there will want to claim you for himself.”

Her eyebrows flew up. “Claim me? As in grunt, grunt, pound their chest, ‘she’s mine,’ claim me?”

He had to fight hard to keep his lip from quirking up. She had no idea how close she was, at least in analogy. “Something like that.”

She shook her head. “I don’t believe that. Those men were once angels, for crying out loud; they wouldn’t do that.”

“They’re not angels. Not any longer. They’re men with special powers, egos, and one too-busy and often-absent God to keep them in line.”

He watched her contemplate his words, indecision shifting uncomfortably with unease across her face. He reclaimed another foot of distance. “There isn’t a man here who won’t fight to have you. And there isn’t a man here who will give a damn if you care to be the spoils of their war or not.”

She shot him a skeptical look. “And you will? Care, that is.”

“I care very much.”

He reached up. She tensed but didn’t move away as he wrapped a tendril of her mahogany curls around his hand. Her chest was lifting and falling; her gaze zeroed in on his mouth as it drew closer and closer. He saw the moment the bond won. She swayed toward him, her head tipping back, her lips parting slightly.

God, what he wouldn’t do to kiss her now. But here was not the time or place. He needed to get her home, away from the immediate danger. And right now she looked ready to follow him anywhere.

With a smile he lifted his other hand, pressing it gently against her waiting lips. “Come back home with me, Karissa. I promise not to cross any lines or break any more…deals.”

Her head jerked back as if he’d slapped her. With a yank, she was out of his hold and had scurried back a half-dozen feet.

“Karissa?”

He started to step forward, but she thrust out her hand toward him, palm out.

“Stop.”

He did. Not because he wanted to, but because he was afraid she’d take another three steps back and bump into the door. And if she alerted a room full of Paladin that there was a vampire in the house? Well, he might be seeing his death sooner rather than later.

“Stop trying to enthrall me,” she hissed.

Enthrall her? “I’m not—”

She cut him off with a glare just as, behind her, the door started to creak open.

***

Karissa spun around, her arms flying out as she hastily backed up against Roland. Why had he come here? Why had he stayed? It had been Logan’s one condition for bringing her here: Don’t mention Roland. Karissa hadn’t needed to ask why to know the results of such a slip wouldn’t be good. And now Roland was here.

If the Paladin saw him…

A man slipped out of the crack in the door, the lights playing off the golden highlights in his hair as he quickly shut it behind him.

“What are you doing here?” he hissed in low tones.

Just Logan, thank God. Karissa’s arms fell, and she sagged into the solid mass of Roland behind her. Large arms closed around her, offering support.

A close call, much too close. If that had been anyone but Logan, or if they’d sent someone out with him to retrieve their visitor…

Why
do
you
care, Karissa? You were ready to run into that hall and beg their protection just a few minutes ago.

Logan’s gaze zeroed in on Roland’s arms wrapped around her rib cage, drawing attention to the lingering embrace.

She blushed but couldn’t seem to bring herself to straighten up and pull away. Too weak, too tired…too…what?

Eventually Logan dragged his line of sight up over her head to Roland’s face. “Are you an idiot? You need to get the hell out of here, now.”

“Who’s the idiot that brought her here?”

Logan’s eyes narrowed dangerously at Roland. “She’s safe here at Haven.”

“Is she?”

“Yes,” Logan said, but there had been a moment of hesitation. A split second as his eyes flickered to hers and away. Which meant: lie.

Karissa’s nails dug into Roland’s arms. She hadn’t taken his warnings all that seriously, but in the face of Logan’s doubt?

“I’m not leaving without her,” Roland said, his voice firm.

Logan took a step forward. “Like hell.”

“You are a fool if you believe no harm will come from bringing her through those doors.”

Logan glanced uneasily over his shoulder, then back at Roland. “Is this…is your gift telling you this?”

“No. Simple logic is telling me this. The same logic that had you bring her to my place rather than here originally.”

Logan’s mouth thinned, giving her a glimpse of the hardened warrior she suspected he truly was. One who, once committed, believed wholeheartedly in his cause. One who would do anything to achieve the end regardless of the means. “Things have changed.”

“What? What’s changed?”

“It’s too complicated,” Logan hedged, casting a glance at Karissa.

Karissa shifted uneasily in Roland’s arms. The thing that had changed was her. After Roland had blown out of the apartment for the evening, she’d tried to erase the memory of his kiss with a long, hot shower. When that hadn’t worked, she’d tried sleeping, and when that hadn’t worked, she’d gone into the study to ask Logan to tell her more of the Paladin. After listening to numerous tales, she’d come to the conclusion that she had to get to know these men who were constantly putting their necks out for humanity. They might be able to help her too. Besides, it had been as good an excuse as any to get Logan to bring her here at this ungodly hour of the night.

It was Roland’s fault. If he could have left things as ships passing in the night…

“Listen, Roland,” Logan went on, his voice somewhat moderated but no less firm than before, “I will protect her. But I can’t protect you if someone comes out and finds you. Which, if I don’t go back through those doors with her in the next thirty seconds or so, could be real soon.”

“It’s not your right to protect her,” Roland growled.

“Not my right? And what? You think it’s yours?”

Roland stiffened, his arms tightening around her. Karissa squeaked a bit and they just as quickly gentled again, though not as loose as before.

“You can’t be serious.” This from Logan.

Serious? About what? Maybe it was her exhaustion-fried mind, but she was having a real hard time making sense of this conversation. There were hidden meanings and underscored points that she was just not capable of deciphering after all the trauma of the last forty-eight hours, not to mention the night she’d had of tossing and turning. Which too was all Roland’s fault. That damn kiss again. It was like a phantom lover had slipped into the bed next to her, and every time exhaustion had finally taken over and she’d started to drift off it was to the memory of how her lips had burned under his, the feeling of his arms around her.

Like
they
are
now.

Her body trembled, savoring the strength and the heat that wrapped around her. Though his embrace was a tad constricting, Karissa didn’t get the impression he meant her harm. Quite the opposite, in fact. If anything she felt…safe.

Before she could sort the thought out, Roland leaned down, his breath caressing her ear. “Let’s go, Karissa.”

The whispered words had a hoarse edge. She tipped her head back, blinking up at him. His eyes were red and fixated on Logan.

An overpowering urge to reassure him overcame her. Karissa twisted around in his arms, her hand splaying over his chest. Those red eyes shifted to her, a low rumbling rising in his throat. Funny, even that didn’t scare her. Nope, the kick of lust that pierced through her body, spreading warmth right down to her core, was definitely not an indication of terror.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Logan’s voice broke whatever spell she was under. She managed to drag her gaze away from Roland’s hypnotic eyes and look over her shoulder. Logan’s eyes weren’t hypnotic, or red. They were heated, though, with fury as they sliced into his friend.

“Get out of here, Roland. Now. Or I might open these doors myself.”

And he meant it. There was no doubt about that. Roland seemed to know it too. He’d become as tense as steel as he shifted her behind him.

Her heart hammered, torn between worry and disbelief. Was the idiot actually thinking of fighting a hall full of Paladin over her?

Nuh-uh. No way. She slipped back around him, stubbornly placing herself between the two men. She was an independent woman perfectly capable of making up her own mind. And she’d already decided that she needed to meet the men who were, day in and day out, holding the line against the creatures responsible for her papa’s death.

“I’ll be fine,” she said, giving Roland an awkward pat on his pectoral.

“Of course you will, you’re coming with me,” Roland said.

She shook her head, not sure if she was denying Roland or her stupid alter ego that seemed to be all in favor of her leaping into the vampire’s arms and letting him bring her back to his lair.

“Karissa.”

She looked up—bad move—and immediately fell back under the spell of his fiery gaze.

Logan made a sound like a growl from behind her, his voice rising as he drew closer. “So help me God, Roland, if you don’t stop trying to enthrall her—”

Enthrall
me.
Karissa jerked away, using one of the defensive moves Papa had taught her to break Roland’s grip and then scuttled back until Logan grabbed her arm and dragged her against his side.

She looked down at the floor, positively crushed by her own obvious gullibility. Oh God, what an idiot. So much for willpower. Obviously she had none.