Fiery Temptation (9 page)

The food and company were good and the wine plentiful. Neve ate until she couldn’t eat anymore, but made sure she didn’t have too much to drink. Jalen wanted to have that talk with her later and she figured being drunk wouldn’t exactly be the best condition to be in when they had it. He’d sounded pretty serious when he’d said he had wanted to tell her something about him.

After the meal, the get-together slowly wound down and Jalen’s friends had a last drink, then made their excuses to return to their homes. Once they were alone, still sitting outside at the wrought-iron patio table and nursing a glass of wine, Neve had to admit she could get used to living in a place like this. Plus, it helped that Jalen had his friends as neighbors. She liked them all and the band members were not quite so unapproachable now that she’d gotten to know them better. Malik turned out to be the one who found humor in just about anything and was the first to get the others laughing as well. Keiran was a little more reserved, but Neve had warmed to him, anyway. Trae, she found, was the more thoughtful one and the one the others seemed to turn to for advice or opinion. He came across more as the oldest brother of the group, though as far as Neve knew, the members of Soar were all about the same age.

Then there was Gannon and Arwen. They seemed so much in love, their gazes didn’t stray off each other for very long. She also noticed they were almost constantly touching. The only time they hadn’t held hands was when they ate. Neve couldn’t ever see their relationship failing, which said something, considering what Gannon was. A lot of famous couples ended up divorced, more often than not.

Now alone with Jalen, Neve sipped on her glass of wine. The night was clear. She looked up and saw the stars high above them. She’d had a perfect evening and hoped there would be many more like it.

Jalen drained the rest of his wine and put the empty glass on the table. “What do you say about taking a dip in the hot tub?”

“I’d love to, but I don’t have a bathing suit.”

He shook his head. “You don’t need one. We’ll go skinny dipping. What we should probably do is jump into the pool first, then get into the hot tub.”

“I’m not running around out here with no clothes on,” Neve said. “I know you say your neighbors aren’t that close, but I’m not going to take the chance of being seen butt naked.”

“Spoilsport,” Jalen said with a laugh. “All right, if you’re that shy, then just go in your bra and panties. They’ll just look like a bikini.”

“Fine, you talked me into it.”

“Great.” Jalen stood. “I’ll just go get us some towels and change into my bathing suit. While I’m inside, why don’t you strip down?”

Before she could answer, he left and walked into the house. Deciding it wouldn’t hurt to do as Jalen had asked, Neve stood and moved slightly away from the table before she took off her jeans and t-shirt. Luckily, the bra and panties she wore were lace-edged cotton instead of the lace see-through set she had back home.

She piled her clothes on top of the patio table and walked over to the pool and hot tub. Sometime when it had grown darker, Jalen had turned on the lights inside both. She dipped her toe into the lighted water of the pool and found it not too cold. The thought of taking a swim first before going into the hot tub didn’t sound like a bad idea.

Neve turned to face the French doors on the other side of the patio. Jalen had yet to make an appearance. Her gaze then caught on something that drifted in the air toward her. As it came into focus, she saw it was a large black feather. It seemed too big for any bird she knew that was native to California. Stepping closer, she watched it float through the air before it came to a landing on the brick, not too far from where she stood. Curious, she bent to look at it. The blackness of the feather was marred by a gray tinge on the edges.

She reached to pick it up to take a better look at it when Jalen bellowed at her to stop. Neve straightened as he came barreling out of the house. Her brain barely had time to register what he did, when his hand shot out what looked like a ball of fire before he threw it her way. It hit the feather at her feet, instantly incinerating it.

Neve’s gaze shot over to Jalen. “What? How?” She fought to get words out after seeing what he’d done. How was it possible for Jalen to form a fireball in his hand and throw it? That was only something characters could do in comic books, or in the movies. Not a real person.

When he didn’t respond, she asked, “Jalen? What the hell was that?”

He came to stand in front of her, his gaze looking all around as if he searched for something. She gasped when his normally light green eyes turned bright silver. Jalen didn’t look at her but shifted his gaze to look up at the sky.

He walked around her and shouted, “I know you’re here, you bastard. I don’t know how you’re hiding your presence from me, but your feather gave you away, Vance. Show yourself.”

Jalen turned his back to her. In the light from the patio, Neve saw the tattooed wings move as if something shifted under his skin. Not knowing what was going on, or what Jalen was, she slowly backed away from him. The eyes, the fireball, and even his tattoo moving, were sure signs he wasn’t entirely like everyone else. Her heart beat at a fast rate, banging hard against her ribcage. She continued to walk backward until there was quite a bit of distance between them.

There was a whoosh of air behind her, then a strong arm wrapped around her waist. She let out a shriek as her feet left the ground. Neve looked at Jalen as he swung around in her direction. A bellow of fury left him as a set of large, black wings appeared on his back. They flapped as he too lifted off the ground.

A male chuckle sounded in her ear. “You can try to follow, Jalen, but it won’t do you any good. Your little human is mine now.”

Neve turned her head and came face-to-face with the man who held her. He wasn’t bad looking, but there was a perceived cruelness about him. It also didn’t help that his eyes were black, not just dark brown, but a pure black. Large, black wings rose and fell on his back, a match for the ones Jalen had.

The man gave her a smile that was anything but friendly. “Time to show you exactly what kind of creature you’ve been cozying up to.”

He flapped his wings harder and they took off high into the sky. With his arms clutched around her middle and her back pressed to his chest, her arms and legs dangled when he leveled off. Neve looked to see the ground was a very, very long way down. If he dropped her, there would be no surviving the fall.

The sound of Jalen calling the name of Vance, she had to guess it belonged to her captor. She craned her neck, trying to look behind them, but all she saw were black wings. She tried to call to Jalen, but a large hand slapped over her mouth just as the first sound left her.

“No, you don’t,” Vance said. “It’s time for us to disappear.”

He whispered something that almost sounded like a spell under his breath. Neve felt a cold sensation travel across her entire body. Jalen’s anguished yell had her desperately trying to peel Vance’s hand away from her mouth. It didn’t budge. Unable to scream, unable to get free, all Neve could do was allow her captor to fly her away from the one person who could save her.

*

Jalen hovered in the air, straining his eyes to catch a glimmer of something that would lead him to where Vance and Neve had gone. One minute they’d been there and the next they were gone. And it wasn’t as if Vance had bent the meager light around him and Neve, either. Jalen would have been able to see through that. No, it was as if they’d disappeared into thin air. And unlike the first encounter he’d had with Vance, he couldn’t sense a malicious presence, the marker that the Alte was nearby.

But there was one other way Jalen could find Neve. Something Vance didn’t even know about. Still hovering in place, he closed his eyes and concentrated as he tried to focus on Neve’s energy mark. Once he got a bead on it, he could follow it to her exact location.

With a loud curse, Jalen’s eyes snapped open when he couldn’t get a hold on it. It was as if the energy mark no longer existed. However Vance kept his presence hidden had to be blocking Neve’s as well. Frustrated and feeling more desperate to get her back as time went by, he knew he couldn’t just fly around, hoping he’d find Vance on his own. He needed help.

Turning around, Jalen headed back to his house. He had to speak to his band mates. With their help, maybe they could find Vance. He couldn’t go too far, not while carrying Neve. Her extra weight would tire him out quicker. That left a limited range for them to search. With the light bent around him, Jalen came in for a landing in his backyard. Hiding his wings, he rushed into the house to change out of his bathing suit. He’d get Neve back and make Vance pay for taking her from him.

* * *

As Vance came in for a landing, Neve recognized the landscape that rose to meet them. They were somewhere deep inside the Mojave Desert. Their landing spot was in one of the mountain ranges, at the opening of what looked to be a small cave. As soon as their feet hit solid ground, Vance yanked both her arms behind her back. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched him pull some thin rope out of the pocket of the jeans he wore. He used it to tie her wrists together. That done, he took hold of her upper arm and pulled her inside the cave.

Once they were past the opening, Vance waved a hand toward it. Rock shot up from the ground, sealing them inside. Neve had to fight a rush of panic as darkness closed around her. It was so absolute she doubted she’d be able to see her hands in front of her face if they had been free. The lack of light didn’t last long, though, as a fireball appeared in Vance’s hand. He seemed to push it aloft where it stayed as he pulled her toward the back of the cave.

With a hard shove, Vance forced her to sit. Neve looked up at him as his hard gaze nailed her in place. His wings were folded on his back. From what she’d seen of them, she guessed they were about six feet in length when outstretched. She fought the need to scream at him to let her go. It would do her no good. From the way he watched her, his black-eyed gaze roaming over her body, it had goose bumps rising on her skin.

As if he knew exactly what his stare did to her, Vance chuckled. The sound grated on her nerves. “Well, Neve, you’re going to be a good little human, or I’ll make you wish you’d listened to me in the first place.”

Her gaze shot to his. “How…how do you know my name? Can you read minds?”

Vance laughed. “No, I can’t read minds. You want to know how I learned your name? That’s an easy one. I’ve watched you all evening. Actually, I watched all of you. And none of you even knew it.”

“Why?” She tried to scoot away from him when he squatted in front of her, but her back came up against solid rock, not letting her put any more space between them.

“Why I watched you?” he asked. “Or why did I take you?”

“Both,” she said hesitantly.

“That’s easy. I watched you to see just how close you’d become to Jalen. As for why I took you—to hit Jalen where it would hurt the most. Right now, he’s probably thinking of all the things I can do to you. But I think he’s more worried I’ll touch you with this.”

Neve watched as he brought one of his wings around him. He fanned it out, giving her a good view of the gray powder that appeared on a few of the feathers closest to her. They looked like the one that had floated down through the air toward her back at Jalen’s house.

Not waiting for her to respond, Vance continued, “You see the powder? I used it to bring down the rest of our people. It killed every single one of them except for Gannon, Keiran, Trae, Malik and Jalen. Somehow they survived the sickness that decimated the others of our kind.”

Neve flinched back as the gray coated feathers came even closer. “What are you? Are all of you some sort of angels?”

Vance’s laughter bounced off the cave’s walls. “No, though that’s what some dumb humans called our kind after a few of them spotted a couple of our people in flight. We’re Alte, a winged race of people. At least, I used to be Alte. Now I’m something far better, something more powerful.”

“What are you going to do with me?”

“Use you to bring Jalen down, of course. As his mate, you’re his weakness. I tried to use Arwen against Gannon by infecting her with my dust, but somehow she survived, just as her mate did. Now you, I’ll have to try something different, something more effective.”

Vance moved his wing away from her, settling it against his back once more, and stood. His gaze bored into Neve. Even though she shook on the inside, she met his with her own, not willing to let Vance see how scared she was. He was cruel enough that he’d more than likely use it against her.

He snorted. “So you do have some backbone, after all. Good, because you’re going to need some of that inner strength if you’re going to survive what I’m about to do to you.”

Turning his back to her, Vance walked to the side of the cave where a slab of rock had been set up to look like an altar of sorts. On top of it were some dried plants. He picked each bundle up one at a time and examined it. Then, as if he’d memorized some kind of recipe, he broke off certain amounts from each, placing them in a wooden bowl. A wave of his hand and water bubbled up from the cave floor by his feet. Another wave had it lifting off the ground to pour into a heavy wooden cup Vance held out. To that, he added the dried plants he’d measured out. The cup still held in his hand, the liquid inside it boiled, sending steam into the air. He put it on the rock slab, held his hand over it and whispered so low Neve couldn’t understand what he said.

Seeming to have forgotten her, he closed his eyes, his brow furrowed as he appeared to concentrate. Neve tested the rope around her wrist. There was no give to it at all. She resisted the urge to keep struggling with it. She didn’t need to draw Vance’s attention. Giving in to her fear would not help her in the least. She had to keep her head.

Searching the cave for anything that would help free her from her bonds, Neve came up empty. And with the entrance to the cave sealed off, there was no chance of her trying to make a run for it. Not that she’d be able to scale down the ledge the cave was situated on with her hands tied behind her back, anyway.