Powerful Moves [L.U.S.T.] (Siren Publishing Classic) (21 page)

“When is the last time you tried to teleport?”

Tavius didn’t stop channel surfing at the question. “Ever heard of coughing, sneezing, clearing your freaking throat to clue someone in on the fact that you’re awake?”

“Yeah, but it all hurts too much. It feels better just to lie here and talk. So, when did you try it last?”

“When we realized you were here. When Elena saw the vision of—Gods, why didn’t anybody tell me she could do that?” He released the remote connected by a spring cord to the frame of the hospital bed and swung his legs around. His feet hit the floor with an audible thud.

Cedric stared at him, expression unreadable. “I guess we figured she’d tell you.”

Tavius made a raspberry sound at that. “She hasn’t told me anything she can do. I’m finding out when she decides to use the power. Until then...” He was left wondering so many things about the woman it was starting to weigh heavy on his nerves and his heart.

“She’s never been one to brag about her powers. For all her complexities, Elena is a simple woman. The best thing you can do is pin her down and make her tell you.” His gaze glinted. “Hell, you can turn that into a great deal of fun.”

“Teleportation continues to be a non-option.” Tavius wasn’t about to discuss the
fun
he could find in binding Elena and convincing her to tell him anything. Images of her naked, hands stretched above her head, legs spread and ankles bound while she gazed at him with all the power they shared sizzling in her do-me eyes flashed through his mind and turned his cock to a pulsating rock.

“You should try again,” Cedric suggested. “I’m betting it’ll work for you now.”

Tavius angled his head. “Why would now be any different than a few hours ago?”

“Because a few hours ago I still had a shield over your powers.”

Tavius blinked at him. Shock rendered him speechless.

“I would appreciate it if you would let me fully heal before you attempt to kick my ass.”

“I bet you would.” Tavius raked a hand through his hair. He felt his anger rising but struggled to keep a firm grasp on it, lest he explode on an injured man. “I don’t suppose you want to tell me why, better yet,
how
you’ve been blocking my powers.”

Cedric shrugged then winced because the move obviously hurt. Tavius refused to feel guilty for the dart of satisfaction that shot through him.

“Another of my talents. I can penetrate nearly any shield and toss up a few of my own to render another’s abilities useless for a time. The why is easier to figure out if you stop steaming long enough to think about it.”

“I could’ve made it to New Orleans in a blink.” Tavius got to his feet. Not a good idea since the first place he wanted to head was Cedric’s bedside. He wanted to strangle the arrogant prick. He wanted to rip him limb from freaking limb. “Do you know how many lives have been lost because that bloodsucker has tortured and massacred them?”

“Of course I know.” Cedric’s patient tone hit a wild contrast to Tavius’s louder, angrier one. “I’ve been there, remember.”

Tavius balled his hands into fists at his sides and stood seething at the other man. “At a time when I should have been,
would
have been there if you hadn’t fucked with my abilities.”

“You couldn’t have stopped him in New Orleans, and if you’d gotten here first he would’ve slaughtered you like he did the guards in the museum. Worse, he’d have taken Elena. Do you want him getting his hands on her?”

Of all the arguments Cedric could’ve tossed at him, that proved the one to take the edge of heat off his anger. “Hell, no.”

“You know I’m right. I wasn’t protecting you. I was protecting her. I love her as much as you do.”

Tavius whirled on the other man at that. Denial sprang to his tongue, but he knew it would be a waste of breath to let it pass his lips.

Cedric chuckled. “Yeah, I know that, too.”

The door to the hospital room opened before Tavius could respond, and Elena walked in. She snapped her fingers at him. He lifted a brow, part amusement and part amazement at her gumption.

“Let’s go.” She headed straight for Cedric, leaning down to plant a quick kiss to his cheek. “Get well. We need you out there.” She straightened and walked to Tavius, eyes smiling even as her gaze travelled down the length of him. “Good to see you’re still in one piece and didn’t kill my friend here.”

“The temptation held more appeal than you could know.” Tavius shot a glance at Cedric over her shoulder, saw the other man start to shrug before he caught himself, and couldn’t help but crack a smile. “I owe you one, Steele.”

“I’m not looking forward to collecting. I hear paybacks can be a real bitch.”

Tavius looked at Elena. “Where are we going?”

“Alaska.”

“I’ll be damned,” Cedric whispered.

Tavius didn’t question. He didn’t need to. The intent gleam in her eyes mixed with a certainty that gave him all the confirmation he could ask for.

“We need to move now.” Her hand caught his, and she pulled at his arm. “It’ll take a good thirty hours or more to get there.”

“By plane.” Tavius yanked her back, stifling a groan of pure ecstasy when her front slammed to his. The power shock came instantly, the desire so acute he knew if they’d been alone he’d finally have her horizontal exactly the way he wanted her.

She sucked in a breath, and he knew she felt the intensity the same as he. “It seems our only way to travel.” Her sultry voice moved over him like a satin wave. Soon he’d be hearing it cry out his name as he thrust inside her sodden cunt.

“Not anymore.” He glanced at Cedric, who nodded and did a vanishing motion with his hand. “Close your eyes.” He bent his head, brushing his lips over her lids as they drifted shut. “Take a deep breath.” Her breasts pressed more firmly into his chest as she complied, and for a moment, he lost his concentration. “And pray.”

Elena felt the frigid cold first. She opened her eyes slowly then blinked once, twice, three times as white filled her vision for as far as she could see.

“Snow,” she whispered. She let go of Tavius, stepping back and turning before immediately turning back. “It worked!”

“So it did.” Tavius didn’t sound as pleased by the occurrence as she would’ve expected. He shivered as he scanned the area around them. “I think I liked Brazil better.”

Elena giggled and hooked her arm through his. “What’s the matter? Doesn’t it ever get cold on Terra?”

“It stays cold on Terra. We have very few trees, remember. The days are blistering and the nights are, well, a lot like this. I’m hoping you can see. My natural vision is superb and the augment sight helps, but without the power to intensify it a couple of notches I can’t see much in this dark.”

“I can.” She spotted what appeared to be some sort of cabin in the distance and began walking toward it. When she felt Tavius shiver again, she tapped into the energy she’d been storing and let it seep out of her hand. Blessed warmth travelled through her bloodstream.

“Among other things, I take it.”

“I thought you could see in the dark.”

“Not like you can. I see impressions of objects, feel the solidity of them as I look through them. But I need some sliver of light to actually see.” Tavius shot her a sidelong look. “You are doing that, right?”

“What?” she asked, feigning innocence.

“Warming me.”

“You were cold. So was I.”

“You did that before, in Michael and Gideon’s office that first night. You burned the shit of me then.”

Elena grinned, though she knew he couldn’t see it in the dark. He could likely hear it in her voice, though. “You pissed me off.”

“A ‘fuck you’ would’ve been sufficient enough.”

“I wasn’t ready to fuck you at that time.” He growled, low and tortured, and she couldn’t help but laugh. “You don’t like Michael. I didn’t like the tone you used with him or your choice of words.”

“I don’t like bloodsucking vampires. Le Mort is a prime example of why.”

“Michael is nothing like Le Mort.” Elena didn’t mean to snap at Tavius, though she heard the bite in her own words. That bite laced the truth of the statement as well.

“Yeah, I’m getting that. And rest assured, the next time I even remotely think something I say might offend you, I’ll make sure we aren’t touching.”

Elena stifled a giggle and let the subject rest. “There’s a cabin up ahead. It looks abandoned. I can’t get a read on anything. Can you?”

He was silent for a full ten seconds before he answered. “No, and I’m not getting any impressions of anyone inside either.”

“Good, let’s get out of this cold and decide on our next move.”

The cabin turned out blessedly empty and well stocked. Elena stopped in the doorway she’d popped open with a thought and scanned the single room, taking in everything from the wood-burning stove to the pail placed on a tall wooden block in lieu of a sink. A rickety table and four chairs held a set of kerosene lamps. A twin bed covered only by a bear-skin throw occupied the far wall while a high-back rocker sat before the fireplace.

“Hmm, looks like we’re roughing it.” She left Tavius standing in the doorway and walked to the woodblock by the stove, where a box of matches sat. She lit the kerosene lamps on the table. “Better?”

“Much.” Tavius blinked, obviously letting his eyes adjust to the new light.

“Why don’t you see if you can start a fire while I contact Michael and Gideon,” she suggested. She pulled her cell out of her pocket, not surprised when it flashed “no service” in the top of the screen. She huffed out a breath. “Figures. Guess we do this the mental way.”

Minutes later she joined Tavius before the fire in the small living room area. He glanced at her then returned to staring into the flames.

“All done?”

“For now.” Elena hugged her arms to herself more in an attempt to restrain her need to touch him than because she was cold. An unease had settled in the room while she talked to Michael. She felt the tension coming off Tavius in waves. She wanted to wrap her arms around him instead of herself. She wanted to kiss him until the wild power that never completely fizzled between them drove them to a point of sheer passion, until they were left no choice but to feed that power by feeding on each other.

“I want to be out there.” His admission was barely audible, yet it rang with heavy frustration. “I need to find the bastard. When I followed him through the realms I never dreamed it would take me this long to catch him.”

“What do you want to do?” Elena watched him in her peripheral vision. He didn’t move a muscle.

“If he’s gotten to The Whisperer already then there’s more than one threat to neutralize. Ugh, I’m trying to be smart about this. I hate admitting when I’m in over my head.”

Elena bit back a smile. “We all do. Michael is sending others. They’ll be here in an hour, two at most.”

“I can wait that long.” Tavius shook his head. “Any more than that…”

“I know.” Elena turned, but she still didn’t touch him. “We’ll stand a better chance of taking down Le Mort and The Whisperer if we wait for the others.”

The sidelong look Tavius gave her this time sent every ounce of unease boiling out of the room. Elena tried to gulp and found she couldn’t. She tried to speak and found she couldn’t do that either. She only managed to stand there, paralyzed by the intensity in his eyes, the desire rising inside her, the fingers of ecstasy toying with every erogenous spot she possessed.

One second she waited, wishing for him to make a move, and a nanosecond later he held her so firmly, so completely she felt bound to his very soul. One of his hands closed around both her wrists, securing them behind her back as his other hand dipped beneath her hair to cup her nape.

“How?” The question left her lips on a breathy sigh as his lips brushed to her mouth, nipped, licked, and brushed again.

“Did I move so quickly?” He finished her sentence for her, repeating the same tempting nip, lick, brush that sent a rain of sensations falling from her mouth to her toes. “I can teleport an inch, a mile, a realm. It’s all in the way I use the power.”

She knew that, of course. Michael could move just as swiftly. To her knowledge, all vampires could. She knew of others with the talent to be in one place one minute and another the next instant. That didn’t keep her from being dumbfounded with Tavius now.

“I know another pretty neat trick.” He kissed the tip of her nose, his lips spreading in a smile both sexy as hell and devious as the devil. “Want me to show you?”

Before she could answer, she found herself flat on her back, sandwiched between the hardwood floor of the cabin and the solid muscle of man. Her arms were now stretched above her head, pinned to the floor by Tavius’s large hand. Her knees fell apart as he settled his hips between her legs, the evidence of his arousal pressing sure and insistent against the denim of her crotch.

The yelp that barely registered as coming from her own throat morphed into a tortured moan as the yearning in her body made her acutely aware of each delicious place they touched. Still, it wasn’t enough.

“Nice one.” She drew her bottom lip between her teeth, watched as his gaze dropped instantly there. The need to kiss her darkened the bolts of electricity in his eyes until a storm cloud of lust and pure carnal intent formed in their depths. “I don’t suppose you can blink away our clothes, too.”