Powerful Moves [L.U.S.T.] (Siren Publishing Classic) (4 page)

She didn’t know about her own abilities right now, but one thing was for certain, he had the talent to make her cream. Was it a paranormal power or merely the magnetic pull of the man? “I’ve told you twice to cut that out.”

This time, he chuckled. The sound moved over her like smooth velvet, warming her flesh and bringing every erogenous zone in her body to full-alarm pleading. “That’s not exactly my doing, but we’ll talk about that later. So, let me get this straight. The purpose of LUST is to, what? Show the logic in using agents such as yourself with these specialized talents to solve crimes?”

“Precisely.” Elena watched him for any sign of derision. She saw nothing but understanding.

“Your bosses, the founders you spoke of, can you take me to them?”

Take you to Michael and Gideon
?
Not a chance, pal
.

Thinking of it combined with the minute bit of focus she managed sparked the connection she’d hoped for between her and her mentors. Elena saw a flash of a different wood in her mind’s eye, more like a jungle than the nature park where she stood on the outskirts of Atlanta. She gave her thoughts a mental push, feeling the connection strengthen as Michael lent aide on his end.

“Look, Elena,” Tavius went on when she didn’t answer, “I don’t know exactly why Le Mort fled here, but I do know he’s dangerous. I have reason to believe he’s brought with him something from my realm that makes it imperative he be tracked down as quickly as possible. If anyone in this agency of yours has the specialized talents to make that happen, they need to get started.”

Elena studied him for a long moment, mentally transmitting as much as she could of what she knew of the situation to Michael. It was a challenge. Despite the connection they discovered that existed between them, her use of it continued to be shaky at best. The real struggle came in pulling off the thought transfer while listening to Tavius through the cloud of intense desires swirling inside her.

Then he touched her, a light graze of the backs of his fingers down her upper arm, and every power, sense, and thought she possessed short-circuited. Icy embers rained through her. The sexual chemistry between them stole her breath.

“I know you’re wondering if you can trust me.” His voice resonated inside her like a tuning fork.

Gods, the timbre worked her over as well as she imagined his fingers and lips could. Her heartbeat accelerated. She resisted the urges to move closer, to touch him as he touched her. Barely. She wanted to do so much more.

“I can tell you that everything I say is true, but that won’t make you believe me.”

Elena had to lick her lips before she could speak. “No, it won’t.” She stared at him, watched the swirl of something she couldn’t quite put name to in his amazing eyes. Power, yes. The man wielded a serious amount of power. Magic, yes. He definitely possessed a bit of that, too. The things the mere proximity of him did to her could be defined as nothing short of magic. Had he put her under some sort of spell? Fear snaked through her, the thought zinging through the still-open mental connection she held with Michael. In return, she got a sense of comfort, of lent strength.

She grasped onto it like a lifeline. “Whether I believe you or not is irrelevant. They’re OCONUS. I couldn’t take you to them tonight even if I wanted to.”

“OCONUS?”

“Outside the continental United States.” Elena explained the military acronym. “They’re on a mission.” To recruit another agent for LUST, freaking Kahil Lowery, of all people. As if they really needed
him
on the team.

That thought was rewarded with a mental return push that actually felt chiding. It served as a reminder that she’d opened
all
her thoughts to her mentors, not just those she wanted to share.

Tavius scowled. “When will they be back?”

Elena glanced away, centering her attention inward, relaying what she knew of Tavius and the vampire he chased to Michael and Gideon. She sensed much of what she thought didn’t get through the tenuous connection. The importance, however, obviously did. The last thing she got was Michael’s instruction to keep close tabs on Tavius and bring him to the LUST office in the first instance upon his and Gideon’s return.

Great.
Elena followed those instructions with a few choicely worded thoughts she was glad Michael didn’t hear and turned back to Tavius. “They’ll be back tomorrow night.”

A muscle ticked in Tavius’s jaw. “Le Mort could be anywhere by then.”

“This Le Mort you’re following is vampire,” Elena reminded him, though she knew it unnecessary. “He could be anywhere by now.”

“He’s not just a vampire, Elena. With the information he has in his possession…” Tavius raked a hand through his hair in frustration. “I—
we
have to find him fast.”

Elena lifted a brow, tempted to ask if he had a mouse in his pocket that formed the
we
he spoke of. “Going off half-cocked without a plan isn’t going to accomplish anything.”

“Fine, then we’ll make a plan.”

Elena bit the inside of her cheek at the low rumbling that followed his statement. “Sounds to me like you should probably do that over a meal.”

“I missed lunch.” He pivoted on his heel, obvious irritation warring with restlessness, then turned back to her. His expression looked pained, and she swore she even saw him wince. “I need your help, Elena.”

The confession shocked her to her toes. If she ventured a guess, she bet the number of times this man asked for assistance for anything from anyone fell into the single digits.

She should be running for her sanity. Forget Michael’s orders to keep close tabs on this man until Michael and Gideon returned stateside. The fact that her sensibility turned to mushy hormones the moment she set eyes on him should be enough to overrule her need to protect and serve. Instead, she felt herself relenting.

“Let’s find a place to eat. We can talk. You can tell me more about this vampire and why you believe he’s so dangerous, and I’ll tell you a little about the LUST agent who can track him.”

“Only a little?” Relief swirled with a hint of teasing in his gaze.

“Maybe more if I decide you aren’t bullshitting me or decide you aren’t on some kind of fucked-up mission to destroy the world or something equally ludicrous.”

“I’m not the one looking to destroy the world, but if I’m right, Le Mort might be.”

A sliver of icy fear moved down Elena’s spine. “Then you can tell me why you think that, too.”

“Are you asking me on a date, muirnin?” His teasing lilt eased some of the tension in the air, but it did nothing to tamp down the intense power.

Elena barked a short laugh. “Not even close, Tavius. What does that mean, anyway?” She stepped around him and started making her way down the last of the trail that would lead them out. She didn’t check to see if he followed. She didn’t doubt he would.

“What does what mean?” His footsteps made louder crunches on the fallen branches close at her heels.

“Muirnin? Since you insist on calling me that even though I told you my name, I figured I ought to know what it means.”

“My darling beloved sweetheart.”

“All that, huh?” Elena glanced at him over her shoulder and rolled her eyes. “Laying it on a bit thick, don’t you think?”

He grinned. Gods, but the man could make her pulse race with a simple tilt of his shapely lips. “Not at all. You do realize we can’t talk in public?”

Elena stopped. Her pulse rocketed. And not from the do-me smiles he kept flashing her. “I don’t see why not.”

“Do you want to take the chance on being overheard? You gave me the impression people like us aren’t widely accepted around here. Someone hears us talking about vampires and we might attract more attention than either of us would like.”

“People like us?”

“People with specialized talents, as you called them.”

“Fine.” Elena sighed and started walking again, her steps more brisk with her growing annoyance over being thrown into a situation she knew would turn out to be detrimental to her well-being. She just knew it! “We’ll go to my place.”

“Lead the way.”

Should the fact that he didn’t sound predatory in any way make her feel better about taking this stranger to her home? If he’d wanted to rape her he could’ve done so just as easily here in the wood as in her apartment.

Gods, she actually wanted him to rape her. She’d be willing, of course. So then it wouldn’t really be rape. Desire, sharp and strong, zinged through her. She started to believe it wasn’t him she needed to worry about trusting in the privacy of her home. She wasn’t sure she could trust herself.

She stepped into the clearing at the end of the trail and slowed her pace. “My car is on the other side of the building,” she told him when he came up beside her.

“It’s the only one out here.”

And hidden completely by the small welcome-center cabin. Elena narrowed a glance at him. “You can see it through the cabin, can’t you, just like you saw through that boulder in the woods?”

“As clearly as you can see through the dark,” Tavius answered.

Elena frowned and allowed him to take the lead to her car. He stopped on the passenger side, resting his forearms on the roof as she rounded the front of the car and froze in the act of opening the driver’s door.

She leveled a glare at him over the roof of the car. “Is there anything you can’t see through?”

“Sure.” He nodded somberly. “There are a few things. I can’t see through those shorts you’re wearing. They must be made out of some material we don’t have on Terra. But we have an abundance of cotton.” His lips twitched as his gaze landed pointedly on the neckline of her tank top.

Elena’s eyes widened and her cheeks flamed. “You can see through my clothes, can’t you?”

His lips unfolded in a full blown, knock-her-on-her-back grin. “Tank and sports bra, both one hundred percent cotton? Completely.”

Elena puffed an irritated breath and wrenched open the car door. “Great. Just great.”

“I would tell you what a truly magnificent set of breasts you have, but you might think I was dangerous and not let me in your car.”

Elena made a raspberry sound at that as she slid behind the wheel. “You think?”

He got in beside her, his gaze falling to her breasts and drifting over them like a physical touch. Warmth suffused her body, beading her nipples and making them beg to be touched.

“They are remarkable.”

Elena swallowed. “You aren’t doing a good job at convincing me of how harmless you are.”

His grin returned, this time one hundred watts of boyish charm. “I never said I was harmless, muirnin. I’m just not dangerous, at least not in a bad way.”

Bullshit
. Elena snapped her mouth closed on the response and started the engine. This man spelled danger with a capital
D,
and she was damned well on her way to living on the edge, whether she liked it or not. The trouble was she didn’t have a doubt she’d like it way too much.

“He knows we’re here.” Gideon sounded half disgusted, half bored as he leaned lazily against a tree, the picture of cool in the sweltering jungle of Afghanistan.

Michael knelt a few feet away, balanced on the balls of his feet, his elbows propped on his thighs. He cocked a brow at his brother. “This surprises you? I expected nothing less. He would not be the solider he is if he could not sense our presence.”

“He’s one powerful son of a bitch.” The hint of admiration in Gideon’s tone intrigued Michael.

“Is that not precisely why we are here tonight?”

Kahil Lowery was a shape-shifter with the US Navy SEALs and two hundred plus pounds of pure ego, muscle, and power. He marked the epitome of everything the government didn’t want and exactly the kind of agent Michael and Gideon looked to employ at LUST.

“Yeah, but did we come to take him out or invite him in?”

Michael considered his brother’s question for a long moment. He understood Gideon’s reservations. Research on Kahil Lowery uncovered a level of abilities the brothers rarely ran across in their centuries of life. It also revealed an instability that threatened to bring an end to Kahil’s career as a SEAL.

“He is being shunned by the government just as our other agents have been. His strengths have made him unaccepted and unwanted.” Michael sighed. “Such is the way of the world we have come to live in.”

“Such is the way of the world we’ve always lived in,” Gideon corrected. “You want him.”

Though it was said as more statement than question, Michael answered. “He will make a useful addition to LUST. Do you not feel he should be given the same chance that we have given others? Should he not be allowed to use his gifts while continuing to protect humanity?”

“I don’t think he’ll be as appreciative of the chance as the others.”

“We do not look for praise when we recruit, brother, only loyalty to the agency,” Michael reminded.

“And when he turns on one of us because he’s too unstable to handle the
gifts
he’s been given?”