Reliquary (Reliquary Series Book 1) (24 page)

“He treats you well?”

I looked away from his gaze. “He’s always treated me like a queen.”

“Uh-huh.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “You came after him, too. You’re risking a lot for him.”

“He’s my little brother. No matter what he’s done or how I feel about him, that won’t change.”

“At least you can admit it now. That’s why you were in Sheboygan that night I first met you, wasn’t it? You were trying to find out what happened to him. You’d seen it on the news and you couldn’t ignore it. You would have come to get him even if we’d never met. Why didn’t you just tell me?”

He sighed. “It was easier to live with if I didn’t have to explain it to someone else. If I didn’t have to say the words. Can you get that?”

“I guess I can. But you’re saying them now.”

“To
you
,” he murmured, then rubbed his face and turned on his back. “So what’s your excuse?”

“For what?”

“For not admitting the truth to me.”

My heart lurched. “The truth?”

“He used Knedas juice on you, didn’t he?” he asked quietly. “Before you even knew what it was, Ben used it on you. I could tell, that night when I first explained to you how manipulation magic worked.”

“I’m going to work that out with him,” I said, my voice sharp. “It’s between him and me.” Somehow, Asa knowing what Ben had done to me made the violation feel ten times worse.

A knock on the door ended our conversation. Asa slid off the bed and pulled his baton from his belt as he peeked through the gap in the thin, ratty curtains, then put the baton away and went to the door, opening it for Jack.

The old man looked like a bull as he strode into the room, his chin jutting out, framed by his salt-and-pepper beard. But he smiled when he saw me sitting on the edge of the bed. “I’ve been thinking so much about you, girl,” he said, opening his arms.

I stepped into a brief, firm hug, which ended when he took me by the shoulders. “I hear you got some wicked magic inside you now. Should we get it out?”

A cold sweat prickled along the back of my neck. “I guess we should.”

Jack gave me a curt nod. “Good. Because word on the street is that Zhong is gunning for you two after that stunt you pulled in Vegas.”

Asa cursed. “It’s out already?”

Jack laughed. “You can’t leave that kind of mess behind and not expect a boss to come after you. Especially Zhong. He has to save face. I had three people call me about it on the drive down. I think maybe we need to move this party along so we can all split.”

“Fine by me.” Asa pulled out the relic, the large pendant dangling from its thick gold chain. “But get ready. Like I said on the phone, this is like nothing you’ve worked with before.”

Jack’s eyes glittered. “How would you know, young man? Talk to me again when you’ve been around as long as I have.”

Asa chuckled and raised his hands in surrender, then grabbed a set of ropes from the paper hardware store sack. “Mattie, if you’re ready. Sounds like we need to get a move on.”

I pushed aside a twinge of nausea and reminded myself this whole ordeal was almost over. I’d be in Ben’s arms soon. “Okay.” I climbed onto the bed. “You’re going to tie me up?”

He nodded. “I couldn’t get you a gag, so we’ll have to improvise.”

Jack’s eyebrows went low. “Is that really necessary?”

Asa pulled a paint stirrer from his hardware store bag. “Unless you’re willing to part ways with your tongue, you’re going to want one, too.”

Jack accepted the stirrer and headed over to me, pulling a chair over next to the bed.

“Don’t you want to lie down?” I asked.

He squared his shoulders. “I’ve never laid down for a single transaction, young lady, and I’m not going to start now.” He leaned forward, a smile pulling at his lips. “And this isn’t my first original-relic rodeo, you know?”

My eyes went wide. “What?”

Asa looked shocked, too. “You’ve worked with other originals before?”

Jack winked at me. “We’ll talk about it on the other side. It’s the best story I’ve got.”

Knowing Jack had done this kind of thing before soothed my guilt and worry for him as Asa looped the ropes around my ankles and stomach and chest, securing me to the lumpy mattress. He leaned over me with one of the paint stirrers. “This is all I’ve got. But it’s going to be fine. You’ll be fine.”

I looked up into his eyes. “Promise?”

His mouth twitched into a half smile. “You trust me, Mattie Carver. Just admit it.”

“Do I have to?”

He leaned down, close enough to set my heart racing. “Yeah. You do.” His voice was quiet, but it vibrated right through me with complete authority, leaving no room for doubt.

“I trust you,” I whispered.

Jack cleared his throat. “Can’t we just—”

“Shh.” Asa gave him a cutting look. “You might have been around for a hundred years, but she hasn’t.” He looked down at me, and his expression softened instantly. “I’m right here, and I’ve got you.”

I know.
But I didn’t get to say it, because he stuck the paint stirrer between my teeth a second later.

Jack held his own paint stirrer between his teeth and nodded at Asa, who had laid out all his supplies, including a new defibrillator, next to the bed. Asa hung the relic necklace, pendant open to reveal the lump of gold inside, around Jack’s neck, and Jack tucked it into his shirt, against his bare skin. He reached over and took my hand, and Asa wound a rope around our forearms, holding us together, skin to skin.

Asa’s eyes met mine. “Open up that vault when you’re ready, Mattie.”

I closed my eyes, my heart pounding. Inside me, I could feel that unsteady shift, the vault teetering on the edge of the cliff. I had been so focused on escaping, on surviving, that I hadn’t sensed it for a while, not since Asa had taken over in that little hotel room back in Bangkok and kept all my fears at bay. But now I had to deal with it again.

Except I couldn’t.

Jack’s fingers squeezed my upper arm, where my biceps was bunched tight in anticipation of the pain to come. “It’s okay, girl. Just relax.”

But if I did, the agony would be there, all of it. Unbearable and searing, devouring me. I spat the paint stirrer from my mouth. “I can’t.” It came out of me high-pitched and childlike and so truthful that my cheeks burned. “I can’t.”

“Think of Ben, Mattie,” Asa said. “Think of the moment you first see him again. Think of his face.”

I clamped my eyes shut and tried picturing my love, but he kept going out of focus as the specter of agony rose in front of him. “Asa, I can’t!” My breaths were coming from me in uneven gasps. “I’m trying!” I needed to get it over with, but it was like allowing myself to fall over a cliff. My body wanted to survive. I couldn’t make it jump.

“Think of your future together. All the cute little babies you’ll have. Once you do this, all of that’s in front of you. Imagine it.”

I
tried
. With everything I had. But the panic had taken over, twisting me so tight that I had no control. Tears burned my eyes as I began to struggle against the ropes. “I can’t do this. Please. I can’t.”

“It’s okay, baby.” Asa’s thumb stroked along my throat. “Look at me, Eve.”

“But Asa—”

“Look at me,” he snapped.

I obeyed him.

“How do you answer me?” he murmured.

“Yes, sir.” My body was at war with itself, relief and terror twirling together in a tornado of confusion.

He regarded me for a moment, like he could see the storm in my eyes. “You belong to me. You know that, don’t you? You made that choice back in Bangkok, and there’s no going back from it. Mattie isn’t mine, but you are.”

Mattie isn’t. But I am.
I stared up at him, my thoughts blanking out, unable to think past the warm honey tint of his eyes.

“You know the truth,” he said. “You can’t escape from it. You’re
mine
. Say it.”

My lips parted. I wanted to say it. But a twinge of warning, of knowing this was another step down a road I shouldn’t even be on, made my breath hitch.

Asa edged even closer, his long, lean body stretched out next to me, pulling the ropes over my body impossibly tight. I could smell his sweat, feel the heat pouring from him. His fingers wrapped over my throat, gentle but utterly dominant. “Say. It.”

The words came out before I could stop them. “I’m yours, sir.”

“That’s right. So you’re going to do as I say, aren’t you, Eve? Whatever I ask you to do.”

The fear rose up again, making my whole body shake.

“Asa,” Jack said, sounding wary. “Maybe we should—”

“No,” Asa replied, never taking his eyes from mine. “She can do this.”

“I can’t,” I whispered. “I’m too—”

“I didn’t say you could speak.” Asa’s voice was like a whip against my skin. But then he lowered his head until the tips of our noses touched. “But since you feel the need to do something with your tongue . . .”

His mouth was on mine an instant later, hot and possessive, his stubble scraping my chin. I moaned as I tasted a hint of salt, as he thrust his tongue between my lips. His fingers slid around the back of my neck, pulling me up as he deepened the kiss. Every inch of me was taut, straining against the ropes to get closer to him. I wanted his weight on me. I wanted his skin against mine. I wanted him inside me. My whole body was alight with that want, especially as one of his hands stroked down my side and closed around the back of my thigh, hard, awakening a new craving. He wrenched my legs apart, his fingers digging into my backside, and I wanted more. I didn’t want him to be gentle. He owned me, and I wanted him to take me, to conquer me, to force me to submit. I was ready to beg for it.

And then he pulled away. His breaths sawed from him as he pushed the paint stirrer between my teeth again. “Now let it go for me, baby. Give it up to me. Everything you have.”

Every part of me tingling, wet with desire, on fire for him, I had no choice but to do as he said. I felt the tipping, the moment spent on the edge, and I didn’t try to stop myself as I fell. I didn’t care what would happen. It was the surrender that mattered.

The agony tore its way out of me, first a slice and then a giant gash of pain, ripping through my chest and stomach, up my neck and down my legs. My thoughts were broken glass on soft flesh, obliterating hope and love and future and past. Too late I realized this would go on forever, that this was me now, every cell, every molecule, every last piece consumed with hurt.

Then, with a sudden crack and a hard jerk, my world filled with sound, the pain narrowing to the sharpest of points as it stabbed straight through me. My eyes fluttered open, my vision blurring as I took in the blood splattered on my chest, across the bedspread, against the wall.

Jack’s forearm was still tied to mine. His fingers twitched against my upper arm before going still. He was no longer in his chair, and his weight was dragging me toward the edge of the bed. Asa was shouting my name as glass shattered and dust swirled in the air above my head.

I had no idea what had happened. No idea if I was dying or dead or more alive than ever.

But one truth came to me, as bright and jagged as the pain that lanced through my chest, as Asa descended on me, knife in hand, his face spattered with blood and his eyes wild.

Something had just gone very, very wrong.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

I was too stunned to scream as Asa landed on me and hacked at the ropes holding my body to the bed. He was cursing under his breath, flinching at every cracking noise.
Gunfire,
I thought vaguely as Asa cut the final rope and yanked me right off the foot of the bed. We landed in a sprawl, him hunched over me, holding my head to his chest as my body buzzed with shock. For a moment, I could feel his heartbeat, fierce and pounding.

“Are you okay?” he said, panting, laying my head on the floor and looking my body over. He shoved his hand up my shirt and pressed his palm between my breasts. His brow furrowed. “I think we got it all out . . . ? Dammit. It’s so fucking hard to tell with you.”

My face was wet, and when I reached up to wipe it, the severed rope still secured to my wrist flopped against my chest. My trembling fingers came away red, but they felt strangely disconnected from the rest of me. “Is Jack all right?”

Asa’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “He’s fine now, Mattie. Don’t worry about him. Can you scoot over toward the door? Stay low.”

“Why?” I craned my neck and started to push toward the corner of the bed so I could see the windows and door.

Asa’s hands became iron around my waist, holding me where I was. “Sniper. Probably Zhong’s.”

“But the curtains were closed.”

“The shooter would have been a sensor. And Jack would have been lit up like the fucking Fourth of July. So easy to see . . .” Asa shook his head, looking like he was going to be sick. “They’ll be up here in a few seconds. We’re going to have to run like hell. Can you do that?”

I rubbed at the lingering pain in my chest, and Asa frowned as he watched me. “I have to get the relic,” he said. “Then we’re going out the door.”

“What’s going to keep the sniper from shooting us?”

He left my side, commando-crawling around the corner of the bed and coming back a moment later with his elbows and chest soaked in red. His face was dripping sweat, and the bloody necklace was around his neck. “Because I’m going to use the relic against them.”

I stared at the pendant. “But if you open that, what’s it going to do to y—”

“Stop questioning me,” he snapped. “Get to the fucking door and be ready to run on my signal.”

I hated the look on his face, the circles under his eyes, the pallor of his skin, the way his neck was already red from the rub of the necklace, poisonous to him in a way it was to no one else. “But maybe I could do it,” I said. “And you could run.”

His eyes met mine. “You don’t know how, and this isn’t the time to learn.”

My own eyes burned at the glitter of pain in his, and maybe he could read my fear, because he moved closer and our gazes locked. “I need to concentrate, Mattie. And that’s only going to happen if I know you’ll be safe.”

I felt an echo of the suffering the relic caused, a needle of agony deep in my chest. He was about to turn it on our enemies—and on himself. But I knew him well enough to understand that he was going to lose it if I didn’t do as he said. “Okay. You’re in charge.”

He reached to touch my face, but then seemed to realize his fingers were stained with blood. His hand became a fist. “Good. Go.”

Dread coiling inside me, I crawled over to the corner of the bed and looked toward the door. The air was swirling with plaster dust and carried a metal tang that settled heavy on my tongue. I could see the lights from the parking lot through the thin curtains, which were now dotted with bullet holes. In my periphery, along the side of the bed, there was a dark shape, unmoving. I knew it was Jack, and I knew he was dead.

Asa edged in next to me, peering at our only exit. “I’m going to open the door.”

“You want me to run to the car?”

He shook his head. “That’s what they’re expecting. Head for that mall across the street. Find a place to hide.”

“And you?”

“I’ll be right behind you.”

“You’d better.”

His mouth twitched into a half smile. Then he pushed me toward the door. My knees rubbed against the carpet. A bloody rope was still dangling from my forearm. My heart was an engine, revving, with nowhere to go.

Asa guided me against the wall next to the door and nodded at me. Just like in Bangkok, I wondered if it was a reassurance or a good-bye. He reached up, turned the knob, and yanked the door wide. “Stay low, and run. I’ve got this.”

It was another leap of faith, because no sooner had he said it than the air filled with the staccato cracks of gunshots. I pushed off, my thoughts blank and dark, my eyes on the empty shells of the buildings across the street. Behind me, Asa let out a strained, strangled moan, but I forced myself not to turn and look. He’d said he could handle it.

And a moment later, I knew he had, because the night was filled with screaming, coming from the parking lot near our car. I sprinted past a gas station on the corner, wondering how many people had already called 911 in response to the gunshots, wondering how long it might take police to get to us. At the sound of more gunfire, I hazarded a glance over my shoulder, only long enough to register someone sprinting across the parking lot. What if they’d gotten Asa and were coming for me?

With a quick, desperate prayer and another burst of speed, I flew across the road and into the maze of the outdoor mall. In the distance, a siren wailed. I darted around a corner and peered toward the Super 8, but I couldn’t see the parking lot from my vantage point. I could hear, though. Not screams—but shouts. And the squeal of tires peeling out. Headlights flared as a car zoomed from the back of the motel and headed straight for the mall.

I whirled around and ran past boarded-up windows covered in graffiti. Some of the local kids must have had a fine time in this abandoned place, but I hoped for their sakes none of them were here tonight. Finally, I reached some sort of square with a dry, weedy fountain in the center, deep in the heart of the maze. My chest was tight and pulsing with pain as I held my breath, just long enough to hear pounding footsteps and the crunch of glass beneath boots. I glanced around, knowing I didn’t have much time to get out of sight, and spotted a window where the boards had been pried away. The glass clung to the window frame like jagged rotting teeth in a monster’s mouth, protecting the darkness within. With my pursuers coming closer, I pelted across the square and carefully climbed through, nearly tripping over toppled clothing racks that had been piled along the wall.

Quietly as I could, I wove my way through the desecrated shell, feeling out my path with outstretched hands. I wanted to keep the window in sight, as it offered the only source of light—the bright desert moon and stars, along with a scant glow from the gas station and hotel across the street. But then a dark shadow blocked that out, and I ducked behind an overturned cabinet, praying whoever was out there hadn’t seen me. The silhouette was the wrong shape to be Asa. It didn’t move in the smooth, predatory way he did. Its movements were more sudden. Like the strike of a snake.

Crack, crack, crack, scream. The gunfire erupted outside, only a few shops away. I curled into the fetal position, momentarily forgetting the silhouette outside the store, wishing the needle of pain in my chest would let up for a minute. It throbbed with every kick of my heart.

“Saw you come in here, little reliquary,” said a soft voice from only a few feet away.

My head jerked up, and I found myself staring at a familiar face—it was another of Zhong’s agents, the handsome guy with the slick eyebrows that Asa had downed with dental floss in Chicago. Not knowing if he was Knedas or Strikon, I threw myself to the side as he reached for me. He was quick, though, and as soon as his hands closed around my arms, my body lit up, all at once.

But not with pain. With
lust
.

My body shook with it, going tight and loose at the same time. Dimly, I was aware of the firefight outside, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was whether he let go. Because I didn’t want him to. Ever.

He pulled me to my feet and pressed me up against the wall. “Where is Asa Ward?” he whispered as he lowered his face to my neck. I arched into him as I felt his tongue on my skin. I stood on my tiptoes, just to bring him closer. My clothes were so inconvenient. “He has the relic, doesn’t he?”

“What?” I breathed, guiding his hand to my waist.

“Asa Ward,” he said, slowly dipping his fingers under the elastic of my shorts.

“I have no idea.” I pushed his fingers lower. God, I felt as if I were going to explode. The only part of me that wasn’t on fire with need was my chest, where pain continued to pulse.

His hand stilled on my belly, firm and resisting as I tried to move it lower. He clucked his tongue, his heartrending smile shining in the dim lights from outside. “Tell me, and I’ll give you what you want. An orgasm that will change you forever.”

Outside, there was still a war going on. I had no idea why there was so much shooting, but a different kind of fight had erupted inside me. I was so close to coming, that point at which you know you have to, at which you can’t think past it. Except—the pain inside me was sharp, and with each throb of it, I remembered my encounter with the Strikon in San Francisco, and the way he had talked to me about what his pain magic would do to my brain. How it would change me forever.

How it would break me.

I blinked up at my handsome Ekstazo captor, his full lips and dark eyes, his bold eyebrows and ebony hair. “Why are you so interested in Asa?”

He canted his hips so I could feel the hard pressure of his erection between my legs, and the rub of it nearly sent me over the edge. “Mr. Zhong wants to punish him,” he said. “And to treasure him. Funny how that works, isn’t it?”

My fingers paused as I realized I had been sliding them through the Ekstazo’s hair. The rope dangling from my wrist rubbed against my newly sensitized skin, clearing the fog inside my head for a moment. “So he wants to make him like Tao.”

The Ekstazo’s fingers slid south, his fingertips just centimeters from the edge of my panties. “He’ll be taken care of. And we’ll take care of you, too. I’ll take care of you personally, in fact.” He grinned and lowered his head to kiss me.

But it was as if his magic were beading on my skin, pulling away from my pores, drying in the heat of my anger, my hurt. I was so tired of being jerked around by magic, of it taking over my body and making it do things I didn’t want it to. And the idea of Mr. Zhong doing the same thing to Asa fanned the flames. My hand slid up my captor’s chest, and I moaned and tilted my head back.

Then I reached up and grabbed the end of the rope tied to my wrist. With a quick jerk, I had it wrapped around the guy’s neck. If Asa could do it with suspenders, I could do it with this. As the Ekstazo wheezed and brought his knee up, hitting me square in the stomach, I clung to that rope, dragging him to the floor, where we wrestled, him punching at me.

Only instead of pain, every impact spread a tingle of ecstasy as he tried to defend himself with his magic, as he tried to steal my purpose. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck, keeping the rope around his throat taut, even as he sank his teeth into my shoulder. And when he broke the skin, my orgasm was instant and mind blowing. My eyes clamped shut and I screamed, undulating against my victim, shaking with pleasure even as I fought to stay alert.

It stole my strength, every ounce of it.

But it was too late for the Ekstazo. His head lolled against my arm as I shuddered with aftershocks, quickly followed by a brutal wave of revulsion. I shoved him off me, the rope uncoiling from his neck. I didn’t know if he was alive or dead, only that I needed to get away from him. I staggered toward the shattered window, creeping along the wall as I listened to yet another smattering of shots. They seemed a little farther away now. Maybe I could make it to the back of the property. I’d seen a jutting ridge of hills as we’d exited the highway, so the interstate had to be close, just over those peaks. If all else failed, if Asa didn’t find me, maybe I could hitch a ride. I was bloody, but damn cute. Surely someone would be willing to pick up a damsel in distress.

I wouldn’t mention that I had just strangled someone.

My hand rose to rub the twinge of pain in my chest. Whatever it was—anxiety, the lingering soreness that came with letting loose such powerful magic—it had kept my mind just sharp enough to allow me to fight back, and in that moment I was grateful for it. I peeked outside the window and didn’t see anyone, and the shooting had really died down. No better time to run than now, especially since a low moan from the back of the store told me that my Ekstazo lover boy wasn’t dead after all.

With the shards of glass snagging at the fabric of my shorts, I climbed through the window and looked around, trying to get my bearings. But then a sudden burst of gunfire to my left made my direction clear, and I ran to the right, staying hunched over, as if that were going to protect me from bullets. I made it back to the edge of the square. Just beyond the fountain, I could see a path that ended in blackness, but beyond the roofs of the buildings lay a dense shadow that blocked out the starlight—the hills that marked my hope for escape. I stepped into the square, but as soon as I did, a bullet hit the wall next to me.

I screamed, the terror streaking through me as more bullets crunched through wood and shattered stone, my legs moving like pistons against the ground. I made it through the square, only to see a few dark silhouettes emerge from a store right down the lane where I was intending to bolt. I stopped dead, praying they hadn’t seen me yet.

Too late did I hear the footsteps coming at me from behind, and I grunted as a hard, wet body hit me, arms wrapping like steel around my rib cage. I recognized his scent a split second before he spoke. “Where the hell have you been?” Asa said, his breath coming from him in sharp gasps. The relic necklace clinked between us, the pendant closed. Sweat dripped from his jaw.

“Oh thank God,” I said, running my hands up his arms, needing to reassure myself that he was all right.

“Worship me later, how about?” He hustled me into a corridor. Asa pushed my back against the wall and looked me over, his short hair standing on end. Dark, angry welts stood out on the skin of his throat. He seemed like he was on the verge of collapse. The circles under his eyes were so dark that they looked like bruises.