The Wicked (9 page)

Except that his hot, male Power wrapped around her, invisible and possessive, and the fire that he had started in her last night flared up again, hectic and out of control.

She managed not to reach out and clutch him to her in a totally inappropriate embrace, but her body shook with the effort. He held back too, but standing so close to him, she could feel the tension vibrating off his taut body. His fingers dug into the soft flesh of her hips. She knew he would leave marks on her pale skin. She didn’t mind. She wanted to egg him on.

So the crazed creature that had taken over her body was still in residence, alive and well. She drew back, mouth trembling.

His well-formed lips pulled into the sexiest smile she had ever seen, and the laugh lines bracketing his mouth deepened.

In the meantime, silence had descended on deck. She glanced around cautiously. Dendera looked shocked, and almost everyone got very busy, all except for Bailey, who gave her a thumbs up and a grin.

And Steve, who stared at her with a cold, unfriendly gaze.

Chapter Seven

After all their preparation, and despite Sebastian’s concerns about the inexperienced symbologists, the crossover went without a hitch. Phaedra sank into the ocean with them and shortly afterward the Djinn’s physical form dissipated as she settled at the passageway’s entrance.

Bailey swam along the passageway first, hauling two containers that had been carefully weighted so that they floated a few feet above the sea floor. She cast magical light spells as she went. The balls of light flared and then slowly faded, giving everybody that followed plenty of illumination for their journey.

Behind her mask, Olivia’s expression was full of wonder as they swam along the passageway. Sebastian stayed close beside her protectively, but she made an excellent crossing. They both hauled containers. She transported empty ones designed for the library collection, and he pulled food supplies and packs.

Land magic swirled around them, and partway through the trip the seabed changed. They couldn’t rise to the surface with the containers, so they swam until the water grew shallow enough that they could stand. Then they pushed back their masks and stared at the land in front of them.

A sandy beach lay directly ahead of them just yards away. A bluff rose from the beach, with a path zigzagging up the side. The heavy gold sunlight of late afternoon drenched the scene. A stone fence ran along the top of the bluff, and beyond that, a partially visible manor house sprawled.

Underneath the constant murmur of the surf and the sound of wind, a certain kind of silence lay over the scene, a complete lack of traffic or any other man-made sounds. A bird of some kind called in the distance, warbling a sharp warning of their arrival.

They knew from information that Carling had given them that the island was kidney-shaped and four miles long. Behind the house was an extensive vegetable garden and a path that led to a cottage that held her library.

At the other end of the island, an ancient forest of redwoods towered to the sky. The forest was where the shy, winged creatures lived, and as Carling had said when she had briefed Sebastian, there was no reason for any of their group to go to that part of the island. They would only frighten the creatures that lived among the redwoods, and their job lay elsewhere.

Two by two, the rest of the crew rose to the surface of the water to stand alongside him and Olivia and stare at the scene.

“All right,” said Sebastian after a minute. “Checking out the library is going to have to wait until morning. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We have to haul ass if we’re going to get set up before dark.”

“You heard the man,” said Bailey. She had already dragged her containers to shore and stood knee deep in the foamy swirl of water with her legs braced apart and her wetsuit partially unzipped. “Hop to it. Just remember—at the end of today’s work, we get to help ourselves to Carling’s wine cellar.” She grinned at Sebastian. “Hell, I would have taken the job for that reason alone.”

“It
is
an incentive,” he said. He unzipped a waterproof pouch, pulled out his sunglasses and slipped them on before any of the others could get a chance to look at his eyes.

The next several hours were filled with nonstop physical labor. Sebastian sent Tony and Derrick into the manor house first to check it out, as the rest of them hauled containers and supplies up the bluff path.

The two men came out again quickly enough. After being uninhabited for so long, the house was dusty and occupied with mice, and a few windows had broken, probably from high winds.

But there was plenty of wood stacked in the large kitchen and in woodpiles out the back, and there were fireplaces in every room, a large stockpile of beeswax candles, and also plenty of linens and blankets stored in cedar chests. All of the chimneys were sound, except for one that had some kind of blockage—probably a nest of some kind. The water pumps in the kitchen and washroom worked.

There was also a wide variety of food in sealed jars and cans that could supplement their food supplies. They had come prepared for rough conditions, but in actuality they would be staying in a great deal of comfort. Compared to some of the places Sebastian had camped in for some jobs, this would be like a stay at the Hilton.

The security team traveled back to the yacht to bring over the last of the supplies and more empty containers for the library. Carling’s library filled a cottage, and it would take several more trips to bring all of the containers over, but that was a task that could happen over time.

After bringing everything up the bluff except for their oxygen tanks, which they left wrapped in tarps at the base of the path, they took turns in the large washroom to change out of their wetsuits and leave them hanging to dry. Then they hauled wood and laid fires in fireplaces, beat mattresses and made beds, and nailed wooden planks across the broken windows.

The house was big. While they would have to take turns heating water and using the large washroom behind the kitchen, they could each have their own bedroom. The food supplies were taken to the kitchen, and the empty library containers were stacked in the great hall. As the light of day faded, they filled and lit glass and metal lanterns, and Derrick and Steve even swept the main halls clear of debris.

Finally, Bailey disappeared into the wine cellar while Dendera and Tony scrubbed the large kitchen table with hot water and soap. Olivia and Derrick laid out their supper—cheese and crackers, fresh fruit, and rotisserie chicken that had been packed in ice for the trip. Raiding the pantry, they added olives, nuts and dried fruits, and finally the tired crew members gathered at the table.

Sebastian said, “Dendera, Steve and Olivia, your jobs are in the library, so this doesn’t apply do you, but Bailey, Tony, Derrick and I will take watches at night. Tomorrow we’ll tour the island, or at least the part of the island not covered by the redwoods. Tony and Derrick, you’ll take the watch tonight.”

His people knew the drill, and they nodded, unsurprised.

Steve looked up as he stacked food on his plate and said, “Are you sure that’s necessary? There’s nobody here but us.”

“That’s not quite correct,” said Sebastian. “The only thing we know for sure is that the crossover passageway has not been guarded 24/7 since Carling left. We’ll do as Carling ordered and nobody will go into the forest. But we will maintain watches, just to be safe.”

Bailey reappeared with several dusty bottles in her arms, eyes wide with glee. As everyone in the kitchen turned to look at her, she said, “Hey, the lady wants her library, not her wine. Oh my God, look at this vintage.”

Sebastian chose not to sit at the table with the others. He leaned back against the counter, taking a break for the first time since diving off the yacht earlier that day. His headache had faded several hours ago. Now he was clearheaded and edgy. Restlessness ran underneath his skin.

Earlier he had taken a lap around the house to study the immediate terrain. The flat ocean horizon gave the illusion that this small nugget of Other land was vast and limitless, when in reality, according to Carling, when one sailed away from the island, one would somehow end up coming right back. The vegetable garden at the back of the house had long since turned into an overgrown jungle of weeds. He had walked the path to the cottage where the library was housed, then back again, while subtle whispers of magic skittered along the edges of his mind like furtive mice.

He could still feel those magic whispers, a sensation like the brush of cobwebs against his skin, although the greater distance from the cottage weakened them. Something in the library was restless too.

As Bailey wiped off the wine bottles and uncorked them, he studied each individual. The other three members of his security team, Bailey, Derrick and Tony, were having a good time. They joked with each other and made friendly overtures to Dendera, Steve and Olivia. Olivia laughed at his crew’s jokes and responded in kind. Dendera was the most reserved of the group, but she smiled at the others and at him.

Steve was different. He was a predator Wyr and a symbologist, a combination of characteristics that interested Sebastian. He smelled like some kind of canine, perhaps a coyote. Sebastian had already noted that Steve went out of his way to avoid him.

He had also noticed Steve’s friendly attitude toward Olivia on the flight, but since then the other Wyr’s attitude had done a one-eighty. After Sebastian had marked his claim on Olivia back on the deck of the yacht, Steve refused to look at Olivia, and he went out of his way to avoid her too.

Was the other man jealous? Sebastian smiled coldly. Steve didn’t have a chance with Olivia, so he could just dream on.

Sebastian’s restlessness ratcheted higher. He should eat, but he didn’t want to.

What he
wanted
had not left his mind all day.

He watched Olivia steadily, his patience eroding fast. She wore a soft blue cable knit sweater and jeans, and it was the sexiest outfit he had ever seen. Her breasts and hips rounded gently from a narrow waist, and her lovely, intelligent gray eyes lit with laughter as she responded to something that Bailey said.

Like Steve, she didn’t look at Sebastian either. Unlike Steve, he knew very well why she avoided his gaze. Sensual awareness shimmered in the air between them. Hell, it all but threw confetti and lit fireworks.

Flashes of what he had done to her, of what she had said to him, played in his mind.

Would you mind if I bit you?

The question had floored him. It was not just that she had been able to ask it—it was that she asked so politely. The very act had spoken volumes.

It said that she hadn’t ever had a lover drive her to bite and scratch. When you reached that level of passion, you didn’t pause to politely ask permission. At that point, permission would have already been given and received.

I will take you to that place, he thought. Where no man has ever taken you before.

He said to her telepathically,
Your room or mine?

She had just taken a sip of wine, and she choked and coughed while Bailey pounded her on the back. Color flushed Olivia’s face, and her gaze turned brilliant and sparkling. When she replied, even her mental voice sounded strangled.
I don’t care. Either. Both?

Laughter flashed through the heat building up in his veins. It was another surprise.

We’ll start with yours
, he said. Then, because he could not stay in that room full of people and pretend to be civilized, he stalked out of the kitchen.

He knew which room she had chosen. He had watched earlier as she had looked outside and carefully marked the path of the sun. Then she had picked the bedroom that would fill with early morning light. As she had disappeared inside with her pack, he claimed the room adjacent to hers. Now he slipped into her room silently, removed his sunglasses and set them on a nearby table.

He stood at the window in the darkened room and looked up at the bright spray of stars in the night sky.

The moon called to him. It always called to him.

Come dance with me, it said. Take wing and fly wild into the night.

And he always had, before now.

This time, he said to the moon, I cannot fly with you this night, for I have another with whom I will dance, and she is even lovelier than you.

And the knowledge of that was both bitter and sweet, as he let go of one thing to reach for the other.

A few minutes later, he heard her footsteps in the hall. He already knew what her footsteps sounded like, quick and light on the hardwood floor. He would recognize her step anywhere.

He turned from the window without a backward glance as she slipped through the door, and with the acute senses of a predator, he knew that she was trembling. He closed his eyes and drew in everything about her.

She gave him a wealth of sensations. Her unique feminine scent drifted delicately through the air, filled with complexity and desire. The bare vulnerability of her ragged breathing played a solo for an audience of one.

His heart, which had grown so cramped with stress, fear and anger over the last several months, expanded, and he thought, It would not be so terrible to be blind like this.

And for that one moment alone, no matter what else happened between them or how badly this might end, he would be forever grateful to her.