Untamed Hawaiian Heat (Rift Hunters) (3 page)

Her stomach clenched at the memory of how easily the Syndicate had invaded her beloved Hawaii and taken away all she held dear. What had once been a lush paradise was now overrun by Obsidian Syndicate forces. Most American citizens had quickly conformed and bent to the Syndicate’s rule of oppression.

The OS forces had become a plague not only in her home, but in her heart as well. One she had every intention of eradicating.

The sooner the better.

Today she’d seen some of the Syndicate’s men wearing a new type of armor. It had radiated an energy she’d never seen before. What had confused her even more, though, was the way she’d been able to
feel
the power emanating from it.

Even more troubling was that their weapons didn’t seem to have much effect against the new armor. And the weapons they’d encountered today had been even more advanced than the ones the OS had used in their skirmish just last month.

Due to the upgrades in the enemy’s armor and weapons Kiana had seen today, she’d need to push the vice admiral to allow her team to do a recon mission.

While she hated putting her men in danger, she also knew they would be in even direr straits if they didn’t know what they were up against. She adjusted her grip on her M-80 laser rifle. It wasn’t the newest model on the market, but the new plasma guns the OS used were expensive. Now that the Syndicate controlled all the factories, it was impossible to get ahold of one weapon, let alone enough for all her soldiers. A weapon was a weapon, though, and they needed all the help they could get. So when the little bit of funding their government backers had been able to wire them without raising any alarms had come through, the higher-ups had bought the best weapons they could afford. She was just afraid those new weapons weren’t going to be enough.

Kiana heaved a weary sigh and shook off thoughts of how they were going to fight whatever this new threat was. She touched the com link in her ear. “Round up your team, Mateo. I’m tired of chasing these bastards. They’re just fucking with us…trying to split us up. Head back to camp once everyone’s accounted for.”

“You want us to try to capture one of them?”

Kiana thought about it for a moment. Sweat trickled down her neck and disappeared beneath her brown T-shirt, clung to her breasts. “If the opportunity presents itself, yes. But don’t go out of your way to catch one. We’ve been chasing them all afternoon.” She glanced at the sky. “And it’s starting to get dark. We’ll figure out a new strategy tomorrow.”

“Your wish is my command, mi corazón,”
he purred through their personal link.

A smile slowly spread across her lips at the desire she felt sizzle along their connection. Swiping the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand, she wished for the millionth time that the trade winds would come back. A swim was what she wanted right now.
“It’s too hot for that, mi amante.”
She moved away from Mateo’s coordinates to gather her team. The staccato of an M-80 being fired had her turning around to go help them. Suddenly, the air around her began to crackle with unseen energy. Kiana knew she should run, but her limbs refused to obey the command.

A bright light flashed in front of her, and the sky ripped apart like a chasm in the earth. The energy radiating from the opening pulsed and throbbed, stirring the unexplained restlessness she’d been experiencing lately to a fever pitch. It caused her sensors to flicker out. She’d felt it before but never this strong. She was vaguely aware that someone was still firing nearby, and Mateo’s voice in her ear com link was demanding to know her location. She ignored both.

The vortex widening in front of her held her transfixed. Colors flashed and spun at a dizzying rate, shooting jagged pulses of lightning in all directions. The sound was deafening. It was a miracle a stray bolt didn’t hit her. Strangely, any stray bolts seemed to be repelled if they got too close to her. The rift began to hum and vibrate with a sudden spike in the energy streaming out of it.

A man tumbled through the opening and landed at her feet with a sickening
thud
. His body slammed into the ground with so much force, she was sure he’d broken a bone or two. The portal’s energy dissipated as rapidly as it had appeared, leaving an eerie silence in its wake. Kiana took a step toward the man but froze at the sound of approaching footsteps. She snapped her head around to assess the situation.

Mateo
. She belatedly realized she hadn’t answered his demand for her location. How had he known where she was? Her com link was still flickering because of the energy the vortex had exuded.

He crashed into the clearing like he’d been running for his life, only to stop dead in his tracks at the sight of the man lying at her feet.

“Who the hell is that?”

Kiana looked at the man lying so still on the ground. She was about to kneel beside him to see if he was even alive when he groaned and lifted his head slightly and looked at her. Her eyes widened at the piercing blue of his gaze. He opened his mouth to speak, but whatever he’d wanted to say was cut short when he fell unconscious.

Kiana squatted next to him. “I don’t know. He just appeared.” She hesitated a moment before adding, “We can’t leave him here, though.” She reached down and turned him over with little effort, thanks to her cybernetic implants.

A jolt of electricity jumped from his supine form to her when she touched him. Heat flooded her senses; her soul shimmered with recognition. The energy she’d been feeling in her blood sparked to life, stronger than ever before, reaching out to the stranger. It felt similar to the energy the vortex had given off. She looked up at Mateo. He wasn’t looking at her but was glaring at the man. He must have felt it through their link, she realized. Kiana reached out to pick the man up, but Mateo pushed her hand aside.

“I’ll carry him.”
His words pressed into her mind, hot and angry.

“I can do it. Now move aside.”
When she sensed the desire to argue with her ripple through their link, she added, “That’s an order, Lieutenant.” Seeing the incredulity flash in his eyes that she would pull rank on him, Kiana looked away and closed hers. She debated turning off their emotion link but decided against it. She’d only imagined the connection she’d felt with that brief touch. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes to find Mateo grasping the stranger’s arm and leg in preparation to lift him. “Lieutenant?”

Mateo refused to meet her gaze as he settled the man over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. “I’m well aware you can carry him, Kiana. But I don’t care for the reaction you had to him when you rolled him over. Go ahead and give me an Article Fifteen if you must, but I’m carrying him. End of discussion.”

Kiana stared after Mateo in disbelief as he swept past her. Noticing how the valley had grown quiet with the retreat of the OS forces, she decided it was best to save this argument for later. They needed to get back to base so Niki and Ash could take a look at the guy. Once he woke up, they would find out who he was and then…

Well, she didn’t know what orders she’d hand down after that. She clenched her hand into a fist. Kiana couldn’t shake the feeling that he was very important. The tingle she’d felt when she had touched the stranger still trembled along her nerve endings.

Worse, she knew Mateo had sensed it too. What else could explain the anger and jealousy surging through their link?

* * * *

Mateo stalked past Kiana and disappeared through the trees. He hadn’t missed her reaction to the stranger when she’d turned him over. It had flashed through their link, hot and tempting. He’d stared at the man lying on the ground while a frisson of heated awareness had fluttered along his spine. After he was sure Kiana wasn’t looking, he’d glanced at his tattoo before reaching down to pick the man up. It had glowed with a deep sapphire luminance, pulsing and tingling across his skin.

It had taken all he had not to let Kiana feel his reaction through their link. He’d been experiencing this twinge a lot the last couple of weeks. Building in intensity…like he’d felt when they’d made love earlier. It brought to mind the feeling of his first cliff dive…standing on the edge, adrenaline pumping through his veins in anticipation of experiencing the wind caressing his skin as he’d free-fallen into the cool water below.

He’d been relieved when Kiana had been preoccupied while he bent and picked the man up. A jolt of awareness had shocked him when he’d grasped the man’s arm to hoist him over his shoulder. His cock had instantly hardened, causing him to pull back. Glancing up at Kiana, he knew there was no way around this. The rest of the team was already headed back to camp.

And he sure as hell wasn’t going to let
her
carry him. Not after the reaction she hadn’t bothered to hide. When Mateo picked the man up, the words he’d heard Remi say as sleep claimed him the night before came rushing back.

He’s coming.

He had no idea what the hell
that
had meant, but he didn’t want to dwell on it with Kiana scrutinizing his every move.

Resigned to his task, Mateo had taken hold of the stranger’s arm and pulled him up to a sitting position so he could ease the man over his shoulders. He’d done a scan of the stranger’s body to determine if he could be moved without further injury, so he knew it wouldn’t hurt to carry him that way. The only problem was, he didn’t want to feel the pulsing energy swirling through him from physical contact with the man. And he definitely didn’t want to feel the blood rushing to his cock.

He’d never felt the former, but the latter he’d vowed never to allow himself to feel again.

Ever.

Mateo increased his stride, wanting to calm the raging heat in his blood before Kiana realized he’d blocked their link. He didn’t want to answer questions about things he’d rather forget.

* * * *

Four days.

It had been four days since the stranger had fallen at her feet like some angel cast out of heaven, and Kiana still couldn’t shake the awareness he’d awakened in her. In fact, despite trying everything she could think of, it had only grown stronger.

She’d even used the fever he’d developed that first night as an excuse to continually check on him. Mateo’s patience with her on the subject was wearing thin. He’d stalked out of their quarters this morning when she’d told him she was going to check on the man after getting the upgrades to her cybernetics.

And there was that feeling she had that something else was bothering him. She could feel it shimmering just beneath the surface. When she’d tried to prod at it through their link, Mateo had become angry and taken off.

Kiana sighed heavily, wishing there was an easy way to solve this puzzle. Between the reason for the OS’s interest in Hawaii dangling just out of her grasp, the stranger’s appearance, and Mateo’s subsequent anger at her reaction to the man, she was exhausted. She sank down onto the chair beside the stranger’s bed and closed her eyes.

She had tons of paperwork she should be filling out about the incident resulting in his arrival, but she couldn’t concentrate long enough to fill any of it out. No matter what she did, she couldn’t get the man’s piercing blue eyes out of her head. Something about them called to her, teased something in the back of her mind. A snippet from a half-remembered dream, perhaps.

Feeling the energy stirring anew at the thought of those eyes, Kiana opened hers and glanced at the bed.

The stranger lay on his back, still dressed in the clothes he’d arrived in, minus the heavy leatherlike jacket. Niki and Ash hadn’t found any internal damage when they’d done a full-body scan. According to Ash, he didn’t have any cybernetic implants either. Kiana refused to acknowledge the small part of her that wished they’d found something requiring the removal of more of his clothes. She sensed allowing her thoughts to go in that direction would be a very bad idea.

She clenched her hands to quell the itch to reach out and touch him. She’d been fighting the need to do so since the first time she’d touched him when she’d turned him over. Instead she let her gaze roam over him. He was dressed from head to toe in unrelieved black. His leather pants molded to his legs. Various straps crisscrossed along one powerful thigh, highlighting the well-defined muscles. She couldn’t see any use for the straps, though. She skimmed her gaze over his groin, not wanting to dwell on what lay beneath the zipper. His taut abs were clearly defined under his skintight shirt.

Kiana followed the curves of his muscular chest, pausing to watch it rise and fall with each inhalation the man took. She didn’t realize she’d moved closer until she saw her hand reaching toward his face. She started to pull back from touching the stubble dusting his jaw when he shifted in his sleep and exposed the left side of his neck. She went dead still as her eyes zeroed in on the shimmer of gold just behind his ear. Had Niki and Ash missed an injury?

She leaned in. Upon closer inspection, she realized the mark was a tattoo. In the middle, a medieval sword with the letters RH engraved near the hilt was overlapped with a shield emblazoned with a dragon. Around the edges was a swirling pattern. As she stared at it, the tattoo began to pulse gently and glow golden from beneath the strangers’ skin.

Reaching out, Kiana ran a fingertip over it, then recoiled when a spark leaped from the tattoo to her finger. She stared at the mark shimmering brightly against his tanned skin. Her breath came in short gasps.

Closing her eyes, she took a few deep breaths, telling herself she’d imagined it. The mark on the stranger’s skin
did not
glitter in the shaft of sunlight filtering through the window. When she finally got her racing heart back under control, she opened her eyes and glanced back down at the man.

The sunlight streaming in from overhead glinted off the mark like a beacon.

Without thinking, Kiana leaned over him again. Shoring up her courage, she reached out, concentrating on stopping the trembling that seemed to affect her whole body. Another spark leaped from the spot, only this time, it seemed to hesitate before making contact with her. Once it did, it withdrew slowly as though it wanted her to come closer.