Master of the Shadows
Page 24

“Sure.” The mortal opened the door and went out, only to come back in almost immediately. “There’s a whole gang of them at the other end of the hall. I think they saw me.” He shook his head. “I think the drugs are kicking back in, too.”
Sylas barred the door and guided the mortal over to the dumbwaiter, which had returned. “Get in.”
“Brother, I can’t leave you here.”
“You must. Tell the men I am going back into the shadows,” Sylas said. “I will do what I can. Stay with Eregen and do as he says.” He clasped Hutchins’s forearm. “Thank you, my friend.”
“Anytime.” Hutchins grimaced as he climbed into the small space, cramming his body inside. “All right. Hit it.”
Sylas watched the door as the dumbwaiter descended. As soon as he heard the pulleys stop, he punched his fist into the control panel, destroying it.
He stepped into the shadows, where the last thing he saw was the cavalieri forcing in the door.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Reese woke up alone, gagged and tied to a tent pole. In the state she was in, she could not break free of her bonds, and even if she could, one of the guards had already searched her and taken away her bag. She was trapped, a mortal at the mercy of the Kyn, and she had run out of lies.
Will came in and removed his cloak, tossing it over the camp table before he came to stand in front of her. “If you scream, I will put you to sleep for a week. Do you understand me?”
She nodded.
He inspected her face before he pulled the gag from her mouth. “How long have you been working for the Brethren?”
She swallowed to ease her dry mouth. “I have nothing to do with them.”
“Then who sent you to spy on us?”
She had to be careful not to lie. “No one. I’m not a spy.” She tugged at her wrists. “You can untie me. I won’t try to run again.”
He didn’t move. “Was it Guisbourne? Did you pledge yourself to him? Did you come to work some vengeance in his name?”
“No. I’ve never met Lord Nottingham. Will, please. I’m not here to hurt anyone.”
“Then you have failed.” He turned his back on her and went back to the table.
“You know I’m telling the truth,” she insisted. “You know me, Will. You know I wouldn’t betray you.”
“Until two nights past, I knew you were a happy, contented woman who enjoyed my company. Who told me that we could never have more than that.” He poured a glass of blood wine and drank it down in three swallows. “You are not that woman.”
“No, I’m not.” She closed her eyes and twisted her wrists, but the ropes only tightened. “What are you going to do? You can’t keep me tied up here forever.”
“You think not?” He strode over to her, seizing her face with one hand so that she had no choice but to look into his furious eyes. “I can have you taken from here in chains and tossed into a dark cell and kept there for the rest of your life. One call, Reese, is all I need to make, and you will be gone and forgotten.”
He meant to frighten her, but no threat could equal that of the book. “Then make the call.”
“You dare taunt me.” He reached behind her and tore the ropes from her wrists, snapping the cords with one jerk. Before she could bring her arms around he dragged her away from the tent pole and over to the thick blankets spread over the ground.
Reese went limp, but he didn’t let go of her. He hauled her under his arm like a sack of grain and tossed her with the same indifference onto his bed.
She rolled away, only to find herself trapped, facedown, beneath his body. “What happened to my right of refusal?”
“You sacrificed all rights the moment you decided to betray me.” He lifted his weight enough to turn her over onto her back. “I can do whatever I please with you.”
“You always could,” she whispered.
“Was this forced upon you? Yes,” he said before she could answer. “That is it. That is what they did. I can see it in your eyes. I can smell it on your skin. Why did you not tell me?”
The pain in her heart swelled with bitterness. “I was afraid.”
“You could have come to me at any time, sweetheart. I would have listened.” Slowly, almost as if he were afraid to touch her, he put his hand on her brow and brushed her hair back.
“I would have put a stop to it. I would have protected you.” By telling him, she would be directly disobeying her father’s orders, putting her life in danger, and risking exposing the power of the book. “I was sent to avert a disaster,” she said. “If I fail, everyone will die—you, your jardin, the Italians, the mortals—and the rest of the world.”
“You speak of Armageddon.”
She nodded.
He gave her a narrow look. “What could you do to prevent the end of the world?”
“I can’t tell you any more than I have,” Reese told him. “Give me The Maiden’s Book of Hours, and I’ll go.”
He wasn’t expecting that. “You betrayed me for a bloody book?”
“I need something inside it,” she said. “Once I have it, humanity will be safe again, and you can keep the rest for your master.”
He sat up. “I do not have that book, Reese. Neither does Robin. Guisbourne stole it and took it to Rome. Robin has gone to retrieve it. That is why the contessa sent her men to take possession of Rosethorn. If Robin does not deliver the book to her tonight, she vowed to slaughter the jardin.”
She couldn’t fly to Rome to stop Robin of Locksley. Nothing could stop the book from reaching the contessa now. “That’s it, then.”
“Who sent you?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore.” Nothing did. She wished she could weep, but no tears came. “I’ve failed. In a few days we will all be dead.”
Will sighed. “I do not know what you were told, but one sodding book cannot bring about the end of the world.”
“This one will.” There was no hope left, she realized. She had always had hope. “I don’t know what to do.” She couldn’t ask to speak to her father. The news would surely kill him. She looked at Will blindly. “What am I supposed to do now?”
“Come here.”
Will took her in his arms and held her, and then she could cry—great, sobbing tears that she had held back for so long, too long. She struck at him with her fists, twisting and fighting against him and the terrible emptiness, and still he held her, cradling her grief, enduring her despair. He used the edge of his tunic to wipe her face and his fingers to comb back her hair, and when she thought the sorrow would crush the last shards of her heart, he put his mouth on hers.
Reese curled her fists into his tunic, clutching him tightly. He kissed her slowly, gently, coaxing her mouth open and tasting her with mindless absorption. She felt his fangs emerge as his hunger grew, and she took her mouth from his, pressing his face to her throat. He stroked his tongue over her flesh and suckled, but he wouldn’t pierce her.
“Please.” She would have this much, and finally he would know. “Will, take me.”
He drew back. “I do not need your blood, Reese.”
Or perhaps it was better that he didn’t know. Let him have this last illusion. She would not cheat him of what would be his final moments of happiness.
She reached for the buttons of her blouse and began unfastening them. Will made no move to help her, but watched intently, the pupils of his eyes shrinking to onyx slivers, his mouth set in a hard line. She bared her breasts and then knelt to release the waistband of her skirt, pulling it and her panties down and easing her legs out of them.
He traced a winding line of dried blood that had run down from her right ear. “The last time I touched you like this, you were afraid.”
“I was foolish. Now all we may have is this night.” She brought his hand to her heart and pressed it there. “I love you. I have always loved you.”
His eyes lifted from the sight of their hands. “Not always.”
“I am a very good liar.” She reached for his shoulder and carefully released the velvet loops holding the front of his tunic in place. His garments took more time to remove than hers had, but she stopped to kiss the skin she revealed, and to breathe in the scent of him, which grew stronger and darker with every touch.
At last they lay together side by side, a small space between them. She reached across it with her hands, her legs, and her feet. She rubbed the bottom of her toes against the arch of his foot, and stroked the outside of his thigh with the inside of hers. Her hands she could not control; they went everywhere, from the angular bones of his hip to the broad vault of his chest. She felt starved for him, hollowed out by the years of deprivation and denial, and now she wanted to feast.
Will showed no outward reaction until she slipped her hand between them and palmed his erect shaft, and then his big hand wrapped around her wrist. “I will not stop this time. I do not think I could.”
She put an arm around his neck and pressed herself full-length against him. “Then don’t.”
Will spread his hand over her bottom, holding her still as he probed between her legs. Desire had made her silky wet, and she enveloped the head of his penis with her heat, bearing down on him as he pushed in, welcoming him into the narrow recess, catching her breath as he filled it with tender force. When the root of his cock pressed against the flowering folds of her labia, she gripped him from within, squeezing until his brow touched hers and he closed his eyes.
“Do you feel that?” she murmured, her excitement almost unbearable.
“I feel you,” he said, surging deeper.
They had been cheated of this simple thing done to give pleasure and create children. For a terrible moment she felt as if she might begin screaming again, for she had never wished for anything but Will, and one night with him was all she would know.
“Look at me.” When she did, he kissed her brow and then gazed into her eyes. “The world is ours now. I will not let it end.”