Immortal Need (11 page)

“Wait. Wait,” she gasped out.

“No,” he said, “never.”

“We can’t.”

“We can, and we will.”

“But you’ll leave,” she sighed, turning away.

He lifted above her once more, fingers sliding out of her. He gripped her chin and forced her to look at him. The fingers that had been deep inside of her, still shining with her juices, disappeared in his mouth as he held her gaze. He stared at her as he licked their tips and then used that same hand to position himself at her entrance.

“I will never leave. You are mine,” he said, slamming into her. His cock was broad, so broad it bordered on pain. He stretched her as she had never been stretched before. Her mouth went slack, and she was unable to make a sound, as he pumped into her. Light, great, blazing white light, flared from her chest.

“Wha—” she started. Little snakes of white light stretched from her to the X on Sevani’s chest, weaving tighter and tighter until it was one solid bar of light. Before her eyes, the scar shrank, twisted, and then faded, leaving behind a black X that looked tattooed on his flesh.

“Mine!” he roared and pumped faster. He kissed her once more, each dig of his cock punctuated by a swipe of his tongue.

She dragged her nails down his back, rough enough to draw blood, lost in pleasure. Her soul felt…whole. She had never known there was a piece missing, had never understood why no man could touch her heart. She was waiting…waiting for him. She gripped him to her, curling her hips to meet his thrusts as he took her. She felt the pleasure spiraling through her body with each deep thrust, Ayah was barely able to breathe. There was nothing nice or pretty about how they came together. This was a claiming, pure and simple, and she was lost under the onslaught. She couldn’t hope to fight when her very soul cried out with happiness. She had found him.

Her climax pulsed on the edge of the horizon. She fought for it, slamming her body against Sevani roughly over and over again. She bit. She clawed. She screamed. He roared in her ear, spoke words in languages she couldn’t hope to understand, fighting for the precipice with her. They battled, bodies soaked in sweat, muscles tight. Her climax came like a shock, whipping through her until she was wound so tight each of Sevani’s movements shot her higher. She flew into the sun, turning into ash. And he rode her through it. He lifted her from the ashes, like the phoenix, only for her to plummet into the sun again. She lost count of how many times he took her—over and over again. At one point he pulled out of her and flipped her. Rough hands pulled her to her hands and knees before he sank into her again. He covered her with his body, gripping her breasts with his big hands, and moved her body in counterpoint to his. His cock reached deeper, his heat overwhelmed her, and she was only able to follow him. By the time her body shot into another climax, she was putty in his hands.

“Now, Ayah, my Ayah, now!” he roared then and slammed into her with everything he was. She held on for dear life as he came, clutching her against him as he thrust. She slipped to the bed, asleep, before her head even hit the pillow.

* * * *

“Get your ass in gear, Sevani. We’ve got company.”

Lei’s voice and pounding on the door woke Ayah, barely. She sat up slowly to find Sevani already out of bed. He was pulling on his cargo pants. Her heart pounded. Danger was coming. Whoever wanted her dead was taking his chance now. She slid from the bed on shaky legs.

“Where are my clothes?” she asked. Sevani tossed her the items as he sat down to put on his socks and boots. Half dressed, he stood to shrug into his shirt. He stopped when he looked down at his chest.

“What the…?” He touched the
X
with hesitant fingers.

“It happened when we were in bed,” Ayah said, feeling a flush come up over her face. “You don’t remember?”

“I think I had other things on my mind,” he returned with a sultry grin. The expression made him appear boyish, washed away the heavy expression of readiness and caution he had worn before. She blushed harder. “I’m sorry we don’t have time to talk about it. But we will,” he promised. He finished pulling down his shirt and came over to kiss her softly.

She put on her clothes, not sure she wanted to talk about it. Now that the moment was over, she was nervous. What had happened? How had his scar just disappeared? It didn’t make any sense. She allowed the knowledge that someone was coming for her to fill her mind. That was much easier to deal with. She shrugged on her clothes quickly and waited for him to finish strapping on his weapons. He’d laid them on her vanity at some point before getting into bed with her. He was once again her black-and-silver-covered protector.

“I must not have slept that long then. It’s still night.”

“Ayah, you slept for nearly a day.”

“What? How is that possible? What did Valerie do?”

“She put you to sleep. Your body must have needed it. We needed you to get rest so we could work. We were able to get your house wired earlier today,” Sevani explained.

She had been asleep for an entire day. She couldn’t believe it. She usually didn’t sleep more than eight hours, no matter how tired she was. She never had!

“How did she do that?” Ayah asked.

“Ayah, now is not the time. I need you to listen to everything I say. I want you to stay here and lock the door. Don’t come out for any reason unless you hear me. I will knock three times and then say my name. That is all. You hear anything else, you stay quiet,” he ordered. He pulled a black handgun out of a drawer on her vanity. “Do you know how to use one of these?”

“I learned. My brothers made sure the girls knew how to use them, but I’m not fond of guns.”

“You will be tonight. You will only use it if someone comes through that door. Do you understand?”

“Sevani,” she began, not sure she liked the idea.

“Ayah, do you understand?” he repeated, walking toward her. “I need to know you are safe. I can’t focus if I don’t.”

“Well, when you put it that way,” she said, taking the weapon.

“Stay here, and be quiet. I don’t want them to know you’re up here. Right now they think no one is here, and that will work in our favor.”

“Okay.”

He kissed her again and then pulled her into his arms gingerly. She was careful of his blades when she wrapped her arms around him. He would keep her safe. She knew he would.

“I’ll be back as soon as we clean this up. If we do it quickly enough, then maybe we’ll save you from any other attacks. They may be afraid to try again if they know you have protection,” he said.

“Are you going to kill the men out there?” she asked.

“They came here to kill you,” he said in answer.

She knew that translated to yes. She should have been terrified of him in that moment, but she wasn’t. She still could feel his possession in the aching muscles that had gone without use for some time. He would take care of her. She knew it. But she feared for him, the repercussions of his actions.

“You can’t just kill them. What about the police? And people hearing? I may live off the road, but that doesn’t mean gunshots won’t travel, Sevani.”

“You let us worry about that. Plus, I use knives, remember? They are silent but deadly. We’ll take care of the cleanup. The police can’t help you now. Let us do our jobs. We know what we’re doing, okay?”

“Fine,” she whispered. She sank onto her bed, gun in hand.

“It will be okay. I’ll be back before you know it,” Sevani said as he left the room.

She wasn’t so sure. He knew what this kind of life was. She had never had to deal with being in danger, never knew what it was to be in a gun battle. She was an ordinary woman, with ordinary problems. Jesus, she’d just learned that immortals existed and had slept with one within a couple of days. How was that possible? How had Valerie made her sleep an entire day away? Nothing in her life was happening the way she had thought. It was as if she were trapped in a fantasy world or
The Truman Show
, with someone on the other side of the camera watching her reactions. What the hell was she supposed to do? Give her life to an immortal because her soul said it was right? Since, now after having slept with him, she felt like they were meant to be together?

Then she thought about the fact he was protecting her. He may be immortal, but she had seen him in pain. He could be hurt. He could be wounded. She’d seen the scar on his chest. The blond woman she saw had caused it. That bitch had hurt Sevani, over and over, through the years, even as Ayah’s soul had been looking for him. After seeing what had occurred, she believed that the soul didn’t belong to Nila exactly. More the soul had attached to Sevani and had lived to be back with him. He was risking his life to save hers. There were no thanks she could give that would be enough. She shook her head, trying to dislodge the deep thoughts. She just needed to live for now. The rest they could talk about later, and she would think about it later.

She heard the whistle through the air, barely there. She jumped to her feet.
Was that a gunshot?

She didn’t think past the fact she was disobeying Sevani’s orders. She didn’t even stop to think that she was putting her life in jeopardy. All she could think as she ran to her door and wrenched it open was that Sevani may have been hurt. If he was hurt, then she wanted to be there by his side. She clicked the safety off her gun and disappeared down the stairs.

Chapter Eight

“Report,” Sevani said into his mike he’d fitted into his ear after leaving Ayah in her room. Gods, he could still taste her on his tongue. She had been like aged wine, full-bodied and delicious. He hadn’t wanted to leave her in bed. Her touch had tossed him into the sky, with a body that had handled everything he’d thrown at her and given it back. He still was buzzing from the hours he’d spent in her arms. He hadn’t had a woman in longer than he would like to remember, but he knew that what they shared was something special.

The scar on his chest, the place he’d ignored for most of his existence, had been the spot that Freya had taken his very soul when she chose him to lead the Watchers. She said it was to remove his humanity, to make him a cold-blooded killer who would do her bidding. It also had made it so that he could not die, and needed the seeds that Valerie gave in order to stay alive as an immortal. Somehow, lying with Ayah had taken away that scar and replaced it with a tattoo. He felt…different. Strength coursed through his veins, his blood zinging through his system. She empowered him. He didn’t know what the disappearance of his scar meant, but he did know that Ayah had been the cause.

“We see a small team of four. They look like common thugs,” Lei said. “I got them.” Four rapid shots, silenced, broke the air. “Done. That was a letdown. Valerie, I’m heading out for cleanup. Keep an eye out.”

Sevani relaxed. If the man trying to kill Ayah sent only that, it would be easier than they all expected. He sheathed his blade.

“Not so fast!” Valerie yelled. “Three vehicles approaching now. What’s on your side?”

“I have five vehicles on my side. How the hell did they get here that fast? Stand by for head count,” Lei said, then cursed.

“I have twelve over here, heavily armored with MAC-tens and hand weapons,” Valerie came over then.

“Got twenty on my side that I can see. They’re coming all-out,” Lei said fiercely.

“Better be happy we’re here,” Valerie added.

“Did Alexander leave already?” Sevani asked, shooting into motion again. He whirled around the corner into the living room. Valerie was crouched next to one windowsill near Ayah’s front door, looking out. He knew that Lei would be looking out the back.

“He headed out shortly after we talked. It’s just us. Where’s Ayah?” Valerie asked.

“In her room secure with a weapon. In case of stray bullets, she’ll be safe there for now.”

“Roger that. Get your ass on the move. I’m picking them off from the house,” Lei added.

“Then I’m heading out with Valerie to take on the twelve head-on. Let’s move.”

“This girl just became a millionaire. Why would someone send this much firepower at her when they know everything about her? We all know that for you to be sent in that it has to be a male in her immediate family,” Valerie asked incredulously as she and Sevani streaked out the door into the darkness.

Sevani just shrugged in response, thinking the same thing. There was no way that Ayah should have had this much coming after her the first go-round. Her family members would know she wasn’t protected and didn’t have security. They also would believe, basically, that she would be an easy kill. There was no way of knowing that she would have protection around her, let alone the immortal kind. Whatever was going on, something stunk ten ways to Hel, and he was going to figure out exactly what it was. He kept to the shadows, grateful that the colonial-style home Ayah and her siblings had grown up in was out of the way of human passersby. Her home was surrounded by a forested area. It was a merc’s dream. It was also something that could make Ayah more defensible with the Watchers on her side.

He didn’t want to think about the fact that if they hadn’t been on her side, it would have made her more easy to sneak up on. There was plenty of cover around. Sevani tried to let go of everything as he opened his senses to the surrounding area. He needed to be able to see who was coming up and kill them before they reached the house. There was no way he was going to allow Ayah to have to use her weapon. Shooting her gun meant that the ones coming to kill her would have had to kill three immortal warriors, and that was not happening. He could sense the cold determination the mercs had. There was no definite malicious intent coming from them, only the knowledge that whoever was inside was going to be gone by the time they left, and they would do so quickly and quietly. Sevani spit, whispering a foul curse into the air. Not today. Today they were unlucky enough to die, each and every single one of them.

He had not fought with Valerie in some time, as she didn’t go on many missions, but she still knew the drill. As he cut left to dodge behind trees in the woods, she dodged right so that she could flank the men behind. As the only Watcher who didn’t use weapons, she had to get up close and personal with all of her kills, just as he did to use the blade. However, she was just as deadly as he was with his blades, as Lei with his guns, and Alexander with his garrotes or any other weapon he had on hand. Alexander wasn’t as particular. Sevani was as quiet as he could be, feeling his heart pound as Valerie snuck up behind the men. The twelve men moved in three teams of four and staggered out into a diagonal pattern. The first team came toward his hiding spot, but he waited, patiently, for the last team to pass where Valerie hid.