Intimidator (17 page)

Blackness closed in. She’d done this before, hadn’t she?

At least Dassenze had spared him the embarrassment of arriving in that cocoon with tubes up him everywhere.
Ouch.

Stom staggered over to where Willow lay. His legs wobbled. Slowly and in as dignified a way as he could, he collapsed next to her. Face to face he could see her paleness.

“You sick too, sweet girl?” He draped his arm over her and pulled her into his chest. Stroking her cheek and saying soft words of encouragement made her eyelids stir. Strength was pumping back into him by the second, so it was likely she’d be recovering soon.

“Stom?” she whispered.

“Yes. Me. I’m back, and this time I’m not leaving you.”

“Good.” Her smile lit up her face and landed a big lump of sorrow in his chest.

He’d been ill when he arrived, but not so ill he hadn’t seen the carnage around her. He owed Brask. Those men must’ve planned to do bad things to his girl.

“I’m so sorry, Willow. I never meant this to happen. I guess I’m plain stupid.”

“Yep.” Her smile turned into a weak grin. Seeing her lift her eyelids and her brown eyes emerge made it worthwhile. “Are you the reason I feel like shit?”

“I am.” He kissed her softly. “We’re bond mates. You have my mark on your arm now too.”

“The squiggly thing you have?” Her frown wasn’t the best sign. Neither was the shake in her voice. “I thought my arm was itchy.”

“Why are you frowning?”

Willow searched his face. “You only came back because of a mark on my arm?”

“Oh, no. No, no, no.” While he used his thumb to smooth the corrugation from between her brows, he rustled up an answer. “I was returning anyway. Once I arm wrestled a god into letting me. I figured out how to keep Ally out of trouble. Which meant you couldn’t say no anymore. You’re more important than you think and I can use you for leverage. That, plus I need you. A lot.” That lump in his chest got painful. Dumb explanation. Need wasn’t the right word but it was the best he could manage.

“Uh-huh. I’m leverage now?” Her grumble was more like the old Willow. “I can’t say no? Betcha I can.”

He sighed, decided the new pinkness meant she was well enough, so he kissed her. When he’d coaxed her to kiss him back, and was sure she was happier, he pulled away an inch.

“Hmm. So you’d arm wrestle a god for me?”

A deep voice cut in. “I’m sure he would have, though I was more concerned about Stom being sick on me. And yes, he’d already decided not to board the warp ship before he found out you were bonded.”

They both looked up at Dassenze. The bronzed god waited with an impatient air.

He’d forgotten they were being observed. Stom crawled to his knees so he could help Willow rise.

Dassenze continued, “What you need to understand, Willow, is that love is guaranteed once you are bonded. I just wish brains were also. Considering your extreme withdrawal symptoms, I would imagine you and Stom’s love for each other is equally intense. Neither of you are allowed beyond this solar system until I investigate that. Your friend, Ally, she’s in a cave of vegetation in the culvert next to your house. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have that war a few systems away to attend to.”

Love? Huh. Was that the word he meant? It seemed a little beyond the boundary of how he’d describe their relationship.

Dassenze stalked off and Stom watched Willow’s eyebrows come down from way high, and her open mouth slowly close.

“It’s okay, he’s not really angry with you.” He took her elbow to steady her as she unfolded her legs.

“What is he? A reptile race or something?” She very carefully dusted off her jeans, as if she was trying not to draw attention to something else.

Stom choked back a snort. “No. Dassenze is a god, an Ascend. The scales don’t mean he’s a lizard. He aids us, within limits.”

“A god? Really? That’s…wow, just wow.” She paused. “Ascend. As in climb? Does that mean he was once ordinary?”

“Clever of you. Some believe that.”

“I bet.” The sudden paling of her skin hinted that she wasn’t quite well. He grabbed her arm again.

From the increased luminosity of his scales, Dassenze was about to launch at any second, yet he’d paused to look down at the woman who was sprawled off to the side. Brask had been checking on her and as Dassenze showed interest, Stom would’ve sworn the man bristled. He’d seen Feya mock fight over potential bond mates many times and these two gave off that same dominant and competitive male aura. Well, well. Interesting.

“Who is she?” Willow asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Do your gods have sex, I mean…”

“Do they ever fuck women from your planet? The answer is yes.”

“Hmm. Then I hope she has a cast iron vagina.”

At that he couldn’t help bursting into laughter. Luckily Dassenze took off heavenward before he could have heard and became a rapidly dwindling gold speck in the sky. Stom scooped the protesting Willow into his arms, angling her so she was unlikely to see the bodies.

“Come. I’m taking you home. We’ll find Ally, and then –” He pecked her on the nose. “I have to plan the last official stage of your ravishment so that I can claim you.”

“You do, hey? You might want to let me get used to this idea.”

“You’ve got tonight.”

“Jeez. Fast engagement.” From the mischievous gleam in her eye she wasn’t too concerned. She reached up and brushed her fingers over his lips then down his cheekbone to his jaw. A smile bloomed and her next words, though quiet, seemed laced with awe. “He’s right. I wish he wasn’t, but he is. I love you, Stom.”

He could tell she wanted him to say the same, but it was not happening in his head. When he didn’t have her in his arms it was so immense a disaster that he shut down. Nothing had mattered but her and owning her again. Now, with her heart beating against his chest and the subtle fragrance of her body calming him, other thoughts had swirled in and made a quagmire. Love was bobbing up and down and in danger of sinking.

He was a warrior, and he couldn’t be that anymore – couldn’t go to battles, couldn’t do what he was trained to do. He was shackled to her as much as she was to him. It was not supposed to turn out
this
way. Being told what to do was abhorrent, even if it were his own body doing the commanding.

To give himself time, he readjusted his hold on her, smiling though at the softness of her breast under his hand and the shift of her curls across his shoulder.

“That word…it’s hard for me to say so soon. I’m sure I can’t live without you, Willow.” He kissed her fingers and studied this female who had reached somewhere inside him that had long ago become a deserted, lonely place. “But it’s too fast a change for me to wrap my tongue and my head around that ‘love’ word. I have a desire to collar you again and attach a leash so I can yank on it if you try to get away. And if someone tries to take you from me, I will nail them to a door with a whole set of knives and forks, possibly even spoons. Will that satisfy you for now?”

“Spoons?” She snorted and her mouth crimped up at the corners. “If you weren’t around, I’d be checking to see if the sun had fallen out of the sky. But I can hope you will say it? Like it’s just around the corner?”

She deserved honesty. “Probably.”

“Okay. Fine. It’s pathetic and all but I can wait a few million years for you to say it.”

“Good.”

There was, he decided, a line between love and this gnawing stark compulsion to possess her. No matter what Dassenze had said, what existed here trod on new ground. He wasn’t giving her up anyway. But love? Love was something he needed to grow into.
Mine
, however, that could be instant and he’d stamped it on her with the mark she now wore.

“So. Where is this ravishment happening? On this planet, your god said. London? Paris?”

“Ahh. No. Somewhere closer. Your house seems the safest. Tomorrow morning. Don’t bother wearing underwear.”

“My house? Are you sleeping in my bed tonight?”

“Yes.”

“Mmm. Good.” Willow turned her face into his chest and inhaled. “I’ll let Ally go to that appointment. She’ll be safe at the hospital. We can be alone and you can be as bad as you want.”

“Bad? You don’t know the meaning of that word.” The things he might do to her.

“One thing. You have to tell me what happens to Ally after this. I don’t know what to do.” She clamped her eyes shut. “I can’t leave her but I can’t leave you. It’s like I’m some sort of magnetized ball bouncing from one to the other. Makes my head hurt.”

“I will. I’ll think it through. We can talk. I’ll get some answers from Dassenze as soon as we can manage it. Though that could take days. Trust me. If I do anything, I do it right.”

“Days? I guess…”

Three Preyfinders emerged from beneath the trees and Brask snapped orders at them. They bore off-world equipment. The mess here would need more than merely picking up the pieces.

When Willow snuggled into him some more, he grinned down at her, then started walking.

“You know you’re naked, Stom?”

“Yes. That was Dassenze’s doing. I had to be for the cocoon to work.” And other things he was never mentioning to her.

“Okay. Just, you’re going to scare the locals, and maybe some koalas are going to need therapy.”

“They’ll get over it.”

His one regret – forgetting to ask Dassenze about Ally. Could he claim her too in some non-sexual way? Or was there some other way?

Whatever had Dassenze meant? Brask examined Talia. The Ascend had already taken a few women as his pets. But this one, Talia? His words had been ambiguous, as if he knew what Brask was imagining. That was possible. No one seemed sure of all a god’s powers.

“This one is too wild for just you.”

The
just
made him wonder. Did a god ever share? And, he’d almost seemed to give permission.

The idea made him decide on that something he’d thought of earlier.

She was still unconscious, by virtue of a few extra
looks
he’d used. He checked and saw the last of his men nod to him and head for their vehicles. The place was clear, except for him, and her, this woman who could track him from across a continent.

In his pocket was the sample of pet nano-chem. He reached in and snapped off the lid, tipped it up and allowed the smallest smear to wet his finger. Then he knelt beside her.

Such a stunning woman. That first time he’d seen her, in the midst of devastation, she’d taken his breath away. Lithe, determined, a fighting Earth woman with a sword, and today, she’d been so fast the air had hummed. Every time he looked in her eyes, he saw a new variant of blue.

Rules weren’t made to be broken, yet he was about to break one of the biggest rules ever.

“Pretty thing,” he murmured, nudging aside her lips and moving his finger a half inch inside. “Want to be mine?”

Kissing her might be the preferred delivery method – assuming you didn’t fuck them – but somehow, this way made the air sizzle with eroticism.

He felt the wetness as the tip of her tongue moved against his skin. “That’s it.” Then, when she truly sucked on his finger, just that once, he couldn’t help growling with triumph.

Just one thing to remember, don’t fall in love like Stom. That part was easy, though. He had a heart of stone.

When they returned, Ally eased herself out of the cave of shrubs and brushed away the bits of leaves that had tangled in her dress. She shucked off the aura of concealment and climbed up the embankment.
People
and all their messy emotions rushed into her head and she had to struggle to control it. The ache thumped about like a monster stomping through her mind. Then she clamped down again. This close to the house she could do it easily.

After all these years and years of practice, though she wasn’t sure why or how it worked, the house was a shelter that let her not hear all the trillions and billions of bad thoughts that people had every day of their lives. Peace reigned.

“Hi!” She waved and ran up to them.

Stom was naked but that didn’t bother her. As a rule, men did little for her. A few had made her stop and stare out the window, tears silently rolling down her face. That had been in her teenage years, mostly, knowing that the boy wasn’t for her, the sad girl locked away in her self-imposed cage.

She had tried to go out, back then, only to be left clinging to her sanity by her fingernails. Those few times, her worst destiny had called to her and left her dangling above a vast chasm seething with the screams of the lost. She’d woken in hospital. Drugged. Numb. Her mind like blotting paper.

It was best to stay in the house, to curl herself in a ball and show only her spikes to those who meant her harm.

Stom was out of bounds anyway. He and Ally resonated, like a note ringing in perfect tune. He had a nice mind, different, kind, and he didn’t mess up her head like most. She ran ahead of them to open the back door while Stom put Willow on her feet.

Something happened in the forest.

“You’re okay, Ally?” Willow asked, as if striving to keep the tears from her voice. She reached out and squeezed Ally’s hand.

“Sure. Course I am.” Then she gave Willow a little kiss on the cheek. “Come on in. I’ll make some tea.” She gave Stom a hesitant look. Maybe he was good but she’d learned that everyone had their own agenda. “Are you going to keep Willow and me safe now?”

“I am.”

Long ago, she’d learned to tighten down her focus, but as far as she could detect, he was sincere.

“Good.”

What had happened out there? Something dreadful had trailed its foulness over her cousin. From Stom, she caught a whisper, a suggestion, of how close she had come to a terrible end. She wished she could protect Willow out there the same as Willow tried to protect her. Hobbled, lame, useless, that was her. Only here in the house was she any good, because this was her kingdom.

Lately there’d been so many weird half-people
things
out there that hiding in the culvert had been dicey.

“
You
are not coming in,” she said to the outdoors before closing the door.