Night Falls on the Wicked (16 page)

She moistened her lips and he followed the quick darting of her tongue, desire twisting in his belly. The air around them altered, became thicker, heavy with an aching awareness of each other.

“She ran into the street because of the lycans who attacked her. Not you.”

He tore his gaze away from her mouth. “Don’t you get it? It didn’t matter. I looked like them. To her, I was one of them.”

“Looking like them doesn’t mean you’re like them.”

“That was the last time I ever shifted. I don’t need to shift in order to beat them.”

Something passed over her face.

“What?” he demanded.

“Maybe you do … I mean, you needed to do it then to overpower them, and you’ve been hunting Cyprian for a long time. Maybe you would have found them sooner if you weren’t so hung up on shifting.”

Her words struck a nerve. “It’s the way it has to
be,” he growled. “I won’t risk shifting again, losing control—”

“You never lost control—”

“Drop it,” he bit out, rising to his feet and moving toward the door again. “You mistake yourself if you think your opinion matters enough to change my mind on this.”

That did the trick. She flinched, staring at him with hurt eyes. “I’m trying to help.”

“You can help by following my lead on this.” He drew a ragged breath and wondered why the way those hazel eyes stared at him affected him so much. Why she should affect him? “And stop asking me so many fucking questions.”

N
IKLAS LEFT WITHOUT ANOTHER
word and Darby locked the door behind him, noticing that her hands shook. Moving into her small bedroom, she checked on Aimee before stripping out of her clothes and stepping into the shower.

She arched her throat and let the warm water beat down on her body, luxuriating in the wet heat, letting it ease her sore muscles, thankful for being alive.

She envisioned Niklas as he had been tonight, fierce and wild fighting the lycans intent on devouring her, then almost tender as he told her about his past, revealing pieces of himself she felt
sure he’d never shared with another soul. Until he shut her down, spoke to her so harshly at the end.

Except she couldn’t forget his eyes.

Her hand brushed her breast and with some surprise she felt her nipple pebble-hard, aroused and sensitive. She released a moan and ducked her head under the spray of water, perfectly aware of the reason why her body was in such a state.

It had been a long time since she’d even been close to a man as sexy as Niklas. His body, his voice, everything about him aroused her.

She wanted him—no, she craved him. She ached just thinking about him. It took all her willpower not to fling herself at him.

The problem was that kiss. Maybe if she had never kissed him, she wouldn’t be so convinced at how good they would be together—how amazing it would be.

She sighed. It was going to be a long month. Especially considering he looked at her as if she were an unwanted child foisted upon him that he must babysit. He was all hard resolve. There would be no repeat kisses.

When this was all over and she reentered the land of the living, the first thing she needed to do was get herself a boyfriend to satisfy the itch that Niklas had roused in her.

Who says you need a boyfriend to do that? Who
says you can’t push Niklas into relieving that itch himself? You have a month
…

A wicked smile curved her mouth at such bold and totally uncharacteristic thinking. She wasn’t one to be aggressive—a lifetime of staying below the radar and what you got was someone good at being invisible.

Her hand drifted leisurely over her breast, her palm abrading the already stiff nipple. A rattling sigh escaped her lips, and a deep twist of liquid-hot wanting shot through her body.

She leaned her forehead against the tiled wall, her neck suddenly too weak to support her head, and took a deep breath, telling herself to calm down. She needed to pull it together before she saw him again.

She needed to remember who he was and who she was. Alike and yet different. Different in a way that she couldn’t easily forget. She never had. She never would.

N
iklas walked a hard line through the narrow hall of the B&B, calling himself every name he could think of for agreeing to a scheme that his every instinct screamed at him to avoid. He was breaking every promise he’d ever made to himself.

He unlocked the door to his room and slammed inside. Tossing his bag on the bed, he started packing, muttering to himself. He should just forget about Darby and the girl and go, leave. He would find Cyprian and kill him. He could do that better without them tagging along.
What was he thinking?

Ten years ago, he’d begun this journey. No distractions, no companions or friends. Barely a man, he’d set out alone, his mother forever gone from him, lost to her demon. But the memory of her, of all she’d sacrificed for him, spurred him on.

He’d vowed revenge against those who infected him, on the one who forced his mother into making such a sacrifice.

And now look at him. He had a kid and a woman for companions. No, even worse than that. He had an
infected
kid and a white witch. A white witch whose very scent drove him mad with lust.

The irony wasn’t lost on him that the first woman to get beneath his skin was a white witch. The very thing his mother was … the thing that she
had
been. Before she was taken from him.

He slung his bag over his shoulder and grabbed the gear he’d left scattered about the room. He’d need to stop and restock on ammo and supplies on the way out. He wondered if Darby even knew how to shoot. He’d probably have to give her some instruction on that. Which only irritated him more. The last thing he needed was to take time out for shooting lessons—and he definitely didn’t need proximity to her. Thoughts of touching her already consumed far too much of his mind.

H
IS MOUTH KISSED A
fiery path down her throat, teeth dragging and nipping at her skin. He buried both hands in her hair, pulling her head back for his ravaging mouth.

A deep ache tugged inside her belly, throbbing and squeezing for relief.

He settled his weight between her legs, his hardness prodding against the inside of her thigh. She
opened herself wider for him and slowly slid her hand between their bodies, enjoying the sensation of him against the back of her hand, the belly that was ridged with muscle and satiny skin.

She seized the hard length of him in her hand and ran her thumb over the tip of him. He shuddered over her. His cock filled her palm, pulsing and warm. Hot breath fanned her cheek as she guided him toward her, easing him inside her just a fraction
…

Bang, bang, bang!

Darby bolted upright with a gasp.

She blinked and rubbed her eyes with a fist before swinging her gaze all around her bedroom, fighting the drugging influence of her dream … or vision.

Hell
. Horror washed over her, dousing the heat brought on by her arousal. She didn’t quite know.

For the first time in her life she couldn’t distinguish between dream and vision. The realization left her stunned, shaken and furious with herself. For once in her life, her “gift” was proving unreliable. The one thing she could count on—whether she liked it or not—was the reliability of her visions, the recognition of them for what they were. And now she didn’t even have that.

The banging at her door continued. She stumbled from bed, casting a glance over her shoulder
to see Aimee still asleep, her face flushed, dotted with perspiration. The incessant knocking didn’t rouse her in the least.

Darby peered through the blinds, verifying who was on the other side of the door. With a deep breath and silent command to forget her vision—dream, whatever—she pulled open the door.

Niklas stalked inside. “Didn’t you hear me?”

“I was asleep,” she mumbled, smoothing a hand over her wild hair self-consciously and hoping he didn’t read more into the blush staining her cheeks.

“You’re going to have to toughen up … especially considering where you’re headed.”

She straightened her spine. “I’ve hardly led a rosy existence. I’m tough.”

He ignored her comment. “How’s the girl?”

“Aimee,” she ground out. She motioned to the bedroom. “Still asleep. Feverish like you said.”

“Okay.” He nodded. “Do you have your things ready?”

“Yes.” She’d packed before she fell into bed.

“Good. Let’s go. I have everything we need. She can sleep in the car. We need to move out before Cyprian’s trail grows cold.”

Ten minutes later, they were secured in the comfortable leather seats of Niklas’s Hummer, the heat blasting on high. She sat in the back again,
Aimee’s head cushioned on her lap. She stroked her light brown hair, trying to give the child, as she whimpered in her sleep, as much comfort as she could.

They pulled out from the back lot behind Sam’s diner onto Main. As they approached the first stoplight, Darby surveyed Niklas through the rearview mirror. He looked left and right, considering which way to go.

“You know which way?”

He stopped looking and closed his eyes. The light turned green and still he sat there several moments before raising one finger and dropping it in the air to their right. “That way.”

“Just like that? You know?”

“Yeah.”

As they drove on, Darby turned and looked over her shoulder at the town she was leaving behind. A town like so many others where she’d worked and lived during the last few years. She felt no remorse.

Facing forward again, she looked down at the sleeping girl and vowed to make everything right for her. She brushed a hand over the girl’s forehead. She would see Aimee made it to her grandmother safely. Looking up, she caught Niklas staring at her through the mirror.

He didn’t look away immediately but seemed
to hold her gaze. She tried to read something in those indigo eyes, tried to see something there. She had thought they were alike, but now she wasn’t so convinced. Now she wasn’t sure she could ever know someone like him. Someone who quite clearly didn’t want anyone to know him.

T
hey drove late into the night before stopping at a motel. Niklas carried Aimee inside and laid her on the bed. Darby busied herself getting the girl tucked in. She seemed a little more at ease on the comfortable bed, tossed from side to side less.

“You should get some sleep,” Niklas advised, removing his jacket. She tried not to watch the way his muscles rippled beneath his black sweater, but it was a point of fascination for her. She couldn’t stop the surge of longing. She closed her eyes in a tight blink and looked away. She really was pathetic. This mission wasn’t about her and her misplaced desires. It was about doing what was right for Aimee. Giving her the chance Darby never had.

“Yeah.” She nodded, wrestling off her boots. “Sounds good.” And she really was tired—drained even though all she had had to do was sit in the backseat, silent for the most part, her hands full of Aimee, stroking and petting and lending what comfort she could.

Her few attempts at conversation had been shut down. Or rather ignored. Niklas wasn’t interested in talking. It hardly seemed he was interested in her. It was hard to imagine they had ever shared that kiss. Hard to imagine that he might have ever wanted her even for those brief moments.

So stop imagining it
, a small voice commanded inside her.

Sighing, she doubted that would ever happen. Not as long as they were thrown together like this. Maybe not even when this was all over and they went their separate ways.

N
IKLAS WATCHED AS SHE
gathered her things and moved into the bathroom. He picked up the remote control from the table and forced his gaze away from the closed door and thin glow of light from beneath it. Punching the power button, he flipped channels until he found a news station. Something to do. Something to do to help block the screeching thoughts inside his head. Whirring thoughts that consisted of
her
. Darby, Darby, Darby.

He surfed for a local news channel. He always paid close attention to the news. The latest crime might be more than it appeared. It might be Cyprian. Although he doubted the alpha was doing too much damage at the moment. He was in flight mode now.

He shifted on the motel’s uncomfortable chair. Usually he acquired better accommodations for himself, where he could at least get a good bed, but they were in the middle of nowhere, and this was the first motel they’d come across. Distant trucks roared past on the highway outside.

Splashing noises drifted from the small bathroom, mingling with the busy sounds from outside. The child whimpered on the bed. If he closed his eyes, he could almost pretend he was someone else, somewhere else. Just an ordinary man with a family. A kid napping on the bed, his wife washing up in the bathroom.

He squeezed his eyes in a tight blink and scrubbed his hands over his face—
hard
. He didn’t want that. Didn’t need those images imprinted on him. He’d only ever wanted one thing and it wasn’t that. Not that crazy fantasy.

The sound of water stopped and she reemerged. She looked at him only fleetingly, her gaze avoiding his eyes, skimming him as she rubbed her hands dry on a hand towel. Her attention went to Aimee the precise moment the girl’s small body arched off the bed, as though she was trying to escape from something inside her. And she was. Niklas knew that for a certainty. The memory of his Initiation might be foggy, but he remembered the pain, the misery. The death of himself.

“Shhh,” Darby soothed, dropping down on the bed beside Aimee.

Almost in answer, Aimee whimpered and tossed her head side to side on the pillow. She cried out gibberish but one word rang loud and clear.
Monsters
.

Darby smoothed her hand over her brow and spoke as if the child could hear her. “No monsters are going to get you.”

Niklas snorted, noticing she didn’t deny the existence of those monsters.