Shadow's Awakening: The Shadow Warder Series, Book One (An Urban Fantasy Romance Series) (33 page)

They’d go back for the other Shadows if he couldn’t get them out. But for now his only concern was getting to Hannah. If Michael had Hannah captive, saving her would burn Conner’s entire life down to the ground. He’d be an exile, marked for assassination by the Sicari. He didn’t care any more. Hopefully he’d bear most of the collateral damage. If not, he’d have to learn to live with it. He’d thought Hannah would be safer if he let her go. He’d been wrong. She was safest with Conner by her side. No one was more motivated to protect her. No one would take care of her the way Conner would.

Hannah curled closer to Conner, rubbing her cheek against his hard, warm chest. His arms around her infused comfort into her raw nerves. He always smelled so good, earthy and male. He seemed resigned to her lack of information. She wished she knew anything that could help him find her. Unfortunately, by knocking her out when he’d taken her, Michael had ensured that her location was a complete blank.

She didn’t know where she was. She didn’t even know how to get out of the lab. Long white hallways lined with doors and Hannah had no clue which one might be an exit. If she truly thought about the realities of her situation, she’d have a panic attack and be even more useless. Fighting back her growing despair was turning into a full-time job. For now it would have to be enough to know that Conner was trying to track her down. She would work on how to get away. Maybe between the two of them they’d get somewhere.

Hannah had no idea how much time passed as she snuggled on Conner’s lap while he stroked her hair. Gradually, she realized she was more alert, less weak and groggy. Almost as if she’d been absorbing his strength. Could she do that in a dream? It had sounded like a Shadow could do that in the physical world, but here? Maybe. This was no ordinary dream. Or maybe her weakness had only been in her mind. It didn’t matter. She was feeling more like herself. She was alone with Conner and she didn’t want to waste it.

Sitting up, Hannah shifted to straddle his lap. Conner’s eyes widened in surprise. He’d probably thought she’d been lulled to sleep by his gentle strokes in her hair. It had been relaxing, but his constant touch had aroused as it eased.

Cupping his face in her hands, Hannah rubbed his lips with hers, testing their softness. He had such a wonderful mouth—lips perfectly full, made for long, deep kisses. Hannah opened her mouth against his, tracing his lower lip with her tongue. She felt his strong grip on her hips as she deepened the kiss, felt the tension in his fingers. He was holding back, trying not to hurt her with his need. The idea that this man, this soldier, wanted her enough to dig his fingers into her body, yet cared enough to gentle his touch, sent her senses spinning.

Spreading her knees farther apart, Hannah pressed against him, her thin hospital gown providing no barrier between his boxers and her damp heat. His hands left her hips to pull her tightly against him, pressing her round breasts flat. The rub of his chest hair teased her nipples. Giving herself over to the demands of her body, Hannah ground against the length of his hard cock.

Someday, she hoped they’d have the chance to experience what it might be like to take it slow. With the few other men she’d been with, slow had been the only way for her to find any pleasure. Conner set her on fire. One kiss, one embrace, and she was ready to go, core soaking, nipples tight with erotic demand. Thank God he never turned her down. She thought she might die if he did.

“Hannah,” Conner breathed in her ear.

His hands dropped to her ass and took over her restless movement, twisting and pressing her heat into him in a rhythm that stole her breath. The fabric of his boxers was damp over his straining cock, her hospital gown tangled above her naked hips.

“Make love to me, Conner. Please. I want to feel all of you.”

Yet again, Conner didn’t make her wait. Rolling her smoothly to her back, he stripped off his boxers and did as she asked. Hannah let herself go, meeting him thrust for thrust, memorizing every moment to drag out and relive later in her sterile, locked room.

Chapter Twenty

Alexa studied the unassuming disc on her desk. Crafted from the wood of an ash tree, it was a creamy white, sanded satin smooth, and etched with translucent amber lines. The pattern seemed random at first glance. From a few feet away, it almost coalesced into an image of a map. As soon as the eye tried to make sense of it, the almost map collapsed into a mess of pale, meaningless strokes. Alexa ran her finger around the silky edge. Was she willing to part with it just to satisfy her curiosity?

The disc was a location spell, crafted by one of the senior mages, liberated by his apprentice, and used as his ante in a poker game three years before. The apprentice had been certain his full house would take the game or he never would have bet such a valuable spell. Especially a stolen one. When Alexa’s four sevens won the pot, and the spell, the apprentice had gone white. Alexa felt sorry for him, but she hadn’t given back the spell. You shouldn’t bet what you’re not prepared to lose.

Alexa didn’t have many friends. The Warder soldiers she oversaw didn’t like her. She wasn’t interested in spending more time than she had to with the admin types in the Citadel. This left her lonely for company. Once a month she snuck off and met a group of mage apprentices for gossip, beer and poker. They were all male and half the time the meet-ups devolved into conversations about women they were never going to nail and gaming talk. Alexa was polite enough not to mention their lack of skills with women. And she didn’t have a gaming console, so she was lost when Call of Duty or Halo came up. But they always brought the conversation back around to spell craft. She was willing to put up with all the geeky testosterone just to have someone to talk with about spell craft.

The spell in her hand was very valuable. It was far beyond what she or any of the apprentices could create. With it, she could track Michael and find out what he was up to. Common sense told her to leave it alone. Her call had netted nothing. Disdain and dismissal dripping down the line, he’d informed her that the Shadow wasn’t her concern. Once she got over her irritation at the way he’d spoken to her, Alexa thought about what Michael had said. He hadn’t told her that the girl had been picked up. Hadn’t said she was fine, or with the Shadows. Michael had said the girl wasn’t Alexa’s concern. It was possible he was just being an ass, that his phrasing was another attempt to put her in her place.

But he’d been missing more than he’d been in his office in the past week. Not his normal behavior. She’d reviewed the surveillance footage and there was nothing that showed the Shadow girl leaving, or an unknown person entering the Citadel. As far as Alexa could determine, the girl had simply disappeared.

Alexa wanted to know what Michael was up to. Part of it was her natural curiosity. The rest was the desire to see him taken down a peg. He treated her like a lackey when he acknowledged her presence at all. She was the daughter of a fellow Director. She might not have met her father’s high standards, but she was above average in everything she did.

At least until she took over her current position as handler. She had to admit she wasn’t well-suited for this job. But still, Michael thought she was a useless moron, only good for doing exactly what he told her to. Alexa would love to catch him at something. It was unlikely that she would do anything about it even if she did. Going head to head with Michael was a good way to end up in an early grave. But it would be satisfying just to know.

Opening her center desk drawer, she withdrew a long tube of creamy silk. When she placed it on the desk, it unrolled to display a black and silver fountain pen. Taken from Michael’s desk when Alexa was sure he’d left the building, the pen held enough of his essence to feed the location spell. The day before, she’d tried to follow Michael when he left his office. He’d turned a corner and disappeared. It didn’t help that she had to follow at a far distance. In the varied halls of the Citadel, that made it almost impossible to see where he was going.

Her first attempt at spell craft had come to very little. Alexa’s guess was that Michael carried a small charm or disc imprinted with an Obfuscation spell. Something that deflected her average-level efforts. The spelled disc she held would be able to get past almost any defense. It was the only option. Or she could just walk away.

Alexa tapped her index finger on the small wood circle for a few seconds. Then, before she could change her mind, she pushed back from her desk and locked her office door. Unfolding the plans she’d liberated from the building’s storage room for her unsuccessful spell, Alexa set a small copper bowl no bigger than her palm on her desk beside the building plans. In the bowl she poured enough black sand to fill it halfway. The stolen pen she stuck into the sand deep enough to hold it upright. Beside it she planted the spelled disk. She hesitated before she picked up the match and striking plate. If she did this, the spell would be gone. It might be years before she got her hands on anything this powerful again. Biting her lip as if to stem her own protest, Alexa lit the match and held it to the disc. It caught immediately in a flare of yellow and orange flame. In seconds, the disc was gray ash, sinking into the black sand. As the last of the ash dissolved into the black sand, a glowing blue circle appeared on the building plans in the space designated for the Director’s office. Alexa settled back to wait.

Michael remained in his office for another half hour. Finally, his marker began to move. First to another Warder’s office where it tarried for close to fifteen minutes. Alexa thought she might die of impatience and frustration. Do something already, she thought. After what seemed like an age, the blue marker began to move, this time toward the elevators.

Alexa watched as he dropped floor after floor, switching blueprints to follow his progress. When he neared the garage level, she looked to make sure she had a city map handy. Fortunately for her, the spell left a light gray trail on the maps, so she didn’t have to take notes on his travels. Otherwise, she might have been looking away at the wrong moment and missed it.

On the garage level, he exited the elevator. But instead of walking to his parking spot by the door, he turned down to the left and stopped in front of the service elevators. Why did he need the service elevators?

Further confounding her, he got in the service elevator and went down. There was nothing one floor down from the garage but mechanical and plumbing. Then, the glowing blue marker disappeared. Completely. She went through every map and found him on none of them. It was impossible. He had to be somewhere.

Alexa flopped back in her desk chair, growling with frustration. Where the hell could he be? Now she was glad she’d used the spell. Disappearing into thin air? He was definitely up to something. It took three endless hours of waiting before Michael’s marker popped up again. He rode the elevator back to the garage level, exited and walked to his car as she’d expected him to do hours before. Alexa stayed where she was until she watched his marker drive out of the city, south to his home in Myers Park. She gave it another twenty minutes to be sure he was staying home before she carefully put away the evidence of her spell craft and prepared to follow Michael’s trail.