Alterant (Belador #2)(73)

Somewhere from deep in his mind, a thought came charging forward, as if he’d commanded the very words to march into battle. “She’s with Tristan.”

That’s all I needed to hear. Now I want to feel you inside me. She removed her fingers.

He wanted to snarl at her to go back and finish what she’d started, but it was as if someone had thrown a switch on his body. His muscles and limbs once again functioned.

His skin burned to rub against hers. He rolled her over, feeling nothing but her and sheets touching his skin.

They were both naked.

Just like last time.

Perfect.

The only thing stopping him from exploding when he finally shoved inside her was a basic male drive for control. Carnal need raced through his cells, burning him to take her. He struggled for a second with the sense this was not right, but her muscles clinched and his thoughts splintered. Pulling back, he slowly pushed into her again, shaking with his need for her.

She urged him, Now, Quinn. Just like last time.

Her nails dug into his shoulders.

Bloody hell, yes. He held her hips and drove deep inside her.





TWENTY-FOUR




That had to be the quickest teleporting trip in the world, which worked just fine for Evalle if not for the brief sick stomach.

Too bad it had been with Tristan and not Storm, her personal favorite as a full-time transport partner.

She opened her eyes and expelled a breath that came out as a white puff in the chilly air. “It’s colder than I thought it would be.”

“Creepy, huh?” Tristan said close to her ear.

“A kid’s Halloween spook house is creepy. This is a twilight zone.” She hadn’t known what to expect with a name like Maze of Death, but not this. The hand-hewn dirt-and-rock tunnel that stretched in front of her glowed in spots where an eclectic mix of antique gas lanterns had been mounted.

She doubted any fuel lines ran to them.

Who would have been paying the gas bill?

Framed paintings hung along the walls at intervals, and an assortment of rugs covered the dirt floor in places.

Tristan angled his head toward the tunnel. “From what I could tell on my first trip through this place, someone moved personal effects down here. Guess it made the spirits feel at home.”

“Wonder how they kept this from being discovered when MARTA built the subway system?”

“They’ve had over a hundred years to develop their spirit skills, and the subway only intersects it at a couple places.” Tristan’s fingers curled around her right side.

She cut her gaze over her shoulder at him. “Take your hand off me if you value it.”

“You looked cold.” His eyes dropped to her chest.

She refused to look down. “Keep looking down there and your nose is going to have a swift introduction to my boot. Last warning before you end up with a nub.”

He withdrew his hand. “Thought we were working together.”

“To a point.”

“In that case, let’s get moving.”

She turned all the way around to face him. “Not until I get some answers.”

“The Tribunal didn’t put you on a time clock?”

She literally worked against the sands of time with no idea when the last grain would fall. “Speaking of the Tribunal, they know you escaped and they’re blaming me.”

No surprise in his face. “I heard, but I don’t know how they found out.”

“They caught you on a security camera in Atlanta and now VIPER has a hunt-to-kill order on me, you and the other three, along with every other Alterant shifting in the fog.”

“Heard that, too. You should throw in with me.”

“No!” What did she have to do to get through to him? “Your chances are better by working with me to get all of us in front of the Tribunal.”

“I’ll have to think about that.”

“While you’re thinking about that, you can tell me what you didn’t say in front of Storm when we were on the other side of the wall.”

Tristan asked innocently, “Such as?”

“The location of the other three Alterants.”

“I told you they aren’t where I left them.”

“Which is a sly way to avoid either telling me a specific location . . . or admitting you don’t know where they are in here. Right?” If he’d been in the maze all the time she and Storm had searched for him, Tristan should have covered every inch by now.

“They’re in this maze.”

“Not good enough. I’m not moving until you give me everything. And I think you know exactly where they are, so the question is, why did you bring me, since you don’t need my help to find them? If you want my help, I want the truth.”

Tristan took in a deep breath of the chilly air, which came out in a white stream. “I left them in a room with two benign spirits and enough food to hold the three for a couple weeks. That’s why I couldn’t let you leave me in the jungle. I thought they were going to die because I couldn’t get back. But when I got here, they were gone.”

She could sympathize with him better now for having used her to escape if his story turned out to be true. “Where’d they go?”

“Into a large cavern deep inside here.” The smug cockiness normally inhabiting his face had given way to a haunted look he wore too easily.