Darkness Unleashed (Guardians of Eternity #5)(40)

Styx was by nature a control freak, and while Darcy had gone a long way to soften his rigid instincts, he couldn’t change centuries of habit overnight.

“Even if it puts you in danger?” he at last demanded.

“Yes.”

“Independence is one thing, Regan, and stubborn foolishness another.”

“Do you live under the roof of the Anasso?” she challenged.

His fingers lingered on the pulse at the base of her throat, the rush of her blood teasing his senses with sweet temptation.

“I have a private lair, but I owe fealty to the Anasso, as well as Viper,” he murmured, unwittingly lowering his head to drink in her intoxicating scent.

Her pulse leaped beneath his fingertips.

“Viper?” she rasped.

“Clan chief of Chicago. When either commands my service, I must obey.”

“Like coming to Hannibal to collect a dysfunctional Were?”

His lips twitched. “Yes.”

She sucked in a shuddering breath, as conscious as Jagr of the potent awareness that jolted between them.

“Why give them such power?”

Abruptly realizing his fingers had drifted to the distracting fullness of her lips, Jagr dropped his hand and stepped away.

What the devil was he doing? His highly honed senses might assure him that there were no dangers in the area, but that didn’t mean they weren’t sitting targets.

Where was his ruthless self-discipline? His icy logic? His barren disinterest in others?

When it came to Regan, he was as easily distracted as a dew fairy high on honey.

“A vampire without a clan is always seen as a threat,” he retorted, taking her arm to steer back through the narrow entrance into the cave. “My only hope for a measure of peace was to find a chief who controlled a stable clan with no thirst for war. Nothing is without cost. Even freedom.”

Shaking off his hand, Regan folded her arms over her chest and dug in her heels.

“Well, I’m not willing to become a pampered hostage to my sister in exchange for safety. I’d rather take my chances with the curs.”

His lips twisted at her predictable response. “Hardly a logical decision.”

“I don’t want to be logical. I want to find Culligan and kill him. Speaking of which…”

With a blur of speed, Jagr had moved to block the opening. “Wait, little one.”

A frustration that Jagr fully appreciated tightened her beautiful features.

“Now what?”

“Unless you want to leave behind your clothes, you will need to take them with us. We can’t risk returning here.”

“Why bother finding a new lair? They’ll just track us down again.”

“Trust me.”

Emerald eyes sparked with irritation at his command for her blind faith, but astonishingly, she spun on her heel and marched toward the back of the cave rather than try to rip out his heart.

Jagr wasn’t sure whether to be pleased or terrified as he followed in her stormy wake.

In silence, she gathered the bags that were so obviously precious to her, stoically ignoring Jagr as he placed his own belongings into the leather satchel he’d brought from Chicago.

Tossing it over his shoulder, he moved to halt Regan as she reached for the rumpled clothes he’d peeled from her delectable body such a short time ago.

“Leave a few behind.”

Her brows snapped together. “Why?”

“I thought you were going to trust me.”

Chapter 10

I thought you were going to trust me…

Regan clutched the stuffed bags to her chest, her jaw clenched at Jagr’s soft words.

She wanted to laugh at his words.

She’d spent thirty years being tormented, betrayed, and abused by everyone she had ever known. Now, a lethal vampire she’d met only days ago wanted her to blithely put her life in his hands?

Yeah, right.

So…why wasn’t she laughing?

Maybe because her every instinct told her that Jagr would do everything in his power to keep her safe.

Whether out of fear his Anasso would mount him on the wall of his throne room or for some more personal reason was impossible to say.

“Here.” Reading her conflicting emotions with annoying ease, Jagr moved forward, holding out a silver box in an obvious effort to distract her.

It worked.

Her eyes widened as she took Culligan’s private safe. “I dropped this when you went juggernaut and launched us through the back of the RV.” She met his searching gaze. “How’d you get it?”

“I had Levet retrieve it. There are papers in the bottom we haven’t looked through yet.”

“You think they might be important?”

“We can only hope.”

Contemplating what papers Culligan could possibly have that he considered worth keeping, Regan lowered her guard. A stupid mistake. Before she could blink she found herself hauled off her feet and firmly cradled against his chest.

Damn vampire speed.

“What are you doing?” she hissed, cursing the bulky bags and metal safe that tangled her arms and made it impossible to struggle. “Put me down.”

He ignored her command (big freaking surprise), moving with fluid ease across the cave.

“We can’t be sure that the explosion wasn’t a ruse to draw you out of the cave. We’ll have to sneak out.”