The Darkest Kiss (Lords of the Underworld #2)(89)

Death, the warrior had said. Neither he nor Anya had told William that Lucien was possessed by the spirit of Death - only that it was pursuing Anya. Who had told him, then?

"Just leave him alone," Anya snapped. She stopped, forcing William to do the same. Glaring, she launched into a tirade about the warrior needing a curling iron shoved up his ass and flipped to its highest setting.

Lucien suspected she did it to give him a moment to rest. Trying to find his breath, he braced a hand against the icy wall of the mountain ledge. What he hated most about his weakness was his inability to protect his woman. He -

Saw footprints, he realized with a frown.

His entire body tensed. "Anya, be quiet."

She whipped around to face him, surprise darkening her eyes. He hadn't spoken to her like that in days. He had been nothing but gentle with her, treating her as he would a precious treasure. That's what she was. But her safety came before her feelings.

"You did not just tell me to - "

"Hunters," he said, motioning to the ground. He withdrew a dagger from his waist.

Both she and William crowded around him, staring down.

"The prints stop at this wall." Anya frowned and pressed at the ice. "There aren't any prints leading away. Weird. Impossible, even."

"They shouldn't have gotten this far," William said with a frown of his own.

Lucien withdrew another dagger, this one from his boot. He almost dropped it, it seemed so heavy.

"There has to be a door that leads inside," Anya muttered, bending down and feeling for grooves with her gloved hands.

He loved that she didn't run from danger but thought to rush into the midst of it. Yet that scared him, too. This woman was meant to be pampered. Worshipped. Protected. She shouldn't have had to fight for anything; whatever she wanted should have been given to her willingly.

"Found it!" Grinning, she pressed against a crystal rock in the middle of the left side and the ice wall slid open, revealing a darkened doorway.

"How is that possible without my knowledge?" William was shaking his head. "I knew people were journeying into the circle, but I watched them die. Didn't I? Either way, how could they have made a f*cking camp for themselves?" Silver, three-pronged blades slithered from his coat sleeves and he clutched them angrily. "I don't know how many there are, but I'm going to kill them all. Their intentions are not pure; they could have been paid to take me out."

"Your ferocity is a little late," Anya said. "You have to admit that coming out here was a good idea, and you wouldn't have done it without me stealing your book. You can thank me with roses."

William snorted. "What the hell ever."

She turned a concerned gaze to Lucien. "Why don't you wait here, Flowers, and make sure no one else sneaks inside? We'll be back in a little while and - "

He growled low in his throat, his embarrassment intensifying. That she had so little faith in his ability...No. He knew that wasn't true. She was worried for him. Saw his weakness and didn't want him hurt further.

He knew he was feeble, but he wanted her to realize that he would never allow anything to happen to her. No matter the condition of his body.

He would just have to show her.

"I am going in," he said firmly.

"Lucien, you're - "

"Fine. I am fine." He ripped the white cap from his head and tossed it to the ground. He wanted nothing to impede his hearing or his sight. "We will go in with William in the lead," he said, taking charge, "you in the middle and me in the rear." That way she would have a shield in front and behind.

For a moment, it looked like she would argue. Then she pressed her lips together and nodded. "Fine."

"Do you have a gun?" he asked her.

"Only a few daggers." Three of which she already gripped, he noticed proudly. He hadn't seen her grab them.

"Good. That's good."

"Let's go," William said, impatient. "The more time we spend out here, the more time we give them to prepare." He brushed past them and entered the blackened mouth of the cave, determination in every line of his body.

Anya pressed a quick kiss on Lucien's mouth and started forward. He was right on her heels. His eyes quickly adjusted, and he saw the icy walls had been painted with mud to cause the gloomy effect. There wasn't a drip of water, it was simply too cold, and any liquid would turn to ice before it hit bottom, but he did hear the frigid whistle of wind.

Wind? His ears perked. No, not wind, he decided a moment later. The chatter of voices.

" - no closer to finding it and we've been searching for days," a male voice proclaimed.

"The old man said it was here."

Old man...the mythologist?

"We're close. I feel it." Another voice. This one sounded harsher, more determined.

"We'll die out here if we stay much longer." Yet another voice.

So. There were at least three Hunters.

"We can't give up." A fourth, and so far the angriest of the bunch. "The demons must be destroyed. Look at what they did to the people in Budapest. That plague killed hundreds, including many of our own."

"Have the others learned anything from the prisoner?"

Prisoner? He frowned. Who did they have? A Lord? Or other humans?