The Darkest Night (Lords of the Underworld #1)(51)

They'd thought, hoped, vacationing here would help dull the grief and make them feel closer to a man they'd never see again. Granddad had loved it here, had constantly talked about the magical two weeks he'd spent here before marrying Grandma.

He had never mentioned a group of homicidal warriors with wings.

"We've searched the room over and over again," her grandma said. Her weathered face was more lined than usual. "The only way out is the front door or the window, and we can't open either one."

"Why do they want to hurt us?" Ginger cried. Her blue gaze was watery, her pale hair damp from her many bouts of tears. Red splotches stained her skin from forehead to chin.

None of them were pretty criers.

"They didn't say." Danika sighed. God, what a nightmare. Right before they'd been taken, she and her family had toured the castle district. She'd never seen anything so lovely as the multihued lights shining from hundreds of years of majestic architecture. She'd yearned for her paints, her canvas, wanting to capture the sights.

And that's exactly what she'd planned to do at the hotel. Paint.

But the moment she'd stepped inside her room, a man - a large, scarred man with dark hair and oddly colored eyes - had accosted her. He'd smelled of flowers, she remembered, the scent somehow comforting her even in the midst of the greatest panic attack of her life. The winged man had been there, too, only his wings had been hidden underneath a T-shirt.

How easily they'd subdued her. Shame still filled her at the thought. Four women against two men, and still the women had lost, had hardly put up a fight. They'd been knocked out and carted here, awakening in this very room.

"Maybe we should try to seduce a key from one of them," Ginger whispered to her.

The dark-skinned, black-eyed warrior immediately pushed his way into Danika's thoughts. Every time she'd seen him, he'd been bleeding. Clumsy? He hadn't seemed so, but... Perhaps she should have offered to "doctor" his wounds. Maybe he would have been nicer to her. Maybe he would have helped her when she'd asked.

Maybe he would have kissed her.

The thought alone excited her, damn it. "No woman should have to barter her body to escape a prison," she said, angry at herself. The image of Reyes swam before her eyes again, and she found herself adding, "But I'll think about it."

Maddox held Ashlyn for several hours as she napped, hopefully reviving body and soul. Time was his enemy, midnight fast sneaking up on him, but he didn't wake her. Not even when he stripped her of her shoes and sweater, revealing delicate feet and a T-shirt that clung to her round breasts, his blood burning with arousal.

Lunch had long since come and gone. He was hungry, but he wanted Ashlyn more than he wanted food. Holding her...hearing her melodious, sleep-rumbling sighs... heaven.

Her breasts, smashed against his side, were unbelievably soft. One of her arms was draped over his stomach, cleaving to him in a tight embrace, as if she feared, even in sleep, that he might slip away.

More at peace than he had been in centuries, he was not surprised when his eyelids began to grow heavy and his mind began to drift.

Awaken, warrior. I have returned, a voice said in his mind. An all-too-familiar voice. Now this surprised him.

Maddox stiffened, eyelids springing open as fury speared him, completely chasing away the sleep-fog. Gaze sharp, he quickly searched the room. He saw no one lurking about, no suspicious shadow.

He would rather deal with an intruder, a Hunter, than this Titan who had promised to help Ashlyn and then had abandoned her. Would the being now attempt to rip her from his arms?

Where is my thanks, warrior?

He felt a slight hum of power, the air thickening, twisting. Ashlyn released a breathy sigh and he forced himself to relax. He wanted her to wake up, but not until the god was gone. If she were to anger the being, even unintentionally, she could be hurt.

"Who are you?" he whispered.

I shouldn't have to tell you, was the annoyed reply.

Maddox popped his jaw, doing his best to remain at peace. No violence, no raging. How cruel the Titan was to make him guess. "What do you want from me... great one?"

You promised me anything. Everything.

"I promised you anything you wanted if you saved the girl. You did not save her," he said, even as his mind screamed, Do not provoke the god! "We did."

And yet she is alive.

"But you did nothing." He pressed his lips together. Antagonizing a god was not wise. But he feared what he would be asked to do if he agreed with the being, knowing it would be payment for aid that had not been given.

Are you sure? The voice was silky now, daring him to contradict.

Was he sure? Danika had helped with her strange pounding on Ashlyn's chest, then by breathing life into her lungs. Reyes and Aeron, too, had done their part. Maddox had held her, cleaned her and comforted her.

What could this being have done? Does it matter? he thought then. "What do you want me to do?" he asked, resigned.

There was a satisfied purr. Tell your friends to visit Kerepesi Cemetery at midnight. They are to take no weapons. They are to tell no one what they are doing. They are to come alone, and I will visit them. I will show them exactly who I am.

"At midnight, we will be otherwise occupied."

Your death-curse. Yes, I know. Lucien and Reyes have my permission to arrive late.