The Darkness in Dreams (Enforcer's Legacy, #1)(32)

Christan wanted to shift. Robbie was kneeling at his shoulder, pressing a hand to hold him steady. Christan heard him telepathically.

“You can’t shift, Christan. There might be broken bones or internal injuries.”

Christan’s breathing slowed, heart rate too, and the warmth pooling at his side told him he was bleeding. He must have fallen on the debris from the explosion, but he should be healing by now. He shouldn’t be lying here listening to the frantic beating of her heart as she watched him from across the room.

“Holy fuck, Lexi.” Arsen was walking toward her where she sat frozen in the chair. “Do not move, do not blink or I’ll put you down so hard on the floor you’ll never get up.”

“Arsen, she didn’t—”

“Not your time to speak, Marge.”

Robbie made a sharp sound of censure, then refocused on the calming pressure he was forcing into Christan’s mind. Christan didn’t think it was working. Every muscle in his body clenched with the need to shift.

“My apologies,” Arsen said to the older woman as he walked back to Christan’s side.

The bleeding hadn’t stopped. Robbie was applying pressure. Christan had been wounded many times before, but this was… different. Cold. A hidden pain, like a burning ember buried in the ash, waiting for the first puff of air. There was a thundering in his ears, a pounding in his temples. When the pain became incandescent Christan closed his eyes. He wanted to plunge over the dark abyss but found himself somewhere else. A place where the air was hot and dry, and the figure kneeling by his side was feminine. He heard the soft sound of her breathing. Cool fingers were tender as she washed blood from his skin. Her hair was pale, like a shaft of sunlight in winter, her eyes pure amber with a lion’s humor.

“Warrior… come back to me.”

Sunlight overhead, so dazzling all he saw was the cloud of her hair. She pressed something against his side and he flinched at the sting.

“Good. You’re alive enough to feel.”

He made an inarticulate sound, and she laughed. Kissed him. “You like that, warrior?”

So husky, that laugh. It brought him to a hard erection that throbbed to the point of pain.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she brushed her mouth against his throat. “You should have moved to the left like I expected.”

“You shot me?” She was deadly with her bow.

“You insisted.” She had taken him up on his dare. Usually it was he who penetrated her with piercing sensuality and no need for the bow. His hand fisted in her hair as he dragged her to his mouth.

“I remember, Gaia. I was teaching you to fight.”

“Yes.” She sat back on her heels and watched as he pushed up on his elbows. She was so innocent his heart clenched.

Not like Gemma. Not like the woman who stood with hate in her heart in the middle of a moonlit road. The woman he made into a mirror of himself.

Not like Lexi, who had put him on the floor. And he had deserved it.

Marge’s voice again. “Will you at least let me take her to the bedroom? She doesn’t need to watch this.”

“She caused it.” Arsen, snarling—an unusual sound.

No, I did. Christan pressed the knowledge into Arsen’s mind before he drifted into unconsciousness.





CHAPTER 13





“I have to leave. They won’t let me leave, will they? Not while he’s hurt and I did it.”

“Lexi, calm down. Breathe.” Marge guided Lexi toward the bed, then went back to close the door. “If you hyperventilate I’ll have to get a paper bag.”

“What did I do, Marge? What the hell did I do?”

“I’m not sure. I’ve never seen anything like it. Christan is—I thought he was invincible, but Robbie will bring him back.”

Lexi wasn’t as confident. She pushed agitated fingers through her hair, forcing herself to think.

“What was that explosion?”

“Harassment. An attack would be obvious by now. I don’t think they’ll be back.”

“Unless they realize Christan’s lying on the floor because I did something to him.”

“Lexi,” Marge cautioned, remaining calm. “Arsen has called in other warriors. Robbie says if they shift they’ll be here in half an hour.”

“How do you know?”

“He told me before we left the room. Didn’t you see me pause?”

Lexi hadn’t seen anything except Christan, unmoving on the floor, and the anger on Arsen’s face. Yes, she had seen that anger. It frightened her. Unable to remain sitting, she began to pace from the bed to the window and back again. Marge remained silent. Lexi realized there were bits of white plaster in Marge’s hair and blood on her face.

“You’re hurt.”

“A small cut. Robbie will tend to it.” Marge smiled, and the connection to her warrior was obvious. It ripped at a place inside Lexi that was viciously tender. She gripped her hands together to keep them from shaking.

“If you want to go to Robbie, please go. I won’t try to leave.”

“I know that. You aren’t a coward, even when you’re terrified.”

“He was so angry.” Lexi wrapped her arms against her waist, working through the events. The disbelief in Christan’s eyes. His pallor and the amount of blood on the floor. The seconds she stared at his chest willing him to take the next breath. “I wasn’t trying to hurt him. He was in my mind and I wanted to push him out.”