The Darkness in Dreams (Enforcer's Legacy, #1)(64)

“What happened?” she asked despite her rapid breathing.

“The predicted response.”

“To what?”

“The little disagreement we cleared up this afternoon.”

“And Arsen?”

“He’s following Katerina to keep her safe.”

“She won’t want him there. She told me they know you and Arsen are here, that there’s some interest in finding me.”

“Yes.” A slight pause. “This is an effort to get to you.”

“But you’re not going to let them.”

“No,” Christan answered. “I’m not going to let them.”

The night sounds faded. Tall stone buildings and arched passaggios closed in until the entire world seemed made of gray stone. They kept to the deepest shadows. Lexi caught the menace of a pursuer once, reacted to another threat in the distance. Her breathing grew labored and she kicked her endurance up another notch. They reached a road edged with buildings that were silent and dark, an office complex, shut down for the weekend.

“I need you to listen,” Christan said. “This is a fight that won’t stop after tonight, no matter what the outcome.”

“Who are they?”

“Three’s enemies.”

“Why fight here?”

“One’s security is weaker and the targets softer.”

“You knew that when you came to Italy.”

“The same way you knew you wouldn’t follow the rules.”

Christan pulled her around a sharp corner and she cooperated, feeling a twinge of guilt. They were heading toward an enclosed square. Without emotion, Christan told her about a garage door set into the stone wall. It would be hard to see, he said, but the building was to the left of where they would enter and she should go in that direction. He was calm. Lexi noticed how the cadence in his voice changed as he shifted into an implacable place.

“The door is not locked,” he added, “even though it looks that way. Lift the latch and remove the bar. Inside is a Range Rover with the key in the ignition. I would have you drive as far away as you can as quickly as you can and not look back.”

“What about you?”

“I will be... busy.”

Lexi stiffened at the implication.

“It is far more important to me that you get away,” he continued. “You have my phone. There is a second phone beneath the front seat, untraceable. Luca’s number has been programed into contacts. Call him when you are far enough away to be safe. Be sure that no one has followed you, and don’t stay in one place while you wait for Luca’s men.”

He was giving her instructions as if he expected her to follow them. “I’m not leaving without you.”

Christan ignored her. “Luca will know what to do. He will get you back to Three. She won’t let you stay at Arsen's compound. Do what she says.”

“I’m not letting some immortal tell me where to live.”

“She’s already made arrangements.” A flash of lightning overhead, violent and white-hot, illuminating the sharp planes and deadly concentration on Christan’s face. A few seconds later thunder crashed, reverberating off the confining walls of the buildings. Christan had turned from her side. He was beauty and perfection, surveying the way they’d come before he urged her forward.

The dark menace was gaining in strength and Lexi ran, shutting down all outside distraction, jumping over discarded bricks and dodging around the pile of lumber. Christan’s breathing never changed as he paced himself behind her. Lexi could feel the coiled threat, the muscles bunching as if ready for the kill. She didn’t want to see the look in his eyes.

Lexi felt him slow when they reached the open square. Buildings surrounded them on four sides. The roads leading away were narrow and dark. Roosting birds flew into the air like dead leaves in the wind. Lexi searched for the garage, saw the heavy double doors buried in a shadowed wall, dug in for the energy she needed to reach it.

Behind her, Christan was braced in a defensive stance. Two figures were moving through the shadows. Lexi’s fingers fumbled on the antique door latch before she dampened the heat of panic. It was enough. She pressed inward on the heavy metal bar and then lifted upward.

In the dark, she heard the chilling voices, the icy warning, shivered beneath the pressure waves that ripped deep clefts in the air. Then a loud animal scream, sounds she had never heard and hoped never to hear again. She closed her mind to the wet ripping and the rising iron smells of savaged flesh. Until this moment she hadn’t comprehended what men like Christan did, not even in her most vicious dreams.

Do not hope for happy endings with someone as far from you as I am.

Stiff hinges protested as Lexi forced back the wooden doors. Darted inside. The heavy-bodied Range Rover was just ahead, but her hands were sweaty. Her fingers slipped against the driver’s side door before she got it open, found the keys. But the vehicle had a stick shift and Lexi hated driving a stick shift, could never get the coordination right. She twisted around and looked back into the moonlit plaza.

Two massive animals circled while shadowy forms emerged from the alley. Lexi counted three, then dragged her gaze to the two in the center of the square. Tendons and muscles bunched beneath night dark pelts, slick with a wet sheen that wasn’t water.

With a scream, one lunged toward the throat of the other. The predator answered with a savage twist of its jaws. In seconds, the body crumpled to the ground without moving while others approached from the shadows.