The Darkness in Dreams (Enforcer's Legacy, #1)(89)

“You surprise me, Ms. North.” The voice was as colorless as the skin. Lexi released Christan’s broken hands, shifted around toward the massive desk.

“You have me at a disadvantage,” she said. “We’ve never met.”

“And yet you have presented yourself at my office, uninvited. I am Six.” The immortal paused. “Move over here, please.”

Lexi refused.

The man inclined his head. “I have no intention of killing you,” he suggested in a tone that indicated he intended to kill someone.

Lexi walked in his direction, stopping short of where he’d ordered her to stand. The immortal pressed a hand, knuckles down, on the surface of the desk. A flicker of irritation tightened his face. He might not kill her, Lexi realized, but he wanted her to appreciate how badly he would hurt her.

“I see you are as stubborn as he is,” Six said.

“He taught me all I know.”

“It’s a shame he didn’t teach you enough or you’d be safe right now. How did you get here?”

“I have no idea.”

“Was it Three?”

“I’m not familiar with anyone named Three.”

“Of course you are. You’re mated to her enforcer.”

The edge of a blade scored down Lexi’s arm even though Six remained several feet away. A dark pearl of blood pooled above one of the memory lines. Her wrist burned.

“I will ask you again.”

“I was sitting in the middle of Christan’s blood and then I was sitting in the hall outside your door.”

“That is not a sufficient explanation.”

“It’s the only one I have.”

“Please.” The word became an insult. Six tipped his head as he walked toward her and began to circle around, hands clasped behind his back. His feet were moving but there was no sound. The immortal stopped in front of her.

“Three is not stupid,” he said. “She would see the manipulations, anticipate the moves. She knows I’d try to use you if given the chance. I don’t think she’d let me get this far unless she had a reason for doing it.”

Six wasn’t actually talking to her; Lexi realized he was working something out in his mind, staring at her hand that still dripped blood, not just from the wound he had inflicted, but from the deep cut across her palm. For a few seconds Lexi fought the panic behind her eyes. Then a disembodied touch stroked around her throat.

“Why are you here?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not.”

The constriction tightened and relaxed, before tightening again. Lexi thought it felt like a predatory snake.

“Describe again how you got here,” Six instructed.

Lexi looked at the floor, opting for the details but not the secrets. How she’d been on her knees with Christan bleeding out, the screams of wounded men, the silence when he disappeared. She didn’t know if the story was convincing and didn’t care. “Maybe something happened and that’s how I got here.”

“Did you arrive immediately after Christan did?” Lexi shook her head. Behind her, Christan began to move. The immortal said, “I sense energy.”

“I don’t.”

“You’re different.”

“It’s probably because I’m human.”

“No,” Six said slowly, “I don’t think you are.”

The immortal flicked his hand. Kace shimmered at the edges, then shifted into a gray predator. Lion, but unlike any Lexi had ever seen. The pelt was thick and wiry, the muscles archaic. The animal lowered to a crouch, exposing canines longer than her hand. A warning vibrated in the creature’s throat.

The primitive sound sent Lexi backward. She nearly tripped over the thick edge of a rug and wondered if the last lion she would ever fight would be an angel, fallen and profane.

But the creature was not looking in her direction. Christan was walking toward her, totally silent and utterly terrifying. The air exploded as he shifted.

He was an apex predator, a chimera, she thought, like the Etruscan bronze in the museum. Fiercely proud. Wounded but lethal, part lion and something else. A creature of myth.

Kace altered his shape in response until both were equal in size. But not in dominance. The lion backed away while the chimera followed, stalking, testing with lazy curiosity, swiping out to draw first blood. The lion struck back. For an instant, Lexi opened a window in her mind and imagined she was back in her cottage, watching a wildlife show. Muscles bunched with charge and parry; she pictured the two creatures on a savanna with sparse vegetation. Jaws snapped on empty air and she imagined them in a distant jungle. None of her delusions were successful though. The sounds flooded her emotions while massive bodies crashed to the concrete floor. Screams tore at the air when they rolled upright again, twisting in ways joints should never twist. The reality was breaking her heart.

Six stepped closer. His excitement stroked against her back and repugnance drove her forward. He followed. Lexi realized he was pushing her closer to the battle until she stood at the edge.

He did not stop there. When the chimera lunged, Six cut her. The lion went down and Six cut her again, nothing too deep, just stinging enough to make her gasp. Tiny beads of blood dripped on the floor. Then the immortal let her stand there while he made his next move.