Born of Shadows (The League Gen 1 #3)(25)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

He screwed his face up at her reminder. “Don’t be saying that evil shit to me, hon. You’ll jinx me.”

At least that succeeded in lightening her doom and gloom.

Resisting another urge to kiss her, Caillen grabbed the injector and a small bottle of adrenaline out of his pack. No need to take that around her. Some things he didn’t like sharing. He started to leave.

“Wait.”

He turned back to her. “Yeah?”

“I took your contacts and teeth out while you slept. I was afraid they might hurt you.”

And that was a really good thought. Though it was also creepy to think about someone handling him like that while he was unconscious. “Where’d you put them?”

She pointed to the outside pocket of his backpack.

Caillen dug them out and put them back on. “Thanks.”

She inclined her head to him. “Good luck.”

“Don’t need it.”

He hoped. But no need in stressing her out any more.

Desideria watched as Caillen climbed up and out of their hiding spot. His movements were slow and methodical, and lacked his usual grace but really, if one didn’t know how fluidly he normally moved, they’d never be able to tell he was injured. But she knew he was still in pain. She started to tell him he was a lunatic for doing this, but she didn’t want to make any sound in case some of the Andarions were around.

“Good luck,” she whispered, hoping she’d see him again. Because in the back of her mind was an image of him being hurt and her being killed. God, she really hoped that wasn’t a premonition.

Caillen took a moment to wince as he stood up in the warehouse and got his bearings. There was a slight chill in the air that cut through his coat and sent a shiver down his spine. Man, he was in pain. The last thing he wanted was to hunt down supplies, especially given how bad his head throbbed.

You’ve had worse wounds.

True. Very true. And at least it was night and this outpost only had one moon. Instead of bitching, he needed to be grateful it wasn’t worse.

Adjusting his backpack, he started forward, making sure to keep to the shadows.

As he walked along the quiet street, he reprogrammed his debit card for Fain Hauk, Dancer’s older brother. The good thing about the last name Hauk, it was so common for Andarions as to be ridiculous and Fain, unlike Dancer, was also a common name for them. While Fain, as a criminal, was notorious, the name itself was generic enough to not raise many, if any, questions over it.

And if they did confuse him with Dancer’s brother, their fear of Fain’s ruthless reputation would be such that none should question or bother him.

He slid the card into his back pocket. If he dared to turn on his computer, he could reprogram his facial recog too, to match the name, but that would be begging for trouble. He’d have to wing it and hope they didn’t bother to check his facial recog. If they did…

Please let me have that one more small favor.

With any luck at all, the so commoness would continue to cover him enough that he wouldn’t have to make a mad dash in his busted body or use the adrenaline shot. But as he crept forward, he saw a shadow mimic his movements.

Yeah, it was definitely following him.

16

Desideria started to follow after Caillen even though he’d told her to stay put. She didn’t like being left behind. What if he didn’t come back?

Or if the Andarions found her while he was gone?

You turn yourself in and hope they don’t eat you. Yeah, getting eaten would definitely stink. And it was strange that while he was unconscious that fear hadn’t been as potent as it was now. Now it was palatable.

What is wrong with me?

She could fight the Andarions on her own. It would be easier now since she wouldn’t have to cover someone who was unconscious. She tightened her grip on her blaster as she plotted various escape and fighting scenarios in her head. Luck always favored the prepared. One thing her people knew how to do was plan for battle.

Caillen had left her with two weapons, but he’d taken his backpack. She hated that. Over the last few days, she’d come to rely on it as much as he did. There was something weirdly comforting about its contents. No wonder he’d risked his life to go back for it.

I’ve gone insane.

Who would consider a backpack worth their life?

Besides Caillen.

And with every second that passed, she sensed more of her sanity slipping away. In fact, time stretched out to the point she had to get up and pace around the cramped, empty space. Odd how it hadn’t bothered her to be here when Caillen had been unconscious. Even passed out, he had such a commanding presence that it’d soothed her and kept her patient.

Yeah, okay, I am losing it for real this time.

’Cause all she could focus on was how much she’d enjoyed using his body as a pillow at night and dragging her finger down the line of his whiskered jaw right before she went to sleep. He’d probably kill her if he realized she’d done that. But he’d been irresistible and it’d led her to thoughts that she shouldn’t have about any male. Especially since she couldn’t mate for at least a year.

That was if her mother didn’t fully degrade her back to child status once she was home.

Don’t think about it.

She continued to pace the small area as she waited. It seemed like years had come and gone before she heard a sound above.

Her heart stopped. Pulling out the blaster, she braced herself for a fight and aimed it to shoot whoever was about to pounce on her. The rusted lock turned with excruciating slowness as someone fumbled with it.

Finally, the door creaked open to show her Caillen. Unconcerned about the heart palpitations he’d given her, he lowered himself into their space. He ignored the fact she had a blaster aimed at his head, as if it were a normal occurrence for him, then shut the door tight.

Handing her a small bag as she holstered her weapon, he grinned. “You a cannibal?”

She scowled at his peculiar question. “Beg pardon?”

“Do. You. Eat. Humans?” he repeated, carefully enunciating each word.

“Not. That. I. Know. Of.” She mimicked his staccato rhythm and dry tone.

“Didn’t think so.” He dropped his backpack in the corner, then took out a new light stick that he snapped and shook. He dropped it on the floor before he faced her. “Any idea how hard it is to score nonhuman meat in this place? Really, the League would have a shit fit to see the menu items on this rock.”

She would have been amused, but for his new appearance. There was a cut above his eye and his clothes were even more rumpled than they’d been before he left.

Had he been in a fight? Surely not and yet…

“Are you bleeding?”

He scratched at his chin in the most adorable sheepish action she’d ever seen. “Flesh wound.” Oh yeah, that tone was completely defensive.

“What happened?”

He let out a tired sigh. “Would you believe some psycho dumb ass tried to mug me? Me? At first, I thought it was the authorities with a lucky strike. Nah. Moron. He’s having a worse day than we are.”

“How so?”

“I switched IDs with him.”

She was both horrified and amused by what he’d done. If they found the ID, they’d know they were here. “Are you out of your mind?”

“Yes. But it gets the Enforcers off our backs for a bit and hopefully our frenemy assassin won’t have a brain either. They’ll be chasing the mugger every time he tries to use it which will hopefully be a lot—and if he’s good at eluding them, he could buy us a lot of time. And best of all, I picked his pocket and got a pretty good wad of cash from him. The idiot didn’t even know what I did. What kind of thief can’t feel his own wallet being lifted, I ask you? You know, it’s time to just surrender the occupation when you suck that much.” Laughing, he pulled a hot sandwich out of the bag and held it out toward her.

She could kiss him for his kindness. The delicious smell made her stomach cramp so hard that for a moment she thought she’d be sick. Forcing it down, she took the sandwich from him with a calmness she didn’t feel and unwrapped it even though part of her wanted to start eating it, wrap and all.

“If I start biting on my fingers, don’t stop me.”

He gave her a knowing grin as he ate his own.

She bit into the sandwich and savored the sweet meat taste. Oh yeah, this was good and she was unbelievably grateful to him for bringing it back. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” He swallowed his bite before he spoke again. “By the way, just so you know, I’d normally be charging a fee for this service.”

“What service?”

“Feeding you.”

She didn’t know why, but that offended her. “Excuse me?”

His dark eyes glowed with wicked warmth as he raked his gaze slowly over her body as if savoring every inch. For some reason she couldn’t name, it made her stomach flutter. “Oh yeah, baby. A meal for a beautiful woman… at least a kiss for it. It’s mandatory. But since I know how hungry you are, I’m letting it slide. Next time… it will cost you.”

Her anger vanished under the weight of his gentle teasing.

“I don’t know. If I were you, I’d hold out for something better.”

His eyes widened. “Really?”

“Mmm… yeah, hell to freeze over.”

He laughed good-naturedly before he returned to eating his sandwich. “There’s more food in the bag and drinks. Just so you know. I got plenty to feed even my sister Kasen, and believe me, she eats like an overweight torna.”

Now that was impressive. It was said a torna ate three times its two-hundred-pound body weight a day.

Desideria fell silent as she tried to eat in spite of her cramping stomach. She was starving, but at this point her body was so used to being hungry that it wanted to reject her offering. Never had she been more miserable.

It was several minutes before her body calmed down enough that she could focus on anything else. She glanced over at Caillen. He sat in the corner, on the cold ground without so much as a thought about it. The laces on his left boot were untied. He was such a beguiling combination of rogue and gentleman.

His sister had definitely raised him right.

And that thought led her to the memory of the woman in the vidframe she couldn’t identify. She didn’t even know why, but there was a bitter pain in her every time she thought about why he kept that woman’s photo with the rest of his family and friends.

Before her brain could interfere with her mouth, she found the last question she wanted to ask falling out and breaking the silence. “Who’s the woman in the last still when you turn on your frame?”

He froze midchew before he leveled a murderous glare at her. That menacing look actually sent a shiver over her body and aw the killer that resided inside him. For one nanosecond, she half expected him to leap at her throat. “You went through my stuff?”

“It was a long two days.”

That only seemed to anger him more. “You went through my stuff?”

She sighed irritably. “Are you going to keep repeating that question?”

His glare intensified and the venom in his voice was chilling. “I hate for anyone to search my things without my permission. It gets so far under my skin that it might as well be a DNA marker.”

“Sorry,” she said honestly. “I didn’t realize it was such an issue for you.”

He scoffed before he took a drink. “You grow up in a six-hundred-square-foot box and have three older nosy-ass sisters in your business all the time, claiming it’s for your own good, then you’ll see what a big deal privacy is. I cannot stress enough how much I hate the thought of my belongings being touched without my consent. By anyone but me.”

Obviously they’d searched his things a lot and left him very bitter from it. “I said I’m sorry and I really am—I promise I won’t do it again now that I know how much it bothers you. Now who is she? I figured out your sisters and your mother. But she doesn’t seem to fit.” The unknown woman was much taller than his sisters and even more beautiful than Shahara. He’d only had one photo of her standing near a rundown cargo ship Desideria had assumed was his. In spite of her cold eyes, the woman had looked angelic and so sweet that it’d sent a wave of unfounded jealousy through her.

Caillen didn’t respond for a few minutes as he glared at the floor as if it, too, had offended him somehow. It was obvious he still had very strong and very ill feelings toward the woman—at least she hoped it was toward the woman and not her for her snooping. “Her name’s Teratin.”

He used the present tense which meant the woman was still alive—another thing that really annoyed her when it shouldn’t. You can’t kill her, Desi.

The peculiar thing was that she did want to hunt her down and at least punch her.

But she had no intention of letting Caillen know that. “That’s a pretty name.”

“Yeah well, lots of poisonous things have pretty names.” There was no missing the venom that shot daggers toward her as he met her gaze. He hated that woman with a passion that was staggering.

That degree of animosity surprised her and in a part of her that would make her mother proud she was glad he hated her. “If you don’t like her why do you keep a picture of her in your frame?”

The heat in his gaze was scorching. “To remind me not to trust anyone. Ever. That no matter what comes out of someone’s mouth—no matter how much they say they’ll never betray you—one tiny, insignificant thing can turn them against you forever.”

Her heart clenched at the pain she heard beneath his angry tirade. Given the decentt’s a prorable man he’d shown himself to be, she couldn’t imagine someone hurting him.

Had he done something to deserve it?

“What’d she do to you?”