Heart Of Stone

  “Listen, boss…” Raymond’s voice was quiet. “Margaret Lacy is still in the intensive care unit. At least three nurses are constantly in that unit. If I go in, they’ll be able to ID me.”

  Eric had lied to Sabrina. His man hadn’t been standing at the foot of Margaret Lacy’s bed. Raymond was in the hospital yes, but he wasn’t killing close. Mostly because Eric hadn’t sent him to the hospital in order to kill Margaret Lacy.

  I sent Raymond there to wait for Sabrina.

  “Forget Margaret and the nurses, for now.” He didn’t want a bloodbath in the middle of the hospital. “Get to the parking garage. No, get to the roof,” Eric immediately corrected as he thought about the situation. “That’s where they’ll land.” Eric smiled.

  “What?”

  “Sabrina and her new friend are incoming. I want you up on the roof waiting for them. When you first see them, don’t make the mistake of firing your weapon. The guy she’s with is using some sort of stone body shield. Your bullets won’t penetrate the stone, and one might ricochet and hit Sabrina. Wait until the guy transforms.” And he would transform. Eric was really good at predicting. He spent his whole life making predictions. He ruled the tech world because of his ability to predict what would happen next. What people would want. What the next big thing needed to be. “They’ll land on the roof because Sabrina will want to see Margaret Lacy for herself. The freak with her will transform and when he does, I want you to shoot him. Kill him and when it’s done, report back to me.”

  “Back up a minute,” Raymond muttered. “Can we cover that transform bit again?”

  Eric locked his back teeth. “You know monsters are fucking real.” One of the things that he enjoyed about Raymond—there was no need to bullshit with him. Raymond was aware of the paranormal score. Back in his mercenary days, Raymond had taken out two vampires. He still had their teeth on a necklace. And the guy’s step-brother was a witch. The fellow’s connection to magic had come in handy before, and Eric knew he’d be using it again, too. But for now…“This guy is a monster. Eliminate him.”

  Chapter Seven

  They landed on the roof of the hospital. Sabrina was still just wearing a T-shirt and it had ridden up high on her legs. She pushed it down, trying to stop flashing Adam, as he stood before her. He was still made of stone, a giant beast that—if she was honest—scared her. He was over nine feet tall, made of absolute rock, and he had razor-sharp teeth and claws. What woman wouldn’t be scared when facing off against him? But…

  He’d flown straight to that hospital so they could try and save Margaret Lacy. That was good. She was starting to think that he was good.

  “You need to transform,” she said, eyeing him nervously. “It’s not like you can just waltz around the hospital corridors…” She gestured toward him. “Not the way you are. Not without freaking everyone out.” He needed to transform, and then they needed to get to Margaret Lacy. If they weren’t already too late. “He could be killing her right now.”

  The stone before her seemed to harden even more. The color of the stone changed a bit as she watched and the bright red of Adam’s eyes? The burning light faded and became a perfect black.

  A shiver slid over her. “Adam?”

  He didn’t answer.

  She turned around, her gaze sweeping over the hospital’s roof. Stars glittered overhead, and in the faint light, she didn’t see anyone else. The roof appeared deserted. The city waited beneath her, oddly quiet. And Adam? She focused on him again. He just looked like a statue. She crept toward him and lifted her hand. Her fingers skimmed over his chest. “Can you hear me?” What was happening? She’d seen shifters transform back into the bodies of men before. It was a brutal change. Bones popped and snapped and the fur melted from them until their flesh was revealed. But this…this was different. Adam was different.

  She couldn’t just stay there, waiting and wasting time, while Margaret Lacy might be getting sliced apart. She rose onto her toes, trying to better peer into the darkness of his eyes. “I’ll be right back, I promise. I have to find Margaret Lacy and make sure —”

  A door was opening. She could hear the creak of hinges. Someone else was coming onto the roof. Sabrina spun away from Adam and rushed toward the opening door. She nearly collided with a man—he was wearing green scrubs, and he was carrying a big backpack. His left hand curled around the strap of the backpack while his right hand shoved open the door.

  He blinked at her, seemingly surprised, and then his gaze was sweeping over her. “You got here first.”

  You got here first. His words sank in and goosebumps rose along her body because she recognized the tall, fit, and definitely menacing human before her. Raymond Banner. His right hand flew toward the backpack and she knew his weapon was inside it. Sure enough, in the next second, his hand was coming up again and she could see the edge of a gun.

  Sabrina backed up as Raymond kicked the door shut behind him.

  His gaze darted over her shoulder. “Still stone. Guess we’ll wait together.”

  She kept her hands at her sides as she tried to figure a way out of this mess.

  He raised the gun and aimed it right at her head.

  Sabrina swallowed. “Since Adam was flying, Eric knew we’d land on the roof. He told you to come up here and wait for us.”

  Raymond didn’t speak.

  “Margaret Lacy. Is she still alive?”

  “Don’t worry about her. You’re the one in my sights. If I squeeze the trigger, a nice hole will appear right between those gorgeous eyes of yours.”

  She retreated another step.

  “I’m not obsessed like Eric. Your life doesn’t really matter to me.” He gave her a cold smile. “So this is how things will go down. You will do exactly what I say, when I say it. You’ll stay out of my way, and you’ll get to keep living. We’ll wait for the freak over there to become a man and then—”

  “Then you’ll shoot him.” She knew exactly what would happen. Sabrina’s head turned toward Adam. Still a statue. But…A fist suddenly punched through the wall of stone that had been his chest. A man’s fist. He doesn’t shift back into the form of a man. He was a man, trapped inside the stone. He was fighting his way out. And the moment Adam was free, the jerk in front of her planned to kill him. Sabrina couldn’t let that happen. “Stop.”

  Raymond lifted one brow. “Stop?”

  She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and walked toward him. She made herself smile. “I want you to do something for me. I want you to take all the bullets out of that gun.” He was human, or at least, Sabrina certainly hoped he was. If Raymond was human, then her power would work on him. She could influence him.

  “You’re fucking crazy. As crazy as Eric. No wonder he wants you so badly.” He shook his head. “But like I said before, I’m not Eric.” And he pressed the barrel of the gun right between her eyes.

  Sabrina could hear stone breaking behind her. Falling to the roof. Fear dried her mouth, but she wasn’t backing down. She couldn’t. Her life was on the line and so was Adam’s. “You’re meant for so much more.” Her voice was soft, gentle. Her heart was about to burst right out of her chest, but she kept her face expressionless. “You’re meant to be far more than what Eric is.”

  “Tell me what I don’t already fucking know.” But Raymond’s face didn’t look as hard and his eyes had begun to gleam.

  “What you don’t know is what you can become.” His aura was gleaming behind him. Bright with red, like streaks of blood. But there was a shade of green there, too…and green usually meant…change? “It’s not just violence,” she whispered. And her words were the truth. There was more to this man than just violence and death. She could see it. “You know that? You’re good at what you do. Being a soldier was second nature, but after the missions ended, you still needed that adrenaline rush. The rush drives you. It can help you become even stronger.”

  He licked his lips. “How do you know about my missions?”

  She could se
e them, in his aura. There was so much to see in his aura. Pain and pleasure. Fear and hope. Desperation. Destruction. This man can do terrible things. But there was also light in his aura. Glimpses that flashed and showed her what he could be. “I know a lot about you.”

  More stone crashed behind her.

  “I know that you don’t want to be on this roof. I know you want to be more than Eric’s hired hand, obeying his twisted orders. You wanted to be your own boss. You were born to be a leader, but you’re following someone like him?” The gun nuzzle was still pressing into her forehead. “You’re letting him taint you. You’re letting him rip away the potential that you have.”

  His eyes were boring into hers. She amped up her power. He was harder to inspire than she’d suspected. Some gave in with just a few whispered words—almost as if she were a siren and they were helpless but to follow her commands. Others were different. Others—like this man—had locked their dreams deep and she had to fight in order to find the right key and let them out.

  “Sabrina!” Adam bellowed from behind her.

  Raymond jerked at the shout, and she knew he was about to shoot Adam. The gun flew away from her forehead. It moved to aim at Adam—

  She stepped into the path of that gun. “No.” Her voice was still low and calm. “You want to be a leader. You go lead. You turn around and you walk off this roof. Out of this hospital. You tell Eric to fuck himself.” She didn’t usually have the chance to influence Eric’s men. He typically kept them away from her. You made a mistake this time, Eric. “You start your business. Don’t follow his orders any longer. You use your strength and you help people. You don’t hurt them. You don’t watch, hating it, while the blood flows. You don’t do that anymore.”

  Adam’s hand curled around her shoulder. “You fire that gun,” he growled at Raymond, “and I will rip off your head in the next second.”

  Raymond blinked, as if he were confused. He was confused. He was twisted up on the inside and she was using that confusion. “Walk away, Raymond. Right now. Go find your own path.”

  And it happened. She could see it in his face. His expression slackened. His eyes widened. Her power had gotten to him. Sweet, hell, yes, it had worked. Raymond lowered the gun. He turned away. And he took a step toward the closed door that would take him off the roof. But that step was all he got to take because in the next second, Adam had grabbed the guy. Adam’s fingers locked around the back of Raymond’s neck and then Adam slammed the fellow—face-first—into that still shut door. There was a very solid thunk on impact, and then Adam let Raymond go.

  So much for him starting on that new path.

  “I had that covered,” she muttered.

  Adam’s hands curled around her arms. But, oddly, his touch was…gentle. Ever-so-careful. As if he were afraid he’d hurt her. Her gaze darted over him. The guy was totally naked—mental note, he needs to keep extra clothing handy—but he was back to being in human form. What a fine human form it was.

  And a well-endowed one. Another mental note.

  “Don’t ever do that again.” His voice was low, lethal, and it had goosebumps rising on her arms. She forgot her mental notes.

  “I was trying to save your life,” she told him, notching up her chin. “Raymond is one of Eric’s guys—”

  “I figured that part out.”

  She jerked away from him and backed up a quick step. Or three. “Did you? Did you also figure out that he was waiting for you to become a man again so that he could shoot you? Raymond had no intention of shooting me—”

  His hands wrapped around her again—curling around her shoulders this time, but his grip was still careful. “That’s not what it looked like to me. When I broke out of that stone prison—”

  Stone prison. Interesting word choice. Mental—

  “He had a gun to your head. It looked to me like he was about to blow your brains out all over this rooftop.”

  She flinched. “Okay, well, granted, it could have looked that way.”

  Adam growled.

  “But I had him under control! He’s just a human. I was inspiring him, okay?”

  “You put yourself between me and his gun.”

  She bit her lip. Now she wanted to tread extra carefully.

  “Not exactly typical ‘Bad Thing’ behavior,” he continued in that still-growling voice of his.

  They were in the middle of a waking nightmare, and she actually found that voice of his sexy. Her timing was awful. “Don’t go making a big deal of this, all right? It wasn’t like I was doing some epic sacrifice routine. That’s not my gig. Like I said before, I had him in my control.” I think I did, anyway. “Raymond wasn’t going to shoot me. Eric has standing orders for me to stay alive.”

  Adam just kept staring at her. He may as well have been shouting “I don’t believe you!” over and over again.

  “I need you, okay, Adam? I need you alive because you don’t fall under my control.” She still wanted to test that one a bit more, but it seemed to be the truth. “Luke sent you, and I doubt I’d get a second guard if you wound up dead. Instead, I’d be on my own again, and I don’t want that to happen. Not until Eric has been taken care of.” She licked the lip she’d bitten a moment before. Adam’s gaze dropped to her mouth. “Maybe you can just toss Eric into that prison that Luke has on his island? Toss him in and throw away the key?”

  His mouth took hers. Not the response she’d expected, but she’d take it. Her emotions were all over the place. Desperate fear. That guy could have shot me in the head! Heady relief. The human hadn’t hurt Adam. And desire…because the desire she felt for Adam always seemed to lurk beneath the surface when he was near.

  “Never,” he gritted against her lips, “risk yourself like that for me.” Then he was kissing her again. Hard and wild. Rough and deep. He was making her toes curl right there with an unconscious human near and—

  She surged back. “There could be more of Eric’s men inside the hospital. We—we need to see about Margaret.”

  His breath heaved out. “We’ll see to the female human. And then I’m getting you out of here. I’m getting you far away.” His eyes gleamed. “You and me, Sabrina. We’ll be together, safe, and I’ll be putting my mouth right back on you.”

  “Promises, promises.” The taunt slipped out before she could give it a second thought. Being flippant was her nature. She didn’t know how to turn off that part of herself. And in stressful situations? I get worse.

  He smiled at her. “Count on it.”

  ***

  Margaret Lacy was unconscious. She was in the ICU, and at least four nurses were working in the area. Machines beeped and whirred near her. Her eyes were closed. A tube led into her mouth.

  “She looks like hell,” Sabrina whispered from her position beside Adam. She’d “borrowed” an outfit from one of the nurse’s lockers. As he’d watched, she’d even taken the woman’s name tag from the locker so that she looked all “legit” as she’d told him.

  Meanwhile, Adam was wearing the scrubs he’d stripped off the human male who’d been fucking dumb enough to put a gun to Sabrina’s head. I should have killed him. I should have ripped his head off and tossed it over the edge of the roof. He’d actually planned to do that very thing. Adam had stripped the scrubs from the guy first. No sense getting them bloody. Then he’d gone in for the kill.

  Sabrina had stopped him.

  Since when had the muse developed a conscience?

  “Stay here,” she ordered quietly, “I’m going in to look at her chart.” She tapped her name tag proudly. “See, told you being legit would pay off.”

  Stay here. Here was in the hospital corridor. Before she could walk away, his fingers curled around her wrist. He put his mouth to her ear. “Be careful.” They hadn’t seen any sign of other goons who were on Eric’s payroll, but that didn’t mean those fellows weren’t lurking nearby. “Keep yourself on guard.”

  She gave a quick shiver. Maybe it was because he’d licked the shell of her ear
when he spoke that last word. He hadn’t meant to do that.

  Fucking lie. He totally had meant to lick her. Adam had a serious hard-on for Sabrina. She was sexy as all hell, but the fact that the woman had protected him? Him?

  He couldn’t remember the last time that anyone had stood between him and a threat. That bullet could have torn through her head. She’d risked herself…

  For me.

  No way was he going to be able to keep his hands off her now. With that one act, she’d sealed both their fates.

  His fingers slid along her inner wrist. Her pulse was racing. He wanted to lift her wrist to his mouth. Kiss the skin. Lick her.

  If he had his way, he’d be licking her all over.

  But first…

  Adam forced himself to let Sabrina go. She straightened her shoulders, smoothed her hair—not that it needed smoothing, she still looked freaking perfect, probably some muse thing—and then she headed into the ICU. She walked with authority, even making some light bit of chit-chat with the other nurses. As if she’d done this routine a thousand times.

  Then she was thumbing through the charts. Nodding as the others talked. Glancing slyly over at Margaret Lacy. But as she stared at the human in that hospital bed, pain flashed on Sabrina’s face.

  No, don’t get closer to her. Don’t—

  Sabrina was striding right to Margaret Lacy’s bed.

  Hell. His hands clenched into fists. This was going to be a problem. He glanced down the hallway and spotted a cell phone that someone had left on a waiting room chair. He could actually see the phone’s owner, heading for the coffee pot in the corner.

  Sorry, buddy, but I need to make a call. Adam swiped the phone and slid out of sight. He quickly dialed Luke’s private line. To his surprise, the Lord of the Dark picked up on the second ring.

  At close to four freaking a.m.

  “I don’t know this number, but you have just asked for death,” Luke said, voice hard and ominous. “No one wakes me up—”