Strangers of the Night

  “And Collins Creek?” Kane asked as Samantha maneuvered the car along the winding backcountry roads with impressive skill that still had his heart jumping into his throat. “That’s all real?”

  “It’s totally real. Those kids are real, but they’re not kids anymore,” she added, shifting.

  Faster.

  Darkness whipped past the windows. The road curved and dipped; they didn’t slow down and caught some air on a small hill, the car landing with a thud that rattled his teeth, but Samantha didn’t waver, and the car handled as smoothly as if they were puttering along going thirty on a highway as wide and flat as paper.

  “I was trying to get some information from Phoenix about a... About someone I care about. He was one of the Collins Creek kids. They took him during the raid and kept him in Wyrmwood for years. Testing him. Using him. They almost broke him,” she spat, voice cracking. “I was assigned to get him out of there.”

  “Who assigned you?” Kane thought he already knew.

  “Guy named Vadim. He runs an organization called the Crew.”

  “Bald guy? Older? Speaks with an accent?” Kane asked.

  “Yes. That’s him. They help people like Persephone and Phoenix. Like Jed.”

  “Your friend.”

  “Yes.” She shot him another glance and took a turn, tires squealing. The road here was gravel, and rocks flew up hard enough that Kane was sure the glass was going to break.

  “But you didn’t get him out?”

  “I did,” she said. “But I lost track of him. I thought Phoenix would be able to help me because—”

  Before she could answer, Kane caught sight of headlights in the distance. Three vehicles, what looked like two unmarked black vans and a third car, also nondescript. Running parallel with them, trees between them, all he could glimpse was the flash of the lights. Samantha stomped on the gas pedal, gaining on them. The road they were on curved again. No longer parallel, they were on a direct course to collide with the first van.

  Samantha didn’t slow down.

  * * *

  One minute Persephone was bouncing around in the back of the van. The next, the entire world shrieked and clattered, and Persephone went flying upside down to land in a sprawl of arms and legs. The van rolled. Glass shattered, though none of it fell inside. Safety glass. The metal walls shuddered but didn’t bend or break. She ended up on her side, the bench above her head, a swinging metal cuff narrowly missing her face.

  Another crash jolted her. The van skidded, no longer on its tires. It slid with a squeal of metal on asphalt. Another crash—something else hit them. She tumbled, ending up on her hands and knees with a ringing in her ears so loud she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to hear again.

  The door opened. Light spilled in, hurting her eyes. She managed to put a hand up to block it, seeing only a silhouette. A man stood over her, and she swatted at him knowing it wasn’t going to be enough.

  “It’s me, Persephone. I’m here.”

  “Kane?”

  “Can you get up?” Big, strong hands shifted under her elbow to help her.

  She was already pushing upward. “Yeah.”

  “How bad are you hurt?”

  “Bumps, bruises. Nothing’s broken.” She let him help her toward the door. Outside, the long, low bleat of a car horn droned. “How can nothing be broken?”

  “Those vans are so armored nothing much could bust them up. The only thing I could do was knock them into each other.” A female voice turned Persephone’s face toward the sound. “I took a chance that you’d be okay.”

  There seemed like there should be a smart-ass answer to that, but Persephone couldn’t quite manage it at the moment. She let herself sag in Kane’s grasp as he helped her out of the van. She didn’t think she meant to kiss him, but that was what happened. Hard, almost an assault rather than an embrace, but on the mouth.

  “Can you run?” he asked when he pulled away. “We have to run.”

  “Yes. I think so.”

  The three of them took off across the rural highway, but when they reached the edge of the woods, Persephone hung back. “Phoenix!”

  “He’s not in there,” the woman said. “We checked. He wasn’t in the car, either. And the gas I used on them won’t last much longer. We have to run. I’ve already called for a pickup.”

  This had to be something out of a sci-fi movie, right? One of the cheesy ones about killer octopuses in hurricanes or something like that. The woman had just said she wrecked vans full of solider guys with guns and then gassed them, and someone was coming to pick them up?

  “In a spaceship?” Persephone’s words were suddenly slurred. She must’ve knocked her head harder than she thought.

  “I got you” was the last thing she heard before it all went dark.

  * * *

  Kane caught Persephone before she could fall. Behind them, the noises of the wreckage were getting fainter, but there was no way they could keep up running this fast for much longer, especially when he had to carry Persephone. Samantha pointed to a small dirt trail in the woods ahead of them.

  “There.”

  “You have to be kidding me.” Kane shifted Persephone’s slight weight, certain he was causing her some kind of permanent damage. No way had she come out of that crash without some serious injuries, maybe internal bleeding. Something.

  Two black cars were waiting for them. Samantha got behind the wheel of the second one, waving him toward the backseat. He laid Persephone gently inside then followed, closing the door as Samantha pulled away. A man sat in the front seat, and he twisted to look behind them.

  “Vadim,” Kane said as he buckled Persephone into her seat, then focused on his own belt. “The Crew. Right? This is all insane.”

  “It is a methodical madness, I can assure you. Samantha, are you sure you can drive? You didn’t get hurt in the crash?”

  She shook her head. “Nothing too bad. That car was like a tank, and we hit that first van like a freight train. Thanks, Vadim. Everything worked like we’d planned.”

  “Wait, wait, what the hell? You planned this?” Kane was ready to reach across the front seat and throttle someone, but that would’ve meant one more wreck, and he wasn’t so sure he’d make it through another.

  “Not this whole thing, but the possibility of it. The eventuality of what might happen. We didn’t plan for Persephone to be taken, nor her brother. So you can rethink threatening me.” Vadim glanced into the backseat. “It’s always been a possibility that Phoenix and his sister might be found. They both knew it. They’re fortunate he’d already arranged a meeting with Samantha tonight, or else there would’ve been nobody to go after them.”

  “She had me,” Kane said. He couldn’t see if Persephone was bleeding anywhere, he didn’t have enough light, but he had to hope that they were taking them somewhere to get medical help.

  “Ah yes. She had you.” Vadim’s voice held a smile. “Lucky girl.”

  Kane leaned back into the seat. “I still don’t know what the hell is going on. All of this.”

  “And you don’t trust me. Nor should you, I suppose. I wouldn’t if I were you. All I can tell you is the same thing I said the first time we met. I intend no harm to Persephone. You and I are on the same side. In fact, based on how you reacted during this entire situation, I think it might benefit us to offer you a position on our team.”

  “The Crew.” Kane didn’t want to close his eyes, but the pain was making him see double. Samantha had been right about the car she’d been driving; it had been enough like a tank that they were hardly affected by running straight into the side of a van. Still, it had been a long damned night and everything hurt, including his brain from trying to process all of this. “Whatever the hell that is.”

  “We’ll tell you all about it when we get to a
safe place.”

  “Isn’t Wyrmwood or whatever the hell it is going to be after us? Shit,” Kane said wearily. “Did you just piss off some kind of secret government facility? Am I on the run now, too?”

  Vadim chuckled. “I daresay your name has indeed been put on a shit list of some kind. So the answer is yes. This is not to say that you can’t return to your normal civilian life, of course. I supposed you could try it. See what happens.”

  “You’re not worried about yourself?”

  Another chuckle. “Oh... Wyrmwood has its methods, and it would not be impossible for them, certainly, to find us. Harm us. But to be honest, Mr. Dennis, the amount of bureaucracy and paperwork required to put together a group even as small as the one tonight is fairly enormous. There’ve been budget cuts. The economy isn’t what it used to be. Wyrmwood is a privately run organization that answers to a board of directors.”

  “They’re afraid of us,” Samantha put in.

  Kane opened his eyes. She still followed the other black car, but they were both driving on a regular highway at normal speed. He looked behind them, but nothing was back there except the night.

  “I can see that,” he said.

  Vadim laughed. Their eyes met in the rearview mirror, and his gaze softened when he looked at Persephone. “She’ll be all right. We’ll take care of her.”

  Somehow, Kane believed him.

  Chapter 12

  Safety and comfort. The warmth of a body beside hers, not for a few hours but for the night. Waking up next to someone who would make sure she was all right.

  It had to be a dream, Persephone thought without opening her eyes. Her entire body ached. She remembered the shitty motel. Men with guns. The van.

  She remembered Kane.

  It hurt to sit, but she did, noting that she wore the same dirty, torn-up clothes she’d had on the last time she remembered anything. The bed was big, soft, covered in a plain dark blue quilt. Kane was beside her, but he wore a pair of flannel pajama pants. No shirt.

  His bare chest, she thought with something like wonder, her fingers uncurling to touch him before she stopped herself. How many times had she already run her hands over that skin? Those places that made him sigh? The scars, she remembered as she forced herself not to move in case she woke him up.

  She felt the warmth of his gaze on her before she looked into his eyes. “Hey.”

  “Hey.” Kane sat up with a wince. “How are you feeling?”

  “Bumped up. But okay, other than that.” She tested her arms and legs gently, but aside from a lot of achiness, nothing seemed too messed up. She drew her knees closer to her chest as she looked at him. “You?”

  He yawned. Winced. Stretched. “I’m good, all things considered.”

  “You kept your word,” Persephone said quietly.

  Kane nodded. “I did.”

  “That has not been my previous experience with humans of the male persuasion,” she said. Trying to be light about it. Funny, even. The fact that her voice cracked a bit on the words didn’t help.

  Kane reached to draw a fingertip along her arm, stopping at the back of her wrist before he took his touch away. “I’m sorry.”

  She closed her eyes. “Where’s my brother?”

  “We don’t know. Vadim thinks he got away before Samantha ran into the side of the van.”

  She didn’t look at him but nodded. “That could be true.”

  “He wasn’t in the van with you when we got you out, or the other one, either.” Kane shifted, dipping the mattress.

  She opened her eyes then. “He got away, though.”

  “They’re pretty sure he did. Yes.”

  “But he left me behind.”

  “I’m sorry,” Kane said again, this time with a frown and a furrow of his brow. “But yeah. It looks like he did.”

  She could’ve been upset about it, if Phoenix had not in the past proven himself to be totally capable of ditching her to save his own skin. She shrugged. “It wasn’t the first time.”

  “Still.” Kane looked as though he meant to touch her again, but didn’t.

  She wanted him to.

  Suddenly it was all she could think about. She ran her tongue over her teeth, wincing at the sour taste. She glanced around the room, which was neat but sparsely furnished. It had no windows, but nothing about it felt oppressive. Through a half-open door she spotted a bathroom.

  “I need a shower,” she said.

  “They left clothes for you.” Kane gestured at the dresser in the corner. “Towels and everything are in there. They thought of everything.”

  “Are they keeping us here?” She could see another door, but it was closed. Could be locked, for all she knew.

  “No. We don’t have to stay. I did to make sure you were all right.”

  The question rose to her lips, but she kept herself from asking it. The shower was gloriously hot and the water pressure fantastic. She found an array of soaps and shampoos and spent the time scrubbing up quickly but thoroughly. She even shaved.

  She thought he might be gone when she came out of the bathroom, but Kane had lain back down on the pillow, his eyes closed. Persephone wore only a towel when she went around the bed to his side. She waited for him to look at her.

  When he did, she let the towel fall to her feet. She lifted her chin, meeting his gaze straight on, even when his dropped from her eyes to her body. Hers, not some illusion or mirage. The desire to change herself to be thinner, have bigger boobs, be prettier...she fought it. She kept herself as she was.

  Kane reached for her, and she let him. He pulled her onto the bed and rolled them both so he was on top of her, bare skin to skin above, the thin flannel of his pajama pants a teasing barrier below. He rocked against her, already getting hard.

  He kissed her, and Persephone breathed a small cry into his mouth. His tongue stroked hers. Their teeth bumped, and she laughed. He kissed her again, softer this time. His big hand came up to brush through her still-wet hair. The other cupped her breast, flicking her nipple expertly until she moaned. At the sound of it, Kane buried his face against the side of her neck and shifted to get his hand between them.

  It should’ve been too fast. She should’ve needed something more than this, but she was already cresting when he slid his fingers against her. Then inside her, dipping into her ready wetness and pulling out to use them on her clit.

  Persephone muttered a curse. Then his name. Without thinking, she put a hand on his head, desperate and eager for his mouth between her legs. With only the briefest hesitation, Kane slid lower.

  She was wordless at the stroke of his tongue against her. Inarticulate, groaning, Persephone lifted her hips to press herself harder to the tantalizing pressure of his lips and tongue. She arched, giving herself up to this pleasure.

  He hummed against her, then stopped. She looked down at him, her vision a little blurry with lust, but not so hazy that she couldn’t see his look of surprise. He bent again to sample her, again with an appreciative hum. Kane slid both hands under her ass to pull her closer. He feasted, licking and nibbling and sucking until she couldn’t stop herself, couldn’t hold back. Desire consumed her. Kane waited for the aftershocks to fade, his mouth still covering her, then slid up her body to kiss her mouth.

  Somewhere along the way he’d shed his pajama bottoms and now pressed against her. Heat and hardness. The head of his cock brushed her inner thigh, and Persephone shifted to open for him. She looked up to see him looking down at her. She had never been the sort to cuddle after coming. Never the girl to tenderly touch her lover’s face. She was now.

  “What?” she whispered.

  “I don’t have anything.”

  He meant condoms. Of course. Why would he, here? And she knew him well enough to remember that he never, ever went without one. br />
  She reached between them to take his cock in her fist. “Let me use my mouth.”

  He shuddered when she said it. Closed his eyes. His lips parted on a moan. “Oh, fuck, yes...please.”

  She was more than happy to slide down his body, turning them both so that she was on top. Gently, she took his length inside her. The head of his cock nudged the back of her throat before she released him as slowly as she’d taken him in. She savored him. Pleasured him. At the touch of his hand on the back of her head, not pushing but encouraging her, she took him deep again. Her own desire grew again, an ache spreading throughout her body. With one hand on his shaft as she sucked him, Persephone slipped her other hand between her legs.

  She was so wet her fingers slid without friction over her clit, which was still swollen and sensitive. She wasn’t intent on getting herself off, because she wanted to concentrate on him, but still, it felt so good that she found herself rocking her hips as she circled her clit.

  It took Kane only moments to reach the edge. His cock throbbed hard in her mouth as she eased off. She meant to make it last, but at his desperate groan, Persephone smiled and bent back to him. He began thrusting into her mouth. The sweet-salty flavor of his honey urged her own moan as she tasted how close he was. It pushed her closer to her own climax. They moved together. Pleasure overtook her. She couldn’t do anything but ride it, the sweeping waves of orgasm shuddering through her and the tense pulsing of his cock into her mouth. She swallowed, and again, craving every single drop of his desire.

  His hand fell away from her hair. Spent, Persephone rolled onto her back to stare up at the ceiling. She wiped her lips with her fingertips, her other hand still feeling the aftershocks of her orgasm.

  Silence.

  Kane rolled toward her, tugging on her shoulder until she moved up the bed to face him. She thought he might say something, but instead he studied her face with a small frown. Persephone waited, content to watch him looking her over as though it was the first time he’d seen her. Maybe, in a way, it was. It sure felt like she was looking at him with new eyes.