"Only those of us he considers leaders."
"Why not just cut it out?"
"Because unless the main unit is destroyed, removing it will trigger the device. We discovered this the hard way."
I tried to ignore the image of splattered spirit lizard, and asked, "And the detonator? Where is it kept?"
"I"m not sure, but it would have to be in either Starr"s rooms or the main security room. It needs to be destroyed before we can flee."
"Have you tried to get into either place?"
"I cannot."
"Why not?"
"I have access to Merle"s and Moss"s rooms and the upper levels. They would kill me instantly if they saw me anywhere else."
The main security room was in the upper level. But maybe Starr figured a spirit lizard heading there could only be up to no good. After all, if he trusted them, he wouldn"t have b.o.o.by-trapped them. "They"ll kill me, too, if I go anywhere near either place."
He smiled. "But you have an invite to brunch tomorrow. That takes you deeper into his hole than I have ever been allowed."
"You know," Jack said into my ear, "the aim of an update is to actually report everything that has happened since the last update. What is it about that concept you cannot understand?"
I restrained my grin, and said to Iktar, "How about a trade?"
"Trade?""I"ll try and get the detonator, if you try and s.n.a.t.c.h the keys Merle has for the elevator."
He considered me for a moment, then nodded. "It will be a risk, but I will try."
"Good. What does the detonator look like?"
"Like the controller of a game machine, with more b.u.t.tons." His thin mouth twisted. "So he can kill us off one by one or all at once."
My gaze went back to die listening shadows. "What of the lab-born amongst you?"
"What of them?"
"They"re programmed with a different kind of bomb, aren"t they?"
Again surprise flitted through his eyes. "You know more than I realized. And yes, they are. But no one can do anything about the triggers in their DNA. They would rather die free, if that is to be their fate, than penned."
"And the other nightmares penned here?"
"They are not my problem."
Charity, thy name is Iktar. Not that I could blame him for looking after himself and his people before everyone else.
"Do we have a deal?" he said. "Will your people help mine escape this place?"
"If he upholds his end of the deal, we"ll see his people relocated," Jack said. "I make no such promises about the lab-born amongst them."
"Deal," I said, and held out a hand.
Iktar looked at it, then back at me, and smiled grimly. "I will shake your hand, but know that if you and your people do not hold to your word, I will kill you."
My grin was nasty. "And if I get the slightest whiff of a double-cross, believe that I will kill every f.u.c.king one of you."
"That"s my girl," Jack said approvingly.
I wished I could tell him to shove it, but with Iktar close that wasn"t an option. "When do you want to meet again?"
"Given Merle was interrupted during his time with you, he will undoubtedly claim you again. I will signal you when I have the keys."
"It may take me a while to get the detonator." If indeed I could actually find it.
"That I understand."
I nodded and backed away, not turning my back to him until I was well down the hill. He looked a little amused at the precaution, but I didn"t give a d.a.m.n. Better safe than sorry, and I wasn"t trusting that creature for an instant.
"Are you really going to let his people go?" I asked, when I was well out of earshot of the zoo.
"If he and his people prove to be no threat to society, yes. Do you trust him?""I think he"s telling the truth as far as what he wants, but no, I don"t trust him."
"Then be careful when dealing with him."
"Well, duh, wouldn"t have thought of that."
He snorted. Not a nice sound in my ear. "Anything else I should know?"
"I want you to check a couple of people for me." I gave him Nerida"s and Berna"s full names. "Something about them just feels off."
"I"ll let you know what we find."
"Is Rhoan in yet? I know new guards arrived this evening, but I"m not sure if he was one of them."
"He got onto the bus, but I can"t tell you more because he hasn"t yet contacted us."
"Talk to you later, then." I flicked off the link and stopped under the boughs of a leafy elm. The main house stood to my left. The stables to my right. I was bone tired, muscle weary, and the thought of slipping between the sheets to catch some sleep was more than a little enticing.
But so was the thought of easing the deep-down ache.
I wavered between the two desires, but in the end, h.o.r.n.y won out over tiredness.
After wrapping the shadows around myself, I snuck toward the stables. They were dark, still. I switched to infrared, saw that there was nothing more than horses inside. The old guy wasn"t about, and there were no guards. Still, I had to be careful. The last thing I needed to do was make anyone aware that there might be a horse-shifter spy amongst all the plain old horses in the stables.
I slipped inside the smaller door to the left of the main door and padded down the aisle. Though still covered in shadows, the horses snorted and shied away from my scent. The only one that showed any sort of interest was the only one I was interested in.
I slipped inside the stable and locked the door behind me. The golden haze of shifting swept across his body, then he was standing there, all mahogany magnificence looking good enough to eat.
A wicked grin curved his lush lips "You have a l.u.s.ty look in your eyes, my dear. Anything I can do to help you ?"
"G.o.d, yes."
I took the few steps that separated us and he slid his hands around my waist, his touch possessive, almost demanding, as he pulled me closer still. His body felt like hot steel against mine, his erection even hotter where it pressed against my stomach.
Flash fires of desire skittered across my already overheated skin, but I fought the instinct to simply take what I desired. There had been more than enough taking for one night. This time, desire needed to be shared.
"What I want," I said softly, wrapping a hand around his neck and pulling his mouth down toward mine, "is for you to caress me, tease me, cover me with your kisses and your scent, until we"re both driven so wild with desire that we can"t even think."
"I think I can manage that," he murmured, a second before my lips claimed his.
We kissed as only lovers who are familiar with each other"s needs and desires could-deeply, intensely, thoroughly. Kissed until I couldn"t breathe and my head was spinning and my body giddy with desire.Then he moved on, tasting, teasing, his breath as soft and as sweet on my skin as the kisses he dropped down my neck and across each shoulder. And as his clever hands began to explore further afield, I echoed his movements, running my fingers over his body, enjoying the ripple of muscle, the sensation of heated flesh against heated flesh. I breathed deep, letting the combination of musky desire and his more earthy scent fill my senses, my lungs, until the foul memory of Merle"s body and scent had shattered and gone.
I let my hands slide farther down his stomach to stroke the long, glorious length of him. He groaned, thrusting into my touch. The heat burning between us became a furnace that made breathing even more difficult, and a primitive sense of power swept through me. This big, potent stallion was mine to do with as I pleased.
And right now, it pleased me to finally take what we both so desperately wanted.
As his c.o.c.k slipped slowly inside, a moan escaped. I wasn"t entirely sure if it was his or mine, and right then couldn"t have given a d.a.m.n, because he began to move and any attempt at thought and reason slipped beyond my grasp. All I could do was climb aboard and move with him, savoring and enjoying the sensations flowing through me.
This time, he took time, stroking deep as he licked and nipped and kissed. The pressure began to build low in my stomach, fanning through the rest of me in waves that built gradually but steadily, until they were a molten force that flowed across my skin, making me tremble, twitch, groan.
As that pressure threatened to blow me apart, his breathing became harsh, his tempo more urgent. His fierceness pushed into me into a place where only sensation existed, and then he pushed me beyond it.
He came with me, his lips capturing mine, kissing me urgently as his warmth spilled into me and his body went rigid against mine.
For several minutes we didn"t move, just allowed the cool night air to wash the heat from our skin. Then he stirred, releasing my arms, and giving me a sweet, gentle kiss.
"If that wasn"t what you had in mind, give me a few minutes and I"m willing to try again."
I chuckled softly, and touched a hand to his sweaty cheek. "That was brilliant."
He raised an eyebrow, velvet brown eyes amused. "Does that mean there"s no second round?"
"Did I say-"
I cut the rest of the sentence off as the squeak of a door opening cut across the stable"s restless silence. Kade stepped back, the shifting haze scooting across his body until he was horse once more. He walked to the stable door and peered out. I kept in the shadow of his form, knowing that anyone but a vampire would have trouble sorting out the beat of Kade"s heart from mine, the heat of his body from mine.
For several minutes, there was no sound, no movement, from the person who"d opened the door.
Then footsteps echoed, a whisper-soft tattoo of sound that had purpose, threat.
And they were bypa.s.sing all the stalls, coming directly toward us.
Chapter Nine
I stepped back from the door and looked around for a weapon. A stupid reaction, really, when all the training I"d had over the last few months had made me as much of a weapon as anything made of steel or wood.
And there wasn"t anything more dangerous than a water bucket in the stall, anyway.
I flexed my fingers, trying to ease the tension curling through my limbs as the footsteps drew closer. Kade flattened his ears and bared his teeth, yet his actions seemed to stem more from dislike than any attempt to attack.
The tingle of awareness suddenly caressing my senses told me why.
It wasn"t a stranger, wasn"t one of Starr"s guards, who approached.
It was Quinn.
He stopped several paces short of the stall door. The anger I"d felt at his actions earlier crashed through me again, and for several heartbeats it was all I could do not to burst through the door and attack him. Not that physically attacking him would do me any good, because he was stronger and faster, but I"d always been inclined to use my fists more than my psychic talents.
Besides, I was pretty sure the latter wouldn"t be effective, no matter how much stronger they might have gotten. I"d caught him by surprise last time. There wouldn"t be a second time. I was sure of that.
So I settled for stepping forward, keeping the door a barrier between us, and growling, "What the f.u.c.k are you doing here?"
He had his "vampires don"t do emotion" face on and his smile was cold. I wasn"t picking anything up from him along the sensory lines, which meant he had shields on high and his feelings locked down as tightly as his expression. "Did you think I would give up on my revenge so easily?"
I snorted. "I"ve experienced the lengths you"ll go to for your revenge, so no. What I meant was, how did you get here?"
"On the bus."
"With Rhoan? Somehow I doubt he"d have allowed that."
"I said I was on the bus. I didn"t say I was in the bus. One of the benefits of being an old vampire is the ability to slip past perception when I wish."
"Rhoan is a psi dead-zone. You couldn"t have touched his mind and stopped him from sensing you."
"I didn"t have to. I simply ceased to exist in any term the human mind recognizes."
I raised my eyebrows. "What the h.e.l.l does that mean?"
"That there are more talents in this world than you and Jack and others know of. And it"s also a reminder that when I crossed the lines between life and death, I not only inherited the talents of my maker, but I brought with me those talents I had in life."
"Humans don"t have the sort of talent you just spoke about, and you told me you were human."
"I considered myself so."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning that I was raised human, but technically was only partially so."
"So the other half was... what?" "Something that no longer exists."