Beyond the Darkness Read online

  He was petty enough to be pleased at the thought of poisoning any relationship between Harley and the damnable cur, but within that perfectly logical reaction was an unexpected stab of regret. The woman was clearly distressed by the realization that her life had been a lie.

  Risking life and limb, Salvatore grasped her hand, half-expecting to be tossed across the cell. She stiffened, but she surprisingly didn’t go homicidal on him. A step in the right direction, he told himself, savoring the feel of her warm skin that eased the sense of weakness that plagued him.

  Cristo, he needed to mate her.

  The sooner the better.

  “He told you that I murdered your sisters?” he asked.

  “And that I was next on your list to die.” Her expression assured him that she was grimly clinging to her suspicion he intended to harm her. “He swore he was the only one who could protect me.”

  “A clever means to keep you in his power.”

  “Bastard.”

  “Did he ever reveal why he was so anxious to keep you so close?”

  “He’s been using my blood in his experiments to change curs into full Weres.”

  Salvatore shook his head in disgust. The conceited fool. The Weres’ power was a mystical force, not a scientific one. A clever man might be capable of making small alterations, as he had done, but what made purebloods immortal was pure magic.

  “He can’t seriously believe in such nonsense?”

  “Oh, he believes.” Her fingers unconsciously tightened around his. “Allegedly some ancient werewolf came to him and revealed a vision that his blood would run pure.”

  “Ancient werewolf?” Salvatore frowned. A Were had given Caine the crackpot vision? It made no sense. “Are you certain?”

  “That’s what he said.”

  “Blood runs pure. What the hell does that mean?”

  “Hey, it was his vision, not mine.”

  Salvatore muttered a curse. He felt like he was trying to put together a puzzle with half the pieces missing.

  He hated puzzles.

  “Did he ever say how he managed to get his hands on you?”

  “No.” Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “I suppose if you’re telling the truth, and I’m not entirely on board with that theory, then he must have stolen my sisters and I from your nursery.”

  “It was humans that broke into the nursery.”

  “Caine could have hired them.” She shrugged. “He’s never been anxious to put his own neck on the line. Not if he can convince some other schmuck to do the dirty work.”

  “It’s possible.”

  “You don’t sound very convinced.”

  Because he wasn’t.

  “There’s something I’m missing,” he muttered, his gaze lowering to her slender fingers clasped in his hand. Absently he brushed his thumb over her knuckles, relishing her silken skin.

  He’d give his favorite Porsche to discover if she was so soft and smooth all over.

  Easily picking up the heat stirring in the air, Harley yanked her hand free and glared at him with an impatience that didn’t entirely mask her flare of awareness.

  “Yeah, you’re missing a way out of here. Can you please concentrate?”

  “Are you always so bossy?”

  “Do you expect me to kneel and kiss your feet?”

  He chuckled softly, stepping close enough to wrap his arms around her waist and brush his lips lightly over her mouth.

  “You’re welcome to kneel, but I have something better for you to kiss.”

  “Stop that,” she muttered, shivering as his lips skated over her jaw and down the curve of her neck. Her fingers grabbed the lapels of his jacket. “Dammit, Salvatore, we’re being watched.”

  Lifting his head, Salvatore glanced toward the tiny hole drilled above the door. He sent out a flare of power, smiling as he heard the small pop, and a whiff of smoke floated through the air.

  “Not anymore.” Mission accomplished, he returned his attention to more important matters. Nibbling the tender skin at the base of her throat, he shuddered at the need that blazed through him. “That scent is driving me mad.”

  “Would you…” Whatever she had to say was forgotten as Salvatore bit the tender spot where her neck and shoulder met, allowing his fangs to grow long enough so she could feel his mark. She shuddered, her vanilla scent flooding the room. “God.”

  “You even taste good,” Salvatore muttered.

  Her fingers clutched his jacket, and her head tilted back to allow him full access to her satin skin. Salvatore didn’t hesitate.

  He hadn’t become king by being slow to grasp opportunity.

  Tightening his grip until she was pressed against his thickening arousal, Salvatore nuzzled a path down the line of sports bra, slowing his pace as he reached the soft swell of her breasts.

  “What did you do to the camera?” she husked, as if attempting to devise some means of distracting him.

  Good luck with that.

  It wasn’t that he lied when he said he could multitask. The responsibilities that lay heavy on his shoulders meant he could never put aside his duties. Not even when he was enjoying a bit of extracurricular activity.

  In this moment, however, the world and his duties could go to hell in a handbasket.

  No doubt because this wasn’t extracurricular.

  This was the main event.

  The life-altering woman he hadn’t even known was waiting out there for him.

  “I can disrupt small electrical devises,” he said, his lips moving over her silken skin.

  “Great.” Her tone was disgruntled, but her fingers had moved to shove into his hair, her heart thumping so loudly he could have heard it even without his inhuman abilities. “You can zap a toaster, but you can’t get us out of this cell. A fat lot of help you are.”

  He chuckled, his fingers skimming up her back. “I have other skills.”

  “Unless it’s picking a lock, I don’t want to know about them.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  She made an explosive sound of pleasure as he licked the tip of her nipple through the stretchy material.

  “Dammit, Caine’s going to come down here as soon as he realizes the camera isn’t working.”

  “Good.” He nipped the tight bud, growling in pleasure as she quivered in eager response. “I’ve wanted to have a little chat with him for a very long time.”

  Without warning she shoved him away, her face flushed as she wrapped her arms protectively around her waist.

  “I doubt he’ll be in a chatty mood,” she rasped.

  Salvatore’s lips twisted. Under normal circumstances, no Were would have been capable of escaping his grasp. Being king did have its benefits. This whole premating thing sucked.

  Well, the loss of his power sucked.

  The rest…

  It was definitely growing on him.

  “We’ll see.” He sucked in a deep breath, attempting to halt any more growing. Time for his own attempt at distraction. “What of the jinn?”

  Genuine surprise flashed through her eyes. “How did you…” She shook her head. “No, never mind. What about her?”

  “What’s her connection to Caine?”

  “I’m not really sure.” The hazel gaze briefly shifted toward the door before returning to Salvatore. A sure indication that Caine had kept his illegal demon under tight wraps. “He claims that he rescued her from a mage who’d held her captive for centuries. I don’t know if it’s true or not since she always stayed in one of the out-buildings. I only saw her on occasion, and she usually was at a distance.”

  Salvatore absently nodded. “He must have some means of keeping her hidden or the Oracles would already have hunted her down.”

  Harley’s brows snapped together. “What’s your interest in her?”

  A slow, wicked smile curved his lips. “Jealous, Harley?”

  She turned her head, refusing to meet his teasing gaze. “For God’s sake, get over yourself.”

 
His smile remained. “Don’t worry. My interest is pure self-preservation. Curs I can handle. I’d rather not provoke a jinn.”

  “They’re so dangerous?”

  “Deadly.”

  She turned back, her expression worried. “Caine said she disappeared in the tunnels. The last I knew, she hadn’t returned.”

  “Then I suppose we’ll have to hope for the best.”

  “Yeah, ’cause that’s really worked well so far,” she taunted.

  “You know, cara, when we get out of here, we’re going to have to work on that attitude of yours.”

  “If we get out of here, you’re not going to have to worry about my attitude. I’ll be long gone.”

  His gaze slid down her slender body. “You can run, but you’ll never be able to hide from me.” He lifted his head to meet the stunning hazel gaze. “Not ever.”

  Her jaw tightened. “I’ve done a pretty good job until now.”

  Salvatore stiffened. The silver that surrounded him had nearly disguised the prickles of warning that crawled over his skin.

  Without thought, he swept Harley behind him and turned toward the door.

  “Stay behind me.”

  “Sexist pig.” She punched him square in the back, nearly sending him to his knees. Cristo. “I don’t need a man to protect me.”

  He spun on his heel to meet her belligerent scowl. “This has nothing to do with protecting. I don’t want you accidentally stepping between me and Caine.”

  “Why? What are you going to do?”

  “Uberking stuff.” Unable to help himself, he caught her face in his hands and roughly kissed her. “Don’t move.”

  He turned back, sighing as he sensed Harley shift so she could see the door. She might be willing to concede his first shot at Caine, but there was no way in hell she was going to hide behind him.

  Harley wasn’t the cowering sort.

  A beat passed before the door was shoved open and Caine entered the room. Salvatore’s wolf stirred, instinctively reacting to having a male so close to his mate.

  It was his purely human side, however, that was provoked by the man’s smooth blond beauty and smug expression.

  He wasn’t sure what he’d expected when he finally encountered the cur who had been a pain in his royal butt, but it wasn’t this slender man dressed in faded jeans and a black muscle shirt, who looked like he should be on the beaches of California instead of leading a cur revolt.

  He wanted to smash that too-handsome face.

  Or maybe he would just rip off his head and be done with it.

  The head ripping off became much more likely as the bastard studied Harley as if she were his favorite bone.

  “Harley, my love, you’ve been a very bad girl,” Caine taunted.

  “Screw you,” Harley muttered.

  The blue eyes glowed with a hunger that set Salvatore’s nerves on edge.

  “Later, pet,” the cur drawled. “And only if you behave.”

  Salvatore stepped close enough to the bars to feel the burn of silver.

  “Careful, cur,” he warned, his voice thick with warning.

  Stupidly confident that Salvatore was contained in his cell, Caine folded his arms over his chest.

  “Well, well,” he sneered. “If it isn’t the glorious King of Weres.”

  Salvatore glanced toward Harley. “I like glorious better than uber.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’ll make a note of it.”

  “Of course, you’re not so glorious right now,” Caine snapped, obviously not pleased at having his moment of gloating interrupted. “I’ve seen better looking Ipar demons.”

  With insulting slowness, Salvatore returned his attention to the cur.

  “Easy to be brave when you have me locked in a cage. It would be a lot more impressive if you let me out and faced me like a man.”

  Caine laughed. “Do I look like a putz?”

  “You look like a cur with a death wish.”

  “Just the opposite. I intend to become immortal.”

  “Hard to become immortal after I’ve chopped your head off and fed it to the rats.” Salvatore paused, narrowing his gaze. “Still, just out of morbid curiosity, how do you intend to acquire this immortality?”

  Caine shrugged. “You aren’t the only one with skill in the laboratory.”

  “Skill and blind hope are two different things. There’s nothing in a test tube that can change you into a Were.”

  Caine tilted his chin, the glow of a true zealot shimmering in his eyes.

  “Obviously, there is. I saw it in a vision.”

  “Did this vision happen to occur while you were indulging in some pharmaceutical pleasures?”

  “This isn’t a joke,” Caine growled.

  “Good. I’m not laughing. Where did this vision come from?”

  “None of your damned business, Giuliani.”

  Enough. Salvatore wasn’t a patient werewolf under the best of circumstances, and at the moment he was sore, filthy, and trapped in a silver cage. His patience was nonexistent.

  Without warning his power lashed out, ramming Caine into the wall and holding him there with an invisible but very tangible force.

  “It’s Your Majesty, cur,” he corrected, his voice edged with ice.

  Caine struggled, but even with Salvatore weakened, the cur was no match for him.

  “Shit.”

  Salvatore smiled with cruel satisfaction. “How did you get the vision?”

  “It was a Were.”

  “You’re going to have to be more specific.”

  “I don’t know.” Caine struggled to breathe, his perfect features twisted in a grimace of pain. “Dammit, he didn’t give me a name.”

  “Describe him.”

  The cur tilted back his head, the veins of his neck popping out as Salvatore’s power squeezed his body with brutal force.

  “Short,” he gritted. “Brown hair, English accent.”

  “You’re keeping something from me.” Salvatore cursed the silver bars that prevented him from getting his hands on the cur. The long-distance torture was taking its toll. “What is it?”

  Caine’s eyes flashed as he struggled to shift. An impossible task so long as Salvatore held him in his control.

  “I’m going to kill you,” the cur hissed.

  Salvatore tightened his grip. “Wrong answer.”

  The cur’s labored breathing echoed through the room as he glared at Salvatore with sheer hatred.

  Far preferable to the smug grin.

  “His eyes were red even when he was in human form,” he at last ground out.

  Pure shock gripped Salvatore. Merda.

  It couldn’t be.

  He had killed the bastard nearly a century ago.

  Still, the description was unmistakable.

  “Briggs,” he breathed.

  Harley moved to his side. “Do you know him?”

  “Obviously not as well as I thought I did.”

  Across the room, Caine snarled in pain. “Release me.”

  Salvatore gritted his teeth, cursing his weakened state. His hold on the cur was hanging by a thread.

  With the last of his strength, he focused on Caine.

  “Not until you’ve offered me a quid pro quo. Get the keys and unlock this cell.”

  “Rot in hell.”

  “Don’t make me ask you again,” Salvatore gritted, but the power behind his words faltered, and with a low growl Caine lurched forward, breaking the invisible bonds that held him.

  “Bastard,” the cur breathed, reaching behind his back to pull out a handgun he had tucked in the waistband of his jeans.

  Salvatore didn’t even try to regain command of the infuriated Caine. Instead, he instinctively turned to wrap Harley in his arms, driving her to the ground and covering her with his body.

  Chapter Five

  It happened so fast, it was little more than a blur to Harley.

  One minute she was standing beside Salvatore, and the next she was fla
t on her back with the damned Were perched on top of her.

  She flinched as the sound of a gun firing echoed painfully through the small room, the bullets flying harmlessly overhead, striking the cement wall and filling the air with the bitter scent of gunpowder.

  The shooting came to a halt and Harley heard the slam of the door as Caine beat a hasty retreat.

  They lay motionless; the rapid beat of their hearts the only sound to break the heavy silence.

  Slowly the stench of gunpowder was replaced by Salvatore’s rich musk that seemed to seep into Harley’s skin, branding her with an awareness that was as unwelcomed as the realization of just how perfect his heavy body felt pressed so intimately against hers.

  Damned Were.

  He had to be doing some sort of mystical werewolf shit on her.

  She refused to believe that his savage magnetism could be anything but a trick.

  As if deliberately mocking her desperate theory, Salvatore shifted to settle his hips between her spread legs, his head lowering until his face was pressed against the curve of her neck and the raven hair fell about her like a curtain of warm satin.

  A treacherous heat swirled through the pit of her stomach and Harley planted her hands against his chest.

  A distraction.

  That’s what she needed.

  And pronto.

  “Well, that worked out well,” she muttered, her heart slamming against her chest when his lips lightly touched the base of her throat.

  “Could be worse,” he murmured.

  “Get off me.”

  “Why?” His lips continued to nibble, sending jolts of electric pleasure through her. “We’re obviously stuck in here for the time being. We might as well make the best of a bad situation.”

  Oh…God. She squeezed her eyes shut, battling the fierce tug of attraction that flared between them.

  Distraction, distraction, distraction…

  “Did you turn Caine into a cur?” she husked.

  He stilled, as if caught off guard by her question. “No.”

  “Then how did you control him?”

  “I’m the king. All curs belong to me.”

  Harley snorted. Pure arrogance, in all its glory.

  “And the Weres?”

  “Of course.” He nipped the lobe of her ear. “You’re mine, cara. From the top of your golden head to the tips of your tiny toes, and every delectable curve in between.”