“I think we need to get some rest, and then we will figure out what the next step is,” Lisa spoke up. She walked over to Elora and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I know you want action, Elora. You’re just like your father, always running in guns blazing, but we have to sleep sometime. Only then will we be thinking clearly.”
Elora tried not to flinch at the mention of her father. It was still a painful topic and one they hadn’t had time to fully discuss. She finally relented. “Okay, fine, we’ll sleep first.” She started for the motel door but was brought up short by a large hand around her wrist. She didn’t turn; she’d know that touch anywhere.
“You stay with me,” Cush’s breath rushed across her neck as his lips brushed her ear with each word. When he picked her up in his arms, she didn’t resist. She just let him take care of her.
“It’s about time,” he whispered as he laid her on the bed and pulled the covers up. He climbed on next to her leaning against the headboard and then drug her up to lay against his chest. His bossiness should tick her off, but as his body warmed hers and his heartbeat lulled her to sleep, she couldn’t find the energy to be irritated, let alone mad at him.
Cush struggled with the urge to haul off and kill someone or something. As he lay with his Chosen in his arms in the dark motel room, his mind was continually drawn back to that moment when he had put his arm in the portal. Someone, and he knew it was a someone because it had been a hand, had grabbed his arm. He had felt the heat from their skin against his and when they had attempted to pull him through the portal it had enraged him. The amount of evil that had been in that touch had left his skin feeling as though thousands of ants were marching along his nerves all doing a dance to the tune of “Another One Bites the Dust.” Whoever had touched him had wanted him to feel that evil. They had wanted him to know they were hunted, they were prey, and few things angered him more than feeling like prey.
“You’re thinking awfully loud,” Elora’s tired voice broke through his thoughts.
He ran a hand over her hair and down her back, enjoying the way she felt. “Shh, Little Raven, you need more sleep.”
“Your little raven is going to peck your eye balls out if you don’t quit telling her what to do.” Cush chuckled at her kitten like growl. “You like it when I boss you around,” he teased as he whispered against her ear. She was still sprawled across his chest where he had put her, and even though she was arguing with him, she had yet to attempt to move away.
“Yes, well I also like the smell of gasoline and the way a snake feels, so I wouldn’t bank your actions too much on what I like.”
“The way a snake feels?” he repeated and though she couldn’t see him he still quirked a brow at her.
“Blame it on the dark blood,” she said dryly.
She buried herself closer to him and pressed her face against his neck. Cush stubbornly tried not to enjoy it too much, but her warm breath skittered across his skin and distracted him from the evil he had been so focused on.
“I keep hearing something about evil dance across your thoughts, Warrior,” she said softly. “What evil?”
He knew that he needed to be open with her, but his first instinct was to protect her, to keep her from having to deal with dangerous things. He knew that if he attempted to cage his raven she would indeed peck his eyes out. He let out a deep breath before he answered her.
“Whatever grabbed me was something so evil, so vile, that I can still feel the residue of it on my skin,” he admitted and actually felt his mood lighten after the words were out.
Elora pulled back so she could look up at his face and he saw the concern in her eyes, concern for him. He reached a hand up and ran his fingers across her cheek, completely in awe of the creature before him who would worry for him.
“Do you think it’s Lorsan, or are you thinking there is someone else now joining the fray?” she asked.
“Whoever it was, they definitely are a player for Lorsan, but I don’t think it was Lorsan himself.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “It didn’t feel male.”
She let out an un-ladylike snort. “Do I want to even know why you think that? Perhaps your hand landed on something.”
His finger landed across her lips silencing her as his eyes narrowed in warning. When he finally pulled his finger away she let out an exasperated huff.
“I say that it didn’t feel male because magic can have a masculine or an un-masculine quality to it. This was definitely un-masculine,” he explained.
“So how are we going to get back to Trik and Cassie?”
“I don’t know,” he finally admitted after several heartbeats of silence.
“I’m probably worrying for nothing,” she said as she snuggled back down against him. “They’ve probably smacked Lorsan to the curb and are having a party.”
“Weren’t we just standing in a castle?” Cassie asked as she looked around at the rubble surrounding her. She was trying not to look at Trik as though he had just deflected an explosion and kept all of their people safe while allowing the destruction to take its toll on the dark elves still in the vicinity. But frankly, that’s exactly what he had done, and bloody freaking hell, who has that kind of power, she thought as she stared at her husband.
Trik looked at her and in total Trik fashion, he winked. “Just think what I can do in the bedroom.”
Cassie rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the others around her. Syndra was talking to Tyndril and Tao, weird as that was. The two tigers were unharmed but seemed very agitated. Tamsin was checking on the other warriors and gathering up any of the dark elves who had lived through the blast.
“He knew his people would be killed and harmed, and still he blew up his own freaking home?” Cassie growled.
“Lorsan cares about power, Love; nothing else matters to him,” Trik told her.
“Yes but doesn’t he realize that if he kills off all his warriors he won’t be able to hold onto that power?”
Trik smiled at her. “He obviously doesn’t have a queen with wisdom such as yours to advise him.”
Cassie laughed. “If we weren’t in the middle of an exploded castle, I might think you were trying to earn some brownie points for some reason.”
“Always, beautiful Cassandra, always.” He took her hand and led her over to where Tamsin stood with the captives on their knees and hands bound behind their backs.