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1. Stop and secure Malory.
2. Stop and secure Tate.
3. Get the hel back to Chicago.
4. See Ethan naked under more auspicious circumstances.
5. Repeat, ad infinitum.
Tasks four and five were, like Ethan, aluring. But for now, we had a sorceress and a something else to deal with, so I belted on my katana. Thinking we were ready to head downstairs, I put a hand on the doorknob, but Ethan stopped me.
"Merit."
I looked back, eyebrows lifted in question.
He moved forward, as swift as a cat, stopped mere inches from me, and stared down at me with hooded emerald eyes.
Even in jeans and a jacket, he was so handsome, this blond warrior, with ferocity in his eyes and a sword at his side.
"You'l be careful."
"About what?"
"About this mission."
"As careful as possible," I promised. My tone was lighthearted, but that wasn't enough for him. He put a hand on my arm. "And if she's a threat to you?"
I looked up at him, my heart suddenly pounding.
"She may be a threat," Ethan said. "Malory has attempted, and likely wil attempt again, magic that has no purpose but to harm others, including you."
The fierceness in his eyes made my stomach clench with nerves. The protectiveness was thriling, but I was afraid it boded poorly for Mal.
"If it comes down to you or her..."
I was silent for a moment. "What?"
He didn't finish the sentence; he didn't need to. He was warning me, apologizing for what he might do to Malory if - when - she popped into our lives again. But I didn't want to have this conversation.
"She's my best friend. She's practicaly my sister."
"And she's put you down with her magic. She tried to destroy the third-biggest city in the country, and she tried to turn me into her servant because she thinks she has the right to unleash evil on the world."
I swalowed down fear and a fierce bolt of sudden anger at Malory, and I made myself face him. "I can't let you hurt her, Ethan."
His gaze went fierce, and he lifted my chin with his finger and thumb. "I know you love her. I have no doubt of it. But if it comes down to a choice between you and her, my choice is already made."
"Ethan - "
"No," he said, crystaline green eyes boring into me. "You are my choice. I told you before - you are mine, by blood and bone. I won't let her come between that, no matter how sick she is."
Maybe seeing the panic in my eyes, his expression softened.
"I don't wish it," he said. "I don't want it to come to that. But the decision is made. It is and wil be."
"We're not doing this to punish her," I reminded him. "This is a rescue mission. We find her, and we bring her home, safe and sound. Al three of us, safe and sound. She brought you back to me, Ethan. I can't forgive her for what she's done, but I can't forget that, either."
He wrapped himself around me, his mouth on mine so suddenly it took my breath away. Then he captured my face with his hands and kissed me with an insistence that left no room for question, or doubt, about who I was to him.
We began as enemies, Ethan and I. He saved my life but was unwiling to accept me for who I was - or I, him.
We grew as coleagues but fought our attraction to each other.
And when I was ready to give in to his advances, he let fear lead him away.
He gave his life for me, and I finaly admitted the depth of my feelings for him.
And by a miracle - a miracle by a blue-haired girl intent on destroying the world around us - he was back again...and she was stil the obstacle between us.
Paige's voice echoed up the stairs. "Ready if you are!"
Ethan stepped back and rubbed a hand across his jaw. "We should get downstairs."
I nodded back at him, unsure how to begin again.
Worry heavy in my heart, we met Paige on the first floor. She looked ready for work in heavy pants, black boots, and a short plaid coat with a matching cap and earflaps, her red curls gleaming beneath it. She might have been out here alone, but this girl was serious about her job.
We folowed her outside into the crisp fal air. It was a lovely night for late November, the chil in the air just cool enough to be refreshing instead of toe numbing. Paige led us around the farmhouse and into the field behind it, where the grass was short and yelowed. The moon shone high and white in the sky.
"So, Paige," I said, "if you're the only one here, how do you keep an eye on everything?"
"I have friends. The prairie may be empty of sorcerers, but it's not empty of sups. I also have potions. You've heard of Sleepytime tea? I've invented the opposite - a magical pick-me-up. I cal it Wakeytime tea. It gives me the energy to keep an eye out."
"That's what you were drinking earlier?"
"No. That realy was Sleepytime tea. I took the day off since you were here, too. It made me feel better to have someone else in the house, even if you were unconscious. It was the first time I've slept in days."
I was impressed that she looked so good on so little sleep. I'd have looked like a plague victim on a bad hair day. "You look fantastic."
"Not al of us are vampires with ageless skin. We do what we can. Sometimes we do it with magic."
Paige led us down a wel-trodden path across a smal pasture and through the gap in a split-log fence. The next field was furrowed, the remains of yelowed cornstalks stumpy along the ground.
"You grow corn here?" Ethan asked.
"Keeping up appearances," Paige said. "There's the entrance to the silo." In the middle of the field, which had to be three hundred yards across, sat a smal cube of concrete. "The missile bay doors are hidden under the topsoil."
"The Order definitely picked a hard-to-reach location," Ethan said.
"The armed forces picked it first. We're in the middle of the country," Paige said. "It was a great place for missile defense, if you want maximum protection from the enemy."
We crunched across the frozen ground to the silo entrance, which didn't appear to be more than a concrete box with a utility door. Paige unlocked and opened it, revealing a smal metal platform.
"Climb aboard," Paige said, puling off her cap and revealing a tangle of red curls. "The bunker is thirty-two feet down. The platform's on a scissor lift, so it wil take us to the bottom."
The "platform" consisted of a plank of corrugated metal - the kind you could see straight through - and a few strips of railing.
Below us was only darkness.
Paige joined me and Ethan, then punched a red button on a giant metal box that hung from one side of the railing. Slowly, and with a metalic screech, we began the descent.
