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Julian paused and scented the air, his nostrils flaring as her subtle, exotic scent wafted through him.
Damn, but does she have to smell so good?
He glanced down the hall toward her bedroom as he crossed to the elevator. Julian had no clue where the hub was, but he was pretty sure he’d be able to convince Tank to show him the way.
He clenched his hands at the thought and flexed his arms in anticipation. He pressed the button located beside the com unit, but once more his eyes turned back toward her bedroom.
Something didn’t feel right.
The doors slid open, rolling back silently, yet he didn’t take that step. His entire frame hummed with the need to act, but, instead, he turned and walked down the hall.
He cursed the voice of reason that echoed inside his head as he moved forward. The one that told him he needed to find the portal and not waste time on Jaden DaCosta.
And yet, he couldn’t help himself, even as the skin beneath his left pectoral burned relentlessly.
He ignored the pain and kept on.
He crept into her room and felt the air deflate from his lungs, an anticlimactic whoosh. He knew the place was empty before he saw the bed. It hadn’t been turned down and didn’t look as if she’d slept in it.
His thoughts turned to Nico. Was that where she’d fled? Julian frowned, not liking the thought of Jaden and the warrior together, but it was the most plausible scenario.
She’d been hot the night before, on the cusp of coming into heat. Her scent had been intoxicating. Even now he felt it, pulling deep in his gut—the need to take her, to mark her as his and plant his seed deep within.
Nico had felt it, too.
Hell, he was pretty sure every male who’d come in contact with her had felt the pull of her sexuality.
Julian shook his head savagely. He shouldn’t care. She should be able to tame the desire that lived inside her with whomever she chose. He turned from her bed.
He had more important things to worry about, like saving the world. Saving his soul.
His eyes circled the room once more, and he moved toward the bed. Several photos were displayed on a side table and caught his attention. They were photos of Jaden with people he didn’t recognize. Some looked to be staff members, others were faces he didn’t know or care about.
His fingers ran along the top of the ebony surface and he slid the drawer open. He pushed aside papers, a brush, passport, and stilled as he felt the hard edges of another picture frame.
Carefully he withdrew the shot.
He blinked, then frowned. The picture was of a couple and their children. Jakobi he recognized instantly, and his breath caught at the woman in his arms. It was Jaden, yet not. Obviously, her mother.
They were younger, happy, and the five boys and small girl who stared up at them adoringly, were postcard perfect.
His finger caressed the moment snatched from time so long ago. What the hell had happened to the DaCosta family? How had they become splintered, distant, with a father who was nothing more than a sadistic son of a bitch and a mother who . . .
His eyebrows furled as he realized he had no clue of the whereabouts of Jaden’s mother.
The flickering light of a computer caught his eye, and he crossed to her desk quickly. He tapped the keypad, but he was locked out. She’d password protected the damn thing.
He should go, yet he stared at the blank screen, a frown furling his features. Quickly, he typed in the words, DaCosta, Jaguar, Portal, but nothing happened. His fingers hesitated, and he shrugged, typing in Castille. Again, nothing.
What the hell am I doing? He typed Julian and smiled as the screen flickered and came to life.
He hit history and quickly scanned the pages, noticing several phrases over and over. Eagle knights. Jaguar warriors. The Temple of the Warriors.
Back in the day, before this whole mess had invaded his life, Julian had been quite the student of history. He knew of this temple, of its purported secrets.
He also knew of its power and the ancient magick that surrounded it. He was puzzled. What the hell did she want with the Temple? What could she possibly find there? It was full of nothing more than old relics and echoes of a long-ago past when great warriors walked the earth.
He exited her screen and closed the program. He had no time for puzzles.
