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She wanted to chase that tormented gaze from him, but they couldn’t leave, not now, not when they might be so close. “We owe that little boy one more try.” While she would hunt Tai until she couldn’t anymore, her mate wouldn’t be pushed into offering up his people to the Order’s whims—and that included her since they had accepted her as one of them. “Last stop,” she repeated.
After a long drawn-out breath, he nodded. “Let me check your gear before we leave the safety of the Hummer.”
The way he took care of her and put her first? His love staggered her. The fates could grant them seventy years together in this lifetime, and still, it wouldn’t be enough. “Alexei?”
He paused, looking from her bulletproof vest to the military-grade uniform he’d made her wear as if searching for weak points. “Hmm?” His protective gaze didn’t stop scanning her.
She stretched her gloved fingers over the console to touch his face, grateful he’d left her fingertips uncovered so that she could stroke his cheek and feel the rough stubble against her skin. From his sharp cheekbones to his strong jaw, her mate took handsome brutality to devastating sexiness.A kiss for luck. Sweeping her mouth against his, she couldn’t say the words aloud, couldn’t give him another reason to back out.
Without breaking their connection, he yanked her closer and deepened the kiss until she couldn’t catch her breath. When he pulled away, he licked his lips as if savoring her taste. “That’s it. We’re leaving.”
“No,” she whispered. “I would never forgive myself if we didn’t check this one final location.”
He tipped his head against the seat. “I swear your soft heart will get us both killed. If anything goes wrong, run for safety or get to high ground. I’ll be right behind you. At least the Order only includes humans, and Noxx doesn’t want you to dead, so I’ll have to be satisfied with that for the next ten minutes until I can get us on the road to the warehouse.” With a loaded sigh, he screwed in the earpiece that connected him to the comm system with their now-distant backup and stepped out of the vehicle. “I’ll come around and get you. Have your helmet ready, and stay behind the shelter of the door and its protective glass.”
Seconds later, he opened the door for her, taking the helmet from her lap and waiting until she stood to plunk it on her head. “It’s too big,” she said when it tipped to its side until he cinched the strap.
“Smallest spare we have, and it’ll fit with the way Alys braided your hair into a crown.” Because his sister had insisted they send their princess off to battle looking like a royal. The black uniform that fit her curves matched his, with accommodations in the back to allow for wings. Not that she had any. But the material allowed easy movement while providing extra protection worthy of a special ops wardrobe.
Alexei wore two guns strapped to his thighs and probably hid more weapons in boots and pockets. Not that he needed heavy artillery with horns, wings, claws, and the fangs she’d only managed to talk him into flashing once. Add demon strength and he made for a one-man wrecking crew. If—gods forbid—they needed his magic to deal with humans, then he would rival an army.
She didn’t have a gun after her abysmal failures at the weapons training sessions that Alys had put her through. Armed with only her wit, she planned to stay behind her mate if any trouble came at them—which it hadn’t during the last stops.
Fog rolled around the base of the silos, blurring the rusted letters painted across the steel. Lights blinked at the top of each, but here at the bottom, darkness wrapped around them. She called her magic, letting the faintest shimmer of a glow bloom from the few inches of skin that protective gear didn’t cover—her face, neck, and fingertips.
Alexei moved through the night as if he’d walked this path a million times, and she wished she had asked him about his other powers besides strength, flying, and summoning the magical equivalent of a volcano. Granted, those had seemed more than enough. Did he have superior vision to see through the blackness like shifters possessed? Was his lethal grace natural to his predatory nature, or had he trained that? Questions filled her mind to stop the ones that nagged at her.What plans did Noxx have for them? Why this game? What had the woman done to Tai?
They moved past the silos to the main plant. The building appeared to be two, maybe three stories tall depending upon the interior design. Shaped like a giant block, it seemed neglected, nothing suggesting that it had been converted to some stronghold for the Order.
“What if we got the wrong place?” she whispered. “At every other stop, we found the message easily.” They’d followed the clues from the last riddle, but still, she couldn’t shake the fear snaking through her, tightening the muscles in her shoulders into knots. “This doesn’t add up. Not as a clue or an Order facility. Noxx requires technology, modern conveniences.”
Alexei shook his head. “I rescued you from a ruin. She used the building’s run-down exterior as part of the camouflage then. Who’s to say she hasn’t done the same here?” He tugged at the door. It jiggled with a softclankof metal but didn’t open.
The knots bunched and sent a ripple of pain through her back. “Noxx sent us to a building with locked doors?” It didn’t make sense. “Did I read the last message wrong? LA has several streets with names spelled almost the same, but I felt sure this was it.”
“Give me a minute, and we’ll be in.” Slipping a small case from one of the many pockets in his uniform, Alexei set to picking the lock.
Pushing her powers to her fingertips, she gave him extra light to work by. “So, who taught a demon prince the basics of breaking and entering?”
“My goblin queen cousin.” He didn’t sound as if he kidded.
Gods, she loved this man and his family. “You’ve got to show me how to do that.”
“Deal. I’ll even handcuff myself one night for you to practice if you’ll agree to go home and wait as soon as you see inside.”
“But Tai—”
“I will find him faster when I don’t have to worry about my mate’s safety around the crazy terrorist who kept you captive your whole life and tortured you. We go in, we leave, and I can take you home without an argument, yes?” Concern punctuated his voice with sharp vowels and cutting consonants underscored with exasperation.
She didn’t want to leave a kid out there to suffer what she’d gone through, but Alexei had a point. He didn’t need to fight herandNoxx. Besides, he had promised to find the kids, and he didn’t break his promises to her. “Yes.”
“Good.”
The door rattled and creaked as he pushed it open. Inside, the factory smelled of mold and musty air, as though it’d been sealed up for years.
She walked slowly into the empty space, leaving footprints in the dust layered over the cement floor. On her left, broken stairs led up to another floor. Giant vats and machinery stretched in front of her, with a big rolling door, raised platform, and stairs in darkness to her right in what looked like a loading dock at Alexei’s warehouse.
High above the door where they’d come in, windows lined with heavy metal frames interrupted the block wall, some dotted with broken glass panes. Endless pipes clustered around each piece of equipment, casting skeletal outlines in the darkness. Massive tubing twisted in a maze along the far wall leading outside. To the silos, she figured.
