Valen (Guardians of Hades Romance Series Book 2) Read online

  Her foot still pressed the dead accelerator down.

  The headlights flickered and a bright bolt of electricity leaped from the bonnet and hit Valen’s hand, and chased around his arm.

  He didn’t even flinch.

  He sauntered over to the driver’s door and opened it.

  “I’ll explain later, but right now you’re the one who is going to do some explaining,” he snarled and she had half a mind to say that was her line.

  That aching mind fixated on the first part of what he had said, because the rest confused the hell out of her.

  Was he going to explain about what she had just seen him do and the whole crazy parallel world she had fallen into?

  She hoped so.

  She had seen him total a bar, had seen his brothers pop out of thin air, and seen him disappear in the same manner, and now he had stopped her car with one hand.

  That hand caught her arm and he dragged her from the car, and then reached in and snatched her bag and coat. She stumbled as he pulled her towards the gate and she saw the front of the Fiat.

  It was wrecked, the white metal twisted and caved in where he had struck it with his fist.

  Impossible.

  Her knees gave out.

  His strong hand on her waist steadied her and a quiet thrill chased through her. A blush touched her cheeks as flashes of the times they had been together filled her mind, bursting into existence for a heartbeat before returning to the darkness.

  Memories of Valen became memories of Benares and panic lanced her.

  She pulled away from him, for a moment seeing Benares holding her. When she blinked, the vision disappeared, leaving Valen behind. His golden eyes gained an edge of hurt as he slung the strap of her bag over his shoulder and he grabbed her arm again, tugging her roughly towards the gate.

  She stared at the front of her car, and then at his hand on her arm, and fear gave way to anger, an emotion she knew how to deal with.

  She twisted free of his grip and he looked back at her.

  “What the fuck are you?” She didn’t mean it to come out so blunt, so harsh, but the words flew from her lips, fuelled by rage that shot her temper straight into the red.

  He flexed his hand again, making the muscles in his forearm ripple with hidden strength, and reached for her.

  “I said I would explain later. After you’ve explained yourself.”

  After she had explained herself?

  She frowned at him, head pounding, stomach twisting into knots as she struggled to make sense of that and everything that was happening to her.

  “Come,” he barked, a sharp edge to his usually mellow deep voice.

  He was angry with her.

  He walked a few steps towards the door set into the huge arched gate and looked back at her, his eyes narrowing and eyebrows dropping low above them when he saw she hadn’t moved.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you. I don’t know what’s going on anymore and I want out. I’m tired of this. I’m tired of everything. I’m just tired.”

  “I bet you are,” he snapped and muttered something beneath his breath.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” If he was trying to make her angry, he was pressing all the right buttons.

  What had she done to upset him?

  Other than hit him with a bag, run away from him and attempt to run him down with her car.

  “We must leave here. Come and I will explain.” He held his hand out to her again, his eyes bright golden pools of danger that shook her to her core along with that one word.

  She wished he would stop saying it.

  Heat pooled at the apex of her thighs whenever he told her to come, memories of their time filling her head and her heart, but on the heels of that fire came ice that chilled her to the bone and conjured images of Benares.

  “No.” She mimicked his empty tone, bone-deep tired of being ordered around and left in the dark.

  Tired of being afraid.

  Her strength was flowing from her now that she had stopped, now that Valen was here. She wanted to collapse into a heap and break down just as she had promised herself she could.

  It wasn’t like her, and she didn’t like it.

  She didn’t like feeling this weak, this vulnerable, when she was used to being strong and in control.

  She wrapped her arms around herself, squeezed hard and tried to hold herself together.

  “I can’t do this anymore,” she whispered. “I’m so tired.”

  His face darkened and his words lashed at her, tearing through her fragile defences. “I guess it must get tiring fucking every guy you meet… but we can talk about that later. Right now, I need to get you to safety.”

  She stared at him, reeling from that blow, ears ringing from the hard hit.

  Fucking every guy she met?

  Her eyes slowly widened as the meaning behind that sank in.

  There was only one way he could have known about what had happened at the meeting, and that was if Jin had gone to see Valen.

  What had that bitch said to poison Valen against her?

  Or was it not what Jin had said but what she had done?

  Benares’s deep voice echoed in her mind, sending pain shooting through her chest.

  His sister had gone out to feed.

  Had Valen fallen for Jin’s charms when she had somehow resisted Benares?

  Had she resisted Benares?

  The blood in her veins chilled and she could almost feel the heat draining from her as she stared up into Valen’s eyes.

  They were dark and hard, as cold as her blood. He honestly believed she had slept with another man, that she would do such a thing.

  Had she?

  Eva turned her face away from him, looking off to her right, into the shadowy corner at the side of the courtyard, her eyes stinging and heart pounding as she fought to pull herself together and find her feet again.

  Valen unleashed a low growl.

  He grabbed her arm and yanked her to him, his actions so rough she flinched as pain bloomed in her shoulder. His touch softened and she flinched for a different reason when he brushed the fingers of his other hand over the left side of her head.

  It throbbed, hot and pounding in time with her pulse, sending waves of sickening pain rolling over her skull.

  “What the fuck happened?” he snarled and she felt his eyes leap to her face, their familiar burn demanding she look at him.

  She couldn’t.

  Not when she was falling apart all over again, torn to pieces by his question.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered and the trembling started again, so badly this time that she felt sure her knees would give out. Tears blurred her vision. She shook her head as she tried to find the answer and those tears skated down her cheeks, hot against her skin.

  He growled again, a sound that should have frightened her, fit for a monster, but she felt no fear as he inspected the cut on her temple, his touch light and gentle, his anger visible in the trembling grip he had on her arm.

  He was no longer angry with her.

  He was angry for her.

  And she was stupid because it brought more tears to her eyes.

  She rubbed them away, not wanting to cry over something as trivial as him being angry about what had happened to her, even when he was the first man to do that for her. He was the first to stand in her corner and want to fight for her, to avenge and protect her.

  It was so tempting to surrender and rely on him like that, to let everything that had happened consume her. Destroy her. But she couldn’t.

  She was stronger than this.

  “I’m going to kill the bastard,” he bit out and his fingers shook against her skin.

  She slowly lifted her eyes to his, wanting to see that fury shining in them, turning them molten gold.

  Needing to see it.

  His irises burned brightly, glowing in the low light.

  But he wasn’t a monster.

  He wasn’t like Benare
s.

  The fury blazing in his eyes turned to rage as they narrowed on other parts of her face, and her neck, and then settled on her split lip.

  “I’m going to fucking kill him.” He went to pull away but she seized hold of his arm, fear sending a cold blast through her and her heart screaming at her to stop him.

  Not because she was afraid Benares would hurt him.

  But because she didn’t want him to leave.

  She didn’t want to be alone.

  He stilled, strain written across his handsome face, a war erupting in his eyes, telling her how deeply he wanted to avenge her but also how deeply he wanted to stay as she had silently asked.

  He slowly sobered, the rage in his gold eyes dropping from a boil to a simmer, but not leaving them. He had it under control, but it would only take a spark to light it up again.

  “Did he—” He clenched his fist and the muscle in his jaw popped.

  Eva swallowed hard and shook her head, but she could only move it a fraction of a degree as uncertainty wracked her. “I don’t think so.”

  “You don’t think so?” he snapped, his voice loud in the courtyard, that rage rolling back to a boil in his eyes.

  “I’m… I’m not sure.” Tears streaked down her cheeks. “I hit my head… I passed out.”

  Her knees finally gave out.

  Valen caught her and pulled her into his arms.

  “Nothing happened,” he whispered into her hair and stroked her back, his caress soothing her ragged nerves and helping to clear her head, driving out the fear that controlled her and allowing her to focus. “If Jin is a succubus, I’m guessing this Benares bastard is an incubus, and… he wouldn’t. It isn’t in his nature to feed that way.”

  She nodded against his chest, even though she didn’t have a damn clue what he was talking about. Succubus? Incubus? They were just myths, weren’t they? Legends of demons made up by people hundreds of years ago.

  Was Valen telling the truth, or was he just saying whatever she needed to hear to put her mind at ease?

  She drew back to look into his eyes and search for the answer there.

  The courtyard spun as if someone had tossed them into a blender and darkness engulfed her.

  It parted a moment later, but everything kept spinning around her. She gripped Valen’s arms, digging her fingers into his biceps. Her vision stopped whirling but her stomach was slow to follow, still turning and twirling so violently she feared she would throw up.

  Valen pulled her against him, his hand pressing into the back of her head and pinning it to his hard chest. His t-shirt was soft against her cheek, his body warm and his embrace comforting. She sank into it, letting him be strong for her.

  Another first.

  She had never allowed anyone to do such a thing before.

  She had never relied on anyone the way she was coming to rely on him.

  He sifted his fingers through her hair, and, God, it was soothing, filled her with warmth and light that banished the cold and the darkness.

  How did he do this to her?

  She wanted to draw back and look at him, seeking an answer to that question this time, but she didn’t have the strength to move, because she didn’t want this to end. She wanted him to keep holding her like this.

  Maybe forever.

  “Be quiet,” he murmured against her hair and she frowned, hadn’t realised she was making any noise.

  A low growl echoed around her.

  It didn’t come from him this time.

  She had the sudden sensation that they weren’t alone.

  Right now, I need to get you to safety.

  Valen had come to her because she was in danger.

  Her heart started like a jackhammer against her ribs.

  In danger from what?

  Was it Benares?

  Panic sank its claws into her again and she pushed her palms against Valen’s chest, shoving him back as a need to run surged through her.

  He clucked his tongue and grabbed her as she backed off, his large hand locking tightly around her wrist.

  Her left foot hit thin air.

  Her eyes zipped to the courtyard far below her and her vision wobbled, her cars and the smouldering wreck of the Fiat zooming towards her and away again.

  She opened her mouth to scream at Valen about the fact he had almost killed her by teleporting her to the edge of the pitched roof rather than the apex of it, but her voice died as the courtyard below her stopped doing strange things in her vision.

  Cold stole through every inch of her.

  It wasn’t Benares.

  She stared, numb all over, at the things crawling around below her. Some sort of creature. There were four of them, resembling something between a man and a dog, their elongated limbs making it impossible for her to fool herself into thinking they were one or the other. They snapped and snarled whenever they came too close to each other, their sleek black bodies bristling with aggression and shimmering ethereally under the slim light, iridescent like a beetle’s armour.

  Valen slowly pulled her back towards him, drawing her focus back to the fact she was dangling perilously above them. He eased back up the slope, boots silent on the terracotta tiles.

  Eva peered down at the monsters.

  “What are they?” she whispered.

  Two of them looked up.

  Eva shot backwards, bumping into Valen’s chest, her hand clamping down over her mouth. She breathed hard, fought to slow it in case they heard her and came after her. Their blue glowing eyes hovered in her mind, sending fear trickling through her numb body, drawing an image of Benares to the surface of her mind.

  “He’s on to you,” Valen whispered and caught her arm.

  Benares had sent the monsters?

  She looked back at Valen, believing him for a moment, but then another reason for Benares sending demonic creatures after her dawned on her.

  It was another ploy.

  It was a trick to make Valen fall deeper under her spell so she could bring him to them.

  Valen had been quick to save her, and her wounds had drawn out his softer side. Had that been part of the plan too?

  She shuddered. No. Benares had wanted to seduce her. He had wanted to feed on her. If there were such things as incubi and he was one, then feeding was a sexual thing. She glanced back at Valen. Had Jin fed from him?

  She hated herself for asking that question, and for the tiny seed of doubt it planted in her heart.

  “We need to move again.” He pulled her back against him.

  “Wait.” Her stomach did a violent lurch at the thought of teleporting and she shook her head.

  If he dragged her through that dark, twisting and turning space again, she was definitely going to vomit.

  “It wasn’t a request.” He wrapped his arms around her.

  Someone put the world into a blender again.

  CHAPTER 18

  Eva kept her eyes squeezed shut as her head kept spinning long after her feet had hit solid ground.

  Thankfully, Valen kept hold of her, his hands firm against her side and back.

  “Eva,” he whispered and she didn’t want to open her eyes, not even when his voice was so coaxing and soft, luring her out of the darkness and making her want to see him so she could see how he looked when he spoke to her like that.

  One hand left her.

  She clamped her hands down on his arms, pressing her fingertips in hard, afraid she might collapse.

  He made a soft snorting sound that echoed with amusement and feathered his fingers across her cheek.

  “You can come out now.”

  She knew that. She just wasn’t sure it was a wise idea.

  She was stronger than this.

  Eva sucked down a breath that went no way towards steadying her trembling body, lifted her head towards his, and slowly opened her eyes.

  His smiled down at her.

  Black wisps of smoke curled around his shoulders, framing him, and her eyes widened when she dr
opped them and found similar onyx ribbons twining around her arms.

  Her stomach rebelled.

  Eva shoved out of his arms, almost fell as she twisted away from him but managed to remain upright somehow, and ran down the wood-panelled corridor that led to the bathroom. She hit the door hard with the flat of her hand, sending it slamming against the white tiles, and skidded to her knees in front of the toilet.

  “Having a moment there?” The teasing male voice came from the other room just as she threw up.

  “Bite me.” Valen’s reply had more venom than a cobra.

  She hadn’t realised they weren’t alone.

  It didn’t stop her stomach from lurching.

  Eva gripped the toilet bowl and threw up again.

  “Are you okay?” A female voice this time.

  Megan.

  Hell, she was glad it hadn’t been one of the men or Valen who had come to check on her.

  She nodded and groaned, her cheeks heating as shame swept through her. There went her reputation. Everyone in the other room would always see her as a woman with a weak stomach, a fragile constitution, and not the assassin she really was.

  Eva pulled herself up onto her feet, flushed the toilet and turned towards the sink. She kept her gaze firmly away from the mirror, unable to face her reflection when embarrassment scalded her cheeks. She twisted the cold tap, bent over and splashed water on her face. It was refreshing, soothing more than just her burning cheeks.

  “It takes a little getting used to,” Megan continued and Eva glanced across at the brunette as she moved, pushing her shoulder-length hair out of her face. Her dark eyes were bright, shining with amusement and affection. She glowed. Was it her relationship with Ares that made her glow like that? “It took me at least twenty times.”

  Eva groaned. Twenty? “I don’t think I can handle one more, let alone another seventeen or so.”

  She hung her head forwards and watched the water roll down the strands of her black and blue hair as she waited for her stomach to finally settle.

  Megan seemed so happy with Ares.

  He had powers like Valen, and a temper to match judging by what she had seen of him, but Megan was with him, unafraid of him.

  Happy.

  Could she really be like that with Valen?

  She stilled and watched the water swirling down the drain.