Ecstasy in Darkness (Alien Huntress 5)

“You once pushed me and the weights you’d tied around my waist into oncoming traffic,” Ava growled. “You’re strong enough for this. You’re just lazy!”

Noelle had once tried to kill Ava? That, he didn’t like for some reason. But he wouldn’t worry about that now. She meant nothing to him. Well, except maybe breakfast.

“Your brain has clearly rotted,” Noelle snarled. “I’m as lazy as Mia Snow on steroids, adrenaline injections, and caffeine overload.”

“Don’t make me kick your ass.”

Would they ever kiss again? he wondered, then scowled. No, they wouldn’t kiss again, because he was going to murder them both. If they didn’t kill each other first. Which seemed highly likely. They were predators, both of them, and they’d probably scratch each other to death if they ever got into bed. An arousing thought. An irritating thought, since they didn’t deserve a single moment of pleasure.

“I swear to God I’m going to stab you in your heartless chest with a butter knife if you don’t—oh, good. I see the car,” Ava said with relief. “Act like my friend for five more minutes and actually help.”

“Have I told you yet that you’re a bitch?”

“No. You’ve been too busy tilting McKell so that I’d have to take the brunt of his weight.”

He liked Ava’s voice. Smooth, as deceptively sweet as her face. A face that was slightly rounded, with big brown eyes, an up-tilted nose, and heart-shaped lips. A face better suited for angelic paintings, and yet midnight fantasies were what claimed his mind every time he looked at her. And framing all that sweetness was an even sweeter tumble of amber curls. Curls made for fisting, tugging, pinning so that she would be forced to take the hottest flames of his kiss.

Only thing that wasn’t sweet about her—besides her demeanor—was her body.

What she lacked in height, she made up for in curves. She had br**sts that strained the white tank top she wore, a waist that flared beneath a dangerously short skirt, and sun-kissed legs encased in calf-high boots.

“Moment he comes out of stun,” Noelle huffed, “I’m breaking up with him.”

“So I don’t get to sing about Noelle and McKell sitting in a tree?”

“Shut up. Anyway, I can’t be with a man who can’t find a way out of stun to help me carry him. It’s discourteous, you know? And selfish.”

Her babbling made no sense. What an odd woman.

“I agree,” Ava said.

She understood that nonsense? Just you wait, he thought darkly.

When the females pulled him out of the line of trees and into a clearing, he froze them in place with only a thought. Their minds, their bodies. They were stunned, like him, only they had no idea what happened around them.

Inside, he grinned. Everyone assumed he could stop time, and they were right. He could stop the clock for several minutes at a time. But that wasn’t all he could do. He could also stop the people around him while time passed without their knowledge. And that’s exactly what he did now.

He held his captors in place for one hour … two. He should have grown bored, simply staring ahead as he was, but too much relish filled him. Oh, yes, these females would learn. He knew this area, knew the forest itself was gated to keep humans out, and knew no one would stumble upon them.

They were his.

Ava … his … Down boy, he thought with a growl. To think of her in such a possessive way was to undermine his plan for her. And he—

McKell cursed as he noticed a shimmering curtain of air to his right. A doorway. The air had thickened, dust motes glowing in the moonlight, a tangible glitter that somehow looked like welcoming arms. Not again. He’d seen such a doorway every time he’d visited this topside world.

In fact, he’d seen one yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. Once and only once had he been tempted to touch. He’d reached out, but that dappled air had sucked at him, pulling him closer against his will, trying to swallow him up. He’d raced backward, warrior instincts saving him—sometimes you fought, sometimes you retreated, always you returned later and killed—and the suction had ceased. But he’d never forgotten the experience, and never wanted a repeat.

How did you fight a split in the ether? Especially when that split might be sentient.

Deep down, he thought he knew where the doorway, or whatever it was, led, what it wanted. The answers? To eternal darkness and his damnation. Why target him, though, he wasn’t sure.

Pay it no heed and it will go away. As always. He released the women from his mental hold.

No longer fettered, Ava and Noelle continued forward, unaware anything had changed and thankfully avoiding the curtain. Though he knew they couldn’t see it. Only he could. Over the years, he’d watched humans, otherworlders, and vampires alike walk through them, as if the air were merely that. Air.

When they had passed the curtain and adjusted to the fading darkness, he froze them in place once again. Another hour, then two, passed quickly for him. Thankfully, another doorway never opened.

Again he released them for only a moment, let them continue with their chat, move forward, adjust, before refreezing them.

Another hour. This one eked by. But finally, he let them go for good.

“Holy shit, my arms are burning,” Ava rasped. “And shaking, too. I feel like I’ve held him for days.”

“Me, too. And damn, the sun’s coming out already. We’re slower than I realized.”

“Damn it. Hurry.”

Obviously exhausted, they hauled him the rest of the way, tripping and cursing, and stashed him inside the waiting vehicle.

“His skin will burn if we leave him like this. Right? Didn’t Mia tell us vampires are sensitive to light?” Ava stood in his open doorway, peering down at him and tapping a blunt-tipped finger against her chin.

Not for a moment did he delude himself into thinking she truly cared about keeping him unharmed.

“So what?” Noelle said.

“So. Mia will be pissed if we bring her damaged goods. Let’s cover him.”

Good thing he hadn’t deluded himself. He would have been feeling supremely disappointed just then. Which he wasn’t. Not even a little.

Damn her. He was a vampire, far superior to a measly human, and he deserved her admiration and consideration.

“Shame to cover up that face, though.” With a sigh, Noelle tossed a blanket over his head. The material draped his bare shoulders and torso, protecting him from the sun’s rapidly strengthening rays. “Happy now?”