The Shadows Read online

  Rhiannon stood beside Jake, her hands tucked into the pockets of her bomber jacket. As soon as a couple of the D’Danann got Hannah and Garran settled in the back rooms of the warehouse, Jake and his team left to check out Garran’s story.

  Jake furrowed his brow as he gripped the boat’s cold handrail while they neared the island. What would they find? The night smelled of brine—but none of that strong rotten fish stench of the Fomorii was present.

  Or the stench of evil magic that he caught whenever Ceithlenn was near—not at all the same as the Fomorii stench. The goddess’s power was as evil-smelling as the magic that had slaughtered his men in a small Middle Eastern village when Jake had been Special Ops in the Marines. The foul odor always made him want to puke.

  Yeah, magic definitely had a smell all to its own, depending on what kind of magic. The D’Danann and D’Anu had a different magical scent, a kind of signature. It was fresh—almost like the wind after a good rain.

  The magic of the Dark Elves was more puzzling. Since they weren’t necessarily evil, they didn’t smell like Ceithlenn. But they didn’t smell like the “good magic” beings, either—more mossy and earthy with a hint of an unidentifiable spice.

  Jake glanced over his shoulder at those who accompanied him on the mission tonight. His elite team included five of his officers as well as Rhiannon of the D’Anu, and then there was Hawk, Tiernan, Eavan, and Keir of the D’Danann.

  “I don’t understand why you feel the need to do this.” Rhiannon’s words were almost whipped away by the wind as he turned his head to meet her eyes that were dark in the night.

  “I have to see for myself that Garran’s story isn’t a lie.” Jake glanced to Alcatraz Island then back to Rhiannon. “At least we can verify that the Fomorii that were in the cavern are gone—if that part of his story is true.”

  However, if the demons were there, Jake and his team would get the hell out in a hurry.

  Irritation darkened Rhiannon’s eyes. “Hannah backed up what Garran said, and my vision told me the same thing.”

  “For all we know, Garran could have put some kind of dark spell on Hannah and maybe influenced your vision,” Jake said. “I wouldn’t put it past him.” At Rhiannon’s frown, Jake added, “No offense, Rhi. I know he’s your father…”

  “But I haven’t known him long and he is King of the Dark Elves.” Rhiannon looked thoughtful, as if puzzling out something in her mind. “It sure doesn’t make sense how hundreds or thousands of man-eating demons could vanish—or how Garran was involved.”

  “Since you inherited some kind of dark power from him, maybe you can use that connection to sense what really went down at Alcatraz.” Jake moved his hands from the cold railing to his pockets. “If the demons are gone did Garran use his own dark magic to send the Fomorii somewhere? And if he did, exactly where did he send them?”

  Rhiannon stared at the island as it grew larger the closer they got to it. The expression on her face said that she was miles away in her mind.

  Without looking at him, she said, “You’re right. It doesn’t matter that Garran is my father. Do we really know if he’s on the up and up?” He barely heard her low voice. “Or could he still be an enemy on Ceithlenn’s side? Could he be planning to have his Drow warriors attack us the first chance they get?”

  “I don’t know,” was all Jake could say in response. “All I do know is that we need to cover our asses every step of the way.”

  Rhiannon gave a slow nod before her eyes met his again. “It’s hard for any of us to trust him. But I’ve had a chance to talk with him some, get to know him a little better since I found out he’s my father. Maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt.”

  Jake’s muscles flexed as he tensed. “I don’t want to take any chances and let our guard down.”

  She stared ahead at the island as they closed in on it. “I understand.”

  He looked over his shoulder at his officers. The team wore sleek scuba gear designed to keep them warm once they entered the icy water.

  The boat sliced its way through the swells to the area Rhiannon told them to go. She had visioned they couldn’t be seen in that location and it would lead them directly to the mouth of the cavern.

  Every one of Jake’s officers carried a flashlight, a dagger, and a water-resistant handgun at his or her side, the guns loaded with the special heart-seeking bullets. If they needed the weapons, he hoped to God it would be enough.

  For a moment Jake’s thoughts turned to Kat. He hadn’t spoken with her since she’d come to his office. His body heated at the memory of being inside her, yet at the same time concern clenched his heart hard enough it hurt.

  What he felt for Kat—hell, he had no idea. The sex was great and he admired her wit and intellect. They’d enjoyed each other’s company for the first six months or so of their relationship, until all hell had broken loose with the warlocks and the Fomorii.

  What he did know, was that he cared about Kat and her safety. He prayed like hell the demons wouldn’t get a hold of her. She was a high-profile news personality, and there was no telling what Ceithlenn had in mind. The goddess had already infiltrated the government. What about the news?

  Yeah, he cared about Kat. But she had never filled the soul-deep emptiness he had carried with him as long as he could remember. With drug addicts for parents and an uncle who kept his mother and father supplied with cocaine, heroin, and alcohol, Jake had never felt like he belonged anywhere or with anyone.

  Except for his job. Being a Marine and now working with the Paranormal Special Forces was what kept him going.

  The air around Jake seemed to grow colder and he rolled his tense shoulders within his snug jacket. Right now it wasn’t doing a damn bit of good to think about Kat or his shitty childhood. He needed to focus on the job.

  When he looked toward the railing, Rhiannon faced away from him again, huddled at the bow in her bomber jacket. Her hair whipped around her face and he saw her shivering from the cold.

  She had been certain she’d visioned the exact location of the mouth of the cavern. Even though no one had wanted to put Rhiannon in danger, they needed her. The kickass witch refused to be left behind, anyway.

  “There.” Rhiannon pointed to a sharp ripple of the sheer rock to the left side of the island. “Make your way to the other side, and you’ll find it.”

  When they were close enough to drift near the location, Jake ordered the lieutenant to cut the engines. In just a matter of moments, he and five team members dove silently into the bay. The three D’Danann flew overhead, landing where Rhiannon instructed them to.

  Jake was first to reach the almost hidden lip of the cavern. He rose out of the water, pushed up his face mask, and listened for the slightest sound of the Fomorii.

  Nothing. Only a very faint, lingering demon-stench and a steady plop, plop of dripping water from somewhere in the cavern.

  Without making a splash or a sound, Jake eased his way onto the cavern’s lip and drew his water-safe gun. Once he was on his feet, he peered around an outcropping of rocks, into the cavern.

  Even though Rhiannon had visioned that Garran was telling the truth, Jake hadn’t been able find it in himself to believe the Drow king without hard proof. He had to check matters out for himself. Call it cop-think, or covering his ass, or looking out for “his people,” police and otherwise.

  It looked like Garran had been clean.

  At least about the Fomorii no longer being in the cavern.

  Jake motioned for the others to follow him and signaled to the hovering D’Danann with a wave. Because he was human, he couldn’t see the flying warriors when they were in winged form, but he knew they were there. It still jolted Jake every time one of the warriors suddenly appeared next to him.

  He led the way into the silent cavern. He pointed to a few piles of silt—dead Fomorii remnants—around the entrance of the cave, but that was it. Only a handful of areas had the silt as if the demons had dropped while battling Garran, a
s he’d said.

  As Jake’s team slipped deeper into the cavern, sweeping it with their flashlights, Jake saw there was nothing left. Other than dried feces in one corner, carcasses of what had to be whales and sharks, not another sign of the Fomorii or any other beasts remained.

  Hawk came up beside him, followed by Rhiannon. Jake wiped water from his face. “Looks like the sonofabitch was telling the truth.”

  The D’Danann warrior scanned the cavern. “It appears so.”

  “Do you really trust Garran?” Jake asked as he studied Hawk.

  The warrior paused before he gave a slow nod. “Garran made a great sacrifice to save Silver’s sister from the Fomorii and Darkwolf.”

  Jake shook his head. “I’m not sure I feel the same way.”

  “Things in our Otherworld are never as straightforward as in this place, your Otherworld.” Hawk propped one booted foot on a rock as he spoke. “I think you would do well to expand your thinking, to sharpen your instincts about all manner of potential allies.”

  Hawk continued as he gave Rhiannon a pointed glance, “Even those with darkness in them can win through to the light, in the right circumstances.”

  With a frown, Jake nodded. “Maybe you’re right. But for now, let’s get the hell out of here.” He motioned to his team. “If Ceithlenn shows up or any of the demons, I don’t want to be caught with my pants down.”

  Hawk gave him a curious look then glanced down at Jake’s scuba bottoms. But Hawk didn’t say anything before he started walking toward the entrance.

  Jake swept the cavern one more time with his flashlight then followed Hawk and his team out into the bay and the breaking dawn.

  17

  Hannah scrunched her brows against sunlight meeting her eyelids as she gradually woke, curled up on her side. She raised one eyelid and quickly shut it as the bright light made her wince. Gradually she got used to the sunshine streaming in from the high windows of the warehouse.

  Voices, hammering, a drill, and other sounds echoed in the warehouse and in her head.

  Hannah normally woke easily and was surprised by the lethargy that made her feel as if her bones would melt into the cement below the sleeping bag. Maybe not so surprising considering what she and Garran went through last night.

  Memories and questions fired through her mind like arrows and her head ached even more from them.

  Garran was behind her, she was certain, even though he wasn’t touching her.

  She rolled from one side to the other to see Garran watching her, a sensuous smile touching his lips. He had propped one elbow on his sleeping bag, his head in his palm, and was simply watching her with his liquid silver eyes.

  Such Elvin beauty stole her breath away. His physique, his powerful build, made her want to explore his body with her hands, her tongue, her mouth. Her gaze drifted to the crotch of his jeans and she was rewarded with a hard outline behind the tough cotton.

  When she raised her eyes and looked at him again, his gaze had darkened.

  “Good morning,” she said, her voice soft in the emptiness of the room they had slept in. “Or maybe I should be saying good afternoon.”

  “It matters not.” He raised his hand and slipped his fingers into her hair. “The day is good.”

  The feel of his fingertips along her skin and then his palm cupping the back of her head made her belly twist. She eased her hand up to trace the curve of one of his pointed ears and he shivered as if the act itself were erotic. She fisted her hand in his T-shirt and pulled him toward her.

  When they’d kissed before, it had been wild and passionate on both their sides. This was so tender, gentle, that she could almost forget everything that had happened and all that was around them.

  She moaned as his mouth moved over hers and he took her lower lip between her teeth and nipped at it, sending a thrill straight to that place between her thighs. She slipped her tongue in to meet with his and tasted the wonderful flavor that was uniquely Garran.

  Hannah unclenched his T-shirt and moved her hand lower, down the flatness of his ripped abs to his jeans. He broke their kiss and groaned as she rubbed his length, and when she looked up at him he appeared to be almost in pain.

  “This human clothing is far too uncomfortable.” He shifted his hips and opened his eyes.

  Hannah rubbed him harder as she gazed up at him under her lashes. “I think it’s because you’re too big to fit in your jeans.”

  Garran grasped her wrist, pulling her hand from his length, and rolled her onto her back in a fast movement that shook the remaining sleepiness right out of her. He straddled her, holding both of her wrists in his hands.

  Such big, strong hands.

  She squirmed beneath him, aching for him to be inside of her. Would he leave her wanting again? He intertwined his fingers with hers and held their hands to either side of her head and brought his mouth to hers again.

  “I have never known such beauty.” He gently brushed his lips up and across hers. “You move my very soul when I look upon you.”

  “I know you’re trying to seduce me,” she murmured as he moved his lips over her jaw to the soft line of her neck. “But you don’t have to go overboard.”

  Garran nipped at the skin between her shoulder and neck. “I never say anything I do not mean, Hannah Wentworth.”

  Another flip inside her stomach made her wonder if she was losing her mind. The instinct she’d had before, about him telling the truth, rose up in her, and she couldn’t argue with him.

  Frankly, she didn’t want to argue. She just wanted him. And bless it, this time she would have him.

  In the social circles she’d frequented, her sexual relationships had been civilized. Garran was anything but.

  She’d never felt so hot, so needy, so crazy for a man as she did with Garran. Her body cried out to have his hands on her, his mouth on her, and to be inside her. She wanted to feel his hard thrusts as he pounded in and out of her.

  His lips neared her T-shirt-covered nipple and she squirmed beneath him. “Take my shirt off.”

  He looked up at her with a predatory smile and released her hands. “Are you certain this is what you want? Once we begin, I will not stop until we both have reached completion with me deep inside you.”

  Oh, goddess. She squirmed beneath him, the images of him taking her making her hotter and wetter.

  “You’d better make good on your promise.” She reached for the hem of her T-shirt that her sister witches had retrieved from her home. “Because this time, you’re not leaving.”

  Garran’s eyes melted into dark pewter as he helped her strip off the shirt. Thanks be, the witches had brought at least one of her front-clasp bras and she shrugged it off so that all she was wearing was her moon and crescent armband.

  Garran stroked the armband with his fingertips before taking both of her breasts in his hands and rubbing his thumbs over her nipples hard enough to make her gasp. He scooted down a little more and took one of her nipples in his mouth.

  Hannah moaned at the feel of his hot mouth on her and the way he sucked and licked it. He continued to palm her other breast and she arched, wanting him to take more of her. She found she was gripping the sleeping bag in her fists and relaxed them to slip her hands into his silky hair.

  He moved his mouth to her other nipple, still squeezing her breasts at the same time. Some of his long hair fell over his shoulder and the soft strands tickled and caressed her bare flesh.

  The moment his mouth abandoned one of her breasts to run his lips down the center of her belly, she shivered.

  Cool air circulating from giant fans at the ceiling of the warehouse brushed her moist, taut nipples. The sounds she’d heard when she woke up faded into white noise as she focused completely on Garran and what he was doing to her, with her.

  His tongue traced a path along the edge of her jeans and she reached for the button to unfasten them.

  “No.” The word was a soft command and he pushed her hands aside. “I will.”
>
  Hannah held her breath as he rose up on his knees and smiled at her. He fumbled a bit with the button of her jeans—no doubt from his unfamiliarity with human clothing—but he was a fast learner. As soon as the button was taken care of, he unzipped her jeans, grasped her panties and the sides of her jeans, and pulled down.

  He didn’t rush, but he didn’t take too long, either. He brought her jeans and panties all the way to her ankles where he stopped long enough to flip off her running shoes, tug her socks from her feet, and then yank the rest of her clothing off.

  Leaving her deliciously naked. Hunger grew in Garran’s eyes as he forced her knees apart and looked at her folds.

  He spoke words in a language she didn’t understand as she warmed under his gaze. Words that seemed almost magical as they came from his lips.

  “What did you just say?” she whispered. “What language?”

  “Elvin.” The way he looked at her when he raised his gaze to meet hers made her thighs quiver and her folds grow wetter. “I said you are a goddess. Beauty beyond any that I have seen before.”

  Warmth turned to heat and flowed up Hannah from her feet to her scalp. She never blushed. It was just a fact of life—she was too distanced from those kinds of emotions. But she was pretty sure that this time she had. Her cheeks felt flushed with heat and her skin burned.

  A primal growl rumbled up from Garran’s throat and he pushed her legs up so that her knees bent, then spread her thighs farther apart.

  Strange quivers that she’d never felt before flipped through her belly—like those butterflies she’d heard about but had never experienced. She bit her lower lip as he scooted down and moved his mouth closer to her sex. His warm breath stroked her and she wanted to scream.

  She wasn’t about to beg. She never begged. Instead, her whole body remained tense and she waited for his tongue to find her most sensitive spot.