The Devil's Flower, page 22
part #1 of The Eternal Beings Series
He picked up the submachine gun, walked over to Luther, kicked his lifeless body to the side to make sure he was dead, then checked him for weapons. He found two small guns and a knife, which he passed to Lexie.
Body searches complete, he went to gather Rosalie into his arms, but she took a few steps toward him.
"I'm all right. I can walk," she said. "I—"
Lithium burst through the door. Lexie jump out of the way.
Rosalie watched as he made a quick sweep of the room before his gaze landed on the blood on her fingers. He gave her an apologetic look. Then he turned his attention to Blaze, who sat on the floor, tied up, with a gun pointed at her head, held expertly by Lexie.
"What did you do?" he asked Blaze in a cold, sharp tone, looking as if he might rip her apart.
Rosalie took slow, shallow breaths, waiting for someone to say something.
Lexie spoke up. "She tried to kill me today, and when Rose came and rescued me, all by herself, she almost killed her. Steele pulled the dagger from her chest just before it plunged into her heart."
Rosalie winced. Lithium looked at her.
"Are you all right, Rosebud?" He spoke softly and gave her a gentle, searching look.
Unable to find her voice, Rosalie nodded.
"She'll be fine," Steele said. "But if I'd gotten here one minute later, she'd be dead."
Lithium nodded.
"You can go. I'll clean up the trash," he said to Steele. He glared at Blaze, and she lost her smug expression under his stare.
Rosalie thought she almost looked scared.
"So, I'm trash now?" Blaze pouted.
"Shut the hell up!"
"Come on," Steele said, taking Rosalie's hand.
He gripped Lithium's arm as they passed by. Lithium closed his hand over Steele's wrist, and the gesture seemed to indicate all was good between the two men.
"I'll see you soon, angel." Blaze yelled as they headed up the stairs.
Rosalie thought she heard a loud smack.
Upstairs, one of the Canyon Beasts and the creep who’d worked the counter sprawled on the floor with knives protruding from their chests. The other Beast had disappeared. Rosalie and Lexie stood by while Steele stopped, grabbed both knives, gave them a quick wipe on the bodies, and then shoved them inside his boot.
"Come on," he said, "let’s go."
But once outside, he hesitated.
"What is it?" Lexie asked.
"We can't leave our bikes."
Rosalie read his thoughts and said, "I can drive."
"No. You can't." He gripped her arm.
"Yes, I can. I'm fine. I'll go ahead, and you can follow. I know the way."
Rosalie looked at Lexie for support.
Lexie looked at her brother. "It really is the only solution, Steele."
Apparently, Steele realized the women were right. He released Rosalie and took a step back. "Okay. You drive. But go slow and be careful."
Rosalie climbed in her car and started the engine. Then, her hands started shaking. Feeling weak from the blood loss, she turned up the air conditioner and drove, taking the lead. Her mind whirled through everything that had just happened. She rewound her thoughts back to when the dagger had first penetrated her skin. The pain was just a distant memory now. Steele had healed her perfectly.
She drove the entire way in a daze, and when she pulled into the lodge driveway, she wondered how she'd gotten there so fast.
"Where's Lexie?" Rosalie asked Steele when only he pulled up behind her.
"She stopped at the bar. I think she wanted to make herself invisible, give us some alone-time." Although Steele wasn't smiling, his cheeks were slightly red.
"I'm so sorry." Rosalie threw her arms around his neck. "If I hadn't come back, none of this would've happened."
He wrapped his arms around her waist. He stared down at her, his eyes more silver than gray in the late afternoon light. "That's not true. If you hadn't come when you did, Lexie would be dead right now, and Blaze and Luther would be on their way to Amarillo. You saved Lexie. I'm just sorry I didn't get there sooner."
"But you got there in time. That's all that matters. Lucky for me, you have that ability to heal things. It's sort of magic."
"I'll show you magic." Steele bent his head, but as his lips closed in on hers, his cell phone rang. He released her and pulled the phone from the front pocket of his jeans. He looked at the display and cursed. "It's Lith. I gotta take it."
"Of course."
He stepped a few feet away. Rosalie couldn't make out any words until he swore. His tone turned her insides cold. He shoved the phone in his pocket and walked hurriedly back to her.
"We gotta go." He grabbed her hand and headed for the front of the lodge.
"What? Go where?"
"Blaze got away. A couple Beasts arrived to rescue her. She shot Lithium in the shoulder."
"Is he all right? Does he need help?"
They were running up the deck stairs now.
"He called some of the guys. Lexie's on the alert, waiting for him at the bar."
"But don't you want to go and . . . and do whatever it is you do?"
He looked at her strangely. "And leave you? Absolutely not. The club will take care of Lithium."
* * * * *
Steele didn't really know what he was going to do with Rosalie. Blaze had access to every room, every nook in the lodge. He stopped in the hallway, in front of the log staircase, confused. He pulled her back toward the front door, then back outside.
"What are you doing? Let's just leave in my car."
"Right. Blaze is on her way here. We'll end up passing her on the way out, and she'll just turn and follow us."
Rosalie frowned.
Steele looked out across the river now, deep in thought. He had no choice, really. He pulled Rosalie to the river.
When they were ankle deep in water, Rosalie stopped and pulled back. "Wait. What are we going to do, swim down the river?"
He let her pull him to a stop.
"Give me your jacket," he said.
She looked at him as if he'd gone totally mad, but took her jacket off anyway.
"And your purse."
He’d shrugged out of his vest and held it in his hand. He took her things and splashed through the water back to the shore, but farther downstream, where bushes lined the river. He hid the stuff in the bushes, splashed back through the water, and grabbed her hand again.
"Can you swim?" he asked, anxious.
"Yeah, but—"
"Then just follow me. We don't have much time."
The water was cool, but tolerable. They were able to wade almost halfway across before the depth forced them to swim. Steele moved faster, making his way quickly to the opposite shore. When he reached the cliff, he grabbed a protruding piece of rock and waited for Rosalie to reach him.
"Grab on," he said as she approached. He scanned the opposite shore and the property beyond. Surrounded by emerald lawns and azure sky, the lodge looked as serene as ever.
Rosalie groped at the cliff. Steele grabbed her hand and guided it to the bit of rock he held. She wrapped her delicate fingers around its sharp edges and clung beside him.
Shadowed by the wall of rock, the water here was unpleasantly chilly.
Rosalie looked up the face of the cliff. "What . . . . Do you want me to climb . . . in wet jeans?"
"No, I want you to dive. Can you do that?"
She pushed wet hair away from her face with her free hand and nodded.
"Trust me," he said.
"I do."
"Okay, when I say go, take a deep breath and follow me." He barely finished speaking when the drone of motorcycles coming down the hill drew their attention. Blaze would arrive at the lodge in seconds. How dare she bring the Beasts to the Paladins' lair. He couldn’t believe she had the guts to do so, and he sure couldn't believe he wasn't going to stay and fight, but he had one priority at the moment: keep Rosalie safe.
He stared at her. "Now."
Chapter Thirty
Steele disappeared beneath the shadowed water.
Rosalie glanced across the river to the lodge. A motorcycle rumbled around the corner. She took a deep breath and ducked. Through the murk, she could just make out Steele's legs. The rest of his body disappeared somewhere inside the cliff. When the mountain swallowed him up completely, she swam faster and followed him into the dark, submerged hole.
Fighting back panic, she swam through ten feet of murky tunnel water before seeing light. She shot into the bottom of a natural pool. Above her, Steele treaded water. Rosalie’s lungs burned from holding her breath so long, and for a moment, she feared she wasn’t going to make it to the surface. But Steele reached down, grabbed her by the arm, then yanked her up, toward a golden swirl of light. Rosalie sucked in clean, cool air, grateful to breathe again.
A beam of sunlight streaming through a shaft in the cave's ceiling lit the pool, and the cavern surrounding the water. Rosalie gulped in a few more much-needed breaths as she grabbed onto a wide stone shelf.
"Wow." Her tone reflected the sense of amazement she felt at her surroundings
Steele hoisted himself out of the pool, and then offered her a hand. She let him haul her out. Water streamed off their clothes, splashes echoing as they hit the cave floor.
"Welcome to the Grotto," Steele said with a boyish gleam in his eyes.
The flimsy piece of material that had once been Rosalie's good, white top hung from her shoulders, exposing her bra, but she didn't care. Her chest heaved as she worked to catch her breath. She watched Steele's gaze fall to the tiny scar already formed above the lace of her bra. A flicker of pain flashed across his features, darkening his look.
She lowered her gaze to his chest; she took in the outline of muscles beneath his soaked T-shirt. Then she looked past him to the stalactites that had been forming for thousands of years on the domed ceiling of the cave and said, "How did you find this place?"
"This is my secret." The grin was back in his eyes.
"Your secret. I remember."
"Here, I'm just Matt Carver, no one else. Nothing on the outside exists."
She understood completely.
"I have a secret, too," she said.
His eyebrows rose.
"It's what I came back to tell you."
"You risked your life just to tell me a secret?"
Now that Rosalie stood face to face with Steele and didn't feel threatened by immediate danger, her heart thumped wildly as her stomach twisted into knots. She'd said it a hundred times to him in her imagination and not once had she been nervous. But now, standing before him, her emotions were a wreck. What if he had fallen out of love with her? They'd spent a month apart. Then another thought hit her, sending a jolt of fear through her chest. What if he had a girlfriend, or two, or three?
As if he sensed her nervousness, Steele laid his hands gently on her shoulders and looked intensely into her eyes. "What's your secret, Rose?"
"I need you to know . . . ."
She lifted a hand and pressed her palm flat against the front of his gray T-shirt. She felt his beating heart beneath her palm, and the pulse gave her the push she needed. His hands tightened around her shoulders. She watched the reflection of the pool in his eyes, changing them from silver to gleaming gold. She swallowed and let it out.
"I love you." She heard her words linger in the closed-in space and sighed, relieved. "I never got a chance to tell you . . . and I needed you to know."
As Steele stared down at her, he looked as if he weren’t breathing, but for that matter, neither was she.
He put his arms around her, pulling her drenched body to his.
"I wasn't sure," he said softly.
"I didn't think . . . I mean, I figured you thought I didn't when I didn't say it before. But I was going to, and then you rejected me, and then you had to leave and . . . ."
He pulled back, still holding her by the arms. "I told you that I wasn't rejecting you. Rose, there's something you don't know about us."
"Oh, I've learned a thing or two while I was away," she said frankly. "I discovered who my guardian is. I stayed with her the whole time. It was my grandmother all along."
"Then, if you know everything, you know why we—you and I—can't ever have that kind of relationship."
"I know, and yes, we can. I want you to make love to me. I want you to take my soul and keep it safe, so I can go through the portal, into the Dark Realm, and find yours." She watched darkness creep into his eyes, consuming the luster. "The Book of Light says, Only an angel can find the Tree of Souls and rid the world of demons, and Only a soulless angel can enter the portal."
Fear swept across his features.
"You and I both know there's only one way to take my soul. Then you'll be free of this curse."
"Are you crazy? I can't believe what you’re suggesting." Steele shuddered. "What I know is if a neophyte copulates with a fledgling, it will rip away the angel's soul. It is written in the Book of Dark, also."
He gave a nervous laugh as he brushed wet hair from his face. "Do you think I would allow you to exist without your soul? Even if I did, I would never let you go through the portal. Never!"
The sudden atmospheric change left Rosalie feeling half-naked. She grabbed her torn top and pulled the scraps across her chest. She turned toward the pool of water. "So you don't love me, then?"
"Oh, no. Don't try that on me. It won't work."
She turned back to him. "Well, do you?"
He shook his head. "Yes, you crazy girl. I love you. More than I've ever loved anyone. I never stopped. I thought about you every day, wishing you'd come back . . . hoping you didn't."
"Well, I'm here, and you're not getting rid of me, so don't try. I want to be part of the club."
His expression changed again, and his eyes seemed to say, Don't push it.
But she ignored the warning and continued. "I was born to do battle. It's in me, and I'm good at it."
She took a step closer, put her arms around his neck, and fingered wet hair off his back. "And I'm not afraid."
"You're staring down the barrel of a gun."
"Then don't point one at me."
He shook his head. "It's not me who's pointing it, it's the lifestyle."
She stared at him, frustrated and hurt.
He gripped her waist. "Okay, it looks like I'm not going to win this battle. We'll take things slow and see what happens. I can't make promises. You need a unanimous vote to get started as a prospect."
"What's a prospect?"
"Not something you're gonna like, or me either, for that matter." He sighed. "The truth is, it's the part of being in the club I dread most for you. Before a member gets patched in, he or she has to earn their way into the club by doing a lot of shit work. It can take anywhere from a few months to a year; mostly, it takes a full year for the club to fully trust a new member."
"You trust me, don't you?"
"I'm only one of seven votes."
Rosalie grinned. "I'll work on them."
* * * * *
Her smile set the armor encasing his heart aflame. After she'd gone, he'd tried hardening himself back into the man he was before he met her, and he'd almost succeeded—until he laid eyes on her again. Now, he was so relieved she was standing before him, he didn't care if she changed him, if she made him soft. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, wondering what he was in for with this defiant creature he couldn't live without.
"Haven't I already earned my way in? I've killed for the club—that would be Meloch. I've saved a member's life—that would be yours and today, Lexie's. That should count for something."
Her face was so close to his now, he could barely concentrate. Her eyes were like two golden crystals pulling at his heart.
"Killing an enemy club president is a big kill. It will count," he said, his lips so close to hers he felt the heat emanating from them.
As they were about to connect, he remembered something Blaze had said earlier and pulled his head back slightly. "Rose, I want you to tell me if anyone ever gets out of line with you. I mean, if they even look at you the wrong way, promise you'll tell me."
"Don't worry. I can take care of myself."
"Promise me."
"Is this about what Blaze said earlier?"
"Was it true?"
"Eww, gross!" Rosalie curled up her nose.
"But what she said . . . ."
"She never made it that far." She let go of his hair, but kept her arms around his neck as she looked away.
"Oh."
Steele was more than relieved. He pictured Blaze forcing herself on Rosalie and couldn't imagine what would have made her stop, but he didn't press the issue. He wanted to forget about it as much as he imagined Rosalie did.
"So," Rosalie said, "when do I get started prospecting?"
He was hoping she'd have second thoughts. This wasn't the time for it, but he decided she needed a louder wake-up call.
"Haven't you heard anything I just said? Do you really think you're cut out for the club lifestyle? It can be pretty ruthless at times. So far, you've dealt with only demons."
"What could be worse than demons?"
"What if you had to kill a normal human? And you might. Could you do it?"
"Oh."
"The club always comes first. They're your family. We make our own rules, live by our own code. We are our own law. Your commitment is for life. Can you handle that? Oh, and there's always the possibility of getting your ass thrown in jail. That's when the fun really starts." He knew he scared the crap out of her, but he couldn't bear the thought of Rosalie behind bars.
"I know how it works, Steele." Her mouth turned up at the corners. "Or should I call you Matt in here?"
"Aren't you the funny one?" he said, smiling, glad for the sudden change of topic. "Who do I look like to you?"
He tried hard to give her his toughest look and hoped she didn't catch on to the fact that he changed the subject on purpose.
"Definitely a Steele, but I know Matt's hidden in there somewhere, and one day, I'm going to find him." As she spoke, she slid her hands to his face. The smooth tips of her fingers traveled down his cheeks to the scruff on his chin. "Maybe he'll give me what I want."
