Page 18 of Dark Embrace

“I dinna care!”

Brie did not move, searching his furious gaze. He hated the gods. She trembled, afraid for him.

His blue eyes changed, becoming brilliant now, blinding. “Ah, Brianna,” he murmured. “Ye care so much.”

His lust for power and sex made her reel. Her body fired on every possible cylinder, but she was also sickened in her heart. The rage and hatred, the lust, the frenzy of it all was too much for her to bear. “What happened to you?”

“Come here,” he said softly.

She tensed, instantly aware of what he intended.

“Ye want to come to me, Brianna.”

She did. She wanted nothing more, and suddenly she wasn’t sure why she was hesitating.

He started.

Brie thought his surprise was a response to her hesitation until her front door blew open and Nick stood there with his gun drawn.

Brie came out of her trance. Before she could scream at Nick, Aidan seized her, his strength shocking, fury blazing through him into her. Brie gasped as he pulled her up against his rigid body, her back to his chest.

Instead of feeling terror, a shocking sense of familiarity struck her.

When he spoke to Nick, his breath feathered the side of her neck and ear, leaving her breathless. “Do ye really wish to see if ye can murder me…afore I murder her?” Aidan taunted.

Brie clung to his strong forearm, which was locked beneath her breasts. His arm hurt her ribs terribly, reminding her that the sub might have bruised or fractured one of them. It was a welcome distraction from her conflicted senses, because she was acutely aware of his heart pounding slow and thick against her shoulder blades. Worse, he was only wearing her towel. There was no mistaking what was pulsing against her hip.

But, blended with the sexual desire she felt from him, there was murderous intention.

He seemed to hate Nick.

“Brie, don’t move,” Nick ordered calmly, his blue eyes the coldest she had ever seen.

“Nick, he saved me. Don’t kill him!” she cried, terrified for them both.

Aidan jerked on her, clearly wanting her silent. “Ye seem fond o’ yer little woman,” he said to Nick mockingly. “Mayhap she should have summoned ye to her side, instead o’ me.”

“Let her go. She’s an Innocent. You and I, we need to talk, calmly and reasonably, Aidan.”

Aidan’s answer was immediate. Brie cried out as Nick was blasted with blazing, visibly silver energy. Nick was pushed back against the wall as if by a huge gale.

She felt Aidan’s focus shift entirely to Nick. “Well, well,” he said softly, with great relish.

She was surprised. Demons could hurl their power so strongly that they’d send ordinary humans across entire football fields. Had Aidan withheld his power with Nick?

She knew what he meant to do before he hurled another kinetic blast at her boss. “Don’t,” she began, but it was too late.

The silver lightning blazed into Nick. To Brie’s shock, Nick seemed to absorb the impact this time, reeling but remaining upright. He pointed the .45 at them and said dangerously, “I’m trying really hard not to blow your brains out. Oh, and I’m a dead shot.”

Brie gasped, “Aidan, we’re all on the same side. Please, don’t do this.”

Aidan nuzzled her cheek, which made her body explode with urgency. “I’m enjoyin’ myself too much to cease now,” he murmured.

Brie felt her body scream for his in spite of the terrible crisis. She somehow looked at Nick. “He is good, not evil, Nick. Don’t shoot.”

“He’s turned, Brie. He turned a long time ago. If you can’t feel the black power in this room, it’s because you’ve been brainwashed.”

Brie shook her head desperately. “No.”