Chapter Sixteen
“Um… I should really be going.”
“Stay.” Marcus barked out the word, using the exact same tone Riya imagined that he would utilise to tell a border collie to sit.
For some insane reason Riya found herself lowering her butt back down onto the barstool, glaring at Marcus across the kitchen island as he went about preparing them breakfast. “Watch the commands, Charming. I’m not a dog to be brought to heel.”
Marcus checked on the toast before returning his attention to Riya. “I’m going to all this trouble to prepare you a healthy breakfast and you want to bail?”
“You didn’t give me much choice in the matter.” Riya sipped her freshly squeezed orange juice.
They’d left Dallas in the wee small hours, Marcus and her snuggling down for a nice nap in the fold down luxurious chairs in the rear of the plane while Flynn and Dash piloted them home to Atlanta. At the airport hanger, Riya had initialized the Transportal system installed there to bring the four of them instantaneously back to Maat Tower.
The moment they returned, the Flyboys headed off to the staff canteen to get something to eat. Riya had decided that sounded like a good idea but when the elevator stopped on that floor, Marcus had grabbed her hand and held her back. Before she could protest he’d whisked her upstairs to his private apartment and immediately begun preparing her breakfast.
The man was acting beyond strange. He hadn’t even gone within three feet of any of the computers in his apartment when they walked in. Instead, he’d dragged her across the open plan room to the kitchen and insisted she sit down while he did all the work.
“What do you want?” He was being uncharacteristically… well, not charming, although, in a clumsy blunt kind of way he was.
“What do I want when?” Marcus finished chopping some mushrooms and added them to a waiting hot griddle.
“Oh, don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean. Dragging me up here. Insisting upon making me breakfast. You have to be chomping at the bit to check in with your hacker team, find out if any of those thousands of system searches you initialised have made any progress on finding Sek and Mot.”
“My team are professionals. More than capable of following up on any alerts that come through.”
Riya blinked. “Did you just make a giant step forward in understanding the meaning of a work - life balance? You haven’t even berated me once yet for spiriting you off to Dallas to see my brothers’ show.”
“Hey, I’m focused, not an idiot. I know getting sufficient REM sleep is essential for operating at maximum capacity and alertness. We had to fly somewhere, and Dallas was as good a place as any. Besides, you know for a fact I enjoyed the show, and more importantly, those brothers of yours gave me some great out of the box ideas for how to permanently get rid of the chaos rubies. Win, win, win.”
“Maximum capacity and alertness? Sometimes I think you’ve begun to believe that you are more machine than human.”
Marcus grabbed a spatula, tossing the mushrooms as he added a handful of freshly chopped parsley to the pan. “You think I’m cold and emotionless?” Funny, that wasn’t a description he would have taken offense at a week ago but suddenly what Riya thought of him, it mattered.
Riya couldn’t help but laugh. “I can think of plenty of adjectives to describe you, but cold and emotionless aren’t two of them.”
Marcus gave the sizzling bacon strips one last flip before he switched off all the burners. He should quit this conversation while the going was good but he found himself asking anyway. “And how would you describe me?” Turning his attention now to dividing up the food between two large plates.
“Let’s see. Intense. Blunt. Single-minded. Detail orientated. Obsessive.”
“Shit. That bad?” Was he? Absently Marcus slid the plate of food across the island bench towards Riya, grabbed a barstool and sat down across from her.
“You didn’t let me finish.” Riya picked up a piece of bacon and took a bite, crispy, perfect.
“There’s more? I’m not sure if I can take another full frontal attack.”
“Oh, shut up.” Riya waved off his complaint as she dug into her scrambled eggs. “Sure, it wouldn’t go astray if you threw a few more please and thank yous into the conversation rather than just bark orders and expect people to stay.”
“I’m feeding you breakfast and you expect me to plead for the privilege?”
Riya rolled her eyes, even as she bit back a smile. “You didn’t ask me what my plans were for a start. For one, Dimity has left me over a hundred messages. I think she might have broken my phone.”
“You know it’s just a hundred photos of her in different outfits, wanting your opinion on which one to wear for the photo shoot scheduled for tomorrow. At least she’s been too busy to crack another tantrum. Besides, you know she won’t even get out of bed until well after midday. You have hours of peace and quiet yet, why ruin it?”
“Fine. Though I really should check in back home. Find out if Gaia had a boy or a girl.”
Marcus crunched into a piece of toast, not liking the way his gut spasmed at hearing Riya refer to the Southern Sanctuary as home. Which was beyond ridiculous, it was her home. Across the other side of the world from here. Her kid. Her family. Her business. Her home. “I don’t know your cousin all that well, but something tells me if Gaia had given birth, you would have at the very least received a gloating text. Next?”
“Not so surprisingly the most important thing on my to-do list this morning was to have a shower.” Riya was sure she smelt like dust, exhaust fumes and alcohol.
“Breakfast first. It’s the most important meal of the day.”
“I think I’m going to add battering ram to that list.” She caught a fleeting glimpse of Marcus wincing almost imperceptibly. “You know none of those words I used to describe you are strictly negative.”
“They don’t exactly sound like compliments.”
Riya shrugged. “You hear me complaining?”
“Yeah, I have actually.”
Riya wasn’t sure but she thought she saw what could have been a flicker of hurt flash through those sharply intelligent blue eyes. Damn. She kept forgetting that Marcus split his time between killing stuff and working with computers. That he wasn’t like her easy going brothers or cousins, used to swapping casual jokes and jabs.
“I was just teasing. Honestly, men, such fragile egos.” She finished off the tasty last mushroom on her plate and pushed it away, ignoring the pile of bacon, eggs and toast still waiting to be consumed. Marcus had given her way too much food. And that in a nutshell was the man. Too focused on everyone around him, too intent upon keeping the world safe that he forgot to factor his own well being and happiness into the equation.
Marcus stared at his plate of food. He didn’t often share breakfast with the women who passed briefly through his life. Either they didn’t eat breakfast, or, because of their heavily over-scheduled life, they didn’t have a moment to spare to eat. Seriously, when was the last time he’d just sat and had breakfast with a woman he was sleeping with? Talked about things other than work? Swapped light banter? Been teased?
Of course, he had yet to tease Riya back. He pushed his almost empty plate away, eyeing her across the kitchen island. “You know, you’re right.”
“I am?” Riya blinked in clear surprise. “Say that again, only louder and pronunciate your words more clearly.”
Marcus chuffed a laugh. “The words you used to describe me are subjective. In a different context, I don’t want to boast, but they could be construed as you downright fawning over me.”
“Pardon?”
Marcus’s ocean blue eyes darkened, simmering with promised heat as he got slowly to his feet and began to walk around the kitchen island. Riya felt like she was watching a lethal predator stalk his prey… and her stomach churned in sudden unexpected surprise, realising that she was the prey. Oh, colour her a bad, bad girl, but suddenly she was completely turned on.
“Intense.” Marcus’s voice was low, almost a growling whisper as he took a step closer. “Blunt.” A shiver of anticipation shot down Riya’s spine. “Single-minded.” Hypnotic blue eyes remained fixed on their target as he took yet another step closer. “Detail orientated.” Riya’s blood heated. “Obsessive.” His warm breath played across the sensitive skin of her neck as he breathed that last word into her ear.
Riya looked up at him… oh, Goddess, there was something she was forgetting, wasn’t there? Oh, yes, a backbone. She’d been intending to put a stop to this, to them. Repeating the same mistake over and over again was fun… but it was getting too dangerous. She was too close to caring, to becoming attached, becoming entangled. And the very thought of her entangled with Marcus made her breasts ache and her sex throb. She parted her lips, dreading it, but she was going to have to say no, she had to push him away.
Marcus hadn’t moved, only inches separated them, their body heat intermingling. “And let’s not forget that last one.” His voice barely a rough whisper. “Battering ram.”
Damn him. Riya grabbed Marcus, but not to push him away. She fisted a handful of his shirt, wrenching him down so that she could taste him. That heat. That desire. That need. She gasped as he picked her up all too effortlessly, their lips still locked together. She clutched at him just as hard as he clutched at her. Even better when he began to walk, rocking her lower body against his. Though she couldn’t help but emit a small sound of protest. The kitchen island was right there… right there!
Marcus broke their kiss for a moment, smiling. “The least I can do is help you cross off one thing from your to-do list this morning. How about that shower?”
Riya was beyond words, all she could do was sink her fingers into his short thick mane of hair and pull his head down for another kiss. She wanted this. She wanted him. One more mistake, what would it matter?
But she was worried that this might be the biggest, costliest mistake she would ever make. Riya was beginning to think she wouldn’t emerge from this little adventure unscathed. No, she had a very bad feeling that she would be leaving a large piece of her heart behind with Marcus when she eventually left.
But for the moment, in this moment, she could only cling to Marcus, take what ever he was prepared to give her. For him it was one more mistake. For her it was… one last chance to be with him, intimate, sharing. Telling him with her body what she could never allow herself to express in words, that she was starting to…care for him. Damn.
* * *
By the Sands, Riya looked sexy as hell right now, kneeling at the end of the bed, chugging water. She’d donned one of his black shirts, rolling up the sleeves a half dozen times. Marcus, reclining against the bedhead, bare-chested, the rumpled sheet covering his lower half, smiled in warm appreciation. There was just something about seeing this particular woman wearing his shirt that made him hard. Shit, who was he kidding. Riya blinked those luscious long black lashes and he got hard. She breathed and he got hard.
“It’s getting late.” Riya glanced out the large window. The sky was full of low, dark clouds, a storm was rolling in fast.
“You had breakfast and lunch here, why not stay for dinner?”
“Listen to you.” Riya smiled. “Of the two of us, I honestly thought you’d be the one chomping to get back to work.”
“You’re the one who has been insisting I should have a better work versus play balance.”
“Yes, but it’s not supposed to be one or the other. Don’t you have some work to do? I know, thanks to you, that I certainly do.” Riya shot him a dirty look.
“I didn’t hold a gun to your head and make you write that text.”
“No, you didn’t, but you were being very distracting at the time. And now I have to deliver, don’t I? Telling Dimity that I couldn’t be disturbed today because I’m working on a fantastic new outfit especially for the photo shoot is all well and good. But tomorrow I have to present said outfit to her highness.”
“I’m not buying what you’re selling. You can’t tell me you don’t already have some perfect outfit in your big bag of tricks that won’t soothe the savage beast.”
Riya smiled. “Hmm, probably.”
Marcus raised her a sexy grin, sitting up, placing a large warm hand on Riya’s knee, sliding his palm ever so slowly up along her inner thigh.
“What do you think you’re doing? I still need to go, we’ve been locked in here for over… Goddess, it’s been almost ten hours.” Riya had attempted to leave several times throughout the day but each time Marcus had proven very persuasive and she had ended up staying. But no more. No matter how much she wanted to stay, wanted him, she had to draw the line somewhere.
Marcus suddenly found his hand trapped as Riya clamped her legs together tightly. He issued a wicked, low laugh. “You do know I have another hand, right?” He grinned, Riya felt her resolve begin to weaken. “Or, I could just keep my hands to myself until you beg me not to, and instead…” He leaned forward, all but looming over her now. “…I could just…” He lowered his head, kissing her bare knee, then moved slightly higher and kissed her again.
“Marcus.” Riya scowled, her voice had come out a lot breathier than she intended. “You need to…” She fought the urge to squirm as he pushed the edges of the shirt away, exposing her bare upper thighs, kissing her higher and higher still. “Um… I should-” Suddenly all hell broke loose as high pitched electronic alarms pierced the air.
Marcus jack-knifed off the bed, pulling on a pair of black tactical pants, and a matching long sleeved top in the blink of an eye. His boots were on while Riya was still scrambling around on the floor looking for her denim skirt, knickers and boots. Her T-shirt was a long lost cause, lying in a shredded sodden mess in the shower stall of Marcus’s large ensuite bathroom.
Racing into the living room Riya found Marcus already seated before two large monitors, a comms device inserted into his left ear.
“Report. Talk to me. Positions?”
Riya could only follow Marcus’s side of the conversation, though watching what he pulled up on the screens helped give her some perspective.
“Any sign of the threat?”
Riya frowned as Marcus cycled through the security feeds, searching for any anomalies.
“Yes… killing the alarms… now.” His fingers flying across the keyboard.
Riya breathed a sigh of relief as the electronic wail was silenced but the threat had yet to be found or negated.
“Locking down the elevators… say again, Drum? You’re in the lobby? Confirmed, I’m sending an elevator down for you. What’s the status on the Fire Marshal?”
Riya didn’t have to wait long to have her silent question answered as Marcus pulled up a camera feed and rewound it. They both watched as Drum and the Fire Marshall toured the thirty-fifth floor stairwell, checking out the fire door, and abruptly, with no warning, the Fire Marshal just collapsed.
Riya frowned, leaning closer, just for a moment… the screen abruptly changed views and she found herself looking at Rafe’s back as he stared into the wide open vault in the weapons storage facility. All the slots were occupied and Rafe was looking rather perplexed that nothing was missing.
“Shit, okay… they didn’t want weapons.” Marcus suddenly tensed. “Fuck.” With a quick flurry he pulled up a new security stream. Riya recognised Marcus’s office. Both the fractal artworks were off the wall and the two safes behind them wide open. “They hit my office as well. They’re after the rubies. They might still be on the floor. Flynn, Nate, take the East stairwell. Drum, I’m sending your elevator to the production exec floor. Dash, you hold the west stairwell. Rafe, start sweeping the floor. Drum will provide back up.”
Riya didn’t want to interrupt Marcus’s rhythm but she had to ask. “What about Dimity? Is she okay?”
“Guest quarters and all production offices go into lock down the moment the alarms sound. She’ll be fine.”
Riya began to pace, feeling useless. All she could do was watch on as Marcus monitored the feeds and directed his fellow Warriors in their search for the intruder. Her mind was spinning, what were the chances of a break-in occurring only a few minutes after the Fire Marshal mysteriously collapsed? It was a good distraction. Drum ringing for an ambulance, escorting the paramedics back down to the lobby.
But all things considered, it hadn’t gotten a very big response, other than Drum, none of the other Elite Warriors had been distracted.
They’d been joking about Drum being one scary looking hulk, maybe the Marshal had a bad heart? No, there’d been something else… something she’d seen or thought she’d seen on the monitor just before the Marshal had collapsed.
Damn, what had it been? Riya stopped her pacing at the kitchen island and drummed her fingers, thinking, trying to visualise what she’d seen. Something… something had caught her eye.
Frowning, Riya glanced out the large sliding doors to the good-sized patio beyond. Along the railing was a massive white bougainvillea flowering wildly. The leaves were being whipped around by the approaching storm front, flower petals skittering across the polished concrete to settle on the outdoor furniture.
Hmm, the clouds outside were growing darker by the moment. The winds had picked up and were buffeting the outdoor greenery sending it into a frenzy. Something about that. Riya found herself staring at the polished concrete, at the wildly flailing shadows. Shadows! That was it. That’s what she’d seen just before the Fire Marshal collapsed, a shadow. The Marshal had brought in a Shadow Stalker hitchhiker.
“Mar-” Riya bit back a startled gasp as a dark form reared up along the living room wall, in a blink of an eye it was across the ceiling, a thin dark line emerged from it, cracking down like a whip to wrap around Marcus’s throat.
Marcus found himself being hauled backwards, his chair flying as he stumbled, trying to keep his feet under him as he was yanked towards the centre of the living room. His comms earpiece flew across the room to shatter against the door. His neck stretching, the tips of his boots just managing to press against the floor for support. He wrenched futilely at whatever was around his throat but couldn’t seem to make contact with it.
Shit, Marcus saw terror in Riya’s eyes as they locked with his. She took two steps forward, intending to help him and then froze as a grating harsh voice commanded her to stop.
Marcus did his best to search for the intruder, glancing left, then right. The pressure on his neck increased, crap, his boots were barely able to touch now.
“Don’t move.” It was Riya who held up her hand, commanding him to be still.
Marcus grit his teeth and followed her instructions, noting that she was casting a baleful look at the… ceiling? He rolled his eyes upwards and caught sight of a dark long thin humanoid shape above him. At first he thought it was just a shadow, cast by the fast approaching early evening storm. But then he watched it move, slowly detaching itself.
Riya felt a chill race down her spine, as the Shadow Stalker oozed away from the ceiling, easing downwards until it stood a few feet away from Marcus, a darkly opaque, all but featureless humanoid shape, it’s left… it wasn’t an arm, more like appendage, was still raised, thin, rope like from the wrist on, it connected to the ceiling and then down to Marcus, wrapping around his throat.
“Everyone just be cool.”
Everyone be cool? This guy, and it was a guy, Riya could tell by the voice and the dark shape he held, had to be kidding.
She’d heard stories about Shadow Stalkers over the years from the family Enforcers. They were a small, close knit community. Hiring their special skill set out to the highest bidder. Using their ability to hitch a ride with anyone, go anywhere in order to spy for profit. Normally hiring their talents out to governments, intelligence agencies and billion dollar conglomerates looking to get the edge on their competitors.
Their reputation was everything, they did not take dodgy black web contracts, working for notoriously back stabbing demi-gods. Except, Riya was guessing, if they were very young and trying to make a name for themselves as a freelancer. “I know what you are.”
“If you know what I am.” Despite the grating harsh quality of the voice the more Riya listened to it the more she was certain this Shadow Stalker was young, maybe twenty, or thereabouts. “Then you know what I’m capable of.” To prove his point, the Stalker yanked on the shadow cord wrapped around Marcus’s neck.
Riya gasped, horrified as Marcus’s boots left the ground, legs thrashing in the air, his face going red, his fingers scrabbling and failing to get any purchase, his boots kicking out frantically.
“Stop it, you’re killing him.”
The Stalker let Marcus dangle for another three pointed seconds before easing him back down so the tips of his boots could touch the floor. “I think we can all agree who is in charge, yes?”
Riya’s eyes narrowed at the black shifting shape. He might be young but this guy clearly meant business, and didn’t appear to care who he hurt along the way. Damn, Stalkers had few weaknesses. From what she could recall, only ultra-bright light could scar them. Or, if you could lock them into a solid shape you could hurt them. But that would involve surprising him with a shower of flour or similar, and she got the distinct feeling this asshole wouldn’t stay still long enough for her to creep up on him with a bucket of sand.
“Even if you do manage to discover where the chaos rubies are, that knowledge will only get you killed as soon as you pass it along to your bosses.”
The Shadow Stalker laughed low and hard. “Do I look stupid to you?”
Riya frowned as she stared at the dark indistinct shape. “That was a rhetorical question, right? Sorry. Sorry.” She apologised quickly as Marcus’s boots once more left the ground briefly. Listening to him choke and watching his legs kick out had Riya sick to her stomach.
“Maybe my competition is after the location, but I’m not that foolish. And it looks like I’ve beaten everyone else to the punch. There are plenty of people out there willing to pay a lot more than a measly ten million for just one of those rubies. So, tell me where they are.”
“No.” Marcus managed to grit the word out, even as he fought for halting, shallow breaths.
“A hard ass, huh? Doesn’t matter to me, I have all the time in the world to play yo-yo with you GI-Joe.” Making good on his word, Marcus’s boots left the ground as he was bounced up and down, sputtering, choking, trying to catch his breath.
“Never…” Bounce. “… tell…” Bounce. “…you…” Bounce. “Shit…head.”
“Stop. Stop!” Riya couldn’t watch Marcus be tortured like this.
“Why, when me and Joe here are having so much fun? I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone turn that shade of blue before, it’s-”
“Stop.” Riya yelled. No more, Marcus was dying and he was too damn stubborn, he’d never give into the Shadow Stalker’s demands. He’d taken an oath. To protect the world from chaos, at all costs, including his own life. But she hadn’t taken any such oath. “I know where one of the rubies is.” In fact, she had a pretty good idea where all the rubies were, but she was hoping that the idea of recovering even one would be enough to grab the Stalker’s full attention.
“…N…No.” Marcus tried to protest. Sending Riya a hard blue eyed glare in warning.
“If you hurt him, you’ll get nothing.” Riya breathed slightly easier as Marcus was eased just a fraction lower.
“Riya.” Colour flooded back into Marcus’s face. “No. Don’t!”
“I want your word that if I give you a ruby, you’ll let Marcus go, unharmed.”
“You’d take my word?”
“If you fail to keep it, I’ll sick every Southern Sanctuary Enforcer on your ass. There won’t be anywhere in this world you can hide that they won’t find you.”
If it was possible for a shadow to pale slightly then Riya was guessing that their intruder had heard of the Southern Sanctuary Enforcers. “You have my word. Get it.”
“N…” Marcus attempted to protest. Desperately trying to rip off the shadow cord wrapped around his throat. He’d never felt so fucking helpless in his life. Unable to do anything but watch as Riya turned and headed for the kitchen. Shit, she hadn’t been kidding, she did know where at least one of the rubies was hidden, in plain sight.
Riya rounded the kitchen island, glancing back to make sure Marcus was still okay and that the Shadow Stalker was keeping up his end of the deal. Okay, she could do this. Leaning down she opened the oven door, humming under her breath in what she hoped was a reassuring manner. Keeping her tone soothing and just barely above a whisper. “Not going to hurt you… not going to hurt you.” Slowly she reached in, the oven was slightly warm as if it had been in use earlier. It hadn’t been.
Riya steeled herself and picked up the ugly bulky roll of material. It bulged in weird places, a bow here, a strange lump there. And the colour was completely the wrong side of ugly, greenish, but the type of green you found in a fouled bog or swamp. Surprisingly, the material though nasty looking, was soft to the touch. Oof, the thing was heavy. There was a lot of material here.
Hefting the large ball to her chest, Riya made soft soothing sounds unconsciously to it under her breath. Returning to the living area she stopped some six feet away from Marcus and the Shadow Stalker. She kept her focus on the Stalker, not wanting to see blame or disappointment in Marcus’s eyes. She had a plan, why couldn’t Marcus trust her?
“What the hell is that thing? Where’s the ruby?”
“It’s just a… rag, keeping the ruby safe.”
“Undo it, I want to see it.”
“You sure?”
“What? Of course I’m fucking sure.”
Riya unwrapped the bundle of material, lowering it to the ground by her feet before holding aloft the ruby so the dim light streaming in through the large glass doors could make the gem sparkle and send red tinted rainbows of light dancing across the hardwood floor.
“Throw it to me.” The Stalker demanded as Marcus made a series of indistinguishable protest noises.
“If that’s what you want.” Riya threw the ruby gently.
The Stalker grabbed for it, dropping it immediately, swearing and cursing loudly. “What the fuck was that? It burnt me!” The hardwood around the ruby began to blacken and smoulder.
“Sorry, I should have said careful it’s hot, shouldn’t I? My bad.”
“How the fuck could you hold it?”
“Just special I guess.” Riya shrugged, watching as the floor began to smoulder in earnest now, a small rim of blue orange flame appearing.
“Get over here and pick it up.”
Marcus made louder indistinguishable protest sounds, Riya shot him a – calm down, I have this covered – look. Honestly, when would the man learn to trust her? Picking up the ruby easily, Riya snuffed out the flames with her boot. “I gave you the ruby, and you gave me your word. Let the Warrior go.”
“I can’t even touch the bloody thing.”
Riya held out the ruby and the Stalker backed up a little.
“Not my problem. A deal is a deal.”
“You’re a crazy bitch. No way am I letting this asshole go, not without the ruby. Find something to put it in.”
Riya sighed, glancing down at the blacken two-foot circle of destruction left by the ruby on the hardwood floor. “And just what do you suggest?”
“Fine.” The Stalker hissed gutturally. Suddenly Marcus was released, collapsing to the floor and Riya found that whip thin line of shadow wrapped around her own throat as she was yanked forward and spun so that her back was up against the Stalker, facing off with Marcus who was now on his feet, ready for revenge. His face a remote, assessing mask.
The Stalker backed up a little and Riya had no choice but to follow suit. “Stay where you are, or the bitch gets hurt.”
“Hey.” Riya protested. “I’ve been pretty darn helpful, all things considered, and you’re calling me names? You totally have issues… besides being a skeevy, back stabbing asshole, that is.” She hissed in pain as the whip cord line around her neck tightened ever so briefly.
“Do. Not. Hurt. Her.” Marcus’s blue eyes blazed with cold anger.
The Stalker backed up a little more. Riya had no choice but to shuffle along with him. She’d assumed they had been moving because the Stalker was intimidated but as a hot humid gust of wind muscled its way into the room she realised the Stalker had just opened the sliding glass doors and was intending to exit via the patio some how.
From the eighty-fourth floor? He hadn’t thought this through very well, he had a hostage to deal with and a ruby he couldn’t actually touch. But she doubted the Stalker was thinking all that clearly right now, given the clear look of retribution that had settled across Marcus’s face. The one that said – you’re dead, you just haven’t realised it yet.
Marcus was beyond mad, beyond angry. This fuckwit thought he could break into Maat Tower and hurt Riya! The Stalker would be dead already if it wasn’t for the shadow cord wrapped around her throat.
Marcus continued to pace forward ever so slowly, backing his prey into a corner. Waiting, he just needed a split second opportunity to grab Riya and get her to safety, then he could snap this Shadow fucker into tiny toothpick sized pieces.
Riya spat out some hair as a hot gusty breeze swirled around them. Damn, if only she had one of her chopsticks right now, she could have stabbed the Stalker and made a run for it. Of course, that would only work if he turned solid. Damn, neither she nor Marcus would make even the slightest dent until that happened. Of course, where there were hot gusty winds and dark grey clouds overhead there was often rain. She looked hopefully skywards, come on, rain, damn you.
Riya winced as they neared the railing and came to a halt. The bougainvillea scraping at the back of her bare legs. Now what? And it didn’t seem like the Stalker knew the answer to that question either.
“Stay back.”
Marcus halted at the glass doors, watching as Riya stood suddenly on tip-toe, her neck stretching upwards as the Stalker pulled on the cord. “What. Did. I. Say. About. Hurting. Her?” Marcus ground out the words in a low growl. Behind him he could hear his fellow Warriors knocking at his apartment door. His comms abruptly disconnecting would have alerted them to the problem up here. Shit, he only had moments to get this situation resolved, who knows how this amateur asshole would react when faced off against six Elite Warriors of Maat. “Let the woman go. And I’ll give you a head start.”
The Stalker laughed. “You have to be joking.”
“He… doesn’t joke often…” Riya observed. “So what do you intend to do now, Einstein? You’re trapped.”
Suddenly the Stalker’s hold shifted, a wide band wrapping around her chest, as he pulled her in close. “You’re going to be the distraction while I make my fast getaway.” He whispered the words directly into Riya’s ear.
“What do you mean?” Her gaze going to the sky for a brief second as a large raindrop smacked her on the top of the head.
“Let’s just say that GI Joe won’t be coming after me anytime soon, he’ll be too busy scraping you off the pavement.”
More raindrops began to spatter, turning the polished concrete patio instantly a darker shade.
Riya glanced down to her left, where the bridesmaid dress had been slinking silently closer and closer while she’d kept the Shadow Stalker’s attention diverted. “That actually sounds like a good plan. Pity that I’ve come up with an even better one. Attack!”
For Marcus everything happened at once, too fast, there was nothing he could do about it. At his back, the apartment door crashed open and his fellow Warriors swarmed in. The skies overhead opened up, sending down sheets of torrential rain. And Hadleigh’s bridesmaid dress, that he had co-opted to keep the fire chaos ruby under control, launched itself through the air, wrapping around the Shadow Stalker’s suddenly solid head.
“NO!” Marcus’s horrified bellow sounded louder than a crack of thunder. Time slowed but he couldn’t move fast enough to stop it, to save her… as Riya and the Stalker, entangled in the bridesmaid dress, flipped over the railing and abruptly disappeared from sight.