Christine Feehan - Murder Game

The universe unfurled, stretching out before them, so that both men seemed to become an integral, fundamental part of it. Atoms and molecules burst around them, lights like cosmic

Stardust beckoned from every direction and gathered inside of them. Power moved through their bodies, sizzling in veins and arteries and even in their brains. Kadan placed the rose quartz in Nico's hand.

At once the force grew, gathering into a huge collective pool of electrical energy. Kadan felt the change in Nico, the sudden focus. Immediately the energy surged toward Nico's hands and the crystals he held. Light burst bright and radiant beneath his palms, saturating the wound, cauterizing the tears, and speeding the healing process. GhostWalkers already possessed a natural ability to heal faster, but Nico's healing energy visibly repaired damage.

The flow only lasted a few moments, but the light was blinding and the heat intense. When Nico dropped the crystals back into Kadan's palms, they were warm, almost to the point of being hot. Nico slumped forward against the bed.

"That's all I can do. I hope it's enough. She nicked an artery, and I'm no vascular surgeon. If that didn't repair the damage, she'll have to go to a hospital."

"If that didn't work, no surgeon is going to be able to help her."

"I tried to direct the energy to her artery, but this is the first time I've worked like this without Dahlia, and the power is much stronger coming through you and harder to work with." He glanced up at Kadan. "You're one scary man, my friend."

Kadan shrugged. "I wouldn't mind having your talent."

Gator stuck his head in the door. "Nico, you need to be getting outside. I don't think we've got much time. I hear dogs in the neighborhood acting up, and the word is we've got strangers drifting from house to house."

"The word is?" Kadan echoed. "Seriously, Gator, talking to animals is making you nuttier than ever."

Gator flashed his ever present grin and winked. "Yeah, you remember you said that when the animals take over and I rule the world."

"Rule outside, where you can call your army in to help," Ryland suggested.

Gator saluted and followed Nico into the living room, scooping up weapons and ammunition as he went through.

"Do we have a vehicle ready for a quick escape?" Kadan asked as he checked the IV. He crouched down beside the bed, taking Tansy's hand in his.

"We're ready for them. The neighborhood's going to hell though." Ryland went out, turning off lights as he went, plunging the house into darkness.

Kadan pressed his forehead to Tansy's. "You awake, baby? I need you to wake up."

"It hurts. I'm not sure I want to be awake." She'd been aware of Nico sending fire through her body and not much else. Everything around her had taken on a dreamlike quality.

"I'm putting a knife under your pillow. Use it on the enemy, not on yourself." There was a bite to his voice, suppressed hurt under the layer of coolness.

She caught his sleeve and turned her head, her lashes lifting so he could look into her eyes. "I wasn't leaving you, Kadan. It was an accident. Really an accident. I wouldn't do that. I was hurt and upset and angry at my father, but I wouldn't do that to either one of us."

"We'll talk about this later." He pulled out a gun. "Keep this in your hand, and don't shoot me when I come for you. We'll have to move fast when we leave."

"Take the IV out then." She tried to sit up.

His arm was a bar across her chest. "You're going to just lie here and rest while we take care of you. Don't give me any problems right now. Tansy, because I'm willing to tie you to the bed to keep you out of trouble. You scared the hell out of me and I didn't much like it."

"It was an accident."

His hand spanned her throat, tipping her head up. Cold blue eyes stared down at her. "Accidents are fucking out of the question from here on out. Are we straight on that?"

Tansy's eyes searched his. She swallowed against his hard, calloused palm before nodding.

Kadan leaned down to kiss her, brushing feathery kisses all over her face, throat, and neck. When he got to her earlobe, he tugged with his teeth and then pressed his lips against her. "Never scare me like that again. Never ."

"I won't."

Kadan didn't much care that he was demanding the impossible. He kissed her again and pushed the gun into her hand. "Don't move until one of us comes for you." He waited until she nodded again before he turned away and strode out of the room.

The moment he was in the living room, he went into warrior mode, gathering his equipment and slipping out of the house through a window. He went up where he could have a better view of the neighborhood and the yard. He didn't want anyone to get close enough to enter the house, or even get where they could fire into the bedroom where Tansy lay. On the outside Kadan had Nico, who could hit anything in his crosshairs, and Gator, who had an army of animals and the capability to walk through enemy lines and dispose of anything coming at him with his knife. Ryland was inside, prepared to evacuate with Tansy at a moment's notice.

"I want a full count, Nico," Ryland's voice hissed in Kadan's ear. "We're taking this one to them. They've been coming at us, and this time we send a message back to Violet. Bring it hard."

Kadan took a long, slow look around. He'd chosen a house far back from the street in a quiet cul-de-sac. The streetlights didn't reach the edge of the property and the nearest house was yards away. Down the street, only a half a block away, was a park, well manicured but with several stands of trees. Behind his house was his escape route, a Jeep trail through an undeveloped lot that dumped into a street near a freeway.

"I have six. They think they're being very stealthy and they're definitely loaded for bear."

"Give me positions," Kadan snapped.

"Six o'clock, between two houses. Coming toward the backyard," Nico responded.

"I've got him," Gator said into his radio. "You can move, Kadan; none of the dogs are going to bark."

"Second man coming over the roof, third house on the right. I've got him marked," Nico droned. 'Third running along the fence just about a block away, but coming fast."

"He's mine," Kadan said, and slipped over the edge of the roof, dropping into a crouch in the grass.

"Make the targets quiet, if possible," Ryland said. "Nico, can you hold off on your man until we locate the other three? Once you take your shot, the others will know we're hunting them."

Kadan went through the front yard in a crouching run, using blurring speed. Motion drew the eye, but with the night and their enemies a distance away, he was confident he could make it to cover before he was spotted. He flattened against the SUV parked in front of the house, waiting again.

"Position," he whispered.

"Closing fast, about ten yards."

Kadan went up the side of the SUV and gained the roof, lying flat, knife in his fist. Gator crossed the open meadow at the back of the house, a shadowy figure that flitted from one lone tree to the next, taking him closer and closer to the neighbor's yard. Kadan had always admired the smooth, stealthy way Gator moved. There was never a sound, as if even the wind held back when he was on the move. He could make himself part of anything, until it was impossible to see him when he went still, and then he just flowed like water over rock.

Gator stretched out on the lawn, lying prone out in the open. Kadan marked where he'd gone down, but still had trouble spotting him. Footsteps forced him to look away. His prey was drawing close. He shifted, the movement barely discernible. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the first man emerge between two houses and rush across the open space of the lawn, directly in Gator's path. The Cajun rose up like a specter, his knife hand flashing in a swift slash, across, down, and back up. He stepped back and the body fell forward. Gator was already moving fast for the shadows. The hit had taken less than two seconds.