Marked

CHAPTER TWO

In the club’s locker room, Casey changed quickly back into her jeans and white fitted tee. She slipped on her Keds, threw her pathetic excuse for a uniform into her backpack and headed for the service entrance on the side of the building.

She chanced one quick look back into the club as she pushed the door open, and saw Nick was watching her.

Her nerves jumped a notch, but she told herself there was nothing to worry about as she fingered her keys and crossed the parking lot to her car. The mid-September night in the foothills of the Cascades of western Oregon was balmy, with just enough bite to remind her fall was right around the corner. In another week or two she’d need a sweater when she came out here after work.

After unlocking the door of her Taurus, she slid behind the wheel. She knew without looking that Nick was standing at the door, watching her. Sure enough, once she started the ignition, flipped on her lights and glanced back, he was there.

Don’t think about it.

She wouldn’t.

She pushed the thought aside and told herself to be thankful instead of creeped out as she pulled out of her parking spot. He’d saved her once. If he’d ever intended to do her harm, he would have done it long ago. She turned up the volume on the CD player as she rounded the building, then slammed on the brakes when she saw the group of animals scavenging what had to be the carcass of some poor unsuspecting raccoon or opossum or deer.

Her first thought was dogs, but it changed to wolves as she got a closer look at their ears. But when the one closest to her lifted its head and turned to face the blare of her lights, her mind went blank.

A chill slid down her spine. Not a dog or a wolf or anything else she’d ever seen in her life. This thing had the face of a lion, the ears of a dog and the horns of a goat. And, holy hell, it was wearing clothing. Dressed…like a man.

She shook her head, closed her eyes and opened them again, sure what she’d seen was a figment of her imagination. And that’s when she noticed that what the animals or things—she didn’t know what to call them—were feasting on wasn’t a carcass, but a human body.

In that instant, she was back in that empty lot, the hard, cold earth pressing into her back, the two powerful men tearing at her clothing as she screamed in futility and tried to get away. Sickness pooled in her stomach as she saw herself there on the ground with no one to help her.

Before she knew what she was doing, she jerked the car into neutral, pushed the door open and jumped screaming from the driver’s seat, arms waving wildly in an attempt to get the animals to leave the person alone.

Four sets of glowing green eyes turned her way as she ran at them. Four low growls echoed in her ears. It wasn’t until she was nearly on top of them that common sense finally kicked in and she realized she was in deep shit.

She skidded to a halt and froze.

The closest rose to his feet, and she saw, with vivid clarity, that he did indeed have the body of a man. Only he was huge. Easily seven feet tall and close to three hundred pounds, with crimson blood trailing down his face to drip onto his chest. The other three, equally large, rose quickly at his back and joined ranks behind him.

“Get back in your car, human. This does not concern you.”

Holy crap, it talked.

Cemented in place, all Casey could do was stare wide-eyed at something that couldn’t possibly be real. She glanced down at the man behind them, covered in blood, as the contents of her stomach lurched up her throat. “Oh, God. What—what happened here?”

The creature who’d spoken stopped midstep toward her. He sniffed, long and hard, as if trying to draw her into his lungs. His eyes widened, and something like shock, or maybe recognition—if you could call it that—raced across his catlike face before he turned and spoke in garbled words to the three at his back.

They all stared at her in wonder and then, in a puff of smoke, disintegrated into thin air.

Casey gave her head a swift shake. Smacked her hand against her forehead. Told herself what she’d just seen couldn’t possibly be real. Good Lord, she needed to stop purchasing those vampire romances for her grandmother’s store.

When the man on the ground moaned, Casey glanced down sharply. No matter what had happened, there was definitely a man hurt in front of her.

Head still spinning, she rushed to him, dropped to her knees and stared down at his face. The Greek god. From the club. The one who’d swept out of there with that blonde woman in his arms like a knight in shining armor. He was hurt bad. Cut and bruised and bloody over nearly every part of his body. For a moment, Casey didn’t know what to do. Then he tried to move, and her brain kicked into gear.

“No, don’t get up. Oh, God. I’m going to call for help. You’re—” She forced back the bile. “What happened to you?”

“No…help,” he croaked in a deeply accented voice. “Rest. Just…need…rest.”

The man was delirious. He needed a hospital and a gallon of blood and doctors who knew what to do to help him. Good God, were those bites on his arms? It looked as though his flesh had been gnawed clear to the bone.

She tried to keep him still, but even hurt as he was, he was too strong for her. He pushed up so he was sitting. His head lolled around like it might just fall off his body.

“Please,” he rasped. “Just…get me out of here before they come back.”

At those words, Casey looked up and around. There was no wind, no crickets chirping or cars moving on the street beyond. No other people either. The woman he’d left the club with had vanished. There was only silence. An eerie, strange silence completely at odds with the normal night sounds of Silver Hills, Oregon.

Since he was already rising to his feet, she helped him by slipping an arm around his back and draping one of his over her shoulder. By some grace of God they made it to her car, though she wasn’t entirely sure how. As he dropped into the passenger seat like a ton of dead weight, Meatloaf pumped out of the stereo, singing about what he’d do for love. Casey grunted as she lifted the man’s legs inside the car and shut the door after him.

Nausea continued to pool in her stomach as she hustled around to the driver’s side, but she stopped at her open door and momentarily thought of the blonde again.

She glanced over the asphalt to the empty lot beyond and the copse of trees that turned to forest past that. Where the hell was she? Casey considered looking for her, but the man moaned once more, the sound pulling at her attention.

“Please,” he croaked out. “Hurry. They’ll be back.”

Remembering what she thought she’d seen, Casey climbed into the car, turned down the stereo and hit the automatic door locks, just in case.

Okay, think. She’d take him for help, then call the authorities to come back and look for the woman. Figuring that was as good a plan as any, she glanced at the man to her right and started the ignition. “I’m taking you to the hospital.”

His hand snaked out so fast, she barely tracked it. It closed around her wrist with stunning force for someone who looked to be on his deathbed. His index finger pressed against her pulse point. “No hospital. Rest.” The fight slipped from his words, and in his heavily accented voice she sensed something…familiar. Dark eyes focused in on hers until all she saw were pools of obsidian, black as night. Warmth rushed through her limbs until every muscle in her body relaxed. “All I need is rest. Then I promise I’ll leave you. I won’t hurt you.”

It was a strange comment coming from a man who couldn’t even keep his head up. The safest thing to do would be to head straight for the hospital or police station or simply run back inside the club, where she knew Nick was sitting.

But she didn’t. Instead, she nodded slowly, unable to stop herself. A strange fogginess filled her head, one she tried to shake off but couldn’t. As she put the car in gear, pulled out of the parking lot and attempted to turn toward the hospital, a tingling vibrated across her lower back. The car made a right-hand turn onto Old Cornell Road almost as if it had a mind of its own, heading for her house at the lake.

“Thank you, meli,” he whispered as he released her arm and closed his eyes. “This will be over soon. I promise.”

Nick Blades kicked the apartment door closed and tossed the keys to his Harley onto the small card table in the middle of the empty living room. He peeled off his leather jacket and threw that over the keys, then pulled out the desk chair and sat, cheap vinyl creaking beneath the weight of his body as he did.

Something didn’t jell.

He flipped open his laptop—the only expensive thing in the shabby apartment he kept here in Silver Hills—and waited for the machine to boot. As Windows blinked onto the screen, he chewed on the inside of his lip and ran his hand over the stubble on his chin.

He’d recognized the blonde in the corner of the club the moment he’d walked in. No telling how long she’d been there, but the way she’d been staring at Casey set his instincts on alert. What in hell was an Argolean doing in that club, trying to pass herself off as a human?

He rolled his finger over the keyboard and called up his instant messaging. He hoped Orpheus was on so he could get some of these damn questions answered.

Sure enough, the one link he had in Argolea was there.

Computer nerd.

He started typing.

Niko: Need answers. Can you chat?

Orpheus: What up, my man? Been a while. How’re those human women treating you?

Nick frowned as his fingers flew over the keys.

Niko: Like a stallion. Why the fuck do you think I stay here?

A laughing smiley icon rolled across the screen.

Orpheus: You are the biggest frickin’ liar I ever met. And I am jealous as sin. What do you need?

Niko: What rumblings have you heard from the Council?

The cursor blinked, and Nick leaned back in his chair, one hand on the armrest as he waited to see if Orpheus would answer. The guy was the most techno-savvy person—mortal or god—Nick had ever met. He gobbled up human technology like a child in a candy store and morphed it with what his race was doing, which was the only reason Nick could chat with him like this. If there was a chance Orpheus thought their conversation was compromised, he wouldn’t risk answering.

Orpheus: What makes you ask?

Niko: Curiosity.

Orpheus: You know what humans say happened to the curious cat.

Niko: I’ve already been dead once. Remember? I’ll take my chances.

Orpheus: Fine, wiseass. But you didn’t get this from me.

Niko: I never do.

Orpheus’s uncle was one of twelve Council members who advised the king. In actuality, the Council defied the king more often than not, and it was no big secret they were itching for a shift in power. Because of that, Orpheus had the skinny on everything that went down in the Argolean kingdom—good and bad. And he was Nick’s one link to something he’d turned his back on years before.

The cursor blinked and then started moving.

Orpheus: The king is dying. Some say he’ll be dead before the next full moon.

Niko: The Council must be overjoyed.

Orpheus: They’re not. In fact, they’re mad as hell. Isadora is scheduled to marry the guardian Theron by week’s end. It was announced only days ago.

The two faces he’d seen in the club finally clicked. The blonde wasn’t just any ordinary Argolean. She was the gynaíka who would become queen of her race. And the colossal Argonaut who’d come to get her wasn’t just one of her guardians, he was their leader. The Argonauts’ blood ties were the strongest of any Argolean, all the way back to the original seven heroes. Their power was farreaching.

No wonder the Council was in an uproar. Isadora was the only living heir King Leonidas had produced. And everyone knew she was a weakling. Small and frail and meek. The gynaíka was no leader. But with Theron as her mate, the Council wouldn’t dare challenge her. And the heirs he and Isadora produced would safeguard the monarchy for millennia.

Not that Nick gave a flying fuck what happened to any of them. After what had been done to him, he cared little if the entire Argolean race imploded in on itself.

But why had the princess been in a seedy human strip club? And why had she been fixated on Casey?

Nick chewed on that question as he resumed typing.

Niko: Were the Argonauts in attendance at the announcement?

Orpheus: Yes. All seven. Even Demetrius. He didn’t seem thrilled by the news.

Nick clenched his jaw. No, he doubted Demetrius would be happy to hear Theron would command even greater control.

Orpheus: Rumors are circulating, though. No one’s seen Theron since. Or Isadora, for that matter. Some say they’ve already eloped to avoid backlash from the Council.

Nick knew for certain they hadn’t eloped. The Argonaut had been pissed when he’d found Isadora in the club; that’d been written all over his face. But that sure as hell didn’t explain why the princess had been in XScream in the first place.

Niko: Thanks for the info.

Orpheus: You thinking about coming back?

Niko: For what?

Orpheus: I dunno. Been a while since you’ve been interested in anything happening in the kingdom. You know my uncle Lucian has pull with the Council. He’d jump on your situation. With your brother—

Nick didn’t bother to read the end of Orpheus’s sentence. His fingers flew across the keyboard.

Niko: He’s not my brother. And I have no desire to return to Argolea, now or in the future. For my safety, and the safety of others, I like to remain in the know, that’s all.

Orpheus: I take it things have been peaceful on your end then.

Niko: As peaceful as they ever are.

Not that Nick was about to cop to anything with Orpheus. Especially anything related to where he was and what he was doing. He trusted Orpheus enough to believe the news the Argolean passed him was accurate. But that was as far as it went. Nick had learned long ago not to reciprocate. If the Argonauts ever found out where he was or what he was doing, they’d hunt him down and slaughter him without a second thought.

And that was one more reason the Argonaut Theron’s presence in Silver Hills tonight was of even greater concern to Nick. Something was brewing under the surface. Something even Orpheus didn’t know about.

Nick signed off and closed the laptop. And as he sat in the darkness of the quiet and empty run-down apartment near XScream, he thought back to how Isadora had been staring at Casey most of the evening. If the gynaíka had been on the hunt for a female to satisfy her appetite, she’d easily have picked one of the others.

No. She’d wanted Casey. Which meant the gynaíka knew exactly who Casey was.

He stood quickly from his chair, grabbed his jacket and pulled it on. A growing sense of unease rushed through him, a need to see for himself that Casey was indeed safe and sound.

He picked up his keys and slammed the door at his back. And didn’t once think about the fact it was close to three a.m. or that Casey was probably sound asleep in her little house up by the lake.