Phaze Fantasies Volume 4 Read online

  "No."

  She pressed a palm to his chest and shoved hard, pushing into the wall. It knocked the air a little from his lungs, but the last thing Ryan wanted was to get into a fight with Tala. In the dark. In a place locked down by vampires.

  But most importantly, not with Tala.

  "When I heard you were hunting vampires,” she said, “I didn't believe it. I thought, he's trying to get revenge for the ones who killed his girlfriend. And then I thought, lucky girl, for having a man love her so much that he needed to do such a thing. But you didn't stop. And you didn't get killed. And I don't understand why you would choose to do such a thing if you didn't have to. So tell me, Ryan Nixon. Why are you here?"

  He wished it wasn't so dark. He wanted to see her face, see if she looked as confused as she sounded. That line was probably back between her brows, and the fine bow of her mouth drawn into a moue that begged to be kissed.

  But she had asked a question of him, and he shook himself from his wayward thoughts to focus on the reality of her words, not the ephemeral beauty of his dreams. What was it again? Why are you here? Once upon a time, Oliver had asked the same question, so giving her what she wanted was easy. It just wasn't simple.

  "Because I got a second chance,” he said. “Because people shouldn't have to rely on getting second chances."

  First Tala's hand disappeared, then the heat of her body as she stepped away. The red light from the far end of the hall just barely outlined the side of her face, not nearly enough to discern anything more than the fact that she was looking at him. He'd been wrong. Now, he wanted to see her. He'd wanted to tell her what she'd taught him for over ten years, and it wasn't fair that he was denied her reaction now that he had.

  "What we need is up here,” she said. Apparently they were done with the conversation. Back to business. Disappointed didn't even begin to describe how he felt. “I have another sunlight spell to give you light to work, but it's very small compared to the one I used in the terminal. You'll only have five minutes to restore power. Is that going to be enough?"

  Ryan pulled himself off the wall. “Shouldn't you have asked me that before we left?"

  "Is it going to be enough?"

  "Yes, but—"

  "We mustn't waste any more time then.” Unerringly, Tala found his wrist again and headed back down the corridor. “The sooner we get back to the others, the safer we're all going to be."

  When she stopped this time, he was prepared for it and hung back out of her way as she fiddled with the door knob. If it was locked, she gave no indication that it gave her any trouble. The slight creak in the hinges as she pushed it open came soon enough. Tala led Ryan inside, only releasing him when the door clicked shut behind him, and said a single word, the same he'd heard her cry out in the terminal. Glass shattered, and a dull yellow light filled the small control room.

  The first thing he saw was that Tala's hand was bleeding.

  When he moved forward to help her, she immediately backed off, tucking into a corner as far away from him as possible. “Get the power back on,” she ordered. She dug around in her pockets and pulled out a dark piece of cloth. “Don't worry about me. We don't have time for that."

  Ryan bit the inside of his cheek to keep from arguing with her. It didn't take a genius to see that she hadn't dropped or thrown her crystal or whatever it was that released the sunlight. She'd broken it with her hand to keep from accidentally hitting Ryan. As thoughtful as the gesture was, it was a little annoying to think that she wanted to protect him from something as minor as some little cuts when there were god knew how many vamps crawling through the place. He turned to the control panel on the wall before his annoyance became even more evident.

  It didn't take five minutes to get power back up. It took thirty seconds. Whatever vampires were running this operation didn't know jack about electricity or power grids. Ryan was almost annoyed.

  Tala was still wrapping her hand by the time he turned around. “Why was that so easy?” she asked.

  He wondered if there was anything she didn't find suspicion in. “Maybe because I'm good at what I do?"

  "Let's get back to the others,” she said, ignoring his tone. Catching the end of her makeshift bandage in her teeth, she swiftly finished tying it off before turning back and yanking the door open again. “We'll need to—"

  Ryan saw it before she did, but his dive to pull her out of the way was slower than the vampire's lunge on the other side of the door. With a snarl, the vampire snatched her out of the entrance, twisting her in his arms so that her back was to his chest and his forearm tight around her neck. Ryan only caught a glimpse of his fangs before the pair disappeared from sight. He didn't need to see more. His body reacted on instinct.

  The stake was in his hand before he made it through the door. Tala struggled against the vampire's superior strength, but the position he'd placed her in made it difficult for her to get free, especially with her injured hand. Her heel lashed backward, connecting with his shin, and while the vamp grunted, he didn't let go or stumble as he continued to drag her down the hall.

  Ryan ran. The narrow corridor didn't give enough room to go around the pair, but Tala saw his approach and curled in on herself, creating as small an obstacle as possible. He angled to the side, but when the vampire countered in the same direction, Tala suddenly lifted her legs from the floor. Ryan dove at the same time the vampire stumbled. His shoulder slammed into the demon's knees, sending all three of them to the floor, but he barely noticed the way Tala twisted off the vampire's chest. He was too busy burying his stake in the creature's heart.

  They crumpled to the floor when the vampire disintegrated into ash. His legs sprawled over Tala's, and when Ryan tried to find the floor to push himself up, his hand encountered the soft flesh of Tala's hip instead. He froze. It was as inviting as he'd ever dreamed, and his cock hardened against his thigh. Brief flashes of how she would feel writhing beneath him, of how she would taste, made staying like that very tempting, but then his better self kicked his lecherous self across his skull, and Ryan rolled off instead of indulging fantasies that were never likely to be realized.

  Tala pushed into a sitting position, her back braced against the wall. She seemed oblivious to how he'd been touching her, her gaze fixed on him in careful contemplation. “I suppose this makes us even."

  His mouth was open with a smart retort when he saw fresh blood staining her bandage. “We need to get you washed up,” he said. He lurched to his feet and held out his hand to her. “Your blood is going to attract every vampire in the place."

  The look on her face said the last thing she wanted was his help, but Tala accepted his offer anyway, her grip surprisingly strong. She took one step and promptly crumpled to the side, crying out in startled pain. Ryan's arm shot out, scooping around her waist to pull her back upright.

  "What's wrong?"

  Tala scowled. “I think I twisted something,” she said. Gingerly, she tried putting her foot back down, only to jerk it back again as soon as she started applying pressure. “Damn it!"

  "Even more reason to find someplace safe to clean you up.” Firming his hold, he shouldered more of her weight, though her muscles were tense enough to make it difficult. He sighed in exasperation. “Stop being such a baby and let me do this!"

  "I'm not—” Her jaw clamped shut, her nostrils flaring. After taking a deep breath, Tala said, “The others are in danger. We need to go back to them."

  "So we have two invalids to guard? I don't think so.” Exerting his strength, Ryan began dragging her down the hall. “Now are you going to tell me where there's a bathroom in that blueprint memory of yours? Or am I just going to wander aimlessly and hope we don't run into another vamp because you're leaving a trail of blood crumbs wherever we go?"

  The answer wasn't long in coming.

  "Behind us. Left. Halfway down the hall."

  Ryan did the reverse without speaking. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless. He would take wh
atever he could get.

  * * * *

  The light in the bathroom was unflattering, casting a sallow shadow across Tala's skin, highlighting circles beneath her eyes he hadn't seen in the terminal. She hadn't said a word since telling Ryan where the bathroom was, and for the first time since spotting her, he wondered if she was all right. She seemed tired, more tired than she should have been considering her injuries. And the way she sat silently on the edge of the counter, letting him clean and rewrap her hand, was nerve-wracking.

  "I'm kind of glad I saw you tonight,” he said, desperate to shatter the calm. He realized how it sounded as soon as the words escaped, and immediately backpedaled. “Not in the way that I'm glad we're trapped or that you got hurt, but that you were here at all. I've been hoping to see you again for years now."

  Her black eyes fixed on him, her mouth unsmiling. “You don't have to say thank you. We're even, remember?"

  Ryan shook his head. “It isn't about gratitude. When Oliver told me about some of the things you've done, about your family...” He shrugged, suddenly embarrassed. Maybe silence was better. “I guess you could call me a fan, though that makes me sound fifteen and way less cool than it feels like in my head."

  Her lips twitched. “You're a very weird man, you know that?"

  Grinning, he let go of her hand and crouched at her feet, ready to examine her ankle. “I've been called worse."

  Tala lapsed into silence again as he slipped off her boot and sock. She'd been right. She had twisted it. Her ankle was already swelling to twice its normal size, and there was a nasty bruise forming on her instep.

  He grasped her heel and toes carefully and looked up. “I'm just going to rotate this and see if there's anything broken. It's probably going to hurt."

  Tala nodded. “Just do it."

  Her teeth sank into her bottom lip the second he started to turn her ankle, and her knuckles went white where she gripped the edge of the counter, but Tala didn't make a sound as he did the rotation. When he let it go again, her breathing was a little quicker, but she simply gazed at him in expectation.

  "Not broken,” he announced. “But definitely hurt. We need to get it wrapped to keep the swelling down."

  Tala exhaled and seemed to deflate. “I'm going to be useless when it comes to a fight."

  Ryan straightened, but couldn't bring himself to move away from where he stood between her legs. Her heat, even in the sterile bathroom, was magnetic. “I find it very hard to believe that you could ever be useless."

  "You don't know me very well, then."

  "And maybe you're selling yourself short."

  "Why do you keep saying things like that?” Her eyes searched his, but what she hoped to find, he had no clue. “You don't know my life. You don't know my family. You know facts. Statistics.” Her mouth curled into a sneer. “Scorecards."

  "You're right,” Ryan agreed. “I do know the facts. I know how far you've traveled to get to a vampire, and I know roughly how many you kill a year. I know that you saved your family six months ago from a very vicious, focused attack, and I know that the day after your father got out of the hospital, you were on a plane to Paris because the Clan Fournier was threatening to uprise.” He leaned forward, his face just inches from hers. Through the scent of blood and antiseptic, the clean smell of her skin made his mouth water, drawing forth dreams he'd harbored for a decade. “You know what else I know, Tala Mamola? You are the single bravest woman I have ever had the fortune to meet, even as fleeting as our introduction was. And I know that I would do anything it took to earn your respect. Anything."

  It felt good to get it out there. They were feelings he'd had for years, all wrapped up in the desire to share them. Getting it off his chest felt like someone had thrown open the curtains to blind him with sunshine.

  Slowly, Tala shook her head. “It doesn't take bravery to do the only thing you know, Ryan.” It was the soft way she said his name that made his chest tighten—without derision, without contempt, without anger. It was an acknowledgment of equality that he hadn't even realized he'd been hungry for until she gave it without his asking. “Maybe that's why you've managed to survive this long. Because you still have the power of faith backing you."

  "I don't believe in God."

  "I never said you did."

  "Do you?"

  "Believe in God?” Tala snorted. “All I believe in is the power of my hand."

  The finality of her tone wrested the ounce of satisfaction Ryan had garnered and dashed it to the ground. She looked almost desolate, and in that desolation, so young and vulnerable that Ryan reacted without thinking.

  He closed the distance between their mouths, ducking his lashes to catch one glimpse of her lips before touching them with his own. Her quick intake of breath was audible, and her muscles tense, but Tala didn't retreat, didn't push him away, didn't do anything but sit there on the edge of the counter and let his mouth work gently over hers. Ryan kept it simple, soft. It was enough to savor the delicate taste of her lips and to know that she wasn't fighting him. It was more than enough.

  Then she touched him. Fingertips faint against his chest, as if she was bracing herself from falling over. And her mouth moved in tentative reciprocation, lips parting the smallest of fractions to allow the tip of her tongue to taste his.

  "Tala..."

  The utterance of her name shattered the spell, and she pulled back, regarding him with resignation. “This isn't the time or place for this,” she breathed.

  "I know,” Ryan said. He pushed a strand of hair that had fallen loose from her ponytail back behind her ear. “I couldn't resist."

  In spite of her declaration, she didn't move from her spot on the counter. “You should. I'm the last woman you want to be having those kind of impulses around. Just ask Scott."

  The last thing he wanted was to be thinking of Tala's ex-relationships. “Scott's not here."

  "No. He's out with Katsu and the child. We're wasting time not getting out there and trying to stop whatever it is the vampires have planned."

  Ryan glanced down at their motionless bodies. “And yet, you're not moving."

  "You're in my way."

  "You're not the kind of woman who usually lets that stop her."

  Tala pressed her uninjured hand more firmly to his chest and pushed him away. “I'm also not the kind who sits back while others fight for her,” she said. “I want to get back to the terminal."

  Though Ryan nodded, he didn't make any move to leave. “We still have to wrap your ankle,” he said. “The swelling is just going to get worse."

  She hopped down off the counter, deliberately keeping her weight off her sore foot. “I'll manage. Let's go."

  The hardest thing he'd done all night was touch her after having tasted her kiss. But he did. Ryan slipped his arm around Tala's waist and shouldered her slight weight as she leaned against him. The impulse he'd had earlier returned with a vengeance, her flesh hot and pliant beneath his palm, but the closest he could come to indulging was to splay his fingers over the curve, molding her firmly into his side. It made walking difficult. It made thinking difficult. He didn't let it slow them down.

  Backtracking through the halls was a vastly different experience than when they'd set out to restore power. Now, Ryan was faced with glimpses of people trapped by the stasis spell, people they'd passed without his even being aware. A woman frozen in mid-step. A janitor bowed over his mop as he wrung it out in a bright yellow bucket. How had they avoided running into them? he wondered. He glanced at Tala, but she seemed oblivious to their surroundings, her eyes distant. If there was a secret to how she'd done it, it was one she was going to keep.

  Tala only spoke to give him directions, telling him when to turn, telling him which exits to take. The silence echoed around them, so that by the time they reached the door to the main terminal, Ryan was glad to be joining the others. It felt like he was stuck in a museum; even the sound of Scott and Tala fighting would be a welcome return to a semi-norma
l world.

  There was only one problem.

  The terminal was completely empty.

  Tala stiffened at his side, breaking free to hobble toward the middle of the room. “Katsu?” she called out. The name bounced back at them, a ghost of its first incarnation that multiplied before finally dying out. She tried again, louder, but the result was exactly the same.

  "Noni?"

  Ryan circled in the opposite direction to Tala, eyes searching past the frozen figures in quest of the teenager. Calling Scott's name provided the same fruitless response, and he quickly returned to the center of terminal where Tala was leaning against the bench they'd left them at.

  "I don't see any extra dust,” she jumped in. “I don't see any signs of a fight, or any reason at all why they shouldn't be here.” There was a panicked gleam in her eye when she whipped her head toward Ryan. “Where are they? Did they get out? Why aren't they here?"

  She was trembling when he took her by the shoulders. “Deep breath,” Ryan said. “I'm sure they're fine. They probably just moved someplace a little less open—"

  A screeching train cut him off. Almost immediately, the ground shook to match the vibration in the air. Both Tala and Ryan jerked, but before he let her go, the disturbances vanished with a split second of darkness.

  In the next blink, the terminal was alive again. The old guard finished scratching his nose and then promptly sneezed, reaching into his pocket for a wrinkled handkerchief. The baby made a whimpering sound in its sleep as its mother replaced the stuffed animal in the stroller.

  Ryan's gaze shot to the clock. Twelve o'clock. As he stared at it, it ticked over to 12:01.

  "What happened?” Tala whispered. She was frozen in her spot, probably feeling much like Ryan and unsure about moving.

  "I think it's safe to say the stasis spell is gone,” he replied, matching her tone.

  "But what does that mean? What did it accomplish?"

  A heavy weight settled in Ryan's stomach. He wasn't sure what the vampires’ specific plan was, but he was well aware that plenty had been accomplished. Oliver was dead. Tala was hurt. Noni, Katsu, and Scott were missing. If the vampires had hoped to thin the hunter ranks a little, they had more than succeeded.