Her heartbeat skipped.“Why me?”
“Your emotions, while painful, are pure and true.Not convoluted with ego and noise and lust.”He nodded toward the desk.“Watching your agony over your decision to protect your father, your belief in him despite the evidence, your bravery while fighting the wraiths…it touches something inside me that hasn’t been touched in a long time.”
He wanted her.Only her.The realization throbbed through her, making the need to touch him ache even more.Not the Thrall.She let out a soft sigh and walked to the front door.Archer stepped out first, scanning the darkness between the glow of streetlights.
“Do you think there will be more wraiths?”she asked.
“We must be prepared for anything.Whoever sent them might try something else.”
They got into his car, and his hand gripped the top of the steering wheel as he started the engine.“Three missing people.”
Lyra put her finger to her mouth.“Four.Kirin told me that Tara’s husband, Huff, has been missing for the same amount of time as my pop.What the heck is going on here?”
Archer seemed to consider that.“Tara is the common denominator.But how a woman who’s been gone for over five months can cause three men to go missing now is beyond me.We have a lot more questions than we do answers.”Archer put the car into drive.
“That’s how I felt when I first discovered Pop was missing.So I went back to his house and looked closer.That’s how I found the feather.We could go to Jeremy’s and do the same.Did you find his cell phone?”
“I did.I suspect he had it on him when he got Stripped, because it was singed.”
Speaking of phones, Archer’s rang.He answered.Lyra could hear a man’s hysterical voice but not his words.Archer’s face tightened at whatever he was saying.“I’ll explain what that means when we meet.If I can go into the memory of what you saw, maybe we can figure out where he is.We’ll be right there.”He disconnected.“That was Marik.He finally felt Jeremy.He’s in a lot of pain and physically trapped in a house.”
“Which at least means he’s not one of those wraiths.”
He nodded.“I suppose there is good news in that.”
“He sounded pretty freaked out.”
“He just saw the wing dust.Perhaps we should have warned him about that.”
7
Archer walked directly behind Lyra as they approached Jeremy’s door, guarding her back, she suspected.They found Marik in Jeremy’s bedroom, staring at the perfect depiction of angel wings made of dust.He turned and opened his mouth, but before a sound could emerge, a shadow appeared at the corner of the room.Something that looked like a huge snake thrust through the wall and bound Marik in a tight grip.It looked as though it were made of solid light, making no sound at all.Marik did, though, screaming and creating jagged arcs of magick that stabbed the thing.It didn’t budge.
Archer bowed his shoulders, and wings tore through his shirt.He roared in pain as they pushed out to their full width.“Don’t go Dragon, Lyra,” he growled, launching toward the snake.
It and Marik disappeared.
“Hell,” he said, turning to Lyra.He pulled her back to his chest as he threw himself against the wall.“It will come back if it sensed we were in the room, too.”
“Why shouldn’t I catalyze?”she whispered.
He leaned close to her, his breath fanning her ear.“If it senses your Dragon, it will go after you.Now, be quiet.”
His wings folded over her, cocooning her in his cool embrace.A light as fine as mist shielded them seconds before the snake thrust through the wall again.
What in the holy hell could Caidos do?
Archer’s wings tightened over her, his arms crossed over her stomach, a full shield.The snake was blind, or so it seemed, feeling around the room looking for them.Her Dragon strained to come out.But Archer wasn’t fighting the snake, and he wasn’t afraid of much.
No, he’s afraid for you.
She shivered, then realized he’d feel everything she did.She swallowed her fear as the snake hovered a few feet in front of them.Archer’s fingers pressed into her stomach now, his muscles rock hard and ready to fight.The snake sensed them, all right.Archer’s shield kept it from being sure, apparently, because it didn’t grab them.It touched all around the shield.It pulled back finally and searched the room, even under the bed.Then it disappeared back into the wall.
Archer didn’t release her.Did he think it would return again?A minute passed.Then two.She felt his chest rising and falling, pressing against her with each breath.
“Will it come back?”she whispered at last.
“I don’t think so.”He hadn’t whispered, so he must be pretty sure.
