Burn, page 11
part #14 of Galactic Cyborg Heat Series
“You saved my life.” He straightened and something in his gaze seemed to see right through her. Her heart pounded.
“We’re more than even.” She told him looking for an exit.
He liked her spunk in the face of disaster. She was calm if concerned. No hysterics, her eyes intelligent and clear. “We should help the others,” she told him nodding to several people coming out of the building. He didn’t gaze towards the building, his people were hard to injure but led her to his car and opened the door.
“Get in. There’s nothing we can do here. My men will deal with this. Let me get you somewhere safe and we can talk.”
Clair waited for the voice to tell her to run. Only this time it didn’t. All was silent. “You will be quite safe with me. On my honour.” He told her slightly bowing again. Clair got in the car. There was a driver and security guard already in it.
“My bag,” she called out and found it passed to her quickly. Then looked around again and realised it wasn’t just a car. It was huge and large and she’d bet a months wages, that glass was bullet proof. She could see now why it would be. Did this happen to him a lot? Before she had time to study that, the male got in the other side and the car moved off.
Damon didn’t know what processed him to take her with him but there was no leaving her. His Demon made that clear. “Forgive the urgency to leave. I believe that bomb was for me. The sooner we were away the better. If my enemies think I am injured or dead, I can track them faster. They will make mistakes.” He told her calmly.
Clair sat looking at him. “I err had nothing to do with that back there,” she told him honestly. Fearing he might think she’d set him up somehow.
“I know. Had you not brought me out of my office, I would be dead.” His phone went off. Clair watched him open the mobile and talk. He barked several orders and closed the phone again.
“Did they find anyone?” she asked. Damon shook his head. “I’m sorry that happened, it looked a nice building. Is anyone hurt?”
“It was a restricted floor. No day staff were present. Everyone else was in the basement conference room apart from the reception floor and security. We have a few missing men and people are hunting for them. You said you felt a vibe. Was it just me or was it the bomb too?”
He knew she could feel him. Clair thought about that as the car zoomed through the emptiness of the pre-dawn. Those hours close to sunrise, were they the end of the night or the beginning of the day? She wondered randomly. She thought about his question. “I felt the distinct vibe of you. It was weaker than it is now. It is stronger because you are nearer. It’s like a telephone ringer. Its stronger the nearer you are to it. The other part of the vibe……….just felt wrong. Mechanical, dangerous.” She closed her eyes and concentrated, clearing out her mind and focusing on the events as they happened. Clair rubbed her thumb and forefinger together searching for the tendrils. The male was so strong next to her as well as the vibrations she was picking up from the driver and security man in the front, that it made that difficult. She frowned.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“There is so much vibe in this car it could be rattling,” she told him exasperated. “It’s making the seeing harder.” She cranked her neck, took a deep breath then focused ignoring the three men in the car. Filtering out all the other connections around her, she searched and recalled the vibe. The signature was different she realised. It didn’t feel like him, she could sense that now. It didn’t feel like a living breathing thing. It had an …….. automaton feel about it and something else……. she couldn’t place.
“Would you recognise it?” The male next to her asked. Clair realised she must have spoken aloud.
She nodded. “It’s possible.” The car pulled up and stopped at the red light. The streets empty but for the odd car. Hardly anyone was on the streets at this time of night. She didn’t recognise it. “Where are we going?”
“I have several houses. I’m taking us to one of them. I do not trust going to my current abode until it has been swept.”
Clair stared at him shocked. “You think they would try bombing your home?”
The male chuckled. “I think they would try anything.”
Clair stared blindly out the window. She couldn’t get her head around that. It all seemed rather ……… extreme. Why would someone go to those lengths? That wasn’t normal. She didn’t like the answer when it came to her. She turned to him nervously, “you in the mafia or something?”
She wasn’t sure she liked the grin on his face. “Private army,” he told her. Clair nodded remembering the literature on the company. It held several private security branches, as well as businesses that leased out employees. Private army made sense.
“Who pissed off the private army then?”
He turned to her and smiled wider. “I did.”
The car moved off again. Clair wasn’t sure what to think about that. A hand appeared under her nose. “We’ve not been formally introduced formally. I’m Damon Baltizar.” Clair instinctively took his hand. He was he CEO of the Corporation she’d come to interview for. It explained the security and the expensive clothes. The instant she touched it, his vibe hit her dead centre. She tried to remove it, but he held on. A pulse wave moved between them, then subsided, and she looked up. Curiosity played out across Damon’s face.
“That didn’t happen the first time I held your hand,” he told her. Clair couldn’t help but smile.
“I was 7.” She told him.
Damon hummed rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand. Was it hot in here? It went straight to her stomach, it clenched.
“You’re not 7 any longer,” he told her.
Clair blushed and pulled her hand free as a screaming voice in her mind, told her to go right. “Right, go right now,” she shouted at the driver. He hesitated then nodded at the driver. The car swerved. As an explosion hit the left rear side of the car. “What the hell!” she called out as Damon grabbed her and pushed he down onto the floor.
The car swerved again, rounding another corner at an impossible speed. She could hear Damon on the phone talking to someone as they were thrown about. He shouted orders and gave instructions. Something hit the car again and it lurched forward. Clair screamed and found Damon holding her again, brushing the hair from her eyes. A gun in his hand. “I will kill them for this,” she didn’t doubt him.
He was seething. They dared to attack him, now, in public. After everything he’d said. They were flouting his new demands in his face. He would remind them it took more than a few explosions to kill him! Clair squeezed him harder, he could feel her fear. At any other time, it would have nourished him, at that moment it only fed his anger. His need for retribution. They wanted to harm what was his? What was precious? He would rain pain down on them like never before. Take everything that was important to them and make them watch it burn.
The car suddenly stretched to a stop. Damon looked ahead. The road was filled with his enemies. Stiffening he registered who stood before him. Masters, some seconds and their Kin. Not those he knew best however. Clair pulled back and looked to the front. Her hand tightened on him. “Do not go out there,” she whispered.
Damon smiled. He had no choice in that. He ran a hand down her face and lifted her chin towards him.
“You’re going,” she told him searching his face. Damon gave her a nod, brushing a thumb across her lips.
“Stay here. Protect her,” he told his men. Then let her go. He moved to the door and opened it. Gazing back at her one last time, he got out and shut it. Whatever the night held, he had no doubt what he wanted was in that car.
Clair looked on as Damon walked to the front of the car. Neither the driver or his security got out. “What the hell are you waiting for. Get out and back him up,” she shouted at them.
His security man turned to her. “He would not appreciate the help.”
“Are you fucking nuts? There’s at least 30 people out there,” she looked around the back of the car. “Weapons, we need weapons. Where the hell are the weapons?” she cried out turning back to him. “Don’t give me that he wouldn’t appreciate it shit. Is he your man or not?” she demanded. Security man looked to the driver. Clair had the feeling some unspoken communication was going on. When he turned back to her, the driver leant forward and hit a button release. The whole of one side of the car opened and it was lined with guns and ammo.
Clair looked at it, not sure what to do. “That real?” she asked nervously. She saw the security guy nod from the corner of her eye. Clair took a deep breath. “Right, what do you need? We’re going to need delaying tactics. I’m guessing Damon’s people are on their way right?” he gave her another nod. “Alright then,” she told them warming up to the idea. “Those grenades?” he gave her another nod. It was starting to piss her off. “Don’t talk much do you.” She grabbed all the grenades and passed them to them. She assumed they had guns on them. They wouldn’t be much use with-out. She picked up a gun and looked at it. It was heavy.
“Too heavy, take the two smaller ones, feel them in your hands. Get used to their weight.” Clair followed his instructions. He was right they were better for her. Fitted her hands almost perfectly. “Spare clips take as many as you can stow away on your person. Hold, fire, eject the clip and reload.” He showed her in quick succession.
Clair nodded. She’d seen a gun or 10 before. “Got it. Now, lets go make some noise.”
It sounded so much braver than she felt. Clair pulled the car door open and got out. She hid the guns in her oversized pockets and joined the driver and security. They made an odd threesome. She hadn’t used her abilities much over the years. They scared her. Not many people knew she could pull on those vibes if she needed to or make them do things. She hoped she didn’t have to use it.
They slowly walked forward towards Damon who was in several arguments with those in front of him. They were making demands and threats. Automatically, that felt stupid to Clair. Even though he was vastly outnumbered, she knew Damon to be the stronger man. She could feel it. Clair searched for the vibes around them. Filtered out Damon and his men and searched for those most vocal and with deadly intent.
They came easily to her as they always did. Whisperings of power and aura, blended together. Layer on layer, experience on experience, the creation of all that they were. And she held each one lightly between her fingers, drawing slowing from them, soaking up their vibes. The treats were becoming heated. Damon’s men stood one step back from him on either side. Clair moved passed them and stood next to him. “You should have stayed in the car.” He told her as the crowd got nasty.
“Did they boom us?” she asked. Damon gave her a disgusted look. “It’s possible but they definitely fired on the car.” That was all she needed. Clair smiled and shook her head, then laughed. The crowd quieted not sure what was going on.
“I don’t think so,” she whispered, then reached out with one hand and made contact with him, pushing all the vibe she gained at him. It was electric, like nothing before and he used it. She didn’t know how she knew, but Damon had battle skills she not seen before and she’d just powered him up. If they thought him weak, they were wrong. He moved at lightning speed towards his enemies.
Clair had never seen anything like it. Realising she was meant to be helping not ogling. She clenched her hand around those fragile vines and yanked it back towards her. Several of their opponents fell to their knees, weakened. “Now,” she shouted, and both the driver and security let loose with the grenades. Clair grasped both her guns, pulling them free of her pockets and started firing. She didn’t think she hit anything and it didn’t matter. The confusion was enough to help Damon as his men joined in. They’d tried to kill them this was on them.
Damon tore through his enemies. He had never seen or felt anything like he had when Clair had touched him. The power was magnificent. Intoxicating. His baser instincts came to life in that spark and he became what he was. A Prince of Darkness. The vision on her toppling his enemies with just one hand had not gone unnoticed by him or anyone else. If they survived, they would hunt her for it and it drove him on. They would not have her, he would make sure of that. He was ruthless and deadly. He gave no quarter as he knew he couldn’t. And when his people finally arrived, the battle was short lived.
Standing in blood and gore, he searched her out. Standing alone, his people at her back. Clair stood watching him. He waited for the horror and disgust, but nothing came. All he felt was acceptance and it warmed him. He kicked the last of his enemies aside and went to her. Walking slowly, giving her chance to run or hide but she held her ground waiting for him, both guns, still in her hands.
Clair looked at the devastation Damon had created and not once, did she feel sadness or fear for what had happened here. He’d killed them all. Torn them apart as he’d fought hand to hand. She’d seen no weapon and yet, they were in pieces. For a fleeting moment she wondered if she were ill. This wasn’t normal even in her weird world and then it clicked, seeing how the people moved around her. How he, moved towards her. This wasn’t her world at all, it was his. Damon stopped short before her. She knew he was waiting on her. To see what she would do next. Clair handed the guns over to him and he gently took them from her. Covered in gore, his power still seeping into the world around him. His eyes, never leaving her face.
Something told her what she did next, was vitally important. She gave him a half smile and waved her hand around dismissively. “The next time you throw a party, could there be drinks?”
Damon for a second, stood perfectly still. He’d expected her to crack having seen it all but no. She came back with the unexpected. He cracked a smile, laughing loudly. His brooding and deadly intent, evaporating along with that smile.
Clair’s heart beat loudly. The man was devastating.
“I will most defiantly try.” He told her.
***
Continues in Damon, Prince of the Demon Realm. Now on sale ……….
The wilds. Sector 3. Zone 1. Betrl. Mikle Jace his second Zenn Onea bar man Wild lands D838
Chapter six 90 - 105
Jessie Rose Case, Burn
