Relieved at the topic, she said, "So?"
The next question wasn't so easy. "What was Zie Zen talking about? What haven't you told me?"
She kept her silence even as she felt her body begin to burn from the inside out.
His fingers brushed over her. Gentle, teasing touches along her neck. Invitations to surrender... to sin. "Stop," she whispered.
"Why?"
"Because I can't break open. Not fully." Every time her internal shields dropped, Amara whispered to her. Ashaya was in no doubt that her sister already had a lock on her physical position.
Heat, sweet, teasing heat against the lobe of her ear. The brush of lips that looked so hard when he was angry, but felt velvety soft. It made her shiver. "Dorian, you have to stop. I told you, I can't simply forget Sile - "
"Why?"
He was so close, the lean hardness of him pressed against her like living fire.
She swallowed. "I can't."
"Why?" Insistent. Adamant.
"Because if I do," she said, shattering a silence she'd kept for more years than she could count, "then Amara will find me." She hoped he hadn't noticed her minute hesitation. Because it wasn't for herself that she feared - she would live if Amara found her.
Keenan wouldn't.
And even that wasn't the true horror of it.
Dorian pulled back. "Explain."
Ashaya wondered where to start. She'd just opened her mouth when Dorian's cell phone began beeping. He kept one hand on her hip as he checked the readout. "It's Jimmy." A pause, followed by a rapid-fire conversation. "Yeah? When? Okay, get the hell away from them. No, that's all I need." Hanging up, he filled her in. "More Psy on the streets - they obviously know you're here but not where."
"Amara." She knew in her gut that the information had come from Amara, but her sister wouldn't have given them the exact location. That wasn't how the game was played. "She - "
Dorian cut her off. "You can explain later. Right now, we need to get you out of the hot zone."
"Why can't we stay here?"
He squeezed her hip and the sensation was an electric current crackling over her body. "Telepathic scans might be illegal, but these aren't boy scouts we're dealing with. All it'll take is for them to scan one person who saw you in the car. Come on." He grabbed her hand.
To her surprise, he didn't lead her toward the parked car. They headed to the back of the structure instead. He pushed open a small door and pulled her through to the bright sunshine of the early summer's day. She was still trying to acclimatize her eyes to the light when they went through the back door of another building and then downstairs.
"Where are we going?" she gasped as they jogged down the narrow corridor and to the door at the end.
"Wait and see." Giving her a sharp grin, he twisted open the lock on the door and began to pull her through.
She had just enough time to see the exposed earth walls, the wooden beams holding up the ceiling, the darkness, before her mind revolted. "No! Dorian, no! Please!" She dragged her feet, but he was too strong and his momentum threatened to carry them through the door and into the pitch-black of the tunnel.
Chapter 25
The second he heard Ashaya scream, Dorian came to a complete stop. She slammed into his chest as he turned instinctively to catch her. The air punched out of him but he was more worried about the damage to her. Psy bones were far weaker than changeling or even human. It was the trade-off nature had apparently made for their powerful minds.
He held her to him as he ran his hands over her back, silently calling himself every name in the book. "Jesus, I'm sorry." He couldn't get the absolute terror in that begging "please" out of his mind. He'd made this proud, strong woman beg, and he hated himself for it. "Are you all right?"
He thought she might've nodded against his chest but didn't take any chances, running his hands down her arms to check for injury. "Shaya?"
"I'm fine." She pushed away from him and though she tried to appear unfazed, there was a broken wildness in her eyes that he couldn't bear to see.
"Hold on." He grabbed her hand again, felt her stiffen. And realized he'd lost her nascent trust through his own idiocy. "I'm taking you back upstairs," he said, tugging her up the same flight he'd pulled her down only seconds ago.