Free Mystik Warrior: (Dark Warrior Alliance Book 2) by Brenda Trim, Tami Julka Page A

of his emotions, not sure what had come over him. He didn’t have time to evaluate it at the moment. “We need an appropriate agent to break the binding of the magic to your sister, and blood isn’t that agent.”
    “Okay, so we have no easy solution. You mentioned New Orleans. What is there that can help me?” Cailyn asked weakly. Jace reached down and grabbed Cailyn’s hand, hating how cold her skin was. She was definitely getting worse. Panic surged through him, setting off a new urgency.
    “Orlando, call everyone back. Patrols can wait. We have to strategize and plan a trip. I want you guys on the road ASAP,” Zander ordered, ignoring Cailyn’s question.
    “Wait just a minute. What do you mean you guys? Aren’t you going too?” Elsie asked, leveling the mighty vampire king with a glare.
    “Nay, a ghra , I will remain here with you and Cailyn. Jace and two others will go,” Zander replied, trying to bring his mate back into his arms. She pushed his arms away.
    “No. Zander, I need you to go. I won’t be able to stand it if I don’t have the peace of mind knowing someone who cares as much as I do is on this mission. I know that you won’t let me leave this compound, especially, with women being targeted by skirm. I hate the thought of you being in danger, but I can’t be selfish. Cailyn needs this,” Elsie said, her gaze remaining on Zander.
    “You all can stand around and argue all day, but I’m going. I don’t care who goes with me, but I’m leaving soon,” he declared, keeping his gaze locked on Cailyn’s. Her eyes flared with surprise when his fingers stroked her hair. The silky stands wrapped around his fingers, keeping him close. He cradled the back of her head with his palm. “You will get better. No one will fight harder to get the antidote than I,” he promised, shocked to realize how deeply he meant every word he said.
    “I trust you, but you have to be safe and come back to me,” Cailyn whispered.
    Her trust melted something in him. No one had ever looked at him the way Cailyn did. Something was happening between them, and the connection he’d felt between them intensified. Before he knew what he was doing, he leaned down and touched his lips to hers. Sparks flew where their flesh met, and his breath was stolen from his chest. He pulled away and saw that Cailyn was just as affected. He wished no one had witnessed the intimacy of the moment, it belonged to them alone. He’d never had a more intimate moment with a female, and it had nothing to do with sex.

CHAPTER SIX

    Watching the clock until nightfall so they could leave for New Orleans was going to kill Jace. He needed to be retrieving the cure for Cailyn, but instead he was in the war room arguing with Kyran about Jessie turning into something unknown, not skirm but no longer human either. His fists balled at his sides, and fury raced through his veins. Jace was going to punch the shit out of Kyran. The bastard had been out with his whores when they had needed him, and now he wanted to change the decisions that their group had already made without him.
    Jessie had fangs and craved blood, but still had her appetite for food. It was unclear if she would eventually subsist solely on blood like all skirm. The biggest relief for Jace was that she wasn’t a mindless drone, and didn’t appear to be driven by the archdemon who turned her. Her bite wound had turned blue rather than the typical black, and her blood had remained red instead of black. Most astonishingly, her brainwaves were enhanced beyond what anyone expected. Jace and the scientists were excited to learn more about what she was becoming, but Kyran kept arguing the issue of destroying the poor girl.
    Jace stalked from the war room as his patience hit its limit. Lost in thought, he paused on the marble floor in the entry. The front doors loomed in front of him, with their intricate Celtic symbols. They were his favorite feature in the entire mansion he had called home for