Free Stone of Ascension by Lynda Aicher Page B

her.
    “I can’t trust you, Damian.” There was just a hint of sadness in the man’s voice.
    Damian inclined his head. “Accepted. You can collar us.”
    The man thinned his lips and studied Damian intently before nodding. “As you wish.” He took one step back into the house before he paused. “Be sure about this, Damian. There’s no going back once you’ve entered.”
    The warning was ominous and landed between them like a rock.
    Amber started to inch backwards off the porch, but was halted by Damian’s firm grip. Fire followed his touch up her arm and across her chest, pulling tight and hard.
    “I’m sure,” Damian stated crisply.
    “I’m not,” she whispered.
    The man eased back farther and held the door open. “You may enter.”
    Damian exhaled and stepped forward, dragging Amber along with him.
    What was she supposed to do now? Her feet dragged, and she pulled back, resisting Damian’s hold. But they both knew she had no hope of getting away. It would be pointless to scream or struggle further since it was obvious the other man wouldn’t help her and there was no one else around for miles.
    Behind her, the door clicked closed, the sound echoing through the sudden quiet within the house. It resonated in her ears and transformed in her mind to the last nail being pounded into her coffin.
    Standing there in the entryway of an empty house, sandwiched between two hard men, two strangers, the reality of her situation slammed into her.
    She was trapped.
    All possibilities of escape, of returning home, of the entire situation being a big, colossal mistake were wiped out when she crossed the threshold of the house. The chance to go back was gone. She felt that truth in every fiber of her body. The bird mark flamed to life on her hand and the stone hung heavy, hard and hot between her breasts.
    Damian turned to face her, his grip still in place around her arm. His lips were pressed into a firm, thin line, but his eyes were on fire. They pulsed with the energy she felt. They had deepened to an almost black-blue and swirled with something undefined.
    The energy burned and raced up her arm from where he held her, pushed at her senses and spoke of honor, truth and desire. A desire that coiled through her until her sex tightened and clenched in unknown arousal. She sucked in her breath at the sudden new sensation.
    No man had ever affected her like that.
    The virgin in her whimpered to know the secrets that whispered at the edge of the desire. The forbidden knowledge that she longed to understand and experience but never had.
    In that moment, Amber was more afraid of the desire he stirred, of the longing that slammed through her heart than of whatever lay beyond the walls of the house.

Chapter Eight
    The air hung heavy, still and silent around the trio. No one said a word as the seconds ticked by. The oppressive air seemed out of place in the stark emptiness of their surroundings. It pressed upon Damian, the weight almost physical.
    He couldn’t remember when he’d felt so on edge. It had been a very, very long time since something had stirred him this much. Long ago he had learned that the only way to survive was to extinguish his emotions. To become as hard on the inside as he was forced to be on the outside.
    And it had worked for a thousand years.
    Now, this one speck of a female had his blood racing, demanding attention and creating a need for something he could not have. She was the Marked One. She had the prophesied sign of evil and destruction scored onto her delicate flesh.
    How could he possibly be feeling anything desirable or protective for her? Unless he too was evil. Unless everything his people had been proclaiming about him was true.
    Never .
    But, there was nothing about Amber that even hinted at evil at this point. If anything, she was the exact opposite of evil. Innocent to an extreme that was hard to believe in today’s world.
    “Where are we going?” Amber pulled against his hold on her