But because Archer was incredibly strong.
Far stronger than Fenix had thought, and far stronger than was humanly possible for a male of his size.
He slid Archer a look out of the corner of his eye, met his gaze and held it, drawing on what strength he had and summoning a gift that always came in handy at times like this. Archer’s pupils slowly dilated as Fenix turned on the charm, his grip growing weaker. Fenix grinned inside and kept up his assault, getting into the male’s head and stirring passion in him, a desire to do whatever Fenix wanted.
Which boiled down to letting him go.
The hunter’s gaze suddenly sharpened, his eyes narrowing as his dark eyebrows knitted hard and he dug his knee harder into Fenix’s spine. The male leaned over him, shoving him into the dirt, and Fenix couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t at full strength yet, but he should have been able to charm the hunter. That ability grew stronger as he grew weaker, was always on hand when he needed it. Archer should have been putty in his hands, aching for him and willing to do whatever he wanted.
Archer brought his mouth close to Fenix’s ear.
“Not going to work, incubus,” Archer hissed. “You should have stayed away.”
Fenix jerked back against him and summoned another ability, because he was damned if he was going to let the hunter win.
Only when he tried to teleport, nothing happened.
He stared at Archer out of the corner of his eye, shock rolling through him as the male slowly smiled at him, his smug look telling Fenix that he knew what he had just tried and failed to do. Fenix glared at him, silently letting the hunter know that he was on to him too. His inability to teleport wasn’t because he was weak still and had tapped himself out by teleporting from Geneva to Scotland and then on to London. Something was different about Archer.
Archer sneered at him and reached into the thigh pocket of his black fatigues, pulling out a small radio device.
Evelyn came to tower over them both, her golden eyes cold as she stared down at him, her gun aimed at his shoulder. Maybe he could work with this. Every instinct he possessed screamed at him that he could. His mate was right there and that look in her eyes said she wasn’t going to let him go. This was an opportunity—a chance to get through to her and make her see that she wasn’t human and didn’t belong at Archangel. He relaxed beneath Archer, his struggles ceasing as he accepted his fate, determined to make it work in his favour.
He would convince Evelyn to leave Archangel and her partner and together they could find the mage who had cursed them. They could have that forever they had always wanted with each other.
The rose-hued image in his mind of a happily forever after got a huge crack in it that bled oily black all over it as he met Evelyn’s gaze and the more sensible part of him, the one not swept up in seeing his mate again, whispered that it wasn’t going to be that easy.
Fenix realised with sickening dread that his rash actions had landed him in a whole lot of trouble—the sort that involved vivisection—when she took the radio from her partner and brought it to her rosy full lips.
“Prepare a pen for a new guest.”
Chapter 5
Evelyn looked at the blood smeared over the side of Archer’s throat and frowned as a thin rivulet trickled down towards his collarbone. “You should get that looked at.”
He shrugged his wide shoulders, rolling them beneath his tight black Henley. “After we get him to the cells.”
The him in question was the incubus who hadn’t stopped staring at her since Archer had hauled him off the ground and they had marched him into headquarters through the parking garage entrance. Evelyn kept her eyes off him, the whole of her focus remaining locked on Archer as he touched the wound on his neck. It was only a shallow gash, but it hadn’t stopped bleeding.
“I can handle him.” She touched Archer’s forearm, her brow furrowing as she gazed up into his dark eyes. “You get that looked at.”
The incubus bared his teeth at Archer.
She still wasn’t sure why the non-human hadn’t teleported out of Archer’s grip, something he could have easily done at any point during their walk to the building and the check-in station just beyond the car park entrance, where Archer had cuffed him with restraints designed to inhibit his powers.
And had been clocked pretty hard by the incubus.
Archer hadn’t retaliated, had taken the hit on the side of his face without even grunting, and had only glared at the incubus when he had realised the male had cut his neck with the steel shackles.
“Seriously. Go to med bay. I have this.” Evelyn gently nudged Archer on his shoulder, pushing him towards the corridor that led to the hospital area of the building. “Got my escort and it’s hardly a long walk to the pens. What could happen?”
Archer pushed his glasses up his nose and gave her a look that said a lot could happen even in such a short space of time. He looked at the incubus, who narrowed his swirling cerulean and gold eyes on Archer and sneered.
Either the incubus had a real problem with her partner or he was angry with the world after being detained and processed. Water dripped from the ends of his long hair, rolling down his bare chest to soak into the black cotton trousers he had been issued after being stripped naked and hosed down.
Evelyn tried not to notice how his lean muscles flexed beneath his pale skin as he curled his hands into fists, or how flushed she felt as his gaze edged towards her. He was tall for his breed, stood an inch taller than Archer’s six-four, and had a slender build, with square shoulders that tapered into a trim waist. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him either. Every muscle on his torso was pronounced, there for everyone to see.
A wicked feast for her eyes.