Craved
Chapter 16

Damon:

Did fate purposely goad him? He recognized the crystal immediately. Its call, its throbbing heat, caused him to break out in a cold sweat. He never perspired.

The smoky quartz pulsed like a heartbeat. And she'd found it? She'd had it all this time? It might explain why he'd been lured to her. Hell, everything made so much sense now. He knew the rules for the stone. Once claimed, the owner had to freely give to another or die, or it would annihilate everyone within range. Time to turn on the charm and get her to hand over the crystal of her own free will.

Drawing her attention, Travis asked her about teaching, and how she spoke about her class of kids she'd taught history to earlier in the year. While she talked, he devoured another whole pizza. Damon couldn't keep any food down tonight with his gut twisting and the crystal an arm's length away.

Did she realize it was the top of the scepter on the image in the urn? Probably not. She thought it an interesting rock. What would she say if he asked for it? Bad idea. If she discovered he wanted it, her stubbornness would make her keep it from him on purpose and forever. Yet, he had to try.

She laughed at something Travis said, and Damon's blood boiled.

"Renee." Seduction looped into that one word and twirled around her, like warm honey. She would have no choice but to obey him. "Give me the necklace."

Instead of complying, she frowned and shook her head. Her eyes blinked rapidly.

Tenacious woman. He shouldn't use his full ability, but he would if he had to, just for a moment. "I need the crystal. Give it to me."

Sweat broke out across her forehead, and he grinned. She resisted him, somehow, but he would win. "You know everything in the dig larger than a pebble comes to me for inspection. That rock belongs to me.'

Her honey-brown eyes hardened, and she lifted her trembling chin. Anyone else, and they'd have flung the crystal at him and then ripped off their clothes and offered their body up as dessert. Not Renee. He could tell her the truth; he was an incubus and the crystal kept him from becoming a demon. The laws of his people demanded he wiped her memory completely of him. Something about Renee never remembering him caused an ache to bloom in his chest. "You want a crystal?" Her fingers brushed the pendant. "Go buy one. This one is mine."

Fuck! Pick another tactic. Even the use of charm and demanding the crystal did not have the influence he'd hoped. No, he should make her think he didn't care about the necklace and was only attentive to her. How to make her believe? He snapped his fingers. Take her to the lake, then offer her swimming lessons. She wouldn't wear the necklace then. While they were swimming, and wherever it led them, Travis could take it from her room. Then give it to him. Wait. That might not work either, because a crystal had to be given by the owner, not stolen.

Damon's thoughts drifted back to his nature. Perhaps if he was careful, cautious...but what if she became addicted to him like all the others? He couldn't erase her memory of him since he liked talking with her. If he left the crystal to her, he'd become a demon and if he resisted the temptation of feasting on violent energy, he'd die. A risk he had to take.

And if she died when he couldn't rein in his feeding...?

Surely it wouldn't take much to have her give him what he asked for. He'd shielded his charm from her. Now he'd let it loose. Let's see how long before the luscious Renee succumbs.

"Your top is striking." Flattery. Got him whatever he desired with the female population. "Brings out the amber in your eyes."

"My eyes are brown," she huffed.

Not faltered by her mood, he continued, "You should wear blouses more often. They suit you." He unleashed a tendril of power. Most women would shift from anger to near swooning from this much. "Thank you."

"The skirt shows off your legs beautifully."

"You think so?" She stuck out her leg. "I worried it would be too short."

"No, it's the right length." He swallowed as heat set his blood pumping.

A faint blush colored her cheeks; her eyes darkening. "Want to tell me more alone?"

Now he was getting somewhere. Why did he think this would be hard? He was nearly a five-thousand-year-old incubus. No woman could resist him. "I don't think I can wait for the ride back to camp." He traced her hand with his finger. "Let's get a hotel room and let Travis meet us in the morning. Late."

"Damon." A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. "You're too predictable." She pulled her hand away and stood. "Pizzas are ready. You guys finished?"

"What?"

But Renee didn't answer him. She sauntered up to the counter and paid for the food while he gawked at her. Was I just played? Impossible. Never happened to me before, ever.

His grin grew and wouldn't stop. So, she played a game? He'd oblige her, but he'd be the winner.

Travis picked off olives from his pizza. "Maybe she thinks you're being sexist?"

"How is paying a compliment being sexist?" He snatched up a slice of Travis's mushroom and sausage pizza. "We're leaving."

"What about the necklace?"

"She's got to take the stone off some time." Somehow, he'd replace a way. "I know legends say it has to be freely given. But why? What if they were wrong? I have to try. If it doesn't work, I'll woo her until she begs me to take it." Travis's eyes widened.

"Why? You don't think I can do it?" He devoured the slice.

"I think Renee is way out of your league." He held his hands up at Damon's glare.

"She will not be the first to refuse me." He had no intention of abandoning the necklace or losing.

***

The scent of pepperoni, sausage, mozzarella, and spicy tomato sauce filled the bus. Damon offered for Renee to ride shotgun, but she refused, blaming a headache. Rather, she sat in the very back of the bus and held onto the boxes. The owner, a nice middle-aged woman, gave Damon the store's pizza warmers they used for deliveries when he explained they were taking the food to their campsite. He didn't even know the owner or ask for assistance, and yet she went out of her way to help. Why wouldn't Renee?

The necklace didn't mean anything to her. He would buy her a dozen necklaces in diamonds, sapphires, rubies, or even one of the most expensive gems, a musgravite, for the damn crystal.

His cell phone rang. Cynthia? He snatched the phone off the dashboard and answered. "Hello?"

"Mr. Cubins?" a heavily accented Turkish man asked.

"Yes?" Was this one of Cynthia's contacts?

"I'm sorry to inform you, sir, but we have an agent at your excavation site."

Agent? He straightened, his hand tightening on the steering wheel. "What's this about?"

"The Turkish government has been notified that your dig could have ramifications against Islam."

"That's absurd. It's an ancient relic...a temple."

"We've left papers for you at camp. You and your members are to cease digging and pack your bags." He cleared his throat. "You must leave Turkey within the day."

"No, we're not going anywhere."

"We'll have armed guards ensuring none of you will dig here again without permission."

"My lawyers will be in contact." He tossed the phone aside. Damn, what had happened to cause this? All his paperwork was approved months ago.

"Everything okay?" Renee placed her hand over the pizzas as they turned a corner.

"Fine." He didn't want to worry her about the soldiers. "Just the government sending some men over to guard the site."

Her shoulders sagged a bit. Probably discerned enough from his conversation to know what was going on. He needed something to lighten the mood and lift the spirits of everyone at camp when they heard the news. "Tomorrow the team can have a break while my lawyers slice through the government's red tape. I will send my attorney's the details as soon as we get back to camp. I think I know exactly what we can all do."

"What do you have planned then?" Renee's foot bobbed, dangling her heel nearly off her foot.

"A tour of Derinkuyu, the underground city."

"Is that wise?" Travis tilted his head, wrinkles creasing his brow.

"Yes. I signed up when we were in Cappadocia a few weeks ago." They bounced on the dirt road. "I think you'll like the tunnels, Renee. They have a rich history."

"I know about the tunnels. I'm a history teacher, remember?" A sharp turn sent her adjusting the pizza warmers on her lap to keep them from tumbling over.

Before he'd hired her, he'd done a background check. She'd never been to Turkey before now, so she'd never seen the underground tunnels of Derinkuyu. She played this game well, but books only held so much knowledge. Hiking through the tunnels, smelling the dank air, and running a hand over the carved surfaces gave her experiences she didn't have. These weren't just mere caves, but carved rooms, hidden chambers, and tunnels experts believe date as far as 3,000 B.C. And possibly the largest underground city in the world.

"Regardless, the team has made great progress on the dig, and it's time for a break. Besides, we can't do anything before this government intrusion is reversed."

"I'll finish this project before I have to leave," she whispered under her breath.

But he heard her. His exceptional hearing was an incubus' survival ability. Hear the sigh of a woman drifting off into a nice dream who could easily be lured into a sensual one. The intake of breath before she roused from sleep and the incubus fled to avoid discovery.

He cleared his throat. "I'll contact my lawyers about at least letting us stay at the campsite while they are negotiating re-approving our dig. And contact a few archeologists in Turkey to see if they need assistance for any of our team who want to go." He had no intention of letting Renee traipse through the countryside without him.

"Good."

"Think we have enough pizza for everyone?" Travis glanced sideways at Renee.

"You're not hungry again, are you?" she teased.

Damon jerked the wheel to maneuver them back onto the dirt path. Travis flirted with her? A five-hundred-year-old gnome!

"Travis, since you've been off camp for a while," Damon spun onto the dirt road leading into camp, "you'll stay and guard the camp while the rest of us visit the tunnels tomorrow."

"No fair." He pouted. "I was running around doing errands for you."

"I agree with Travis," Renee said. "He should be able to come with us."

Damon stopped then turned and faced her. "You'd be willing to leave the dig unattended except for the armed soldiers?"

"Why don't you stay?" She cocked her head as if trying to be coy.

"It's okay, Renee. I'm tired of traveling." Travis rushed to open the back door for her. "Here let me help you with the food."

She beamed at him, and Damon shoved open his door, exited, then slammed it shut. Did the woman like Travis? Sure, he looked like a young goofy man to humans. A gnome. He barely came up to her waist and was old. Not that Damon wasn't old. His race didn't age like the gnomes who were born ancient and remained so until they died.

The group shouted and hooted when they received the pizzas and within a few minutes, they devoured the food. True to the phone call, guards wearing scowls and automatic assault rifles lined the camp, some positioned near the temple's throne room excavation where they'd discovered the mass graveyard.

At the campfire, Renee roasted marshmallows with the others while guards blocked the expedition site. She'd changed into shorts and a T-shirt. The necklace! It wasn't around her neck. Damon slipped past the group and snuck into her tent. Where had she hidden it? Not on her cot or in the pile of clothes still carrying her scent. Any minute she might come back. His hands shook as he dug through her backpack. Finally. Buried in the front pocket, when his fingers grasped the crystal, an electric jolt slammed into him as if he tried to hold onto a lightning bolt. He gritted his teeth. What if he used a cloth? Again, the crystal shocked him enough to char his flesh.

"Do you smell something?" someone at the campfire asked. "Burning... meat?"

With a curse, Damon marched to his tent thankful no one noticed him leaving Renee's and tossed the bus's keys onto the cot. The legends were right-he couldn't take the necklace, even if a tenacious human owned it.

Of all the places for a crystal to be, hanging from the neck of the only woman in the world it would be an uphill battle to seduce. Why did she have to be so stubborn? If Melanie had it, she'd hand it over with the promise of sparkling, expensive jewelry. It wouldn't be easy with Renee. She forced her attraction for him away. Eventually, she would reach the breaking point.

One of the other men here at camp could be a substitute for Renee?

Benjamin? No, he reeked of tobacco and sour milk. Jerry? No. His gut twisted when he thought of Renee with the man. Names filtered through his mind, but he listed excuses for all of them.

The crew milled about; snatches of disjointed conversations rose and fell. Darkness crept forward and would soon lull everyone to sleep. Now to convince Renee to surrender the crystal to him.