by Kiersten Fay
She shook her head. “You’re the one who got us out of there. Don’t you remember? If it had been up to me, I’d have offered myself up to every male in the vicinity. I’m only lucky that it was you in that cell, and not one of those other vampires.”
Flakes of snow began to dot the air.
“I’m not one to believe in luck,” he said.
Her voice turned low and hollow as she stared off into the darkness. “Luck is the only thing that has ever kept me alive.”
He didn’t like the grief in her eyes. “Then if you’re so lucky, I’m sticking with you.”
She glanced up him with such sorrow it broke his heart. “You kind of have to now, don’t you?”
Chapter 26
Near sunrise, Cora, still in Bray’s arms, sensed he was getting worried. They hadn’t come across a town or village, not even a road to direct their way.
They needed shelter.
Every so often, she caught him glancing toward the sky as it slowly faded from pitch to navy. His nervousness steeped into her, spurring her own.
“What if we build a shelter?” she asked.
“With what, leaves and dirt?” came his brusque reply. Yet he glanced around as if that might just be their only option.
A few hours ago, snow had begun a steady decent. Now a two inch layer of white dusted everything in sight, and more was falling by the minute, even though the clouds had somewhat dissipated, revealing sporadic patches of stars.
The ground was frozen, and so were her fingers. Her shivers were unrelenting. Bray held her close. It wasn’t yet light enough for her to see where to step without risking a twisted ankle. Besides, he moved faster than she could on her own.
“Got any witchy options?” he said, only partly joking. “Could use a little of that crazy scary magic about now.”
The sky was moving toward cobalt, warming by the second.
She imagined what it would be like to have full control of her magic. To be able to conjure a fully equipped cottage out of thin air, if that were even possible for an experienced witch, or better yet, transport them to where Mace was.
As they approached the next rise, hope flourished in both of them. Only to be dashed when all they could see were trees scattered over a wide valley, endless hills beyond that.
As if to issue a challenge, the sky cleared further, leaving nothing to filter the coming rays.
Bray didn’t complain, or curse, or let on in any way that he was disappointed. He merely placed one foot in front of the other and descended the bluff.
With the sky creeping into an ever lighter shade of blue, Cora offered, “I can walk now, if you like.”
“I quite like you where you are,” he replied, skidding down a particularly steep slope, not missing a beat as they reached the valley’s base and the ground evened out.
She just wrapped her arms tighter around his neck.
Through the bond, she felt him beam, but there was an underlining nervousness.
“Do you see where the sun is rising?” He pointed toward the brightest part of the sky and then burst into a sprint.
Technically the sun had already risen. She guessed that it was about seven or eight in the morning. The only thing that kept the rays off them was the tall mountain ridge, shielding them for precious moments longer.
“That’s east,” Bray said. “So we’re heading south now, right?”
“Of course,” she replied, suddenly worried that Bray was getting confused. Did he need some of her blood?
“To keep us from going in circles, we’ll want to keep the sun to our right until it’s overhead, then we’ll keep it to our left. Understand?”
Realization hit her. “You’re telling me this because you think I’ll have to know it.” As in, without him?
“Just a precaution. One of us needs to survive.”
“That’s nice of you, but we’re both going to survive. So pull up your superman tights and keep moving.”
He glanced down at her in surprise and then smiled a heartbreakingly glorious smile. Cora almost had the inclination to reward him with a kiss for such a beautiful smile. It was the first genuine one she’d received from him. And it made him dangerously sexy.
He gave a hearty laugh that rumbled through his chest as he raced faster over the snow-covered terrain.
By the time the sun peeked over the ridge, they were most of the way across the valley and had begun heading up a steep incline. Unfortunately, the sun was upon them.
In all her time underground, she had craved the sun so fiercely, drawing on memories of its caressing heat. Now? She could almost feel the moment the UV rays started to affect Bray, and she resented the dawn.
After about an hour, Bray’s breathing changed tempo, becoming harsher for the first time since she had awaken in his arms.
“Are you okay,” she asked. He wasn’t physically showing the effects, but she could tell the sun was sapping his energy fast.
“I’m good,” he replied, not sounding very convincing. Sweat beaded his forehead, and he gasped in every other breath. After another half hour or so, their traveling slowed, but he pushed on, making headway over the rough terrain with her in his grip.
But when he began to trip and stumble, he was forced to set her down before they continued.
She didn’t complain. After her subterranean confinement, racing through the mountains on her own two feet was exhilarating. Her lungs devoured the fresh, cool air. Her legs burned from use, but it felt good. She felt alive again…free.
However, before long, she grew worried that they wouldn’t find a safe place for Bray. A couple of times, she found herself having to help him as they hiked over a particularly steep incline, encouraging him, as he had done for her so often.
“Hey,” she said in a faux-chipper tone. “I bet your brother is going to be glad to see you.”
Bray laughed, the sound labored. “I expect he would be. I still owe him fifty bucks.” He stumbled and then leaned on a dusty boulder to catch his breath. For the first time, she sensed true hopelessness from him.
“What can I do?” she asked, growing terrified for their situation. She didn’t like this shift in him. It was happening too fast. It seemed she could lose him in a matter of minutes.
“It’s my lack of a steady diet,” he announced. “Normally, I wouldn’t weaken so soon in the sun.” His muscles spasmed and, as if he couldn’t prevent it, he went to one knee.
Without thinking, she offered her wrist to him. “Will this buy you some time?”
He looked at her as if she’d offered her most precious treasure. Then he shook his head. “It might buy me an hour, but you’d risk becoming anemic—I took more than I should have from you before. You’re going to need all of your strength if you’re going to survive. Do you remember what I said about the sun…?”
He expected her to go on without him?
Screw that!
She bent to locate a sharp rock and slanted it hard along her wrist, breaking the skin in several places. Then she shoved her wound to Bray’s mouth.
Temptation glazed his eyes, and he became the equivalent of a starved wolf to a tender hide.
The second his fangs met flesh, delicious shockwaves of pleasure crashed through her.
She released a deep moan and drew him closer, realizing too late how badly she was still in need. Lust flared like jet oil spritzed atop burning embers.
The desperate, throaty sound she made claimed Bray’s, attention and their eyes locked. For a split second, she thought they were on the same page.
But then he released her and reared back.
“Take more,” she urged, panting and shivering against the cold air that seemed to close in on her with Bray’s retreat. “That can’t have been enough.”
With everything in her, she fought the urge to react as shamelessly as she had in Bray’s cell. This time, Bray wouldn’t be able to knock her out and carry her to safety.
“Never enough,” he rumbled darkly. His
expression was intense, carnal.
Her heart skittered wildly as she caught on to his mood.
He wasn’t on the same page as her; he was chapters ahead—
He stalked forward, guiding her subtly against that same bolder he had been leaning on moments ago. The hardness of his body pressed against hers.
Next to her ear, he said in a steel-roughened tone, “I was hoping the first time I heard such a sound from you without the influence of drugs would be when another part of my anatomy was seated deep within you.”
She gulped, unable to keep the image from her mind.
“Guess I’ll just have to make do.” His lips moved from her ear to caress along the line of her jaw, marking a trail toward where her screaming pulse beckoned. The tip of his fang gently grazed her.
She’d somehow forgotten how quickly vampires could turn savage…primal.
She should be frightened, but she wasn’t.
No. Her body thrummed with something else entirely.
It wasn’t a surprise when his fangs sank into her neck, but the desperate, needy moan that left her was. This should feel like a betrayal to Mace, but it only felt…right.
She was providing sustenance for her vampire.
Her breath hitched at the errant, possessive thought.
His warm hand reached to the small of her back and breached the hem of her shirt seeking skin on skin contact. The rush of heat to her core made her shiver with burgeoning desire.
Her pleasure peaked when he took a long pull of her vein, drawing another thrilling sound from her.
Then, reluctantly, he released her, growling, “Never enough.”
They were both breathing deeply.
He held her a moment longer, staring intently into her eyes. She sensed he was feeling the same possessiveness as she was. Yet she didn’t understand it at all. Was this the bond? Making her want what she shouldn’t?
“Let’s keep moving,” he said, interrupting the unnerving, yet fiercely intimate moment.
She nodded, not trusting her voice.
His fingers threaded through hers, and they headed up the hill; him seemingly invigorated, looking too pleased with himself. Her? Dazed, steps clumsy, confusion simmering, heart thumping erratically and twisting from one convoluted feeling to another.
The world slanted with a wave of dizziness.
As Bray had predicted, she was weaker from having given him her blood, but she wasn’t about to let him know that—it would only make him difficult if he needed to feed again.
As they made it to another rise, the support of Bray’s hand assisted her when she stumbled. She played it off as the result of loose soil, which technically wasn’t a lie.
Unfortunately, after hiking for only a short time, his newfound energy started to wane. And again, eventually, it was her tugging him along.
Just when she was about to offer her vein again, his gaze turned to focus on something across the distance. “Look there.”
She followed his direction. “I-I don’t see anything.”
“That patch of trees. There’s a structure.”
If there was something there, it could be too far away for her to make out, but a part of her worried that he was becoming delusional, like a man in the desert with the mirage of an oasis forever out of reach.
“Trust me. It’s there.” He wiped a sheen of sweat off his forehead and tottered, nearly falling forward before he caught his footing.
It wasn’t until they’d painstakingly crossed another valley that she caught sight of their destination, still so far away: a small shack, buried among a patch of trees halfway up the next steep ridge.
Cora could practically see the UV light attacking Bray from the inside out. His expression was strained and sweat dotted his forehead. His skin had paled. The creases around his eyes deepened as if with pain. He sucked in a harsh breath like his lungs were full of smoke and he couldn’t catch enough air.
His toe caught a jutting rock and he dropped to his hands and knees. “You can make it, Cora. Remember about the sun. Keep it to your—”
She urgently cut him off. “It’s just a little farther.”
His eyes tilted toward the sky, somewhat lost, and at the same time resolute. His head dropped back down. “I’m done.”
“It’s right there!” She pointed both her hands, palms up, in the direction of the shack. “Just a little farther! You can make it.”
He shook his head, not looking up.
Truly panicked, she screamed, “If you were going to die, you would have done it back in that morbid dungeon! Are you going to give up now that you’re finally free? After all that you’ve been through? Are you going to let the doctor win in the end?”
His jaw clenched. “I’m sorry.”
“Well, I won’t let you.” She rushed forward and began tugging on his thick bicep. He was like a tree rooted in place. “Get up, damn you!” She pulled so hard that her feet began to slip on the gravel. “You get up right this second!” She gave a final tiring heave and then stumbled back, out of breath.
“I’m sorry, angel,” he muttered again. Then, as though his muscles just gave out, his body crumbled in a heap.
Her lip quivered. “No, Bray. Please.” She went to her knees next to him. He gazed up at her with, of all things, affection.
“Fate is a funny thing,” he said.
“What?” she wiped a tear from her cheek.
“I finally find you…” he gave a bitter laugh, and paused for a moment to stare at her. As if he was trying to take the memory of her with him to his grave. “I’m glad to have had my last moments with you…Makes it better.”
She shook her head, tears now in freefall. It can’t end like this.
Something inside her said it didn’t have to, something that had lain dormant for so long it didn’t even feel like a part of her. A foreign object taking up residence within her body—in her soul—and in the light of desperation, it convulsed to life.
She stood and dried her eyes with the back of her hand. “Bray, get up.” Her voice took with a deep resonating vibration. “Get. Up.”
He glanced at her with vacant confusion.
She sensed a power in her rooting. Growing. Taking form. A heavy gust of wind danced in her hair, blowing it wildly around her face. It was strangely warm and smelled of spring. She breathed of it deeply, inviting in.
An unfamiliar, yet oddly natural, current sparked through her. She instinctively understood that this was but a small taste of her magic. That there was a well within her and somehow she was cranking up a bucket.
“Get. Up,” she repeated to Bray, allowing the current to seep into her words.
Taking in a large gulp of air, he propped himself up on one unsteady forearm, halting for another breath. Then with his opposite hand planted flat on the ground, he leveraged his torso higher off the ground. He groaned with the effort, shimmying his elbow along the ground for added height till his upper half made it to a forty five degree angle. His arms shook as though they were holding up a steel beam and would fail any second.
“Cora?” His pain was evident.
“Get! Up!” The entire forest seemed to quiver. A flock of birds evacuated a nearby tree.
Determination replaced the agony on his face.
His left leg came around for support and stability while he battled gravity. Strenuously, he pulled his right leg up so that one boot was firmly on the ground, while his opposite knee took all his weight.
Cora repeated her demand once last time.
His lungs worked overtime. His neck strained.
Finally, with his jaw set and a burst of power, he shoved off the ground and rose to his full height.
“Now,” she commanded. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 27
Bray slumped on the floor against the wall of the one room shack, feeling like death warmed over.
As he gathered his strength, Cora busied herself by plugging wood-rotted holes that allowed in shafts of light with strip
s of fabric she’d ripped from an old pillowcase that had been tucked under the fetid covers of a small bed in the corner. Before that, she’d taken one of the least tattered blankets she could find and arranged it around the room’s only window as a makeshift curtain.
The little shack appeared to be long abandoned. Aside from their foisted disturbance that set free particles into the air, there was a thin layer of dust varnishing every surface. An ancient-looking wood stove sat against one wall with dried wood shavings scattered underneath. It had been used at one point, that was clear, but it too held the air of neglect.
Against his worried objections, Cora balanced on a spindly chair as she shoved a piece of material into a particularly large gape in the ceiling. If she slipped and broke her neck, he was too damn weak to catch her. He mentally cursed, abhorring his inability to complete these tasks himself.
But she was doing a fine job.
Without her, he would have perished. She was quite a woman. Strong. Determined. Too fucking beautiful for her own good.
God strike him dead if he wasn’t falling for her.
He tried to remind himself she wasn’t interested in a relationship. Still he was in awe of her. She’d stayed with him, pushed him, gave him something to fight for, and was more powerful than she gave herself credit.
How ever was he going to keep his distance when all he wanted was to hold her close?
“I think that’s the last one,” she announced, brushing her hands off and glancing around. “Let’s get you on the bed.”
He waved her away. “I’m fine where I am. Check if that stove works. You must be freezing.”
As if reminded, she wrapped her arms around her torso and rubbed her arms, glancing at the stove. “I’ve never used a cast iron stove before. I suppose I’ll need to gather some wood from outside.”
He would almost rather gouge his own eyes out than watch her step outside their shelter without him. He didn’t want to lose track of her, even for a moment. But he was in no condition to complete the chore himself.
Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to travel far. They’d spotted a store of precut wood outside against the southern wall of the shack, which, by the windblown debris and broken cobwebs, looked to have been there through a couple winters at least. Luckily, the logs had not appeared sodden, which meant they should be quick to catch fire. They just needed a flame.