Evangeline ached to touch him, but she didn’t have any time to spare. Programming the portal for its maximum range—fifteen miles—she pulled a piece of jerky from her pack and shoved the tracker through the sinewy fibers. If her plan worked, an animal would find the tasty treat—and the tracker—and make her father think she’d kept going.
She tossed both the jerky and the portal generator through the portal and fought a moment of panic when the blue oval disappeared.
Gently, she caressed Nic’s cheek. “We need to move.”
He moaned under her touch, and his eyes fluttered open. “I am dying. Solo pochi minuti. Will you…stay with me? I…do not…wish to die alone.”
“You’re not going to die. Not if we move.” Evangeline tipped the canteen to his lips. “Drink a little.”
He curled his fingers around Evangeline’s wrist. “I have lost…too much blood. The serum will kill me. Hold…my hand. I feel…the darkness…coming for me.” His voice cracked, fear churning in his amethyst eyes as he fought to keep them open.
“Well, it can’t have you. I didn’t tie up and drug my best friend, crawl through air ducts for two hours, and stab my father for you to die on me now. Get up. We’re heading for the river.”
Nic grunted what might have been agreement and didn’t struggle when Evangeline grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet. He leaned heavily on her as they took one step, then another, and another, through the forest litter.
“Not…long…left,” he whispered. “Cannot…see.”
“Fight. We’re almost there. Step over a branch. Good. Now there’s a dip and some loose rocks.” Evangeline tried not to stare at his nakedness as she helped him stumble through the trees. The harsh night air chilled her skin, and Nic had no protection from the elements.
His head lolled onto her shoulder, though he obeyed her directions. The scent of him—tobacco and spice and blood—swirled around her. Soon, the blessed sound of gurgling water grew louder. Though Evangeline hated stopping at the bottom of a ravine, the surrounding trees hid them well.
“Easy now. I’m going to help you down.”
He collapsed, the light from the crescent moon illuminating his sharp nose and full lips. As she brushed her fingers over the thick mane of his hair, he turned towards her touch, but didn’t speak. “Nic, open your eyes.”
“Per favore, rimani ancora un po’.” His weak words, whispered to her mind, frightened her, though she had no idea what they meant.
“If you die on me, I’m going to be very pissed off,” she said sharply.
“Ci provo. Freddo.”
Softening her voice, she cupped his cheeks. “I don’t understand Italian.”
“Cold.”
Of course. He was naked, for fuck’s sake. With a quick shake of her head, she pulled her camping blanket from her pack. Light and thin, it was designed for maximum warmth with minimum weight. Tucking the material around his body, she tried not to stare at his cock lying against his upper thigh or the sculpted muscles of his abs.
He shivered, so she stretched out next to him and shared her warmth. “I need to go retrieve my bow and quiver and make sure we weren’t followed,” she said with her lips against his ear. “I won’t be far.”
A furrow—worry or pain, she couldn’t tell—deepened between his eyes, and she smoothed it away with her thumb. A small current of electricity arced between them. “Rest.”
“Do not leave,” he begged her silently. A single tear escaped down his cheek.
“I have to. I need to know if we’re safe.”
“I will die.”
His desperate plea shook her resolve, and she pressed her mouth to his. The blood still oozing from her split lip mingled with the taste of him, and he roused slightly, his tongue probing hers, searching, desperate.
“Help me.” Nic’s fangs descended, and he fumbled for her waist. “Evangeline, I…”
Before she could change her mind, she laved her tongue against his fangs, blood filling her mouth. The pain faded almost immediately, and Nic moaned softly, trying to deepen the kiss.
“Enough,” she managed as she pulled away. At least for now. But later… Fuck, she hoped she hadn’t just risked her life—and her mind—with that one, single act. “I won’t be long.”
For several breaths, she stood over him, watching a dying man fight for life. Pain tightened lines at the corners of his mouth, and he shuddered under the blanket.
What had she been thinking? Kissing him? Giving him her blood? But…she’d felt life return to his body—and she’d wanted to kiss him. He hadn’t attacked her, hadn’t tried to take more than she was willing to give.
With a shake of her head, she crept slowly up the hill, back the way they’d come. Finding a fallen branch covered in leaves, she brushed their tracks away until she could see the clearing where they’d emerged.
The squawk of a radio sent her to her knees.
“No sign?” Henry asked.
“There’s some blood here, but no trail. What did Don say?” Jake scanned the clearing, but from her prone position behind a tree, Evangeline didn’t think he could see her.
“The portal generator landed fifteen miles from your position. Her tracker’s on the move from there. By tomorrow afternoon, I’ll have enough of the serum synthesized to coat all of the silver bullets. I don’t think we should try to find the vamp without it. We won’t lose her. Not with the tracker. Get back here so we can go over a map of the search area.”
“The vamp’s half dead,” Jake said. ‘If we follow them now, we might be able to catch them.”
“A few sips of her blood and he’ll be back to full strength.” Her father’s harsh voice made Evangeline cringe.
“Are you sure he’ll bite her? She saved his life.”
“Doesn’t matter. That thing doesn’t have a conscience. He’s probably got her under his spell. At least once we find them, we’ll know for sure if she’s immune and stupid or if he’s controlling her. Get back here.”
Stupid? Gee, thanks, Henry.
The portal’s light winked out, and Evangeline leapt up and retrieved her bow and arrows from a tree only ten feet from where Jake had been standing. Taking a circuitous route back to Nic, she kept watch for a rabbit or a squirrel. He needed more food, and with his injuries, there was no way they could make it to the cabin tonight.
Why didn’t I ask him to try to talk to me? At least then I’d know he was still alive. The vampire did something delicious to her insides, and even half dead, desperate, he’d been a damn good kisser.
“Get a grip,” she muttered. “Just because he’s hot and has that sexy accent doesn’t mean anything’s going to happen. If he lives until morning, it’ll be a miracle.”
She dropped to one knee when she heard rustling in the underbrush. Nocking an arrow, she waited. The huckleberry branches shook, and a pair of eyes low to the ground reflected in the moonlight. Another rustle, and the rabbit hopped forward. The arrow landed with a thwump and pierced the rabbit’s skull.
“Sorry, little fella,” she whispered as she picked the rabbit up by his ears. “But I don’t have enough food with me for two.”
Moving as quickly as she dared, slipping and sliding halfway down the ravine on her ass, she landed with a gentle thud a few feet away from Nic. He flinched, but didn’t make a sound, and she blew out a relieved breath that he still lived. “Nic?”
Only a weak moan answered her, and Evangeline brushed her knuckles along his cheek. “Rest. We’re safe here for a while.”
Half an hour later, a makeshift spit held the gutted rabbit over a small fire. Evangeline knelt next to Nic, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Can you hear me?”
With some effort, he opened his eyes. “I did not…think I would…live.”
“You’re stubborn. So am I. How do you feel?”
“The serum has not left me, but death no longer hovers so close.” With some effort, he turned his head. “No one will see the smoke from the fire?”
“I don’t think so. Henry called off the search for the night. As long as we leave at first light, we should be able to stay ahead of them. Are you…hungry?”
Nic shifted uncomfortably under the blanket. “Si. I will not heal…without food…”
The unspoken end to his sentence: “and blood” hung in the air between them. Would he ask? And if he did, could she…would she agree? With him as weak as he was, she had the upper hand. He couldn’t chase her, and Evangeline doubted he could overpower her. But if she gave him her blood, all that would change.
“Is rabbit okay?”
“Compared to the tasteless manufactured protein your father forced upon me, rabbit is a delicacy.”
Relief steadied her as she returned to the fire. Nic’s voice had strengthened, and his wit was starting to return. With her back to the vampire, Evangeline pulled the rabbit’s legs off the spit and arranged them on a small camping plate. Easing her pocketknife open, she pricked her finger, drizzling a few drops of blood over half of the meat. Once the bleeding stopped, she returned to Nic’s side.
He tried to pull his hand from under the blanket but seemed to lack the strength. “Relax,” Evangeline said. “Save your energy.”
She held a piece of the meat to his lips, watching for any hint of his fangs. An odd expression crossed his face, and he tried again to reach for her hand.
“Evangeline, are you injured?”
A blush heated her cheeks. “No. I added a couple drops of my blood to the meat. I don’t want you to die overnight. I can’t give you more. Henry used me to incubate the serum. For all I know, more of my blood could actually kill you.”
“Your blood is no danger to me. Even this small amount…I feel stronger. But why would you risk this?”
She met his intense stare. “You did it for me.” Worrying her lip between her teeth, she wondered if he’d try to take more.
“I will never harm you, cara.” Nic grimaced as he rested his hand on her knee. “You saved my life.”
She believed him, though she had no idea why. Silence stretched between them, broken only by the crackle of the fire and the subtle sounds of the forest bedding down for the night. After several minutes, Nic linked their fingers. “I…did not think you would come back for me. Longo…implied he would harm you. Lock you in the cage I lived in for so many years.”
“He tried.” Evangeline shuddered and hugged her knees to her chest.
“Evangeline.” Nic’s voice took on a hard edge. “What did he do to you?”
She told him everything. Every terrifying moment, down to cutting the tracker out of her body in the tiny bathroom. Nic cursed her father viciously, but Evangeline tried to calm him. “Whatever he did to me, all the pain, all the injections, all the nights I spent throwing up, unable to think…they made me strong enough to fight Cassie. To half-carry you through the forest. Henry said he’d made me immune to your…blood control. Maybe he did. But at least he made me strong.”
“And sad.” Nic smoothed the worry lines around her lips with his thumb. “When I told you days ago that I did not regret the actions that led to my capture…I was wrong. I wish…” A spasm of pain wracked his body, and he hissed out a breath. “I wish I had done as you asked. Taken you somewhere safe. Somewhere your father could not have found you.”
Evangeline stared down at her hands. “We’re free now,” she said quietly. “I’m going to catch a couple hours of sleep. There’s an abandoned cabin about ten miles away. It’s not on any maps. You should be safe there for a couple of days. When the sun comes up, we’ll head out.”
Once she’d unrolled a second blanket, she glanced back to find Nic staring at her. “Are you cold? I could help you move closer to the fire.”
His eyes widened, and fear edged his words. “Fire…is one of the easiest ways to kill a vampire. If I were not so cold, I would ask you to help me move farther away.”
Something stirred deep inside at his unease. She returned to his side with her blanket and draped the light material over him. Stretching out on the hard ground next to him, she met his gaze. “If you hear anything that sounds like it doesn’t belong in the forest, wake me. And…don’t bite me in my sleep.”
“I will never bite you, Evangeline. I swear.”
She found nothing but honesty in his amethyst eyes. “I believe you.” Turning over, she pressed her back to his side, sharing her warmth. She hoped she wouldn’t regret this.
In the flickering firelight, Nic watched Evangeline sleep. Her very scent strengthened him. But her blood…merda. The few drops she’d freely given him as they’d kissed saved his life. The rabbit? Sweeter than fine wine. This beautiful human had saved him—a monster—and now she slept against him.
What a difference twenty-four hours could make. When she’d left his cell the previous night, he’d believed he’d never breathe free air again. Now, outside under the stars, he took his first steady breath in eighteen years.
Her thick, brown locks tumbled away from her neck when she shifted. The steady pulse of her heartbeat under her skin mesmerized him. Though he’d not fed from a human in a hundred years, he needed blood. Any other human sleeping next to him would have already “donated” a bit of blood to help him heal. Not much. A few sips only. Just enough to seal his wounds.
His chest burned where the silver spikes had sliced through his skin. He needed to feed. Hunger twisted his stomach into a painful knot. How long could he go without blood? Healthy and strong, a week would only leave him irritable and exhausted. Injured, hovering so close to death, he feared he only had a day or two at most.
Food could sustain him for perhaps another day longer, but after that, he’d die without blood. Were they still in Washington? The forest looked much the same as it had the night he’d first met Evangeline.
Carlo would bring him blood. Money. Clothing. But what of Evangeline? Where would she go? And how could he walk away and never see her again?
13
Evangeline jerked awake from a nightmare, shaking. The memory of the wolf’s jaws closing around her arm had her stifling a whimper, and she rubbed away the phantom pain in her wrist and rolled over.
Nic slept peacefully. Moonset left the forest dark and still. The glowing embers of the fire danced over his face. She hardly recognized him as the strong, handsome creature who’d rescued her as a child. Not even the sad and lonely man she’d met a few days ago. Even in sleep, he hovered on the knife’s edge of death.
Shit. He needs more blood. And heaven help me, I’m going to give it to him.
She couldn’t let him feed off her here, though. Not in the middle of the forest. She could pass out, fall under his control…hell, even die. If she waited until they got to the cabin, she had a shotgun…a better knife. Though a vampire at full strength…would those weapons even work?
Touching his shoulder, she bent her head close to his. “Nic, wake up.”
He groaned, forced his eyes open, and tried to focus on her. “Are we in danger?”
“Not yet. But we have to move. The sun will be up soon, and I want to be well away from here by then. Snow’s coming, and we have a pretty long hike ahead of us. Can you walk?”
Nic struggled to sit up, and the blanket bunched around his hips. “I believe so. If you help me.”
“Shit.” She brushed her fingers over the blood-soaked gauze. “Are you still bleeding?”
“Wounds from silver heal very slowly.” Pain tightened his handsome features as he shifted away from her, but Evangeline wrapped her hand around his arm.
“Don’t move. I’m going to change your bandages.” If she kept looking at him like a patient, maybe she could ignore the sculpted muscles and what he hid underneath the blanket.
He flinched when she flicked open her pocket knife. “Shh. I won’t hurt you.”
Fear darkened his eyes in the pre-dawn gray light as Evangeline held up her hands. “I…know, cara. Vampires…we have perfect memories. That sound—your father had a knife like that wit
h a silver blade.”
Evangeline set the knife down and backed away. “Take it. Cut the bandages off.”
Nic’s hand shook as he picked up the blade. “Evangeline, I…” After two attempts, his shoulders slumped. “Help me.”
The uncertainty in his voice broke her heart. She couldn’t imagine what he’d been through. Scars covered his chest. All her father’s work. Approaching slowly, holding his gaze, she eased the knife from his hand. “I was so scared that night you found me in the forest,” she said as she sliced through the blood-soaked bandages. “I didn’t know why Henry had brought me to the surface, but he told me to stay close. So when I ran so far away, I knew I was in trouble.”
The wounds across his chest trickled fresh blood, and Evangeline swallowed hard over the lump in her throat. “You were so strong. So fast. I knew you would protect me.” Swiping an antiseptic wipe over the deep gashes, she cringed as he hissed out a breath.
Nic covered her hand with his. The warmth from his fingers seeped into her skin, and she stilled. “And now, you protect me.”
After a long moment, Evangeline forced herself to look away. Binding his chest tightly with the last of the gauze she’d stolen, she worried he wouldn’t make it to the cabin without more blood. With the knife in one hand, she stared at her other palm.
“I will not feed from you.” Nic drew his legs up, then struggled to his feet. But he lost hold of the blanket as he straightened. Evangeline scrambled up as a blush heated her cheeks. Blood streaked his naked body, but even so, he was magnificent. All sculpted muscles and tight lines.
With a grunt, he reached for the blanket. “My apologies. I did not mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“Uncomfortable…isn’t the word,” she stammered.
He turned and limped behind a tree. His well-muscled back tapered to a narrow waist and tight ass. Scars crisscrossed his shoulders, but the rest of his back remained unmarked.
Once she’d taken care of her own needs, she worked to hide the evidence of their makeshift camp. When she finally turned around, she found him leaning against a nearby tree, the blanket wrapped tightly around his body as he shivered.
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