Two days, she thought. Whats the harm?
So she didnt back down or away, but instead held her ground as he moved in hard and fast. And kissed the hell out of her.
CHAPTER FIVE
SOFT WARMTH AGAINST his lips. Silky heat on his tongue. Spice and flowers. Curves. The sensations rocketed through Dayn. Gone was any hint of reserve or control, leaving him only able to act and react, not think or plan.
Growling low in his throat, he crowded her back against the tree until their bodies were aligned, pressed together, touching from knee to chest. He kept his hands on her face, willing them to stay there with the last threads of his control, knowing that if he touched herreally touched her, the way he was suddenly dying to dothat he would be truly lost. Although in that moment, he couldnt remember why that was a bad thing.
It had been two decades since he had held a woman out of anything other than necessity, since he felt a burn that went beyond the physical to something more. But now, as their tongues touched and slid, as his body went tight, tense and hard, he wasnt just kissing a woman. He was kissing a dream he hadnt been aware of having.
She thought herself a coward, yet had a core of strength. She had lost someone close to her and blamed herself for it. And she didntcouldntunderstand how much that hit home for him. He didnt know if the grief and guilt in the kiss was hers or his, but those emotions eased as the heat rose between them. And for the first time in a long, long while, he didnt feel alone.
Warm skin beneath his palms. Urgent fingers at his waist, his back, his shoulders, sliding into his hair. Heart pounding. Body tightening. A trickle of magic and moonlight, and
Abyss. He broke the kiss, pressed his forehead to hers. We cant do this right now. Priorities.
She was breathing just as heavily as he, and her fingers dug into his wrists, but she nodded. Yeah. And neither of them mentioned the right now or the way it left open the option of later.
He stepped away, not letting himself reach for her again. Well stop at Candidas first. Shes got some things Ill want to bring. Like the poison she had designed for the sorcerer, and maybe a trick or two that could help him keep Reda safe. Because while she couldnt be his top priority, she had very definitely become his responsibility.
The thought bumped up against the promises he had made to his fathers spirit, but didnt unsettle them. He was headed where he needed to be going, with the woman who was to guide him. And when he went to Elden, hed be going alone.
They set off along the track.
The cold, moonlit night had gone quiet, suggesting that the pack had moved on. Reda kept up easily, though she had to take three strides for every two of his. And although he told himself to think about what he needed from Candida, and the route they should take to reach Meriden Arch safely, without running afoul of the packs whose territory they would be traveling through, his thoughts kept circling back to the woman at his side.
As a younger man in Elden, he had gravitated toward the women of the queens Special Guard and assertive, weapon-savvy guardsmens daughters, as Twilla had been. And in the wolfyn realm he had spent most of his time with Candida or Keelyboth alpha bitches, strong leaders. Not the kind of women who would weep or admit their fears. Reda, on the other hand, wore her emotions out in the open, without subterfuge. Yet, strangely, he hadnt wanted to move away when she cried, hadnt been impatient with her tears. Maybe part of that was because he understood what it felt like to be uprooted and lost, and, more, to have failed a loved one. But another part of it was less easily definedhe had wanted to hold her, comfort her, protect her, kiss her. And now that he knew her taste and the sexy sound she made at the back of her throat when they kissed, he wanted to do all that and more.
At the thought, his skin heated and his gums itched where his secondaries burned to be set free.
The response was even more discomfiting this time around, because his blood drinkers power was threatening to lock on to her, binding him more deeply than he could afford. Or was it just that drinking and sexual arousal had become inextricably linked in his mind? Maybe it was as simple as that.
He willed his secondaries far into hiding and quelled the magic. And he resolved to be on his guard.
AFTER NEARLY AN HOURS hike, they turned up the last narrow track leading to Candidas cave, where she lived the lone existence she preferred, close enough to the pack to mediate squabbles and provide the healing and auguring that were her specialties, yet far enough away to discourage drop-in visits.
Hope shes not out running, he said as they headed up the last ridge, which crested right before where the high hilltop flattened out in front of Candidas cave. She doesnt go out with the pack every moon time, but will take a run now and then. Aware of Redas nerveswhich were understandable given that shed been raised on the Rutakoppchen version of wolfyn lorehe continued, Shes an inventor, one of the best at figuring out how to take human tech and make it run off magical power cells they use for energy here. In fact
He broke off, blood icing as he scented smoke, thick with the rank odors of searing hair and burning flesh. Worse was the prickle of stale, foul magic.
No! he shouted. Candida!
He bolted over the last rise with Reda at his heels.
The entrance to the cave was a churned-up mess, with wisps of dark smoke curling around the top edge of the unlit opening. His heart hammered a sick, awful beat as he ducked inside and hit the lights, bringing up the glows strung throughout the cave and illuminating a scene of utter chaos.
And murder. Because amid the strewn wreckage of the wisewolfyns supplies and household goods lay a huge mound of gray-buff fur. Candida, he rasped, crossing to her and going to his knees. Gods. What did she do to you?
The wisewolfyns eyes were a pale, milky white, her throat torn open, her body badly burned, with patches of fur gone and the angry red flesh pitted with deeply charred stripes. A length of sword-stock metal protruded from the dying fire, suggesting the means for that torture. And torture it had been. The witch, Moragh, had hurt her, burned her, no doubt mind-raped herand most likely all while he and Reda were hiding together in the small cave, waiting for the wolfyn to move on from the standing stones.
Again, hed been in the wrong place at the wrong time. If he had realized the ettin hadnt stumbled through the vortex accidentally, if hed been paying attention to the magic fluxes in the air
Im sorry. Reda gripped his shoulder.
Resentment welled up, though he knew it was misplaced. It wasnt her fault they had gotten off to a rocky start; it wasnt anyones fault. But it all sucked nonetheless.
She was strong, he grated. She resisted the mindspeak, tried to hold on to her secrets. Thus, the hot iron. The magic got to her in the end, though.
How can you be sure?
Her eyes. He gestured stiffly. The white is a sign that shes been emptied out by mindspeak.
Reda sucked in a quiet breath, but didnt move her hand from his shoulder. Her grip was firm and strong; it said, Ive got your back and Im sorry. And maybe even Im here for you, which was something he was very unused to.
After a moment, he continued, The wolfyn normally revert to human form when they die. This saysshit, it says to me that Moragh stripped her all the way down to feral before she died. Which would have been a horrible fall for the proud, highly civilized wolfyn. She would have hated dying in wolf form, wouldve hated him seeing her like this. And she would have despised knowing that the witch had broken her.
Should we do something for her?
It took him a couple of heartbeats to figure out what she was asking, but far less than that to see that it was impossible. No. We need to get moving. He pulled himself to his feet, hating the necessity. At the question in her eyes, he added, Moragh sent her servant to tell the pack that Im a blood drinker. Odds are, theyre already on the hunt. He paused. Im sorry.
Why? You didnt do this.
I didnt stop it, either. He turned for the back of the cave. Grab what you think you can use.
Does she have any archery equipment?
He stopped and turned back with a raised eyebrow.
I was a junior archery champ three years running. The family rule was that each kid had to get good at a weapon. I think my father wanted to She shook her head. Anyway, I can shoot. And Im going to need a weapon.
In that trunk over there, he said, gesturing. Grab whatever crossbow bolts you can find, too, and another waterskin.
Got it.
While she rummaged, he took a deep breath and faced the back wall of the cave. Then, tapping into the energy flow that enabled the powers of the wolfyn, he said softly, Let that which is hidden be revealed.
The rock face shimmered and then disappeared, revealing stacked rows of brightly painted, intricately carved drawers.
Behind him, Reda gasped and something clattered.
Its okay, he said. Its just low-level cloaking magic. Its not a big deal.
It is to someone like me.
Which just reinforced the fact that they came from two completely different worlds that intersected here, in this strange halfway realm. The knowledge tugged at him, but he ignored the tug and focused on the racked drawers trying to figure out which of Candidas tricks he could use to keep himself and Reda alive long enough to get to Meriden Arch, and from there, gods willing, home. And, in his case, to war.
At the thought, he reached first for the small red-capped leather tube that contained a smaller glass flask. An inch of amber syrup clung to the bottom, barely moving when he shook the carrying case.
Whats that?
Poison, he said without looking at her. Im going to use it to kill the Blood Sorcerer.
REDA DIDNT LET HERSELF dwell on the way the things she found packed away were familiar yet not, knock-offs that were ever so slightly wrong in their details. She didnt let herself dwell on how seeing Dayn do magic had shaken her to her core and, more, how it had aroused her, as if her libido was reacting to a surge of power she hadnt felt anywhere else. But while she was so busy not thinking about all those things as she loaded her rucksack with additional provisions and strapped a dozen arrows on the outside, she had far too much leeway to think about the clash between the pretty bedding and clothes in the trunks that lined the walland the wolf carcass that lay nearby.