“All right...”
Khaza leaned over and looked too. “You’ve put caterpillar silk onto an Aire tree leaf,” he said slowly.
“Yes,” Lirana said, trying to sound confident, but all too aware that her voice was wavering and her hands were shaking. “I thought...for a mask.”
She held the leaf up over her face again. Both men stared. Then Khaza began to smile.
“The silk draws out poison,” Lirana said quickly, just in case he was laughing at her. “And the leaves are used in healing medicine as well.”
“It’s brilliant,” Khaza said.
Danny reached out and scooped the silk from her hand. “God,” he muttered. “This stuff is thick.” He shook his hand, but the silk didn’t budge.
“It won’t come off,” Khaza said with a grin. “You’ll have to bathe to get rid of it.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Danny said sarcastically.
The men in attendance were whispering and muttering amongst themselves. It sounded a lot more interested and hopeful than it had before though.
“Do you all feel confident in trying this?” Khaza asked.
Most of them nodded.
“So, who wants to go and gather all this stuff up?” Danny asked. “The sooner we get supplies, the sooner we can win this little war.”
A roar of approval went up from the men. Khaza began organizing runners to let the rest of the army know what was going on and to gather helpers who could bring back supplies. Danny started down the steps, but turned back to Lirana before he’d gotten too far away.
“Thanks,” he said in a low voice. “Pretty sure that you just saved my life.”
She looked down at her feet. He put one finger under her chin and tilted her face up.
“I mean it, Lirana. Thank you.”
Her name, in his strange accent, was exotic and it made her shiver. “You’re welcome.” Afani was wrong; she cared more than anyone could ever understand about how Danny looked at her.
******
Lirana let the knife go and it sailed effortlessly through the air, striking the target exactly where she’d wanted it to. She smiled. It had taken some time and cost her a lot of sleepless nights, but she was good at this. The heart shape of throwing knives embedded in the target was proof.
She was walking over to pull them free when she heard something on the other side of the compound. She crouched down and waited, listening intently. The soldiers had spent most of the day in the forest, gathering supplies. None of them should have been out here. Especially not at night. No one trained in the dark, which was a big part of the reason that Lirana did.
A lantern suddenly blazed to life and Danny stepped into its glow. He hung up the heavy bag that he did a lot of training with. She could barely make it move.
Lirana bit her lip when Danny pulled his shirt off. She didn’t blame him; even with the sun down it was hot. The golden light of the lamp caught the sheen of sweat down his lean back when he turned and began wrapping cloth around his hands to protect his knuckles from bleeding all over the bag. She stayed where she was as he threw the first punch, making the bag cast wild shadows as it swayed.
Her stomach was tense again and the heat was back between her thighs, almost at the core of her. It was hard to catch her breath as she watched him move. Every hit was measured, controlled, and precise. And powerful.
As she watched, she forgot why she’d thought that he wasn’t as strong as anyone else in Khaytab. Smooth muscle moved under his tanned skin with every hit, causing her knees to go weak. She must have moved because suddenly he stopped, looking in her direction.
“It’s just me,” she called quickly, realizing that she was still half hidden in the shadows that the lantern threw.
“Lirana?” Danny wiped the sweat off of his forehead and tried to decide whether he should put his shirt back on. “What did you need?”
“Nothing,” she said quickly. “I was...I was just...” She couldn’t tell him that she’d been watching him, but she also didn’t know how to tell him that she’d been practicing with her knives either. “I...”
Danny scooped up the lantern and walked over. She was clutching a sheath of knives in her hand and she seemed to be out of breath.
“Not here to shank me, are you?”
She blinked up at him. “To what?”
“Stab me,” he clarified.
“Of course not!”
“I know. Tasteless joke,” Danny said quickly.
Lirana wasn’t quite ready for jokes like that, it seemed. He was happy just to be talking to her. She’d barely looked his way since their kiss. The kiss that kept him awake at night and drove him to the heavy bag in the dead heat of summer. He cleared his throat and glanced away so that he didn’t stare at her. Her deep violet eyes had a way of pulling him in.
The target caught his eye. “What’s...” He walked closer. A perfect heart shape of knives at equal intervals in the target. He spun back to face her. “Lirana, did you do this?” He’d been the one to give her the knives, on one of her last days of training. But he hadn’t honestly thought that anything would come of it. He’d simply assumed that this was the best way to keep her from hurting herself while they took her training a bit more slowly.
She nodded after a moment. “Yes. I--”
“This is amazing!”
Her smile was as sudden as sunrise and twice as beautiful. He’d never seen her look proud of herself before. It was all he could do not to reach for her.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “I’ve been practicing most nights.” For hours. But she didn’t tell him that part.
“Why did you drop out of training?” Danny asked, still looking at the target. He’d never seen anything like it. Not in only a month’s time.
She fell silent again and when he looked back, he saw that her eyes were downcast once more. What had he said?
“I...I didn’t know how to be around you,” she said to the ground. “After what happened.”
His heart plummeted to his boots. Lirana had needed him as a friend, a trainer, a helper. Instead he’d kissed her, trying to make their relationship what he wanted, not what she needed. And he’d forced her to train alone. Guilt descended heavily onto his shoulders.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice rougher than he’d wanted it to be. “I’ll ask one of the other soldiers to take over the knife training sessions. You can go to those and I’ll stay away.”
Danny rested his hand briefly on her shoulder and then turned away, striding back to the castle as quickly as he could go. Lirana bit back the urge to call after him. Suddenly, Afani’s words rang through her memory. “Do something with your freedom!”
Whether he was dead, working with the Seebans, or in another world, her husband was gone. And even if he hadn’t been gone, she should be able to live her life with someone who looked at her with desire in his eyes. The realization came so suddenly that she had to catch her breath. She did deserve to be happy. And so did Danny.
Raising her chin and taking a deep breath for courage, Lirana walked into the castle after him.
******
Danny waited impatiently for the bathtub to fill up as he unwrapped the linen from his hands and undressed. How could he have been so stupid? Kissing a woman the night she found out that her abusive husband was a traitor...a possibly dead traitor, at that and then wondering why she didn’t want to spend any time with him?
He sat down on the edge of the tub and dropped his head into his hands. The problem was, he was in love with her. He loved her soft voice and the intelligence that shone through when she was brave enough to let it. He loved that she was calm in stressful situations, that she was willing to work to earn her keep. He knew that she was the one who’d been cleaning his room. While he’d rather have Lirana in training, he’d been amazed by how neat it was and good it smelled. And apparently she’d been working through the night too.
The tub was finally full, so he stepped in and sank down.
The cool water was delicious against his skin, but he still felt too hot. Danny ducked all the way under the water, letting it muffle the noises from the open windows and trying to stop picturing her smile. When his lungs began to burn, he sat back up, wiping the streams of water off of his face and gasping for breath.
There was a hesitant knock at the door. Danny stared at it for a moment. Who in the hell...
“I guess if they’re coming to kill me, they can do it in the tub,” he muttered, thinking of the angry soldiers from the morning. “Less of a mess.” Then he raised his voice. “Come on in.”
The door opened and Lirana walked in. Danny’s jaw dropped.
“Oh!” Lirana said, halfway turning. “I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s my fault,” Danny said, wondering why God hated him. “I thought...I don’t know what I thought. But I didn’t think it’d be you.”
He didn’t know whether he should move or not. On the one hand, it was embarrassing as hell to be sitting here in the bathtub while she stood there blushing. On the other hand, he’d forgotten his towel on the bed. Then he noticed that she was carrying something.
“Is that...”
“I thought you might be hungry,” she said, still addressing the opposite side of the room.
“Is that a bottle of wine? And two glasses?” Danny couldn’t keep the hope out of his voice.
“I thought...that maybe you’d want to talk.”
“Yes!” He didn’t even care if he sounded too eager. “Give me a second and I’ll get dressed--”
“You don’t have to.”
He swallowed hard. Her hands were shaking again; the wine glasses on the tray were rattling musically.
“I know it’s hot here,” she went on. “Stay where you are.”
“OKyla,” he said slowly. “Then you’ll have to come over here.”
Lirana closed the door and did as he’d suggested. She sat down beside the tub and opened the wine, pouring both glasses generously. Danny took the glass she handed him and drank two gulps quickly. She smiled and sipped at her own glass.
“What did you want to talk about?” he asked.
“You, mostly,” Lirana said. “Tell me about your life where you’re from. New York, isn’t it?”
“Kyla’s from New York,” he said. “I live there now, but I’m originally from Georgia. It’s...” He stopped with a half laugh. “I was going to say that it’s a whole different world, but that wouldn’t be exactly true.”
“Tell me about Georgia.”
“It’s hot there too,” he said after a moment’s reflection. “Most of the people I knew worked in factories or repair places. Some of them were farmers.”
“You didn’t want to do any of that?”
“No. I mean, it was fine. We need people to do those things, but I’ve wanted to be a cop since I was a kid.”
“Why?”
“My neighborhood was poor. Kinda rough. We had some good cops and I wanted to help them. Make the world a better place.” He shrugged, feeling a little silly. It was all true, but it was hard to put into words that didn’t sound cliché.
“How did you know?” she asked, looking at the golden wine in her cup, swirling it thoughtfully.
“What do you mean?”
“How did you know what you wanted to do?”
Danny looked down at her. “You didn’t?”
“I knew that I would marry, so I didn’t need to think about it.”
“Yeah, but is that what you wanted?”
“It didn’t matter. I was my father’s, to do with what he wanted.”
“And now that you don’t belong to anyone?”
Lirana looked up. Again, his eyes reminded her of the ocean. She thought that she might be swimming too deep, but she swallowed hard and tried to answer him.
“I’m not sure.”
He leaned closer and she tilted her face up. He clenched his free hand on the edge of the tub, determined not to pull her against him.
“Close your eyes,” Danny said. She did as he’d asked. “Now, picture your ideal life and tell me what it looks like.” He’d move heaven and earth, however many there might actually be, to give it to her.
“There’s adventure,” she said after a few moments. “New worlds and tastes and sights and sounds. Something different every day. There’s...” Her lips parted as she took a breath. “There’s passion and attraction. Like Afani and Khaza or Kyla and King Nameer only it’s...”
He couldn’t help it. He leaned closer, placing his glass on the rim of the tub. “It’s who?” he asked in a low voice.
“You,” she whispered. “And me. Us.”
She opened her eyes and he cupped her face in his hands. “God, I’m dying to kiss you again,” Danny said.
His voice was rough and desire smoldered in his dark eyes. She knelt up.
“Please,” she said softly. “I’ve been thinking about you for a month.”
He slid one hand around to the back of her neck and drew her against him. When their lips met, she moaned softly. This time the fire seemed to run through her blood. Shocked at her own boldness, she gripped the back of his head, keeping him close. His hand tightened in her hair, but it wasn’t painful. He groaned against her eager mouth, wrapping his other arm around her shoulders to pull her against his chest as he got to his knees.
Danny couldn’t get enough of her mouth. Her lips were soft and she tasted like sweet wine and...she was pulling back. He tried to catch his breath. He bit his tongue so that he wouldn’t beg her for more. She was trembling and the top of her dress was soaking wet from where he’d held her.
Her cheeks were flushed as she looked down at it. The dress had been cream colored and it was now nearly see through.
“Sorry,” he said. “I got carried away.”
“I liked it,” Lirana admitted, moving around behind him slightly. “May I wash you?”
“Say what?”
She held up the bottle of shampoo. “May I?”
“Uh, I guess. If you want to. You don’t have to, though.” God, he sounded like he was in high school again.
He could hear the smile in her voice when she said, “I do want to. I like your hair, you know.”
“You do?”
She poured shampoo into her palm and began to run her fingers through his dark blonde hair. It was lighter now that summer had come, more like sand than caramel, and she had wanted to run her fingers through it since the first time she’d seen him. “Yes. I like the color, but it feels nice too.”
He closed his eyes as her fingers worked their way down to his scalp. No one had ever washed his hair for him before and it felt amazing. A little too good, actually. He tried to think about baseball, but it was hard to concentrate on sports with her hands on him.
Lirana bit her lower lip, glad his eyes were closed. She hadn’t meant to look at anything other than his hair, but her glance had strayed lower. First she’d noticed the water beading on his broad shoulders and his tanned chest. Then she’d followed the trail of golden hair down his flat stomach and then lower than she’d intended.
She’d never seen another man’s cock before. She’d never thought she would. She also never thought that she’d actually want her hands on one. She imagined closing her fingers around him, stroking him until he was more than halfway hard...as if he could hear her thoughts, his cock stiffened. She looked back at his face. This time, his eyes were open. She gasped and jerked her gaze away.
“Sit up, and I’ll rinse it,” she said quickly.
He did as she asked without saying anything. When he’d found her staring, he would have sworn that she was actually touching him. He’d never felt anything like it before. He remembered Nameer calling Kyla his mate and saying that the bond was different. Was that what this was? He wanted to ask, but he didn’t want to make Lirana uncomfortable.
She began to scrub his back when the shampoo was rinsed away.
“Will you stay the night?” he asked when the bath had
turned into a massage. She was rubbing his shoulders and he was nearly falling asleep.
Her hands went still. “I...I don’t know...”
“I won’t ask you for more than you want to give,” Danny said, turning to face her. “I just want to have you in my bed, and in my arms for the night.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to...to be with you,” Lirana said, determined to be honest. “It’s just that I’m not...you shake me.”
He caressed her cheek gently. “I feel the same way about you. But I promise, all I’ll do is hold you.” Then he grinned. “I wouldn’t say no to a few more kisses though.”
She smiled back, the knot in her stomach unraveling. “I’d like to stay.”
She went onto the balcony while he dried off and dressed again. He brought one of the shirts that Afani had had made for him out onto the balcony with him.
“You can sleep in this,” he said. “If you want to. Since I got your dress wet.”
She took it and he kept his back to the bedroom while she changed. Then he walked in to share a bed and a sleepless night with the woman he loved.
******
“And so,” the newscaster concluded. “The story we reported yesterday about what looked to be a man turning into some kind of animal was simply an elaborate hoax by gifted hackers. Back to you, Kent.”
“But that’s not true,” Nameer said, frowning at the television.
Kyla, who was lying on the couch with her feet in his lap, shrugged. “No, it’s not. But it might be better this way.”
“Better to lie?” He raised an eyebrow. “Do you think that’s how I should run Khaytab? With lies for the good of my people?”
Kyla paused. “No. I guess not.”
“What should we do?”
Nameer looked ready to go and straighten American politics out this very minute. Kyla smiled ruefully.
“There’s nothing we can do,” she said. “We’ve got enough on our plate with just getting back to Khaytab. Working this out would involve some serious whistleblowing and doing that could bar us from being able to access the lab. Right now, being inconspicuous is more important than having the moral high ground.”
Realm Shifters Page 13
