“Jared…” He hesitated, then furrowed his brow, oddly. “Hunter.”
Did he not know his name? Or did he not want her to know his real name? She drew a breath. “Well, Jared Hunter, help me get you inside the car.”
He sat up in the seat, scooted back, and planted his muscled legs next to her, losing his yellow-towel coverage. Whoa. She snatched the towel back up, and he caught her hand with his. Her fingers tingled and trembled.
“I disturb you. Why?”
Heat stung her cheeks. As shallow and unprofessional as it sounded, he—just say it without sugar-coating it—attracted her?
Points for honesty on that understatement put her in the red. Lust would have come closer.
You don’t know him from Adam.
Eve didn’t know Adam either—in the beginning.
First, hallucinations. Now, she was rationalizing her insane attraction, while talking to and answering herself. She needed to race to the nearest clinic, ditch him, and get on with the unraveling of her life—exposing Dr. Cinatas for a murderer and admitting to the world that she’d unknowingly been a pawn in his crime.
Jared released her hand and brushed her cheek with his fingertips. Then, staring into her eyes, he slid the pad of his thumb over her lips, flashing acute need across her nerves.
This was not happening. The injured, delusional stranger was not hitting on her, he was not pushing her hot buttons, and she was not responding to him.
She’d been seeing Ben & Jerry’s exclusively for too damn long.
He brushed her lips again, and she gasped as little fissures of electric heat zinged to her breasts and below.
“I disturb you?” he asked, jerking his hand back.
The man was so potent that even his light touch was a heady aphrodisiac. The sensations he drew from her were stronger than anything she’d known, or at least could remember. It had been a while.
“No,” she whispered. Now that he’d stopped touching her, she should move, scramble to the front seat and get out of range. But she didn’t; she stared into his iridescent blue eyes as if mesmerized.
Jared couldn’t stop himself from touching her mouth, fascinated by the new sensations of pleasure that replaced the pain in him. When he’d touched her lips her golden eyes had changed, brightened and heated to the point that he’d felt the glory of the sun blaze in them. Powerful sensations spread to other places in his new, fleshly form, giving him his first taste of mortal desire.
The warmth of her breath upon his skin reminded him of the sun-heated mists he’d traveled through as a Blood Hunter. The feel of clouds—such a simple thing he’d always known, yet never considered as pleasurable. Pleasure had been the sound of spirits singing in victory after a battle, not these urges. Urges that seemed to be superseding his awareness and craving of her blood.
He wanted to touch her more, to explore the realm of desire he’d heard of but had never experienced. When he’d pressed his hand against her body a few moments ago, he’d felt such inviting softness that he wanted to bury himself within the comfort and ease she brought him. But that was not a warrior’s way. A warrior didn’t need another to face pain, discomfort, or battle. Softness weakened a warrior, and he needed to be strong to fight the Tsara’s poison long enough to assure he’d never end up like Pathos.
Jared pulled his finger back, and pain stabbed at him, especially over his heart where the Tsara had bitten him, where his brethren had seared and sealed his fate. The urge to taste the heady sweetness of her blood, scenting the air, sharpened. The idea of satisfying his lust for blood by consuming hers tore at everything good inside him. Everything he’d stood for since his inception in Eden was threatened with destruction—by him.
He almost reached out and touched her again, but fisted his hand instead. It was wrong of him to use her for his own relief. That would make him no different than the Fallen.
He dropped his hand to his lap and sucked in air at the change in his fleshly form beneath the cloth. The burning pleasure that accompanied the brush of his hand against the hardening change in his flesh heightened his desire for her, made him want more of her softness. To bury himself in her. He groaned.
“You’re in pain?” She pressed the palm of her hand to his brow. “You feel cooler.”
His body jerked with pleasure. What name had she claimed for herself? “Erin. You mustn’t touch me.”
She drew her hand back. “Did I hurt you?”
“No,” he rasped.
She immediately glanced down, as if she knew what was happening to him. Her eyes widened, and she jerked her gaze to his. A rosier hue flushed her cheeks, and he couldn’t tell if his desire for her disturbed her or pleased her. It seemed to do both, which he didn’t understand. Being in the mortal world was frustratingly different than anything he’d known as a spirit being.
“I think we need to get you help . . . uh . . . find a doctor or a clinic for you.” She scrambled back from him, putting a cushioned barrier between them.
Jared leaned back in the seat and grimaced, the dark hunger clamoring inside. He gritted his teeth, pummeling the want of her blood with his warrior’s steely will. Erin was safe for now, but he would have to leave—before the evil grew stronger and he killed her. He didn’t doubt that he would, for the Tsara’s poison would destroy the good within him. He would soon walk with the Fallen.
She was a Chosen, and the Fallen fed upon the blood of the Chosen.
Chapter Five
Erin sucked in air and gripped the steering wheel. Her sensual awareness of Jared had been intensified by his obvious attraction to her. Even now that her brain waves were unscrambled and her knees had quit shaking, she still felt the punch of his touch. It had been unlike anything she’d ever felt before—one of those moments of attraction she’d always thought to be pure fiction.
And it was. The one-night-stand-with-a-tall-dark-stranger fantasy would never have any reality in her life. She was a slow kind of woman who wanted love and the promise of commitment before she opened the bedroom door. She’d learned the hard way even that wasn’t a recipe for happiness. As soon as her fiancée’s internship ended at the hospital they both worked at, he informed her he was moving to his prestigious job alone. He wanted out of her narrow box of what was wrong and what was right.
The next day he took a week-long cruise in one cabin with two nurses and she’d turned to Ben & Jerry’s. So far she hadn’t found a reason to leave them yet. Shaking off her thoughts, she cranked the Tahoe to life, and focused on finding help for Jared. The radio immediately blared, prompting her to wince. Before she could turn down the volume, she caught the word Sno-Med, and her attention riveted to the dashboard.
“Enrich your life with Sno-Med. We care. Come celebrate your Fourth of July Holiday at our Family Health Expo. Free health screening for the entire family. Free food. And free fun and games. This weekend only at the Appalachian Fair Grounds, located on State Road 44 just north of Powellsville.”
That meant today and tomorrow. She shuddered. Just exactly what did Sno-Med extract from all of their free health screenings? She knew four people had paid in blood with their lives. Had they gone to a “free health screening” too? She had to find out as much as she could.
“What is it, Erin? What do you fear?”
She glanced in the rearview mirror, surprised that Jared, despite his own pain and injury, was so tuned into her. She forced a grim smile. “Nothing. Just an ugly reminder of something very important I have to do.”
He didn’t look satisfied with her answer, but didn’t question her further.
Pressing steady on the gas, she bumped her way across the pasture toward the log gate up by the road. Jared sat silent, his deep grimace the only outward sign of the pain she was causing him. By the time she reached the road, her knuckles were white from the strain. “Hold on. I’m going to unlock the gate. The ride to town will be easier. I’m sorry I hurt you.”
“My pain is not of your doing. I am cursed and there is no hope.”
Erin wanted to cry out against his doom and gloom, but bit her tongue. She exited the car and drew in the fresh air, trying to clear her head. She had enough problems of her own and fixing a naked, delusional stranger wasn’t in the cards. Something about the guy had a way of scrambling a woman’s internal GPS system, making her unsure of where in the hell she was and what she was doing—something she could ill afford right now. She had to figure out how to expose Dr. Cinatas’ crimes and bring him down.
The crude gate was simple enough, but too sturdy. The thick log was chained to a heavy post that could be opened two ways—either use a key on the padlock, or lift the log and chain over the post.
Erin glared at the sky, wondering if the heavens had something against her. Was it asking too much for one thing to go right? Though she knew it was pointless, she tried to lift the log. It didn’t move an inch. Digging into her pocket past yesterday’s now-pulverized breakfast and lunch power bars, she fished her hemostats from her pocket kit of nursing essentials, hoping she could pick the lock with the tiny IV clamp. The movies always made this look easy.
Five minutes later she had visions of ramming through the gate with her SUV.
She felt Jared before she heard him. The heat pouring from him seeped all along her back and warmed her blood.
“What is it that you seek to do?”
Either she was becoming more lucid, or he was sounding more archaic. She paused, turning to study him, his amulet, and his bandaged chest again. He had remembered the yellow towel at least. He had it wrapped and tied about his waist like a hula skirt. But even though he was now covered, his impact still scattered her mind.
“Erin?”
“I’m trying to open the gate so that we can drive out of here.”
He grunted. “I will do that.” His caveman-like tone implied that she should have asked him to take care of the problem.
She just rolled her eyes and stepped back. Once Mr. Macho found out how heavy—
With his good hand, Jared grasped the chain and lifted the log, moving it aside as if it were a bag of cotton candy.
She stared at him in shock.
He frowned at her. “Is this not what you wanted?”
“Yes.” Erin stopped looking her “gift man” in his oh-so-sinful mouth and ran to the driver’s seat. She jerked the Tahoe into drive, spinning her wheels against the incline briefly before zooming over the cattle grate and onto the road.
If she had any sense, she would just keep on going and put Jared, last night, and everything else this morning literally out to pasture. Instead, she stopped the car and joined Jared, watching him re-close the gate. The muscles of his arms, back, and legs bulged with the strain. Who was this man?
Once he was done, she ushered him to the front passenger’s seat and told him to buckle up.
She slipped behind the steering wheel and belted herself in, but he didn’t move. “You didn’t buckle.”
“How does one buckle, and why?”
“For safety. It will help keep you alive if I crash.” How did he not know what a seatbelt was? Exasperated, she unbuckled and leaned across him.
He stayed her hand with his, and she met his stark blue gaze just inches from his face. The silver starbursts in the center of his blue eyes, the contoured curve of his cheek, the sensual fullness of his mouth, and the sandpaper stubble of his beard, all spelled deadly.
He sucked in air, as if trying to inhale her. His nostrils flared, his pupils dilated, and his hand on hers tightened. He looked hungry. Very hungry.
“Keeping me alive is not a good thing,” he said.
From the shadows filling his blues, she knew he meant it.
“Maybe for you,” she said and shuddered. “But not for me. I can’t handle another death on my conscience.”
Jared released her hand to cup her cheek with his palm.
“What is it?” His thumb brushed the underside of her bottom lip, stealing her breath. It was obvious he found her more than desirable, as if he couldn’t stop himself from touching her.
For a brief moment, she wished everything were different and the attraction simmering would prove to be more than a dreamy mountain mist. As it was, they both had too many problems of their own.
“Nothing.” Moving back, she pulled the seat belt across his chest and snapped him in, ignoring how the loss of his touch left a whispering regret inside her. He immediately shifted as if uncomfortable, and seemed to be glaring at the inside of her car.
“Why these binds?” Jared asked as she pulled onto the road. “You’ve no freedom.”
Erin glanced his way before turning onto State Road 44. The road that the Appalachian Fair Grounds and the Sno-Med Family Health Expo was on, just a little bit north of where she was. After hesitating only a moment, she headed in the direction of the fair grounds.
She could leave Jared in Powellsville in competent hands and focus on Dr. Cinatas. Once she located a change of clothes, she’d go to Sno-med’s health expo and see what she could find. She needed to get into the Sno-Med Research and Development Center, which shouldn’t be more than an hour’s drive away in Arcadia, Tennessee.
Usually, the blood Dr. Cinatas used for the “cancer treatments” at the Sno-Med Clinic came via private jet from Arcadia. She wondered how long the trail of bodies was behind the bags of blood she’d been transfusing.
“There is no freedom with these seat belts,” Jared declared. He shifted anxiously in the seat. “They harm you.
“Have you never been in a car before?” She reached the bend in the road where the creatures had hit her. She pulled to the shoulder for a good look and noticed a black Hummer parked on the opposite shoulder, just ahead. Two men, dressed in brand-new coveralls and shiny loafer-like shoes, were looking at something in the brush. They glanced up.
Erin’s brain tingled first, and then her gut as recognition struck her. She’d seen the men before, briefly, in New York, at the clinic Friday morning.
Somehow Cinatas or the king of Kassim’s men had traced her. They looked right at her.
“Oh, God.” She slammed the gas pedal and death-gripped the steering wheel. Her tires spun. Gravel flew. And the back end of the Tahoe fishtailed as she hit the pavement like a rocketing stock car at Daytona.
The men, scrambling for their car, shot at her as she whizzed by. She saw their guns jerk and heard the pop of bullets hitting her car. They either missed or shot low, aiming for her tires, because no glass shattered.
She raced down the road, eyes searching for a turnoff. Nothing.
“We need to be free!”
“We need to go faster!” Erin pressed the gas to the floor as the Hummer rose in her rearview mirror like a stalking beast. She flew through the mountain curves faster than she had the skill to maneuver. With minimal visibility through her cracked windshield, she skidded dangerously from one side of the road to the other. She was playing roulette with a head-on collision and had a gun at her back. Not good.
“We need to be free to hide, Chosen, and that is something you cannot do when bound and trapped.”
“What?” she asked, then groaned at the sight of another black Hummer, this one coming toward her, deliberately driving down the middle of the road, ready to play chicken or determined to make her into a Hummer sandwich.
“We must leave this vehicle.” Jared voice grew louder, more urgent. “It is the only way to escape. Take the turn up ahead.”
“The sign says it’s a dead end. That means it goes nowhere.”
“Trust me. We must.”
“We can’t. It’s suicide.” Nobody in their right mind would take a dead-end road while being chased by men with guns. It went totally against Erin’s every instinct to abandon her protective, fast-moving car for her less-than-stellar ability to run. And at least the car’s metal provided some protection from bullets.
“Do it. Trust me,” Jared urged.
Erin swung as wide as she dared, jerking the wheel to the right, instantly regretting her dec
ision. She left the highway, missing the dead-end dirt road completely, and went airborne as the roadside gave way to a twenty-foot drop. They flew over part of a field, slamming into a faded Lucky Strike cigarette ad painted on the roof of a barn. The rotting wood did little to stop their momentum as they plowed into bales of hay. The seat belt burned a stripe across her neck, and she smashed into a suffocating air bag. A stale, powdery grit filtered into her mouth as the bag abraded her cheek and sent a sharper pain stabbing through her temple.
She had time to draw one breath before Jared jerked the air bag from her face, ripping it from its anchor in the steering column, and sending a deafening whoosh of air into her face. Blinking against her dry eyes, she registered the fact that they’d survived—for the moment. Her car sat at a precarious angle, rocking back and forth. The rear of her car had broken through the floor of the loft while the front hung on the hay covered wood.
It wouldn’t take the men with guns long to reach them, and even less time for her car to crash to the barn’s floor. She unsnapped her seat belt but couldn’t get her car door open. It was wedged tight against the loft’s floor.
Jared ripped his belt from the seat, shredding material and scattering foam. The car rocked even more precariously. “We must hurry.”
She tried looking for her purse while Jared shoved the passenger door open, but she couldn’t find it and had to leave without it. Within a minute, he’d pulled her from the car, and led the way down from the loft. The emptiness of the stale, musty barn informed her there was no help close by.
Footsteps pounded the ground, and the men’s shouts rang out. “They’re in the barn. Get the girl alive and eliminate whoever she is with.”
At the barn doors, Erin groaned in dread. Woods skirted the edge of the field they faced, too far away for them to make it without being seen. Any second the men would come around the side of the barn and Jared would be dead—and she’d be worse than dead. She searched for a place to hide, a weapon, anything to save them. “They’ll shoot before we’re halfway. We should have played chicken with the Hummer.”
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