“Trust me,” Jared said. He scooped her up, giving her no choice but to wrap her arm over his right shoulder as he ran.
“Are you crazy? Put me down. You’re injured. We can move faster if—” She didn’t get to finish her sentence. The speed he gained stole her breath and her ability to think. The world passed in a semi-blur. She was vaguely aware of the shouts of men, their pursuit, and shots fired. She was more aware of every breath and movement of the man holding her. His muscles strained beneath her touch, the silk of his hair flowed against her arm, and the heat of his skin seeped into hers. He flew faster than the wind, totally unhindered by human limitations. A comforting and yet extremely disturbing thought considering she was disappearing into the forest with him. She had nothing to protect herself with or to identify her, and she wondered just exactly where this whole wild escape was going to lead.
Jared rushed through the woods, weaving between branches and brush, breathing in the sweet scents of Chosen blood, pine, earth, and the freedom of the air he’d always known as a spirit. The tension that had started clawing at him when the woman bound him in the car had increased the moment he’d sensed the predatory nature of the men across the road.
With no ability to control his movements or direction, he’d felt trapped within the mortal vehicle and hadn’t liked the feeling at all. With Erin in his arms, taking away the pain of the Tsara’s poison, he could think more clearly. Now he had power and choice on his side.
Jared ran as quickly and as far along the mountains as he could. He went deep into the forest where the odors of mortals dwindled to almost nothing beneath the scent of the creatures in the wild. He was meant to run in a place like this, free. It all felt so right.
But instead of keeping pace with the wind, as was his custom, his steps began to slow. A thundering roar filled his ears, he couldn’t get enough air, and could no longer hold Erin in his arms. On an outcropping of rock where a spring trickled from the heart of the mortal ground, Jared came to a halt, shocked that he was unable to take another step. He eased to his knees and set her down. Dark clouds kept encroaching on his vision and he wavered, unable to accept the weakness stealing over him. Where was his strength? Why was he so weak?
“Chosen, I must…”
“Rest, and you must call me Erin,” she said, grabbing his arm, urging him to sit.
“Erin,” he whispered.
She touched his cheek. “Oh no, you’re burning with a fever higher than before. You should have put me down once we were in the woods. I tried to tell you, but it was like you never even heard me.”
He hadn’t. Something primal had taken him over in the forest. Even now in exhaustion, he still felt a strange urge inside to run free. He drew in another deep breath and lay back upon the mortal ground.
She dipped her hand into the spring and placed her palm on his brow, then repeated the motion, cooling his neck and cheeks as well. A droplet of water slid to his lips. He tasted the cool wetness with the tip of his tongue. It felt good.
He hadn’t meant to allow more touching between them, hadn’t meant to use her in that way, but the edge inside him needed her to soothe it. Her touch, her care, reached into him, and he felt a part of him grasp hold of that and pull it closer.
“You must be thirsty,” she said softly. “Here.” She brought more water to him with her cupped hand and he drank, marveling at the new sensations of taste, the feel and coolness of the water. He could sense the earth, the life, and purity within it. Closing his eyes, he wondered again what the sweetness of her blood would taste like. Then he inwardly cringed, for to have that thought during this moment seemed like a clear gauge of how quickly the Tsara’s poison was spreading inside him.
They’d escaped their mortal pursuers, but the greater danger lay within him. There was no way to stop his growing thirst for Chosen blood, and the only thing that helped him contain that need was her touch. Yet how could he accept that weakness in himself? He couldn’t.
Chapter Six
Erin woke with a start. A quick glance at her watch told her she’d done more than doze just a few minutes. After Jared had closed his eyes to rest, she’d taken time to attend to a few personal matters in the bushes and refreshed herself with the cool spring water before resting herself. She felt almost human now and a little safe. The forest cocooned them from the outside world, offering her a brief moment before having to sift through the implications of Dr. Cinatas’s Hummer squad. That he’d found her so quickly was chilling.
Two hours had now passed since Jared had fallen into a fevered sleep, darkly mumbling about Aragon, about being damned, and about Chosen blood. His dreams skirted nightmares. Just as her life was doing.
The sky mirrored his troubled thoughts, for gray clouds encroached on the brightness of the day, deepening the shadows beneath the canopy of trees covering them. Jared still felt overly hot to her and she prayed the burn on his shoulder wasn’t becoming infected. They needed a doctor and medicine for him.
Given her headache and the way her mind was processing information, she needed one, too. Her memory of how fast Jared had run after wrecking her car into the barn had to be wrong. It was humanly impossible to run that fast. Still, even if he had run at a steady pace, the strength he’d shown had been amazing. Add the fact that he was injured and fevered, and it became miraculous. Who was he?
She’d slept propped against a boulder with Jared’s head cradled in her lap. Her back, legs and everything in between had become numb, but she didn’t want to move. She pressed her palm to his forehead, wishing there was more she could do for him. Cupping more of the cool mountain water into her palm, she bathed his face again, feeling the sharp angles of his warrior-like features and the roughness of his scruff darkened jaw. He was a raw, elemental male whose sensual appeal beckoned exploration. His lips were full, chiseled to perfection, yet soft.
As she soothed his brow with more water, she threaded her fingers through the dark strands of his long hair, wondering over the streak of silver that stood in stark contrast to the raven’s wing black. The silver seemed to mark him as being special, different. She shifted her focus to the amulet resting on his chest.
A twelve-point star was stamped into the gold-like metal. Her fingers tingled as she touched it, as if energy seeped into her from it. Sunlight filtering through the forest canopy cast an iridescent light over the amulet’s surface. The metal was as different and unique as the man. But he wasn’t her puzzle to solve. She had to stay on track and bring down Dr. Cinatas. Her very soul hung in the balance. She’d always lived her life in an orderly way. Reason had ruled her actions. She’d stuck to her goals, her budget, and her code of right and honor no matter what her circumstances. To discover she’d been unknowingly complicit in the deaths of at least four people destroyed her. There was no reason in murder. No reason in the deaths of the two young girls and the middle-aged couple. Erin shuddered from the horror of it as yesterday’s tableau played in her mind again.
Suddenly Jared’s eyes sprang open, as if her thoughts had gone directly to him. She pulled her fingers back from the amulet.
“What is wrong?” he asked, leaping up, moving as if he hadn’t been in a dead sleep for hours. After glancing sharply around the area, he set his probing gaze on her. “Why do these predators seek to harm you, and why do you fear them even now in this quiet place?”
He confused her. His strength, purpose, and lucid intelligence were remarkable and at odds with his moments of delusional behavior. She knew he didn’t need the worry of her problems, but he did have a right to know who was after them and why. He’d put himself at risk to help her.
She met his clear gaze. “I expected them to kill me on sight. To eliminate me before I had a chance to expose the murders I’m sure the doctor I work for committed.”
“You must tell me more, or I cannot help. Who is this enemy you battle?” he demanded as he sat next to her. His fierce tone, sharp gaze, and determined manner were warrior-worthy. She could easily
see him wielding a sword in battle, fluid, graceful, and powerful. Deadly.
“I work at Sno-Med, a clinic where Dr. Cinatas administers specialized blood transfusions to cancer patients. I was specifically hired to take care of the clinic’s more affluent clients and worked odd hours. This weekend, I was to give four transfusions to Ashodan ben Shashur, the current king of Kassim. But things were different than before, and—”
“What do you mean by different?”
She bit her lip. She didn’t have any real reason why everything had seemed different from the moment she’d entered the clinic yesterday morning. She just knew that it had. “It was my first day back to work after a week off to recover.”
“Recover? Recover what?”
She gave Jared another assessing glance, wondering where his delusions were when she wanted them. He was asking questions that were hard to answer.
“Trust me.” He set his hand over hers. Its warmth, the alluring blue of his gaze, and the strength in them both touched her. She hadn’t really told anyone yet. And the need to let it all out surged through her. She wanted to tell a stranger who wouldn’t judge her, or even question her like her family or a friend might. They’d soon go their separate ways, and she’d move forward in her quest to expose Dr. Cinatas.
Still, her hand fisted beneath his. “Last week I nearly died from an allergic reaction, and it’s been difficult getting back to normal. My experience is hard to explain.” She sucked in air and plunged on. “You see, I could see them resuscitating me from above, where I hovered in the cold shadows. Something powerful pulled at me, urging me toward a bright light, and as I drew closer, the light became hotter and . . . and … it was almost euphoric.”
She glanced at him, looking for disbelief, but only found quiet acceptance in his gaze. “I didn’t want to turn from the warm light, but a sharp pain ripped through me, and I was back on the stretcher being resuscitated, trying to breathe, trying to live.”
“What happened after?” he asked, as if he already knew there was more to come.
“You’re going to think this is strange, but ever since then I’ve gotten these strange feelings, a tingling in my scalp, my spine, a sinking feeling in my stomach. Feelings that make me act without a clear reason. Like leaving my apartment five minutes late because I sensed my mother would call, and she did, or calling the police because a stranger outside my apartment building gave me bad vibes. He ended up being on the FBI’s wanted list.”
“You had strange feelings that urged you to act?” Jared watched her intently. He didn’t show a hint of surprise over her story, but seemingly accepted it as truth. If she’d been listening to this story a week ago, she’d have rationalized everything that had happened.
She nodded, and a sighed as she told him what happened. “I’d been on edge all week, as if something sinister hovered nearby, just out of sight. That sense of doom worsened the minute I walked in to the clinic yesterday morning and grew. I brushed it off at first and tried to settle into my routine but then I met the king of Kassim and immediately sensed something very dark about him. As I prepped him for his blood transfusion he looked at me as if I were the last meal on earth. It unnerved me and I had to get away from him. So when I needed another vial of morphine to complete the dose ordered, I went downstairs to the pharmacy/lab to get another vial instead of calling for it. That’s where I found the bodies and where Dr. Cinatas found me trying to call for help.”
Everything flashed before her eyes.
Even before walking across the icy, off-limits lab, she knew they were dead, a man, a woman, and two teenage girls. As she felt for a nonexistent pulse, touching their icy, lifeless skin, her panicked breaths frosted in the air and her gut wrenched with dread. They’d been strapped to stretchers and drained of their blood. The bags still hung on the hooks above them, tagged for Ashodan ben Shashur, the king of Kassim.
She turned from the bodies, her heart beating faster as her mind raced over what to do. Anger churned in her stomach. Grappling with the cold, hard evidence of four murdered people, she dug out her cell phone from her packed pockets, dialing 911.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Dr. Cinatas said, moving toward her like a venomous snake.
She bit back a scream at his sudden appearance and the assault his presence made on her new sensitivity.
Cinatas smiled smoothly, full of charm as usual, but this time she could see darkness in him, as if the devil himself hid beneath his deep blue Armani. He glanced at the bodies behind her.
“Talking to the wrong people can be fatal, you know.” Lashing out, he grabbed her, locking his surgical-gloved hand around her wrist like a vise. Snapping her hand down against the side of the counter, he sent her cell phone flying to the floor. Pain shot up her arm. He ground her phone into pieces beneath the heel of his Italian leather shoe. Then he bent her wrist painfully back, making her gasp. “You don’t want to die, do you, Erin?”
Throat too constricted to speak; she shook her head, trying to think.
“Good. Don’t ever think I won’t kill you, because I will.” His silver eyes glittered with amusement as he smiled gently, almost angelically. “And it would be such a waste to contact the authorities. No one will ever believe you,” he whispered. “Have you thought of that, my little golden Erin?”
He slid a latex-sheathed nail up her arm, making her skin crawl. “The ramblings of a backwoods hick nurse against the word of a respected doctor with a miracle cure for cancer? You’re smarter than that.”
Erin jerked on her wrist, but he tightened his hold.
“What are you doing here? Why kill for blood?” she demanded.
“They didn’t want to do what they were told to do. A shame, isn’t it? Will you be a good girl and serve the Order, or will you die? Either way your blood will benefit me.”
“Do what?” Erin asked, as she inched her other hand into her pocket and uncapped the syringe there. “This?” she said, pulling the morphine from her pocket and aiming for his heart. He feinted to the side. She shifted her direction, stabbing him at the juncture of his neck and shoulder and shoving the plunger home.
“You bitch,” he yelled fisting his hand in her hair.
She jerked against his hold, and he pulled harder. Tears sprang to her eyes. She kicked out, trying to hit his groin as she struggled, but only managing to strike his knee. The blow sent him off balance enough to let her break free.
Cinatas screamed, bringing one of Kassim’s bodyguards dashing into the lab, his gun raised to shoot. Erin grabbed a stretcher and rammed the guard in the groin just as he aimed the muzzle her way.
He fell forward, splattering the wall with bullets on his way down. Glass shattered, a computer screen exploded, and wood splintered as bullets plowed across a desk then ricocheted off the floor. Before the guard could recover, Erin ran. She hit the emergency exit with bullets pinging off the steel door. Blaring alarms followed her dash into the throng of people moving on the street. Within minutes, she reached her navy Tahoe parked in a metered spot, and punched in her keyless entry code.
“I left the city, but rather than running away and hiding, I’m determined to bring him down. I hoped that by coming immediately to the Sno-Med Research and Development Center, I’d find out what he’s up to. Cinatas said he’d killed them because they didn’t do what they were told to do. He has murdered before and I need to find the proof that will expose him for the monster he is.” During the telling of the story, Jared had slipped his fingers into her fisted hand, loosening her tight grip and pressing his palm against hers.
“You must always trust your instincts, Erin. They have been heightened for a reason. And this predator may be near, but I promise, he won’t reach you. Ever,” Jared vowed. The passion in his voice was what miracles were made of, and it wrapped reassuringly around her. She could almost believe it possible to bring Cinatas down and still live.
Thunder rumbled deep and loud, jerking her attention to the sky. Overhead, a dark, angry
storm plowed toward them with the speed and power of a freight train.
Jared leaped to his feet, pulling her up. “Come. We need shelter.”
Before she could speak, the world exploded as a bolt of lightning ripped across the blackening sky and struck a sprawling oak tree just ten feet away. The tree burst into flames, spewing sparks of fire like a fireworks finale.
She felt as if she had taken a direct hit. Her breath caught, and her heart thumped hard, then raced. Goose bumps spread all over her body.
Jared pulled her in the opposite direction. Another bolt of lightning slammed into the ground even closer, this time to the right of them. The ground shook. Static electricity charged the air to an explosive level, lifting her hair and making her scalp tingle. She felt extremely strange, as if more was happening in the world around her than she could see.
“You’ll not harm her!” Jared shouted as he led her to the left. A deadly anger rang in his voice.
With every second, the sky darkened. Black-green clouds roiled like a cauldron of death as they turned the day into night. She’d never seen such a ferocious storm, or one that advanced so quickly.
Wind whipped with a sharp bite, and the sting of heavy rain paled against the bruising hail. The only thing saving them from being pummeled was the thick canopy of trees.
The thunder shook the very marrow of Erin’s bones. She cried out and Jared pulled her close to his side. Suddenly, through the rain and ice, she saw a battle between unbelievable nightmarish creatures, Ghoulish dull gray shells of beings with twisted features brutally fighting ethereal warriors of golden light on silver, winged horses. The falling rain was the iridescent blood pouring from the wounded and dead of the golden light beings; the hail was pieces of their beings, shredded in the battle, pelting the ground. The ghoulish warriors evaporated into gray clouds when struck by the golden warriors.
She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn’t utter a word.
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