“No.” As much as it pained her to think of her pet alone in the wild, she could admit that returning to the village immediately was a bad idea. So that was one more thing she had lost on this perilous journey. Her last link with home. With normalcy. With the life she had lived before this huge man had crashed into it.
As she walked beside Rune, she felt fatigue begin to claw at her. With the adrenaline rush draining away, her legs felt like lead weights and just putting one foot in front of the other became a herculean task. “How far back does this cave go, anyway?”
“Just a bit farther.”
His voice echoed off the rocks in a low rumble of sound, but despite what he said, it seemed as if they walked miles more. Finally, though, Rune stopped, called on the fire and she watched as blue and yellow flames danced into life around his hand. Then he touched a cold torch stuck into a stanchion on the wall and light surged quickly into life around the enclosure.
“Oh, my,” Teresa whispered, walking farther into the spacious cavern.
When she had entered this cave, she had expected to spend the evening huddled around a miserly campfire in a dank, cold space. This had never entered her mind.
The room they stepped into was carved out of the rock and it was massive. There were stalactites of purest crystal jutting from the ceiling in a wide array of colors and Teresa could feel the magical energy humming from them. Rune threw fire to other torches ringing the room, tails of flame that danced to his whims and settled over the dry torches with a rush of sound and a quick flare of light. The walls came alive in the flickering radiance and Teresa saw that there were more crystals sparkling in them. As each torch caught fire, smoke drifted toward cleverly hidden holes in the ceiling.
“Won’t people see the smoke?” she asked, staring at the rough-hewn rock overhead. “And then find us?”
“No,” Rune said, continuing to throw fire at the remaining torches until the last of the shadows were pushed back into the corners and the crystals on the walls burst into glittering life and color. “The holes lead to ventilation shafts that draw the smoke to still more holes and through other tunnels, until by the time the smoke is released into the air, it’s so dissipated no one will spot it.”
“Impressive,” she whispered. She turned in a slow circle, taking it all in, still hardly believing her eyes. Of course, her gaze snapped first to the most imposing piece of furniture in the place. A bed wide enough to comfortably sleep ten people, it was covered in a mountain of pillows and layers of silky throws and quilts that looked lush enough for a pasha’s harem. Something inside her stirred to life and she felt heated tingles begin to gather at her center. She took a breath, held it for a second and then blew it out again as she realized that soon she and Rune would be on that bed, sealing their relationship for all eternity.
Nerves jangled through her, but Teresa battled them into submission. There would be time enough for hesitation later. For now … she shifted her gaze deliberately to take in the rest of the room. There was a fire ring, surrounded by more crystals that shone so brightly in the flickering torchlight that it almost seemed as if they were alive.
And in a way, she knew, they were. Inside those crystals were trapped the energies of eons. They were of the earth and carried at their core the very heart of magic. She felt the pulse in the air, the reverberating beat of power, and drank it in, as she would a glass of water after a long walk in the desert.
Rune started a fire in the ring of crystals and it was only then that she noticed the metal rack spread across the ring for cooking. “Amazing,” she whispered, stunned at both the intricate beauty and the functionality surrounding her.
She felt as though she’d stumbled into Aladdin’s cave. She smiled in spite of everything that had happened that day and laughingly said, “If only there was a bathroom with a shower, it would be perfect.”
“Well, then …” Rune set the bag of supplies down and gave her a half smile. Taking her hand, he led her toward the far wall of the sumptuous cave and then behind yet another wall of crystal-studded rock. He lit the torch within to display even more wonderful secrets.
“A hot tub?” She bent over the rocky ledge of a pool of steaming water and dipped one hand into the froth. Heat pulsed through her and she nearly sighed with pleasure.
“It’s not a shower,” he told her with another smile, “but I think it’ll do.”
“Are you kidding?” she asked. “It’s great.”
“Glad you approve. It’s fed from an underground spring,” Rune told her, then showed her another alcove. “It drains through here …”
Teresa looked, realized what she was seeing and laughed, delighted. It wasn’t the Ritz, and in fact it looked more like what she assumed a medieval garderobe was like, but at least she wouldn’t have to run into the desert at night to relieve herself. “This is so great, Rune. I don’t even know what to say.”
She turned to smile up at him and found him watching her with amusement and something … else in his eyes. Those pale gray depths were awash with secrets and emotions. As if she could sense exactly what he was thinking and feeling, she shivered in response. That low curl of heat and expectation at the very core of her had returned and it was all she could do not to moan softly as need pulsed inside her along with the beat of her heart.
“You feel it, don’t you?” he whispered, even that faint hush of sound seeming to echo against the rocks.
“Yes,” she said, not bothering to pretend she didn’t know what he was talking about. What would have been the point?
“We begin the Mating tonight.”
She lifted her chin to meet his gaze squarely, so that he could see her own determination to accept their joined destiny. She only hoped he couldn’t read her trepidations as easily. “Yes, we will.”
He nodded, reached for her and then let his hand drop before touching her. “Bathe,” he said. “Get warm. Then we begin.”
Her insides quivered again, despite the lack of anything remotely resembling anticipation in his tone. If he was going to treat what passed between them as all business, then she would, too. Probably better for her if she did. So in a brisk voice, she stopped him as he turned to leave her in the crystal-studded bathroom of rock. “Did you do all of this?”
“Some of it,” he said, pausing long enough to bend down, sweep one hand through the bubbling water and then swipe it across his face. “Another Eternal, Finn, lives here when he’s in this country. I helped him dig out the bathtub and a couple of us carted in that bed and helped him set it up.”
“Where is he now?”
“Keeping an eye on his witch,” Rune told her. “She’s in the States and he’s waiting for her Awakening.”
“Like you did.”
“Yes.” His eyes flashed with hunger as he looked at her, and Teresa’s body responded instantly. As if he could sense her passion rising, his features tightened. Her heartbeat thundered in her chest as seconds ticked past, ratcheting up the tension between them until she was surprised the very air wasn’t sparking with the electricity humming in the room. A long, slow breath slid from her lungs as she tried to get a grip on what was happening between them.
She didn’t know him. He didn’t know her.
And yet … there was an undeniable bond between them that was only growing stronger.
Which terrified her.
Teresa was willing to mate with him. Share the magic. Do their duty. But she didn’t want love. Didn’t want to risk her heart again or give another male—one even stronger than regular mortals—power over her.
How could she do what she must while withholding her heart?
Would it be possible to cast a spell over herself?
While these thoughts and others raced through her mind, her body continued to hum and pulse as if it remembered all too well being invaded by Rune’s huge body and couldn’t wait for it to happen again.
She shook her head to dislodge that notion and only then noticed Rune cupping one hand acros
s his upper arm. That’s when she realized the gash on his arm hadn’t completely healed and that he must be in pain. She reached out to touch the wound and asked, “Can I help with that?”
The instant she touched him, heat dazzled them both. His gaze locked with hers, he whispered, “You can.”
She licked suddenly dry lips. “How?”
“Lay your hand on my arm,” he said, his voice soft enough that it was like a caress on her strained nerve endings.
She did what he asked, feeling the thick, sculpted muscles beneath his flesh, and then she shivered when he laid his own hand atop hers. Sensation flooded her, rocking her thoughts right out of her head and sending her body into a tailspin of need.
“Hold still,” he said as the fire within him flared into life, covering their joined hands in blistering heat that didn’t burn.
Fascinated, she watched actual fire move over her skin with feather-light strokes. They were joined, two pieces of the same whole, and for this one moment it felt … right. She didn’t wonder about it. Didn’t feel any apprehension or try to think about it logically. She didn’t expect any logic in this. There was no reason. There was only what she felt.
What they felt.
Moments passed, with the two of them locked together before the fire died away in a whisper of sound. Rune said, “It’s healed.”
He dropped his hand from hers and she stroked his arm, stunned that there wasn’t so much as a scar on his skin. Her fingertips moved down his arm, relishing the feel of his incredible strength.
“You keep touching me like that and we’re going to start the Mating right now, no matter how tired you are,” he warned.
She had been exhausted a few minutes ago, wanting only to sink into that incredible tub of heated water. Now her whole body felt as energized as the bolts of lightning she’d pulled from the sky. Now she wanted to sink into a different kind of heat.
Lifting her eyes to his, she asked, “Who’s tired?”
Chapter 25
“I diots!” Parnell muttered darkly as he marched down the middle of the village’s one dusty street. He had to force himself to keep from throwing out enough fire to burn this hellhole to the ground.
He’d missed them by an hour. One hour. And all because his informant had gotten greedy. Parnell’s gaze flicked to the old man lying in the dirt. “You’re lucky you’re already dead.”
When the old fool had recognized Teresa, he’d had his grandson call it in. He’d been told to leave the witch alone. To do nothing.
“But you just couldn’t stand that, could you?” No, Parnell told himself, humans were, at the core of it, greedy bastards. And the old man was no different than most—though he had met his punishment, surely. He’d seen an opportunity to get out of this flea-ridden spot in the middle of nowhere and had reached for it. Hard to blame him. Though Parnell certainly did.
When his satellite phone rang, he pulled it from his pocket, glanced at the number and answered, saying, “No. We don’t have them.”
While the woman at the other end of the line ranted, Parnell lifted one hand to the men who had arrived with him. He waved them over to the crowd, watching the proceedings as if they were fascinated by a television program. Fools didn’t even realize what was about to happen to them.
When one of his men silently signaled a question, Parnell simply nodded and drew one finger across the base of his neck.
The first volley of machine-gun fire erupted instantly. Bright lights flashed and the sound was a cacophony in the stillness. Yet the woman on the phone was shouting so loudly, Parnell could still hear her.
He paused for a moment and wished the guns were trained on her. But then, she would get what was coming to her eventually. As anyone who crossed him did.
“Witnesses are being taken care of,” he told her when she wound down long enough to take a breath.
“Yes, I can hear that,” she snapped. “Very subtle, Parnell.”
He stiffened at the condemnation in her tone. “You wanted me to handle it? I’m handling it. We’ll find the witch.”
“In time for it to do any good?”
The guns fell silent and the night crowded back in. He glanced over his shoulder at his men, moving through the crowd. Kicking bodies out of the way, they were simply making sure the dead were actually dead. He wanted no survivors slipping away to tell stories about strange men asking questions about witches.
He had enough to deal with as it was.
“Let me do my job,” he told the woman and snapped the phone closed. Holding the offending thing on his palm, he called up the fire and held it until the phone was nothing more than a blackened, melted pile of plastic and wire.
Then he brushed his hands free of both the phone and the woman and headed to his car, calling for his men to follow.
He still had a witch to find.
Chapter 26
R une pulled Teresa close, lowered his head and kissed her until her blood boiled in her veins. She felt as if she had a fever. Her skin was suddenly too tight. She was hot and yet shivering, as if her body couldn’t make up its own mind about what to feel.
Rune’s hands moved up and down her back, cupping her bottom, holding her close to the hard thickness of him. The fever inside her burned hotter until even breathing became a challenge. His mouth took hers, his tongue sliding inside to taste, to claim. She felt the urgency in him and reveled in it. Her hands moved through his long, thick hair, holding his head to hers. She surrendered herself to what only he could make her feel and trembled with the force of what he was doing to her.
Behind her, the hot water rushed from the underground springs, sounding like the roar of a caged animal. Above her, crystals hummed with energy, spilling all that they were into the already charged air. She felt it all, but mostly she felt him.
This was monumental.
This was the moment when the Mating ritual would begin. Once this step was taken, she knew there was no getting out of it. She wanted this to happen and yet a part of her held back. That hesitant part of her would have jumped away from the cliff she was about to leap from with all the judiciousness of a cowardly bunny.
Eternity.
With that word resonating in her mind, Teresa pulled free of his kiss and struggled for air. She was on fire. There were no flames, but she felt the fire, licking at her skin. Burning her so completely that she knew once the Mating began she would surely be nothing but ash.
When she looked up into his eyes, she saw the fire there, too. Swirling in the liquid silver of his eyes. She was caught for a long moment, just looking at him, feeling the power shimmering around them.
“You’re scared?”
His voice was rough, strained, as though he was fighting an inner battle to get control of himself. She knew what he must be feeling.
“A little,” she admitted. “My grandmother didn’t know much about the Mating. Only that it would seal Eternal and witch together for eternity. That’s a long time.”
His hands dropped from her arms and he took a step away from her. His already familiar eyes narrowed and in the dancing torchlight, he looked every inch the deadly warrior that he was.
“I’ve already waited an eternity for you,” he said. “This time I thought it would be different. This time, I had hopes that you would have learned from the past. Grown. But now is no different than before. Other lives, other times,” he whispered with a shake of his head. “But always the same.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You, Teresa,” he ground out. “I’m talking about what you’re doing right now. Do you not see it?”
What Teresa saw was the frustration glinting in his eyes and she fired the same look right back at him.
“What?” she demanded. “I want to take a minute, think about this, and that makes me the enemy?”
He laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “Centuries it’s been, Teresa. Countless lives and opportunities wasted, because still you refuse to make that lea
p of faith.”
Stunned, she simply stared up at him. Her body was still buzzing, but her brain was taking over and it was getting pissed. Didn’t seem to matter that he had said pretty much what she had been thinking just before he pulled away. She hadn’t been trying to start a fight, for heaven’s sake. She had just needed one damn minute.
“What happened to all of the ‘your past lives have nothing to do with now’ stuff you fed me a couple of days ago?” she countered.
“I tried, but you are proving to be the same woman. You have no faith.”
“What am I supposed to have faith in?”
“Me,” he told her. “Us. And if not that, then at least in yourself. You say you know about the Mating, but still you stall, you stand back, clinging to your old life, unwilling to accept the new.”
“I think I’ve done a hell of a lot of accepting,” she shouted, stabbing his broad chest with the tip of her forefinger. “Do you even realize what’s happened to me lately?”
“Yes,” he said tightly, glancing down to see sparks of energy snapping from her finger to his chest and back again. “You lost it all. I know. But now, when you could gain so much, you turn your face from it. You turn from me. Just as you always have,” he finished with a mutter.
“I’m not—”
He was on her in a heartbeat. His hands gripped her upper arms and he lifted her right off the floor as if she were no bigger than a child. When they were at eye level, he said, “I opened some of your memories to you. Can you deny what I’m saying? You’ve always done this, Teresa. Chosen yourself over your duty. Over me. Am I to stand by and watch you throw away our last chance to make right what you and your sisters fucked up so long ago?”
“I didn’t ask you to step back,” she argued. “I just wanted a minute to catch my breath. Is that so terrible?”
“You wanted the chance to back away.”
“You don’t know me,” she told him, bracing her hands on his shoulders, digging her fingers in for purchase. “All of this talk about who I was, the lives I don’t even remember—that has nothing to do with me. With who I am now.”
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