Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
Mere seconds after the sun slid over the horizon, Azrael led Jayla out of the hotel and toward the nearby mountain.
He wasn’t only in a hurry to get his sword back—although that was high on the list. But it’d also been nothing less than torture spending hours alone with the glorious female. The fierce desire to take her in his arms and claim her had slammed through him with the force of a tornado. It was only the knowledge that he wasn’t certain that Jayla’s power could retrieve his sword that leashed his instincts.
Even if Jayla was prepared to become his mate—and that was still a big if —he wouldn’t burden her with a male who would be dead within a few weeks. If not days. Once he had the sword in his hands, he would devote the rest of eternity to convincing her that they belonged together.
Glancing over his shoulder, he watched as Jayla pushed her way through the heavy underbrush.
“Do you know where you’re going?” she demanded, obviously not enjoying her scuffle with Mother Nature.
“I found a trail the first time I tried to get into the cave,” he assured her, leaping onto a tall boulder and then moving onto the ledge that wound its way up the steep incline.
Jayla quickly walked at his side. The path was narrow, but vampires possessed an uncanny grace and balance.
“How close did you get?” she asked, tilting back her head to study the peek far above them.
“To the edge of the ridge.” Azrael pointed toward the crest just below the cave. “Then, a blast of fire nearly ended everything. If I hadn’t taken a dive off the side of the mountain, I would be ash.”
His tone was light, but at the time, he’d felt a sharp-edged terror. For his very long existence, he’d been beyond immortal. He’d become accustomed to taking risks with no worry of consequences. The realization that he would no longer return from the dead without his sword, combined with his weakened condition, had forced Azrael to confront his impending death with blinding clarity.
He’d realized what was important. Or, more importantly, precisely who was important.
“Ah, that explains the battle Siros was talking about,” she murmured.
Azrael frowned before he recalled the manager whining about his extended stay when he’d crawled back to the hotel, broken and bloody from his fall.
“I didn’t want to confess that I’d been fleeing from a dragon,” he admitted. “Siros would never have let me through the door.”
Jayla sent him a wry glance. “Was it when you were diving off the mountain that you decided to invite me to confront a hormonal dragon protecting her egg?”
“After the fall, I had a couple of long and painful days of healing to consider my options,” he admitted. “That’s when I decided to approach you.”
There were a few minutes of silence as they tackled the steepest section of the path, the loose rocks beneath their feet threatening their balance. It wasn’t until they rounded a bend that she asked the question that had seemingly been on her mind.
“Why not before then?”
“Besides the fact that you tried to kill me the last time our paths crossed?” he teased.
She studied him with a searching gaze as if his answer was important to her. “Is that really the reason you stayed away?”
Azrael reached up to touch the jade pendant he wore around his neck. It’d been there since he’d awakened in his Moscow lair to discover it lying on the floor beside him. At the time, he’d told himself that it was a reminder not to be distracted by a pretty face, but he’d known even then that it had nothing to do with Jayla’s beauty. He’d clung to the pendant as if it were a talisman. A tangible connection to a future he desperately desired.
“No.” His voice was as soft as the snow that drifted from the low-hanging clouds. “You know why.”
“Do I?”
He arched his brows. “Are you going to pretend that you didn’t sense the connection between us?” He slowed his pace, willing her to speak the truth. It didn’t matter that he’d possibly chosen the worst time and place for this conversation. Or that he’d promised himself he wouldn’t press Jayla until after they’d retrieved his sword. He needed to hear her confess that there was something special between them. “It felt as if I’d been struck by lightning,” he murmured, accepting that if he expected her to share her feelings, he would have to do the same. “Why do you think I tried to convince you to leave? I didn’t want to fight you.”
She glanced away, the sweet scent of lotus filling the air. “And that’s why I stabbed you through the heart. You terrified me.”
Azrael jerked, startled by her confession. Afraid of him? “Because of my ability to touch the minds of demons?”
“No.” She glanced back at him, her eyes narrowed. “Although I might stab you again if you try to meddle with my thoughts.”
Relief blasted through him at her teasing. More than a few demons resented his ability to compel them. If Jayla had truly been frightened by his talent, it would have been…unbearable.
“It doesn’t have to be a bad thing,” he assured her, his voice low and husky. “I can give you pleasure beyond your wildest dreams without even touching you.”
Her eyes darkened, awareness heating the frigid night air. She even started to sway in his direction when she abruptly jerked away.
“I still don’t understand why you stayed away,” she muttered, picking up her speed as they followed the path that twisted sharply upward.
Azrael’s long strides easily kept pace beside her, his gaze locked on her rigid profile. “Because I knew if I sought you out and we were together again, I would never walk away.”
Her hands clenched into tight fists. “And you didn’t want to be with me?”
Azrael muttered a curse. Not want to be with her? There’d been nights when the hunger to seek her out had been nothing short of torture.
“If you knew how I struggled to stay away,” he rasped, pointing toward the edge of the path that plummeted toward the unforgiving rocks far below. “It was worse than leaping off this damned mountain.”
She kept her face averted, but Azrael could sense a portion of her tension ease. “Then why?”
“I told myself it was because I’m cursed.” He shrugged. “What female would want to be with a male who has no memory of the awful deeds he committed? Besides, there was always the chance that the curse might someday consume me.”
“But that wasn’t the reason?”
“Not entirely.” He narrowed his eyes as a punishing wind whipped over the top of the mountain, threatening to lift them off the path and into the abyss.
Was it reminding him that this wasn’t the time or place for the conversation? Leaning forward, he braced himself as they reached the upper ridge.
“Are you going to tell me?” Jayla demanded.
He glanced to where she walked at his side. She moved easily up the path, her slender form far more aerodynamic than his bulk.
“You’re very stubborn,” he helpfully pointed out.
“It’s my finest quality.”
His lips twisted as he ran a slow, thorough gaze down the length of her slender curves. “Not even close.”
“Azrael.”
It was Azrael’s turn to glance away. He’d spent the majority of his existence as a ruthless mercenary. It was the only way to survive on his own. There’d never been any need to share his emotions.
“I mourned my clan for a thousand years,” he told her, grimacing as a dull throb spread through his chest as the image of a slender female vampire with silver-blond hair and blue eyes seared through his mind. She hadn’t been a mother. Vampires didn’t have traditional parents. But she’d cared for him and taught him how to survive, which was more than most vampires were offered. Her death had left a gaping hole in his life. “I still mourn them,” he admitted. “How could I survive if I lost a mate?”
She jerked as if she’d taken a physical blow. “Mate?”
Azrael shrugged. He couldn’t tell if she was pleased or terrified by his confession. Maybe both. “You did demand an explanation.”
She shook her head. “You couldn’t know for certain. We spent less than ten minutes together.” She sent him a wry glance. “And those minutes were spent with you trying to convince me that my master was a lying, manipulative bastard while I was trying to kill you.”
Azrael smiled. She had a point. “It might not have been the most romantic first meeting, but that doesn’t alter the fact that I recognized you as my mate the moment you entered my lair,” he insisted. “I wasn’t going to risk becoming more deeply connected to you.”
“Until your life depended on it,” she said, the soft words nearly lost on the fierce breeze.
“I’ll admit that it gave me the excuse I needed,” he told her. “But I’d already started to accept that I didn’t want to be alone anymore.”
She slowed her pace, sending him a curious glance. “Is that why you started your clan?”
Azrael released a wry chuckle. “Actually, I didn’t start it. At least, not in the beginning.”
“They just appeared?” she asked dryly.
“Sort of,” he agreed. “A local clan chief in Copenhagen paid me to deal with a vampire who’d made a deal with an ogre tribe to destroy him. After I dispatched the renegade vampire, I found a dozen vampires locked in his dungeons.” He shrugged. “I wasn’t going to leave them imprisoned, so I opened their cell doors and released them. The last thing I expected was for them to follow me when I left.”
Her lips twitched as if she were amused at the image of him returning to his lair with a dozen vampires trailing behind him like lost puppies. He hadn’t been nearly so amused. At least, not at the time. He’d tried to run them off, but they refused to go more than a few miles from his lair. They insisted they were in his debt for him releasing them from the dungeon. And no matter how many times he told them he didn’t need repayment, they refused to budge.
At last, he’d given in to the inevitable.
“I slowly allowed myself to accept my need for family,” he murmured. “I also accepted that being away from you caused more pain than I was avoiding. At some point, I knew I’d need to search for you. I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself.” He paused, waiting for her to respond. When she remained silent, he reached out to brush his finger down her cheek. “It’s your turn.”
“My turn for what?”
“Why did I terrify you?”
She easily leaped over a large boulder blocking the path. “You made me question my devotion to my master,” she said. “I wasn’t prepared to accept the truth.”
“And that’s it?” he pressed. “Just a fear of realizing you were being manipulated?”
“There might have been more.” Each word sounded as if it were being wrenched from her lips.
Azrael stepped close to her side as the path narrowed. “Why do I sense you would prefer to confront the dragon than reveal your feelings?”
“It would certainly be less awkward,” she muttered.
“Why is it awkward?”
“I’m not a touchy-feely sort of vampire. I don’t discuss my…”
Azrael hid his smile as her words trailed away. He preferred not to endure another dagger strike to his heart. At least, not until he got his sword back.
“Emotions?”
“Exactly.”
“Why not?”
Her jaw tightened. “I have a talent for killing and business.”
“And for charming demons,” he added. Siros had been bewitched.
“But I have no talent for sharing my feelings.”
Azrael resisted the urge to tease her. They were the same. Although she’d been with a clan, she was a loner by nature. It meant that neither of them was a lovey-dovey vampire. They knew how to hunt, kill, and escape. They would never spend their nights curled up on a couch, reciting poetry to each other.
And he was okay with that.
“If you find words difficult, I’m not opposed to you demonstrating your emotions in other ways,” he offered, his voice low and husky.
She sent him a wry smile. “So generous.”
“True,” he agreed. “I’m renowned for my generosity.”
A silence descended as they approached a towering rock formation directly in front of them. The ridge that led to the cave was just on the other side.
“I didn’t want you to die,” Jayla abruptly confessed.
If Azrael had a heart that beat, it would have stopped at her words. The words he’d waited seven hundred years to hear. Still, he ached for more.
“Because?”
“Because it destroyed a part of me.”
“There. That wasn’t so hard, was it?” he teased.
“I’d rather face the dragon,” she groused, climbing over the jagged rock with graceful ease.
Azrael quickly followed behind her, grimacing at the shocking heat that smacked him directly in the face.
“You’re about to get your opportunity,” he said, a shudder racing through him.
He hadn’t forgotten the sensation of being this close to a dragon, but he’d told himself that his memory was an exaggeration. After all, nothing like a near-death experience got the adrenaline pumping. Even for a vampire.
Beside him, Jayla held out her hand as if astonished by the thick air that pulsed against them. “It feels like we’ve entered the netherworld.”
Azrael nodded toward the nearby cave. “It only gets worse.”
Coming to an abrupt halt, Jayla turned to face him. “You stay here.”
Before he realized what he intended to do, Azrael reached out to grasp her arm. “Jayla.”
She sent him a puzzled frown. “I’ll return before you know it. Literally.”
He tightened his grip, unwilling to let her go. “Not yet.”
“The longer we wait, the more danger to both of us.”
She was right. They were close enough that the dragon would sense them if she woke. So why wasn’t he urging her to hurry and retrieve his sword?
Because he was suddenly terrified, he realized with a jolt of surprise. It was easy to concoct the daring plan when he was tucked in his bed, recovering from his injuries. He’d get Jayla up the mountain, and she could stop time and retrieve the sword. In and out. No fuss, no muss, right? Now, standing on the ridge with the savage power threatening to crush them, he couldn’t release his hold on her.
The thought of allowing her to waltz into the den of a dragon…no, not just a dragon, a female dragon protecting her egg…twisted his gut into a knot of sheer terror.
“Are you certain your power will work on a dragon?” he demanded.
She arched her brows as if caught off guard by the question. “There’s only one way to find out.”
“No.” Still holding her arm, he pulled her back toward the rock that blocked the path. “I should never have asked you to come here.”
Jayla dug in her heels. “What are you doing?”
“I can’t allow you to enter that cave,” he announced, his voice hard with regret. Why the hell had he ever brought her to this place? “Not when we have no idea if the dragon is immune to your powers. Or even if you’ll be able to hold onto the sword.”
“Without your sword, you’ll die.”
He glanced away from her hauntingly beautiful face, watching the snowflakes drift past and swirl down the chasm just a few inches away.
“Perhaps it’s my fate,” he murmured in soft tones. “I have risen from the grave more times than a vampire has any right to?—”
“No.” Without warning, Jayla reached up to frame his face in her hands. “A miracle brought you back into my life. Nothing is going to take you away again.”
He felt the cool brush of her lips.
Then the world froze.