Chapter 16 #2
That the gorgon hadn’t killed me was a feat in itself, and that she was willing to help me in some way, even more…I wasn’t sure special was the right word. But I didn’t get the feeling she helped many.
I slowed my feet as we approached the trees, breathing in the smells around me, picking up the scent of the bird and…a wolf. Not a riftwolf, a real wolf, like those I’d heard howling.
The scent curled into me, like the warm presence of someone who knew me. I tipped my head back and let out a low howl, pitching it so that it was non-threatening, surprising myself.
How the fuck had I known how to pitch my voice? It probably would do nothing.
A huff and then a yip answered me, and a female poked her head out from around a large tree, her dark eyes staring hard at me.
Her coat was a deep chocolate brown, tipped at the tail and her ears in a cream, her legs in cream stockings.
She was a beauty, striking in her lean powerful build and unusual coloring.
“Hello, lovely.” I went to one knee and a moment later she bounded across to me, bowling me over, yipping and barking as if we were long last pack mates as she licked at my face.
I laughed and let her wrestle with me a moment before the strangeness of the moment hit me.
She acted as if she were not a wild wolf.
As if I were not human.
Her fur was thick and smelled like crisp pine needles and musk. She bunted her nose against mine, gave one last huff, and spun leaving me there to wonder at what had just happened.
Sorrow swooped above my head, his wingtips and tail brushing through my hair. “Bird.”
I tipped my head and watched as he angled toward the forest, away from the she-wolf. She still watched me from the shadows of the trees, her body blending in perfectly, but I could sense her, not unlike how I’d been able to sense Dakota. Perhaps this was part of my skill set?
Good with animals?
Curious if it extended to all animals I mentally threw out a line toward Sorrow and felt a connection drawing me forward right to where he sat in a tree, hidden behind the leaves. I wouldn’t have seen him, wouldn’t have even looked for him there.
“The tracking business is…interesting.” I muttered to myself. Like it was very much a part of me, not difficult and yet if I hadn’t ever thought to wonder where Dakota was, how long before I knew what I could do? Then again, Veyyr had known. He’d have put me in a position where I had to use it.
I frowned, anger snapping through me at the thought of how much he knew about me, and what I didn’t know about myself. Fucking bastard.
What else could I do with this tracking ability? Was there something that Veyyr wouldn’t know?
I drew a deep breath, closed my eyes and opened myself up to that part of me that had found Dakota, unspooling it. Instead of reaching for a singular person or animal, I pushed my tracking ability further out and let it feel its way around me.
With my eyes closed the feedback from the different…
threads, they felt like strings between me and the other things…
rolled back to my hands—the animals in the forest all felt very different.
From the squirrels and their frantic energy searching for food, to the wolf who skulked behind me, waiting and hopeful, and all of them belonged here.
The karruk was deeper in the forest. I opened my eyes and followed the thread, letting the others slide to a sort of background hum of energies. Not that I could see the thread, but I could feel it and as long as I stayed going in the direction of where I connected to the bird, it drew me onward.
Just like I’d done with Dakota.
I dropped to a crouch and pulled my bow when I was within distance.
The rustle of a much larger body, the deep caw of the karruk too close for comfort with its hooked claws, shitty attitude and toothy beak. I raised and loosed an arrow, taking the bird out in one shot, the arrow going straight through its heart.
Right where the connection to it was.
As its life force faded, the connection slid away. Gone. A chill slipped over me and I shivered.
Shaking it off, I made quick work of dressing the bird, throwing the guts to Sorrow and some over my shoulder to the she-wolf. They both gobbled the still warm offal down, the remnants licked and pecked clean in a matter of minutes. Grabbing the bird’s feet, I started back to the makeshift camp.
I almost tracked Rana. Almost. But the thought of feeling the life fade out of her like I’d sensed in the karruk or worse, not finding her at all had me holding back.
But I could reach for Veyyr.
It wasn’t hard to picture his face, from the sharp angle of his jaw and chin, the silver hair braided back, the tattoos that made my fingers itch to trace them and those fucking icy blue eyes that seemed to burn with cold fire whenever he looked at me.
The thread snapped out and in place immediately and I turned with it, sensing him somewhere far, far north. Was that where Thorn lived then when she wasn’t out hunting me?
Was that why the northern end of the maps was all crossed off, because of her?
I flexed my hand of the arm he’d marked, feeling the thread wrap tighter around my forearm.
My eyes fluttered closed and I ran my fingers over the thread, feeling it in the air, sliding one finger at a time over it.
This connection to him felt different than all the others and I knew in my gut it had to do with the bonding he’d placed on me.
“Bastard,” I whispered as I stroked the thread again, sending warmth and heat along the line to him, thinking about just where I would touch him.
Along his inner thigh, down the curve of his ass, stroking down his hard length to his overtight…
muscles. Wherever he was, I was going to make him squirm.
A smile slipped over my lips as I let thoughts of our bodies mashed together in the alley slide down the line, of the moments before Isla poisoned Rana and we’d been so near to ripping each other’s clothes off I could have fucking orgasmed with the barest of touches, except I let my mind take it all the way, imagined riding him as he bucked beneath me, grasping my hips, bodies slick with sweat.
The connection between us trembled, shaking with pent up need, straining to make the pleasure real.
“Fuck you, Veyyr. Enjoy your blue balls,” I whispered as I started to pull the connection away. Let him sweat and squirm wherever he was, he wouldn’t know that I was in no better shape.
But before I could fully let go of him and the connection, a thrum of electricity bit back at me, racing down the line then sliding up my arm, shooting through my body, drawing a hard gasp from me as it curled tight around my aching center, pulsing and stroking, demanding that I pay attention to the phantom touch.
I refused it, biting back on the pleasure. Fuck him indeed. I yanked my ‘unique skill set’ away from Veyyr.
The connection between us snapped closed and I was on my knees once more, breathing hard, my blood thrumming in my veins for all the wrong reason. I couldn’t seem to just leave him be…the only consolation I had was that he didn’t seem to have any easier of a time leaving me alone either.
As if we’d played this game before.
But did I play this game with him because I wanted to torture him, or because I wanted to torture myself?