Chapter 6
Six
That villain thinks he’s got me. The path between flames was too narrow for Mina to skirt him, so logic dictated a full-bore assault.
He had to be taken down anyway, and the lava hadn’t done her work for her.
Brace, fiend. Here I come. Over these last hours, the plague had continued to take hold. Her arm wound had worsened, her aggression increasing.
She didn’t slow, just picked up speed. By the way he frowned at her eyes, they must be reddening even more. Fear me. All the worlds should. And that had been before her affliction.
She feinted again, as if she were going to dart past him?—
At the last second, she barreled straight into him with unexpected strength, sending him flying backward.
Air whooshed from his lungs, surprise on his face. Training took over, and she flung her head down to snap her forehead against his nose.
Crack!
“Fucking leech!” He grabbed her shoulders, looking like he’d toss her into the lava. So she grabbed his shoulders as well. Where I go, you go.
Their position—her straddling him, each clutching the other—seemed to register with them at the same moment. His eyes narrowed; hers widened.
Then her attention dipped to his jugular nestled along rigid neck muscles. It pulsed with a dinner bell’s tempo. Mina’s fangs—never needed before—sharpened for the first time to answer that call.
When he stiffened beneath her, she wrenched her gaze to his face.
“Are you a mad one, then?” His expression was one of bemused fascination, his heartbeat a repeating thunderclap in her plagued mind.
“Maybe I am!” She could see the appeal. Lothaire had zero cares; Mina had all cares. I shed them.
Lava surrounded her and the sorcerer. Between them was sweat, pumping hearts, and that pulsing jugular. They were in hell, about to be kissed by its flames, and maybe they both belonged here.
“Look at you,” he grated. “You want my blood so badly you can all but taste it. “
Dacians don’t drink from others!
Yet that was no longer true.
She rubbed her tongue over a fang, enjoying the new contrast of sharp and tender. Am I already turning into a monster?
“Try to bite me, leech, and see where that gets you.”
The cruelty in his voice brought her back to reality. She snapped her fangs at him and snatched her knee up between his legs. His sound of pain was a cough mixed with a groan.
As if she hadn’t just unmanned him, he flipped her onto her back, pinning her arms. She thrashed but couldn’t shake him.
He stared at her lips the way she’d stared at his neck. Hungrily. Was he about to . . . to kiss her? Lava neared! Despite the threats all around—despite him —her traitorous body stilled beneath his.
Eyes glazed, he leaned down . . .
She scented burning hair, realized it was hers. “Stop! You’re going to get us both killed!”
He shook his head hard, then swept his gaze around them. “You’re coming with me.” Keeping her wrists in hand, he lumbered to his feet, dragging Mina to hers.
A fast-flowing stream of lava blocked the way they’d come. Pulling her along with him, he twisted around for an alternative. Pools of fire circled them, too wide for even an immortal to leap over.
Trapped.
Over his lifetime, Silt had imagined his demise in myriad lights. But he’d never pictured himself burning to death while semihard for a predator princess who’d just introduced her knee to his balls. “I told you we couldn’t cross this, maneater.” No surprise; they were fucked.
When he released the vampire, her gaze darted. “Do something then, oh great King of Sand. Use your sorcery! Sand extinguishes fire.”
Not a mere pocketful of it! “There’s no sand in this realm. I’m picking up ash, marble, and obsidian—nothing to help me.” At the height of his powers, he could have disintegrated rock into grains. Not now.
Silt had no gear, no power of flight or levitation. Unless . . .
Swiping sweat from his eyes, he snagged the sand from his pocket and called on his sorcery. Sputtering light emerged from his palms, a measure of how little power remained on tap. Most immortals grew stronger with age, but his abilities had waned from disuse and his unnatural appetites.
Lava shot toward his feet, singeing his skin. Another nearby dam of rock gave way, more lava racing for them.
“Sorcerer, whatever you’re planning, begin now .”
Do this, or die, Silt.
Simple.
He straightened his shoulders and made another attempt to connect with the grains. His palms brightened a shade. Good enough! Clenching his jaw, he shoved both of his hands forward. The sand straggled into the air, then dropped into the shape of a sparse platform.
Would it be enough to hold him? Maybe.
Her as well? Doubtful.
“Now what?” she asked. “Is this supposed to be a party trick or an escape? I’m confused.”
“Will you shut up?” Survival argued against revenge. Revenge won, and he snared the vampire and hurried atop the sand, his free arm pinwheeling for balance. A heartbeat from failure, the platform scarcely supported them. Just below it, lava bubbled where they’d just been standing.
She murmured, “This idea is logical. Make it work.”
Easier said. He’d once relocated entire deserts. Now he struggled to control a handful of sand.
Then he glanced down at the vampire.
Time felt momentous—his dream of an oasis hitting his consciousness like a sledgehammer. Keeping his gaze on her, he urged his power on.
The platform jerked forward in fits. Flames beneath him heated the grit, cauterizing his sliced feet. He bit back a yell.
“Focus,” she said in a soothing tone. “We’re almost there.”
He held her gaze as he would a lifeline, inching them toward a raised rock plateau. With a last burst of sorcery, he maneuvered them to safety—just as his sand collapsed. Keeping her pinned against him, he dropped to his knees and sucked in air.
By all the gods, he’d done it! He’d gone so long without accomplishing anything that he’d forgotten the satisfaction. The hedonist in him craved more of this feeling. Silt frowned. Had he once been driven?
After centuries of oblivion, I have no idea who or what I am.
The vampire cast him a wary look with her cheeks flushed. The little leech was as beautiful as she was bloodthirsty. Even her curious irises couldn’t mar her looks. Beside him, her trembling body was all curves and promises.
The intensity of his arousal shocked him. As before, her lips called to him.
Yet rumbling sounded, tremors vibrating his knees.
He loosened his grip for a split second. Which was all she needed to spring away—just as a geyser burst from the ground beneath him.