Chapter 5 #2
“Now, I’ll never know why the hell these powers appeared and are ruining my life!” She circled him.
“Ash!”
“I’m not talking to you, I’m still too mad—”
He turned with her. “You can be mad at me once we’re back on Earth. We need to get out of here before the she-dragons return.”
She glared at him, all six-foot-seven-plus of infuriating, unfairly beautiful male.
Barefoot, he prowled toward her, moving with lethal grace and barely leashed power, his silver hair catching the moonlight, broken only by dark ebony streaks at his brow.
How can I be so aware of him and furious all at once?
“Ash.” He reached for her, but she ducked him.
“Don’t you dare. If you think I’m letting you near after you got me into this nightmare—”
“Ash,” he growled. “We’re leaving. Now. You can yell at me later.”
“Later when? After you turn into a bloody dragon again? After you fly me to some other bizarre place—”
“No flying.” He caught her arm. “Hold on.”
“Hold on to what—?”
The cave dissolved around them, and she flung her arms around his waist, her eyes shut tight. Heat rushed through her, as if she were being turned inside out, and then there was nothing—no weight, no sensation—just air. Oh, God, oh, God.
“Fuck!” His curse drifted in the ether, as if from a distance.
The impression of moving through mist continued until the world snapped back into gloomy darkness. Her knees buckled as her feet touched ground.
“Damn it,” she gasped, grabbing his arm to stay upright. “You did that thing again!”
“Dematerializing—”
“Of course, it is. Because turning into a bloody enormous dragon and scaring the life out of me wasn’t enough,” she retorted, panting for air. “Any other powers you’d like to tell me about? Pull rabbits from hats? Make tea appear out of thin air?”
“No tea.” His lips twitched. “Besides, I doubted you’d want to sit on my dragon’s neck or hang from my claw.”
“It’s not funny.” She scowled, sweeping back her damp hair, the cool air refreshing in this…this forest he’d dropped them in. “Those other dragons you killed nearly burned me inside that cave.”
The humor vanished from his expression. “Where was Skaldr?”
“How would I know?” She paced over the moss-covered ground, more gray rather than green under the moonlight. “He met with someone. I heard them, and then he appeared and said he’d be back.”
His eyes narrowed. “He left you alone?”
“Yes.” Ash glanced up and frowned. The night sky was clearer here, with no heavy cloud cover. Her gaze latched onto an enormous, violet-tinged moon—far larger than she’d ever seen. “This isn’t Earth. Where are we? I thought you were taking me back?”
“I tried. The portal basin is heavily guarded. It seems they’re aware the gateway was used.”
“So, then, when?”
His brow furrowed. “We’ll try in…two days, when things settle down.”
“Two days!” she yelled.
His expression darkened. “We will leave, make no mistake. I must check in… Never mind.”
“No, I do mind. Check in—why?” Her gaze searched his.
He studied the trees surrounding them, moonlight gleaming off his bare torso, and shrugged. “So, Michael doesn’t think I’m dead. And since you’re obviously on a scouting-slash-holiday trip, no one would throw a ruckus if you don’t report in, right?”
About to say her mother would start to worry, Ash sighed at the futility of that. Her job sometimes took her away for long periods with no contact. Then there was the proprietor, Ama Deni…
Ugh. For now, she was stuck there.
Her gaze followed the rising ground toward what looked like a clearing, with shrubs clinging to the looming rock face and a large, darkened crack. “God, not another hole in the mountain.”
“It’s hidden and defensible.”
“Wonderful. Trading one cave for another.” She shivered as adrenaline waned, everything that had happened finally catching up with her. “At least this one’s not in the clouds.”
“You’re cold. Let’s get out of here.” He headed up the incline, his strides eating up the ground while she stumbled after him on shaky legs.
Beneath the moonlight, she could just about make out the cave mouth now partially hidden by thick vegetation.
Race tore the brush away from it, then he gripped the entrance and stilled.
“What is it?” she whispered. “Animals?”
He shook his head, but his tense form said otherwise—like he sensed something wrong.
He was one of the most formidable people she’d ever met, and he hesitated to enter a cave?
Then the sensation slipped away, and he stalked inside.
Frowning, Ash followed, and sheer darkness surrounded her. Only Race’s gleaming hair gave a clue as to where he was.
“Home sweet home,” she muttered. “I don’t suppose you can light up this place, can you?”
A small flame danced in his palm, casting flickering shadows on rough stone walls, revealing a cavernous space, wide enough to hold two semi-detached houses stacked four stories high.
“Dragonfire.” She huffed, eyeing his dancing flame. “Should have guessed.”
His lips twitched again, almost a smile.
She turned away before she did something utterly stupid and planted her mouth on his like some kiss-starved idiot. “So, what’s the plan then? Hide in this cave while dragons hunt us and wait for a chance at the portal?”
“For now.”
“Wonderful.” She sank onto a boulder. “Just so we’re clear, I’m still furious with you. I’m just too exhausted to properly express it right now.”
“Noted.”
“How did you know about this place, anyway?” She raked back her hair from her face.
“Old memories. People used to live here once…” He walked around, as if unable to stay still, his flame illuminating more of the granite walls. “You’ll need provisions. Food…”
“How do you plan on getting those, then?”
He didn’t respond. Just lit a moldy torch and jammed it between the fallen rocks before moving deeper into the cave. The soft light revealed smaller chambers branching off. Natural ledges broke up the walls, and somewhere in the darkness came the soft sound of trickling water.
He turned. His eerie claret eyes skimmed her face in that slow, deliberate way of his, and suddenly, there was no air in the cave. Her chest felt too tight. But all he said was, “You should rest,” then headed for the entrance.
Ash shot to her feet, rushing after him. “You’re leaving? Just like that?”
Outside, he stopped near a cluster of trees, their needle-thin leaves glinting like coagulated blood under the moonlight. “You’ll be safe here.”
“That’s not—” Damn it. How did she explain that after everything she’d gone through, being alone in another cave in this terrifying realm wasn’t exactly reassuring? “Fine. Go. I’ll just wait, again.”
He studied her for a moment as she tramped through the weed-choked ground, trying to calm down. “I don’t sense any immediate danger, but I do want to scout the area. Make sure there are no unwelcome surprises. And hunt.”
She kicked a small rock out of her way. “I thought you knew where we are?”
“Nyxholt. Another zone west of Caelvyrn, so it’s still night.” He lifted his gaze to the soaring treetops, the bright moonlight dappling them and silvering the ground. “Lemurians who are non-shifters usually resided in these kinds of dwellings. It may have been millennia, but I remember.”
Her jaw almost hit her chest. “Millennia? As in a thousand years?”
A taunting smile. “More.”
“Wait-wait.” She flashed out a hand. “Just how old are you?”
He shrugged. “By mortal standards, several thousand. You?”
Ash gawked at him. She opened her mouth, shut it, then tried again. “I’m twenty—nearly twenty-seven. You’re immortal?”
“Aye.” A faint smile touched his mouth. “And you’re a mere babe, vixen.”
“That name’s irritating,” she grumbled, stomping through the underbrush, trying to make sense of what he’d just revealed. She wheeled back, and her boot caught on a hidden root—
“Eeep!”
Strong arms caught her before she faceplanted. Her heart slammed against her ribs, her palms instinctively flattening against his bare chest. God, he was so warm. Solid.
Her fingers dug into his skin, she dragged in a shaky breath, and his scent hit her fully—burnt ember edged with ice—it flooded her lungs and stirred her senses. Ash looked up.
His claret stare darkened with an intensity so visceral she swore it felt as if he were touching more than just her back, and a thread of desire slid through her. His nostrils flared, then she was freed.
Ash rubbed her arms, trying to shake off the sudden rush of lust. What the bloody hell was that?
“Yes, I am that old,” he said as if the moment had never happened.
“So,” she murmured, “dragons lived here?”
Brilliant save, Ash. Ugh.
“No, entire clans of non-shifters did.” He gestured toward the abandoned cave. “But the dragons drove them out when the wardlines came into being.”
She frowned. “Because they couldn’t shift, they were cast aside?”
“Yes.” He stepped away, boots crunching on red pine needles and gravel, his gaze lifting to the trees. “The dragon lord who ruled these lands was all about the species thriving and a divider. Anyone without a shift, he saw as below par.”
“Yeah. We’ve got those kinds everywhere. Xenophobes,” Ash said, too aware he kept moving, widening the space between them.
Because she’d fallen against him? He was the one who grabbed her.
Well, if he wanted to play knight to her clumsiness, entirely his problem.
Ash stepped carefully over a twisted root that looked far too much like a claw and sat on a boulder near the cave mouth. “Just so we’re clear, if something crawls out of the shadows, I’m setting it on fire.”
He turned. “Don’t. Drawing attention out here is a bad idea. I won’t be long.”
She braced her forearms on her thighs, trying not to show her fear at being left alone in this dark, dangerous world—
Oh, bugger this!
“I’m coming, too.” She bolted to her feet. “I refuse to wait around, be a sitting duck for your enemies to find again.”
He rubbed a hand over his chest, and her traitorous gaze followed the movement. Her fingers curled at her sides. Jesus, but he was tall. Even barefoot, the top of her head barely reached his chest—and she’d always thought five-eight made her tall.
He lowered his hand, a tic working in his jaw. “You do realize I’ll be hunting, yes? That means killing.”
“Stop trying to scare me.” She glared. “It won’t work. Not after I faced your terrifying she-dragons.”
“They aren’t mine.” His mouth thinned. “Very well. If you insist on coming, step quietly.”
Seriously? Did he think she would waddle around like an unwieldy baby elephant, thrashing noisily?
They walked deeper into the forest until moonlight barely reached the ground. The air grew thick with the scent of sweet pine and something older. Earthy. Wilder.
Race moved like he belonged to the dark.
Ash trailed along in silence, questions colliding in her mind. Why did he no longer live in his world, and what was he embroiled in now?
But since he was hunting, answers would have to wait.
He stopped in a small clearing, his head tilting as he sniffed the air.
“Wait here,” he said, already moving through the dense trees, and he vanished.
Ash backed up until her spine hit a trunk, its bark biting through her top. The quiet swallowed her whole, and she wrapped her arms around her waist.
A ferocious growl shattered the silence, and she froze. Bodies crashed through the trees—Race in black pants, bare-chested, wrestling a blur of golden fur and muscles. They rolled through the weeds and muck, too fast for her to track, the snarls and roars tearing through the night.
Ash stood there, her throat dried out. Her nerves stretched to the breaking point until a single low snarl signaled the end of the fight.
Race rose from the ground, slinging the dead wildcat over his shoulder. Claw marks streaked across his chest, dripping red as he glanced around, his gaze finding her.
He didn’t speak. Just tossed the carcass on one of the flat stones. Heat shimmered around him, then fire rolled from his palm. The stench of burning fur and scorched meat saturated the air as he charred one leg, tore it off, and set it on the rock near her.
Ash remained statue still.
He stalked back to his kill, hunkered down, ripped the other leg free, and bit in—raw, bloody, brutal. Flesh tore. Bone cracked. He made no effort to hide anything and didn’t seem to care she was watching.
It was as if he wanted her to see him for what he was—the blood dripping from his mouth, the indifference in his eyes as he tore through the kill.
That he wasn’t human.
And never would be.
She drew in a shaky breath and looked down at the chunk of meat he’d set before her. Bile surged up her throat; whatever hunger she had shriveled and died.
He didn’t glance her way again, just kept ripping into the carcass, blood streaking his chin, his chest.
And for the first time since meeting him, real fear coiled through her.
His pretty facade was just that. Beneath it lay something savage. Ancient. Death given form.
If she weren’t careful, she’d be swept right into its path.