Tall, Dark & Apocalyptic (9 page)

A dull boom rocked the ground and Audie fell to his knees, his head bowed as he lifted his arms and pictured Yeira in his mind. The dead lands swirled behind a buckling wave of shimmering energy. His stomach roiled with the movement. He closed his eyes on a surge of dizziness. Audie lifted his arms and threw back his head, imbuing the power he’d created with every ounce of energy he could give it.

The fingers of his energy stretched and burrowed through the layers of time and space…searching. A black wave curled up in his mind, pulling at his consciousness as he fought to beat it back.

His muscles shook with weariness. The power word and energy he used to enhance it wrenched every ounce of strength from his cells.

Still the magic came up empty.

Audie feared it would all be in vain. That they’d taken her beyond his grasp. A terrifying thought pulsed through his mind…a blood-chilling mantra…
What if she is lost?

Audie threw back his head and roared, power surging from him in a final, desperate push. The ground crumbled and swayed beneath his knees, pitching him forward. Audie barely caught himself before his face crashed into the rocky ground. He gritted his teeth and held onto the power for one, last, desperate push.

The magic stretched…dug…and searched an extra measure and then tensed to retract. Just as it started to pull away Audie felt her. The energy carried Yeira’s scent, teasing him with its sweetness. Her unique signature swept over him. “Yes!” He screamed to the spinning sky.

As the magic tugged her forward, through the energy tunnel he’d created, Audie’s body finally gave out and he fell forward into the festering dust.

~
TD&A
~

Yeira jerked one last time against the grip holding her shoulders and felt the energy surge up from her belly, like a hot poker digging its way through her flesh to get at the monster standing in front of her. She gave up trying to hold onto it and let it fly, her back arching under its power as it exploded away from her. The grip on her shoulders disappeared and the two guards gave startled screams as her energy slammed them backward and smashed them into the distant wall like they were nothing.

Before her, Joris stood in a wash of silvery light, his impossibly blue eyes wide with surprise and his delicate hands slightly lifted, like he’d tried to ward off her magic as he’d felt it coming. The boline he was holding was tinged with the first drops of her blood, shimmering deep red against its lethal edge.

Yeira couldn’t move, couldn’t reach for the knife and turn it on the hateful creature standing locked in her energy weave as she longed to do. She was as much a victim of her unexpected blast of magic as he was.

Something touched her.

Yeira blinked, her body softening as the magic started to slip away. She cried out as fingers of power nudged the cold skin of her arm, leaving behind a shimmering blue aura where the phantom fingers had pressed.

She started to stand, tried to move away, but Joris recovered from her magic tantrum quickly, and he pounced on her. The deadly boline sliced into the tender skin at the base of her throat, creating a shallow cut that stung but didn’t savage.

“A magic bearer. Interesting,” he ground out through gritted teeth as the knife skimmed across her flesh. “All the better for my purposes.”

The phantom magic probed her again, harder than before, and Joris’ eyes widened as if he’d felt it too.

Then the energy wrapped itself around her wrist and, before she even had time to shriek in surprise, ripped her out from under Joris and into a shimmering, blue void.

~
TD&A
~

Yeira smelled the sour, tainted air of the dead land before her feet touched the ground. She wobbled a bit as the energy left with a resounding,
whoosh
.

Blinking in disorientation, Yeira looked around, trying to figure out how she’d gotten there. A familiar form lay sprawled on the ground a few feet away. Her pulse picking up with alarm, Yeira realized what must have happened.

She bolted toward him, stumbling to a stop beside the hunter and dropping to her knees. His brow was damp with sweat and his handsome face pale. The thick arc of black lashes fluttered on his cheek as he struggled against unconsciousness.

Fear clutched her chest. What if the raven had found him? Was he gravely wounded?

Yeira grasped his arm and turned him over, taking care to lower him gently onto his back. Given his size, it was no easy task and she was panting from the effort by the time she had him settled.

A thin line of blood ran from his temple, down the side of his broad face. A quick examination told Yeira he’d sustained a small cut just below his hairline, probably when he hit the ground.

His big body trembled and, when she picked up his hand it was icy cold. Yeira wondered what had happened to him. She ran a hand over his cheek, her fingers scratching against the dark stubble. Unable to resist, she placed a fingertip into the deep dimple in his chin and smiled.

Her body tightened as she eyed him—the broad shoulders, narrow waist, and long, muscular legs—the densely muscled arms arcing away from his sides.

Her traitorous hand slid down to map the firm geography of his pecs. Her lower body tightened as she slipped her hand downward, skimming it over the taut lines of his belly and committing to memory the hard ridges of muscle there.

A narrow band of skin showed beneath the ruched up shirt, the heavy fabric having been dislodged when she moved him. The dusky, exposed skin showed a sexy belly button and the clit-tingling vision of a dark line of curls disappearing into his pants.

Placing her hand reverently over that delicious dip in his hard belly, Yeira closed her eyes. Soft black hair grazed her skin and she bit her lip as the edge of her hand nudged his leather waistband. She fought the urge to dip deeper.

A hard grip suddenly encircled her wrist and her eyes flew open on a gasp.

“It’s rude to feel a man up when he’s indisposed, woman.”

Despite her embarrassment, Yeira grinned. “It’s not very manly to faint, Hunter.”

His wide mouth compressed with irritation. “You’re welcome.”

Her grin slipped. “I could have gotten away on my own.”

But his heated blue gaze had found the bleeding cut on her throat and he growled softly as he yanked her closer. “Then you might have done it before they nearly cut your head off.”

His heat and scent swept over her. Too late, Yeira realized the hunter had regained some of his vigor, along with his body heat. Yanking her arm, she tried ineffectually to escape his gentle but firm grip. “He hardly decapitated me.”

One wide, lightly-calloused finger slid over the cut, carefully judging its seriousness. “He?” The hunter frowned but she simply shook her head, refusing to clarify. He returned his attention to her throat, his thumb skimming the area with warmth.

She barely repressed a delighted shiver.

The hunter’s frown deepened. “I was almost too late.”

Feeling overwhelmed by his nearness, Yeira tried again to get free. “Let go of me, Kord. I’m grateful for your help, but that doesn’t give you the right to manhandle me.”

Even to her ears the accusation seemed rude, ungrateful. But the hunter didn’t seem to mind.

Sliding to focus on her lips, his gaze gained heat. “Then I claim the right for myself, Yeira. Because I’m damn tired of waiting to taste your lips and feel you writhing beneath me.”

She gave an alarmed little chirp as the hunter yanked her wrist again and she fell forward, draped over his hard, hot body. But before she could scald him with her rejection his lips had claimed hers. And she was oh so lost in the magic of his kiss.

Big mistake. Huge mistake. Pleasure, hot and imperative, slammed through Audie, thickening his cock the second his lips touched hers. He dragged her closer as his lips opened and his tongue slipped through to taste her delightful essence.

She was warm and soft and deliciously alive beneath his touch. Her breasts were enticing mounds against his chest, the firmness of her nipples a clear sign that she didn’t exactly hate what they were doing.

She moaned softly and Audie experienced a jolt of real fear as his body tightened in immediate response. She was perfect in his arms, like an extension of his own body, and the thought was terrifying. He’d tried to ignore the craving that had burned in his gut for months. With harsh words and a cold demeanor, he’d tried to keep her at arm’s length.

But none of that meant anything. Because he was dangerously close to realizing that he couldn’t ignore the feelings she engendered in him. Nothing he’d tried could blind him to the burning desire her closeness caused.

The thought of her being in danger had nearly undone him. The sight of her bleeding wound made him want to kill and maim.

Audie hadn’t been sure if Yeira returned his feelings. But in that moment, as her lips moved urgently beneath his, he knew. And the knowing was like a knife in his gut.

He could no longer tell himself he was pursuing a useless hope. He knew by her reaction to his kiss that if he wanted to reach out and claim her, he’d likely find her willing and eager.

As if she knew his thoughts, she clasped his shirt in her small hands and dragged him closer. Her mouth angled hungrily over his, her sweet tongue dancing into his mouth as her hips rocked from side to side, teasing the ridge of rock-hard cock beneath his pants. Audie’s heart jumped painfully as a soft sound of need throbbed in her lovely throat.

He’d tried to dehumanize Yeira. He’d tried to place her in the same ugly bucket as the zombies the dark one had created. But she was too vibrant…too delicious…for him to easily dismiss.

More importantly, everything that made her what she was called to him. And everything within Audie craved her touch.

Like a bolt of lightning across their senses, an ugly shriek broke the spell and Audie and Yeira flew apart.

As Yeira dragged the back of her hand over her lips, still looking slightly dazed, Audie yanked his long knives from their sheaths. His gaze swung upward, toward an ominous sight. The marauding vultures were back in numbers that made Audie’s already rocketing pulse clang harder through his veins.

The massive, black and yellow killers circled directly overhead, their disturbing red gazes swinging continually downward to monitor their prey.

He glanced at Yeira. “If you still have that stone thing you might want to get us out of here. There are too many of them for me to fight alone.”

She bit her lip, her face paling. “I…they took it from me.”

Audie swore softly.

“What about you? Can’t you use your guide magics?”

He moved in front of her as the circle above their heads split and one of the giant carrion eaters flapped its massive wings and started into a dive, its oversized claws stretched toward the ground. Behind it, the circle rippled again and a second bird broke free to plummet toward them.

“I don’t think I have it in me at the moment.” He didn’t want to admit to her he’d been weakened using the power words in rescuing her. “I’d suggest you start running.”

He didn’t look at the woman but her silence beat against his back like a pair of small fists. Audie resisted the urge to defend himself. Who was she to judge him anyway?

But her words astounded him. “I’m not running away and leaving you alone, Hunter.”

Audie’s gaze jerked around. She was staring at the oncoming predators, her fingers clenching at her sides. What he saw in her face was not judgment. There was just raw fear. “Damn it, woman!”

Her pretty blue gaze jerked in his direction. “I can slow them down. But we’ll both need to run.”

He was shaking his head before she even finished speaking. “I’ll slow them down and you run.”

Yeira glanced up as the air darkened with the thick bodies of the plummeting birds. “We don’t have time to argue. When I yell
run
, run.”

Audie lifted his knives. “I’m yelling
run
now and you’d better hoof it. I don’t know how long I can hold them off.”

Yeira shook her head and bent over to pick up a large, flat rock. It was softly rounded on the top but the edges were sharp.

Audie frowned. “What the hell are you planning to do with that?”

Staggering her feet, Yeira turned her gaze upward. She held the rock flat beneath her hand, one arm twisted around her back like a discus thrower from the twenty-first century.

“You are a very stubborn woman.”

She snorted. “
I’m
stubborn. That’s rich.”

Another strident cry set off a cacophony of accompanying shrieks and a shadow fell over them. Audie lifted his knives, the muscles in his arms bunching in anticipation.

“Get ready,” she told him in a low murmur.

“I’ve
been
ready, wom…”

Yeira screamed in a respectable imitation of the vultures and spun her body in a circle, releasing the rock as she jolted to a stop. Amidst silver sparks, the stone flew straight and true, hitting the lead vulture in the throat and cleanly slicing it nearly all the way through. The vulture’s massive wings beat the air one last time and then the carrion-eater went limp, falling fast toward the ground.