AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The next few seconds were a blur. She tossed the firespark in the air, held out her hands, and screamed one word--I couldn't catch what--and a wall of flame came writhing out of her palms. Green and gold and red, a beautiful, deadly burst of fire aimed in their direction, exploding the bomb into a shock wave of flame.
The men shouted and turned to run as the jets licked at their clothing, catching their gossamer tunics alight. The bushes around the portal began to smoke as sparks flew off, sizzling against the snow.
"Rhiannon, pull it back! Pull it back!" I raced over to her side, not sure how to help her restrain the fire that had so long been repressed. She was screaming now, as the flames licked out of her hands, and her eyes had gone wide like a deer caught in the headlights.
"Move!" The voice came from the huckleberry bush to the right, and Chatter emerged. "I'll help her."
He pressed one hand against her arm and she gave him a dazed look. As he began to whisper to her, the flames lessened, and within a few seconds, she sucked them back into herself.
"Now, run--you've bought yourself time, but you've got to get out of here." He bit his lip, looking at all of us. "I can help--I can take one of you. I can run a lot faster than any of you."
"Take Rhiannon. Now!" I shoved her into his arms and she complied, still dazed. He turned and, in a blur, they were gone. "Kaylin, you get out of here on the astral."
"What about you two? I can take one of you--"
"I'll take her." Grieve emerged from the bushes, near where Chatter had been. "You take Leo and I'll bring Cicely."
I stared at him, open-mouthed. "How'd you find us?"
"I followed Chatter--did you really think I'd leave him alone with that crew from the Barrow around? Now shut up and get over here. We have to move before they come back through the portal." He opened his arms and, without another thought, I walked into his embrace, and then we were off in a blur of motion, with my Grieve holding me tight.
Chapter 17
Grieve swept me up in his arms, and pressed me against his chest as we made a beeline through the wood, faster than I could have ever imagined. While neither vampire nor Fae walked the astral, they could run like the wind--a blur of speed and movement.
I leaned against him, breathing in the intoxicating scent of autumn dreams and bonfires and old ink and pungent earth. The cadence of his heartbeat was different than my own, but he was still alive and breathing. The Vampiric Fae of the Indigo Court scared me speechless, but Grieve hadn't started out as one of them--and I still didn't believe he had been totally won over by his new nature. He wouldn't be helping us if he had been.
We flew through the trees; they went past us in a blur of snow on boughs and gnarled branches and the steady fall of flakes softly drifting down from the clouds. Wind whistled through my hair, streaking it back as we ran. A bevy of whispers whistled past, a flurry of voices buffeting my ears as we raced through the forest. I tried to catch what they were saying but the cacophony was too loud, and finally, I gave up trying.
And then, we were at the ravine, and down and up the other side, and into the yard. Grieve didn't stop, though, not until we reached the porch and I suddenly found myself standing in front of the screen door. Rhiannon was on the other side, waiting, and she opened the door and yanked me in. Grieve followed.
"Have Kaylin and Leo made it back yet?" I asked, a little breathless from the trip.
Rhiannon shook her head. "Not yet." Her face was flushed, and she blew a strand of hair back from her eyes as she nodded to the living room. "Chatter's in there, Grieve."
"Give us a minute, would you?" I put my hand on Grieve's arm. "I need to talk to you."
He followed me into the kitchen. A fervorish light in his eyes broke through the sullen expression lingering in his face. He glanced over his shoulder and then turned back to me. "What is it?"
"Grieve." I took a step toward him. "Thank you. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for letting Chatter help us."
"I had to. I can't let her hurt you, and yet I can't break free of her spell." Grieve gazed into my eyes. "Cicely, I'm so torn between duty and my heart. You make me break every instinct my body pushes me toward." His voice cracked.
And then I was in his arms, seeking his lips. "I love you, Grieve. I always have. I can't help it. You're my enemy but I need you. We need each other."
"How can you be so sure?" he whispered roughly. He wasn't smiling, but the faint curve of his lip was more than I could bear. "How can you know we aren't making a mistake that could cost you your life?"
"I don't care. I know you're dangerous--to both yourself and to me. But we are linked . . . and I don't think there's anything we can do to stop it." I threw my arms around his neck and pulled him to me.
His hands slid over my back, over my ass, leaving a trail of sparks wherever he touched. I sought his lips.
One hand fisting my hair, he darted his tongue between my lips as he fastened his mouth on mine. His touch was silk and fire as the kiss raged through my body, soaking into every pore, every inch of my skin. I moaned softly as he slid one knee between my legs and pressed me back against the counter.
I closed my legs around his, feeling the muscles under his jeans, feeling the power wrapped up in his taut, lean body. He held me fast, his lips moving from my mouth to my cheek, then to my neck where he raked his tongue over my skin, setting off a new series of explosions. His teeth grazed the soft skin there, and I felt a thin trickle of blood run free as he nipped lightly. When his saliva hit the raw skin, a growing warmth sucked me under, spreading through my system like a dark drug. And yet, I had no sense of being a bloodwhore, of being used.
Breathing heavy, I pressed against his chest as his hands slid under my shirt to cup my breasts. He rubbed his fingers over my bra as he lapped the thin trail of blood dripping from my neck. The soft slide of his tongue against my skin both irritated and aroused me--there was a sandpaper quality to it, a slight grating and I couldn't get my mind off what it was like to feel that tongue elsewhere.
My wolf growled, low and with pleasure.
