Darius swore just as two wraiths rushed in to grab him by the collar of his jacket, jerking him away from me.They threw him against the trunk of a very large pine tree, and he slid down, landing on his ass, a heap of broken Storm Lord.
The waning moonlight made everything appear in black and white, and the blood streaming down his slack face could be nothing but bad.
A wraith darted in close to whisper in my ear, “I’m done waiting.”Then the bastard wrapped its hand around my hair and bent my head back to expose my neck.
My pulse raced as if I’d run a marathon.
But any paralyzing horror refused to come, buried under a blaze of anger.Huh, maybe I was a lot more like Darius than I’d thought.
“You can’t,” another said.“This one’s been marked.”
An argument ensued above me, and at the angle at which they held my neck, I couldn’t see Darius.Desperate for any kind of contact with him, I tried the impossible and thought at him as hard as I could.
Darius, are you okay?
The wraith holding me yanked my head back farther and made a thin slash along my throat, a stinging cut that drew blood.
“We have to bring this one to the master intact,” another wraith insisted.“But the Storm Lord is ours to play with.Why not take a turn on him?”
The squabble continued as a rumble of thunder shook the air.
Great.All we needed was more hail.
The sarcastic thought helped me maintain my sanity, because I was on the verge of freaking the hell out.And neither Darius nor I could afford to take a mental break right now.
“Darius,wake up.I need you here!”Darius, please.Don’t leave me.Not when I’ve just found you.
He moaned, and I felt so much relief I would have sagged on my feet if that blasted wraith hadn’t been holding me up by my hair.
My heart blazed with joy, and my eyes filled as he blinked himself awake.
“What hit me?”he slurred.
“Two wraiths.”The one holding me continued to hiss in argument with the others, not paying me much attention except to hold me.“There are four more, making a total of six we have to deal with.”
He didn’t say anything, and I still couldn’t see him.I didn't didn’t know the extent of his new injuries.
“I heard what you didn’t say.”He sounded smug, and for a moment I didn’t understand.Then he added, “You love me.Don’t deny it.I heard you—I felt it within you.”
My neck ached, we were on the verge of being killed and probably eaten by ugly, disgusting monsters, and he wanted me to confess my feelings?I wanted to punch him.
“You are unbelievable!”
“I know,” he said with no small amount of conceit, and as much as I wanted to knock some sense into him, I was glad that he at least had all his faculties.“But that’s part of why you love me.”
“You’re insufferable.”
“Yeah, I am.”He chuckled.“And super hot, hung like a—what do you call them?Elephant—andI’m a prince.It’s no wonder you want me.Ahem, no.That youloveme.”
He sounded way too thrilled for an injured guy about to die.
Apparently, the argument between the wraiths had come to a conclusion, because the wraith holding me tightened its grip and pressed its claws deeper into my neck.I’d been uncomfortable, but now I started to hurt.Badly.
“Samantha,” Darius snapped.“Affai, open your mind to me.Now.”
With the urgency I now faced, I didn’t question him.
At once, I let myself go.I felt his presence within me, felt him sharing my spirit, my soul.And then warmth unfurled throughout my body, filling every pulse and beat of my heart.
