Her eyes squeezed shut as her knees threatened to give beneath her.
It was sweet. Too sweet. Rich and dark and alive in a way that hooked deep into nerves and bone. Her jaw ached, and fangs, a part of her since the barely remembered ambush millennia ago, slipped lower against the inside of her lips before she forced them back.
Not today.
She opened her eyes, looking away, anywhere but where he sat, watching her. Curious. Measuring.
“What’s your name, anyway?” She swallowed, forcing herself back to center. “And why the shit was that giant snake after you?”
He licked his lips, considering, then dipped his head, strands of dark hair slipping forward across his eyes.
“I am Kaelith.” He looked up at her through a heavy fan of dark lashes. “And as for the snake…” He smiled, revealing small, pointed canines of his own. “She did not like…my proposition.”
“Wait…” She settled back on her heels.
But before she could even form the words to ask why he’d have a proposition for a snake larger than most trees, his body pitched forward, collapsing unconscious in the dirt near her feet.
“Seriously?” She tipped her face toward the sky, groaning. “Please don’t tell me I need this asshole for the Mission.”
Exhaling, she puffed a loose strand of dark brown hair from her eyes as she looked around.
Left. Right. Dense trees hemmed her in on either side. Where the serpent had passed, the foliage lay squashed beneath the bulk of its trail, but the path vanished into shadows thickening fast as the threat of sunset grew.
“Damn it.” She sighed. He might know where the nearest city was, or whatever passed for civilization on this world.
Squatting down, her fingers threaded through the damp strands of hair at the back of his neck, lifting them from where they clung to sweat-slick skin until she found his pulse.
It was steady, if weak.
“I guess that’s good,” she muttered, leaning in without thinking.
Then—
Clouds on a starless night. Fresh-cut wood tangled with the bite of air before a storm. And, beneath it, something colder, older, like stone after rain, heavy with silence.
Her head dipped as the scent caught in her throat, nearly toppling her right into him. Instead, she lurched back, shoving herself upright like she'd been burned.
“Fuck.” Her hands itched to touch him, and feel his skin beneath her fingers, her mouth…
“Fuck!” She stood, glaring down at him like it was somehow his fault.
Her knuckles ground into her temple until the feeling backed off, leaving her skull throbbing in its place. Her nose scrunched at the unconscious man sprawled at her feet.
“Get up.”
She lifted her foot and drove her heel into his gut—not hard enough to break anything, but enough to make a point.
He gave a soft groan, but nothing else.
She pressed her tongue against the back of her teeth. “You’re going to make me carry you, aren’t you?”
Bending low, she hooked his arms under her shoulders, grumbling, “Asshole.”
Then, she hoisted him up and onto her back.
She’d find a place to camp. Somewhere away from the path that snake had carved through the woods. Somewhere with solid ground beneath her and no watching eyes.
His body hung heavier than she expected, muscle and dead weight, slumping boneless with every step she took to adjust him.
