In the morning, she’d ask her questions and decide if he was worth the trouble of keeping alive.
Chapter two
“Riseandshine,shithead.”Rynna crouched beside Kaelith.
Propped up against a tree, his bleeding had slowed, thick and sluggish now, but it still leaked through the torn fabric.
She frowned. The puncture must’ve gone deep.
Slowing her breathing, she listened with the strange awareness that ticked beneath her skin. His heartbeat was a thready, barely therethump thump, but steady enough.
Fingers pinching the bridge of her nose, she didn’t know if that left her annoyed or relieved. Wandering blind through this forest was a fool’s errand, and carrying his limp form wasn’t much better.
“I said, wake up.” Her hand went back, aiming to smack that smirk off his face—the one that lingered, somehow, even in unconsciousness.
But, before she could connect, his hand shot up, grabbing her wrist in a grip that shouldn’t have been that fast, not with how broken he looked.
Her body jolted in surprise, muscles going taut as instinct pushed at her to break free.
Then his eyes fluttered open, narrowing with careful focus as they found hers. Two dark pools, seemingly endless.
Is the ground further away?Her center drew toward him before she stopped herself, nails digging into her palm.
“Let go.” She yanked at her hand, but his fingers only tightened as his mouth quirked, amusement straining the edges of pain.
Then, his tongue slipped out from between his lips, skimming the underside of her wrist before it flicked up the line of her forearm.
Hot. Wet. Rough. And entirely too long and nimble for a human tongue.
What if…Her teeth snagged on the swell of her bottom lip, and for a moment, she imagined what that tongue might doelsewhere.
Jerking harder, she stumbled, toppling back onto her rear.
“Gross,” she forced the word from somewhere too far beneath her ribs.
“Seemed only fair, after you took such pleasure in tastingmeyesterday,” he sighed, watching her.
“What!” She cradled her wrist as the memory of his blood on hertongue nearly dropped her fangs. Again.
Kaelith’s laugh scraped from his throat, vibrating through her body, and down…
Get it together! He’s just a stupid man.She scooted further away, watching as his laugh broke apart into a wet cough, and flecks of that dark, delicious blood stained his chin.
“You are horrible.” Her mouth flattened as she scrubbed a hand over her face.
“And I still don’t know your name.” His other hand dropped. “But I think this is what you’re looking for…”
Eyes narrowing, she tracked the motion as his fingers slipped beneath the waistband of his pants. “That is not—”
He withdrew a crumpled piece of vellum, dirt-smeared and folded in quarters.
“Oh?” He held it out between two fingers. “You weren’t keeping me around because you need help getting out of this wretched jungle?”
She snatched it from his hand. “Obviously.”
“You’ll need me to provide orientation.”
“Oh?” She unfolded the vellum, frowning down at the scrawl. A few uneven lines crisscrossed the page, thin and uncertain, ending in what might have been flames drawn in the far right corner. But there were no labels, nor scale.
