“Hurt?”He coughed to clear his dry throat.“Are you hurt anywhere?”
She was doing her best to keep up; snow kissed her tangled hair.“I don’t… oh, God, what thehellis that?”
“Kthul.”He had his breath now, and tried to ignore her patting at his elbow.“Dead.Don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry?”A jagged, half-screaming little laugh escaped her, vanishing into the snow.“Don’t fuckingworry?”
That’s right, beautiful.They won’t even get close enough to smell your perfume.
Except they had.Akthulhad been within arm’s length of her.
Standing and fighting was an option, sure.But he had aliraito protect, and the temple had to be close.It might even be under attack, and another potential to add to the force of the Dreamers inside its walls would be welcome, not to mention another Son to help hold the defenses.Maybe that’s why he hadn’t felt it once they were off the freeway?
Erik found out he didn’t care.The only thing that mattered was the shivering woman next to him, heroneiroslighting with deep coruscating colors and her warmth about to be lost in a whirling, unnatural storm.Snow smacked ceaselessly at them and she shivered again, her eyes wide and wild like a frightened animal’s.
That decided him.The knife, flicked free and clean of ichor, slid back into its home; his arm circled her waist.“Stay with me,” he said, and gathered himself.“Just stay with me.”
It was time to vanish.The SUV stilled its rocking, a spill of gasoline lighting with a softwumplost under the sound of the storm.
Place Is Dark
Her head bouncedagainst Erik so hard she almost saw stars.At least he wasn’t carrying her over his shoulder like a caveman, but the jolting, bouncing ride with snow spattering a hard invisible shield a few inches in front of them was bad enough.
It was almost like being on horseback, an elastic bunching and leaping, but the world was doing funny things under his feet, sliding away like oil on a hot griddle and turning into a patchwork of bright snow and twisted, shadowed landscape that made her abused stomach consider emptying itself through whatever upward route was handy.It was better when she closed her eyes and pushed her face against him; Erik was warm, comforting, and safe.
Just when he’d become so she had no idea, unless it was the exact moment the window shivered into pieces and the blackened, frostbitten, terriblywrongcreature with its nest of writhing things near the far-too-large mouth had leered at her.
Or maybe it was when Erik moved his chin slightly, rubbing against her hair, his stubble scratching.He didn’t have to offer any comfort, but he did and Liv shut her eyes, wishing—not for the first time—that she’d never gone on that stupid date with Neal Whatever-His-Last-Name-Was.
It bothered her that she couldn’t remember.Why it did when there was so much else to be worried about, she had no idea.
“Almost there,” Erik muttered, and relief made her a limp noodle.He wouldn’t say so unless things were going to be all right—and at the moment, she couldn’t care less if it was Stockholm syndrome or not, all she cared about was the monsters going away.“Almost… huh.”
They landed with a wrenching jolt; Liv’s cheek mashed so hard against muscle and what felt like an armor plate under his jacket she barely felt the impact.She was clinging to him like a piece of arm candy holding onto an action movie hero, she realized, and couldn’t make herself loosen up even a little bit.
The sudden stillness was a blessing.Her heart thundered in her ears; her breath came in short, jagged little chunks suspiciously like moans.The shaking was back, filtering through her bones, and the idea that she could simply refuse to lift her head, that she could stay there and breathe in the smell of a man used to hard workouts and not a lot of cleaning up, a blessed, healthy, human tang under a screen of fresh air, snow, and the faintest hint of nauseating monster blood, was all but overwhelming.
It sounded like a great plan.
He went utterly still, his arms steel bars—one under her knees, the other cradling her torso.“Son of a bitch,” he muttered, and the venom in his tone made her feel a little faint.
Or maybe a wholelotfaint.
Another silence.Which probably felt a lot longer than it actually was, mostly because Liv was quite content to just huddle in his arms.There was something to be said for a guy who could pick up a regular girl and carry her without huffing and puffing.Maybe it was all the monster hunting that did it.Helluva workout, and all that.
Liv, you’re not doing very well.
She knew.Oh, God, she knew.
“Liv.”His chin touched her hair again, stubble scratching snow-damp curls.“Liv, beautiful, we’ve got a small problem.”
I don’t like the sound of that.She gulped at cold air, shook her head slightly.It was cowardice, she was what Mom would have calleda piker; she had, in Gramps’s pungent parlance, ayaller strip down ’er back.
Liv didn’t care one single bit as long as she could stay right where she was, her face pressed against Erik’s torn coat and her body trembling like a toy trapped in the mouth of a small, vicious animal that killed its prey by shaking.
“Oh, hey.”His tone softened.“It’s all right, beautiful.I’m not about to let anything happen to you, you can count on that.Just… the situation’s gotten a little complex.”
What, like it was simple before?But she couldn’t spend forever hiding.
