And what did she do? She went and had sex with the cause of all of her problems. Sure, it wasn’t the yawn-and-make-upa-grocery-list-until-he’s-finished kind of sex. It was a kind she had never even imagined was possible, a what-the-hell-is-my-name-again kind of sex, but sex was all they’d had. She was worse than a fool if she tried to make it into anything else—she was a Wyr-dingbat, and wasn’t that a god-awful sorry concept for a creature.
She yanked her shoelaces tied as she bitched to herself; then she glared at the object of her obsession.
He had rinsed at the stream too and pulled on his jeans and boots. He was on one knee by the dying fire. He laid his hand on the red coals and with one last pulse they went black. She sucked in a breath. So, okay, maybe he was a what-the-hell-is-my-name-again kind of guy.
His head came up and his body stiffened. He twisted to stare in the direction of a light breeze that blew through the nearby trees.
What is it? She drew in a deep breath, scenting the breeze. She caught a hint of stench.
He leaped upright. “Run.”
TEN
She jumped to her feet and grabbed the blanket and hairbrush with shaking hands. She started to stuff them into the bag.
No more Goblins. Please God. I’ll be good and eat all my peas.
“Forget all that. Drop it.” He lunged for his weapons. “Go.”
If there was one thing she could do well. She dropped everything, whirled and ran.
Everything inside went on red alert, all systems flashing. Adrenaline kicked her ass. Her vision sharpened, her sense of smell heightened and her hearing became more acute. She plotted out the best path ahead of her at the same time as she strained to hear any hint of pursuit.
There was nothing, no sound. There was just the wind waltzing through the trees, the sound of her own breathing gone ragged from fright and Dragos racing behind her. But she caught another whiff of Goblin stink. Her heart lurched.
Dragos said in a calm voice behind her, “Fast as you can, Pia.”
Right. She tucked her chin in, sought and found her stride, then kicked it out.
Dragos raced after her as the sky became brilliant with sunrise. Pia seemed to have gone weightless. Damn, she ran like a cheetah. Maybe faster. Hell of a thing to watch. She sailed over obstacles like fallen tree trunks and rocks, making the leaps look effortless, as if she simply chose to pick up her feet and fly. He found room in himself for one more surprise as he discovered he was falling behind.
Good girl. If she had endurance as well as speed, they might be okay.
Pia let her mind go blank and lived in the moment. Nothing existed beyond the deep rhythm of her breathing, the athletic flex of muscle and bone, the sound of Dragos running behind her. They had plunged deep into the forest so that the infinite bowl of the sky became obscured with heavy boughs of green, but the morning light brightened and the day grew warmer until her skin was coated in sweat.
The forest was silent around them, ancient tree trunks twisted with secrets and imprisoned by creeping vines. She realized that since the Goblins had brought them over the day before, she hadn’t heard another single creature nearby, not a rustle, peep or tweet. Maybe it was because she was in the presence of the most apex predator of them all. Or maybe it was because Goblins swarmed through the forest like a terminal disease. Or both.
I don’t blame any of you, she thought. I wouldn’t rustle, peep or tweet either if I were you.
Then like a chill mist rising from the ground, a sense of cold Power crept over her. It licked along her overheated skin and tightened over her body, squeezing like a boa constrictor wrapping around its prey.
Panicked revulsion closed her throat muscles, or perhaps the constriction of Power did. She stumbled to a halt, instinct driving her to claw at her neck.
Dragos whirled to face back the way they had come. As Pia looked over her shoulder, he roared. Tendons stood out in his neck, and the massive muscles of his chest and arms clenched with the force of his fury. The memory of what had happened in New York faded to triviality next to this apocalyptic noise. Standing as she was so close to him, even in his human form the Power in his roar ripped through the fabric of the world.
The hair at the back of her neck rose. Terror bolted through her from an atavistic place deeper than conscious choice.
The sound shredded the constriction around her throat. The chill constriction of Power receded. Suddenly she could breathe again. She gulped air.
Dragos turned, the savage bones of his dark face transformed with rage and hate. The hot gold of his eyes were twin suns, and his pupils had changed to slits. “Now we know for sure,” he growled. “Urien is here and trying to slow us down. Run.”
She fell back a few steps, still staring at him. He narrowed that lambent alien gaze on her and tilted his head, the very picture of male exasperation. Alrighty. She threw up her hands in an I’m-going-already gesture, spun on one heel and ran for her life.
Not long afterward, she broke out of the edge of the forest and faltered as she looked ahead at a wide, flat plain. There was no cover for creatures of their size. She glanced back, uneasy, as he caught up with her.
He had the battle-axe and sword strapped to his back again. The rage in his hawkish face had eased but his eyes were still lava hot.