“Our tent is set up and ready for you. Follow,” he ordered, and I did because I wanted to lie down. I felt as if I’d run in a marathon today. Inside the tent was basic, with a crude makeshift bed, and covers that looked thick and welcoming.
“Synthia,” Ryder said, stopping me before I made it to the bed. I turned and looked at him carefully. “You can’t do shit like that now. You need to think about the babes,” he said carefully.
“I couldn’t stop myself, Ryder. I don’t know what the hell it is, but something happens to me when they are poisoned with iron. It’s like a drug to my system, and the need to help them is more than I can bear,” I replied honestly, with tears forming thick in my throat.
“Shit,” he said, raking his fingers through his hair. “We were afraid of that. Ristan has seen you healing people en masse. We need to figure out if you are collecting the iron in your system, or where it goes when you are done.”
“I have no clue,” I said, eyeing the bed longingly.
“Get some sleep, Pet. We leave at dawn,” he replied, and kissed my forehead, before running his fingers across my flat abdomen.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Dawn came fast. The air was chilling, and there was a somberness to the group that hadn’t been there yesterday. The excitement of going on the trial was tarnished by the Mages attack and their attempt to escape the men when they’d gone looking for them. The injured had been all healed—by me. I was still drained, but I wasn’t about to ask Ryder to feed me here.
I’d wait until the next camp, and ask him to put up a thicker tent. I might be Fae, but I’d been raised by humans and being in the middle of an open camp, surrounded by others wasn’t where I wanted to feed. I wasn’t shy about nudity, but screaming with pleasure was another subject. I’d be damned if I screamed his name where everyone could hear it.
“Coffee?” Ristan’s voice caught me off guard, but the mouthwatering aroma was welcome. I turned to find him holding out a cup of coffee.
“How did you manage to get this?” I asked, as I took it and brought it up to my nose for inspection. It smelled like heaven, and I’d figured there would be no coffee available during the trip.
“I lived as a human for a while, Flower. I have many moves,” he held his arms out wide, “and moves you haven’t seen yet. Stick around; I am also a master on the grill.”
Leave it to the Demon to be a coffee expert over a campfire. I could see water being tossed on several as I sipped the coffee, wondering where he had gotten the cream and sugar. But then again, I probably didn’t want to know.
I finished the cup and handed it back to the Demon, who held his hand out expectantly. He didn’t move from where we stood. “You pissed that I chose you for guard duty?” I asked, lifting an irritated brow.
“Nah, I eat hearts and fuck shit up. I specialize in the shit, so obviously I’m the right man for the job when it comes to protecting my delicate little Flower. Besides, I got to watch your little handmaiden blush when I tried to tell her you and I went way back. She didn’t buy it, can you believe that shit?”
“Delicate?” I flipped him the finger even as he started to laugh. I’d noticed that out of all of Ryder’s men, I let the Demon get away with more than any of the others. He gave me a lot of shit, but he was also the one who was helping me adjust more than the others were.
I was still trying to come to grips with the idea, that it was his visions that had set off the chain of events that had brought me to this point; he himself did not deliberately do this to me. I found I just couldn’t blame him for something he had no control over; he was only telling it how he had seen it. The guy was cursed.
It had to be hell to be given glimpses of the future, and then told to figure it out. I’d walked in one of those visions with him, and the pain I had from it still lingered in my mind. How many of those visions did he get on a daily basis? How was he still sane? Well, somewhat sane.
“When do we leave?” I asked, since he had yet to break the silence from me flipping him off.
“Soon; Ryder and a few of the men went to check the perimeter of the camp. When they come back, we should be ready to go. Most of the tents are coming down now,” he said as he watched the movements around camp.
“Thanks for the coffee, Demon.”
“Hey, I like you better with coffee in you. If you need to use the bushes…I will escort you there,” he offered.
“I do,” I replied.
When I’d finished, and was walking back to the camp with Ristan, the men were riding back in. Ryder was atop his black warhorse, proud and beautiful as always. His men flanked his sides as they rode in a V formation through the remains of what had been the camp.
When he reached us, he dismounted and patted his horse lovingly. He wasted no time as he walked to me briskly. “Feeling better?” he asked, and I smiled.
He’d held me through the night, as if I was his most prized possession. “I am. I was just drained from healing the men.”
“Good. We need to move out,” he said, nodding his head to his men who left to help get rest of camp moving.