Visions of Skyfire

Chapter 24

“Chico!” Teresa exclaimed the minute Rune flashed them to the entrance of a cave. She looked back over her shoulder at the wide expanse of desert stretching out between them and the village. All she saw was darker shapes of yucca trees, sage bushes and the occasional saguaro cactus, looking like tall, thin men with arms raised to heaven.

Her heart still racing with the aftereffects of what had just happened, she took a long, deep breath and tried to find balance again. But that, it seemed, was impossible.

“Chico’s not with us.” She turned her gaze on Rune. “We left him behind in that damn village.”

Rune shot her a hard look and clapped one hand to the gaping slice on his arm. “The bird’s not an issue. For all we know, the federales have been called. Mexican feds could be crawling all over that village right now, looking to track us. And you’re worried about that bird?”

“Yes!” Furious, she whipped her hair back out of her eyes and tried to get a handle on the raw nerves still rippling through her.

He muttered something under his breath, but she didn’t catch it. Temper and a million other things combined in the pit of her stomach to build to a roiling mass. Only moments ago they had fought as a team, each of them feeding off the other, creating more powerful magic between them than either of them could claim singly. Maybe she should give them both a minute or two to breathe. Yes, Chico was out there and she would find a way to get him. She would. But for now …

Teresa couldn’t help feeling a wash of victory. She’d actually called down lightning out of a clear, starry sky. For the first time since her magic had awakened, she hadn’t had to wait for a storm. She’d created the storm with her own will. She’d felt the power, the surging charge of strength that held her in its tight, brutal grip. Inside her there was a fire burning that was as hot and fierce as the flames that made up the soul of her Eternal.

Residual magic still washed through her like tiny orgasms, making her tremble as she looked up at the man who had saved her life. As energized as she felt by the surge of magic she had wielded, she knew that if not for Rune, the old man from the store would have killed her.

And that thought was enough to leave her shaken. “You saved my life. Again.”

“I did.”

Her gaze went to his arm. “You’re injured.”

He shook his head. “Not injured. Just hurt. It will heal. Are you all right?”

“Yes,” she said, though she wasn’t sure of that answer. These had been the longest days of her life and the danger wasn’t over. Her mind was a tangled mass of thoughts, sensations, fears and worries. And overriding it all was the crushing knowledge of just what she was actually capable of. “Well, I will be. That was … awesome.” She scrubbed her hands up and down her arms, as if she could ease the chills racing across her skin. “I mean that in the literal sense of the word, too. Awesome.” She shook her head, amazed by what she’d done. “There was no storm—no clouds, even—and I still drew down the lightning.”

He blew out a breath and nodded before closing the small space separating them. “You did. You were … magnificent.”

She liked the praise but wasn’t entirely sure she deserved it. “It was impressive, sure. But I didn’t hit anything.”

“You didn’t have to. Your power terrified them.” He took the bag of supplies from her and steered her into the mouth of the cave.

“That’s probably not a good thing, either,” Teresa said, trying to look around but not seeing much beyond inky darkness and hard rock walls. Good thing they’d bought candles. “When word gets out about us being in the village, it will only be worse for us. They saw us using magic. Your fire, my lightning—”

He pulled her to a stop. In the darkness his gray eyes shone like beacons. The flames that were a part of him danced in their depths, making him look exactly what he was—dangerous.

“You were already hunted as a witch. Now maybe those tracking you will think twice before approaching.”

“Do you really believe that?”

He shrugged and gave her a tired smile. “No, but it doesn’t matter anyway. We are the magic, Teresa. We won’t hide from it any longer. Instead, we will embrace it and do what we’re expected to do.”

His words, the forceful way he said them, all seemed as though he was asking her to make a pledge of faithfulness to their shared duty. He wasn’t just talking. He was looking for confirmation from her that she was with him. And she was. Whatever else was going on around them, she knew that she belonged at this Eternal’s side. At least until they had completed their mission.

“What is it you want from me?”

“I want to believe in you. Your loyalty,” he ground out. “To me. To this task. I want to know that you’ll see it through this time.”

She bristled a bit at being reminded again that in her past lives she had been less than trustworthy. And now that she had remembered just enough to make her feel shame for choices long since made, she liked it even less. She hated knowing that in another lifetime she had been … dangerous. Paying for your sins was right, she supposed. But paying for sins you committed as another woman entirely just didn’t seem fair at all. Still, there was no choice but to move ahead, so she swallowed the emotions nearly choking her and solemnly nodded. “I will.”

He studied her for a long minute or two, then finally inclined his head in a nearly regal sign of acceptance. That bristled, too, but it had already been a long enough day and she didn’t really have the energy for an argument, so she let it go.

Taking her arm, he steered her deeper into the darkness. She turned back for one last look at the mouth of the cave and the glimpse of the starry sky and the open desert beyond. “But what about Chico?”

“I’m not going back for him. Not now, anyway,” Rune said.

“No.” As much as it pained her to think of her pet alone in the wild, she could admit that returning to the village immediately was a bad idea. So that was one more thing she had lost on this perilous journey. Her last link with home. With normalcy. With the life she had lived before this huge man had crashed into it.

As she walked beside Rune, she felt fatigue begin to claw at her. With the adrenaline rush draining away, her legs felt like lead weights and just putting one foot in front of the other became a herculean task. “How far back does this cave go, anyway?”

“Just a bit farther.”

His voice echoed off the rocks in a low rumble of sound, but despite what he said, it seemed as if they walked miles more. Finally, though, Rune stopped, called on the fire and she watched as blue and yellow flames danced into life around his hand. Then he touched a cold torch stuck into a stanchion on the wall and light surged quickly into life around the enclosure.

“Oh, my,” Teresa whispered, walking farther into the spacious cavern.

When she had entered this cave, she had expected to spend the evening huddled around a miserly campfire in a dank, cold space. This had never entered her mind.

The room they stepped into was carved out of the rock and it was massive. There were stalactites of purest crystal jutting from the ceiling in a wide array of colors and Teresa could feel the magical energy humming from them. Rune threw fire to other torches ringing the room, tails of flame that danced to his whims and settled over the dry torches with a rush of sound and a quick flare of light. The walls came alive in the flickering radiance and Teresa saw that there were more crystals sparkling in them. As each torch caught fire, smoke drifted toward cleverly hidden holes in the ceiling.

“Won’t people see the smoke?” she asked, staring at the rough-hewn rock overhead. “And then find us?”

“No,” Rune said, continuing to throw fire at the remaining torches until the last of the shadows were pushed back into the corners and the crystals on the walls burst into glittering life and color. “The holes lead to ventilation shafts that draw the smoke to still more holes and through other tunnels, until by the time the smoke is released into the air, it’s so dissipated no one will spot it.”

“Impressive,” she whispered. She turned in a slow circle, taking it all in, still hardly believing her eyes. Of course, her gaze snapped first to the most imposing piece of furniture in the place. A bed wide enough to comfortably sleep ten people, it was covered in a mountain of pillows and layers of silky throws and quilts that looked lush enough for a pasha’s harem. Something inside her stirred to life and she felt heated tingles begin to gather at her center. She took a breath, held it for a second and then blew it out again as she realized that soon she and Rune would be on that bed, sealing their relationship for all eternity.

Nerves jangled through her, but Teresa battled them into submission. There would be time enough for hesitation later. For now … she shifted her gaze deliberately to take in the rest of the room. There was a fire ring, surrounded by more crystals that shone so brightly in the flickering torchlight that it almost seemed as if they were alive.

And in a way, she knew, they were. Inside those crystals were trapped the energies of eons. They were of the earth and carried at their core the very heart of magic. She felt the pulse in the air, the reverberating beat of power, and drank it in, as she would a glass of water after a long walk in the desert.

Rune started a fire in the ring of crystals and it was only then that she noticed the metal rack spread across the ring for cooking. “Amazing,” she whispered, stunned at both the intricate beauty and the functionality surrounding her.

She felt as though she’d stumbled into Aladdin’s cave. She smiled in spite of everything that had happened that day and laughingly said, “If only there was a bathroom with a shower, it would be perfect.”

“Well, then …” Rune set the bag of supplies down and gave her a half smile. Taking her hand, he led her toward the far wall of the sumptuous cave and then behind yet another wall of crystal-studded rock. He lit the torch within to display even more wonderful secrets.

“A hot tub?” She bent over the rocky ledge of a pool of steaming water and dipped one hand into the froth. Heat pulsed through her and she nearly sighed with pleasure.

“It’s not a shower,” he told her with another smile, “but I think it’ll do.”

“Are you kidding?” she asked. “It’s great.”

“Glad you approve. It’s fed from an underground spring,” Rune told her, then showed her another alcove. “It drains through here …”

Teresa looked, realized what she was seeing and laughed, delighted. It wasn’t the Ritz, and in fact it looked more like what she assumed a medieval garderobe was like, but at least she wouldn’t have to run into the desert at night to relieve herself. “This is so great, Rune. I don’t even know what to say.”

She turned to smile up at him and found him watching her with amusement and something … else in his eyes. Those pale gray depths were awash with secrets and emotions. As if she could sense exactly what he was thinking and feeling, she shivered in response. That low curl of heat and expectation at the very core of her had returned and it was all she could do not to moan softly as need pulsed inside her along with the beat of her heart.

“You feel it, don’t you?” he whispered, even that faint hush of sound seeming to echo against the rocks.

“Yes,” she said, not bothering to pretend she didn’t know what he was talking about. What would have been the point?

“We begin the Mating tonight.”

She lifted her chin to meet his gaze squarely, so that he could see her own determination to accept their joined destiny. She only hoped he couldn’t read her trepidations as easily. “Yes, we will.”

He nodded, reached for her and then let his hand drop before touching her. “Bathe,” he said. “Get warm. Then we begin.”

Her insides quivered again, despite the lack of anything remotely resembling anticipation in his tone. If he was going to treat what passed between them as all business, then she would, too. Probably better for her if she did. So in a brisk voice, she stopped him as he turned to leave her in the crystal-studded bathroom of rock. “Did you do all of this?”

“Some of it,” he said, pausing long enough to bend down, sweep one hand through the bubbling water and then swipe it across his face. “Another Eternal, Finn, lives here when he’s in this country. I helped him dig out the bathtub and a couple of us carted in that bed and helped him set it up.”

“Where is he now?”

“Keeping an eye on his witch,” Rune told her. “She’s in the States and he’s waiting for her Awakening.”

“Like you did.”

“Yes.” His eyes flashed with hunger as he looked at her, and Teresa’s body responded instantly. As if he could sense her passion rising, his features tightened. Her heartbeat thundered in her chest as seconds ticked past, ratcheting up the tension between them until she was surprised the very air wasn’t sparking with the electricity humming in the room. A long, slow breath slid from her lungs as she tried to get a grip on what was happening between them.

She didn’t know him. He didn’t know her.

And yet … there was an undeniable bond between them that was only growing stronger.

Which terrified her.

Teresa was willing to mate with him. Share the magic. Do their duty. But she didn’t want love. Didn’t want to risk her heart again or give another male—one even stronger than regular mortals—power over her.

How could she do what she must while withholding her heart?

Would it be possible to cast a spell over herself?

While these thoughts and others raced through her mind, her body continued to hum and pulse as if it remembered all too well being invaded by Rune’s huge body and couldn’t wait for it to happen again.

She shook her head to dislodge that notion and only then noticed Rune cupping one hand across his upper arm. That’s when she realized the gash on his arm hadn’t completely healed and that he must be in pain. She reached out to touch the wound and asked, “Can I help with that?”

The instant she touched him, heat dazzled them both. His gaze locked with hers, he whispered, “You can.”

She licked suddenly dry lips. “How?”

“Lay your hand on my arm,” he said, his voice soft enough that it was like a caress on her strained nerve endings.

She did what he asked, feeling the thick, sculpted muscles beneath his flesh, and then she shivered when he laid his own hand atop hers. Sensation flooded her, rocking her thoughts right out of her head and sending her body into a tailspin of need.

“Hold still,” he said as the fire within him flared into life, covering their joined hands in blistering heat that didn’t burn.

Fascinated, she watched actual fire move over her skin with feather-light strokes. They were joined, two pieces of the same whole, and for this one moment it felt … right. She didn’t wonder about it. Didn’t feel any apprehension or try to think about it logically. She didn’t expect any logic in this. There was no reason. There was only what she felt.

What they felt.

Moments passed, with the two of them locked together before the fire died away in a whisper of sound. Rune said, “It’s healed.”

He dropped his hand from hers and she stroked his arm, stunned that there wasn’t so much as a scar on his skin. Her fingertips moved down his arm, relishing the feel of his incredible strength.

“You keep touching me like that and we’re going to start the Mating right now, no matter how tired you are,” he warned.

She had been exhausted a few minutes ago, wanting only to sink into that incredible tub of heated water. Now her whole body felt as energized as the bolts of lightning she’d pulled from the sky. Now she wanted to sink into a different kind of heat.

Lifting her eyes to his, she asked, “Who’s tired?”