Clay and his horse dodged the shot. "You're attacking Empire Marshals! Penalty for drawing blood is death by hanging. How about you boys turn around and head on home."
"We outnumber you, Marshal," another bandit shouted back. "Seems the smart thing would be for you and your partner to back off and let us take care of this nice and quick, like. No one else needs to be hurt."
"Except my charge, is that right?"
"Just the way it is, Marshal."
"Rhody Beaufort's turned into such a coward he's gotta go after women now?" Clay shot back, unable to keep the anger from his voice.
"You know we can't leave here until we've done what we need to, Marshal. Ain't nothin' personal."
"Sure it's not," Clay muttered to himself and ducked as a bullet whizzed overhead.
He squinted through the dust raised by all the riders, trying to find a target. He could hear the passengers screaming on the train. Was Mariel petrified? Was she cursing him for being a liar?
I'll do my best, Mariel. I gave you my word.
He took aim and shot down another bandit. Though he didn't like killing, he would do his best to eliminate every last one of Beaufort's gang. Because if even one of them got their hands on Mariel, they'd do worse than take her life.
~~~~~
It was as though the night itself came alive and attacked Mariel. She staggered backwards but the night swarmed out of the open crate and followed her, bearing her to the ground with a weight she hadn't expected of shadow.
Her back hit the ground and the night landed atop her, pinning her limbs in place and turning her face to the side with pale fingers. Ice seared her neck a moment before agony pierced the side of her throat.
Her eyes went wide at the excruciating pain that tore into her neck. The pain was blinding, like two hot pokers stabbing into her neck. Worse still was the sucking motion, as though her lifeblood was being pulled out of her body through her veins.
Which it was.
Nightwalker! flashed through her panicked mind. Never in a hundred years had she expected to come across the monsters who roamed the desert in Shadow Valley Territory. Rumor said they were a race of abominations that had risen from man's attempt to find immortality and walk the Heaven Bridge and back. Though Mountain Sky shared an armed border with Shadow Valley, she'd never heard of nightwalkers crossing over. Remaining in their territory was the only reason the creatures were allowed to live in peace.
Well, maybe not the only reason. The monsters were preternaturally strong and besides that they were just plain terrifying. Mariel herself was petrified, screaming only in her head as her life fled her. She would be dead in a matter of seconds at the rate her blood was being sucked out of her.
"Please," she managed to choke out. "I don't want to die…" I wasted too many years of my life. I want a second chance!
Now, she'd never know if she could be good at anything other than baking a pie or sewing a tight stitch. Now I'll never know what I could have been had I taken a chance.
"Please," she whispered forlornly.
Regret was a shroud drawing over her consciousness. It smothered her and distracted her from noticing that the blood wasn't coursing so fiercely from her veins. What caught her attention was the pleasant warmth that began to fill her body, settling between her legs and in the tips of her breasts.
She murmured her surprise at the complete absence of pain and felt, more than heard, a hum of agreement against her throat. The icy lips against her skin were now warm and soft and the gentle sucking action against her throat was nearly…erotic?
It wasn't a word she ever used to describe anything, but this felt like an appropriate time for it. She sighed and moved her ankles restlessly. She knew this feeling. Or at least, she'd come close to feeling it when she'd been with her husband. It had been elusive, a too-quick butterfly. Never settling upon her senses long enough to make an impression or make her yearn for more. Now, she curled her fingers against the dusty floor of the car, seeking contact as the warmth within her grew into a languid heat that demanded she lift up her skirts and unbutton her blouse…
Pale fingers did it for her, gently pulling down her knickers and accessing the bare, feverish skin of her inner thighs. The delicate touch on her flesh filled her mind with rainbows that grew brighter in intensity as the hand rose higher between her legs. She arched into the palm that cupped her wet heat. When had she ever been wet? It was a strange new sensation, awakening her to the reality that she didn't know all that her body was capable of. So much of herself had remained a mystery. Until now…