“I don’t know if it’s Byron. I just know it is something very evil. Let’s leave this place, go to a city with bright lights and lots of people.”
He tucked her protectively beneath his shoulder and matched his gait to hers. Instinctively he knew they would be vulnerable in a city. They were Carpathian, not human. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly to give himself time to search for the right words. “If a vampire is marking us for his attentions, we will only be placing innocent humans in harm’s way. They have very few defenses against the undead.”
“He is watching us, Jacques. I know you can’t feel him, but he’s out there.”
Jacques believed her. Once again he sought the pictures in her mind, heard the eerie sound of taunting laughter echoing in her head. He swore softly. “When Byron found you in the village, are you certain he did not take your blood?”
“I would have told you. He bent his head toward mine, I could feel his breath on my neck, and his teeth touched my skin, but I jerked away from him. He barely pierced the skin.” She reached up and covered the spot where the pinprick had been. “In any case, he apologized to you. Couldn’t you see his sadness? It broke my heart.”
His arm tightened for a moment, and he dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “You are so compassionate, love, and very trusting. A vampire can appear to be the epitome of beauty, of genuineness itself.”
She skipped a little to keep up with his ever-quickening pace. “I don’t think so, Jacques. I recognized beauty in you when you appeared to be a monster. I knew there was something beyond what I could see. I think I would recognize evil just as well.”
“It was the call of our souls to one another that you recognized. We are lifemates, bound together even when apart.”
“Call it anything you like, but I think I would know if Byron were truly the vicious creature I feel watching us. It hates.”
“Only Gregori gave you blood. And I.”
“If I were you, I would not bring up the fact that you forced me to take that spell-casting healer’s blood.” She twisted away from him, annoyed all over again. “How could you betray me that way?”
With great male superiority he glanced down at her face. “Your health comes before your pride.” The truth was, he was ashamed he had forced such a choice on her, yet he was grateful it was over and she was not nearly as weak as she had been.
“Says you. I hope he bled a long time before he closed that wound. And don’t talk to me anymore, because you’re being arrogant, and I can’t stand you when you’re arrogant.” She stumbled, her legs already tired.
“If you had done as I said, you would be at full strength, your body healed from its ordeal,” he pointed out, smug male amusement deliberately in his mind to tease her.
She stopped walking so abruptly, his arm jerked her forward. “Do you have any idea where we’re going? I’m lost out here. Everything is beginning to look the same to me. And stop with that cute little grin you always get in your mind. You think you can get around me with it, but you can’t.”
He tugged at her arm, his black eyes restless, searching the forest around them. He could still feel the dark malevolence through Shea. “I can always get around you, little red hair,” he answered tenderly. “You are not capable of holding a grudge.”
The feeling of hatred was oppressive. Jacques’ gentle teasing was comforting, and she was oddly grateful for it. She tucked her fingers into the crook of his arm. “Don’t count on my good nature, Jacques. You do remember what they say about people with red hair.”
“That they are great lovers?”
She laughed in spite of the waves of black malice washing over her continually. “You would think that.”
At her laughter, the air thickened around them so that for a moment she was choking on hatred. Unable to stand it another minute, not thinking of the consequences, she whirled around to face the murky forest behind them. “If you want us so badly, you coward, come out into the open and introduce yourself!” She tilted her chin at Jacques. “There. He can come or not. I don’t feel like being hunted down like some animal.”