Without warning the clouds rained sparks, red-hot embers, slivers of molten fire that fell like raindrops in a steady barrage. Riordan bent his body protectively over Juliette, cursing that he wasn't at full strength and couldn't provide the shelter they needed as they streaked through the sky. Despite his best efforts, several slivers penetrated her arm and burned through her skin nearly to the bone. He heard her gasp, but she turned her face against his chest, against the terrible burn marks there, and remained silent. The embers burned his back and shoulders, raised welts and stung like angry bees along his arms. He was infinitely weary and wanted desperately to go to the healing ground in the way of his people, but Juliette could not do that, and he would not leave her unprotected while human and vampire enemies searched for them.
She was an unexpected gift, drawn to him by their connection, two halves of the same soul. She didn't want the connection, but it was there and it was explosive. In spite of the relentless pain, he was all too aware of her soft, generous curves and the heat and scent of her body. It only added to his physical discomfort and raised the level of her wariness. With her face nuzzling his bare chest, his insides were turning to mush. She had no idea how much faith and trust she showed him with that simple gesture.
I'm hiding from the embers. She denied his thoughts.
You are hiding from yourself, from the truth.
You could be the most infuriating, exasperating creature on the face of this earth.
Perhaps, but nevertheless, you find yourself inexplicably attracted to me. There was purring satisfaction in his voice.
Riordan took them lower into the comparative shelter of the jungle canopy and made his way toward the small forest stream where the plants he needed grew in abundance. Lightning slashed the night skies, lighting up the forests in flashes, sending animals scurrying for shelter. He moved through the trees until he found the darker, overgrown spot he needed for safety.
"If we are lucky, the vampire is weaving his way through the forest miles from here. Let me look at those burns." Riordan set her down and crouched beside her, drawing her arm straight out to examine it.
"You're hurt worse than I am," Juliette objected, her heart pounding. It was the way he was looking at her wound, his black eyes moving over her skin as if he took it as a personal affront that she'd been scored by the slivers of fire. "I can live with it."
"I cannot," he said simply and bent his head so that his dark hair, wild and tangled from the journey through the sky, cascaded around him, hiding his face.
She felt the warmth of his breath first. His lips, featherlight, a mere brush so that her heart quickened and her body tensed. His tongue swirled over the blackened welt. Electricity sizzled through her entire body. The breath went out of her lungs and her mouth went dry. She jerked her arm in reaction, but he held on firmly.
"I am sorry if this hurts, but I have a healing agent in my saliva. It should remove all pain. Just relax." He didn't just say the words, he breathed them against her skin. She felt his voice crawling through her pores, winding around her heart and lungs and every other vital organ.
Juliette closed her eyes against the waves of heat coursing through her bloodstream. Bloody and torn, swaying with weariness, Riordan was still the sexiest man she'd ever encountered. There was his voice, his eyes, the way he looked at her, the way he turned his head, his hard, masculine body, but most of all, the danger emanating from him. He was a powerful predator and it showed, yet his touch with her was amazingly gentle, almost tender.
She swallowed hard. "It isn't right that you're trying to heal me when your body is so torn up. I can wait."
"I feel your pain beating at me."
She made an attempt at finding humor when her body was stirring to life and her thoughts were turning to things better left alone. "See why we shouldn't share minds? It would be so much easier if you didn't have to feel my pain on top of yours." She frowned. "I'm in your mind, why can't I feel your pain?" She could feel how tired he was, but he had to feel pain with all the lacerations and burns.
His tongue swirled a second time. Then a third. "I am shielding you."
He could rob a woman of sanity. Juliette couldn't look at his gorgeous face without wanting to wipe away those terrible lines. His touch was beyond gentle, was causing her stomach to do flips and somersaults. Beads of sweat trickled down the valley between her breasts, and she was certain it had nothing to do with the humidity. The small burns miraculously stopped stinging under his ministrations. When he finally lifted his head and looked at her with his dark eyes, she saw the stark hunger smoldering there.
Riordan allowed her arm to slip from his fingers before moving a short distance away from her to the stream.
Juliette half sat with her back against the tree trunk watching Riordan carefully. "Thank you. It really does feel much better." She studied the lines in his face. "Is there really poison in your system?"
He glanced at her, his black, black eyes blazing a trail right to her heart… or her body. He began to carefully ease out of the bloodstained and tattered shirt. All the while his gaze remained on her, making it difficult to breathe. "Unfortunately, yes."
"Why? Why would they do that to you?"
"Because I am different. I am a creature to be loathed and hated. And because, I fear, they wish to kill our prince."
The burns on his skin were horrible to see. "Did they heat the chains? Is that how those burns got there?" Juliette wanted to rush to him, press her lips to those terrible marks. He had to be in such pain, yet he had attended to her first.
"They had vampire blood and they painted the chains regularly with it. They knew the blood was toxic and would burn as acid does. And they hoped the scent of blood, when I was drained and starving, would drive me out of my mind." He gave her a faint smile. "Perhaps they succeeded."
Juliette shook her head. "You're saner than they will ever be. We're both a bit shaky, but we made it out of there."
"Thanks to you. I am sorry you have to see me this way. As soon as I remove the poison, I'll restore your strength to you."
"I'm not as dizzy. I think my body's already recovering. You just worry about you." She wanted to look away as his face grew paler, as he made a tremendous effort, using every ounce of reserve strength in an attempt to analyze the poisonous compound used to paralyze him. A part of her mind was merged with his, or perhaps it was the other way around, but she could see the data flowing through his mind and was amazed that he understood each separate composite. "Who are you? How do you know all this?"
He leaned back against a moss-covered boulder. "I have lived a long life and learned much over the years. There is little else to do when you have nothing to live for. Knowledge is power and it keeps one alive, even when one no longer wishes to remain in a barren world." His dark eyes slid over her. He reached out his hand.
Juliette had no idea why she put her hand in his. The moment his fingers closed around hers her body came alive, and it felt right. Juliette wanted to pull her hand away from the heat of his, but he looked bone weary and tormented and she didn't have the heart.
"You changed that for me. You gave me back colors and emotions. I have four brothers. I have lived with them for years with only the memory of my affection for them, yet in that one moment when you spoke to me, I felt that deep love for them again. How could I ever repay such a gift?" His voice was soft, almost as if he were talking to himself.
"I love my sister and cousin so much. I can't imagine not being able to feel my love for them. I'm glad I could, in some way, restore those feelings to you." She tightened her fingers around his. "Have you always lived in South America? You're obviously familiar with the jungle." She knew he was resting, gathering his strength to break down the poison and push it from his system. She could feel him continually scanning the skies, worried the vampire might have tracked them in spite of his sacrifice of precious blood to lay a false trail. He had fought vampires on many occasions and she briefly touched on those hideous battles through their link. The creatures were grotesque and evil and worse than the human monsters she'd encountered.