The excitement of the bloodthirsty crowd swelled, and their eager cries swallowed up my gasp in a sea of sound. But Dante’s eyes turned from his springing opponent and unerringly found me. As if he’d heard my soft cry of distress. Could discern it from all the other noise.
Only when he was assured of my physical well-being, that I was fine and my reaction simply that of seeing him injured, did he turn his attention back to Oswald, back to the fight.
It left me shaken, that look, that keen awareness of me even in the midst of battle. I swallowed a scream as the lion fell on Dante.
Dante rolled away at the very last instant so that Oswald hit the ground not on top of his prey as he had intended, but past him. A hard, downward chop of Dante’s hand, and the thick bone in the lion’s foreleg broke with an audible crack. A sweep of Dante’s legs, and the big animal toppled to the ground. Dante rolled on top of him, and drove his right claws through the lion’s two back legs, his left claws stabbing through the upper forelegs, pinning the beast to the ground in a brutal, effective manner, with his body behind and out of reach of the great jaws.
The crowd fell unexpectedly silent at the sudden reversal. Into the silence, Quentin started counting, “One. Two. Three. Four…”
On the count of five, the lion tried to heave back up. With almost casual violence, Dante yanked his left claws out from the pinned forelegs and backhanded the beast across his head with a powerful blow. The lion fell back to the ground, knocked out for the remainder of the count. When ten was called out, Dante un-hooked his right claws, wiped the blood stains on Oswald’s thick pelt, and stood up. Two soft pulses of power and the long, hooking nails shrunk back beneath the flesh, and his hands became just hands once more.
The crowd parted, making way for him as Dante walked back to his brother. He stood quietly, allowed Quentin to bind his wounds, then donned his necklace, arm bands, and clothes, in that order. With his dagger secured and his sword belted at his side, he strode to me and the crowd slipped back away from him…and from me, once they saw where he was heading. Only Amber, Dontaine, Tomas, and Aquila remained by my side.
Stopping before me, Dante went down on one knee, bowing his head.
“Your victory, milady.”
Then, with no more fuss than that, he stood and walked away, his family following after him. Leaving behind a stunned audience of warriors and Queens and one particularly furious one—Mona Sephina, who gazed down at the still unconscious Oswald with tight, thin lips.
“That’s a cool one,” someone in the crowd muttered, voicing the sentiment aloud for us all.
Dante had taken down a warrior much older and more powerful than himself with an economy of motion, snatching victory from his competitor’s grasp with simple, elegant savagery. He had defeated a warrior shifted into his animal form while he had remained in his upright one. Most disturbing of all, though, was that not once while Dante had fought Oswald had emotion touched him. No rage, no passion, no anger. Not even triumph in the end.
A cool one, indeed.
And far more dangerous than even they knew.
TWENTY-TWO
I FELT HALCYON’S presence after most of the crowd had drifted away. The sudden awareness of him was like that of a tuning fork being struck, leaving my entire body vibrating with every part of me conscious of him. I felt him, felt his thoughts, and knew that he was lending me some of his control. I tasted eagerness, concern, curiosity…and nervousness from him.
Why are you nervous? I wondered. Just a normal thought, one that popped into my mind. I was surprised when he answered.
Meeting you again. Wondering if you had changed your mind on becoming my mate. His words sounded as clearly in my mind as if he had spoken them out loud.
I saw him then, a slender man with skin a dark, vivid gold against the white silk of his shirt, his hair a sumptuous fall of black against the white and gold backdrop. Simple. Elegant. Breathtaking.
Your eyes flatter me. I am most common in looks and appearance, he whispered in my mind. But I heard a smile in his voice. My own lips curved up in response.
You are all things but common to me, Halcyon.
Our hands touched, and his fingers wrapped around mine, golden brown skin against fair white. A lovely study of contrasts. What we were.
He lifted my hand to his lips in a gesture that only he could make so naturally graceful. “Hell-cat,” he said, and kissed the back of my hand.
“Halcyon.” I brushed my fingertips across his golden cheek and felt warmth flare up in his mind and along his skin at my touch. Amber and Dontaine greeted him politely, and he responded in kind to them, nodded cordially to Aquila and Tomas.
“It seems I missed quite a show,” Halcyon murmured. But I felt the truth through that connection we shared. He had deliberately waited until it was over so that he would not distract me, though it had been hard for him to do so. To stay away, knowing that I was here.
I was both touched and flattered. And watched, entranced, as a light, scarlet blush touched that gold-dusted skin.
This connection between us both soothes and stings, Halcyon murmured wryly in my mind. Nothing can be hidden when we are thus joined.
Out loud he said, “I have something I wish to give you waiting in my quarters. Will you come with me there?” Silently he added, You can quench your hunger in the privacy of my place.
I nodded. Told Aquila and Tomas to wait for us at the Council Hall, while Amber and Dontaine accompanied me to Halcyon’s abode.
“We’ll meet you in a little while,” I told them.
Bowing, Aquila and Tomas left.
Halcyon took my hand, set it in the crook of his arm, and led me down a path that wound behind the Great House. We passed a few other small, private residences before we finally arrived at his. It was set farthest back, away from the other lodgings, closest to the bordering thicket of woods. His dwelling here was simple and comfortably furnished, smelling like him, I thought, as I stepped through the doorway.
We do not have scents was his amused thought.
Then what do I smell?
What you are picking up is my physic scent. And because he was not used to censoring his thoughts, I caught the rest of it. That it was something that was only normally sensed by other demons.
He caught my distress. “Forgive me, Hell-cat. That was thoughtless of me,” he murmured, earning puzzled glances from Amber and Dontaine.
After we entered, Halcyon lifted his hand and stroked his palm over a stone mosaic design made of individual rocks embedded in the wall. As he passed his hand over it, a small, nondescript gray pebble set near the bottom began to glow, turning emerald green. I felt the thrumming energy slide over me and stretch wide to encompass the entire room.
“You already know what it is,” Halcyon said with surprise.
“A privacy shield. A sound barrier. So that no one outside can hear us.” I knew because Dante and his mother each had a similar stone.