The Warrior Vampire(102)

Had he known about Naya, he would have begun searching for her, too. “What can I say, I know how to make an impression.” They came upon some heavy foliage and Ronan reached over her to clear the way. She turned back and beamed. Gods. Just looking at her made his chest ache. Ronan reached out through their tether, searching for some evidence to her claim that his blood had given her magic a power boost.

There it is.

Holy. Shit. Naya hadn’t been kidding. Ronan didn’t know how he’d missed it. Power pulsed through their bond to fill him with a sense of strength and vitality that rivaled what he felt when he drew on Claire’s and Mikhail’s stores of power. Amazing.

Maybe the future wasn’t as fucking bleak as he thought.

“Watch out!” Naya’s arm shot out behind her. Ronan’s heart rocketed up into his throat as Naya’s throaty laughter surrounded him. “You almost got beaned in the face by that limb.”

Jesus. He was a fucking wreck. So worried about Naya’s safety that he could barely put one foot in front of the other. Focus. You won’t be protecting shit if you can’t get your head straight. Instead of letting her truck out ahead of him, Ronan reached out and took Naya’s hand, gently urging her toward him. He put his lips to hers for a slow, gentle kiss. Her mouth was so damned sweet.

“Oh, gods!” Naya pulled back with a gasp. “I can hear it, Ronan. It’s close.”

Naya took off at a sprint, negotiating the steep forest trail as though she could see as well as Ronan in the dead of night. The canopy above blocked out the starlight and they were shrouded in a fragrant, damp darkness that chilled his skin as he chased after her.

Ronan was kidding himself if he thought it was simply the late-autumn air that made his blood run cold. Despite the blood he’d taken from Naya, the strength that she offered him through their bond, the darkness inside of him had woken.

And it was hungry.





CHAPTER

31

Naya’s vision blurred and the cacophony that assaulted her ears nearly brought her to her knees. But she pressed on, running like a wild thing through the forest, focused on capturing the mapinguari before it had a chance to infect Manny with a healthy dose of dark magic. Ronan was close behind her, his own footsteps pounding on the earth as he chased after her. With him at her back, she didn’t have to worry about an ambush, though it left him vulnerable. There was no place for worry or anxiety right now, though, and Naya refused to acknowledge the fear that pierced her chest like an arrow.

Magic pooled in her gut and the dagger warmed her back through the sheath. She drew on her power as she pressed forward, dodged tree branches and bushes, tangled with thick ferns as she raced to cut the mapinguari off before it got to Manny. Gods, she hoped he’d had enough time to surround himself with salt.

She drew her dagger as she came upon the footpath that led to the trailhead. Manny couldn’t have been more than ten or twenty yards ahead and Luz was somewhere to the south, ready and waiting to jump in. The trap was set. Now it was time to spring it.

“Naya!”

The urgency in Ronan’s voice stopped her dead in her tracks and she turned. In an acrobatic move he launched himself in a graceful arc, his boots barely clearing her head as he flew past her. She whipped her head around in time to see him clash with a massive black and orange form as he took the massive jaguar to the ground.

“Get the hell out of here! Run!”

The scream of an angry cat pierced the night and Naya’s lungs seized. Indecision gave her pause. Ronan was strong. A warrior. A supernatural creature with speed and quick healing. Virtually immortal. Manny, on the other hand, wouldn’t last if the mapinguari got ahold of him. Each step that took her away from Ronan was like wading through sludge. Her body resisted, urging her not to part with him. But in truth, he was safer in a tussle with a Bororo shifter than he’d be with a demon.

Naya didn’t have time to worry about which member of the pod Ronan fought and, more important, why he was out here. Hunting a vampire, maybe? And was he alone? Shit. Her boots dug into the soft earth as Naya propelled herself forward. The sound of limbs breaking and wood splintering behind her caused her heart to stutter in her chest, but she pressed on.

Stay on task. Get to Manny. Bind the demon.

She covered the next thirty yards at a hard sprint, her step only faltering once as she tripped over a rock. How much farther? Where was he? Where in the hell was Luz? Naya spotted the dark outline of a body up ahead and she slowed her pace to a careful jog. She pulled her dagger from the sheath, massaged the grip in her palm until it felt like an extension of her hand. Riotous music burst in her ears, wild drums and screaming horns.