The Warrior Vampire(105)

“Sit tight, Manny,” Naya said. “I’ll get you out of there.”

“Yeah. Let’s work on that.” From the quaver in his voice, Ronan suspected that if they didn’t get Manny to safety soon the human was going to lose his shit. “The faster the better.”

“I need Luz.” The worry Naya was throwing off buffeted Ronan’s senses with the prickle of a cactus. “Where is she? Without the mapinguari, we’re screwed. I’ve never tried to contain or control dark magic outside of a body. Hell, I don’t even know if I can banish it on my own.”

Ronan’s grip tightened on her waist and his fingers curled like claws. A powerful urge to sink his fangs into Naya’s throat overwhelmed him. And he wouldn’t stop there. No. He’d rip the flesh. Tear. Bathe in her blood. Kill.

With an abrupt shove Ronan cast her from him. Naya grunted as she stumbled, her expression severe as she turned to face him. The anger melted as he went to the ground. He collapsed to his knees and cradled his head in his hands. Cold enveloped him. Cold and darkness and hatred unlike anything he’d ever felt.

“Ronan?”

“Don’t come near me, Naya,” he ground out from between his teeth. “Don’t fucking touch me!”





CHAPTER

32

Naya didn’t have to ask Ronan what was wrong to know that he was in the grips of the infectious magic. It vibrated around her. Crawled on her skin. Soured the air until she didn’t think she could take a decent breath. And gods, the sound of it. She slammed her hands over her ears in a desperate attempt to block it out.

“Naya, this is bad.” There was too much going on for her to manage on her own, and Manny’s panicked words weren’t doing anything to decrease her stress levels. “We need to find Luz and get the hell out of here!”

No shit. But with one member of their party trapped inside of a cleansing circle, the other in the grips of dark magic, and the other currently MIA, there wasn’t a whole hell of a lot Naya could do. Her magia was tight, but it didn’t give her powers of teleportation.

“Manny, you’re safe in the circle. Don’t move.” Without a physical body, the dark magic that evacuated the mapinguari’s form would have a tough time breaching the salt circle. Of the four of them, Manny was definitely the safest. “You need to hold tight until I can form a plan of action.” Her attention was divided between the trickle of magic that surrounded Manny and the male buckled over and cradling his head in his palms not ten feet from her. “Ronan, can you hear me?”

Like the first time she’d laid eyes on him, Ronan threw his head back in agony. Magic leached from his pores as though his body rejected it. His chest heaved with labored breath and a shout of pain erupted from his chest with enough force to cause the branches of the surrounding trees to quake.

“He is not okay, Naya.”

“Yes, thank you, Manny. Don’t you think I know that?” Her own frustration and anger was past the point of containment. She needed to go to him! Touch him. Soothe him until that dark force had no choice but to crawl back in its hole and sleep.

She took several rushing steps forward and Ronan’s head snapped to attention. His eyes glowed with silver light and his lips pulled back to reveal the twin tips of his elongated fangs. “Not another step, Naya, not until your dagger is ready to strike. Do as I say, damn it!”

She’d never been one for following the rules. “Listen up, Ronan. I’m not giving you what you want. Understand? I’ll die before I kill the male that I love.”

A pained howl burst from Ronan’s lips, as though he couldn’t bear to hear the words. Well, too damned bad. Naya didn’t think she’d ever say them, either. But there it was; the truth of it couldn’t be denied. Their souls were connected, bound forever. How could she not love him?

“That’s right! I love you! So you’d better fight, Ronan, because I’m not letting you go. Not now. Not ever.”

The rustle of foliage in the distance drew Naya’s attention from both the crisis on her left and the one on her right. She spun, dagger in hand and ready to fight. A large jaguar stalked out of the forest and onto the path. Holy shit. The cat was enormous, a hulking sinuous body with silky fur and rippling muscle. Dangling from his jaw was an unconscious Luz, her limp form looking very much like a mouse caught in the grip of a simple house cat.

Ronan hadn’t been kidding when he’d suggested that someone from the pod had been drinking the Kool-Aid. Good gods. He’d fought that thing and walked away? This was no mapinguari. He looked like an animal right out of ancient history. He could have easily kept company with mammoths.