There was a moment of silence. She glanced up at him. His blue eyes glittered down at her. She wasn’t certain of his mood. One moment he’d been furious. Scary. Next he was luring not so innocent prey to him—and they were prey. He had targeted Giles and his crew and meant to dispatch them. Now he was looking at her as if he was torn between laughing or throwing her on the ground and having wild sex with her. If she had a choice, she’d take the wild sex and his laughter. Once in a while he smiled. He didn’t laugh except that one time.
Teagan.
Her sex clenched at the sound of his voice sliding into her skin. They were out of the village. She could see the trees every once in a while as the fog swirled, opening a view and then closing it. He took her right into the forest and began to work his way to higher ground, using long, ground-eating strides. Still making noise. Breaking twigs on purpose. Not taking to the air. Still throwing out his lure. From the sounds behind them, the four men were taking the bait.
Are you calling me an old dog?
I would answer that, but anything I say could get me into trouble.
You have no idea.
His voice was that sound that took her breath and her bones. It was a promise, and she didn’t know whether to try to run or to cling to him. Either way, her body was thrilled.
18
Andre climbed the mountain fast, taking a deer trail, one that was well-used and easy to navigate even in the fog. In his arms, Teagan shivered, but he knew it wasn’t the cold. She didn’t understand him or his ways. He got that. He got that she lived under a different set of rules, and his world was very scary to her. He didn’t like her afraid, but there was little he could do about that at the moment.
They were in far worse trouble than any human could give them, even humans trained in the art of killing his species or vampires. He tasted the threat in the moisture. Felt it in the soft breeze blowing toward them. Smelled it in the faint stench rising through the trees. Vampire. The undead was hunting and he’d come down from the mountain, heading for the village.
Andre allowed his senses to flair out into the night, seeking more information, but much more carefully. He muffled the sound of his boots on the ground. Kept the snap of twigs and the rustle of leaves from the air surrounding them. That would leave only the noise of the humans as they hurried along the trail, occasionally cursing. One wanted to go back and track them in the morning. He protested over and over in a whiny voice. Even though he’d only heard the voices over a radio, he recognized the one called Keith.
What’s wrong? Aside from the fact that you want to commit a felony. Maybe four of them, and I’ll have to visit you in some forgotten, horrible prison filled with rats and sewage where they torture the occupants just for fun. She gave a delicate shudder. What else are you preparing for?
Teagan was very sensitive to him. She was already beginning to read not just his moods, but when he sensed danger. He wanted her to be able to do that herself.
Be still. Completely still. Close your eyes if you have to, but feel. Do not think. Just feel your surroundings. When you feel everything close to you, allow your senses to expand outside yourself. Outside the landscape close to you. Go above you. Below you and all around you.
Andre willed her to understand. For all her nonsense—the things she blurted out which he loved—she was highly intelligent. And sensitive. To him, before he’d ever brought her fully into his world, she felt as if she was already partway in it. He’d never heard from a single male who had a lifemate that they felt that. There was something a little different about Teagan. She was human through and through. She wasn’t Jaguar, or Mage, or Lycan She was fully human. Yet her gift of healing was incredibly strong and so was that tuning fork of hers, she just needed to refine it a bit.
She didn’t argue with him. That was another thing he was grateful for. It wouldn’t have mattered if she did. When they were in danger, he would have covered it, stopped it immediately and taken over. That was his way, but he was glad he didn’t have to. He was glad she’d listened to him when he’d laid down the rules of his world. He didn’t want her to ever be afraid of him, but above all, her protection came first.
Her hands tightened on his shoulder, and when he glanced down, Teagan’s eyes were closed. He was in her mind, a shadow, no more, monitoring her, making certain she was all right. He felt that reach. Tentative at first, but she’d been in his mind and she was already learning. She might not have identified what he was doing immediately, but she knew how to do it. She learned that fast. She sent her senses reaching out into the night.
Mistakenly, she concentrated on the threat that was coming up behind them. The four men following them had split, two working their way around to try to cut them off. The other two had gained on them because, before Andre felt the threat of the vampires, he wanted them to catch up.
Teagan found the location of all four men. She didn’t stop there. He found himself smiling inwardly. She was afraid, just as she said she’d be, the fear inside of her, but that didn’t stop her. She allowed herself a brief moment when she identified those following them and knew they were closer, but she continued to follow Andre’s instructions, reaching out into the night.
Tell me what you know.
She gave a little shudder. Belowground are insects and worms. A few ground squirrels. Not much in the way of animals. Giles and Gerard are behind us, maybe the distance of a football field. Their cousins are coming up on our right, almost parallel with us.
He waited, his chin dropping down to nuzzle the top of her head. A part of him was still smoldering inside that she hadn’t called out to him when she recognized she was in danger. He didn’t like that and he intended to address the issue when they were in a safe place. He pushed that aside and let himself feel pride in her. She learned fast.