- Prey
- Sphere
- Black Rose
- The Great Train Robbery
- Blue Dahlia
- Carnal Innocence
- Dance Upon the Air
- High Noon
- Lawless
- Sacred Sins
- Tribute
- Face the Fire
- Holding the Dream
- A Man for Amanda
- All the Possibilities
- Next
- Prey
- Sphere
- Black Rose
- The Great Train Robbery
- Blue Dahlia
- Carnal Innocence
- Dance Upon the Air
- High Noon
- Lawless
- Sacred Sins
- Tribute
- Face the Fire
- Holding the Dream
- A Man for Amanda
The WildPage 20
“Yes, Jack,” she said, leaning in so that her nose was almost touching his. Her eyes were wide, and he saw a sheen of perspiration across her top lip. Was Lesya truly nervous? “Because I love you, and you love me, and I’ve told you so many secrets.” “Love,” he said, savoring the word like the fine wine in his mug. And just where does that fine wine come from? “This place…it’s magical, and it’s mine, but…I get so lonely.” She looked away, frowning. “Lesya, I’m not sure I can—” “He’ll kill you,” she whispered. “If you go out into the forests alone, he’ll kill you. I’ve felt his rage growing out there, his jealousy, and he might be weak, but madness gives him strength.” “You told me you’d protect me from your father,” he said. “And I will. But not if you go out there on your own.” And there it was. A threat. It felt to Jack as though a curtain had been drawn back to reveal parts of Lesya she had never before allowed him to see. He nodded slowly, turning back to the fire so that she could not read his eyes. Lesya leaned against him again, resting one hand on his leg and molding herself to him. Her scent overwhelmed him, her hair was a sensuous breath against his neck and cheek, and he could hear the steady rhythm of her breathing. Love, Jack thought, and he tried to ally that word with what he felt for Lesya. Not if you go out there on your own… “What are you thinking?” she asked, and she sounded almost desperate. “Nothing,” Jack said. Prisoner, he thought. Next day after breakfast, Jack took a walk to the edge of the clearing. He felt Lesya’s disapproval, and all the way he could sense her eyes on the back of his head, watching, waiting. But even though the past few days had exposed many wonderful things to him, and he felt more whole than he ever had before, Lesya’s warnings last night had set a distance between them. He sat beside a rock and looked back at the cabin, and when he waved, Lesya waved in response. She went about tending her garden. And she never turned her back on him. I’m being guarded, he thought. She’s always watching. So he leaned back against the rock and looked at the sky, closing his eyes and willing himself to relax. The thought of running flitted through his mind, but then something else crossed its path. Jack’s eyes snapped open. He breathed deeply, opening his senses, welcoming in the smells and sounds, the feel and taste of the air, all as Lesya had shown him. And he knew that ten feet behind the rock stood a wolverine. He tried to breathe evenly, heart racing with excitement. Now’s the time to try, he thought, and he probed outward with his mind, welcoming the creature’s senses as his own. It paused in its sniffling, sensing his presence even though it could not see or smell him. Jack froze. Then the creature let out a startled cry, and turned and fled back between the trees. Jack was exhausted. Sweat dripped down his face and sides, and he suddenly felt as if he’d run for miles. Panting, he leaned against the rock and closed his eyes again. When the footsteps approached, he knew that she wanted him to hear her. “It takes time,” she said. Jack opened his eyes. “After yesterday, with the cougar, I thought—” “I helped you with that, Jack, remember?” “Yes,” he said. “I remember.” It takes time. But perhaps he no longer had any. And this fresh reminder of the passage of time brought home to him the situation he was in. He smiled at Lesya and knew that his escape must be soon. That night, Jack ventured out into the forest alone, and Leshii came to kill him. The Lord of the Forest planted trees around him, trapping him in the darkness, sending branches and trunks tumbling toward him, and all the while he heard Lesya in the distance singing her sweet song. He called to her for help but she did not hear, and Leshii manifested as a darkness among shadows. He was as old as she’d said, and mad, and he was a jealous god. Jack tried to reach beyond his wooden cage with the senses he had just learned, but he was only a man. And when Leshii reached out with sharpened branches and plunged them into his feet, Jack opened his mouth to scream. He gasped in a breath and stared at the timber ceiling of the living cabin. Trapped in a wooden cage! he thought, and Lesya moved in her sleep beside him. Thank God. Only a dream. Breathing hard and fast, still feeling pain in his feet from where Leshii had pinned him down in his dream, Jack tried to calm himself. Only a dream. Only a… Something moved. Jack tried to sit up, but now he felt a weight on his legs, holding him down. Something shifted beneath the blanket, and terror curled itself into a tight ball in his belly. Breath caught in his throat, and he reached down with a trembling hand to tear the blanket away. In the moonlight that streamed through the window he saw the thing that held him down, sliding and crawling across his lower body, rooted in the house’s living floorboards. The figure raised its head, and he saw the face—made of twigs and leaves, moss and mulch—and he knew who it was who held him now. Leshii. Flexing tendrils wrapped around Jack’s feet and ankles. He opened his mouth to scream, but Leshii raised one twig-like hand and held a knotted finger across his own lips, shushing him. Shhh…It reminded Jack so much of when Lesya had first rescued him from the Wendigo that the scream froze in his chest. Leshii’s eyes, dark holes framed by leaves, opened wide…and then turned to the side. The god of the forest had not come there to kill him. But then why had he come? Lesya woke and began shrieking at her spirit father, and then Jack’s own scream came at last, more startled by her fury and the way Leshii’s eyes suddenly darkened with dismay than from the heart-clenching terror he’d felt moments before. CHAPTER TWELVE THE LIVING GRAVEYARD SHE TRIED TO CALM HIM. After Leshii had fled the cabin with a rustle of leaves and the cracking of split wood, Lesya had gone to the doors and windows and muttered something that might have been a spell. Then she came back to Jack and took him in her arms, hugging him to her, sitting on the bed so that he could lie with his head in her lap. |
- The Loners
- The Saints
- Switched
- Fangtastic!
- Re-Vamped!
- Vampalicious!
- Tome of the Undergates
- Black Halo
- The Skybound Sea
- If You Stay
- If You Leave
- Until We Burn
- Before We Fall
- Every Last Kiss
- Fated
- Suspiciously Obedient
- Random Acts of Crazy
- Random Acts of Trust
- Her First Billionaire
- Her Second Billionaire
- Her Two Billionaires
- Her Two Billionaires and a Baby
- His Majesty's Dragon
- Throne of Jade
- Black Powder War
- Victory of Eagles
- Tongues of Serpents
- Empire of Ivory
- Crucible of Gold
- Delirium