Jared (10 page)

Raisa moaned as if she’d taken the bullet. Softhearted
little fool. He grabbed her hand and took off running, dragging her behind him,
calling over his shoulder as he did. “And you can stop whining for that piece
of scum.” It irritated the hell out of him that she wasted sympathy on that
were. “I only wounded him in order to keep him off our butts for another few
hours.”

Provided the double dose of paralyzing agent didn’t
stop his heart, but she didn’t need to know that.

“One less wolf to worry about,” she wheezed.

Damn, she was already out of breath. “Yes.”

He scanned the woods around them. The thick fall of
snow obscured the shadows. He still couldn’t feel any energy, but the hairs on
the back of his neck lifted in warning. “Where are they?”

She didn’t hesitate. “Three behind and one each on the
left and right.”

Too many to risk a flat-out fight. At least with Raisa
with him. She was too vulnerable to attack, and he didn’t trust his ability to
fight through the distraction if they threatened her.

Jared took a sharp left, heading downhill, knowing the
weres would be expecting them to head up toward the nearest known Renegade
stronghold on the other side of the mountain. The Oh, thank God, not up from
Rai made him smile. In the midst of everything bad, she could make him smile.
“You are one strange woman.”

There was hesitation in her “Thank you,” a shimmer in
her energy that made him wonder if he’d hurt her feelings. He told himself he
didn’t care. Told himself that it was good she was distancing herself until he
knew what was up with a Sanctuary were having her picture in his pocket. But
the longer he did without the soft touch of her energy, the more irritated he
became. She tripped. He only realized it when there was a hard jerk on his arm.
He looked back and down. She was on her side in the snow, dangling from his hand,
her shoulder up against a log, a dazed expression on her face. Grabbing her
under her arms, he lifted her up out of the snow, cursing under his breath as
she shivered and rubbed her hands together. “Are you all right?” he asked in a
barely discernible whisper.

She nodded, teeth chattering. “F-fine.”

He brushed the snow from her hair and her clothes.
She’d lost her blanket somewhere along the way. At this rate she wouldn’t
survive the night. She’d either succumb to the cold or the weres. “We’ve got to
keep moving. There’s safe passage ahead.”

She nodded as if she wasn’t on her last legs. “Lead
on.”

He rubbed her hands between his. “I’ll warm you up
when we get there.”

She nodded at the promise. “I’ll h-hold you t-to
that.”

Damn, he didn’t like this. She was freezing; cold
drained the small bit of strength she had left. He didn’t know if she could
make it even if he carried her. She touched his arm with her hand. That soft
energy wrapped around him again. “I’ll make it.”

She’d snuck inside his mind again. He put his hand
over hers. Her fingers were like blocks of ice. “I know you will.”

If it killed him, he’d make sure of it.

He studied the terrain over her shoulder. As far as he
could see through the blowing haze of snow, their back trail was clear. He didn’t
insult Raisa again by asking if she was sure they were being followed. His gut
was in full agreement.

He looked down at her. Damn, her head barely came to
the center of his chest. “Just remember, the faster you run, the faster you get
warm.”

She gave him a faint smile and a game nod of her head.
There was nothing left to say. He wrapped his fingers around her upper arm and
set off running, risking the energy expenditure to levitate them both. The cave
trail was only five miles away. If they got there undetected, they should be
fine. As long as the D’Nallys didn’t cut their throats for entering their
territory without an invite, that was. He didn’t tell Rai that. She had enough
on her mind just trying to keep up. Two miles into the run, Rai grabbed his shirt
and tugged.

“Something’s wrong,” she gasped.

He kept running, lifting her up when her feet tangled
with his and threatened to bring them both down. “What?”

“They turned.”

He stopped. “I don’t understand.”

She wrapped her hand across her stomach holding her
side, a frown on her face as her breath wheezed in and out of her lungs on a
hoarse rasp. He had to wait for her to get enough wind in her to answer. “They
turned as soon as we did.”

“You mean when they tracked us?” Shit, if they had a
tracker who could do that, he and Raisa were in serious trouble.

The shake of her head was immediate. The damp strands
of her hair clung to her flushed cheeks. Her eyes were fever bright above,
picking up the deep shadows of her snow-drenched hair. “No. They turned . . .
when we did . . . as we did.”

Son of a bitch.

Her hand went to his shirt pocket, patting at the
bulge there when she ran out of breath.

Understanding flared immediately. “A tracking device?”
he asked.

She shrugged, wheezed a bit, and then said in a long exhale.
“I don’t know. I’m not familiar with this kind of thing, but there’s a steady
ebb and flow to its energy.”

Like maybe it was pinging signals off other devices.
He picked up the small device and turned it over. There wasn’t a switch or
lever on it anywhere. It was just a small innocuous-looking sealed black box.
Which was too bad because Slade was going to pester him to hell and back for
details about it. Raisa peered over his arm, breathing a bit easier with the
rest. “Does it have an off switch?”

He had that ridiculous sense of disappointing her when
he told her, “No.”

She bit her lip and thought for a minute. That faraway
inward focus came into her gaze. Then she blinked and focused on him, that
tempting mouth that always seemed on the verge of inviting a kiss tipped up at
the corners. She snatched the controller out of his hands, turning it over in
hers. “Do you think they’re so confident that we don’t know this is a
transmitter that they’ll follow this signal wherever it goes?”

Understanding of what she was getting at was
immediate. He cupped her chilled cheeks in his hands and kissed her hard and
quick, her startled gasp bathing his lips in the promise of her taste. “Did I
say clever before?” He took the device out of her hand as she stood there blinking
at him. Hell, a man would think she wasn’t used to being kissed. Jared smiled
and flicked the end of her nose. “You, sunbeam, are a wonder.”

While she stared, not blinking, not moving, except for
the pink of her tongue coming out to touch where his lips had been, he summoned
a deer from the forest. A doe answered his call. She had eyes as soft as
Raisa’s and a manner just as sweet. He held her in thrall as he motioned to
Rai, “Give me your bra.”

She clutched her chest like he’d just demanded her
jewels.

He held up the device and said, “I need something to
tie this to her.” He motioned again with his fingers. “Give me your bra.”

“Turn your back.”

He raised his eyebrow at her. “Can’t you just slip it
off under your shirt?”

“I’m not that coordinated.”

He turned his back. “Now that’s disappointing to
hear.”

Cloth slid along skin in a seductive whish that sent
his imagination galloping. Her “Live with it” as her bra slapped over his
shoulder made him grin again. The garment was laden with the scent of her body.
A flowery perfume underlay a richer scent, one that made his vampire sit up and
take notice. He snatched the garment off his shoulder. It was simple cotton.
Nothing fancy. Nothing like he’d buy for her if she were his. She was
definitely a silk-and-frills woman if he’d ever seen one. He clipped the device
onto one of the straps, ignoring the sense of connection he got from handling
the soft garment. He approached the doe. Rai was right beside him, her shorter
legs taking two steps to his one. “Are you under the impression that I need
help?”

“I just wanted to make sure you didn’t put it on too
tightly.”

He slanted a glance down at her, taking in the way she
was biting her lower lip. “If it falls off, it’s not going to do us much good.”

He wrapped the band around the deer’s neck. Despite
the doe being enthralled, Rai stroked her neck soothingly. “But it doesn’t need
to stay on that long. I mean, if it doesn’t fall off, they’ll catch her, and
they’ll be angry.”

And they’d take that anger out on the deer and that
bothered her. “I’ll only fasten one hook, weaken the material, and plant a
suggestion for her to rub it off.”

Raisa nodded, the high pitch to her energy dropping
off as relief flowed through her. He shook his head as he fastened the garment
to the doe. She had to be the softest woman he’d ever met. Completely unsuited
to the life of a vampire, yet she’d been one longer than he. It boggled the mind.
He slapped the deer on the haunch and sent it up and east.

Raisa rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “I hope
she’ll be okay.”

He picked up his rifle. “You’d do better to hope they
fall for that trick.”

“I know.” She was still staring after the deer. “It
just seems so wrong to use something so sweet and helpless.”

“Life isn’t always fair.”

“True.” She took a deep breath that rasped with
weariness. As the doe bounded out of sight, she held out her hand. “We’d better
get moving.”

“Yes.” He took her hand in his. Her fingers barely
spanned his palm. A woman like her shouldn’t be out here in the wilderness
running for her life. She should be tucked away somewhere safe, away from any
threat, kept happy and comfortable doing things that wouldn’t tax her strength.
She should have someone watching over her, easing her way. A father, a brother,
a husband.

Allie would call that view chauvinistic and outdated,
but he couldn’t help it. It came naturally to him to protect women, to show
them courtesy. He’d been raised in a time when women were to be pampered and
cherished. No matter how the centuries changed, he couldn’t seem to shake that
aspect of his upbringing. Up until Raisa, he hadn’t realized how much he had
missed a woman’s acceptance of his care.

“You ready?” he asked. Another deep breath and she
nodded. He pulled Raisa into his side and headed down the mountain, taking more
of her weight than she wanted to give him, stilling her mental protest that she
was too heavy with a brush of calm. His reward was that addictive, soothing
wrap of her energy around his. He levitated them over a fallen tree. She
shivered against him as the wind whipped a stinging barrage of snowflakes into
their faces. Everything protective and what his sister-in-law would call
archaic-ally male surged to the fore.

Her shirt was wet. Her skin cold. If he didn’t get
Raisa to shelter soon, she’d end up a frozen caricature of herself. He splayed
his fingers over her waist, appreciating her softness even as she determinedly
put one foot in front of the other. The woman was a mass of contradictions. She
took on Sanctuary weres without batting an eye, yet finishing the job when she
missed her kill gave her an attack of conscience. She jumped when he thought
she’d stand, whined when he thought she’d be quiet, and displayed an incredible
determination when other women would have given out. She was unpredictable,
sweet, sassy, and as intriguing as all get-out. And he was taking her straight
into a den of woman-hungry males. He shook his head. It was definitely not
turning out to be his day.

THE D’Nallys didn’t kill them, but they were entirely
too fond of Raisa for Jared’s peace of mind. At least the males. Jared felt
another growl rumble in his chest as yet another well-muscled, well-favored
D’Nally stepped into their path and murmured a greeting to his little vampire.
His fangs ached with a need to sink into the man as he reached for Raisa’s hand
in the traditional pack greeting of an unmated male toward an available female.
The only thing that kept Jared from severing the limb was the way Raisa leaned
back against him to avoid the contact. He tucked her under his shoulder and
snarled at their armed escort. “Are we going to some place in particular, or
are you just taking us for a stroll around the compound?”

Creed, the leader of their escort, tucked his rifle
into his arm. His brow arched and the corner of his mouth twitched, but beyond
“Someplace particular,” Creed didn’t say anything more.

The man was all hard angles bristled by a day’s growth
of beard, but the minute Raisa shivered, his brown eyes narrowed and he
stopped. As if in synch, the rest of the four guards halted. The visual
inspection they subjected Raisa to was as intense as any his brother Slade
would give. Raisa shuffled her feet. The touch of her energy was tentative. He
caught it in his, wrapping his around it in a soothing stroke as she stared
right back at the were. Nothing in her expression gave away the uncertainty he
could feel streaking through her. She shivered again, and the big were turned
his head, his yellow-flecked brown eyes narrowed on Raisa. “She is not well?”

The question was not unexpected. Healthy vampires
didn’t feel the cold. “Not particularly.”