Jared (2 page)

“Quiet,” he warned as he put on a burst of speed.

“Put me—”

He slapped his hand over her mouth.

We’ve got company.

She went absolutely still in his grip.

Put me down.

You’re too weak.

But—

Be quiet.

The patrol was fanning out, trying to surround them.
He tested the minds of those coming at them. Two were strong, one medium, but
the fourth was weak from going too long without feeding. Jared turned in that
direction, sending a suggestion deep into the vampire’s mind, sending him away
in pursuit of a noise that didn’t exist. Having the woman with him, he couldn’t
indulge his need to take them on. Silently—just one more shadow in the
landscape—he broke through the hole he’d created in the trap. He slowed his
pace to an easy lope once they were clear, focusing against his will on the
woman he carried. Her energy was like nothing he’d ever felt before. Linking
with his in slow pulses before releasing. Testing, lingering, tempting even.

“Are we safe?”

“We lost them.”

“Then could you put me down?”

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to be sick.”

Vampires didn’t get sick. He took a sharp right into
the cover of sheltering bushes and set her down. They were far enough ahead of
the others that they could spare the time. She swayed. He steadied her with a
hand on her upper arm. His fingers met around the curve. He was a big man, but
not so big that he was used to having that happen.

“When was the last time you ate?”

She leaned over, bracing her arm against a tree.
“Vampires don’t eat.”

“Force of habit.” He changed his phrasing. “When was
the last time you fed?”

She waved away his concern, her hand going to her
stomach. “It’s just the stress.”

“Of what?”

He couldn’t take offense at the look she shot him. It
was a pretty stupid question. “Guess nearly being taken captive and raped by
the Sanctuary vamps would put a crimp in your tail.”

She nodded and retched, a horribly violent sound. Her
hand slipped on the tree. He stepped forward, wrapped his arm around her waist,
and held her head. Even as she tried to push him away, she was retching again.
Nothing came up. He damn near lost his own meal though as the spasms continued.
He opened his palm over her stomach. She was too small to endure this.

“Easy,” he murmured in her ear. “Just take slow
breaths.”

“I can handle throwing up.”

“I don’t think I can.”

She shot him another look. “Nobody’s asking you to.”

Surely she didn’t expect him to just walk away and
leave her to her suffering? “I saved your life; you’re my responsibility now.”

Her torso jerked, but she didn’t retch. “Convenient.”

He smiled. “It works for me.”

She stood there for a couple more minutes, shoulders
bent, chest heaving. When no more spasms occurred, she straightened. He dropped
his hand from her head, but not too far. Just down beside her cheek. He brushed
a few strands of hair away. She bared her fangs at him. He had the irrational
urge to kiss her. Instead, he took a step back.

“Better?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Then let’s get moving.”

She held out her hand. He cocked an eyebrow at her.

“My pack?”

He patted the strap. “I’ve got it right here.”

“I can carry my own pack.”

He listened to the forest. The spots of silence
indicated the others searching, working in ever-broadening circles. “And I can
carry you if you don’t get moving. Those two had friends.”

“I’m not going with you.”

“A woman alone isn’t safe out here.”

“I’m not safe with you, either.”

He stopped and turned. “You’re about as safe as you’re
ever going to get.”

Her hands settled on her hips. “Why? Because the big,
bad male vamp beat up the other two vamps?”

He took two steps back and grabbed her hand,
impatience at her rejection of his protection roughening his voice. “Because
I’m the big, bad vamp who can beat up all the other vamps who want you as their
own personal tidbit.”

He gave a yank, and she stumbled toward him. He kept
her momentum going through sheer muscle. She trotted behind him, putting as
much resistance as she could into every step.

“If you don’t cooperate, I’m going to pick you up and
carry you again.”

Her talons sank into his wrist. “I don’t want to go
with you.”

“I don’t care.”

He wasn’t leaving her for the Sanctuary vultures. He
glanced behind them and, with a surge of energy, created a tiny whirlwind to
erase their tracks from the snow. If those who followed found the spot, and
were good trackers, they’d sense the lingering energy, but they’d have to be
good.

“Levitate.”

“You levitate.”

She was determined to be difficult. He tugged her into
him. She landed against this chest with an “oof” and a flash of talons.
“Hell-cat.”

He spun her around, wrapped his arm around her torso,
pinning her arms to her side, picked her up, and headed west. After five
minutes of riding in that position, she caved.

“All right,” she gasped. “You win.”

He didn’t stop. He didn’t trust her for a minute. The
woman had spent the entire time stewing, her energy whirling with
concentration, which meant she’d probably been planning, too. He’d lived long
enough to know a pretty exterior didn’t mean an empty head. His brother’s wife
was a prime example. The woman was as sweet as candy to look at, but underneath
there was a will of iron and a razor-sharp brain.

“I’ll tell you what.” The other males had split up,
one heading in their direction. He stopped. “You can ride piggyback.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Then you stay the way you are.” In a couple of miles
he’d lose their tail, and then he’d put her down.

“I don’t like you,” she informed him in icy tones.

“You don’t have to like me, little vamp. All you need
to do is live.”

“And if I don’t want to?”

He almost missed a step. “I’m sure you’ve figured out
by now that, as vampires, we don’t have much of a choice.”

She always had a choice. Raisa prided herself on
creating choices where none existed, but right now, the only one she could come
up with to deal with the big vamp was to kick him between the legs. Frustration
never created her best ideas. She tried a different tact.

“Please put me down?”

He glanced down at her and slowed. He had beautiful
eyes. More green than hazel and glowing with the force of the personality
behind them. There was a flicker of his energy. A softening? She tried again.

“Please?”

He stopped. The slow glide down his body was more
seduction than release. Awareness shuddered along her senses.

She looked up as her boots sank into the snow. The man
was not just big, he was massive. He had to be over six feet tall with wide
shoulders that just screamed “give me a reason.” The leather coat he wore did
nothing to reduce the image of power and mass. He wore the Stetson on his head
without any affectation. The same with the rifle in his hands and the scuffed
cowboy boots on his feet. Not a newcomer to the West, then. With startling
speed, a shaft of energy shot out from him and surrounded her, catching at that
flutter of awareness. She instinctively caught it, muted it, and sent it back.
Not a newcomer to vampirism, either, if he was so adept at mind reading. Rats.
It would have made things easier if he were new.

“I always have a choice,” she told him.

He probably would have looked more convinced if she
hadn’t stumbled right then.

With an easy tug that spoke of a man familiar with his
strength, he saved her from her own clumsiness.

“Uh-huh. Well, not today.”

Yes, today. Every day, for that matter. Until she
found the man she’d been sent to find, her only choice was to keep looking. And
to avoid being captured, either by the Sanctuary or the Renegades once she’d
“accidentally” wandered off the course set for her. Just twenty-four hours out
of the compound and she’d failed on that one.

She tugged her hand. The man didn’t let her go, didn’t
even seem to notice she was trying to get free. She’d told Miri she wasn’t
going to be much good at this, that she needed to put her faith in someone
else. Miri hadn’t even hesitated, just gave her the “look,” told her the
information she’d needed, and then blithely pinned all her desperate hopes on
her. Raisa sighed. It sucked being a woman’s last resort.

“I don’t have time for your ego trip.”

That pulled the stranger up short. His eyes glittered
at her from beneath the brim of his. She had to tilt her head way back to meet
his gaze. Too many conversations like this and she’d develop a crick on top of
the other aches and pains that were her daily companions. The edges of his wide
mouth twitched. “You got somewhere else you need to be?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

He just had to be the type to pin a woman down. She
pushed her hair off her face, grimacing when her fingers immediately caught in
a snarl. The Sanctuary had been on her at the break of twilight, long before
she’d had a chance to braid it. “It’s not polite to pry.”

His gaze followed her hands, lingering on the spot
where her fingers tangled. “Just consider me the rude sort.”

This time the touch of his energy made her blink. Now
that she wasn’t fighting for her life, merely running for it, she could
appreciate it. It was deep and dense, very powerful, with a tendency to
wildness that intrigued her. She tested the imprint she had in her mind of the
man she had to find. It didn’t match. Thank God.

The relief behind that “thank God” made her blink
again. She’d never had a “thank God” moment before, and that was quite an
admission for a woman who was 270 years old. She eyed the man again. Her
initial impression was still big, but now that she’d slowed herself down she
could appreciate the way those powerful shoulders sat atop an equally powerful
chest. Now, through the opening of his coat, she could appreciate the flatness
of his abdomen beneath the forest green of his shirt, not to mention the way
his denims show-cased, in loving detail, his lean hips and well-muscled thighs.
And what it did for everything in between . . .

She licked her lips. One of the best inventions in the
last two hundred fifty years was blue jeans. There was nothing, absolutely
nothing, more flattering to a man’s physique than well-worn denim. A chuckle
drew her gaze up. The man was staring back at her, watching her admire him. The
blush started in her toes and kept climbing no matter how hard she tried to
suppress it. By the time he pushed his hat back, revealing a handsome, square
face with startling hazel eyes, her cheeks were on fire.

“I take it you don’t find my rudeness objectionable?”

The heat in his gaze slid into his energy. With a
pulse of power, it surrounded hers. Instead of finding the intrusion objectionable,
she found herself leaning toward it, embracing it. Raisa pulled herself up
short. She did not have time for this.

“Your rudeness is objectionable.”

“But my body isn’t?”

There was no help for it. She was going to have to
bluff her way through the embarrassment. “You have to know you’re a handsome
man.”

“Never hurts to have it reinforced.”

“I don’t suppose it does.”

“But?”

“I have things to do that don’t include you.”

“Well, now, that is going to be a problem.”

“Why?”

He looked over her shoulder. She felt his energy fan
out and scan. She piggybacked hers to his, keeping under his radar. With her
debilitating weakness, it was about the only way she could afford the luxury of
scanning. She felt the Sanctuary patrol at the same time he did. They were back
at the bodies of the first two, but they wouldn’t be for long. Soon they’d be
coming after them. However, the patrol was far enough behind that if she could
get away from the stranger, she’d be able to disappear. The man’s grip
tightened around her hand. “Because I’ve decided to keep you.”

He’d decided to—Oh, for heaven’s sake! She planted her
feet. “Look, Mister . . . ?”

“Jared.” With a mere twitch of his arm, he popped her
forward.

“Look, Jared.” She struggled to find her most
persuasive tone of voice as she awkwardly trotted beside him. She wasn’t used
to running while being levitated, and she couldn’t get the rhythm right. She
pried at his fingers with her free hand. She managed to work her pinkie free.
It gave her hope. “You can’t just decide to keep a person.”

“No. I can’t.” The glance he cast her was beyond
amused. “But the vampire law does say I can keep an unattached female in need
of aid.”