The Serpent in the Stone (The Gifted Series) (39 page)

“
Nothing.
I
’
ve just got to get out of here.
I can
’
t think straight.
”

“
Sara—
”

“
I
’
m fine, I swear.
I feel a lot better.
”
A lie, if there ever was one.

Faith looked over Sara
’
s shoulder.
Sara followed her stare to find Flintrop emerging from her tent with a too-composed expression.
He didn
’
t look toward them, walking instead toward the dig.
“
What did he do to you?
”
Faith demanded.

“
I just need to get out of here, okay?
”

Her sister looked unconvinced, but Sara didn
’
t stay to explain.
She strode away from camp without looking back.

Coward.
She
’
d never run from anything in her life.

When she reached the inlet, dusk had passed, and the stars scattered across the sky.
The wind carried the sound of surf crashing on the rocks offshore.
She hugged herself against the cool evening air, burrowing deeper into her jacket.
The temperature seemed to have plummeted in the last five minutes.
Her breath steamed in front of her.

She picked out Ian
’
s darker shape against the starry sky, sitting on a boulder near the water
’
s edge.
She walked faster.
Her walk became a jog, and then a run.

He turned and slid off the rock to meet her, catching her in his embrace.
His kisses rained across her cheek and down her neck.
“
I
’
m glad you
’
re all right,
”
he breathed, holding her face in his hands.
“
You have no idea how much I wanted to stay with you today.
”

She threw her arms around his neck and held on, welcoming the feel of his mouth on hers and the way it erased the disquieting hum that had been plaguing her since Flintrop
’
s kiss.
“
Can we just stay here like this for a minute?
”

He answered by holding her harder against his body.
“
You
’
re shaking.
What happened?
”

“
I
’
m okay.
I
’
m fine now.
”
She pressed against him, as much to ward off the chill of night as the chill that had settled along her spine.

****

Ian threaded his hand into her hair, letting the silken strands glide through his fingers.
He kissed her again, pulling her with him as he leaned back against the rock.
He
’
d known something was wrong the moment she appeared, but as soon as he touched her, everything except the feel of her against him swept out of his head.

She still shivered.
God, she felt like ice.
He opened his jacket to pull it around them both, willing his warmth into her.

Her hands slipped up the back of his thermal shirt to trail along the hollow of his lower back.
Ian forgot his worries.
He hissed softly at the touch, then louder when her nails grazed his skin.
Urgency radiated from her.

His body reacted like a lightning strike.
He dropped to the sand and pulled her down with him, needing to bury himself in her.
They grappled at each other
’
s clothing in a mad rush.
Jackets, shirts, and pants fell away unheeded.
They came together in a surge that drowned out everything else.
Ian rocked his hips against hers with a groan of satisfaction.

She gave a broken moan, pulling him into her, propelling him upward.
“
Please—Ian, please.
”

He sensed the storm raging in her and answered it with a primal growl, meeting her thrust for thrust.
A charge built at the base of his spine with each stroke until he could hardly take it, then it burst along his nerves in a shower of sparks.
She sank her teeth into the skin of his shoulder, muffling a hoarse cry that echoed his own.

She went limber in his embrace, and drew a long sigh that seemed to come from the center of her being.
He drifted back down with her in a tangle of arms and legs and rasping breath.

He kissed her, gently now, then breathed in the scent of her.
“
Hi,
”
he whispered.

She dimpled.
Her gaze slid away from his to rove along his chest.
“
I
’
m sorry.
I just…I wanted you so much...I needed...
”

“
This is me, not complaining.
”

Her dimple deepened.
He couldn
’
t resist kissing it.

Sara curled her arms around his neck, and then cringed.
“
There
’
s a rock digging into my back.
”

With a grin, he rolled until she lay on top of him, then dragged his jacket over them.
A rock jabbed him in the back.
He flinched and dug it out.
“
Ouch.
Christ.
Sex on the beach isn
’
t everything it
’
s cracked it up to be.
”

“
It
’
s perfect,
”
she murmured into his neck.
With a long sigh, she settled against him.

His body changed his mind for him, already responding to her again.
Yep, he agreed.
Perfect.

Circling her waist with his arms, he looked up at the blanket of stars.
A thin slice of waning moon rode low overhead, spinning out the hours before sunrise.

His nightmare about the Viking
’
s wife barged in uninvited.
In his mind, he heard Hakon
’
s wife scream as the hooded men broke into their house.
A second scream, cut short as they slit her throat.
Blood poured down the front of her dress.

Buzzkill,
he told the image, but it persisted.

Someone was trying to reconstruct the ley line ritual. Someone who now needed gifted blood to perform it. What would happen if they found out about Sara?

He turned his face into Sara
’
s hair.
Her warmth, the steadying beat of her heart against his, and the faintly musky, earthy scent of her urged him away from the nightmare.

Not her.
Not while he breathed.

He must have tightened his hold on her.
She tilted her head to look at him.
“
Something the matter?
”

He grinned again, forced now.
“
Sand and rocks notwithstanding, a man could get used to this naked-woman-on-a-beach thing.
”

She smiled, and the nightmare washed away as easy as that.

They lay silent for a long while.
Ian let his blood cool while the sounds of surging waves and chirring insects filled the air.
When her hands skimmed along his sides and down his belly, he gave a throaty rumble and trapped them with his own.
“
Unless you plan on spending the night on this beach, I don
’
t recommend you do that.
”

She sat up, tugging him with her into another kiss.
His jacket slithered off them to drop on the sand.
He made out her curving silhouette against the moonlight flashing on the water, and contemplated spending the night on the beach anyway.
In spite of everything going on around them, all he wanted was to pull her back down and repeat what they
’
d just done.

The breeze picked up, fluttering in her hair.
She broke the kiss with a violent shiver.
“
When did it get so cold out?
”

“
What cold?
”
he deadpanned, reaching for his pants.

Kneeling, she clapped a hand over her own pile of clothing, then dressed hastily.
She turned back to him as he shrugged into his shirt, and stopped to raise a hand to his cheek.
A troubled look crossed her features.
“
I don
’
t want to go.
”

His gut clenched. He snaked his arms around her and pulled her close against him. “I don’t want you to, either. I’ll come back tomorrow. If you can get away from the dig—”

“
As soon as I can,
”
she said between kisses.

Ian helped her to her feet.
He let go of her, trying not to dwell on the reluctant expression in her eyes that made him want to pull her back.
A few seconds more of that, and he might be spending the night with her on the beach—and damn Flintrop and the dig and everybody else sticking their noses into other people
’
s business.
Sara held his hand until they were too far apart to do so, then jogged away.

When she had gone, he looked up at the moon again to find it bloodred.

Startled, he blinked and looked once more, but the moment had passed.
The moon hung silent and white as a ghost.

****

When dawn broke over the camp, Sara was already bent in concentration over the large mesh box beside the dig, sieving earth.
Stones rattled as she shifted the box back and forth, searching.
She picked chunks of peat, stone, and grass from the box and tossed it into a wheelbarrow, hardly acknowledging it before moving back to sieving again.

The task was perfunctory, something to put down on paper when—and if—they wrapped up the excavation.
It also occupied her mind just enough to keep her from racing to Ian
’
s camp the way she wanted.
Lying naked at the inlet with him in the middle of the night, she
’
d felt safer than if she
’
d been at home, locked in her house.
Even now, she ached to be with him.

But she couldn
’
t leave Faith alone here.
They needed to watch each other
’
s backs until this was ended, however it ended.
Her sister hadn
’
t been able to reach Hakon since that last time when she
’
d tapped herself.
If Thomas Callander was plotting something involving the serpent ceremony, he
’
d decided to bide his time.
How could Lamb not know the man he
’
d hired, the man he
’
d known for a good ten years, was capable of murder?

And he wasn
’
t alone.
Couldn
’
t be alone, if he were bent on doing this.
No one had the kind of power it would take to open and control the ley lines himself.
Stone, stone, grass, stone...

“
Good morning.
”

Sara spun on her heel, fists raised to swing.

Thomas hopped backward.
“
Whoa!
A little edgy today, aren
’
t you?
”

Forcing a smile, she lowered her fists.
“
Don
’
t sneak up on me like that.
”

“
How should I sneak up on you, then?
”
He laughed.

She tried not to stare.
She
’
d never seen his eyes change, even once.
Did they change, or was it not the same for everyone?
Could he lift as much as she could with her gift?
Did he feel that shiver when he used his power?

Cameron
’
s terror-stricken face sprang into her mind.
She gripped the edge of the sieve box, and fought back the bile rising in her throat.

“
You all right?
It sounded like you were pretty bad off, yesterday.
”