Devoured

  “He’s saying he can get me out but it’ll be a big risk,” Tess said.

  “Yes,” Garron said simply, nodding.

  “So you’re asking if I want to take a chance?”

  “Yes,” he said again.

  Tess thought of the murderous look in Pierce’s green eyes when he’d beaten her—of the way he’d promised to come home and do worse—much worse. Was she willing to take a risk to get out of here?

  “He’ll kill me if I stay,” she said softly, speaking more to herself than to Di and the big Kindred. “I know he will—he’s already working his way up to it. He’ll kill me and nobody will do a damn thing because he knows exactly how to work a crime scene. He’ll make it look like someone broke in or I had an accident or he might just hide my body, or—” She broke off abruptly.

  “Tess…honey?” Di said softly. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying get me out.” Tess looked up at the big Kindred. “I don’t care about the risks. Get me the hell out of here.”

  “All right.” He nodded gravely and looked at Di. “Then I would ask that you go back to your vehicle and wait.”

  “What? Like hell I will!” Di protested.

  “Please. It’s for your own safety.”

  He looked so deadly serious that Tess nodded at her friend.

  “Di, please—just do it.”

  “What is he even planning to do?”

  “I don’t know but if he says it’s dangerous, I believe him.”

  “All right, fine.” Di nodded curtly. “But if I don’t hear anything for five minutes I’m coming back.”

  She turned and walked stiffly across the back lawn, her irritation clear in the set of her narrow shoulders.

  Garron waited patiently until she was gone and then looked at Tess.

  “Thank you.”

  “No problem. So what should I do?”

  “Just step back.” He was already fitting his long fingers through the holes in the metal mesh to get a good grip. “And if you see me start to change forms in any way, run and lock yourself in your bathing chamber. If I don’t see you, the…other inside me should be content to seek another target.”

  “Wow…okay.” Tess gave a shaky little laugh. “You’re really not kidding about this, are you?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “Step back please, I’m going to try and free you.”

  Tess took a step back and watched him carefully. He had both hands hooked into the mesh now and she could see the big muscles in his arms flexing as he got ready to pull. He lowered his head, looking down for a long moment, and she could see him breathing deeply as though preparing himself for the task ahead of him. He looked like a man in the middle of meditation or prayer.

  Then he looked up again and she gasped. His eyes—those amazing pure turquoise eyes that looked like the tropical waters off a coral reef—were actually glowing. They blazed like lit torches in the night and for a moment she felt like a wild animal had somehow found her bedroom window and was staring in at her hungrily.

  Then Garron began to pull.

  His long arms tensed, his muscles bulged and Tess could hear the low growl coming from deep in his broad chest. Tendons stood out on the sides of his throat and a vein throbbed at his temple. His sharp features were turned into a trembling sneer of effort and still he pulled, clearly giving it everything he had.

  My God, he’s going to kill himself! He’ll burst his heart or rip his arms out of their sockets!

  “Stop!” she exclaimed. “You’ll kill yourself.”

  “Not…stopping.” His voice was a low, animalistic growl. “Not until…you are…free. Or I am…dead.”

  Oh my God, he really means that! Tess stared at him in awe. Why was he doing this? Why did he care so much about freeing her? And for that matter, why was he even here in the first place?

  As she watched, Garron began to look different…larger somehow, as though he had grown in the few seconds since he’d started his effort. The sound coming from his mouth was more animal than human and his eyes were glowing so brightly they were like searchlights in the night.

  What’s happening to him? Tess remembered his warning to run if he should change forms. Change into what form, though? What was this other he had inside him? And what might it do if it was released?

  Tess opened her mouth to beg him to stop again when she heard a low, crumbling sound coming from the right upper corner of the window. A little shower of broken concrete pattered down and then the same thing happened with the left upper corner.

  Garron concentrated his efforts on the bottom corners now, pulling and giving short, hard jerks, trying to yank the mesh cage free. His face was red with effort, his sharp black brows drawn down into an intense scowl. Tess thought she had never seen such single minded determination. He was literally ready to hurt or kill himself to get her out of her prison and she didn’t even know him. She wondered again why he was doing this.

  At last the bottom corners began to come loose. The growl coming from the big warrior’s throat rose to a crescendo, becoming a full throated roar as, with one final sharp jerk, he ripped the metal cage away from the window frame and threw it to the ground. It landed with a dull clang that reverberated through the night air, making Tess wince. Then, his job finished, Garron stood there with his head bowed, just outside the window, panting.

  “Oh my God,” Tess whispered, completely awed. “Oh my God, you did it.” Then she noticed that his hands were bleeding. Crimson drops that looked almost black in the moonlight dripped from his closed fists as his broad chest heaved with effort and emotion.

  “You’re hurt!” Unable to think of anything but his pain, she rushed to the window and reached for him.

  “No…” Garron’s voice was low and strangely distorted and when he looked up, his eyes still glowed like blue-green coals. He took a step back. “No, don’t touch me. It’s not…not safe. My blood, it boils. The dr’gin is too close. He wants—”

  “But you’re hurt.” Tess ignored his warning. Leaning out the window, she reached for him, even though it made her wounded back sting fiercely. “You—oh!”

  She felt herself falling and the towel slipping at the same time. The window was about waist-height on her but the house, like some many in Florida, was raised. It was a good four or five foot fall to the ground and it was going to hurt like hell…

  Except that two large, strong arms caught her before she could hit.

  “Oh!” She looked up and realized that Garron was cradling her in his arms like a baby. The second thing she realized was that her towel was now around her waist, leaving her breasts completely bare in the moonlight. “Oh my God—I’m so sorry!” She fumbled for the towel, trying to cover herself but with little success. It was all twisted up around her lower half and didn’t want to come loose. “I didn’t mean to…I mean…that is…”

  She broke off because he was staring at her. Not at her breasts—at her eyes. His own eyes were still glowing, although perhaps not quite as brightly as before.

  “Put your arms around my neck.” His voice was low and hoarse.

  “But…” Tess hesitated, uncertain of what to do. “I thought you said it was dangerous. I thought—”

  “Do it. Please.” The words seemed to cost him some effort and she sensed that he was having some kind of internal struggle. A fierce battle of wills. Maybe he was fighting with the thing he had called “other?” Whatever it was, he seemed to think that her touching him might help, although how Tess had no idea.

  “All right.” Hesitantly, carefully, she reached up and put her arms around his neck. He was wearing a deep blue shirt but it was unbuttoned, showing his bare chest and abdomen. So when she reached up to hug him, they were skin-to-skin.

  The motion pulled the wounds on her back but Tess barely felt it. What she did feel were her bare nipples, made hard by the chilly night air, rubbing against the broad, flat planes of his chest. He was so warm—almost hot, as though he had a sunburn or a fev
er. And his scent…it invaded her senses with its dark spice, carrying away her reason completely. Though she had meant to simply hug him a little and then pull back, Tess found herself pressing closer to him, wanting more of the delicious skin-to-skin contact wanting to breathe him in and never let go.

  Garron seemed to feel the same way. He held her to him tightly and buried his face in the damp hair at the side of her neck, inhaling deeply.

  “Gods,” Tess heard him murmur, his deep voice shaking. “How do you do that? How do you calm my blood, simply with your touch?”

  “How do I what?” She pulled back at last and looked at his face.

  He looked calmer now and his eyes were back to normal. Which was to say that while they were still the most impossibly gorgeous shade of pure, clear turquoise she’d ever seen, they were no longer glowing.

  “How do you calm my blood? I was burning…I felt my dr’gin—the other I told you about—clawing its way up and out. I could feel myself changing. And then…then you touched me.”

  He looked at her in awe, as though she had done some kind of miracle when all she’d done was hug him with her towel half off.

  Oh God, her towel! She was still practically naked in his arms. It was horribly embarrassing and also, though he was holding her gently, her back really hurt.

  Tess shifted, tugging at the towel and wincing as it pulled past her wounded flesh.

  “Look, I’m really sorry but my back…”

  “Oh, of course. Forgive me.” He set her down carefully and Tess was at last able to adjust her towel, much to her relief. Looking down, she saw a bloody handprint on the white terrycloth which reminded her why she’d been reaching for him and had fallen out of the window in the first place.

  “Your hands…” She held out her own hands after making sure the towel was knotted firmly in place. “Let me see them.”

  “They’re nothing.” He frowned and shook his head. “Nothing I don’t deserve.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Tess demanded. “What do you—”

  “Hey, five minutes are up. What’s going on?”

  Di was suddenly there, striding around the corner of the house with a frown fixed on her face. She stopped talking when she saw Tess standing in the grassy backyard. Next her eyes flicked to the metal mesh cage lying on the ground like a discarded beetle shell. Her eyes widened and she looked at Garron in awe.

  “Wow, big boy—did you do that?”

  “He sure did,” Tess said. “But now we need to get out of here before Pierce comes back and finds us. He’s working a homicide but you can never tell how long that will take.”

  “We should go,” Garron said. “Is there anything you want to take from here before we leave?”

  Tess took a long look at the white house where she had spent most of her married life—the place where she had once thought her husband loved her and then learned differently. The house which Pierce had made her prison—the house he would doubtless have made her coffin if Garron hadn’t come to free her.

  For a moment tears stung her eyes but she sniffed and blinked them away fiercely. I won’t mourn for the past. I have to think about the future now —about what in the world I’m going to do. I’m running out of places to hide.

  “Tess?” Garron rumbled softly and she looked up at him, realizing this was the first time he had spoken her name. “Is there anything you need from this place? Anything you want?” he asked.

  Tess wiped her eyes and shook her head.

  “No, nothing. Let’s go.”

  Chapter Twelve

  She touched me and the need to change receded. She calmed my dr’gin with nothing more than her sweet scent and the softness of her hands. How did she do that? Why does she affect me so?

  Garron stared down at his black boots, which were up on the seat since there was no room to put them anywhere else in the back of Di’s tiny vehicle. Tess had wanted him to ride up front because of his long legs but he had absolutely refused. Her back was wounded and he wasn’t going to increase her pain by making her ride cramped up in the back. Still, it was a good thing he wasn’t claustrophobic. His knees were practically touching his nose in this miniscule human conveyance which stunk of fossil fuels. How did they stand traveling around in these noisy, cramped, smelly vehicles anyway?

  But his discomfort couldn’t hold his attention for long. He kept replaying the scene outside her domicile over and over again. The way she had literally fallen into his arms, the feel of her soft, lush curves pressed against him, the rounded fullness of her lovely breasts gilded silver by the moonlight…Gods, she was beautiful—so gorgeous she made him ache. Literally. He shifted around, trying to part his thighs more to make room for his throbbing shaft. He wished it would go down but there was little chance of that—not when he could smell her sweet, fresh scent even despite the car’s oil and smoke stench.

  You shouldn’t be feelings this way for her, whispered the voice of his guilt. Remember your vow. Remember Nella…

  I haven’t forgotten her, he argued uneasily. I will be true to her memory but I cannot help the way Tess’s scent affects me…

  Then more than her scent reached him. Tess’s low, sweet voice came to his ears and he realized she and Di were having an argument.

  “Look, just take me by my place so I can grab a few things and I’ll get out of your hair,” Tess was saying to her friend.

  “Get out of my hair? I don’t think so! You’re staying with me.”

  “What, so I can put you in danger too? We’ve had this conversation before, Di—I’m not going to stay at your house. It’s the first place Pierce will look the minute he finds me gone. He already suspects that you’re the one who helped me hide on the Mother Ship.”

  “We need to get you into a shelter.”

  “No.” Tess shook her head vehemently. “They need those spots for women with kids and besides, Pierce is a detective. I know the locations are hidden but something tells me he’d find a way to get to me. If I stay in one place, even if it’s supposed to be ‘safe’ I’m just a sitting duck.” She sighed. “I guess I’ll just have to go on the road.”

  “And how are you going to finance this magical mystery tour?” Di asked flatly. “With your savings from the extravagant salary they pay you at Happy Rest? Don’t forget, I used to be the administrator there. I know how crappy the money is.”

  “It’s not so bad—you got us a raise, remember?” Tess said. “Besides, I’ve got a little—enough to keep me going for awhile if I’m careful.”

  “There is no need for you to go anywhere,” Garron said, breaking into the conversation. “Except back up to the Mother Ship with me.”

  “What?” Tess twisted in her seat to look at him though it clearly hurt her back to do so. “I don’t think so—I’ve been banned from there. Banned for life. Besides, why would I go with you?”

  “Why wouldn’t you?” Garron said, frowning. It hadn’t occurred to him that she would want to go off on her own. The whole time she’d been talking to Di about going “on the road” he just assumed he would be with her. He had put her in danger—it was his responsibility to protect her. Nothing else made any sense.

  “Well, because, I…Oh, look, here’s my place, Di—pull in.”

  The little blue car pulled into a parking area filled with other vehicles and Tess started to get out. Then she put a hand to her forehead.

  “Crap—my keys!”

  “Got your spare right here, hon.” Di was already handing her a small, flat piece of metal. “Want me to come in with you? It’s not likely but if Pierce has already gotten home and found you gone, he could be somewhere around.”

  “In that case, I’m going in with her,” Garron growled.

  “Well, I would protest but I think big boy here is probably more protection than I would be,” Di said. “Tess?”

  “Um…” For some reason Tess was shifting uncomfortably in her seat. “I don’t know…”

  “Come on, Tess, we don’t hav
e a lot of time here,” Di pointed out. “The minute Pierce gets home and finds you gone, he’s going to pull out all the stops to find you. This is the first place he’s going to come looking—even before my house.”

  Tess bit her lip. “All right,” she said at last to Garron. “Come on.”

  He unfolded himself from the back seat and followed her slow progress to a large building which seemed to have multiple dwellings in it—a little like the housing in the Unmated Males area of the Mother Ship.

  Tess clutched her towel tight to her breasts and kept glancing around nervously as they climbed the steps to a second story dwelling.

  “Sorry I’m so jumpy,” she muttered as they finally came to a stop in front of a door marked 113B. “I’m just not used to coming home in the middle of the night wearing only a towel. Plus this thing with Pierce…”

  “Your concern is understandable,” he murmured, hoping to sooth her. “But please know this—I won’t let him hurt you again.” He felt a low growl rising in his throat at the thought. “Ever.”

  Tess looked at him a long time, the key apparently forgotten in her hand.

  “You really mean that, don’t you?”

  “I wouldn’t have said it otherwise.” Garron assured her. He wanted to cup her cheek, to touch her in some way, to give reassurance. But though he had held her to him twice in the short time they’d known each other, such contact was forbidden among his people and he found the taboo difficult to overcome when there weren’t extenuating circumstances. Besides, you shouldn’t want to touch her at all, whispered the guilty voice in his head. Remember Nella!

  Garron contented himself with looking into her lovely dark eyes.

  “Why are you here?” she said at last, searching his face.

  “To protect you.” He couldn’t help himself any longer…he reached out and brushed her flushed cheek lightly with just the tips of his fingers. Gods, her skin was soft! “I swear that if he comes near you again I’ll kill him,” he said. It wasn’t a threat…just a statement of fact. He didn’t know why he felt so strongly about this little, curvy Earth girl but he did. And if that bastard who had hit and brutalized her came to find her, Garron was going to rip him to shreds. Literally.