A Shade of Vampire 35 by Bella Forrest

Author:Bella Forrest [Forrest, Bella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-11-09T00:00:00+00:00

It didn’t take long.

I heard the sound of a bull-horse cantering up the mountain, the boughs of trees whipping as it crashed through the undergrowth.

“Hazel!”

Tejus might have me on edge most of the time, but right now his voice was the thing I most wanted to hear in all the world.

“I’m here!” I cried out.

“Are you all right?” I heard him rushing toward me, and then he knelt down and took me roughly in his arms.

“I’m fine,” I murmured, my voice muffled by his cloak. He ripped the blindfold off my face and looked into my eyes, his face barely an inch from mine.

He jerked away from me suddenly as the guard came forward from his hiding place.

“What were you thinking?” Tejus snapped at him, jumping to his feet. “Do you know how much danger she could have been in?”

The guard held out his arms in defense. “I was only following orders, Prince Tejus—rules of the trial and the ministers.”

“He was kind,” I interjected on the guard’s behalf. “It’s not his fault.”

Every muscle in Tejus’s body seemed to coil with tension.

“Leave. We’ll be behind you,” he commanded the guard coldly. The guard nodded before he shot off down the path to his waiting carriage.

When he was gone, Tejus resumed his study of me – checking I was unharmed. He turned me around slowly, making sure I didn’t lose my balance, gently pushing me to lean against his chest while he reached down and untied the bonds. When the rope fell to the ground, I flexed my wrists and cramped fingers. I felt Tejus’s hands close over my lower arms, and he slowly, but firmly rubbed up and down, helping the blood rush back into my hands.

“I’m fine,” I murmured, hearing his rapid heartbeat thump furiously against where my head lay resting. His closeness was making my throat constrict, my stomach lurched uncomfortably as I inhaled the muskiness of his scent and my frame felt completely eclipsed by his. Mouth dry, I took a step back – afraid that he would soon hear my heartbeat hammering like his, for no logical reason.

What is happening to me?

Just because my rescuer had come dashing through the forest to untie me, it did not mean that I should fall into the role of the panting damsel in distress. I really needed to get a hold on myself and reality, now.

“I don’t know how you did it,” he said with a curious expression, seemingly completely unaffected by our closeness. It helped reality assert itself. “How did you see the waterfall?”

“My blindfold slipped a bit when I crawled to the edge—obviously I didn’t know it was a cliff edge,” I bumbled, averting my eyes from the intensity of his gaze. He was silent for a moment, watching me.

“All right,” he said slowly. I sensed he was suspicious, but he didn’t ask me any further questions, which was a relief—I didn’t know how long I would have stood up to his scrutiny.

He hoisted me up onto the bull-horse and then leapt on himself, placing himself in front of me.

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