Mortal Danger (WP2) by Wilks Eileen

Author:Wilks, Eileen [Wilks, Eileen]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Werewolves, Fantasy Fiction, Federal Bureau of Investigation - Officials and employees, General, Romance, Fantasy, Romantic Suspense Fiction, Suspense, Ex-police officers, Fiction, Love Stories
ISBN: 9780425202906
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2005-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

Weariness. Pain. Sounds…

“… except Rikard. Damned staff severed his neck. He was gone before he had a chance to heal.”

“Hellfire. He went out in style, though. He’d be glad of that. He’s the only other one?”

She knew the second voice, but memory was a slippery fish, freeing itself before she could claim it. She almost drifted away again, but the body’s pain insisted on dragging her back from that beckoning dimness.

It felt as if a burning brand rested just below her belly button, throbbing along with her heartbeat. But there are worse pains than the physical. Floating between here and not-here, she was aware of loss so huge that her mind skittered away, refusing to close around the thought.

“… got all the wounded away now, so I’ll be going. The cops will be here any minute. You’d better clear out, too.”

“And let her wake up to this?” The familiar voice was bitter.

“Her sister should wake up soon. She can…”

Her sister. Beth. Yes. She’d come to… to… all at once memory plopped in her lap, writhing and ugly. And incomplete.

She had to know.

When she forced her eyes open it was still dark. Dark and fuzzy, as if she’d forgotten how to make her eyes focus. The air stank of gunpowder, blood, and charred meat. Her mind flashed back to fire—uncanny fire, black at the center, flickering into blue at the fringes. Black fire haloing Harlowe, speeding down his staff… which had rested on her belly.

She’d been burned, then. Burned by mage fire. Maybe she would have fried along with Harlowe if not for her Gift… which wasn’t quite the complete protection she’d always believed.

The dimly seen shapes resolved. Overhead, sky too smoggy for stars, glowing with the city’s reflected light. And kneeling next to her, though he was looking away… that was Cullen, she realized, naked from the waist up. He was listening to someone standing beside him.

“If you aren’t leaving, you might as well make yourself useful,” the other man said. She had a vague impression of even features, pale skin, and light-colored hair, but darkness hid the details. “Her burn needs tending.”

“I’m no healer.”

“You never did pay attention to anything that couldn’t be done sorcerously. Cold water will cool it so the flesh doesn’t continue to cook.”

“You have any?”

Enough of that. She didn’t need to hear about herself. Lily licked her lips and found her voice. “Rule?”

The other man slipped away into the darkness so quickly and silently she might have imagined him. Slowly Cullen looked down at her. His eyes were weary beyond words. “I’m sorry, Lily. He’s gone.”

* * *

WEARINESS. Pain. Sounds…

Sounds without meaning, a babble of words she didn’t know. Awareness flickered. Nothing in that babble drew her… yet something did.

Anger. Beneath the babble, powering it, lay anger. Someone was having a major hissy fit.

It might have been a sense of danger that kept her from slipping back into unknowing. It might have been curiosity. Once she’d lingered beyond that first heartbeat, though, she knew something was wrong.

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