Page 6 of Love in the Forest
Suddenly, Conagh’s magic erupted and threw Braden across the clearing. He yelped when he struck a tree then fell to the forest floor.
The blow caused him to shift back to his human state. He turned his head in Abby’s direction.
Conagh had somehow thrown her off as well. She lay on the ground unconscious near an opposite tree.
If Conagh used his killing touch, she’d die.
But Conagh made a critical error in judgment. Instead of killing her, his desire to possess the chalice took over and he reached for the satchel instead which was buried beneath Abby.
This gave Braden enough time to shift back to wolf. He went straight for the back of the wizard’s neck. He opened his maw wide and tore into the wizard’s throat and ripped open the left carotid artery. He leaped backward and moved toward Abby, growling as he paced in front of her.
Conagh whirled in his direction, his eyes horror-stricken as blood spewed everywhere.
He pressed a hand to his throat then took off like a shot high into the air, heading west toward Elegance. Braden suspected he was already healing himself, something he knew the wizard could do.
Braden hurried to Abby and found her unconscious.
He could feel the dawn creeping close as well. None of the species in Five Bridges, including wolves, got along well with sunlight so that their world was lived mostly at night. Vampires, however, were particularly susceptible.
Looking east, he saw the faintest lightening of the sky. His eyes burned and a redness began to appear on Abby’s exposed skin. She’d be blistering soon.
There was only one thing to do.
He picked her up and flew her swiftly to his burrow which wasn’t far. He could have taken her to his pack’s extensive complex where he had a well-appointed suite. But he feared those wolves that had suffered at the hands of vampires would become violent if they knew one of their kind was in the house. So, the burrow it was.
He knew that several of his pack members had come to clean recently and probably had both refrigerators stocked for his use. He had one living space at ground level and one belowground.
He’d learned by long habit to have two separate sleeping places in case another pack decided to attack. Mostly Savage Territory had become civilized and its laws obeyed. But rogue packs existed that didn’t live by the rules and everyone was fair game.
He carried Abby downstairs then locked the door to the underground space securely. He took her to his guest room and laid her out on the bed. She was still unconscious.
When he examined her head, he found a nasty lump forming.
~ ~ ~
As Abby awoke slowly, she felt strangely at ease with the world, with the entire universe.
She sniffed the air. She smelled wolf.
Braden.
He had been here or was still here.
She opened her eyes, but the place looked entirely unfamiliar to her.
She recalled Conagh and being thrown against a tree, then nothing. She hadn’t exactly been surprised that the wizard had been able to bypass her enthralling power when she’d tapped his vein. He was incredibly powerful, no doubt made more so by his venture into the dark arts.
She reached up and felt where her head ached with a decided thrum beating inside her skull. Yup, her head had connected with the tree all right. But where was Braden?
She opened up her telepathy.Braden?
I’m here. In the kitchen.
Where is here?
My burrow. Sorry, dawn has come and gone. We’re in for the day. By the time I got rid of Conagh, the sky was already turning pink. I didn’t have time to get you back to Crescent Territory.
Even telepathically, he sounded apologetic.That’s okay.
