Page 93 of Kiss of Light

She turned away from him and looked out of the window again. Lemar silently cursed himself.

The truth was, his hunger was making him irrational. Every time she moved, he smelled her scent. Every time she took a breath, he heard the maddening thump of her heartbeat. Every time he looked at her, he had to fight to keep his canines from unsheathing.

She had freely offered him her blood. And maybe it was irrational, but he knew he had to resist. If he fed from her, he would want to make love to her. He couldn’t bear that, knowing she wasn’t going to stay with him.

He would rather starve.

Dawn was hours away but the constant battle with his hunger was exhausting. Separating himself from her was probably the smart thing to do.

He lay on the bed and let sleep take him.

Thirty Nine

He woke to find their rolling motion had ceased. The side hatch was open and the Spider was squatting on the ground, its legs for the moment retracted. A distant booming sound made him sit up.

“Tala?” he raised his voice, alarmed. Had they been ambushed? Boarded?

“Out here.”

He slid from the bed and looked out of the open doorway. They were deep in the grasslands of central Nush’aldaam. The mountains to the north where Palissandra lay looked appreciably closer. They’d travelled a good distance from the castle.

The booming sound came again, rolling down from the higher ground. This time he recognised it as thunder. There was a storm on the way.

Tala was sitting outside, the remains of a meal scattered around her. It wasn’t raining, not yet, and she’d built a fire. She was holding a long metal skewer over the flames. Her hands were so close to the heat that if she hadn’t been a demon she would have suffered third-degree burns.

Lemar saw incredulously that she was roasting marshmallows.

“Seriously?”

“Marshmallows are the devil’s food,” she said. “I think that’s why I like them. But only when they’re cooked. Cold marshmallows are gross.”

Lemar leapt gracefully from the Spider, landing silently next to her. Tala felt the hairs stand up on her neck.

He was different when he was hungry. There was a tautness to his frame, a tension to his muscles. It was as if he was holding himself back. Like a wolf restrained by the slimmest of leashes.

She didn’t let her consternation show. She munched the marshmallow, licking its sticky goodness from her lips, aware his eyes were raking over her.

“What are you wearing?”

“One of your shirts.”

“And nothing else, it seems.”

“How the hell do you know that?”

“My senses are heightened when I haven’t fed for a while. Don’t worry, shaitun. You’re safe. Although perhaps not from the weather.”

“Yeah. Smells like rain.”

They glanced at the night sky. Clouds partially obscured the moon and both of them could sense the drop in pressure. As if on cue, another rumble of thunder cut through the quiet. Lemar felt the electricity in the air.

“If you’ve finished that disgusting gunk, perhaps we ought to get going?”

“There’s something I need to do first.”

Tala took a breath. She got to her feet in one fluid movement and Lemar saw she was still holding the skewer. But now he saw it was made of silver. He went very still.

Tala met his eyes and quailed a little at the coldness there. He almost seemed like a stranger. But fuck, this was Lemar. Lemar would never hurt her.

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