Page 17 of God Touched

Watching her hips move as she rode was too distracting to keep a straight thought in his head. He moved up beside her.

"I should warn you not to leave the castle at night. I have wraiths and other creatures patrolling that you wouldn't want to meet," Arawan said, trying to find a way to start a conversation with her. His prickly flower wasn't going to make anything easy on him.

"What if I need to go out?" she asked without looking at him.

Arawan frowned. "What would you need to go out for?"

"Apart from the need to use my phone? What about if I have a hot date?" she replied with a shrug.

"I can fix it so your phone works here, and you will be too busy to have dates," he said firmly.

"But I'm aliaison.That means I have to have lots ofliaisonsas part of this job you thrust upon me." She fluttered her lashes at him.

"If I had thrust anything upon you, mortal, believe me, you would know," Arawan replied, hating what that eyelash flutter did to him.

"Are you saying I can't leave? Because I'm not your subject or your prisoner." Imogen's hand was tightening on her ax.

"You will be whatever I want you to be until your debt is repaid."

Her blue-gray eyes flashed with annoyance. "And when will that be?"

Arawan leaned down into her space until they were eye to eye. "When I say so."

"I'm not a damn courtier. Ineedto hunt the horde creatures that are roaming about," she hissed.

"Agreed, but you will be hunting with me or not at all."

"Oh yeah? Well, you already suck at it," Imogen said and threw herself at him.

Arawan swore in surprise as they hit the ground hard. Black claws slashed above his head, and the hound he had been sitting out squealed in pain.

Imogen was off him and moving into action. Her ax flashed as it came down onto the creature that had attacked them.

It was unlike anything Arawan had ever seen. It looked like a sluagh wraith had been crossed with some kind of swamp monster. Arawan could control the dead, but this creature felt odd and wrong.

"Are you going to help or just lie there?" Imogen shouted, rolling out of the way of the creature's claws.

Move, she's one of the living!

That reminder had Arawan jumping to his feet. He pulled his sword free and moved to protect her back.

Another two of the creatures pulled free of the underbrush and roared.

"Have you seen anything like these guys before? They look like wet Sasquatches with horns and raptor claws," Imogen said, lifting her ax.

"I don't know what a Sasquatch is, but no, I have never seen them before. They aren't exactly living, but I can't control them."

"Worry about it once they are dead for real." Imogen didn't wait for him but attacked the nearest beast to her with a fierce battle cry.

Arawan whistled at his uninjured hound, and it let out a vicious howl. It attacked one of the creatures while Arawan dealt with the other. It smelled horrible and rotting, its mouth full of serpent's fangs.

What the fuck were those creatures? Arawan's sword dripped with black blood, but the beast refused to go down. Imogen shouted something that he didn't catch over the fight. Silver flashed by his face, and an ax embedded itself between the creature's eyes.

"I said to go for the head," Imogen said, rushing past him and pulling her ax free. She didn't even look twice as she turned to the third creature. All of its attention was on the hound, so it didn't see Imogen come up behind it.

Arawan froze in sudden, unexpected fear as Imogen grabbed one of the spines on its back and used it to haul herself up. It roared, trying to buck her off, and lashed out with its claws.

Imogen was faster and was upon its shoulders in seconds, holding it by one of its horns. Her ax came down hard on the top of its head over and over again.

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