Page 77 of Blood and Fate

“He asked me if I trusted him, and when I said yes, he cut my palm and placed it on your head,” she continued. “It healed immediately. I’d never seen anything like it.”

“How bad was it?”

“It was bad, Kais.” Her fingers closed tighter on his arm. “You wouldn’t have survived.”

“What happened?”

The shock of how close he had come to death was nearly overwhelming.

“When you went into the water, the rapids tossed you into a rock; you hit your head so hard.” She blinked as if seeing the memory. “I didn’t know a head could bleed so much.”

“There was no blood when I woke up. I only had a headache. Why didn’t you tell me? Teague didn’t even tell me.”

“I made them promise they wouldn’t,” she said. “I’m sorry. I made them. We cleaned everything up.”

“Why?”

Why would they do that? Why wouldn’t they tell him how close he had come to death?

“I thought it would make it easier,” her voice cracked. “I thought if you knew, it would make it harder to let me go.”

She wasn’t wrong there. Now that he knew the extent of the bond they shared, he had no intention of letting her go. And he would make sure she felt the same way.

He stared, his mouth slightly open, just looking at her. This woman had saved his life, and he hadn’t even known it. Hadn’t even been able to thank her properly. She was an angel, his very own guardian angel.

He didn’t think he would have talked himself out of it if he had thought about it. He simply leaned down, cradling her neck in his blood-soaked hand, and pressed his lips to hers. The charge was immediate; red hot fire burned in his chest as his lips molded to hers. She must have felt it too, because she let out a small gasp, and he took the opportunity to deepen the kiss. Then she was responding, her lips moving beneath his, their tongues dancing together.

Every touch felt like magic, and he could have stayed in that place all day and all night, forever. This woman was his future. If he hadn’t known it before, he did now.

“Kais! Satori!”

They pulled apart, turning toward the voice. Teague was walking past them at a distance.

Satori shifted, and Kais turned his attention to her again. “Are you okay?”

She smiled at him, her eyes once again alight. “Thanks to you, I am. I’m just trying to sit up.”

“Here, let me help.”

He moved to help her shift into a sitting position. The amount of blood that soaked the ground around them, not to mention their clothes, boggled his mind. He looked back at her, now seated, drenched in red.

“What?”

“I just . . .” He gestured toward their clothes. “I’m so glad I met you.”

She looked at their clothes and burst into laughter.

“There you are!” Teague shouted, coming to join them. He moved closer, his vision falling on the scene before him. He froze, eyes growing round. Then he was running. “Kais!” Teague hit his knees by Kais’ side, terror blazing in his eyes. “Shala and Miram! What happened? Are you okay?”

“Teague, Teague.” Kais held up a hand to halt the other man’s ramblings. “We’re fine. We had a run-in with a boar.”

The breath whooshed from Teague’s lungs. “This is boar blood?”

Kais and Satori exchanged looks.

“It’s my blood,” Satori said.

Teague’s eyes fell to the slice in Satori’s shirt and the large hole torn in her pants.

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