was sure I would've gotten lost trying to cross this dumb, stupid, cold river. What a good idea, swim the Ohio River. We couldn't steal a boat or anything. No-o-o-o-o, we had to swim it.
"Almost there, Rache," Jenks said as he darted back from the soft splash of Pierce confidently moving forward. His wings were a worried green. "Get your witch ass moving!"
"Go to hell," I gasped. My lips were inches from going under, and I got a mouthful of river. It went into my lungs, and I panicked.
"Rache!" Jenks shouted as I stopped swimming and tried to breathe. The current took me, and I floundered. Jenks's shouts became muffled, turning into a black swirl of bubbles. Coughing, I clawed my way to the surface.
"Pierce!" Jenks shrilled, and I went down again. My arms were leaden. A blessed warmth was stealing into me, and I listened to the rumble of the water. Numb, I drifted, letting the bubbles slip out. At least the water had gotten warm. The last time I'd fallen asleep in the Ohio River, it had been warm then, too.
A sharp pain in my scalp jerked through me, and I gasped as the cold air hit my face.
"Rachel!" a high-pitched glow was screaming, but I couldn't move to smack it away.
I was still in the water, but stars were playing hide-and-seek among the black leaves overhead. One of them kept moving. It was swearing, too, spilling a glow all over my face. Confused, I felt the ground scrape under my back. Water flowed over my legs, but someone was whispering, covering me up with something heavy and wet.
"I'm not of a mind to understand," the voice was saying. "It's not that cold, and she's a considerably skilled woman. Fit as any."
"She's sensitive to the cold, you ass," the star was saying, dipping close, and the slits of my eyes closed again. "You're going to kill her! Look, she's blue. She's freaking blue again!"
"She'll be fine," the low voice said, and something cold shifted my head and breath touched my cheek. "Stop acting like an old woman. I've seen worse. Rachel? Open your eyes!"
Like I could? My head lolled as I felt myself rise. "Sensitive to the cold," he whispered irately. "How's a body supposed to know? She looks as healthy as a plow horse."
Plow horse, I thought, hazy, my weight shifting.
"She's going to be okay," he said again, but this time, I could hear worry.
"Why, because you think you love her?"
It was my star again, my lucky star, and it was hovering above me to shine a light on the man's face. His features were dripping, creased in worry, and his black hair was plastered to his face. "I shouldn't," he said to the star, and the star's glow dimmed.
"But you do. You're going to kill her. You're going to break her heart and then she'll get sloppy and die."
The world jolted as Pierce stumbled, and I lost track of everything. My existence became a confused motion of stops and starts. Once I felt the hardness of ground under me and smelled earth, and then nothing until I realized I wasn't moving anymore, and I woke up.
It was quiet. It had been for a while, I realized, feeling a pleasant warmth flowing through me. That was wrong. I'd been suffering from hypothermia. I should be shivering, and I wasn't. There was the strong scent of river, wet leather, and... redwood. My eyes opened.
I was lying on my side on a dirt floor with a dirt wall rising before me within arm's reach, going only four feet before turning into a dirt ceiling. A small globe of green-tinted light rested in a wooden lanternlike affair in the corner at my feet. It looked old and dusty. There was a scratchy wool blanket over me - and a masculine arm.
Shit.
My pulse quickened, but I didn't move. Pierce spooning behind me would explain why my backside was so warm. I'd not felt the comforting heat of a real body next to me since Marshal, and I missed it. Careful to not move my head, I looked at his arm, seeing it through his thin white shirt. It was a nice arm, settled perfectly at my waist so it wasn't squishing me. His soft breathing told me he was still asleep. Why he was spooned up against me was obvious. The cold of the river had nearly brought me down, and there was no other way to warm me. This must