Blood Lust - Alexandra Ivy Page 0,75
been so worried. Pathetic, but true. He pressed his lips to the top of her head. “Please don’t cry.”
It took some time for the tears to slow, but eventually she gave a small hiccup and lifted an unsteady hand to lightly touch his face.
“Are you in pain?”
He grimaced. “I’ll live,” he said, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt. “But I need a healer to remove the bullets before I can fully get my strength back.” He didn’t share how severe the damage actually was or that the blood loss had critically weakened him. She was frightened enough. “How long have I been out?” he instead demanded.
“A couple of hours.”
His breath hissed between his clenched teeth. He’d sensed that he’d been unconscious for a while, but he hadn’t realized it had been so long. No wonder Myst had been so frazzled.
“I assume it was the Brotherhood?”
“Yes.”
“Dammit, I was an idiot.”
He had a clear memory of crossing the orchard. He’d been concentrating on the nearby house, hoping to avoid an angry farmer, rather than considering the possibility the Brotherhood might be right behind him. Sloppy. The monks who’d trained him would be severely disappointed.
“You couldn’t have known that they would be here,” she tried to soothe.
“I knew they would be spread out looking for us. I should have been more careful,” he growled, then, with an awkward movement he lowered his hand to pat his pockets, realizing he’d managed to lose his phone during the attack.
She made a low sound of distress as he tried to sit up, pressing her hands gently against his chest.
“No,” she pleaded, her eyes dark with concern. “Don’t move.”
He conceded to her demand. Okay, it wasn’t really a concession. It was more a collapse back to the wooden floor as his body refused to obey the commands of his brain.
Muttering a curse, he allowed his gaze to take in the open rafters above him and the narrow wooden walls on each side. A stall, right? Which meant they had to be in the barn.
“How did we get here?” he asked, relieved when his voice came out steady. “I don’t remember anything after I was shot.”
“I led the men back to the village and then circled back to pull you into this barn.”
He tangled his fingers in her silver curls, a strange sense of pride racing through him. It never failed to amaze him how such a tiny, fragile-looking female could have the heart of a lioness.
“Clever girl.”
She shrugged, her cheeks heating at his open admiration. “They searched the barn about an hour ago, so hopefully they won’t be back.”
“Good.”
He paused, knowing they might be safe for the moment, but eventually someone was going to find them. He needed her to leave him behind so she could escape, but how could he trust she wouldn’t do something foolish to hurt herself? He would obviously have to take advantage of her soft heart. “Myst, I need you to do something for me.”
“What?”
He chose his words with care. “I need you to go to Valhalla for help.”
She was shaking her head before he even finished. “No.”
“Myst—”
“I knew you were going to be stupidly heroic and tell me I should take off and leave you behind,” she interrupted.
He gave a startled laugh, genuinely amused by her accusation.
“You should know I’ve never, ever been accused of being a hero,” he assured her in dry tones.
“Then why do you keep rescuing me?” she demanded.
He gave her curls a light tug, savoring the sensation of lying with her in his arms. It didn’t matter that they were on a hard floor in a filthy stall. Or that he was desperately trying to convince her to leave before she could be captured.
Just for a few seconds he could absorb her warmth, breathing deep of her honeysuckle scent.
“I think this time you were the one to save me,” he reminded her in soft tones.
She narrowed her dark eyes. “Why does it bother you to admit you can be a good guy?”
He leaned forward to kiss the tip of her nose. “Because the villain is much more interesting.”
“Fine.” Her fingers trailed down his throat in an unconsciously intimate gesture. “Be the villain if you want, but I’m not leaving you here.”
Stubborn female.
“Myst, you know they’re still out there hunting for you,” he ruthlessly reminded her. “It’s only a matter of time before they return.”
She refused to budge. “Then we hide. Trust me, none of them are overly eager to come up against a Sentinel.”
His heart