“Teagan.” He used his most gentle voice, to counteract the tightening of the knots in his belly. “This mountain is not safe. You should not be unaware at any time. There are wild animals as well as poisonous insects and snakes that could harm you. And that is not even mentioning the men who hunt you.”
She shuddered and threw a blanket down over the dirt beside the fire. “When you went out, did you come across Armend’s trail? Did you see him? I was worried he might attack you if he thought you’d spoken to me, or helped me. He told me things he wouldn’t want the world to know.” She frowned. “He’s a dangerous man. I don’t know how I couldn’t have seen that.”
“You were afraid for me?” Andre wasn’t certain how to take that. He’d never had anyone, let alone a beautiful woman, be concerned for his safety. On the other hand, did she think that puny Armend could possibly best him? That might be a bit of an insult.
“Of course I was afraid for you. He admitted killing several women. If it was true, he wouldn’t think twice about killing you as well.”
He was silent. Had it occurred to her, even once, that he could be one of Armend’s unknown friends? She was too friendly by far. Too trusting and open with strangers. He couldn’t tell her that either because he didn’t want her fearing him. She was nervous enough as it was.
“You’re really a nice man, Andre. Very thoughtful and kind. Men like Armend are very dangerous. I wouldn’t want to think of you meeting up with him,” Teagan continued, in a worried tone.
Andre’s heart fluttered. It was a physical reaction to her concern for him. Clearly, Teagan perceived him as nonthreatening for the most part—at least until she remembered she was alone with a stranger, which didn’t seem nearly often enough to him—but she thought Jashari was dangerous. She made him want to laugh out loud. She also conveniently forgot that Andre had warned her that he was a dangerous man.
“I do not think you will have to be afraid that Armend Jashari will ever harm another living soul.”
She went still, her hands freezing around the sweater she was pulling on over her arms. She tilted her head to look up at him. He felt her fear, the sudden jump of her heart. “What do you mean?”
“I came across his trail a few miles down the mountain. He pitched his tent right in the middle of a territory belonging to a wolf pack. There was not much left.”
Her breath hitched. Her long eyelashes fluttered. She sank slowly back on her heels, all the while looking up at him, straight into his eyes. “Are you certain it was him?”
He couldn’t help but admire her. She was definitely afraid, but still, she was fearless in her questions and in her attempt to hide it from him. He nodded. “There is no doubt at all. I did not, however, see any evidence of anyone else around his tent, or even within a few miles of it.”
“I didn’t want him to die.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Well, unless you count the fact that I did want to bash him over the head with my cooking pot with every step I took. Hard. Really hard. Do you think I put that out into the universe and I’m responsible for his death? Because I believe in karma. I don’t want wolves to come hunting me.” She blinked rapidly, and he thought he caught the sheen of tears, but if he had, they were gone when she looked at him again. “Are you really certain it was him? I did hit him pretty hard. Maybe I killed him and the wolves came later.”
“I have hunted in these mountains for many years, Teagan,” he reassured her. He sent a small push to soothe her. “He had moved his camp from where he attacked you to this place.”
“How do you know?”
“I backtracked him looking for his friends and found the original campsite. He was very much alive when you left him.”
“Thank God I didn’t kill him. I wanted to bash him one but, you know, without the consequences of him dying.”
He hid a smile. She was different from the other humans he’d met. Intriguing. But then she was his lifemate, and everything about her, down to the smallest detail, was captivating and fascinating to him.
“Do you often bash men over the head with your cooking pot?” he asked, amusement in his voice. He barely recognized the emotion. He didn’t know what humor was until that moment. She made him want to smile. She made him happy just by being in the same space with him.
She grinned at him a little mischievously. “Only if they deserve it. Well, once I hit Jimmy Baker over the head with my book bag and nearly knocked him out. I was in kindergarten and he was in first grade, and he was picking on me. I was always really small so I was an easy target. I learned to pick up equalizers.” She bit her lip. “Um. I put a couple of really heavy books in my bag. I took them off the teacher’s desk. It’s important to be totally prepared, but the school didn’t see it that way and I got in trouble.”
He didn’t like that she’d been picked on, but he liked that she defended herself. Where the hell was her family when some boy was being mean to her? He pushed down the need to go find Jimmy Baker and have a little talk with him.
“That was very intelligent of you. What would you like for your dinner?”
She pressed a hand to her stomach. “Actually, I’m not really that hungry. I’m thirsty, but I think I’m too tired to eat. It’s the middle of the night already, and I spent too much time being a tuning fork.”
He raised an eyebrow and walked over to the darkened corner of the room, keeping his body solidly in the way, even going so far as to blur the chamber enough that she couldn’t see him as he created a small cupboard with human supplies such as herb tea and a kettle. She needed to eat and drink something. She was feeling the effects of the first blood exchange between them.
To bring his human lifemate fully into his world, he needed three blood exchanges with her and she had to have psychic abilities, which clearly she did. It seemed a little ironic to him that her grandmother—a vampire hunter who clearly didn’t have the good sense to discriminate between her victims—could have been a lifemate to a Carpathian male in need. She probably was. He had the urge to find the woman and shake her.
“I will make some herbal tea,” he announced, returning with the kettle and the tea.
She shook her head. “Thank you, Andre, but really, my stomach is a little upset. Maybe it was the news about Armend. He deserved to be arrested and should have gone to jail, but being eaten by wolves . . .” she trailed off.
“That is probably justice if he really killed other women as he boasted to you,” Andre pointed out as gently as possible.
She nodded before she could stop herself and then looked guilty. “Well, I hope he didn’t suffer.”
“Like he would have made you suffer?” he asked as he filled the kettle with water from the small trickle of water coming out of the side of the mountain. “As he made those other women suffer?” Again, he kept his body blocking her sight of what he was doing so he could just wave his hand and fill it.