her, she hadn’t broken. That had been her downfall. Had she acted as if she was enamored with him, that she had to crawl back to him, he would have left her alone. He had known, right then in that coffee shop, that Julija would be resistant to him. He had made up his mind to have her.
Isai let go of the memory and made one last pass around the lake just to ensure he was right in his estimation that Sergey was nowhere close. Barnabas was their ultimate enemy. Whether or not he called in Sergey for aid was yet to be seen, but at the moment, the master vampire was not close, nor was there evidence of any vampire in the area.
He started back to his woman. His brave woman. She had no idea just how amazing she really was.
Did that help?
The way Julija touched his mind was so feminine. Soft. Pouring into him intimately until he felt her in every part of his body. There in his mind, she stroked gentle fingers over every violent memory, every ugly one, lessening the impact of remembering the many fallen warriors, men he had respected, that he had been forced to destroy. She kept the crouching enemy from swallowing him. What could someone with her light do for Barnabas?
I know Barnabas took your blood. Did you ever take his for any reason?
Yes. There was an accident at the school. In class. I bled severely, and he was worried. He insisted I take his blood. He had a first-aid kit and we were alone. He was trying to help, and I didn’t think anything about it. Why?
Did you speak telepathically to Barnabas?
Again, there was that small silence while she thought about the question, not for an answer, but to try to find where he was going with the query. She wasn’t trying to keep anything from him, there would be no reason to. He found the ledge and the small crack, immediately opening it to allow moonlight into the small chamber.
Julija waited for him, pacing across the floor, her face lighting up when he came into the cave. She threw her arms around him and he pulled her in tight against him, bathing in her pure energy. He allowed himself to feel the difference she made. He had been in a battle, had fought off the bats and destroyed a mage. Ordinarily, he wouldn’t have felt any emotion, or even the exhaustion of his body, but he wanted to know what Julija did to him when he was close to her. Now he knew. He instantly felt rejuvenated. There was joy and he hadn’t kissed her. He’d done little more than gotten close to her.
Julija had a special light to her. It shone brightly on those around her. Barnabas had recognized that she had it and he’d bathed himself in it. He craved it. He had made up his mind to have her permanently right there in that coffee shop, for this very reason. The way she could make him feel without even trying. Imagine if she was giving him more.
16
Julija looked up at Isai’s face. There was strain there. He was covered in bites from the bats. Great chunks of his flesh had been torn from his body. He had healed the wounds of the two campers but hadn’t considered stopping long enough to heal his own. He’d addressed the worst of the bleeding, but his clothes were tattered and his body ripped open, in some places almost to the bone.
“Sit down, Isai. Let me take care of you.” She guided him to the chair he’d left for her. He was always remembering her comfort, cognizant of her being raised in what amounted to a human environment.
“You did not answer me. Did you speak telepathically to Barnabas?”
“Yes. Now sit down.” She all but pushed him into the chair. Her hands moved over him looking for more damage. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
He waved his hand, dismissing the damage done to him. “It is nothing, little mage. I am fine. The two campers were chewed up, but I was impressed with them. Both fought valiantly in spite of the fact that the bats were particularly vicious and neither had ever encountered anything remotely close to them. I was very happy I was able to save them.”
Julija was happy as well. She had felt his anxiety over the two campers regardless of his ability to feel it or not. Isai didn’t acknowledge