his emotions, particularly when he was going into battle. She knew that was centuries-old training and the fact that he hadn’t felt emotions in those centuries. In many ways she was happy about it. She knew it would be much more difficult for him to carry fear, anger and sorrow onto the battlefield.
I call to the power of fire and water,
Combine your elements to provide me with steaming water.
As I wash through gashes, cuts and wounds,
Help me to purge contamination’s doom.
She made certain she removed every bit of blood from his wounds, but she didn’t like the way they looked. She frowned and touched one particularly ugly bite. “Do these things have venom in their teeth or claws?”
“Yes. I will deal with that, Julija.” He made as if to stand.
She put a restraining hand on his chest. “I am your lifemate,” she said as a reprimand, but her voice came out differently than she intended. She sounded sultry, sexy, a husky reminder that they were everything together—that she was his lover. “I’ll take care of you.” It was her right, whether he liked it or not.
Placing one hand on his chest, she closed her eyes and visualized the poison spreading through his body through the various open lacerations.
That which is poison flowing through vein,
I call to your essence, so none shall remain.
Come to my call, reversing your flow.
Exit this body so healing may grow.
At once the venom responded to her call, reversing the journey to his heart to drip from the open wounds. She immediately washed the dark liquid from his body, making certain that not one single drop remained. She visualized a second time, one hand over his heart to feel if a single vein or artery carried a drop of the venom in it. When she was sure she had managed to get it all, she closed the wounds.
Needle to thread, stitch and sew,
Mending torn flesh so none may know.
That which was damaged, return it to health
So the body gains strength to renew itself.
Next was his clothing, although she was tempted to just remove it all, especially since now he sat back and smiled at her, like a king waiting for his servants to see to his every need. In truth, she didn’t mind being his servant. She liked taking care of him. “Stop smiling.” She couldn’t keep the teasing note out of her voice.
“I like looking at you.”
“You’re ridiculous. You come home all chewed up by some venomous nasty creatures and you don’t think a thing about what those wounds and poison are doing to your body. If I did something like that . . .”
He reached around her and rubbed her bottom. His touch was far too intimate and sent waves of heat rushing through her veins. “I might have to warm this extraordinary part of your anatomy,” he teased.
“You’re obsessed.”
“I am,” he agreed, his expression sobering. “And addicted to you. Being with you makes me feel better. It strengthens me. Having you talk to me intimately, your mind in mine, opens up something in me that is hard to explain.”
She looked down at him for a long time, her heart suddenly accelerating. He was talking about himself and yet he wasn’t. She took a deep breath. “You’re talking about Barnabas, too, aren’t you?”
Julija couldn’t help herself, she switched her attention from his amazing blue gaze to his wide chest with the heavy, defined muscles. Her palm swept down his perfect skin. She’d managed to make his body once more pure perfection. She wanted to fill her mind with that image, not think about Barnabas. She detested thinking about him. Every time she did, she felt ill.
Isai framed her face with his hands. “Sívamet, look at me.”
His voice turned her inside out. She couldn’t. She tried not to feel guilty, but to her, talking so intimately was wrapped up in her feelings for Isai. She felt as if she had betrayed him on some level by ever giving that to Barnabas. She might not have thought that way at the time, she didn’t know Isai or how intense her feelings would be for him, but the guilt was there all the same.
“Julija, look at your man.”
There was no denying that compelling voice. So gentle. Tender even. Her heart seemed to turn over. A million butterflies took wing in the pit of her stomach. With extreme reluctance, she raised her gaze to his.
The moment her eyes met his, the moment she saw the way