Dark Possession - Aja James Page 0,79

again. He was going to keep her safe if it killed him. They had a Contract, after all. She was his to protect for the duration of it.

Brace yourself.

Suddenly, the steep, jagged side of the mountain reared up at them at a staggering velocity, as if they were about to smack right into it.

“What—”

Before Eveline could finish her startled exclamation at their unexpected arrival in the mouth of the small cave, Rhys released Ramses from his talons as he shifted into humanoid form and dropped to all fours on the landing.

Ramses did the same just a couple feet from Eveline, and slowly straightened to his full height. The crash landing had jostled his already aching bones, but he wasn’t about to let the pain show.

Immediately, she came to him, her small hands seemingly everywhere at once.

“You’re covered in blood! Where are you hurt? What can I do? Why haven’t your wounds closed already?”

Ramses grasped her hands to keep them still while Rhys muttered sarcastically from behind him, “Not to worry, folks, I’m fine. Just flew over two thousand miles with a deadweight vampire who seems to be made out of stone, but no biggie. I’m solid.”

Eveline craned her head around Ramses’ shoulder and said to Rhys, “Oh, hi there. Didn’t see you at first. Thanks a bunch for coming after me.”

Rhys said something beneath his breath with a roll of his eyes while Eveline focused back on Ramses.

She seemed to be waiting for him to say something, but as he stood there staring down at her, her hands still gripped tightly in his, all words fled his mind.

Gods! Had he ever seen anything or anyone as beautiful as the female before him? With dirt-smudged cheeks, a disheveled halo of auburn hair, plump red lips and overly large blue-gray eyes.

And freckles. Like shots of sunlight through a canopy of dappled forest leaves.

He was dazed and drunk on her small, fairy-sized loveliness.

“Ramses…?”

Her questioning tone indicated that perhaps he should say something, instead of standing there rooted to the ground like a stone statue.

But he couldn’t. He was frozen. He had no words. He had no thoughts. And even if he did, he couldn’t hear his own mind for the roar of hot blood rushing through his veins like tidal waves. Crashing against the cliffs of his eardrums to the beat of one primal vow:

Mine.

“Shit, I hate to rush this happy reunion, but we have to go. He’s headed this way. I can feel it.”

Spurred into action by Rhys’ words, Ramses grabbed hold of Eveline and started tugging her away.

“Wait!” she cried, digging her heels in. “Can’t we have a civilized conversation with eagle-man? I think he needs our help. Or he needs something in any case…”

“Like our heads on pikes, maybe,” Rhys supplied, his body already tensed for battle.

“We go,” Ramses commanded in a low growl, reduced to his most primitive mode. “Now.”

Accurately assessing that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer, Eveline acquiesced.

“All right, but let me get my backpack.”

Hurriedly, she shoved all her things inside, including the mysterious scroll with flaming words, and barely got it strapped on before Ramses grabbed her bodily and literally tossed her toward Rhys like a sack of rice.

She squeaked as one giant eagle talon clawed into the backpack, while the other one reached for Ramses.

With backward flapping wings, Rhys hurled them off the side of the mountain in a deadly freefall. Mid descent, he rolled in the air until he was plummeting down head first, his wings tucked aerodynamically behind him, close to his body, his claws holding his two riders close to his feathered belly. Like a bullet, all three of them shot through the air.

Down, down, down, they went, gathering velocity the closer they got to the ground.

He’s closing in on our location, Rhys communicated to Ramses. I can’t carry you both and out-fly him.

Drop us off where you can, Ramses said. Then pointed to the mouth of a cavern close to the bottom of the mountain.

There. That entrance leads to the other side of the mountain, into the forest, where we’ll have cover.

How do you know?

I can feel it. The crevices and hollows of the mountain, Ramses answered brusquely. The earth is a part of me.

The Golden Eagle looked down at him, clearly impressed, and his beak curled as if smiling.

Groovy.

Then, he was all business again.

After I leave you, I will try to head him off. Probably won’t be able to buy you much time, but I’ll do what