A Warrior s Desire - By Pamela Palmer Page 0,35

too much vodka.

Though the gentleman inside him told him to offer Tarrys the first sip, his greedy mouth got there first.

Sweet water trickled down his throat.

It was all he could do to tear the flask away from his lips moments before he drained it.

Damn, but he was out of control.

He offered that last sip to Tarrys, perhaps the hardest thing he'd ever done.

To his intense and greedy relief she shook her head.

"You need it more than I.

The poison's making you thirsty, isn't it?" "Yeah."

If they didn't get out of this godforsaken mine soon, he was going to turn to dust and blow away.

He had to keep his mind off his thirst.

Think of something else.

"Have you ever tried to find your mother?" As soon as the words were out, he realized his mistake.

"Dumb question.

You were enslaved.

Of course you couldn't have gone looking for her."

"I couldn't, no.

But she was dying.

I would have lost her either way."

Charlie blinked.

"Dying? I thought... Aren't you immortal?" "No, Marceils live three or four times as long as humans and heal quickly enough to be virtually indestructible.

But we don't live forever.

Unlike humans, we don't age continually.

We reach full growth and stay that way until the last four or five years of life.

Then we deteriorate quickly and die.

My mother had begun to age before I left."

"So you'll look twenty for, what, three hundred years?" Her soft sound of amusement reached him.

"I'm afraid so."

"Do you mind if I ask how old you are?" "Sixty, give or take."

"Damn."

"I'm twice your age, aren't I?" Charlie snorted.

"Don't go there.

Don't even go there."

There was only so much a man could handle.

The fact that the woman he lusted after was older than his mother was best left in the I'm not thinking about it file.

They continued on.

Time fell away and still there was no change in the smell of the air, no change in the unrelenting darkness.

Charlie's steps grew heavier.

"Tarrys.

I've got to get water."

"All right."

She looked behind him worriedly.

"We need to hide the light."

"We'll use my cloak."

"But we'll have to stay here until it dissipates again."

"You bring me water, eaglet, and you'll have a heck of a time prying me away from it again.

Staying here a few minutes won't be a problem."

He unfastened the cloak and laid it out on the crystal floor between them.

As Tarrys knelt and slid her hands under the fabric, Charlie arched his back, trying to ease the tension.

Faint blue light seeped out beneath the black cloak bathing Tarrys's face, revealing lines of worry he knew mirrored his own.

"Provide, oh Esria.

Provide water for these souls."

Tarrys's soft words flowed over him like a caress.

"Please, provide, my Esria."

Over and over she repeated the chant.

When her voice began to take on an anxious edge, he knew something was wrong.

"It's not working, is it?" Tarrys pulled her hands out from under the cloak and sat back on her heels, her teeth worrying her bottom lip.

"When I was a child, small pools of water would appear in the floor every now and then for a few hours, then disappear for several days or more.

We had what we needed, but no abundance.

The land provided.

It always provides for the Marceils and the Esri.

But we have to ask."

"Then where's the water?" "I don't know."

She grimaced.

"I may not be strong enough.

I vaguely remember the others gathered in a circle, chanting.

If it took all of them to call the water..." He finished the thought for her.

"We're in trouble."

"Maybe.

Maybe not.

Perhaps I'll be more successful in another spot."

Her eyes turned hard.

"I'm not giving up, Charlie.

Neither can you."

Forcing the gnawing frustration aside, he nodded.

They were stuck in this spot until the light beneath the cloak dissipated.

He sat and pulled her against him, his arm around her shoulders.

"I never give up, no matter how hopeless the situation looks.

I always make it through somehow.

I wouldn't be here if I didn't."

She leaned her head against his shoulder.

"I'll be curious to see how we get out of this."

Charlie chuckled and squeezed her shoulder.

"That's my girl."

From out of nowhere, a sense of rightness enveloped him.

As if holding her like this were the most natural thing in the world.

As if she belonged to him, and always had.

Tarrys looked up at him in the low light, her eyes wide in her lovely face, and he found himself tumbling into their violet depths.

He hadn't meant to kiss her again, but her chin lifted, her lips parted, and he was helpless to deny himself another taste of her.

She met him halfway, pressing her mouth against his, opening her lips, inviting him in, sending