signal that something wasn’t right. There was nothing at all to tell him there was something extremely dangerous in her.
He shed his body in the way of his people, becoming spirit without ego, a white, healing light that easily entered her body. He checked every organ for damage. The splinter was nowhere to be found in any vital organ. There was a subtle difference in her blood. Very subtle; at first he almost didn’t notice, but the absence of the splinter worried him, so he was even more careful, determined to draw it out into the open.
He moved through her with meticulous care, sending small sound waves through her body to loosen the splinter’s grip on whatever it had attached itself to. As he did so, he saw several of her white blood cells suddenly slide against a red blood cell and engulf it. He had to replay the scene in his mind several times to make certain he had seen it correctly. He watched for several more minutes but nothing else happened.
Once again Tariq sent the small sound waves crashing through her body, keeping his focus on her white blood cells. Instantly the same thing happened. A few of the white cells engulfed red cells, effectively eating them. At the same time, just to his right, along her ribs something wiggled for a moment and then settled back into the bones. His breath caught. The splinter had attached itself to the bone and had become part of her skeleton. Just the very tip remained. It was still pushing its way inside the bone.
He struck fast, using the burn of the white healing light to surround the small piece of ancient, cursed wood, to settle over it, needing to destroy it fast. The splinter didn’t move. He couldn’t see where her bone started and the splinter left off. Only just that little tiny piece wiggling to try to get away from the burn of white light.
He knew at once he couldn’t remove it. The splinter had become part of her and would not be destroyed. Since there was no removing it, he had to forge a cell around it strong enough that the sliver couldn’t penetrate it to do more damage to her body. Perhaps one of their greatest healers could perform a miracle and remove it. Unfortunately, none but Dragomir was close. Dragomir was . . . difficult. Not Carpathian. Not vampire. Somewhere in between perhaps. No one was certain whether they could trust him—including Dragomir. Siv . . . might, but again, he was very much like Dragomir. It seemed they lacked a talented healer in the area. All of them could get by, but right now, Tariq knew, he couldn’t wait any longer. He had to send for a master healer, even if that meant one needed to come from the Carpathian Mountains.
He was meticulous in his work, taking his time, encasing the rib in a strong binding safeguard, weaving it with healing light the splinter winced away from. It tried to burrow deeper into the rib to escape the light and then when that failed, it curled itself around the rib, lying as flat as possible, like a fish’s tail against the bone. He wove the cage stronger, thicker, layering the light through the safeguard until he was certain the splinter couldn’t penetrate from any side and escape. When he was absolutely certain, he added several more layers. He wanted her safe. Only then did he move out of her body and back into his own.
He opened his eyes and she was watching him, a small frown on her face. Her hand smoothed the lines in his face, and then cupped his jaw. “You’re so pale, honey. That took you forever.”
He hadn’t been aware of time passing, but staring into her eyes, he realized he’d been working on containing the splinter for some time. He hadn’t fed, and leaving one’s body and becoming pure spirit took a tremendous amount of energy.
“Tell me what you need, Tariq,” she whispered, her voice dropping an octave. Husky. Seductive. A blatant temptation.
His woman had great instincts. He reached up, cupped the back of her head and pulled her face down to him so his mouth could take hers in a long, wet kiss. Hard. Meaning it. She ignited like she did for him, taking them both higher, burning hot and a little out of control. He kissed her over and over, his fist bunching her hair, controlling her head to