"Yes. It was easier than transporting us both out of here—especially given you would only want to come back." He hesitated, then added, with a hint of a smile in his voice, "Of course, this way I also get to touch you more fully, and that is not entirely unpleasant."
I snorted. "You're beginning to sound like a regular male, and that's scary."
"Right now, I feel like a regular male."
Laughter bubbled through me. "Well, I was going to be polite and not mention that bar you have—"
"I meant," he cut in, the amusement in his voice deeper this time, "that I was feeling protective. You, Risa Jones, have what I believe is called a dirty mind."
"Hey, I'm not the one manning up."
"That is a function of this body I have no real control over." Valdis's shield flickered and died, but he didn't immediately move. "Are you all right?"
I opened my mouth to say yes, but the word never came out. With the shield gone, the noise hit, and it was horrendous. But the creak and groan of a dying building wasn't the worst of it. It was the screams of those trapped and injured that were the hardest to take.
"Oh god, Azriel, we have to help—"
"We cannot," he said, voice firm. "It is too dangerous to go in there just yet."
I bucked my body, trying to get him off me, but I might as well have tried to shift a brick wall. "Damn it. I can't just lie here—"
"You can, and you will," he said. "It is not within your ability to save those people."
"But it is within your ability."
"No."
"Azriel—"