DarkWind: 2nd Book, WindDemon Trilogy (10 page)

He held her gaze, searching her eyes for the disgust he’d once seen there. Looking for the fear he knew was lurking somewhere in the green depths. But all he saw was a gentleness, a compassion he had never found in a female’s look before-not even Raphaella’s-and that one bore him some small measure of affection. “Let me help you,” whispered Caitlin.

Her flesh was warm against his lips. The smell of her skin was sweet and infinitely alluring. He wanted to taste her, to run his rough tongue over the silkiness of her arm.

“Drink,” she said on a breath as soft as down and laid her left wrist to his lips.

Cree opened his lips, flicked his tongue over Caitlin’s wrist then gently sank his teeth into her flesh.

Iyan turned away, for he had seen the defeat welling in Cree’s eyes. It was not seemly to watch a leader’s capture by the enemy. He understood well that the Reaper had just handed his life into the female’s keeping. There was in the silent gaze between them something McGregor did not understand and could not stop. He had seen that same defeat forming in the woman’s eyes and knew she was as stunned by the emotion as was Iyan.

Without looking back, Iyan left them alone.

Caitlin closed her eyes as her blood flowed into the Reaper’s mouth. Her free hand had somehow come to rest in the thick dark curls of his hair and she stroked him much as she would a loving pet lapping at her hand. She began to feel lightheaded and slightly nauseous. She swayed and a small a groan of discomfort passed her lips.

She never felt him lifting her to lay her gently beside him on the gurney. Deep in weak slumber, she lay cradled in his protective arms, her head on his bare shoulder. Her injured wrist was in his hand, her slender fingers splayed in the thick mat of hair on his chest, his thumb easing over the twin bite marks where his fangs had pierced the flesh.

She did not feel the steady beat of his conquered heart.

Nor the gentle kiss he placed upon her brow.

Caitlin woke to
find herself enfolded in the Reaper’s strong arms. His breath fanned the hair at her temple and from its cadence, she knew he was sleeping deeply. For a moment, the old fear surged up her throat but when he moaned in his sleep and his arms tightened around her in a protective way, the fear evaporated. She relaxed against his side, breathing in the scent of him and was not displeased with the sensation it caused. His male odor was very pleasant.

She raised her head so she could look at his profile and felt a strange sensation in the pit of her stomach as she gazed at him. He was extraordinarily handsome; the most beautiful man she had ever seen. With his sable hair spread out over the pillow, his thick lashes fanning the ruddy glow of his high cheekbones, he reminded her of paintings of the Greek gods of eons ago. Her gaze moved down to his thickly furred chest with the hard ridges of prime muscle and she ached to run her hand over his flat abdomen.

“Touch me in any way you wish, milady,” he said and Caitlin let out a squeal of surprise. Her gaze leapt to his face and she found him grinning.

Her face infused with heat, Caitlin pushed against him, wanting to be as far away from his knowing smile as she could get.

“You find me only a fraction as attractive as I find you,” he said, refusing to allow her to leave him.

“Stop reading my thoughts!” She wiggled to get free.

“Keep that up, milady, and you’ll give rise to another problem,” he warned.

Caitlin stilled, knowing full well what he meant. Though she would not look at him, she felt his attention wandering over her. Her breathing became shallow, quick, and when he lifted his hand to cup her cheek, she closed her eyes, groaning at his soft touch.

“Why do you fight this attraction between us, Cait?”

“I am afraid.”

“There is no reason to fear me.”

Hesitantly, she raised her eyes to meet his. “It isn’t you I fear,” she whispered.

He searched her gaze for a long while, then nodded. “You fear the feelings growing inside you.”

“You aren’t human,” she accused and bit her lip, not having meant to hurt him or insult him.

“No,” he agreed, “I am not. I am Dearg Duls, but I am as human as I need to be, when I need to be. Is it that you fear the beast within me?”

When she remained silent, he lifted her face, lowered his lips to hers and placed a gentle kiss on her mouth. There was no need for him to ask what bothered her for her blood was singing through his veins and he knew her mind as well as he knew his own.

“The beast within me loves you as much as the man within me,” he said against her mouth.

Caitlin turned her head. How could this alien love her? With his intoxicating kisses plying her lips, it was hard to think. There were issues that needed to be settled in her own mind and with him so near, his presence so intense beside her, she could not think straight.

“What is there to think about?” he asked.

“Please don’t do that!”

Khiershon frowned. “I can no more stop reading your thoughts than I can stop the breath from entering my lungs, Caitlin. I can not control the reception of your thoughts any more than I can control the air currents.”

“Try,” she insisted, pushing out of his arms and surprised that he allowed her to break free of his hold.

He watched her as she sat up on the gurney and swung her legs to the floor. “Slowly,” he warned as she made to stand.

Caitlin felt lightheaded as soon as her feet touched the floor and she sat down again, putting a hand to her head.

“I may have taken more than I should have, milady,” he admitted and laid his hand on her hip. “Lie with me awhile longer.” He caressed her waist. “Until you are stronger.”

With a long sigh of tiredness, Caitlin stretched out beside him, shocked at the way her body seemed to graft automatically to his from shoulder to hip to thigh.

“Your body wants me even if you do not.”

She sighed again, knowing she’d never get used to him reading her thoughts. She made a mental vow to do all she could to block her thoughts.

Khiershon Cree chuckled.

“It isn’t funny.”

“Aye, it is. You are fighting a losing battle, beloved.”

“I am a private person.” She scrunch her shoulder away from contact with his chest.

“As am I.”

“Then stop reading my thoughts.”

It was Cree’s turn to sigh, but it was a breath of sound full of acceptance of her wishes. “I’ll try,” he said.

They lay there in companionable silence for fifteen minutes or so, and then Caitlin arched her neck so she could look into his face. “What exactly is it you want from me, Cree?”

Khiershon’s dark brows went up. “Have I not made that clear?”

Caitlin shook her head. “No, you have not.”

He thought for a moment then he frowned. “The gods put you here for me, Caitlin Kelly.”

“Really?” she asked in a droll tone. “That’s the only purpose I have in life?”

“That and to save lives,” he responded. “As you saved mine.”

“Anyone could have happened by and heard that distress signal, Cree.”

Khiershon smiled. “There was no distress signal, Caitlin. That was me calling you.” When she started to protest that explanation, he laid a finger across her lips. “Three hours before, a mining transport flew past, but I did not hail them. I was waiting for you.”

“You didn’t know I was out there!”

“No, but the gods did. They sent you to me, Caitlin. Never doubt that.”

She stared at him. “You were dying. You let that transport fly right past you without-”

“My body would have ceased to function, aye,” he said, “but I would not have died. The parasite would not have allowed that to happen.”

Caitlin shuddered, remembering the evil thing that was inside him.

“It is only as evil as the host will allow it to be, beloved.”

What he had said slithered in her mind. “You can’t die?” she whispered.

“Reapers live well over one hundred, Caitlin,” he told her. “The only way to kill us is by fire.”

“Those women didn’t know that?” she asked. She thought of the dead women in the hold: the women who had tortured him.

Khiershon drew in a long breath then exhaled slowly. “I think they forgot about it their rush to get me to tell them where Raphaella is hiding. Lucky for me they forgot to seal the entrance to the cave system as well else you would never have found me.”

“Raphaella. The Amazeen princess,” Caitlin said and heard the jealousy in her voice.

The Reaper turned his head so she could not see his smile of satisfaction. “She is an ally and nothing more, Caitlin.”

“That’s not what I read in Kaelia Kahmal’s journal.”

“Kaelia,” he said on a long breath. “By the gods that bitch was meaner than a cornered ghoret.”

“A what?”

“A viper,” he supplied. “The most poisonous reptile on my world.” He cocked one shoulder. “At least to humans. They call it a two-step. When it bites you, you have time to take two steps then you’re dead before you hit the ground.”

“That doesn’t give you much time for an antidote.”

“The venom is so powerful and so fast-acting, there is no antidote for it.”

“Can it hurt you?”

“Its bite only makes a Reaper wish he was dead.”

Caitlin shuddered. Snakes were a private nightmare for her. “Tell me about these women,” she said, wanting to take her mind off thoughts of reptiles.

“The Amazeen? What do you wish to know?”

“If I understand correctly the concept of Dearg Duls, your race is similar to Earth vampire legends.”

“We have a common ancestry, aye.”

“Then are Amazeen related in some way to the myth of the Amazons on my home world?”      

Khiershon shrugged. “I know little about Amazeen history,” he admitted. “Perhaps they are descendants. What do you know of your Amazons?”

Caitlin tried to remember her college anthropology courses. The subject of myths and legends hadn’t interested her all that much. What little she remembered about the Amazons she had learned from her roommate who was a lesbian.

“They were women warriors so vicious the Greek army feared them. They were said to have descended from Ares, the god of war, and that they ruled their society with an iron hand.”

“Amazeens are a brutal, warlike tribe,” said Khiershon. “They enslave the males of their world, forcing them to perform tasks assigned to the women of other worlds: cooking, cleaning, caring for the female children.”

“The Amazons mated with the men of neighboring tribes but any male offspring from the union were either slain or sent back to their fathers.”

“There are no male children on Amazeen. Grown males are kept as slaves for mating purposes, but their arms and legs are mutilated to weaken them so they can not challenge the Amazeen’s power.”

“You were not treated like that,” said Caitlin, grateful such torture had not happened.

“Aye, but I was. My parasite healed me quickly. Lucky for me they never got a chance to do to me what they did to Iyan.”

Caitlin looked up, hoping to gain some insight into this man’s angry cohort. “What did they do to him?”

He pondered the wisdom of telling her; worried that Iyan would be even angrier should Caitlin have such damaging knowledge of him. For a moment, he was sorry he’d brought up the subject, then thought perhaps allowing her a glimpse of Iyan’s tormented soul would go a long way in making allies of the two.

“You are a Healer,” he began. “You know of SRY.”

“The male determining protein?” At his nod, she said, “In mammals, the primary step in male sex determination is the initiation of testis development which depends on the expression of the Y-Chromosome-linked testis determining gene, SRY.”

“Aye. Amazeen wish to prevent male births when they mate. They have found a way to do this.”

“To kill the male fetus in utero?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Despite their willingness to inflict pain in others, they are not especially fond of it for themselves. Abortion in any form might cause a degree of discomfort they wish to avoid. The only two pains they willingly tolerate are the removal of their right breast...”

“To better wield a bow,” Caitlin put in. “Like the Amazons of Earth.”

“Aye.”

“And the other pain would be to give birth to another Amazeen.”

He nodded. “Precisely so.”

“How do they make sure they only have female children? Our world has been trying to come up with a sure-fire way for years, but we still don’t have one that is foolproof.”

“There is an injection they give their young ones before the girl reaches menarche to assure that her immune system is prepared to fertilize only those eggs with the female gene. The injection is repeated about a month before she mates for the first time and then a booster is given every ten years.”

Caitlin felt a chill go through her. “What kind of injection?”