Love Is in the Air (19 page)

“From whose blood did this arise?”

“My own.”

Stopping in the middle of applying the balm, Sal glanced up. “I thought you were dead blood.”

“I am,” he answered, looking past her to the window beyond.

“Wait a minute,” Sal said, feeling very, very confused. She really felt she had gained a minimal grasp on this blood thing, but now? “I thought that meant your blood held no essence.”

Tyr shrugged. “Not enough to ask or command, but what you hold in your hand is HeartsBlood.”

“HeartsBlood?”

“Blood pulled from my heart.”

CHAPTER 58

Sal couldn’t have heard correctly. “It couldn’t be.”

“Upon my thirteenth summer, Kerrasis himself punctured my breastbone and drew out an entire pint.” Tyr inclined his head toward the tiny vial. “After his distillation, that is all that was left.”

With a whole new level of respect, Sal looked at the vial. How she wished she had a micropipette to take out the absolutely smallest drop. In her effort to be so cautious, her hand shook, and half a drop spilled off the Q-tip and onto the carpet.

Tyr’s sharp intake of breath was greater than when she had been cleaning his wound.

“When it is gone, there is no more.” He recorked the vial and took it back from her. “With no serum, such a wound would be… when there is no more…” His hand went toward his chest, then fell away. “I am no more.”

Oh, God. Why did he have to tell her that? Why entrust her with such responsibility? She was a doctor, used to holding people’s lives in her hands, but for some reason, she was shaken. Sal didn’t want Tyr’s life in her hands. She hadn’t shown that she was very adept at protecting it.

Sal had bitched him out about offering her up as a sacrifice, but how well had she taken care of his life? How many times had she placed him in jeopardy? And now to waste such a precious substance?

“Do you mean it literally? When the bottle is empty, you die?”

“These claw marks used nearly two drops. I have suffered injuries tenfold worse.”

“Yeah, right,” she snorted, and then realized he wasn’t kidding. “Those were down to the bone.”

“But few in number.”

She searched his blue eyes. He wasn’t exaggerating. As a matter of fact, Sal didn’t think Tyr knew how.

“If the beast were to land a clean blow… I do not think I have enough to mend such a breach.”

Sal hadn’t thought she could have felt much worse about the spill until now. “Oh, God. I’m so sorry. Is there—”

But he lifted a hand to stop her sputtering. “Dwell not upon it. My fate was sealed long before you.”

CHAPTER 59

“I don’t understand,” Sal still hurting that she’d brought Tyr one step closer to death.

Tyr still didn’t answer, but she could sense that he wasn’t withholding. His eyes had lost their focus as he stared ahead, seeming to search across time for the words.

“To be deemed ready for the drawing of HeartsBlood is…” His eyes darted, scanning a world she couldn’t see. “What boy does not wish to be deemed worthy? To prove his bravery and head out into the forest to face fang and claw?”

He looked down at her with such a mixture of pride and hurt, it nearly undid her. Sal cautiously went back to applying the HeartsBlood salve as she asked, “At thirteen, you battled beasts?”

Tyr nodded. “After the letting, you learn to hunt with your thane. You are even trusted to track alone, but…I was fooled. It was not one beast I tracked, nor even a pair, but a pack.”

Sal couldn’t keep the surprise from her voice. “There can be more than one?” Just the thought of a single, huge, snarling beast threatened her sphincters. But two? Or more?

“There were five… they bayed, hounding me across the full breadth and width of the forest. Finally when my legs could run no more… I… I climbed to the top of the tallest tree.”

Sal shook her head. “That’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

He glanced over. Clearly in a world of dead bloods and beasts, it was.

“Nevertheless, they circled until my thane found me and chased the beasts off.” A smile that Sal didn’t think Tyr realized was there played at the edge of his lips. “To not let him think me a coward, I climbed down with the speed of a startled squirrel, making it only halfway before I tumbled the rest of the way.”

“You were seriously injured?”

Tyr chuckled. “No. A strained knee was all of it.”

“Then I don’t understand.”

“My horse was chased off days before, and my thane’s mount was injured in the skirmish.”

Sal added, “So you were forced to walk out of the forest.”

“In my shame, my fear of recrimination, my determination to not be judged too slow, I snuck three drops of my HeartsBlood just to ease the pain to my knee so that I might keep pace with my thane.”

She watched as his eyes lost focus, and his tone softened. “To be so young and so certain that my jarred knee was the worst with which the world could punish me. To think those three drops could never stand between myself and the black veil…”

Tyr turned to her, his gaze sharpened. “So do not dwell upon the loss of less than a single drop, Salista.”

CHAPTER 60

To hear Tyr say her name, her full name, tugged at something deep inside her. A something she hadn’t even known existed.

Trying to hide the rush of emotion, she turned her entire eight years of medical school and four years of residency to carefully painting the precious fluid onto the wounds. She coaxed the HeartsBlood to spread out to maximize the coverage, so that she didn’t need to ask for even another drop.

“Does that seem good enough?”

Tentatively, Tyr’s fingers inspected the gashes. “As well as I would expect of a witch.”

As if hiding his own response to their moment, Tyr rose and turned his broad, tan back to her, taking up his vigil before the window again.

Another stalemate. Each time they made the smallest strides toward reaching some kind of accord, it was shattered before it could come into being. Leaving him to a brooding that approached supernatural levels, Sal turned to the very ordinary task of clearing the table.

Sal was well on her way into washing the dishes when Tyr said, “I…”

She waited until it was clear that he wasn’t going to finish.

“You?” Sal asked without even turning from the sink.

A long pause stretched out, which she filled with the clink of rinsing silverware. As much as she wanted to drag the words from him, Sal worried that prying would only drive him further into his melancholy.

“I do not hearken to this Physics.”

Slowly, she turned to find that he had yet to do the same, his bare back a map of rippling muscles. The words he spoke seemed to physically hurt him as much as the stinging antiseptic.

“Let me get this straight. You need my help again?” she asked as much to clarify in her own mind what he wanted as to respond to his words, but Tyr turned on his heel, glaring.

“I would not go so far.”

How many times could he insult her? How many more times would she let him? “You know what? Figure out the complex scientific field of theoretical physics for yourself.”

She took up washing the dishes again. Because of her ignorance, she’d taken actions that resulted in horrible consequences. Sal wouldn’t allow him to place her in that situation again.

Finishing the last plate, Sal wiped down the porcelain sink, then dried off the faucet. There really wasn’t anything more to be done, but she was loath to turn around. Afraid Tyr would be gone, but also worried that he was still there.

But she couldn’t just stand there, towel in hand. Folding the terrycloth, Sal turned to find that not only Tyr was still there, he was studying her. How long had he been doing that? How could she not have felt his eyes on her back?

His gaze went down her length, then back up again until he found her eyes. Sal didn’t back down from his stare. In fact, she cocked her head.

“Well?”

Tyr looked like he wanted to retreat to one of his edicts, force her to do his bidding without explanation, but equally he seemed to realize that it would no longer work. He struggled to speak, but no words came.

Sal couldn’t take it anymore. “Look, unless you fess up to the fact that you are lost, you’re never going to trust me enough to tell me what I need to know to help.” Still, he didn’t move. Didn’t even flinch. “Why is it so hard for you to admit that you need my help?”

“Does it come so easily for you?” he asked.

“I’m not the issue here.”

Tyr took a step forward, narrowing his brow. “Then speak the words to me. Surrender to my aid.”

She could feel her back go up as his arrogance became palpable. He didn’t seem comfortable unless he was the one in charge. Well, she was sorry to inform him, but she had to deal with surgeons every day. “Go ahead. Walk right out that door. I’ll be just fine.”

Okay, maybe that wasn’t exactly true, but he didn’t need to know that.

“Truly? For by my recollection, you have dabbled, have you not?”

“What are you talking about?”

Another stride as he closed the distance between them. “Did you not in the forest command silence?”

Sal suddenly didn’t want Tyr to approach. Didn’t want to even look at him, but he held her gaze.

“And again, used your blood, your essence, to lure the beast?”

His eyebrow arched, demanding she answer. With an uneven breath, she nodded. How had he turned the tables so quickly? With another step, Tyr was but a few feet away. She could already feel the heat from his body. Smell the mixture of blood and leather. Where had her self-righteous anger gotten off to?

“Then commanded the weapon to discharge, injuring the beast in the course?”

“I had to,” she argued, but knew it sounded lame even to her ears.

Gazes locked, Tyr stepped right in front of her. So close that Sal felt the sink counter dig into her spine as she tried to inch back. Her instinct was to push him away, but Sal feared how those taut muscles would feel under her palms.

“How do you think the beast began his descent?” Tyr searched her eyes. “It was a small thing. A turning of a knob. An urging of obedience.”

He leaned in, bringing his lips alongside her ear. They nearly touched the tender skin of her lobe, but instead his breath caressed her neck. “Speak that you have not felt the temptation again, when there was no deadly need. Speak that, and I shall depart, never to return.”

God, Tyr was so close, too close. In proximity and in truth. She wanted to deny it, but where had her thoughts gone when she couldn’t find the right shirt this morning? Worse, just a few minutes ago, when she fumbled her keys, Sal had felt the urge to just try the “Open” command again. She’d almost succeeded at the boathouse. With a little practice, she knew she could get it.

That didn’t even count all the times she’d used the laptop’s connection without him.

Tyr pulled back just far enough to stare into her eyes. Then he cocked his head, just as she had done, echoing her question. “Well?”

CHAPTER 61

“I’ve thought of it…” was the most that she could admit.

“And without proper guidance, you would begin the descent.”

Sal could only muster a nod. Just like so many other aspects of the last few days, she hadn’t thought her urges through. They seemed either so noble or so inconsequential that she didn’t give them a second thought.

With Tyr close, his musky scent filling her nostrils and enflaming an animal instinct to rip the rest of his clothes off, she could sense the beast within.

“Then we both have a void,” he whispered.

Again, she nodded, too ashamed to speak her agreement out loud.

Tyr’s tone held no recrimination, though. Instead, he offered his hand. “To fill this, we will speak the words of unity.”

Sal laid her palm in his, not knowing what to expect.

He searched her face, then whispered, “I have need of you.”

She had to remind herself over and over again that she was engaged.

Engaged to a great guy. An incredible guy. A guy she couldn’t picture at the moment.

“For?” she asked, half-hoping the answer had nothing to do with the beast.

“To learn the working of your world.”

Relieved, yet disappointed, Sal kept her tone neutral. “And I need you as well.”

“For?” Tyr asked as he pressed her hand against his bare chest.

Pulse pounding in her ears, Sal could only think of his bulging pectorals, so she mimicked his words, although she was certain she couldn’t completely mask the desire in her voice. “To learn the working of your world.”

Tyr’s other arm grasped her around the waist, pulling her up against him, until there was no space left at all between them. He lowered his head. God, was he going to kiss her? Was she going to let him?

Then a sharp pain lanced her palm. She gasped, but Tyr forced their hands palms together as a warmth spread across her skin.

Blood. Not just hers, but his as well. He had cut them both.

“Our essences have mingled with intent,” Tyr intoned as he released his grip. “We are bound until our purpose is fulfilled.”

CHAPTER 62

Standing by the kitchen table, Sal’s palm itched. Tyr hadn’t let her wipe off the blood until it had completely dried. The small nick had already healed, like all of Tyr’s inflicted injuries did, but the skin itched, nonetheless. She tried not to think of what that meant. She tried not to think to what extent they were bound. She tried not to think of how proud she felt that Tyr had chosen to align himself with her, for whatever the purpose. She tried really hard not to think that the blood drying on her palm felt more real and binding than the diamond on her left finger.

Clasping her hand into a fist, Sal forced herself to listen to Tyr’s explanation as he spread his torn shirt across the table. He gently smoothed the fabric out, pointing to the gashes.

“As great as was the beast’s desire to tear it asunder, the cloth wished to stay whole.” He glanced at her. Sal inclined her head, even though she really only processed half the words. Despite her nod, Tyr didn’t seem to believe she understood.

His stern expression forced her to pay full attention to his instruction. “Essence and intent are entwined. To know only of a thing’s essence is of no use. To know of a thing’s intent, but not touch its essence is an equally vain endeavor.”