Pursued (29 page)

She bit her lip, which looked swollen and tender from their frantic kissing. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“Next time, ask.” Merrick ran a hand over his head and blew out a breath, trying to reign in his frustration and need, trying to ignore the
hunger
he felt still burning just below the surface of her mind. “Just ask and let me give you what you need.”

“I…I can’t.” Her face was a mask of misery. “I’m sorry, Merrick, I just
can’t.”

Frustration gripped him again and shook him like a rough fist. “Then I guess it’s going to be a long fucking week in the jungle,” he snarled. “You stay here on the trail—I have to find the scent again. I’ll be back in five minutes—ten tops.” He glared at her sternly. “Whatever you do, don’t move from the trail—it’s the only safe place.”

Then he turned and plunged into the jungle, running away when what he wanted more than anything was to gather her in his arms and kiss her again. Kiss her until she came to her senses and let him give her what they both needed so very badly.

* * * * *

Elise stood there, stunned, not knowing what to say or do for an entire minute after he left. Her entire body felt overheated and her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was shaking her entire body.
I’m going into meltdown,
she thought and on the heels of that,
Hell of a first kiss!

She never felt like this when James kissed her—which he only did rarely, to be honest. Never felt like her knees might collapse at any minute or heard her blood rushing in her ears or saw stars dancing before her vision.

God, am I about to faint? What’s wrong with me?
She stumbled for a moment, feeling strangely physically disoriented. Had the kiss really been that intense? Maybe…or maybe it was simply the
hunger
finally letting up some. That was an incredible relief—Merrick was right, she’d needed the kiss he gave her badly.

But the kiss…he kissed me…the vault…
She waited tensely for a moment but for some reason, the undead denizens of her inner vault were silent. Why?
Because,
a soft voice whispered in her mind.
He
never kissed me. It wasn’t about that for him. It was all about pain…domination…No!

Elise shut out the voice quickly, but she had her answer. As deliciously sexual as the kiss she’d shared with Merrick had been, it hadn’t aroused the demons from her past—for which she was incredibly grateful. She wondered if she dared kiss him again…and if she could make him understand that kissing was all she could do. She didn’t dare risk more, but another kiss…that might be doable.
Very
doable…if he
wanted
to kiss her, that was. The angry, hurt look in his blue and gold eyes was etched in her memory.
I’ve treated him very badly,
she thought miserably.
I wouldn’t blame him if he never wanted to lay eyes on me again…let alone kiss me.

She looked down at her blue leather boots, scuffing along in the verdant greenery—or perhaps bluery was a better word—of the jungle floor, and realized that she was in a different place than she’d been a few moments ago.
These creepers with the pale orange flowers—I don’t recognize them. Where did they come from? Where am I?

Elise looked around herself and confirmed her fear—she’d been so deep in thought that she’d absentmindedly wandered away from the spot Merrick had left her. His last words echoed in her head
, “Whatever you do, don’t move from the trail—it’s the only safe place.”
But where was the trail? It was apparently some kind of scent that he’d been following—a scent he’d lost because of her. But what did it smell like?

Lifting her nose, Elise inhaled deeply, drawing in a lungful of the damp jungle air. It was hot and humid here, no doubt—but as a Florida girl, she was used to the subtropical climate. What she couldn’t get used to was the idea of using her nose to lead her through it. A variety of strange and enticing aromas caught her attention, but none of them seemed to mean anything. Although there was
one
scent that seemed interesting…

Inhaling again, Elise attempted to isolate it. Yes, there it was again—a scent that was a cross between honeysuckle, cinnamon, and freshly baked bread. Weird, but also delicious. Could this be the smell of the trail? Almost unconsciously, she began to drift toward it—and the closer she got, the better it smelled. Was it possibly there was a Kindred version of Krispy Kreme around here somewhere? Elise’s mouth watered for a hot glazed donut. It was silly, but the scent just smelled so damn
good.

At last she found the source of the smell. It appeared to be coming from a small clearing in the jungle—very small, in fact—only about five feet across. The little, roundish patch was covered in long, pale pink grass—much different from the blue-gray color that dominated the rest of the jungle. From the pink grass, tiny bell-shaped flowers sprouted. The flowers seemed to come in every pastel color imaginable—pale blue, mint green, lavender, peach, cotton-candy pink… To Elise they looked like they were made out of frosting—like something you might find on a very imaginative wedding cake. Though she knew they might be poisonous, she couldn’t help wondering if they tasted as good as they smelled. Not that she would actually try one…

And then she saw something that made her forget all about the flowers.

There was a rustling sound in the grass and a small animal about the size of her hand suddenly appeared among the pale pink blades. At first Elise shrank back, uncertain of what it was—a snake? Some kind of big bug? But no…the animal came closer and she saw she’d been wrong. This was no terrifying jungle creature, slithering toward her, poised to strike and ready for the kill. This was a…

“My Little Pony!” Elise breathed.

It was true—the tiny animal looked almost exactly like the plastic retro toys Elise had played with as a little girl. It was a bit shaggier, to be sure but when it tossed its miniature mane and let out a clear, bell-like whinny, the resemblance was unmistakable.

As though the first creature’s call had been a sign that the coast was clear, several other tiny ponies appeared and began moving around the pink patch of grass. Like the flowers they were grazing on, they came in a variety of pastel colors. In fact, as Elise watched she saw that they seemed to prefer eating the flowers that corresponded to their own color—the mint-green pony only ate green flowers, the lavender pony only ate purple ones, and so on.

Enchanted, she dropped quietly to her knees, taking care to go slowly so as not to startle the small creatures. All thoughts of the trail and Merrick’s warning were completely forgotten—her entire attention was centered on the tiny ponies.

As an experiment, she found a pale blue flower that was growing close to her foot and plucked it. Then, still moving very slowly and quietly, she held the tiny, sweet smelling blossom out to the pale blue pony.

“Here, sweetie,” she murmured in a low, coaxing voice. “Come on, come a little closer…”

The pony put its head to one side almost like a dog and considered her in what appeared to Elise to be a very intelligent way. Then, apparently deciding she wasn’t a threat, it trotted forward and delicately took the flower from her open palm. As it munched contentedly, Elise dared to stroke its tiny, arching neck very gently with just her fingertips. The pale blue pony tossed its head and neighed, then appeared to decide it liked her attentions. Turning, it nudged her hand as if asking for more.

Elise was delighted. “You like that, huh, pretty boy?” she said softly. “Would you like another?” Gently, she stroked the pony again and then offered it another flower, which it took with no hesitation at all.

By this time, the other miniature ponies were becoming interested in Elise. They came forward tentatively, sniffing at her blue leather boots and then happily accepting the flowers she picked for them. Soon, she literally had the whole herd of them eating out of her hand.

Later, when she thought about it, Elise was certain this was the most magical—and peaceful—part of her journey away from Earth. She felt like she was seven years old again—completely happy and at peace with herself in a way she hadn’t been in years. There was nothing to interrupt her bliss, nothing but the warm, living hum of the jungle around her, the sweet smell of the pastel flowers, and the tiny herd of shaggy ponies surrounding her and begging for more attention.

She fed and petted them all and had just coaxed the pale blue one to jump up into her lap for a very gentle cuddle when the wind changed. A breeze gusted through the blue-gray leaves around her and suddenly one of the other ponies threw up its head and neighed shrilly—a sound of unmistakable alarm. At once, the entire herd took flight, scrambling madly away as though in mortal fear for their tiny lives. In a second, every last one was gone—all except the pale blue pony. He stayed in Elise’s lap, apparently frozen in terror, though she couldn’t see why.

“What is it, boy?” she asked softly, stroking the tiny, trembling body. “What’s wrong?”

A low, ferocious growl provided her answer.

Feeling like someone had just dumped a bag of ice cubes directly into her stomach, Elise lifted her eyes to look for the source of that terrifying sound. There, across from her and still half hidden by the dense vegetation at the edge of the clearing, was a pair of burning yellow eyes with blue slits for pupils. They looked strangely familiar somehow—or maybe it was just the thing’s shape that seemed to resonate with her. But she couldn’t imagine why. She’d never been to Rageron before—why would any of the animals here seem familiar?

The thing attached to the eyes slunk slowly out of the jungle and stepped delicately into the tiny pink clearing. It looked like a cross between a grizzly bear and a bobcat, with tufted ears and a short, ugly muzzle wrinkled back in a silent snarl to expose long, razor sharp fangs. Suddenly Elise knew where she had seen it before—the head hanging above the kitchen in Merrick’s uncles’ house.

She was looking straight into the face of a very hungry
xenox
, while holding a trembling
billib—
its favorite prey—in her lap.

Something isn’t right.
The thought came to him after twenty minutes of walking around in circles, trying to pick up the correct trail and Merrick knew at once it was true. He felt it in his gut and then, just a moment later, a wave of unadulterated fear came through the bond, confirming his instinct.

Oh, Goddess—Elise!
Why had he left her alone? It was safe on the trail, which was clearly scent marked to warn off any hungry predators. But if she’d even stepped a foot off it…

Turning, he inhaled deeply, orienting himself on her scent. It was as sweet and hot as always, but now there was a new note in it—the tang of pure terror. Merrick took off at a dead run, moving noiselessly through the jungle despite his size, hoping against hope he wouldn’t be too late.

Blue-gray leaves slapped him in the face and the sun beat down mercilessly overhead, but he concentrated only on her scent. Soon a new odor had joined it—a hot, musky stench Merrick would know anywhere.
Xenox.

Shit!
He ran even faster, somehow managing to get the knife from his boot without tripping. He’d left his blaster with Shuura, since such weapons were forbidden in the jungle. The Ancient Ones perceived them and anyone carrying them as a mortal threat and killed them on contact. Now Merrick wished he’d broken the rules. A blaster would have been good to have when facing a predator of this magnitude. He just hoped he was in time to draw it away from Elise and make himself the main focus of its attack.

Finally he reached them and came to a silent halt, the knife gripped hard in one hand. He could feel
rage
building in him—a state of altered consciousness that comes over a Kindred warrior when his female is threatened—and fought it off grimly. He needed to be in total control to deal with this situation—not enraged to the point of recklessness. Taking a deep breath, he tried to look at the situation with clear eyes.

There was Elise, huddled in a patch of sugar blossoms, her eyes wide with fright. Merrick could hear her heartbeat, rapid and terrified, and smell her fear in the air. No doubt the
xenox
crouched directly across from her, getting ready to spring, could smell the same thing.

What Merrick couldn’t figure out was why it was targeting her in the first place.
Xenoxes
were fierce predators, but were also known to be picky eaters. If there was a patch of sugar blossoms this close, it ought to be sniffing out the inevitable herd of
billibs
that had to be nearby, not wasting its time with an unknown scent which might or might not provide food to its liking.

Merrick moved a step closer, not wanting to startle the
xenox
into springing until he could draw it toward himself, and realized Elise was saying something. She was whispering under her breath, but it didn’t look like she was talking to herself.
“It’s all right,”
he heard her murmur, apparently speaking to something she had cradled protectively in her arms.
“I won’t let it have you. It’s okay, little guy, we’re going to be all right…”

A motion between her arms caught his eye, and then Merrick saw what it was she was protecting—a
bilib.
No
wonder
the
xenox
was after her! She was sitting in a patch of sugar blossoms, holding its favorite meal right in her lap—and refusing to let it go.

Crouching low in the blue-gray bushes around the clearing, he tried to get her attention. But her eyes were fixed on the
xenox,
for which Merrick didn’t blame her. He didn’t want to startle the huge beast into springing, but if he could just get Elise to look at him, if he could get her to let go of the
billib,
the
xenox
would undoubtedly chase its preferred prey and leave her alone.