L06 Leopard's Prey Read online

  She didn’t want that incredible feeling to go away. In any case, she was certain she could protect Fen without him knowing what she was. If necessary she would remove any bad memories. She also needed to feed. It wasn’t that hard to convince herself that she had very good reasons for allowing Fen to walk her through the forest.

  “Where’s your coat?” Fen asked.

  Coat. Everyone was wearing a coat. Carpathians regulated their temperatures. She didn’t feel hot or cold, which was why she didn’t feel flames, but Carpathians went out of their way to fit in with humans. That was one of the biggest rules that governed their society. No one could know of their existence. Before she and Bronnie had been placed in the earth to heal, that tenet had been drilled into her. She’d forgotten a coat.

  She glanced toward the rough pegs at the door where many of the patrons hung their jackets and hats. At once a long, hooded coat appeared there. She sneaked a quick look in the mirror, grateful no one had seemed to notice. She indicated the coat with a small jerk of her chin. If Fen was startled, he gave no indication. He simply removed the long coat from the peg and held it up.

  She hesitated, unsure what she was supposed to do. Fen stepped closer and slid her arm into one sleeve, wrapping the coat around her back and waiting for her to put her other arm into the remaining sleeve. He turned her around and buttoned the coat for her. The entire time, while he slipped each button into the loops, she held her breath and stared up into his face.

  He was beautiful. Scarred, rough, totally masculine but beautiful all the same. She memorized his bone structure, the shape of his nose, the cut of his mouth and his strong jaw. She wanted to remember him for her entire life—to remember this moment. She might never have such a moment or feeling again, and this was one that needed savoring.

  Fen reached around her and opened the door. A blast of cold air rushed in. She raised her chin, inhaling the night, allowing the wind to bring her information. Fen took a deep breath and stepped outside just ahead of her, retaining possession of her hand. His body partially blocked hers from the elements while he stood, taking a careful look around.

  Gray mist churned and spun, blocking the tavern’s view of the forest. The trees rose eerily above the worst of it, still obscured and slightly misshapen, the tops looking as if they floated without trunks above them.

  “Which way?” Fen asked.

  Tatijana indicated to the left, into the forest. The wolves had gone quiet and she hoped that they were still a great distance away. Fen tugged just a bit on her hand to bring her closer to him, and they set off. She smelled Zev’s scent, a rugged, ancient forest smell, which clung to Fen as well. She quite liked it. The scent was all about running free, something she wanted more than anything.

  There was the night in that smell, a cool dark midnight blue night, with stars overhead and a round full moon as well. That elusive scent conjured up everything that she had come to love in the short time she’d been freed from her prison. More, she wanted to stay close to Fen and just inhale him into her lungs, to take him deep so she would never forget him.

  “Tell me your name. I’m Fen. Fenris Dalka.” He didn’t break stride, walking with absolute confidence into the forest. He seemed a man without much fear.

  She looked up at him. Studied him carefully. Did one more scan just to be certain she was safe. She opened her mouth to tell him, but she just couldn’t. Something stopped her. There was far too much compulsion to be with him. Maybe it was all new to her, this attraction between a man and a woman, but it had never happened before. She hadn’t been the least attracted to anyone else in the tavern, not even a single spark. She shook her head and smiled at him.

  He flashed a grin at her. “You do know that mystery is very intriguing in a woman, right? I’ll be more enamored than ever. I can read lips,” he added.

  She wanted him to know her name. She mouthed, “Tatijana,” exaggerating every syllable so it would be easier for him. He got it on the first try.

  “Tatijana is a beautiful name. Do you live close?”

  She shrugged, happy to just be walking with him. His body gave off unexpected heat and she allowed herself to feel it. She needed to feel every moment with him. She knew she should pull her hand away from his. She didn’t know him. She didn’t know proper etiquette between a man and a woman, but for just this moment, for the first time in her life, she felt normal. Real. She wasn’t Carpathian. She wasn’t Dragonseeker. She wasn’t a mage’s daughter. She was a woman enjoying the company of a man.

  “I lived here long ago,” Fen volunteered. “I’ve only returned for a short visit and must leave again.” He looked around at the dark shapes of the trees rising from the mist. “I’d forgotten how beautiful it is.”

  Tatijana agreed with him silently. She wanted to dance there in the deep forest just because she was so happy. Just something so simple as walking in the woods at night flooded her with happiness, and Fen was an added bonus. She nodded her head, feeling a little foolish that she wasn’t speaking aloud, but maybe he thought she couldn’t. She didn’t even care if that meant he pitied her, although when she scanned his thoughts, she didn’t find pity. She found . . . attraction.

  “Have you lived here long?” he asked.

  She glanced at his face. He wasn’t looking down at her, although his tone made her feel as if she were the most important person in the world and he wanted an answer. His gaze was restless, moving constantly, up in the branches of the trees, down along the ground, his vision trying to pierce the heavy veil of mist.

  Had she missed something? Some warning? She took a careful look around, sending out her senses, scanning carefully to try to detect a threat. Just up ahead and slightly to her left, concealed in the trees were the three men who had left the bar after Zev. She sighed. Of course. She’d known they were going to make their try for her. She’d allowed herself to be swept away into a magical world that had no threats in it. Most of all, because everything and everyone who could possibly threaten her seemed trivial in comparison to Xavier.

  She touched Fen’s arm. “I have to go,” she mouthed. “You can turn back now.”

  She wasn’t going to involve him. She wasn’t certain he was human, but if he was, three against one, even when he looked big and lethal, wasn’t fair. She could dissolve into mist and they’d never find her, but Fen had to be protected, even if it was from his own gallantry.

  Fen stopped abruptly. “You know they’re there, don’t you?”

  Tatijana nodded reluctantly. She was giving herself away, but then so had he. The three men were in the distance, impossible to see with the heavy mist and the cover of the dense trees and brush.

  “I’ll take care of them. You get out of here.”

  She shook her head. She’d been afraid that he would be the protective male. She sent him a small push to leave. He scowled at her, shaking her head. Tatijana knew she’d made a terrible mistake. Fen was much more than he seemed, and that push she’d just tried had given him far too much information about her.

  What was he? Mage? She didn’t think so. She’d been held prisoner for centuries by the most powerful mage the world had ever known, and Fen was in no way similar physically, nor did his brain scan that way. Jaguar? She didn’t think so. That left Carpathian or Lycan. If he was Carpathian, she would have known by his energy field. Lycans were the only species who didn’t produce that energy field readable to others.

  She took a chance. “I am quite capable of defending myself. You need to leave. Those men are after me, not you.”

 

 

 
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