Dark Storm (Dark #23)(53)
Author: Christine Feehan

She continued to grow the wall of vegetation, spreading it out in a semicircle around the back half of the village to form a natural funnel, with that opening in its center. The rest of the camp filed through the opening in short order.

All right, Riley. That’s enough. It is time for you to leave.

Are you sure the wall will hold? She could feel the attackers drawing nearer. There were so many.

I am sure. Let go of the earth and come back into yourself.

Her hands still in the soil, Riley pulled her consciousness back into herself. It was just as disorienting leaving so many minds as it had been extending out into them. When she was fully back in her own body, she slipped her hands free and staggered to her feet. Her arms and legs felt like she had just run up a mountain, and her head was pounding.

She stood for a moment to catch her balance and stretch her back. The camp was deserted. Only her tent and the big tent at the center were still standing. Everything else had been packed up and carried away.

She turned to face the living wall behind her. It was a sight to behold, dense and impenetrable, already covered in moss, leaves, and little flowers of every color. The wall had grown so quickly, the ash hadn’t had time to cover it yet. Gary and Jubal had climbed the two large trees on either side of the center opening, and they had each taken a perch high up in the branches.

Ben emerged from her tent, carrying her backpack. He moved with calm efficiency.

"Time to go, Riley." He gestured for her to precede him toward the opening in the wall. Evil was on the wind and getting closer, and they were the last ones left in the camp.

As they approached the opening, Riley could see the tips of rifles and blowguns poking through the wall of foliage. Everyone who had preceded her through the wall had taken up defensive positions on the other side. Now, she understood the plan. This evacuated camp ground was to be a killing ground, plain and simple. She turned sideways to get through the small opening. Ben followed close enough behind that he bumped against her with every step.

Slipping one shoulder down she ducked through the last few inches of the tunnel and emerged on the other side of the wall. She stepped clear of the opening to let Ben pass, then laid her hand on the wall and willed the branches to grow and intertwine to close the opening. Through the barrier, she could hear the sound of marching feet, growing louder as their attackers neared the encampment’s perimeter, and it gave her pause. Dax clearly wanted her on this side of the wall, safe and tucked away. Lord knows, she didn’t belong out there in the fight. But she had skills that could help. She wasn’t sure where she belonged.

"You belong exactly where you are."

His voice sounded in her ears this time, rather than her mind. She spun around and found him standing less than ten feet away. The sun hadn’t yet set, and he stood there in the muted light of the ash-filled sky. Tall, strong, otherworldly. Sparkles of red-gold light flashed around him like fireflies as the dust from his scales rained down from his rising. Riley couldn’t take her eyes from him.

With a few long strides, he closed the distance between them. "Right now you are here with me. I wouldn’t want you anywhere else." The man’s presence was enough to make her forget where she was. He bent his head toward hers, his lips hovering close. Energy crawled from the tips of her toes and traveled up her body, warming and swirling. For a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her right there, and she couldn’t think, couldn’t move. She could only stand there, staring at him in anticipation.

His head tilted to one side, and he pressed his lips to her cheek. The contact was intimate, soft. With him standing so close it was impossible not to feel the strength of his big frame. The combination of strength and tenderness shifted something down deep, and Riley almost wrapped her arms around his neck.

She needed him. Her heart was thudding like a drum. She wanted to cry for the villagers who had lost everything because she hadn’t been strong enough or fast enough to keep Mitro imprisoned.

"Had you kept the volcano sealed, we would never have met," he reminded gently, his thumb tipping her chin up while his other hand cupped the side of her face. "I believe in fate, palafertiilam. Mitro was meant to escape. I have no idea why. Maybe the Universe decided I deserved one such as you. If so, I am forever grateful to it. I am deeply sorry that you have to see the ugliness a vampire leaves in his wake."

Riley nodded her head, half mesmerized by him. One would think that with a war party headed their way, led by zombies …

"Ghouls," he corrected, in that same, soft, hypnotizing voice.

They were talking war, and her mind was hearing something else. That slow drawl, like molasses, warm and comforting. He exuded such confidence that she couldn’t help but feel safe even when she was scared to death. He looked at her and touched her as if she was the most precious, beautiful woman in the world.

Dax had only known violence for most of his existence. He’d seen things most people couldn’t comprehend and yet, with her, he was unfailingly gentle, tender even.

She nodded her head. "I can do this."

"I know you can," he agreed.

The cry of a bird and a shout from one of the villagers snapped them both back to attention. They turned to peer through the leafy wall and found that the first of the oncoming attackers had spilled like insects into the encampment clearing. Some of the attackers carried bloody spears and machetes; others held nothing but branches and rocks. Quickly they broke into two groups, each heading for one of the tents.

Riley watched as they tore the first tent to pieces. One of the eight, who had accompanied the first group, became enraged upon finding the tent empty. In a fit of fury, he shoved his spear through the closest person. Pools of black blood spilled out upon the ground as the wounded man screamed and fell to his knees.

Dax pulled her close. "Riley, go. You don’t have to see this. I asked you to build the wall because most of the villagers from our camp came from the village Mitro destroyed. They don’t need to see what I’m going to do, and you don’t, either."

Her heart felt heavy, almost too heavy for her to bear what was going to happen. She studied his face. No expression. His eyes looking into hers, going almost blank. It was his heart she felt when he refused to feel it. Riley raised a hand to his face, cupping his jaw. "Do what you have to. I’m not going anywhere."

Dax’s hand lingered for a moment, and then a chorus of bone-grinding noises rose from the gathered attackers. Dax pressed a quick, hard kiss on her lips, then turned and disappeared into a cloud of mist that blew through the foliage. Riley stepped close to the wall, and with a touch of her hand, the entangled branches parted so she could see through the wall to the encampment beyond. Her heart dropped as she realized every enraged face was turned her way, looking straight at her as if the dense thicket of leaves and branches was invisible. The group charged.