unedited!
Lee shook her head. “Magick isn’t real.” She licked her lips as
she said it and wondered why those words felt so…wrong.
“I think you know it is.”
Thinking made the pain in her head worse, she decided as she
squinted at him. “You are confusing the hell out of me.”
He leaned forward and she found her eyes lingering on the bulge
of muscle in his arm. Another memory surfaced. His hands on her
body. His mouth on hers. She had kissed him, had wrapped herself
around his body like she wanted to crawl inside him. And he’d
kissed her back with the same hunger. Blood rushed to her cheeks
and she dragged her eyes away from his muscles, forcing herself
to focus on his eyes. But the dancing light there had her
groaning. He knew, exactly, what thoughts were running through
her mind.
Gingerly, she rolled onto her belly and buried her head in her
arms. Even that was enough to make that bright, throbbing pain
double in intensity. She moaned her way through it and as the
wave of pain peaked and then ebbed away, she muttered, “Why is
this happening to me?”
His fingers, long and warm, came up to stroke down her neck,
before he settled into a soothing massage. She could have
whimpered as he worked the tense muscles until they felt about
as loose as putty. “I have no answer to that. At least, none
that I could explain. But you belong here. How you managed to
get from our world, to the one you call home, and then back—I
have no explanation.”
A
long moment of silence passed and he sighed. “But you have a
great deal of power within you. The creatures from Anqar are
attracted to power. Without strong protectors, a great many
children with gifts like yours die before they even reach
puberty. Die or are taken. So however you ended up in that
world, it was a blessing.”
“What is Anqar?” she asked. But before he could answer, a flash
of pain exploded behind her eyes and she had to stifle her
whimper in the odd feeling mattress beneath her. “Damn it, my
head…”
“Roll over,” he ordered gently.
She resisted and his hands came up and carefully, but
forcefully, turned her onto her back. “This will help.” His
voice sounded odd, tinny, as though he was speaking to her
through a tunnel as he touched his fingers to the middle of her
brow. Almost instantly, cool, sweet relief started to ease the
pain inside her head. After a few minutes passed and the pain
had all but abated, Lee chanced opening one eye and looking up
at him.
“Are you magick?” Touching her fingers, to her brow, she felt
something small and smooth against her skin, something disc
shaped. And to her touch, it felt cool.
“It’s medicine,” Kalen responded with a faint grin. “No magick
needed. I should have not even waited until you woke. There is
some tea you need to drink. It will settle the nausea in your
belly, and help your strength to return faster.”
She closed her eyes, sighing blissfully and murmured, “If it
works as well as this, give me a gallon of it.”
Moments later, though, as he forced the cup back to her lips,
she pressed against his wrist and snapped, “That tastes
disgusting.” She would have thrown it, except he wouldn’t let
her. The taste of it coated her tongue, seemed to cling to her
throat. Sewer water would have tasted better. It was bitter,
pungent and there was a faint moldy taste to it, like something
in it should have been pitched ages ago. He pushed it towards
her again and she turned her head. “Get that crap away from me.”
Kalen arched a brow and said, “The sooner your energy comes
back, the sooner those headaches will stop. That pain patch will
not stop them forever.”
With a curl of her lip, she said, “I’ll just use the patches,
thank you.”
Turning her head away, she started to lay back down, only to
have him fist a hand in her hair and jerk her head back. She
gagged on the tea while he literally poured down her throat.
Choking on the vile stuff, Lee jerked against his hold. When he
finally let go, she spat what remained in her mouth out at him,
gasping and rubbing at her stinging eyes. “You jack ass!” she
shouted in between coughing fits.
“Next time, maybe you’ll drink it on your own,” he responded
levelly.
“Next time, you can kiss my ass,” she wheezed out, snatching the
cup of water he held out to her. At least, she hoped it was
water. Water or cyanide. Right then, she couldn’t decide which
she’d prefer. It was just water, though, cold and oddly sweet.
She downed half of it before shoving the cup back at him and
flopping down on the bed.
“I would be rather happy to.” A cold cloth wiped over her face
and her eyes flew open as she batted his hand away.
“Happy to what?” She rolled onto her belly and buried her face
in the mattress. She would have cut her arm off before she
admitted the churning in her belly had eased.
He slid a hand down her back and Lee tensed as that hand cupped
the curve of her butt. His hair fell down around them when he
bent over her, sliding along her bare arms as he murmured, “You
suggested that next time I could kiss your ass.” Through her
thin pajamas, she could feel the heat and strength of his hand
on her ass. He squeezed lightly and she had to clamp her mouth
shut to keep from sighing a little. “I would be happy to.”
Look for the next Veil book to be released in late
2010.
