Bite. Part 25

Her heart gave a wary thump, but Caroline walked over to him anyway. He was even more breathtaking at close range, and she swallowed, looking up at him. "How, exactly, do you intend to do that?"

Soren gave her a wicked little smile, lowered his head, and kissed her.

She barely had time to notice his kiss wasn't as blazingly erotic as Galahad's when magic rolled over her in a frothing flood that rocked her back on her heels.

T HE jealousy that flooded Galahad as he watched Soren kiss Caroline took him completely by surprise. It intensified when she sagged into the dragon's arms. Galahad knew her reaction was probably from whatever spell transfer Soren was doing, but his inner Neanderthal growled. It was all he could do not to stalk over there and make lizard pate out of his friend.

Which, considering Soren's true form, said something about just how stupid his inner Neanderthal really was.

He'd never been this jealous of Morgana.

But just before Galahad's common sense went down for the count, Soren lifted his head and set Caroline back on her feet. She

looked dazed, which only added fuel to the fire. The dragon gave him a toothy smile. "Lucky mammal."

"What the h.e.l.l was that all about?" Galahad exploded. He knew he sounded like an idiot, but he didn't care.

Soren shrugged his broad shoulders. "It's the only chance I'm going to get to kiss the bride."

"You..." Galahad's mind belatedly processed what his friend just said. "What in Merlin's name are you talking about?"

Obviously enjoying his reaction, the dragon folded his arms. "You do know you're going to Truebond with this girl?"

He snorted. "You've been flying too high, Soren. That reptile brain is oxygen-deprived."

Caroline blinked, as though trying to shake off whatever Soren had done to her. "Truebond? What's a Truebond?"

"The Magekind version of marriage." A vast oversimplification, but it would have to do for now.

Caroline's jaw dropped in a gape. Even that looked good on her. "That's ridiculous. We haven't known each other twenty-four

hours!"

"With a Truebond, that hardly matters." Amus.e.m.e.nt shone in the dragon's iridescent eyes. "You'll tap one another's memories, emotions, thoughts. You'll know one another better than if you'd been married a century."

"It's a mind-fusion," Galahad explained, glaring at his friend. The idea of exposing Caroline's bright innocence to his sixteen

hundred years of corruption was repellent. It would destroy her. h.e.l.l, sometimes he thought it was destroying him. "And no way in h.e.l.l are we doing it."

The dragon ignored him, looking into her eyes. "He'll be your conduit, Caroline. You'll free each other."

"I said forget it!" Galahad snapped. "I don't care what vision you had, it's not going to happen."

The dragon looked over at him in that infuriating way he had: wise, amused, tolerant of the hapless mammal's foibles. "Of course not." He gave Caroline a smile. "It was a pleasure to meet you, my sweet."

As Soren turned and started toward the edge, Caroline stopped him. "Wait. The Truebond thing. What else did you see?"

He smiled wickedly. "This and that." Before she could stop him again, he turned and leaped in a hard, long dive right off the edge.

Caroline gasped as he disappeared, but an instant later, he shot past in dragon form, headed skyward, his ma.s.sive wings beating.

She turned on Galahad, bristling. "Did you have to be such a jerk? I might have gotten some more out of him if you hadn't run him

off."

He snorted. "n.o.body gets anything out of Soren he doesn't want to give."

She stalked to the edge and looked up as if she were considering flying after the dragon. "Well, I'd still like to ask him when we're supposed to do this Truebond thing."

"We're not Truebonding," he gritted. "You have no idea what's involved, and believe me, you don't want to find out."

"Well, it sounds to me like we're not going to get a whole lot of choice."

"First off, visions have been known to be wrong. Second, Soren isn't above lying when it suits whatever game he's playing. Third,

for all you know, if we do Truebond, it won't be for a couple of centuries. Either way, it ain't happening anytime soon."

Caroline glared at him. Even in his current enraged mood, he could see she was hurt. "Suits me just fine. I don't even know you."

Whirling, she flounced off up the stairs toward the bedroom.

Galahad watched her go as irritation poured through him. Along with a healthy dose of fear.

Was the dragon right?

Merlin's Cup, he hoped not. He'd been around long enough to know they had the beginning of something good, something he'd

never encountered in all his centuries seducing Majae. There was a warmth about Caroline he rarely saw in Magekind women, an

honesty and lack of calculation. And, of course, there was that innocent sensuality.

Too often Majae seemed barricaded behind ennui, wariness or cynicism until almost nothing he did could reach them. But Caroline was so deliciously open, her uninhibited reactions aroused him as much as her pretty body did.

He wanted more time with her. He wanted to nurture and protect the fragile seed between them, watch it grow. It was going to be marvelous.

But only if she wasn't destroyed by a Truebond.

W ELL, that had been pretty d.a.m.n plain. Galahad wanted nothing whatsoever to do with a permanent relations.h.i.+p with her. After

all his talk about being nothing like Dominic, he was cut from the same cloth after all.

The trick now was to maintain a strictly business relations.h.i.+p until they got Geirolf's little cult taken care of. She'd keep her distance and stay out of his bed, and...

"Caroline," Galahad said from behind her.

She straightened her shoulders, wiped the hurt from her face, and turned, determined to keep this light. "What can I do for...?"

He s.n.a.t.c.hed her into his arms, and his mouth came down on hers, hungry and devouring. Caroline stiffened instinctively, but he

didn't let her go.

Oh, she thought, he's going to be a pain in the a.s.s.

O VER the next three days, Caroline discovered how right she was. She never found out if Galahad would take "no" for an answer; he made it impossible for her to get the word out of her mouth.

His centuries had taught him things to do to a woman's body that lit Caroline's up like the Eiffel Tower on New Year's Eve. He wove wicked spells with his mouth and his tongue and his big, hard hands that put to shame anything she could do with her magic.

He whispered velvet threats that made her knees go weak, then carried every one of them out-bending her over, spreading her wide, pinning her against the nearest wall. All so he could work his thick erection slowly into her tight flesh, sink his fangs into her throat. And take her, over and over.

Those d.a.m.n vampires didn't help. She'd set wards on the complex-a kind of magical burglar alarm, designed so that n.o.body but Caroline could sense them when they activated. But they never went off, and the vampires never came back. She kept checking, but the place remained empty of all but its ghosts.

While Galahad's home was full of him.

She knew he was after something. This felt almost like a feral kind of courts.h.i.+p, as if he were staking his claim on her.

Gaining possession.

But he'd said he didn't want her in terms that left no room for romantic illusions. So what the h.e.l.l kind of game was he playing? And what should she do about it?

Because he was definitely getting to her-and not just with the impressive s.e.x. Hot as he was, that wouldn't have done such a good job of chipping away at her mental barriers.

No, what got her the most was the lazy, drifting time just after he'd taken her and just before sunrise, when they lay in bed together watching the dragons play. That was when he'd tell her about the places he'd been, the times he'd seen, the amazing events he'd witnessed. Hearing the reality behind the legend never failed to enthrall her. It quickly became hard to remember why she needed to keep her distance.

Sunset on the fourth day found them nicely settled into their routine. She sat in bed polis.h.i.+ng off a breakfast steak under Galahad's watchful eye-he said she needed the protein-while he did his evening sword exercises.

Chewing a piece of sinfully tender filet mignon, she watched him parry invisible attacks, sword flas.h.i.+ng, his big, naked body moving with a dancer's grace.

The psychic buzz of her wards activating made her sit up an instant before the vision fell on her like an anvil.

Four of them held the naked girl spread across the altar. Over them stood a blond woman who held a snaking knife in one hand and the grail in the other. The blonde's face was twisted with savage antic.i.p.ation that matched the black eagerness in the eyes of her followers. Caroline could feel their hunger to see blood spill. She froze, a scream clawing at her throat, unable to move or think as the poisonous images poured into her consciousness.

Then it was over, and the vision's hold snapped. Caroline flung herself out of bed so fast she fell on the floor. "Galahad!" Sick horror clawed at her as she scrambled to her feet, but she had no time for emotion now. "They're back!"

He stopped and lowered his sword. "The cultists?"

"Yeah. They've captured somebody. They're getting ready to sacrifice her on that d.a.m.ned altar."

His handsome face went cold. "Armor us up and open a gate. Let's see what's going on."

A gesture called their mail around them. Then carefully, she opened a gate just large enough to give them a view of the sacrificial chamber.

Just as her vision had predicted. Four cultists held the naked girl across the altar as the blond priestess lifted her knife. Galahad cursed softly. "I don't like this, but it doesn't look like we've got time to play it safe."

"I don't need much time," Caroline reminded him in a low voice. "Soren gave me that spell, remember? Keep them from killing the girl, and I'll do the rest. It'll take me sixty seconds, tops, to do the chant."

"Can you do it from here?"

She hesitated, her eyes locked on the struggling girl. "I don't think the gate could handle the energy flow."

"Yeah, I figured." Galahad drew his sword and prepared to leap. "Sixty seconds is all you get, Caroline. If you can't pull it off,

they're going to be all over us."

She took a deep breath and expanded the gate to full size.