Chapter 34
“If we kill each other, at least we’ll die happy,” Shea said when she was sure she could speak without her voice breaking.
Tiny, delicious little aftershocks still trembled throughout her body, making her sigh with the quiet pleasure. The burning sensation on her breast had passed, and she knew without looking that more flames had been branded into her skin. Torin lay beside her, one arm tossed across her middle, one leg thrown over hers.
He took up a lot of space, her Eternal, but it was more than his massive size that was carving out a spot for him in her heart. It was his fierce tenderness. The vulnerability she only occasionally caught a glimpse of. The protection he offered her so willingly and the quiet determination to do whatever was necessary to keep her safe.
Also, he was the most amazing lover she could ever have imagined.
“You won’t die,” he said, his face in the crook of her neck, his breath warm against her skin. “I won’t allow it.”
She ran her fingertips up and down his arm, loving the feel of his skin beneath hers. “I know you’ll do everything you can, Torin.”
“No.” He pushed up on one elbow and met her gaze. She stared up into his pale gray eyes and wondered how she could ever have been afraid of that unusual stare. When she saw his eyes now, she saw the past and the future and the ever-shifting present.
“Don’t make promises you might not be able to keep,” she said softly, as she lifted one hand to touch the corner of his mouth.
“This promise will be kept. At all costs. Have I not proven that to you yet?”
Her heart clenched in her chest. Yes, he had shown that he would do anything for her. To save her. The prison guards he’d killed to help her escape. The assassins he’d killed to try to prevent further attacks.
“You have. But even the most stalwart protector can’t defend against every danger, Torin. You’re just one man.”
“Eternal.”
She smiled and corrected herself. “Eternal. I know you’ll do everything you possibly can, Torin. But just in case something happens-” God, she didn’t want to think about the possibility of being torn from him. Of dying just as she was discovering how to live. But the threat had to be recognized for what it was. “-I want you to know, this time with you has been the best of my life.”
He laughed shortly.
“What?” Offended, she pushed at his arm, but didn’t budge it an inch.
“You’ve been kidnapped, implanted with electronic bugs, imprisoned, shot and nearly blown up all in the space of less than two weeks.”
“True. But you know what else I’ve been?”
He shook his head.
“I’ve been with you,” she said, dragging her fingers across the breadth of his chest, tracing the curve of the mating brand. “I’ve been part of a team. I’ve found out who I am and have begun to learn how to use what I am. I’ve been made love to by a damn expert-”
He gave her a smug, purely masculine smile.
“-and if it all ends tomorrow, I’ll regret leaving you, but I won’t regret a moment of anything else.”
His arm around her tightened and the smile on his face disappeared. “Nothing will happen to you, Shea. I finally have you and I won’t let you go. No matter what. I need you to believe that. Believe in me.”
“I do,” she said, clutching him to her, holding tight and fast to the huge man who had so quickly become the most important person in her world. “I really do, Torin.”
“Good.” He kissed her, fast and hard. “Now, lie back, and let me find that damn tracker so we can get out of here.”
Shea did as he asked and rolled to her back. Lifting her arms, she stretched them out behind her head, baring herself to his concentrated gaze. His fingers moved over and under the curve of her left breast, following the trail of her witch tattoo that became more defined, more a part of her, every day.
“Can you feel it?”
“No,” he said. “I’m going to call on the fire, use magic to find it. Hold still.”
She watched him, unable to tear her gaze from the man. His long, dark hair fell to his shoulders, and his pale eyes were narrowed and focused on his task.
Flames leapt into life on his fingertips. With his right hand, he slowly traced the curve of her breast, pressing the living fire into her skin.
She felt the heat, dizzying as it spread across her chest, over her abdomen and then lower, settling in the very center of her. The heat became an ache and despite the situation she was in, Shea felt the stirrings of need whip through her again.
Torin had explained that once the mating began, they would feel a constant need. With every day that passed, their bond became stronger. The brand grew and spread across their skin. Their mental and physical link was defining itself anew at every moment.
It was as if they actually were two halves of a whole, finally coming together after an eternity apart.
All Shea knew was that she ached for him. Ached to feel his body pressing down onto hers. Until their thirty days were over, their mating would become more frenzied, more intimate, more vital. Though she couldn’t imagine it getting any better than it already was.
Torin continued his exploration of the curve and mound of her breast, forcing the flames and the power they sprung from to dig deep within her. To go beneath the skin and into the very muscles of her body and finally, he found what he sought.
“It’s there,” he said, voice tight with an anger he refused to release. “Magic found it, but I’ll have to cut it out as I did the last one. Rune told me one of the witches was a metal caller and pulled the tracker out of Terri’s body. I don’t have that magic.”
Shea nodded, tightening her fists over the headboard behind her. “It’s all right. I’m ready. Get it out of me, Torin.”
He straightened, held up one hand and his knife appeared, lamplight glinting off the long, wicked blade. Looking down at her, he held Shea’s gaze for a long moment.
“Do it, Torin.”
“This will hurt, but I will take as much of your pain as possible.”
She nodded and braced herself. The tip of his blade dug into her flesh at the base of her breast. She arched up off the bed and clenched her jaw tight at the sharp slap of pain. He was forced to dig for the tracker and before he was finished, Shea was whimpering. The muscles in her arms were locked in the death grip she had on the headboard. A single tear seeped from the corner of her eye and a relieved breath slid from her lungs as he held up the chip to show her.
“Is that it?” she asked. “Is that all of them?”
He stretched out his hand, laid the tracker on the bedside table and smashed it with the hilt of his knife. Frowning, he bent to her breast again and ordered, “Hold on to me so that I can seal your wound.”
She pried one hand off the headboard and laid it over Torin’s shoulder. An instant later, heat bloomed on her flesh as their combined powers linked to heal the slice beneath her breast.
When he was done, he bent his head and tenderly kissed the spot where his knife had cut her. His tongue traced the pattern of red flames branding her skin and followed the circular tattoo until he came to her nipple. Then he pulled it into his mouth and used his tongue and teeth to drive the last of the pain from her body and mind.
“Torin…”
He looked at her, lifted his head and whispered, “I will check your body myself. Every square inch, until we are sure you’re free of their traps.”
Shea lost herself in the passion between them. Pain was forgotten. Fear was quickly shelved for another
