'I did drown.' She frowned dazedly. 'Twice, I think.'
'This displeases me. What if I hadn't gotten here in time? What if I hadn't been around to save your life?'
'Don't you get it?' she snapped. 'For more than a millennium, I have won this contest handily. Then you come along, forcing me to alter my strategy.' She sucked in a breath to continue. 'And to take risks that I wouldn't have had to before. I wouldn't have been moved to this desperate an act if I hadn't given up the box.'
'I didn't want you to give it up.'
She eyed him. 'Yes, Sebastian. You did.'
'Not if this was the alternative.' His voice was hoarse. 'Do you know what it was like seeing you in the middle of that? To watch you going down before I could even react? I was watching you... die.' He smoothed back wet, sandy hair from her cheek. 'What will make you desist from this?'
'Nothing,' she said, her expression obstinate. 'Nothing on this earth will prevent me from winning the prize.'
'Maybe your death would.'
'It's been a long time coming.'
In a seething voice, he said, 'Bride, you have a bit of shark on your chin.'
She wiped it off with the back of her arm, her mien defiant.
'You bit them?'
'They bit me first! And I didn't have much of a choice.'
'You saw there were sharks, and you didn't think to wait for me?'
'When you haven't called? Wanna know the third major turnoff? Men who don't call after hitting it.'
Hitting it?
Her ire was clearly building. 'I wasn't going to wait for you when you've been a no-show for two days. Last time we really talked, I recall you informing me that you were going to forsake me. The first vampire to renounce his Bride. Blah, bluh, blah.'
'You must have known that I would come for you—Wait, you said two days?'
'Like I care, Sebastian, if you lost track of time—'
'I was in a jungle, slowly burning to death. Or I'd have been here.'
'Wh-what did you say?'
'I traced there to help you that morning. But the Scot slammed a shovel across my face, then tossed me in the river.' He narrowed his eyes. 'Did he hurt you?'
'No. But he did seem to make a decision about me.'
'I thought I'd only been out for a day. You've been out here for two days without me?' He squeezed her hands.
'Ow!'
He peered down in horror to see he'd hurt her hands worse. They met eyes before they both lowered their gazes to her legs. Her pants were sliced through, her skin bitten and bloodied. She was injured worse than he'd ever seen. The sand around her was dark. It was blood... everywhere.
'My God, why didn't you say something?' he roared, furious again.
'Oh, pardon me for bleeding,' she muttered when she saw his eyes glued to her legs. 'Don't want to whet your appetite.'
'You can be so coarse sometimes, wife.'
'Not your sodding wife.'
'Yet.' Against her weak struggles, he scooped her up against his chest and pulled her tightly to him. In a gentler tone, he said, 'I'll bring you home, and we'll bandage you.'
The other Lore beings stopped in mid-stride to stare at the Valkyrie being held by a vampire. Cindey gaped at them in astonishment.
Kaderin didn't seem to care. She glanced at him and back at the horizon, biting her bottom lip, brows drawn. 'The prize... '
Even after what she'd been through, her mind had seized again on the prize. He curled his finger under her chin, turning her to face him. Her eyes were luminous in her elfin face as she stared up at him. He wanted to give her anything she desired.
And he couldn't.
'Katja, I cannot retrieve it for you. I would. But I cannot see the destination.'
'You figured out how to find me.'
'If you can help me determine how to find a moving, living whirlpool and have it open for me, I will risk the sharks.'
Her eyelids were getting heavy, and alarm rioted within him.
'I'm sorry, kena. I'll find another way.' He traced her back to the flat, setting her on the bed. In a businesslike manner, he slipped her shirt off and set about cleaning and bandaging her hands and arms. But he was sweating, dreading hurting her any worse than she was.
When he ripped the remains of her pants from her, they both grew quiet at the damage. 'Can you... you will not die from this?' he asked, his voice hoarse.
'No, not at all,' she said in a sleepy tone. 'Which is why I need you to trace me back to the beach at once.'
Her words were ridiculous in the face of her injuries. 'What truly drives you to do this? Why won't you tell me?'
She studied his face, gazing up into his eyes, as if searching his soul.
'You can trust me,' he said.
She looked like she wanted to trust him, but couldn't will herself to. 'I've known you less than a month, but I've... I've learned harsh lessons over the last two thousand years.'
'I know. I've seen them in my dreams.' He could admit to himself that in her place, he'd have a hard time trusting a vampire, too. But Sebastian knew his word was good—he just needed to persuade her. 'I vow I will never be like those red-eyed fiends. There's no reason not to tell me.'
'There's also no reason to tell you,' she countered.
'I could help you.'
'Won't you anyway?' she asked.
He scowled. 'Of course. But there's got to be something that would make you trust me.'
'Yes, my absolute belief that you would never use my trust against me.'
'You know I would never hurt you!'
'I didn't say hurt me. I said use it against me.' Her eyelids were getting heavy. 'You do so love your leverage, vampire.'
When she was safe with him, bandaged and sleeping soundly, he showered, his worry and fury finally beginning to dim. But he also became filled with a new resolve. He knew she couldn't die. But she could fucking hurt. And he was done allowing her to get strangled and stabbed and beaten each night. He wouldn't have it anymore.
After dressing, he slipped away, returning to the beach to see if he could do anything to help her finish this infernal competition. After her two days of competing without Sebastian, she was thirteen points away from the finals.
The exact number of points she'd sacrificed for him.
He still couldn't believe she'd given up that box. He'd checked his pockets for it but he'd lost it. Which was understandable, considering his fall and then his crawl across the riverbank.
At the beach, he spied an opportunity, and acted on it. If he couldn't remove the prize from the competition, he could remove the competition from the prize. He returned to Kaderin within fifteen minutes, shaking snow out of his hair.
When he joined her in bed, she nestled into the pillow and murmured, 'You smell nice.'
He carefully tucked her against him, reminded that she fit him so perfectly.
Her breaths grew light and quick, but they always did when she slept. She twitched and gave a soft moan. He petted her hair, soothing her.
