Then his hands were on my biceps and he was shaking me.
Shaking me!
Again!
“Stop shaking me!” I shouted through my labored breathing.
“What did you do?” he barked, still shaking me.
Oh God. Was he going to blame me for this too?
“Nothing,” I answered.
“What did you do?” he thundered, still freaking shaking me.
I grabbed onto his arms and screamed, “Nothing!”
He stopped shaking me only to toss me away from him with such violence I went flying and stumbled into some pews, banging my thigh on the side of one so hard the pain beat in and radiated out instantaneously.
He advanced on me and I lifted a hand, palm out and cried, “Stay back!”
“Did you throw out the bones?” he asked, his voice quieter but no less scary.
“Wh… what?”
Then he lost it again.
“Did you throw out the bloody bones, Cora?” he raged.
I shook my head. “Yes, I… you mean when I tidied?”
“Gods!” he bellowed. “Do you want Minerva to find you?”
“No!” I yelled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
He got close, my breath fled and I shrunk away, cowering, stupid, stinking, weak cowering away from his big, powerful body and his bigger, more powerful rage. I dimly heard Salem’s hooves on the wood floor of the aisle and felt him get close to us but my concentration was on Noctorno and trying, and failing, to force air into my lungs.
“You know,” he gritted between clenched teeth.
I sucked in breath, shook my head and whispered, “I keep telling you –”
He reached down and wrapped his fingers around my arm again, hauling me up and he gave me a shake that snapped my head back so hard, I saw stars.
Salem whinnied.
Noctorno’s body went still and I heard him draw in a sharp, hissing breath through his teeth.
“Stop playing that damned, bloody game,” he warned, his face close but I was still blinking away the bright lights in my eyes.
“I… I… I swear, God, I swear, I’m not.”
He shoved me away again and the small of my back hit the sharp edge of the top of a pew. I whimpered but he strode away.
He stopped at the door and looked to his horse.
“Do not let her leave.”
Salem snorted.
Noctorno turned and jogged down the steps, disappearing without looking back.
Chapter Ten
Minerva
“Get out of my way, Salem,” I commanded.
The horse snorted and shuffled across the space at the front of the church, blocking the doors with his massive body.
“Get out of my way, Salem!” I shouted and the horse snorted again, his front legs buckled like he was going to go down on his knees then he reared up and snorted again.
“I’m leaving!” I announced.
Salem whinnied what sounded like frantically.
I planted my hands on my hips and looked the horse in his eyes.
“You saw him!”
He blew through his lips and his mighty head swung side to side.
“He shook me! He nearly snapped my goddamned head off!”
The horse moved closer to me and butted the side of my head with his nose.
I grabbed it and pulled it down to catch his eyes again.
“I don’t care about Minerva,” I told him, my voice suddenly low and trembling. “Right now, the devil I don’t know is way, way better than the devil I do.”
A soft, apologetic whinny.
I shook my head. “I have to get away from him. He’s mean, he’s bossy and he won’t believe I am who I am.”
He shoved his nostrils in my neck and blew.
I felt tears sting my eyes and wrapped my arms around the beast’s necke.
“He hurt me,” I whispered.
That got me another blow making his horse lips quiver.
“You have to let me go.”
Salem was still.
Then he pulled his neck from my hold and twisted it to look down his body at the open church doors.
Then he looked back at me.
Then he shifted his big bulk so he was facing the doors and butted me with the side of the saddle.
Oh my God. Was I reading him right?
“You… are you…” I paused then whispered, “going with me?”
He threw his head back and whinnied then twisted it to look over his shoulder at me and jerked it up and down in an obvious affirmative.
“Are you serious?”
He whinnied a “someone’s gotta keep you safe” whinny.
So… totally… awesome!
I surged up his body, threw my arms around his neck, gave him a huge hug and whispered, “Thank you.”
Then I ran to the doors, snatched up the knife I dropped, shoved the hilt between my knees as I retied my belt tighter around my waist. Then I shoved the knife into my belt and approached the horse.
It took me three tries to heft myself into the saddle, I was not a seasoned rider and, mind you, I had ample fabric hindering me straddling a horse (so much for my kickass outfit, I had to get myself something that said “warrior princess”). Unfortunately, the minute I got up I realized the stirrups were way too low so I had to dismount, cinch them higher and do it again (this time, it took four dratted tries).
But I got on that beautiful beast, touched my heels to his flanks and off we went, out the door and into the unknown.
I felt the bed depress, I opened my eyes in exhausted confusion, saw Noctorno sitting on the bed, his hips in the crook of my lap and he was leaning over my body with a hand what I guessed was in the bed behind my back.
Uh.
What?
What was he doing here?
My head shifted back on the pillow, my eyes darting to the nightstand.
“Looking for this?” I heard him ask, I looked to him and saw his other hand raised, my knife dangling from his fingers by the tip of the blade.
Blast!
