She glanced around at the sadly neglected field, the dying and dead banana trees choked by dust and drought. No wonder men were willing to turn her over for money.
“Money makes life easier. You don’t live in fear of being evicted, or making a mistake and losing your job. My father sometimes said...”
She bit her lip. Sam didn’t want to hear about his enemy.
“What?” Sam sliced another banana leaf. “Are you telling me now that blackmail wasn’t all my father did? Because my father was an Elemental who hated your kind?”
The sarcastic tone stung.
“You don’t know, Sam. You’re not an Arcane, you’ve never faced discrimination or lived with the fear of getting kicked out of your home or losing your job. Your family did treat us well enough. But...”
He turned and looked at her. “But what?”
Kelly shook her head. “Doesn’t matter.”
Sam sighed. “It matters to me. I want to know.”
“Leave it. It’s in the past.”
“I need to understand, Kelly. We’re facing issues a hell of a lot larger than the two of us. A war that could wipe out both our people.”
He cut a few leaves, and they moved forward again.
“Arcanes have no rights. Your family was kind, but it was still your land, your home.” Kelly held down a branch so Sam could cut it. “We had no voice if your father decided to turn against us. I was taught if I didn’t obey an Elemental, he could have me tossed into prison. Our lives were always on the edge because of what your father could do to us.”
He turned to look at her, his expression fierce. “I’d never have allowed it. If I knew, I’d have fought tooth and nail to keep you there.”
Her heart skipped a beat at the determination in his husky voice. She believed him. But now circumstances had pulled them apart for good. Sam was a dedicated soldier, calling the navy and his SEAL teammates family now. He’d managed to move on with his life.
Kelly just wished she could, too. But no matter how hard she’d tried, he still remained in her heart, a small ache in the night.
Sweet gum, elephant’s ear and mango trees peppered the wooded hillside, but the brush slowed them down. Cutting through the overgrown bushes frustrated Shay. He itched to move faster, get to higher ground. Too many threats. Though he spared the amount of cuts he made, he knew they’d left behind a trail obvious as a billboard.
Sam only hoped the peasants trailing them were more desperate than skilled.
“Am I slowing you down?”
He flicked away a mosquito. “We’re doing okay.”
His first concern was getting Kelly to safety. And that meant risk.
Burning curiosity made him ask the question. “What happened after you left the estate?”
He had to know. All those nights roaming the forested mountains out West, his heart shattered, he’d never ceased worrying about her. When the stars came out, he’d lie down in a grassy meadow, hands fisted beneath his head, and gaze skyward. Wondering if Kelly saw the same stars, felt the same desolate loneliness.
Finally, he’d shifted into a wolf, trying to forget his pain. Forget Kelly, the sweetness of her mouth on his, the feeling of absolute peace after they’d made love and lay tangled together like entwined branches.
He’d shifted into a wolf because he’d lost not just his family, but her. And then he’d gone feral. Losing control to the animal side of his wolf finally dulled painful emotions.
Stupid. It hadn’t made him forget. Instead, he’d turned into a phantom roving in wolf skin. Not living, just existing.
Kelly ducked beneath a low branch. “I headed south to Florida. Drifted from job to job for a while until I knew what I wanted with my life. I settled in Miami and opened Sight Finders, hired staff and we began rescuing Mages who needed help.”
“It takes financing to start a nonprofit. You had the money I gave you to start over again. Did you use it to start the agency?”
“I gave your money to another charity. I had to do it on my own.”
Perspiration coated the machete’s handle. Sam raised and lowered the honed blade with a vicious downstroke. Had to watch himself, if he didn’t want to cut his thigh.
“I gave you the money to take care of yourself, Kelly.”
“The money tied me to you, Sam. Things were so completely severed between us that I felt like a hypocrite using it.”
Guilt stabbed him. Lowering the machete, he took the silver triskele between his fingers, feeling the humming power in the pendant. “But you kept this. My gift to you.”
Her expression blank, she tugged it away and then removed the necklace, pocketing it.
“I kept it as a memory to cherish what we once had. Not as a reminder of what we’d lost. And that we separated for good.”
Despite the sweltering heat, she looked pretty and achingly sexy, her red hair hidden by the bandanna, Rosa’s shirt plastered to her breasts and flat stomach. Even sexier was her relentless spirit, that damn refusal to give up and the drive to keep going despite the incredible odds.
Sam admired stubborn people who persevered. He had the same ability, and it got him through the intense training all SEALs endured.
But hell, he’d never intended for Kelly to face hardship.
This damn heat, it was sucking out every drop of moisture. Or maybe it was emotion turning his throat dry as desert dust.
“We’re together now,” he said. “Until I remove the bond, I’m taking care of you.”
“It’s not necessary,” she began.
Shay put a finger to her lips, feeling their warmth and softness. “It is.”
Grimly he focused on blazing a trail.
It worked for a while. Sam used his intense concentration to forge ahead. These woods seemed safe. Dark, but unused.
An odd, foul stench filled the air. Suddenly a hissing sound came from their right. The bushes parted as a creature jumped from a low-lying mango branch and landed on Kelly’s head.
The stench closed around her throat like a fist. Bending over would enable her to see it, but the claws sank deep, making her eyes water from pain.
“Stay absolutely still.”
Kelly struggled against the impulse to fling away the creature clawing at her head. Sunlight glinted off the pistol Sam pointed at her head. Her blood pressure plummeted. If he missed...
“Trust me,” Sam told her.
Closing her eyes, she did.
Slime splashed over her face and shirt. The creature’s claws sunk into her skull. Sam came over, helped her pull it free and flung the remains to the ground. He squatted down and examined it. Once it had been an ordinary black crow, but now what was left of the bird had daggered claws and a nasty hooked beak.
“Ilthus?” he asked, glancing up.
