Black Magic Sanction

'I'm sorry,' he said, his expression alarmed and his eyes wide. 'I didn't take advantage of you. Rachel, you were cold. I was trying to warm you up. It wasn't a power pull.'

'You were pulling a line through me!' I said, angry. 'I was freaking unconscious! What in hell is wrong with you!' Sure, I'd been dying of cold, but I didn't even know what he'd been doing. It sounded close to what a witch did with a familiar.

Pierce looked at the ceiling. Now that the light was brighter, I could see it was of wood so old that roots were coming through it. 'It wasn't a power pull. Lower your voice.'

'I will not!' I shouted, starting to shiver. 'I'm not your freaking familiar! Pull a line through me again, and I'm going to... sue you!'

His lips tightened, and he frowned. When he shifted as if to come closer, I flung out a hand in warning and he rocked back. 'You have a right to be in a fine pucker, but I'd sooner die than impugn your honor. I didn't pull a line through you, I simply included you in my communion with one. I'd never seen anyone in all my born days as cold as you, and it was to warm you. It was a mistake to take you into the water. I didn't know you were susceptible to cold. And lower your voice. There are dogs in the woods.'

At his last words, my attention slammed to the ceiling. Fear plinked through me, stealing my breath as the memory of Trent's hounds tracking me hit a deep chord and resonated. Dogs. There were dogs in the woods. The same ones who had tasted my scent. The same who had run me through Trent's beautiful, silent, and deadly woods.

In a heartbeat, the memory hit me of being unable to breathe because my lungs hurt so badly, my legs leaden and scratched, the water I'd splashed through making me slow, and the mud mixing with my tears as my breath rasped. I had never been hunted like that, chased by an animal who single- mindedly thirsted for my death, eager to tear my flesh and take joy in burying its nose in my warm insides. And now I was in a hole in the ground, helpless.

My God. I had to get out of here!

'Rachel, you're all right,' Pierce whispered, inching awkwardly across the dirt floor to me, his heels in the air and toes shuffling. 'Please, you're safe. Be still. There's a hole for air, and enough to breathe. The walls are firm.'

Images of being pulled from the ground and ripped apart mixed with the reality of having been chased before. 'I have to go.' I lifted a hand and felt the ceiling, bits of it falling on me. I had to run!

'Rachel, be still!'

Frantic, I stood, crouching, putting my back and shoulders against the ceiling to push. I had run before. I had run and survived. I had to run now!

Pierce shifted forward, and I grunted, head thunking the wall when he was suddenly on top of me. 'Let me go!' I shouted in panic. He didn't understand. He didn't know! I tried to shove him away, but he caught my hand. His grip was tight, and I went to kick him.

Wise to it, he dodged, pinning me to the wall with his weight. My air huffed out, and I wiggled, trapped. 'Let me go!' I said, and he covered my mouth with a hand smelling of dirt.

'Shut pan,' he hissed, his body covering mine. 'I know you're scared, but you're safe from all creation. They'll be gone like greased lightning if you would just be still! Couldn't you have stayed asleep but a hooter more?

A horn sounded, faint. Panic jerked my eyes to the ceiling. They were above us? Right now? Again the horn came. And dogs. Baying for my blood.

Fear hit hard, and I struggled. He pulled me into him, his arms

wrapped around my body, his legs around my waist, and his hand over my mouth as I fought. I was crying, damn it, but he didn't understand. Dogs never gave up; they never quit. They sang for your blood as you ran, heart pounding and lungs burning, until they clawed you down and tore you apart and your screams mixed with their snarls for your blood. I had to get out of this hole. I had to run!

'Go to sleep, baby, Mama will sing. Of blue butterflies, and dragonfly wings,' Pierce sang in a whisper, his lips by my ear, and his hand clamped over my mouth, hurting me. I fought, and he squeezed me harder.

'Moonlight and sunbeams, raiments so fine. Silver and gold, for baby of mine.'

He was rocking me, his hand hurting, and his arms too tight. My sobbing breath came in through my nose, and I began to shake. He wouldn't let me go. I couldn't run. I was going to die. I was going to die right here, and it would be hisfaultl

'Sing with me, Rachel,' he whispered, eyes on the ceiling. 'Go to sleep, baby. Sister will tell, of wolves and of lambs, and demons who fell.'

I didn't know the words, but the tune plucked a faint memory. Sing. Why do they always sing lullabies? Stupid asses.

A thumping cadence came right overhead, and my eyes shot to the ceiling. Terror filled me, and I whimpered behind Pierce's hand, pressing into him.

Pierce's singing cut off. 'Sweet mother of Jesus, protect us,' he whispered.

My heart pounded so hard I thought it would kill me outright. A dog bayed, muffled but clearly right over us. I jerked, Pierce's grip tightening even more. I started to shake, my eyes clamped shut as I remembered the crashing of branches and the sound when the horses and dogs grew close as I had tried to escape. I couldn't outrun them, but the horror of being torn apart alive had pushed me through the brambles and across swales of thorns. I trembled in Pierce's arms. We should have run. Tears leaked out. I couldn't breathe. Oh God, we should have run.

A horn blew more distantly, and the dogs answered. My eyes flashed open at the soft patter of dirt falling on my face in time with the thumping of horses' hooves. And with a rapid cadence... they were gone.

My gasping breath came in around his fingers, wet with my tears. Pierce's arms wrapped around me eased. He didn't let go, shaking himself as his fingers fell from my mouth and I took a clean breath of air, almost a sob.

'I opine that was as near to death as I'll get afore I make a die of it again,' he said softly.

They were gone? I sat there, not believing it. I shouldn't be here. There had been dogs, dogs tracking me. I had survived?

Breath fast, I looked at the wall, not understanding as reason started to trickle back. Pierce's head thunked into the dirt wall as he looked up. He was warm behind me, smelling of sweat, dirt, redwood. Masculine. They were gone. 'Let me go,' I whispered.

Pierce loosened his grip. In a smooth motion, he slipped out from behind me, taking his warmth and comfort to the other side of the hole. The light in the corner dimmed.

Cold and sick at heart, I fingered the abandoned blanket closer and draped it around me, shaking as I looked back at my panic. God, I'd completely lost it. What in hell was wrong with me? And yet I was still shaking. 'Thank you,' I said, looking at my trembling hands, covered in dirt and stinking of the river. 'I don't know what got into me. It was...'

His eyes meeting mine were dark with pity. 'You've been run by dogs before?'

I nodded, looking at the ceiling and pulling my knees to my chin. My leather pants were damp and icky. Freezing. His thin clothes were dark with moisture where he'd held me.

'I can tell,' he said, frowning as he remembered his past. 'It's always the ones who have been run before that give me the most trouble.' Smiling faintly, he returned his attention to me. 'I'm sorry if I hurt you. It wasn't my intent.'

My gaze dropped, embarrassed, as I remembered my terror. 'No...'

'Oh, Rachel,' he said softly, and I looked up at the compassion in his voice. 'I don't set much store by what happens in a hole in the ground. It's of no circumstance. None at all. There was one time, I swan, it took three of us to keep him down and quiet. When elves ride, they magic fear into their prey. And Kalamack's spawn has hunted you before.'

Instead of making me feel better, I felt even more stupid. It hadn't affected him. Expression sour, I peeled my socks off my feet and checked between my cold toes to make sure I hadn't picked up any leeches. 'I flaked out. Sorry.' I remembered his warmth behind me, and his voice, calm and frightened all at the same time, begging me to be quiet as he sang about silver and gold. 'You've done that before. Kept a person quiet.'