Carpathian 23 - Dark Storm

consciousness came rushing back to her body. She sagged
     against him. Now, it was his arms coming up to steady her. She stared up at him, dazed,
     still feeling everything he was, as if she were connected to him, as if she were part
     of him. She knew she had somehow, miraculously, healed him. Healed him completely.
     Yet, it still felt like she’d missed something. He was still in so much pain, and
     he shouldn’t be.
    Riley’s brow crinkled as she tried to work through the confusion. Her eyelids became
     very heavy and it was suddenly all she could do to try to keep them open. The effort
     was too much for her. Exhausted, blackness swallowed her up, and she collapsed in
     the arms of the hunter.

    Dax found himself smiling down at his lifemate. What a gift she possesses. She had healed him—and not with methods known and used by Carpathians, but by manipulating
     the earth itself. She had touched him, and the earth in his wounds had transformed
     at her command. Dax checked his wounds, flexing his muscles experimentally. The hole
     Mitro had torn in his chest was gone. The countless, bone-deep slashes torn by razor-sharp
     talons had knitted together, leaving not even the smallest seam to prove they’d ever
     existed. He’d not even needed to go to ground!
    Even Arabejila, more gifted in earth than any Carpathian he’d ever known, had never
     possessed such an amazing talent.
    And his lifemate was human, to boot. That made her existence even more of a miracle.
     He’d never heard that a Carpathian and a human could be lifemates.
    Not that it mattered. She was here, in his arms, and he was more content than he’d
     ever dreamed possible just holding her and breathing in her scent. Even the Old One
     seemed entranced by her. She smelled of wildflowers over spring rain, a miracle of
     fresh beauty in the midst of Mitro and the volcano’s destruction.
    While she was healing him, his soul recognized and cried out for hers. He felt her
     soul answer. She didn’t recognize the calling, only the flash of pain at the knowledge
     that she was so close and yet they weren’t joined. Deep inside him, the second soul
     had reached for her as well, already so much a part of Dax, that the dragon knew Riley
     was their salvation.
    His thoughts turned immediately to her welfare. She must be the one he’d felt trying
     to keep the volcano contained, and no doubt the effort of those exertions as well
     as the miraculous way she’d healed him had clearly exhausted her, leading to her collapse.
     He checked her carefully, just in case, but her only injuries were minor cuts and
     bruises from her race through the jungle, and those he mended with a thought. She
     needed sleep, then water and food, but the latter could wait until she awakened.
    He couldn’t take his eyes off her. Even smudged with dirt and ash, she was the most
     beautiful sight he’d ever beheld, and she seemed so fragile in his arms. The mere
     thought of the slightest harm befalling her made his muscles clench and the Old One
     strain against Dax’s control. He and the dragon, both, were united in their determination
     to protect her. With a thought, Dax cleansed the ash and dirt from her body, leaving
     her and her clothing clean.
    Dax finally tore his gaze from his lifemate, and turned his attention to the two men
     who had offered him their wrists. Jubal and Gary were friends to the Carpathian people.
     He’d learned their names and searched their memories when he took their blood, and
     used that connection to absorb their language, a more modern dialect of the language
     he’d correctly identified as English. They were now under his protection as well.
     As for Ben, Dax owed the man a debt for the way he had stayed to protect Riley despite
     the danger to himself.
    “Eat, drink and rest for a few minutes, my new friends, but then we must get moving.
     Mitro, the vampire I was hunting, is free of his bondage, and it isn’t safe to remain
     here.” He looked down at Ben, who had slumped over onto his bag. “He will be fine
     once he wakes. If you would be so kind as to prepare him food and water as well.”
    “You’re going to hunt the vampire.” Gary made it a statement.
    “He won’t expect me to have healed so quickly. He’ll need blood and a place to go
     to ground. If I’m lucky, I will be able to destroy him this night.”
    Gary glanced at the sky. “There’s not much in the way of night left.”
    Dax nodded. “I task you with