Hot Blooded

Her frightened gaze jumped to his.
Riordan shook his head.
    You will remain silent. I will kill anything that comes to your aid. Is
that understood?
    Juliette nodded. She didn't understand the tremendous connection between
them. She felt what he felt. She could almost see the black, volcanic thoughts
swirling in his mind to match the dark violence churning in his belly. He
frightened her in a way that had nothing to do with his teeth and evident
abilities. Long ago she had heard the whisper of another race of beings, and she
suspected he was of that race. Carpathians. Nearly immortal. Hunters of the
vampire, guardians of the many species, yet always alone, always apart. She knew
little about them, only that they were extremely dangerous to her kind.
    He had not killed either man he had fed on, even with the black anger
stirring in his gut and the terrible need for vengeance riding him hard. She
should have feared for her life, but it was something altogether different that
frightened her. The way he looked at her was entirely predatory. Entirely
sexual. Entirely possessive. And her whole being responded with heat and fire
and secret longing and shocked terror.
    Riordan allowed his hand to slip from her throat. He bent to place his mouth
beside her ear, although when he spoke he used telepathic communication rather
than speaking aloud.
I am taking you far from this place. The hunters will
know I am weak. I must rid my body of their toxins before I can attend you.
Close your eyes if traveling through the air frightens you
.
    You frighten me. Leave me here.
    He made a sound. Not out loud, but deep in his mind—a snort of derision. His
face was an implacable mask, lines of weariness and pain were etched deep. If
she could have, Juliette would have touched those small lines with gentle
fingers. She wanted to take that look of bleak loneliness from his face forever.
    You only fear that you have lost your freedom. You do not fear that I
will harm you. You feel my need of you, do not pretend you cannot.
    Juliette turned his words over in her mind. He couldn't read her as clearly
as he pretended, which was a good thing. He was torn up, a stranger, a demon for
all she knew, but something deep and feminine and animalistic responded to him
with every fiber of her being.
    She watched the earth drop away, the clouds whiten and mist form around them.
Below her the canopy looked unbroken and impenetrable. He knew the jungle nearly
as well as she knew it. He had a specific goal in mind. She rarely left her part
of the forest to explore the deeper more mountainous areas, but she knew that
was where he was taking her. She would be a hundred miles from home, maybe more.
Juliette hugged her secrets to her. She just needed to find her strength, go
along with whatever he wanted until she was able to make her escape.
    His laughter was low and without humor.
I am not in the mood to go
chasing you through the forest
.
    What good news
. She looked up at masculine face. He looked a man,
not a boy, one who could be frightening, even a little cruel should he choose.
Why would she be remotely attracted to such a man? It was unthinkable, yet she
couldn't look at him without feeling the effects.
    Maybe you should be afraid of me
. He sounded more weary than
sarcastic.
Are you going to tell me your name
?
    She tried to think clearly, tried to remember the old legends told around the
campfires, told by her mother's people about such a race. Did giving her name
give him more power over her? She couldn't sort through the haze in her mind
quickly enough.
    I think it essential to know your name. Are you going to give me
something to call you or shall I make it up?
    Juliette. My name is Juliette
. She didn't want him calling her some
endearment in his mesmerizing voice that she might come to believe. In any case,
she couldn't imagine him having any more power over her than he already did.
    Thunder rolled over their heads, booming through the clouds so that the tree
branches below them shook and the space they traveled through vibrated in alarm.
Juliette felt Riordan's body jerk. She clutched at his arms.
    I will not drop you, we are being pursued by the undead.
    I don't like the sound of that
. If only she wasn't so weak. She
didn't have a weapon, nothing at all that could help.
Is the undead what I
think it is
?
    I will not be trapped twice
. There was such finality in his voice
she shivered.
And yes,