His head shot up to me, then looked to what he was doing, then flicked back to me.
I held up my hands. “Hey, man . . . what you do on your own time is your business.”
His ears flattened to his head as he made an outraged llama sound.
“You and I have much to discuss.” I squatted before him to give his head a friendly pat. He tried to bite me.
I snapped my hand back just in time and laughed at him. “You always were a cranky bastard. Now get up. We don’t have much time.”
Marv sighed and slowly got to his feet, bits of hay sticking to his thick fur.
“First the good news. I have found my partner.”
Marv rolled his llama eyes and snuffed.
“I know, I know. I’m always the last to know things, aren’t I? I had my suspicions when she found me in the woods. But when I kissed her, there was no doubt. It was as though I was transported, galaxies sliding past as I torpedoed through space like a shooting star. She lit me up. The cosmos danced. The stars aligned. Her lips, oh, and that body . . . So warm and soft and—”
I got a llama head directly to the spleen. “Oof. Okay, fine. You don’t need the details.” I rubbed my abdomen. “Got it. But it was more than that. As soon as I kissed her some of my memories returned. I’ve felt like I was running out of time since—Ah!” A sharp pain in my chest caused me to fall forward onto my knees. A vision of Anna, her eyes wide with terror. A hand around her throat. “Anna!” I screamed even as the vision made my head so dizzy I stumbled to the side.
Pure fear shot down my spine.
“Anna’s in trouble!”
At the same time, Marv danced and kicked his back legs. He groaned and shook his head repeatedly like he was trying to shake something loose.
I sprinted back toward the house. The deep snow made my steps less sure. The icy wind blurred my vision. My mate was in trouble. Please don’t let me be too late, please don’t let me be too late . . . I couldn’t spend a millennium looking for her only to lose her now.
Ten yards from the house, Audrey came limping out toward me. She whined, tail tucked.
“I know. I’m going!” I ran past her and up the back steps.
I slammed into the mud room, my wet boots slipped, and I crashed into the washing machine.
I came around the corner. A man was in the room. His hand was around her neck. I smelled his hunger for power. I smelled his desire. Rage coiled through my clenched fists. I would kill him. I leapt toward him as a blinding light exploded through the room.
I was slammed into the back wall, framed pictures crashing to the ground around me. I was weak—too weak. I couldn’t get back up.
I could only watch as the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen unfolded before me. Anna, my beautiful Anna, stood haloed by white glowing power. The air around her hummed with energy. Her eyes were white. Her hair stood on its ends. Her face was serene.
Before my eyes, the man started to convulse. He fell to the floor and shook like he was having a seizure. Blood seeped from his ears and nose. The smell of sulfur and burning stung my nose.
She was beautiful as my power flowed through her.
But she took too much. Pushed too hard. The more power she used, the more it drew from me. I faded too quickly. My core was depleting at an alarming rate.
“Anna,” I called out from my spot against the wall. I couldn’t even lift my head.
My voice was lost in the sound of her static fury.
“Anna,” I tried again.
Slowly, her features changed. Her eyebrows pinched as though she heard me. Her head shifted slightly.
With my last bit of energy, I called out her name and said, “I love you.”
Then the darkness took me.
12
Anna
I had no idea what the hell was happening, but all of a sudden I was a super hero and a total badass. Until Sam collapsed. All at once the energy seeped out of me. Charlie moaned in the corner, curled up in a ball and holding his head.
“Anna? What’s going on?” He faked being confused but I didn’t give two shits about him. I ran to Sam, sliding to my knees at his side.
“Sam! What’s wrong?!” I ran my hands over him, checking for a pulse. I pulled up his eyelid and checked his pupils.
“Uh . . .” he groaned. His pupils consumed his whole eye. Swirling bits of light shone as if I stared into the deep abyss of a black hole.
If I hadn’t just shot electric beams out of my hand like a freaking X-Men mutant then maybe this would have surprised me more. At this point, Sam was more important than anything.
He said he loved me.
I had been consumed with rage as I filled the air around me with electricity. Years of frustration, hurt, and regret poured out of me in a tangible stream of anger. Soon I stopped controlling it; it began controlling me. Blinding light filled my vision. I felt Charlie hurting and it felt good. I wanted more and more of it.
Only the sound of Sam calling out to me broke through the haze. He was a grounding point in an electrical storm. But it felt as though my power had come from him somehow. I sensed we were connected. I couldn’t explain it, but I knew that my powers had drained him.
“What do I do?” I asked him.
He groaned, his eyes rolling under fluttering lids.
Audrey appeared at his side, licking his face. She barked at me.
“I don’t know what to do,” I told her. Emotion made my voice high and tight.
She barked again and licked his face. “Uh. I’m supposed to lick his face?”
If dogs could roll their eyes I would swear that she just did. She nudged his chin with her nose then lay with her paws on his chest, whining softly.
I slowly leaned closer to Sam, watching Audrey to see if I was understanding correctly. She sat back on her haunches and barked once, seemingly satisfied.
I nuzzled my nose along his sharp jawline and inhaled him. The area where our skin touched heated instantly. I leaned back to find a soft orange glow where I had brushed against him. He sighed. Audrey’s tail wagged happily and she yelped a little bark.
I tried an experiment and lowered my mouth to his. His lips didn’t move as I pressed a soft kiss against them. Instantly, I felt the heat like our earlier kiss but stronger this time. It felt intentional. I lowered him gently onto his back, grabbing a throw pillow to prop his head. I rolled him out of his wet coat and shirt, then stripped out of my own. Our boots and socks went flying after I tugged them off. We were as naked as I could get us.
It occurred to me only then I was stripping Sam and myself in front of a man who had attacked me only moments ago.
“Shit!” I glanced to the corner where Charlie had collapsed to find it empty.
Audrey barked and ran out the still-open front door.
“Wait!” He’d hurt her earlier. I didn’t want her chasing after him, but it was too late. She was out into the night. I could only hope she’d be okay as I focused on making Sam better.
I peeled off all of our clothes and grabbed an afghan from the back of the couch. I laid my entire body on top of his, stacking us up like Legos, then pulled the blanket over us to create a cocoon of safety. I put as much of my naked flesh against his as I could. I was much smaller but we fit like pieces of a puzzle that were created to be together. Had I known this could heal him I would have done this first thing tonight. But climbing onto a naked stranger would have been crazy, no matter how hot he was or how much I had wanted to. And plus, when I’d touched him earlier, there hadn’t been light like this. It was as though our kiss had triggered some connection.