Devoured Read online

  “He’s saying he can get me out but it’ll be a big risk,” Tess said.

  “Yes,” Garron said simply, nodding.

  “So you’re asking if I want to take a chance?”

  “Yes,” he said again.

  Tess thought of the murderous look in Pierce’s green eyes when he’d beaten her—of the way he’d promised to come home and do worse—much worse. Was she willing to take a risk to get out of here?

  “He’ll kill me if I stay,” she said softly, speaking more to herself than to Di and the big Kindred. “I know he will—he’s already working his way up to it. He’ll kill me and nobody will do a damn thing because he knows exactly how to work a crime scene. He’ll make it look like someone broke in or I had an accident or he might just hide my body, or—” She broke off abruptly.

  “Tess…honey?” Di said softly. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying get me out.” Tess looked up at the big Kindred. “I don’t care about the risks. Get me the hell out of here.”

  “All right.” He nodded gravely and looked at Di. “Then I would ask that you go back to your vehicle and wait.”

  “What? Like hell I will!” Di protested.

  “Please. It’s for your own safety.”

  He looked so deadly serious that Tess nodded at her friend.

  “Di, please—just do it.”

  “What is he even planning to do?”

  “I don’t know but if he says it’s dangerous, I believe him.”

  “All right, fine.” Di nodded curtly. “But if I don’t hear anything for five minutes I’m coming back.”

  She turned and walked stiffly across the back lawn, her irritation clear in the set of her narrow shoulders.

  Garron waited patiently until she was gone and then looked at Tess.

  “Thank you.”

  “No problem. So what should I do?”

  “Just step back.” He was already fitting his long fingers through the holes in the metal mesh to get a good grip. “And if you see me start to change forms in any way, run and lock yourself in your bathing chamber. If I don’t see you, the…other inside me should be content to seek another target.”

  “Wow…okay.” Tess gave a shaky little laugh. “You’re really not kidding about this, are you?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “Step back please, I’m going to try and free you.”

  Tess took a step back and watched him carefully. He had both hands hooked into the mesh now and she could see the big muscles in his arms flexing as he got ready to pull. He lowered his head, looking down for a long moment, and she could see him breathing deeply as though preparing himself for the task ahead of him. He looked like a man in the middle of meditation or prayer.

  Then he looked up again and she gasped. His eyes—those amazing pure turquoise eyes that looked like the tropical waters off a coral reef—were actually glowing. They blazed like lit torches in the night and for a moment she felt like a wild animal had somehow found her bedroom window and was staring in at her hungrily.

  Then Garron began to pull.

  His long arms tensed, his muscles bulged and Tess could hear the low growl coming from deep in his broad chest. Tendons stood out on the sides of his throat and a vein throbbed at his temple. His sharp features were turned into a trembling sneer of effort and still he pulled, clearly giving it everything he had.

  My God, he’s going to kill himself! He’ll burst his heart or rip his arms out of their sockets!

  “Stop!” she exclaimed. “You’ll kill yourself.”

  “Not…stopping.” His voice was a low, animalistic growl. “Not until…you are…free. Or I am…dead.”

  Oh my God, he really means that! Tess stared at him in awe. Why was he doing this? Why did he care so much about freeing her? And for that matter, why was he even here in the first place?

  As she watched, Garron began to look different…larger somehow, as though he had grown in the few seconds since he’d started his effort. The sound coming from his mouth was more animal than human and his eyes were glowing so brightly they were like searchlights in the night.

  What’s happening to him? Tess remembered his warning to run if he should change forms. Change into what form, though? What was this other he had inside him? And what might it do if it was released?

  Tess opened her mouth to beg him to stop again when she heard a low, crumbling sound coming from the right upper corner of the window. A little shower of broken concrete pattered down and then the same thing happened with the left upper corner.

  Garron concentrated his efforts on the bottom corners now, pulling and giving short, hard jerks, trying to yank the mesh cage free. His face was red with effort, his sharp black brows drawn down into an intense scowl. Tess thought she had never seen such single minded determination. He was literally ready to hurt or kill himself to get her out of her prison and she didn’t even know him. She wondered again why he was doing this.

  At last the bottom corners began to come loose. The growl coming from the big warrior’s throat rose to a crescendo, becoming a full throated roar as, with one final sharp jerk, he ripped the metal cage away from the window frame and threw it to the ground. It landed with a dull clang that reverberated through the night air, making Tess wince. Then, his job finished, Garron stood there with his head bowed, just outside the window, panting.

  “Oh my God,” Tess whispered, completely awed. “Oh my God, you did it.” Then she noticed that his hands were bleeding. Crimson drops that looked almost black in the moonlight dripped from his closed fists as his broad chest heaved with effort and emotion.

  “You’re hurt!” Unable to think of anything but his pain, she rushed to the window and reached for him.

  “No…” Garron’s voice was low and strangely distorted and when he looked up, his eyes still glowed like blue-green coals. He took a step back. “No, don’t touch me. It’s not…not safe. My blood, it boils. The dr’gin is too close. He wants—”

  “But you’re hurt.” Tess ignored his warning. Leaning out the window, she reached for him, even though it made her wounded back sting fiercely. “You—oh!”

  She felt herself falling and the towel slipping at the same time. The window was about waist-height on her but the house, like some many in Florida, was raised. It was a good four or five foot fall to the ground and it was going to hurt like hell…

  Except that two large, strong arms caught her before she could hit.

  “Oh!” She looked up and realized that Garron was cradling her in his arms like a baby. The second thing she realized was that her towel was now around her waist, leaving her breasts completely bare in the moonlight. “Oh my God—I’m so sorry!” She fumbled for the towel, trying to cover herself but with little success. It was all twisted up around her lower half and didn’t want to come loose. “I didn’t mean to…I mean…that is…”

  She broke off because he was staring at her. Not at her breasts—at her eyes. His own eyes were still glowing, although perhaps not quite as brightly as before.

  “Put your arms around my neck.” His voice was low and hoarse.

  “But…” Tess hesitated, uncertain of what to do. “I thought you said it was dangerous. I thought—”

  “Do it. Please.” The words seemed to cost him some effort and she sensed that he was having some kind of internal struggle. A fierce battle of wills. Maybe he was fighting with the thing he had called “other?” Whatever it was, he seemed to think that her touching him might help, although how Tess had no idea.

  “All right.” Hesitantly, carefully, she reached up and put her arms around his neck. He was wearing a deep blue shirt but it was unbuttoned, showing his bare chest and abdomen. So when she reached up to hug him, they were skin-to-skin.

  The motion pulled the wounds on her back but Tess barely felt it. What she did feel were her bare nipples, made hard by the chilly night air, rubbing against the broad, flat planes of his chest. He was so warm—almost hot, as though he had a sunburn or a fev