Dark Solace (18 page)

I took the container from him, and downed the
rest of it. There was no point drawing it out. The concoction was
awful and burned my throat, but I felt an immediate flash of
warmth, then a building strength from within that both calmed and
sustained me.

“Rest,” Titus said, easing me back onto the
bed.

While I still felt weak, I was nowhere as
weak as I had felt before I passed out. I yawned hugely, looked
around for Lash, and saw he was missing. “Where is—?”

Lash came in the tent door.

My mouth stayed open. “You’re so young,” I
said, awed.

Lash had regained his youth. He looked about
Theo’s age now, maybe even younger. His face was unlined, and his
scar was gone. Then I looked into his eyes. They were no longer
flat snake eyes, though they were still a little reserved and
dangerous-looking. They were human eyes, a dark, dark brown that
was almost black, and they were filled with joy.

I’d not have said Lash was attractive when
I’d met him for the first time, or even in the time I had known
him. Some of that was because of the scar and his flat eyes, and
some was his violent nature, the coldness that was always present
in his actions and thoughts, that coldness he had said came from
the snake side of him. But he was striking now, even dirty as he
was; muddy almost to his waist, his boots covered in sludge.

“Why are you so dirty?”

“I’ve been gettin’ breakfast for myself,
catchin’ some fish,” Lash drawled, his accent deeply Southern. “The
bott’m of the water heeya is deep mud. Even bein’ careful, I steel
got splashed. It’s been a long time seeynce I did it, seeynce I
hay-ed the strength and speed ta do it—”

He put his hand in mine and squeezed
gently.

“Talk so I can understand you, snake,” Titus
growled, his eyes red. “Your voice has not changed along with your
body. Your mind is still the twisted thing it always had been.”

Lash gave him a cold look, but when he spoke
again, his words were far more clipped, and his accent almost
nonexistent. “I’m in your debt,” he said seriously, his words only
slightly accented. “I owe you big for this, Sarelle—”

“Call me Sar,” I said softly, giving him a
smile.

Lash leaned down and kissed me quickly, his
mouth moving on mine. I was so surprised, I let him.

“Stop,” Titus rumbled immediately. “She isn’t
yours.”

Lash leaned back from me and shot him another
nasty look. “I never said she was, Titus. But I’ll kiss her if I
want to without any shit from you about it.”

“What did you give me?” I asked Titus.

“I gave you some of my blood,” he replied.
“You’re young enough that it will help you to replace the blood you
lost much quicker than any other spell. Time was of the
essence.”

“I would’ve never have guessed demon blood
was the magical cure-all of the ages,” I muttered.

Titus laughed, a great bass rumbling. “It
wouldn’t have helped, Sarelle, except that you already are part
demon. It was the only thing I had to try, anyway. Otherwise Lash
would have had to turn you.” The anger and disgust in Titus’s tone
when he talked about Lash turning me was deep as the ocean behind
us. I felt his blackness surge out of him momentarily before he
clamped down on it and drew it back into himself.

I didn’t look at Lash. He’d wanted me to be
what he was, and now we would never coil together like he’d wanted
us to. I couldn’t say I was sorry for that. While I’d have done it
to save him, I hadn’t truly wanted to be weresnake. My reprieve now
was that much sweeter, that I had been able to save him without
losing my humanity.

“I always wanted a daughter,” Titus said
gently in his deep voice, startling me a little. “Now we are truly
kin.”

I’d never drank blood before, and was queasy
now knowing that I had, even if I was also grateful. As I couldn’t
say I thought of him as a father, I just squeezed his hand. “Thank
you.”

“People are going to start walking around
being touristy,” Lash hissed. “You’d better get back to
Danial’s.”

Shit. It was dawn. I was going to have a
lot of explaining to do.
“I should get back—”

Titus and Lash pushed me back gently to the
bed. “I need to go. You need to stay here and rest,” Titus said
sternly. “He took over half of your blood, Sar. You are going to
need at least a few days to recover.”

“I can’t!” I replied, frantic. “They’ll
already be looking for me! Theo will be—!”

“They were delayed in Canada,” Titus said
smoothly. “Leri staged an assassination attempt, pretending to be a
rogue vampire. Theo is looking for the vampire, and until he finds
him, Danial and Devlin are staying there, because they are
reluctant to lead any danger to you or the children. Theo won’t
find anything, but he’ll search at least a few days before giving
up. It’s taken care of.”

“But they’ll still call! They’ll know I never
showed up at Danial’s!”

“Leri is being you,” Titus said. “She’s
wearing your form, and lying in Danial’s bedroom, pretending to be
tired and worried. I had her do a little yelling and screaming like
you usually do, and everyone’s giving her a wide berth. No one
suspects.”

“I don’t yell that much,” I said, miffed.

Titus rolled his eyes.

Weird as this was....it was good news, except
now I was going to have to be gracious to Leri for going over and
above for me. “What if they get home before I’m well? Theo—”

“She’s agreed to be you at a distance, not
between the sheets,” Titus said, baring his rows of teeth. “We need
to get you home before they return. Leri had enough trouble just
talking to Danial on the phone. He’s by nature suspicious. She’ll
never be able to fake it well enough if he sees her in the
flesh.”

It was always Danial who knew when something
was up. It was eerie, the way he knew me. “Why did you cover for
me?” I said, curiously. “You told me not to come.”

“And admit to Devlin I’d lost his Oathed One,
who I was supposed to be guarding?” Titus said, laughing again.
“Not a chance. He would have kicked my ass back to Hell in no
time.”

Hell, as in the real place. I swallowed
hard.

“Lash, keep her here, and make sure she
rests,” Titus continued. “Sar, I’ll see you in a few days.” He left
the tent, walking into the swamp.

I cut my eyes to Lash, who was watching me, a
hungry look in his eyes. “Be right back,” he said, then went after
Titus.

I turned over and closed my eyes. Then they
abruptly snapped open.

“Would it hurt her, if I was with her again?”
Lash was asking Titus.

I sat upright and looked outside. Lash and
Titus weren’t even visible; they were at least a hundred feet away
in the brush, yet I could hear them as if they were right in front
of me.

“Lash—” Titus growled, blackness boiling out
of him in an engulfing wave.

Lash hissed in response. “I care for her. You
know that, demon. I want to be with her, if it’s safe for her. Just
give me a fucking true answer for once.”

“I’d swear she was a succubus if I didn’t
know better,” Titus said sarcastically. “Lash, so long as she wants
you to, I don’t see the harm. Her body is already healing from the
blood loss. Besides, I know you already had her when she was
risking her life to save you and couldn’t stop you—”

“You motherfucking son of a bitch—” Lash
snarled.

“Stop it!” I snapped aloud.

There was dead silence. They had heard me,
far away as they were.

“Lash did what he could, Titus. It hurt a
lot, saving him. And if you had helped me instead of trying to stop
me—”

“I figured when you found Lash, you’d call
me.” Titus said angrily. “I didn’t think you’d try to save him
alone, without at least some magic to ease your pain.”

“There wasn’t time.”

“
I’ll be coming back for you, Sar, two
nights from tonight,” Titus said. “And Lash, you had better be
ready to let her go back with me to Devlin.”

“I like her, it’s true,” Lash hissed,
irritation in his cold tone. “But I’m not going to be Theo, betray
my best friend for a woman, even one that saved my life. You know
me Titus, even if you detest me. You know that’s truth.” He paused.
“I’ll let her leave with you. I’ll come back a few days after that,
in my truck. I’ll tell Devlin the truth, all of it.”

“I know you will,” Titus growled, the unsaid
warning again in his tone. Then he said some words.

A glow surrounded my body, then seemed to
sink into me. Titus had reactivated the tracking spell. It was
clear he didn’t trust Lash not to take off with me.

“Keep her in bed,” Titus said. “She shouldn’t
walk any distances for a while.”

“You should help me get her to the hotel,”
Lash said. “I can get her a room there. She’d be more comfortable.
The nights can be cool out here, and if it rains, the tent will
take on water, where I’m camped—”

“Maybe tonight,” Titus said, glancing at him.
“But not until then. Don’t move her out of bed, Lash. And don’t
keep her up all day either, no matter what she agrees to—”

“Stop being such an ass!” Lash hissed loudly,
his fangs back in his anger. “I just took almost all her blood! I’m
not going to try to fuck her brains out right after doing that! I
just didn’t want to do something that might hurt her—”

“Everything you touch gets hurt,” Titus
intoned, then his blackness lifted, vanishing.

“God damned rotten bastard cocksucker—” Lash
hissed, and then he abruptly fell silent.

A few minutes later he came inside the tent
and shut the door. “Sorry about the language,” he hissed. “We
should have assumed you might hear us after that demon blood.” He
changed, his fangs receding and his eyes becoming human again. “Sit
up. You need to eat.”

Lash gave me some water, an apple, and two
sandwiches he’d brought from the convenience store on the pier. He
cut up the apple for me first, and fed me the pieces slowly, then
the sandwiches. Lash helped me drink a little more water when I was
done eating.

“Do you want me to get you more food?” he
said, putting the trash to the side on a bag. “Are you still
hungry?”

I was, but I was also feeling better and
better by the minute. There was only one thing lacking.
“Chocolate?” I said hopefully.

Lash looked at me as if he didn’t know what I
could be talking about. After holding my eyes for a few seconds, he
very slowly grinned, then produced several chocolate bars. He broke
those up into chunks and fed those to me, then gave me another
drink of water.

When I was done, he wrapped me up in the bed
blanket, lay down beside me, and held me. “Sleep, Sar,” he said
softly, stroking my hair. “I’ll be here. You’re safe.”

I noticed his hands were warm as they used to
be, though the calluses he’d always had were missing. I fell asleep
listening to his heartbeat. It was strong now, the beats more
regular and much slower than they had been.

* * * *

When I awoke, it was midmorning, the sides of
the tent bright with filtered sunlight. While I was still achy, I
was a good deal stronger. Lash was beside me, propped up on one
arm, looking down at me. He was under the covers with me now, but
his body was not touching mine.

“Do you feel stronger?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said, my voice soft and
sleep-filled. “I desperately want a shower.” I began to raise
myself up slowly with effort.

“Lie there for a while yet,” Lash said,
reaching out to push me back down with his hand. “I’ll get you a
room later today, and you can shower. But you need to rest now,
like Titus said.”

I yawned, then lay back down, rolling over
towards him so that my hands were against his chest. I was still
naked, but I didn’t care. Lash still had on his shirt, though it
was open down the front.

It was on the tip of my tongue suddenly to
ask him if some gnomes had gotten to him while I’d been asleep. It
was coming home to me just how close I’d come to dying last night,
and I wanted to be comforted, to feel his warm, familiar body
against mine. But when I put my hand on his chest, instead of
scales, there was only chest hair and warm skin. I recoiled, biting
my lip.

Lash grabbed my hands, stopping me from
moving back. He took in a deep breath, then let it out, his skin
rippling as scales formed under my hands. “Better?” he hissed
softly.

I looked up into his flat eyes.“Yes,” I said
gently, and then burrowed close with a sigh.

* * * *

I woke again at dusk wrapped in Lash’s arms.
His leg was thrown over me, the weight holding me immobile. He was
snoring faintly.

I kissed his cheek. His eyes snapped open and
he tensed, then he saw it was me.

“Mornin’,” he said, stretching. Then he
looked at the tent sides, which were rapidly darkening. “Or
evenin’.”

“
Can you get me a room?” I asked
hopefully. “I’d love a shower.”

“Of course,” he said, grabbing for his jeans.
He slid them on, then handed me my clothes from last night. “Give
me a moment to pack up some of my stuff.”

I put on my wrinkled clothes as quick as
possible, given I still felt tired and sore. You should be happy
you’re moving at all, for almost being drained.

Lash strapped on his weapons, grabbed my bag
by the bed, then helped me to my feet. Although I’d felt strong
when I’d been sitting, standing was something else. Lash had to
walk beside me, steadying me, as I walked to the truck. Once he got
me settled in the passenger seat, he walked to the other side, got
in, and started the engine.

“What about your equipment? Your tent and
your gear?”

He turned his head slightly to look at me.
“Do you want me to stay in the room with you?” he said, holding my
eyes. “I don’t have to.”

He wanted sex, not just HBO and a toilet
without mosquitoes in it. “I need your help to walk,” I said
quickly. “I’ll need your help to climb stairs, shower, and probably
do a lot of other gross stuff.”