Elfhome

“My mother sister’s son, but he’s my responsibility. I’m head of our household.”

She looked back to Tommy and studied him.

“What do you want?” He knew what he wanted.

“I want to live.” Amazingly, the pupils of her eyes dilated in anticipation, and she leaned toward him, seeking his mouth with hers.

It was all the invitation he needed.

#

It was a crazy-making fuck. She was on him like a sack of mud: clinging, demanding, and impossible to scrape off. His body responded too fast, leaving his brain struggling to catch up.

After Tommy collapsed on her, panting, Spot nudged him. His cousin looked north, his ears twitching. Tommy had forgotten about the possibility of other oni. The rest of the oni force couldn’t be close or Spot would be more anxious. Still, it would be best to get moving.

Tommy leaned back onto his knees. Jewel Tear lay in the green moss, her sable hair a dark halo around her. Her silk dress was in tatters, showing alluring flashes of her tawny skin through the shredded fabric.

She gazed up at him with a lazy, satiated look. She lifted her leg and ran her foot up his bare thigh and hooked it around his hip and tugged slightly on him. “Untie me.”

He took out his knife and cut her free. She sat up, feline graceful.

“What’s your name?” she said.

“Tommy.”

She echoed it, running her hand up his neck to play with the hair at the back of his neck. “What does it mean?”

“It’s a human name. It doesn’t mean anything.” He fought the urge to nuzzle the full breasts that nearly spilled out of her tattered dress. Forget not having time for it. Now that he’d taken the edge off his desire, his basic mistrust of people was kicking in. Why was this high born elf acting like a cat in heat?

Danger had a way of doing that to some people. Was she one? Or was it more than that?

“We need to get going.” He forced himself to stand up, breaking her hold on him, and pulled on his clothes. “I killed twelve warriors. Were there more?”

That rattled her, as if she, too, had forgotten the oni in the heat of the moment. She scrambled to her feet and brought her freed left hand to her mouth. Tommy flinched as she cast a spell. The last domana he’d seen casting spells had been Windwolf as the male set oni on fire like giant candles.

Nothing seemed to happen but Jewel’s eyes went wide.

“What is it?” Tommy was fairly sure he wasn’t going to like the answer.

“We need to move.” She stripped a food pack off one of the dead oni and then headed straight east in a fast walk.

He grabbed a second pack and followed even though he could hear nothing. “Do you know where you’re going?”

“Away from the oni.” Jewel Tear dug through the bag and found an apple that she ate hungrily. “Big camp back there.” She waved the apple toward the camp that Spot had searched for her. “And another there, there, and there.” The apple traveled in a circle. “And the whelping pens that they were taking me to.”

She shuddered and flung the apple away with a curse.

He was surprised that she knew where the oni were taking her. “You speak oni?”

“Forest Moss has insisted on teaching it to me. Hours of tramping all over that damn city with him using it as an excuse to say vile, disgusting things to me.”

“Oni doesn’t have nice words.”

“I’m of that opinion now.” She walked faster. “Since, in last two days, there were only a smattering of words that I didn’t understand.”

Her guards must have realized that she understood them and used that to terrorize her. They probably delighted in explaining what would happen to her at the whelping pens.

Tommy realized that Spot was trotting to keep up with them. The boy wouldn’t be able to keep that pace. He caught Jewel Tear’s arm. She screamed, dropped the food bag and whipped her hand toward her mouth. He caught her wrist before she could cast a spell.

“We’ll wear ourselves out at this speed.” He growled.

“There’s a platoon behind us! They’ll find their dead and they’ll come after us at a run.”

Tommy swore but kept hold of her, keeping her helpless. “Can you fight like Wolf Who Rules? Prince True Flame? Set things on fire?”

“I can fight.” She tugged carefully, testing his hold, trying to free herself. He was careful not to hurt her. They both knew a broken arm would make her helpless. Her wriggling ended with her pressed against him, head tilted so she could glare up at him, lips nearly brushing his. “I can’t set things on fire. That’s Fire Clan esva.”

He breathed in her rich scent and resisted the urge to kiss her. “They’ll scout and see that there’s only the three of us. They probably won’t send for reinforcements. Let’s lure them further away from the rest and deal with them. Most of the oni haven’t fought a domana — and lived. They don’t know how dangerous you are.”

She gave a wicked laugh that promised hurt in the oni’s future.

He cautiously released her and backed away.

She rubbed her wrist where he had held her helpless. “Don’t ever grab my arms again.”

#