Caveat Emptor: Determined Lover
by Zenobia Renquist
Cover art: Marteeka Karland
BIN: 05536-01773
Genre(s): Paranormal
Theme(s): Interracial/MultiCultural, Vampires, Magic
Series: Caveat Emptor (#6)
Length: Novella
Page Count: 46
http://changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=1773Blurb:Medusa and Darius have escaped with their lives, but to where? The
location is an unknown, like their relationship. After nearly two
hundred years apart, Darius is ready to move forward, but Medusa cannot
reconcile her present self with the past she purposefully forgot. Medusa
must decide if dealing with the pain of her past is a fair price for
loving the man who would be her future.
Excerpt: Caveat Emptor: Determined Lover
Zenobia Renquist
All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2012 Zenobia Renquist
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His breath was coming too fast... panting. She could barely feel his
heart beating beneath her hand where it rested on his chest. His lean,
muscled body was wracked with visible pain. Medusa knew Darius was dying
despite his earlier denials.
She wouldn't let that happen. They had been reunited after nearly two
centuries apart. Medusa had never thought such a thing possible, but she
hadn't known about Darius's immortality. Or perhaps he wasn't immortal
when they met. Whatever the case may be, his immortality hadn't come
with invulnerability. The spell he'd cast to help them escape death at
the hands of his cohorts had stressed his body to the breaking point.
Medusa had to save his life before she could think about reveling in
their renewed relationship. Only a few things kept her from acting.
First, neither of them had any clothing since they had fled capture
after a round of getting re-acquainted sex. Second, Darius's escape
spell had landed them on the side of a very high mountain with no path
down. Medusa could jump it, but not with Darius in tow. She couldn't use
a magical transport spell either. Transporting without knowing where
she was or where she wanted to go had its own dangers, but the strain of
more magic running through Darius's body might kill him.
That left the cave at their back as shelter against the elements and
possible attack. She glanced over her shoulder at the wide opening of
the cave. Her vampiric sight, able to pierce any darkness, couldn't make
out the back of the cave, which meant it was deep. She couldn't tell if
it was inhabited.
Darius wheezed before coughing. His cough had a watery sound and a
coppery smell. He had blood in his lungs. She smoothed her hand through
his kitten-soft hair in a soothing gesture. The motion calmed her as
much as him. She loved petting his hair and watching the light shimmer
off the scattered strands of blond and red combined with the brown. She
wouldn't lose him.
Medusa didn't have time to worry about what dangers the cave held. She
could handle any animal, no matter how big. She needed to get Darius to a
safe, secure spot so she could help him recover.
She lifted him against her chest and rushed inside the cave.
"I should be carrying you," Darius whispered. He tried to laugh but it came out as a cough instead.
"You need to shut up and save your strength."
He grunted but didn't try to speak again.
Medusa carried him to the depths of the cave. It went back a fair
distance. Good. That meant she would see any intruders long before they
saw her. She expected Darius's cohorts any second. There was no way the
mages would pass up recapturing an escaped vampire and a mage traitor.
Low growling from an animal stopped Medusa. She placed Darius on the
ground behind her, propped against the cave wall, and then faced the
oversized lump ahead of her -- the one she had mistaken for a rock a
moment ago. It unfolded itself into a very large, very grumpy bear.
"Medusa."
"Quiet. I'll deal with this and then help you." She stayed close to the
wall as she paced forward. A quick snap of her metal ring-covered,
floor-length dreadlocks near the bear's head would frighten the animal
into running from the cave.
She turned her head in a quick jerk while adding a small telekinetic
push with her hand so one lock would hit the bear. Except it didn't. Her
hair waved forward as though pushed by a breeze and then settled
against her side once more. The usual sound of metal links clashing
against one another was absent. That was when Medusa remembered her
haircut at the time of her capture. The mage holding her had sheared off
her hair at the roots and had taken great delight doing it.
The hair grew back in a matter of seconds, resuming its rope-like style
as it grew, but the metal links she used to adorn her hair, turning it
into twenty lethal chains the use of which she had honed over the last
two hundred years, were gone. She had to come up with another method to
deal with the bear, who had only grown more agitated with her movements.
She had vampiric speed and strength as well as sight in the inky
darkness of the cave, but she didn't want to hurt the bear, only
convince him to leave. Maybe a show of power would do it...
She rushed the bear. He smacked her with his paw, and she let the blow
knock her to the ground. It was her turn to grunt when he brought his
front legs down on her shoulders. The attack might have crushed a
mortal, but she hadn't been mortal in a very long time. Sick as the bear
was, she could easily have overpowered him, but instead she let him
think he was winning.
He went for her neck, ready to rip her throat out, but she grabbed him
in a tight hug. His teeth sank into her shoulder as he tried to pull
free. She ignored that pain to see her plan through.
The bear had tasted her blood. She knew what that meant for a human -- a
mental connection between them, and for the human, longer life, faster
healing, and enhanced strength and speed. She only hoped the same held
true for other mammals. "Hear me and understand."
The bear stilled. Medusa could smell fear again, but she didn't have
time to reassure him. He could understand her. That was all she needed
to know.
She loosened her hold. "Let me up."
He released her and jumped back.
She sat up and held her hand out to him. "You didn't hurt me. I did that
so you could understand me." She wiggled her fingers at him. "Come
here."
He looked at her one way and then the other before stepping forward so she could touch his head.
"Good boy. Good boy. You're a big, beautiful bear, aren't you?" She
smiled when the bear grunted. "My friend and I only need shelter. That's
all. We didn't mean to disturb you. Can we stay?"
She smiled when he licked her hand.
"Thank you." She gave his head a pat and then turned her attention back to Darius.
His was another heartbeat that didn't sound steady. Unlike the bear, she
couldn't feed Darius her blood. Renewed relationship or not, he was
still a mage. He might have helped her escape and professed to love her,
but that love might not extend to sharing blood with a vampire.
Besides, she had something better to share.
She returned to him and knelt at his side. "Darius?"
His odd eyes -- one blue and one brown -- looked at her, but they were
unfocused. He tried to speak, but she covered his lips with her finger.
She smiled when he kissed her finger.
"You aren't healing. You need power. Take it from me." She placed his hand over her left breast, above her heart.
Darius rasped, "Such beautiful breasts." His fingers twitched as though
he would have squeezed the small yet pert mound but he didn't have that
much strength.
"Yes, they're lovely. Now take the energy you need."
"Kill you. No." He pulled at his hand, but she held him.
"It won't kill me. I can die one hundred mortal deaths and still be
fine. Take my energy, damn it. I won't lose you again. You said you
wouldn't die. Have the centuries turned you into a liar?"
Darius sucked in a breath as he closed his eyes.
She thought he was breathing his last until she felt it. His power. He
drew on her life force, pulling the energy through her body and into his
own. The more he took, the better he got, but the weaker she felt.
The world turned fuzzy and then black. She really hated mortal death.
She liked to avoid it at all costs. Only for Darius would she endure it
this time.
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