Love Knot (Book 1 in the Timeless Love series)

Prologue

"John," I gasp. His name rolls off of my tongue like a perfect melody in a perfect dream. Bit dreams aren't real and never perfect.

"Mayra, run. Run as far as you can west. Don't stop, don't look back," John says. His cheeks red from the chase. Beads of sweat trickle down his face making his already charming -practically hand sculpted- shine in the dim light of the lantern. "I'll find you."

I grab his large arm, "Get this through your head, I ain't leavin' ya."

He swings me around some my chocolate eyes stare straight into his ocean blue oasis, "I'm not letting them hurt you."

"Hurt me? I got hurt so much while bein' 'round y'all whites. Got hit by a wagon, shot in my thigh, nearly beheaded. Do I need to continue?"

A small hardly noticable grin pastes itself onto his face, "Ture but I don't want you getting hirt anymore." The sound of the dogs start barking in the distance, coming in closer at every heart beat, at every breath of air. His grin faltters so fast, even God would have to blink twice. "Go, I'll be fine," he gentle pushes me away from him.

I plant my feet onto the ground, rooting them and binding them into the earth's soil. "I told ya more than once, I ain't leaving' ya to die. I'm in this too."

His face saddens, "You really want to go through this?"

I grab his free hand that covered mine completely. I smiled in the dummest possible situation. "I told ya, I ain't afraid of diein'. I can see my folks again."

"Do you think there really is a God and a heaven?"

"As long as I say there is, there is." The demon dogs are less than a half a mile away and closing in fast. Their owners shout at them, giving them orders to find "the nigger woman and fugitive." When he said nigger, I didn't feel anything I'm so accustomed to the term.

"Mayra, this is your last chance to leave," John whispers.

My grip tightens on his hand. He nods understanding that even a wagon pulled by 20 horses won't move me. "John?" I whisper, not meaning to have made it a question.

"Yes?"

"Since we probably won't live, I want to say I love you. For possibly the last time in my life."

He turns me around so fast and into a kiss before I could blink. We were in our world and in our moment. His lips seem to cradle mine in an endless dance, but every dance has an end.

"Y'all get on the ground b'fore I blow your puny heads right off of your necks," a deep and raspy voice forces us out of our world and into reality.