Seduction's Kiss

Chapter Eight

A loud commotion woke me up. Before I could comprehend what was going on, the pain hit me. Every inch of my body hurt, and stiffness like I'd never experienced made it impossible to lift my head. I gave up trying once I realized it only made the pain worse.

The sounds around me grew even louder. A mix of shrieks, breaking glass, and grunts had me fighting with my eyelids to get them open, but it was no use. I was too weak.

"Help me get her untied," a male voice hissed.

I struggled once again to open my eyes, but I couldn't.

"I'm doing it," another man replied, "She's the last one. We're fine."

The first voice sighed. "But she's lost a lot of blood. The others haven't." I felt the gentle touch of someone sweeping me up into their arms. "We need to get her help."

"Then get her to help. I'll stay around to take care of things here." The second voice was gruff and held none of the concern the first one did.

"If I hadn't seen that vampire she'd been with we'd have been too late."

"But we weren't. I'll see you later."

I heard a scratchy sound, and then more shattering of glass.

I needed to see who held me, so I worked harder to open my eyes as I felt a moment of weightlessness. I forced my eyes open and closed them again quickly. I was dreaming. There was no other explanation for how we were airborne. I'd never dreamed of flying before, but then again I'd never felt so dizzy and out of it before either.

The next time I opened my lids I was staring directly into a set of beautiful blue eyes and we were definitely on the ground. In the moonlight, I took in the strong features and blond hair of the man who held me. Large, black wings spanned out behind him. It was him again. "It's you."

"Don't speak. You can't afford to waste any energy." His words were terse, but not mean. "But you need to stay awake. I'm afraid if you lose consciousness again we might not be able to revive you again."

"Revive me again?"

He still held me securely against him. "There's no time to explain, we need to go. Just relax, we'll get help soon." He sounded like he was saying those words for himself more than me, but I nodded as I hung on to his neck. The action sent another searing pain through me.

The man winced as though he were the one who was hurt. He reached out to touch my face, but he dropped his hand before it could make contact.

"Wait. Where are my friends?"

"They're safe and on their way back to New Orleans. I promise."

I nodded. I had no proof they'd moved my friends, but I had to believe it. Why go through such effort to save me just to leave the others?

"I'm going to shift you slightly so I can take off."

"Take off?" I asked with confusion.

"I'm sorry but it would take too long to get there any other way." He moved me so that my back pressed against his chest, and he wrapped his arms around my waist. "We'll be there soon."

With that he took a few steps forward and then my feet left the ground. We were flying, and I was definitely awake. I'd have added wild hallucinations to the list of weekend craziness, only this couldn't have been one—it was just too real. We moved higher up in the sky.

I looked down at the ground in time to see a big glowing area of red and orange with rising smoke. They'd burned the old house down.

My eyes closed, but I opened them long enough to make sure I hadn't been imagining it. We were flying. I tried to look around me, but I couldn't. I was far too weak. My eyes closed again, and I settled back against his firm chest.