Vampires and hunters, volcanos and dragons: this whole situation was crazy, but she couldn't tolerate the idea of this hunter-Dax-suffering one more second of pain. She looked at Gary. "Fix him now." Her voice carried with the power of her ancestors, and something in him seemed to rock with her words.
There was a brief moment when no one moved. Even the world around them seemed to hold its breath. Everything went still. Gary moved first, looking almost formal, standing in front of Dax with a slight bow.
"Saasz han ku andam szabadon," Gary murmured in the hunter's ancient language. Without flinching, he offered his unbroken wrist to the hunter.
Whatever the words meant, the hunter clearly took them as an invitation, because without delay he bared his fangs and bit down, his mouth closing around Gary's wrist. Gary's expression flashed briefly with pain before going totally relaxed.
Riley's heart nearly stopped beating. Her hand went defensively to her throat. She felt her pulse pounding there. For a moment, the flash of fangs had been shockingly sexy. She wanted Dax's mouth on her neck, his teeth sinking into her-not Jubal. Blinking, shaking her head at her strange compulsion, she nudged Jubal.
"What did Gary say to him?"
"It is a custom of Carpathians. Gary said, take what I offer freely. That means, Gary would exchange his life for that of the hunter if it was necessary. He is asking no favor in return for his blood," Jubal explained.
Riley couldn't help but watch. The movement of Dax's mouth on Gary's wrist fascinated her. The hunter's fangs joined the two men together, as if they were close brothers, one saving the other without thought for his own safety. Dax appeared stoic, but the flames in his strange, multifaceted eyes leapt and danced. She felt her heart tune to the rhythm of the hunter's as if they were connected instead of hunter and friend. Her blood sang in her veins, surging hotly.
Dax's gaze jumped to her face.
Dax released Gary and straightened. There was no trace of blood on his lips and no sign of a wound on Gary's wrist. She didn't know what to think. Beside her, Ben stood in shivering paralysis.
The gaping wound in Dax's chest did begin to bleed then, but some invisible force kept the blood from spilling out of the wound. Dax scooped fresh dirt from the ground, spat into it, and packed his wound with the mixture. His eyes closed, as if packing his wound with mud brought some sort of relief.
"I have not had blood in many centuries. It is both wonderful and awful." His gaze drifted over Riley's face. "I am starved, and yet I dare not take too much. Just enough to heal my wounds until I am used to feeding again. Then I will need to sustain myself in order to hunt the undead."
Riley pressed her lips together, nodding as if she understood when she didn't really. Jubal seemed to though. He stood in front of the hunter and offered his unbroken wrist.
Dax reached for the other arm with surprisingly gentle fingers. "This pains you. The bone is broken." Even as he spoke he ran his hand over the injury.
Riley watched closely. Heat seeped out from between Dax's palm and Jubal's skin. She could see a faint glow, and she was close enough to feel the warmth as well. The little white lines of pain eased on Jubal's face.
"Is that better?"
Jubal nodded. "Much, thanks."
Riley noted that Dax didn't apologize for having broken Jubal's arm in the first place, nor did Jubal seem to expect him to do so.
Jubal murmured the same exact phrase in Carpathian as Gary, and just as before, Dax bowed, took the offered wrist and drank.
This time when he finished, Dax thanked the two men and then looked at her. Her whole body tingled. Heat washed up her spine and her gaze fixed on his mouth. What is wrong with me? She should be screaming in horror. This was an honest-to-God vampire right in front of her eyes, drinking blood from her friends. And she was just standing there, marveling at him.
She touched her tongue to suddenly dry lips. His gaze jumped instantly to her mouth and those flames in his eyes leapt higher. Her thighs tingled. Her breasts ached. She swallowed hard and instantly his gaze was on her throat. He seemed aware of every move she made, every breath she took.
Beside her, Ben began shaking horribly. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God. He's going to kill us. He's going to kill us all."
Ashamed that she'd forgotten he was even there, she reached over to lay a soothing hand on his shoulder. "Calm down, Ben. If Jubal and Gary say he's a friend, I think we should believe them."
Poor Ben didn't believe them. He must have thought the vampire was going to drink him dry, because his mind completely snapped. With a shriek, he spun around and started racing through the jungle, bouncing off trees in his mad rush to escape.
"Ben!" Riley spun around. "Someone stop him! He's out of his mind."
"I can bring him safely back and keep him calm," Dax said, "but that requires me to control his mind, which you have already told me I must not do." One dark brow arched. He stood there, waiting for her to make the decision.
She bit her lip. On the one hand, she hated the idea of him controlling Ben's mind-of him controlling anyone's mind. On the other hand, in his current state, Ben was going to injure himself or worse. And if that evil vampire was still roaming around ...
She glanced again into the forest where Ben continued to shriek and stumble, running into a bush first and then a tree. She winced when he went down and then scrambled back up only to run again.
"Do it."
The hunter reached for her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. His expression softened with unexpected gentleness, making him look almost ... kind. In a rough-edged, dangerous, bloodsucking, gorgeous vampire sort of way, that is.
"It is for the best, palafertiilam. I will do him no harm, I promise you." Then he switched his attention to Ben's fleeing figure, and his expression turned to stone. Fixed, focused, unyielding. He spoke in that ancient language of his, and though Riley couldn't understand the words, there was no mistaking the tone of absolute command.
In the distance, Ben came to an abrupt halt, then turned and calmly made his way back to the group. His expression was serene, as if he were out for a stroll through the park on a balmy summer day. He walked back to Riley's side and stood there, silent and still.
Even though Riley had given Dax the okay-even though she knew this was for Ben's own good-watching him obey like a mindless puppet made her stomach churn. It was so wrong. Like slavery, only worse. At least slaves still possessed their own minds.
"As will he, when I release him," Dax said.
Her eyes flared in alarm. She spun around. "Did you just read my mind? Did you? Did he?" She whirled on Jubal and Gary, looking for answers.