I'm crazy about you. She made the admission in her mind, feeling shy and exposed.
I'm so in love with you there isn't any way to express it adequately, he returned with his absolute confidence.
Personally, I think you did quite well.
Riley buried her face in Dax's neck, her hands stroking his back possessively. Her body was damp with sweat and she knew she smelled like sin and sex, but it didn't matter. She clung to him, reluctant to let him go, her heart beating with the same rhythm as his. She knew she should put her legs down, but she wanted to hold him as long as she could, be connected physically as long as possible.
"I can't believe you were able to do that and have the strength to hold me up," she whispered. She didn't have the strength to speak in a normal tone.
"There are advantages to being Carpathian," he said smugly. Dax turned his head to brush kisses in her hair. "Your friend is coming this way."
"Can you keep us from his view forever? Maybe we should just stay this way, locked together for eternity," she murmured.
Dax laughed softly, the sound in her mind rather than heard. "Insatiable woman."
"I am." She pressed kisses over his pounding pulse, unrepentant, playfully nipping with her teeth. "I'm trying to distract you."
"You don't find hunting vampires exhilarating?"
She lifted her head to stare into his laughing eyes. He looked so much younger and carefree when he laughed, yet it was so rare for him to do so. Very slowly she dropped her legs until she was standing. The movement shifted him inside of her, sending another ripple of pleasure through both of them.
"Fine, we'll go hunting. But this was much more fun. I don't think the two things are comparable." She gave him a little pout as he slipped out of her.
His mind stroked hers with caresses as with a wave of his hand she was fully clothed, clean and fresh. He was reaching for her pack as if they'd just finished gathering her things when Gary walked up. Dax shifted slightly, positioning his body just a little in front of her to give her time to recover.
"Good evening," Dax greeted. "I trust there were no incidents while I slept."
Gary shook his head. "Everything was quiet. Were you able to find the flowers? To bring enough back so that we can plant them in the Carpathian Mountains?"
Riley laughed at the eagerness in his voice. "We brought you back an entire sack of seeds and roots as well as the flowers intact. I packed them in the soil so they should make the trip, although how you'll get them through customs I don't know."
"I have friends that will do that," Gary said. "I just need to get the flowers to them. They know how important it is. They never have trouble getting anything they want."
Dax looked up, his gaze pinning Gary's. "Carpathians? Your friends are Carpathians?"
Gary nodded. "Yes, they provided us with weapons and gear for this trek. They're our emergency contact. They were waiting to hear from us," Gary said. "We need to make it to a clearing ..."
"You called them already? When did you do this?" Dax asked. His voice was very low. Smoldering. The last word ended in a long, slow hiss.
Riley stiffened, her heart skipping a beat. He sounded ... scary. Gary seemed to be used to the sudden change in Carpathian males. He didn't blink.
"We knew they would already be looking for us. As soon as we could get a call out to let them know we were alive, we did. We called at sunset." Gary shrugged casually. "They'll be sending a helicopter to pick us up. They're aware of the injury to the professor, and they'll deal with the others as well."
"What did you tell them about me? About Mitro?" If anything, that low voice, warm as molasses, dropped another octave lower.
"That you were with us, of course, and that a dangerous vampire was on the loose." Gary removed his glasses and looked Dax straight in the eye. "I exchanged blood with you voluntarily. Would you be more comfortable reading my mind? You can get the information a lot more efficiently."
Dax shook his head. "I appreciate that you would allow me to invade your privacy, but until I need to 'see' who we're talking about it isn't necessary. This is more than one Carpathian hunter?"
"The De La Cruz brothers," Gary explained. "They were sent to South America centuries ago. Did you know them?"
"We had lineages, not surnames. I do not recognize such a name. Show them to me."
Gary pictured the images of the De La Cruz brothers in his head in the best detail he could muster. It had been centuries since Dax had been in the Carpathian Mountains, so it was reasonable that he might have missed the hunters sent out by Vlad.
Dax slipped past the barrier in Gary's head to study the images. A black scowl added to the uneasy feeling in the pit of Riley's stomach. She didn't understand how Gary wasn't affected by the tension in the Carpathian hunter.
Unexpectedly, Dax's multifaceted eyes flicked to her face. She felt the impact instantly. At once warmth poured into her mind. She had the sensation of arms surrounding her.
You're connected to me, Riley. He is not. He reads what I want him to read.
She studied Dax's face. There was no black scowl, no expression whatsoever. Gary had no cause to be concerned that anything was wrong because Dax appeared to be matter-of-fact.
What's wrong?
I am a hunter. I have to hunt my own people. I see shadows of darkness where others do not. Mitro had a lifemate and that did not stop him from choosing evil. I do not want to take you into an even more potentially dangerous situation.
Dax directed his attention to Gary, but shifted his body subtly, so that Riley felt his warmth enveloping her. The energy that had felt so intense, much like the volcano's pressure building in the ground, was gone.
"I recognize only one of them. The one you think of as Zacarias."
Gary frowned. Dax's tone was still low, and as mild as ever. The darker energy was gone, yet Gary caught something of Dax's misgivings. Riley found it strange, but Dax had been in his mind and maybe left an echo behind of his earlier irritation.
"I know he's considered very dangerous, but if you're worried he may turn," Gary said, astute enough to know Dax's main worry, "Zacarias has a lifemate. He is safe as long as she lives."
Riley glanced up at Dax. He didn't change expressions, but she knew Gary's assurance hadn't swayed him in the least.
Jubal came up to them, Gary's pack in hand. "We'd better get moving," he said with a nod of greeting to Riley and Dax.
"We'd better leave then," Dax said, effectively terminating the conversation about the other hunters, "if we're going to make the clearing in time to start transporting people to safety. How big is the helicopter they're sending?"