Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) (32 page)

Time passed in a blur—an immeasurable blur of pleasure, joy, rapture and oneness.
It could have been an eternity; it could have been a frozen instant.
Whatever it was, it was wonderful.
Leesa
didn’t know which felt better, Rave’s hands on her, her hands on him
,
or their lips and mouths crushed together. It did not matter.
His breath was her breath, his body was her body,
his
soul was her soul.
They were one being, join
ed in pleasure and in love
.

Finally, Rave pulled his
lip
s away and
Leesa slowly floated back
to earth.
When she
trusted herself to open
her eyes, she found they were lying
face to face
on
Balin’s
old bearskin rug, which had somehow made its way atop his straw-filled sleeping mat.
Rave’s
hand rested lightly on her hip
.
She had no reco
llection of how the two of them had
got
ten down h
ere.
Nor did she remember when
Rave
’s shirt had come off. The bronze, sculpted muscles of his chest and stomach were like
nothing she had ever seen
—h
e made Michelangelo’s
statue of
David seem woefully out of shape.
She light
ly
trailed her fingers across hi
s rippled abdomen.

“You’re so beautiful,” she said.

Rave smiled.
He lifted his hand
from her hip and carefully moved a lock of
hair
that had fallen across her face, tucking it behind her ear.

“If you
really
want to see beautiful,
” he said,
staring close into her eyes,
“
you should be lying where
I’m lying.”

Leesa
sighed contentedly. She
loved it when he said things like that, especially since
he really seemed to mean it.
She could not believe she
was going to
be spending
fiv
e hundred or more years with this sweet, gorgeous guy
. She wondered if that was going to
be
nearly
enough.

25
.
BAD NEWS

B
y the time Balin returned, Leesa and Rave were sitting in front of the fireplace, holding hands and talking quietly. The slow burning fire was mostly embers now, but neither of them had felt the need to add any wood. A pewter mug of water—half empty now—rested on the chair beside Leesa. The bearskin rug was back in its usual place in the middle of the floor. To Leesa’s disappointment, Rave had put his shirt back on.

True to his word, Balin knocked and waited to be invited in before entering.

Once inside, his eyes swept the interior of the cabin before fastening on Leesa and Rave. Leesa was sure he noticed some kind of change in his sleeping mat and in the position of the
bear skin. If he did, he didn’
t say anything about it.

“I trust you two enjoyed your time alone?”
he asked
, smiling.

Leesa returned hi
s smile. She was pleased to discover
she did
n
o
t feel awkward at all.

“
Yes,
Rave was very comforting,”
she said, using the euphemism Balin had employed when he had suggested how they could pass the time until he returned. She lifted her mug from the cha
ir and balanced it on her thigh, making room for Balin. The old volkaane
slipped onto the seat and looked at Rave.

“Any problems with your fire?” he asked.

Rave shook his head. “
Not of the kind you mean
. It’s barely strong enough for Leesa to feel. There’s no way it could harm her.”

“
It’s the same for everyone,” Balin said. “Except that the rest of us are not going around trying to kiss humans.” He grinned again.

Rave squeezed Leesa’s hand. “That’s your loss,”
he said to Balin with a smile.

“I’m glad some good has co
me of this, at least.”

There was something in
Balin’s
voice that gave Leesa pause, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it might be.

“
Me, too,” Rave said. “
Now tell us, what did you learn?”

“Not too much, I’m afraid. We found a few vague references in the archives to a m
ass weakening of fire
far back in the past. None was a direct account—they were obscure mentions of someone recalling hearing about such an event, or saying they had read about something like this.”

“That doesn’t sound very useful,” Leesa said.

“It’s not. But if it happened, at least we know it was temporary, or we wouldn’t
be here today. And if it
had lasted very long
, I think we would have found more accounts of i
t.”

“So that’s it?” Rave asked. “No specifics? No information about a cause?” He stood up and ran his fingers through his hair. “It doesn’t sound like a very productive meeting.”

Balin stood up as well. Leesa remained seated, her eyes moving back and forth between the two of them. She had a feeling something was about to happen, something at least one of them was not going to like.

“Oh, we learned
another thing
,” Balin said. “And we made a decision, as well.”

The decision part worried Leesa. She sipped at her water.

“Tell me,” Rave said. He sat back down beside Leesa and took her hand. “Tell
us
.”

Leesa gave his hand a quick squeeze. Apparently Rave
also sensed
bad news was coming.

“As soon as we realized what was happening this morning, we sent sco
uting parties
to the north
and west,
” Balin said. “Their orders were to go as fast and far as necessary until their fire came back. We needed to know if distance from here might be an antidote.
” He let out a long breath. “Apparently, it is not.”

“What do you mean?” Rave asked.

“Our scouts returned a little
while ago. Each party
trave
led we
ll over a hundred miles
from here, to no avail. Their fire remained as weak as ever.”

“Why did they only go north
and west
?” Leesa asked. “Shouldn’
t you have sent some south and
east as well
, just in case
?”

“That would have been too dangerous. It would have brought them nearer to vampire territory. With our fire weakened, we are no match for the creatures. We cannot risk moving in that direction.”

“But this thing
, whatever it is, affects my magic, too
,” Leesa said. “Wouldn’t the vampires
also
be affecte
d
?”

Balin shook his head. “Vampire powers are not based on magic. Their only
true
magic lies in the special saliva that allows them to turn people into vampires. Not being able to create new vampires
would have no bearing on their ability to kill us. Their strength is simply too great for us to match.”

Leesa remembered Rave telling her that although volkaanes were amazingly strong, vampires were far stronger still. Speed and surprise were what usually made the difference when a volkaane killed a vampire—that, and their fire. Without their fire, sp
eed and surprise would be of little
use
.

“So what are you going to do? You said the Council had made a decision.”

Balin sat down. “Yes, we have. We are going to l
eave this place, until our fire
return
s
.”

Leesa felt her stomach drop. This must have been what she was picking up on when she sensed Balin bore bad news.

“Why leave?” she asked. “You just
said
that distance won’t help bring your fire back.”

“No, it won’t. But it’s too dangerous to stay here. If the vampires ever discovered we had lost our
fire
, they might be tempted to attack en masse, despite our unofficial agreement, to try to wipe us out.”

Leesa knew about the agreement, which kept both vampires and volkaanes from attacking each others’ home
bases
, or even venturing too close. Such a battle would be disastrous for both sides—but not with the volkaanes having lost much of their fire. It would be an opportunity to destroy their enemy that the vampires would not pass up.

“I understand,” she said. “Do you think
I
’ll
be allowed to come with you?
”

Before Balin could reply, Rave spoke.

“No, you cannot,” he said.

Leesa was surprised by Rave’s statement. She had thought that perhaps the Council might forbid her to go with them, but she had not expected it to come from Rave.

Rave took
her other hand and held both her hands in his lap.

“It’s too dangerous,” he explained. “If the vampires did find us, I would not be able to protect you. And carrying you, I could not escape them, either. You will be much safer back at school.”

Leesa
wanted to argue, but
in her heart
she knew Rav
e was right. Not only might she be in danger, but she could be a burden to him. She knew he would die to protect her, and that was exactly what would happen if he had to fight
vampires
in his present state.
Other volkaanes mi
ght perish
as well, for she was certain
that
Dral
, Bain and Balin, at least, would also try to protect her.
No way could she be responsible for any of that.
Still, there was one last straw she could grasp at, so grasp at it she would.