Not Quite Dead (A NightHunter Novel) (21 page)

"He's a monster—"

"I know he is, but he's Tristan." She'd spoken so cavalierly about killing him before, but now that she'd seen his face and heard his voice? Never. The Tristan she knew was buried in there somewhere, and she was going to save him. And she was going to save Eric as well. She owed both brothers, and she wasn't going to let them die. There was no one to fight for them except her. "Tell me what to do!"

"Nothing! There's nothing! Stop being so damned stubborn!"

"Hey!" She grabbed the front of his shirt, careful not to touch his shadowy flesh, just in case that did the same thing as the mist. "You don't get to boss me around! You're a spirit guy, yeah, I get it. Don't you remember when we were in the jungle? You weren't the only one who saw that ghost? I did too, remember? You said you were simpatico with spirits, and I said I was too, and then you said we should bond over sex, and I punched you? Remember?"

He stared at her. "Why are you talking? You're supposed to be leaving!"

"I'm saving you!" God, men were so thick sometimes! "I can do the spirit thing, too! My grandmother had some special talents, and I've got it too. I don't know how to use it all that well, because she died before she taught me, but I'm not afraid of spirits or the dead."

Eric gritted his teeth, and his face contorted with pain. "Jordyn, don't do this. You're worth more than this—"

"Listen to me, Eric." She leaned into him. "You don't get to tell me what I'm worth, so shut up and tell me how to save you, or I'm going to start making up things, and that will probably get us both killed. So, either you tell me what to do, or you can just go live with the repercussions of your refusal to give me hints, so my head blew up and it's your fault." She noticed that his body was fragmenting with alarming speed, and she tightened her grip on his shirt. "Tell me, Eric, you damn fool. Just tell me!"'

He was disintegrating so quickly, she knew that even if he gave her information she could work with, it might be too late already.

His control was slipping. Eric knew he had only moments left in his corporeal form before he was gone completely. He couldn't believe Jordyn was still standing in front of him, gripping his shirt like a crazed lunatic. He'd done everything he could think of to make her leave, and she was still there.

A memory long suppressed flashed through his mind, an image of the girl he'd once loved. Fifteen years old with wispy blond hair, and those radiant blue eyes. His first love. True love. The only female he'd ever dared to love. He saw her reaching for him, then screaming when her hand began to dissolve into the same deadly mist that he was becoming.

He bellowed his rage and shut the memory out of his mind. His body was shaking now with the effort of containing the monster he was becoming. "Jordyn, I can't stop this. Jesus. Don't stand there and let me kill you."

The blasted woman moved even closer, her eyes blazing. "If you don't want to kill me, then don't. It's your choice. If you die, then Tristan dies, and the only two men left on this earth that have stood by me will be dead, and I will be crushed." Pain suddenly flashed across her face. "I can't lose someone else," she whispered. "I can't. Don't die without at least trying."

The anguish in her voice plunged deep into his soul, knifing through the darkness eating away at him. He felt her loneliness strike him, and he recalled the depth of her grief after she'd killed her soul mate. He knew suddenly, without a doubt, that he could not afford to die on her. "You might die, too."

She nodded. "I know. I've died eight times. I'm used to it." She managed a grim smile. "Tristan is flush with my blood. I bet he comes back to save me if I die again. So, let's try it."

"He might not."

Her smile faded. "I know. I'm okay with it.
Tell me what to do
."

He swore, every instinct inside him rebelling against endangering her. "I don't know if it will work."

She pounded her fist on his chest. "Shut up and tell me! Your face is almost gone, for heaven's sake!"

Her desperation broke down the last of his resistance. How could he not try for her? Walter and her dad had never tried. She deserved someone's best effort, and he was all she had left. "Okay." He steadied himself, energy surging through him as he fought to give them more time. "Give me your spirit."

She blinked. "Forever?"

"No." Pain wrenched through him, and he closed his eyes. His muscles were shaking now, and he could feel his arms beginning to dissolve. Once he became fully incorporeal, there would be no recovery. "Now!"

She didn't hesitate. She threw her arms around him and slammed her body against his.

He gasped as her body sank into his, merging with what was left of his. His soul wrapped around hers, enfolding her literally within his body. The cold that had been assaulting him parted for the warmth of her soul as it flooded him.

Despite the pain he knew she had to be feeling, she locked her arms even more tightly around his neck. "This is what you live with?" she gasped, her voice tight with empathy.

"Yes." He bowed his head, pressing his face against hers. Her skin was soft and warm, living flesh that pulsed with a life strongly grounded in the physical world. He immediately summoned what little of himself he had left and wrapped her in it, shielding her body and spirit metaphysically even as she sank deeper into him.

The evil, tainted spirits searing through his body lunged for her, and she sucked in her breath as they attacked her, trying to possess her as well. She screamed, and he tried to shove her away from him. "It's not worth it—"

"Shut up!" She leaned into him, sinking into his body, which had become nothing more than a translucent mist holding the form of living flesh. "I'm not leaving, so shut up and help me!" She screamed again, twisting in his arms as the dark spirits attacked.

Son of a bitch. What had he done to her? It was too late to stop it. He could only fight for survival on the path he'd already let her take. He pried his fingers out of the steel wall and wrapped his arms around her. The moment he let go of the wall, he began to slide across the floor toward the swirling mist that was growing by the stairs. His boots had no traction, and together they were dragged toward the spirits trying to take physical form.

They were out of time to regret actions taken. It was about survival now. "You have to ground yourself," he said. "You have to shut them out."

She tightened her grip on him. "Yeah, sure, no problem. And I would do that, how?"

They were almost to the door of the safe room now. "Weave a metaphysical shield around your mind and soul. Don't let it in." He touched her mind, showing her how to do it.

"Right, of course."

He felt a sudden surge as she called energy to her. He was shocked by the strength of what she summoned, and he felt the tug of distant spirits responding to her. She hadn't been exaggerating her skills. She did have a spiritual affinity. Unlike him, however, the ones she called were beneficent ones, not the dark magic he called. But even as he thought it, her contact with them slid away.

"No!" He merged his mind with hers, guiding her down the thin tendrils that she'd woven with the spirits. Together, they raced toward help. Jordyn reached out for assistance while he fought to maintain the last shreds of his own protections against the spirits sucking them toward their death.

Spirits whirled through them, good and evil, fighting for supremacy. She clung to him, and their minds, souls, and bodies merged, as they battled to retain control of their souls. The evil was violent and enraged, hammering at her, trying to pry her out of his arms and body. But she didn't release him, and he kept himself anchored around her as they slid closer and closer to their doom.

"We need more," she shouted, her voice strained. "It's too strong. What in God's name did you summon?"

"Everything I could reach." The mist behind her was almost the size of a man, and it was less than six inches away. Cold began to eat through him, a vicious, life-sucking cold draining the last of their souls.

"Eric!" She screamed, her body bowing in pain as the cold hit her.

Son of a bitch! What the hell else was there to do? Their body temperatures were plummeting with the cold onslaught of death. They needed heat...heat! He grabbed the back of her hair and tugged her head back so she was looking at him. He had no time to explain. He just bent his head and kissed her, pouring in every bit of pent up sexual tension he had in his soul, unleashing all the burning lust he could harness into that kiss.

He had to set them both on fire, right now.

Eric's kiss was more than a kiss.

It was a sensual assault that plunged right into Jordyn's soul and ignited the desire that had been building inside her since she'd met him, stoking into flames the lust that Tristan had stirred so ruthlessly. The kiss was instant combustion between two souls who had been denying their attraction for so long.

The moment the desire exploded through her, Jordyn felt the icy chill lessen its grip on her. She threw herself into the kiss, pouring weeks of suppressed passion into it. The heat radiated between them, and she heard the howl of outrage from the darkness as it fought to hold onto them.

It attacked viciously, ripping at her flesh and her soul, flooding her mind with images of torture and death. Her body shaking violently, she focused all her energy on the sensation of Eric's mouth on hers. His lips were tantalizingly soft, and his arms were strong and muscular where he held her against him. His very being was wrapped around her, holding her tight as she sank against him, into him, sliding through his fading flesh until they were entwined on every level.

As he kissed her, warmth flooded her, beginning in her belly as desire pulsated through her. She felt the soothing protection of the spirits she'd called as they wrapped around her and Eric, cocooning them against the howling rage of the spirits that Eric had summoned.

She felt the emptiness of his soul, and the pain that haunted him. There was so much suffering and death in Eric, beyond what any living creature could endure. She experienced the lethal side of his being, a bottomless chasm laced with the ruthless rage and destruction that had given life to the evil now trying to claim him. There was so much darkness within him, so much agony, that she wanted to cry for what he lived with. But as the tears started to form, the coldness returned with a vengeance, and she realized that the negative emotions fed it.

Eric deepened the kiss, a frantic, desperate kiss that she returned with equal force. The malevolent spirits screeched in protest, a battle raging for supremacy. She reached out with her mind, connecting with Eric's spirit. It was fragmented and torn, fluttering in an invisible wind, barely intact. Her heart broke for the state he was in, and she understood why he was so vulnerable to the spirits he had summoned.

She opened her heart to her memories of her soul mate and her grandmother, and let love fill her. She felt the warmth of that love spread through her, and she shared it with Eric, bathing them both in the glow of the positive energy. She called to the spirits that had answered her request, and they encircled her and Eric, casting them in a protective net. As powerful as the positive energy was, however, it shrank under the sheer force of the evil trying to consume them. She felt Eric's spirit shudder, and his shoulders began to fade beneath her fingers. "Eric!"

He locked his hand behind her head and kissed her more deeply, bending her back from the sheer force of the kiss. Passion exploded through her, and suddenly, she didn't care about the spirits battling for their souls, or the vampires or anything. She just wanted
him.

Jordyn
. His breathless gasp plunged straight into her mind.
It's not working. Leave!
He shoved her backward, and she landed on her butt as Eric's body began to disintegrate, sucked into the ever-enlarging funnel cloud.

"Damn you!" She leapt to her feet and lunged at him. She hit him so hard he flew backward. They crashed into the wall, and he slid to the floor as she fell on top of him, her knees on either side of his hips. She grabbed his head and kissed him before he had a chance to move, sinking down over his pelvis.

He swore and grabbed her hips to shove her off him, but she kissed him again, sliding her hand beneath his tattered shirt. His skin was cold, like the damp ocean wind on a frigid winter day, and he shuddered as she spread her palm over his flesh, spreading warmth into his body. She gave him no time to stop her, preying on his ridiculous overabundance of testosterone with tantalizing kisses over his chest.

His cock was hard against the seam of her jeans, and he groaned. She could feel them sliding across the ground, being dragged back into the miasma of doom. The spirits were screaming at her, hammering in her mind, but she didn't care. This was Eric, who had thrown himself into this hell to save her from Tristan, and she owed him.

But it wasn't about whether she owed him. It was simply about
him.

As they kissed, her knees scraped across the floor as they were dragged. The kiss became more and more frantic, two souls fighting to bring themselves together, but the vortex had caught them both, and they had no anchor to keep them out. All they had were the spirits she had summoned, but the most they could do was keep her sane. They couldn't stop the slide.

Dammit!

Eric turned his head and looked past her. His skin was a swirling mass of shifting shadows, his eyes bottomless pits of torment. Feral determination flashed in his eyes, as if he'd just thought of a solution. Then it was gone, chased away by grim resolution, and he shook his head. He swore, and grabbed her hips. "Get off!"

She tightened her thighs around him. "What did you just think of? I know you thought of something!" Her foot hit the funnel cloud, and she gasped in pain.