Dragon Moon (20 page)

Closing her eyes, she focused on her wrists. They were held together with some kind of restraint, but she couldn’t see what it was. And she didn’t think it was the same stuff as the rope that bound her ankles.

Could she manipulate the wrist cords without seeing them?

She’d never done anything like that before. How could you move something when you had no idea what it looked like?

She didn’t know, but she had to try.

Moving her arms, she felt the way the restraints rested against her skin. There wasn’t much play in the stuff, which made it hard to figure out what she needed to do.

Her mind spun as she lay with her fists clenched. Then she swung back to the chest. A mirror hung above it. If she could get to it, maybe she could see her wrists.

By wiggling her body, she inched to the edge of the bed, careful not to dump herself onto the floor. Sitting up, she swung her legs over the side, then eased her feet onto the floor.

Now came the hard part. Carefully, she stood up, fighting a wave of pain as she changed the angle of her head.

Thrown off balance, she flopped back onto the mattress and sat breathing heavily. She longed to lie down again, but she didn’t have that luxury. More carefully this time, she stood. When she felt steady on her feet, she took short, hopping steps to the dresser, where she braced her hips against the front. Then she slowly turned so that her hands were facing the mirror.

Twisting around, she got a look at the restraints. As she’d thought, it wasn’t the same thing that tied her ankles. That rope looked like it was made of fiber. The cord on her wrists was from a telephone.

Apparently, the man had scrambled around for something to secure her and he’d used whatever he could find quickly.

Working slowly and methodically, she tried to get her mind inside the telephone cord, but it was disorienting seeing it in the mirror instead of straight on.

Still, millimeter by millimeter she began to stretch it.

When she found she could move her wrists, she felt a spurt of victory. But it wasn’t enough. So she kept up the mental pressure, pulling her wrists apart until finally, finally she was able to slip her hands out of the binding.

It dropped to the floor.

With a sigh, she flopped back down onto the bed resting from the effort. In a moment, she’d tackle the rope around her ankles.

She was just starting to sit up when she heard footsteps coming rapidly down the hall.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

KENNA SLUNG HER hands behind her, in the same position they’d been in when the phone cord had held them fast. Rolling to her back, she turned her head toward the door.

The man from outside stepped into the room, his gaze zeroing in on her where she lay on the bed.

“You’re awake.”

As she stared at him, a terrible thought closed her throat. She’d dropped the cord when she’d freed her hands. Where was it now? What if he saw it?

When her breath turned ragged, he smiled at her. “Too bad you came along. But I can’t leave any witnesses.”

“What happened to me?” she whispered.

“I brought you down with a rock.”

So that was it!
“Please, let me go,” she whispered, because that was what she thought he expected.

“Sorry.” He stayed where he was, and she prayed to the Great Mother that he wouldn’t come any farther into the room. When he took a step toward her, she clenched her teeth, ready to spring up at him if he found she’d freed herself.

“How did you trip me?” he asked, his voice hard.

She widened her eyes. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I think you do.”

“No.”

He clenched his fists. “Too bad I don’t have time to beat the truth out of you. But I’ve got to burn the house down and split.”

As she tried to digest his words, he turned and disappeared down the hall again. When she was alone, she let out the breath she’d been holding, listening intently for the sound of footsteps coming back.

TALON was about to turn into the driveway that led to the lodge when he saw something that stopped him in his tracks. A pickup truck pulled into a little break in the woods.

Who was parked on his property? A stranded motorist?

Easing his van onto the gravel shoulder, he got out and cautiously approached the truck. No one was inside. There was no white handkerchief or anything else tied to the door handle, indicating that the motorist was in trouble. And the vehicle was almost hidden from view. He wouldn’t have seen it in the shadows if he hadn’t been scanning the woods the way he often did when he came home from one of his trips.

A shiver slithered down his spine. He didn’t like this. First he memorized the license tag. Then he strode farther into the woods where he ducked behind the massive trunk of an oak and started taking off his clothes as he said the chant that changed him from man to wolf, pushing through the transformation.

Coming down on all fours, he started up the hill toward the lodge, speeding through the forest. When he broke from the cover of the trees, he saw something that raised the hairs on his back.

A stranger with a gas can in his hand.

But where was Kenna?

KENNA listened intently. Was the man really gone? Or was he waiting to trick her?

Finally, she sat up and began to untie the rope that bound her ankles.

As she worked, her mind scrambled for a plan. He’d told her he was going to burn down the lodge. She had to stop him.

Vandar had asked her to bring guns to her world, and she knew Talon had some, locked in a cabinet in one of the rooms. She had seen them, but she didn’t know how to use them. So she couldn’t shoot the man.

Could she throw something at him—and give the missile extra weight with her hidden power?

AS the man began to pour the gas around the foundation of the lodge, Talon crept silently closer, preparing to spring. Then, around the corner on the other side of the house, he saw something that froze the blood in his veins.

Kenna. She was here. With a can of something from the pantry, raised high in her hand. Lord, did she think she was going to stop the guy with that?

He wanted to shout, “No! Get back.”

But he couldn’t speak in his wolf form. All he could do was spring forward, trying to get to the guy before Kenna reached him.

The man heard the wolf and whirled, gasping as he saw the charging animal.

Talon followed, snarling as he closed in on his quarry, preparing to bring the bastard down and rip out his miserable throat—until he heard footsteps behind him.

Jesus!
It could only be Kenna, following them.

He stopped in his tracks. The guy made a moaning sound and sprinted onward, toward the truck hidden in the woods.

Torn, Talon hesitated. But the idea of Kenna seeing him tear someone to shreds made his stomach curdle.

Turning, he stepped into Kenna’s path, and she screeched to a halt on the leaves that covered the forest floor. They stood facing each other long enough for him to hear the car engine start and know that the would-be arsonist had gotten away.

Shit!

He snarled in frustration, and she took a step back.

“Who are you?” she gasped.

He couldn’t answer, so he turned and trotted deeper into the woods, stopping behind a tree where he could watch Kenna.

She scanned the landscape, looking for him.

“Come back!” she called.

Long seconds passed and he wondered if she was going to plunge into the darkened forest. Finally, shoulders slumped, she turned and headed back toward the house.

Once he knew she was out of danger, Talon circled back toward the place where he had left his clothing. After confirming that the invader was gone, he silently said the chant that transformed him back to human form, then climbed into his clothing before running back to his van and climbing in.

Minutes later, he was speeding up the driveway toward the lodge. When he climbed out, the gasoline-saturated air made him cough.

“Kenna?” he called. “Kenna, where are you?”

When she didn’t answer, he started toward the woods, toward the spot where he’d last seen her.

As he reached the trees, he caught sight of her, trudging back the way she’d come. She stopped short when she saw him, then ran forward, straight into his embrace.

He wrapped his arms around her and held on tight.

KENNA clung to Talon, hardly able to believe that he was holding her in his arms. He had come back, just when she needed him.

“How did you know . . . ?” she managed to say.

She heard him swallow. “I was coming up the road toward my driveway when a truck pulled out from a hiding place in the woods and peeled rubber down the highway.” He gripped her more tightly. “Was he here?”

“Someone was here.”

“Someone you knew?”

“No.” She pushed far enough away so she could look into Talon’s eyes. “But the wolf chased him away. Who is he? I mean . . . the wolf.”

He gave her the same line he had before. “A friend of mine.” He changed the subject back to the intruder. “What was the guy doing?”

“I found him outside when . . .” She had been about to say,
when I came back from my world
, but she stopped and started again. “He had a gas can. When I asked him what he was doing, he hit me and knocked me out. I woke up in the lodge, tied up. Then he told me he had to hurry because he was going to burn the lodge.”

Talon winced. “Are you all right?”

“Yes.”

“How did you get free?”

She knew then that she had made a mistake. “I guess he did a sloppy job of tying the knots. But I knew I had to stop him.”

“You could have gotten hurt. You should have called the police.”

“I . . .”

“Okay. Right. You’re trying to stay away from the cops,” he clipped out.

“But I would have called them, if I’d thought of it.” She watched his face, knowing that he was thinking the incident through.

“You said you were outside. Where?”

“The woods,” she replied. “Lucky I was.”

He looked like he was going to ask another question, and she couldn’t let him do that. Cupping the back of his head, she brought his mouth down to hers.

He could have pulled away, but the moment his lips touched hers, emotions exploded between them. It was like a jolt of molten energy that sent a wave of heat through her blood.

They had parted on bad terms, and she hadn’t been sure that she would ever see him again. Now he was back in her arms, and her feelings for him surged. Later, she would have to deal with the pain of betraying him. But not now.

Now she would give him everything that was in her power to give.

She was trembling in his arms, and at the same time, she couldn’t stop herself from running her hands over his broad back, his wide shoulders. And he was doing the same thing, his touch telling her how relieved he was that the man hadn’t hurt her.

The urge to show him how she felt was like a primal need, wiping everything else away, sealing her to him.

She clasped him tighter, feeling his rod—no, his cock—wedged between them like an exclamation point. And she was just as aroused.

She had thought of him while she’d been in her own world, but she hadn’t dared let herself take the longing to a sexual level. Now it felt like she had been aroused for days but hadn’t been able to admit it. And she was free to give him anything he wanted.

As his mouth plundered hers, she drank in the familiar woodsy taste of him, sure that no other man could taste as good.

She made a needy sound, her mouth opening to give him better access, telling him that if he didn’t make love with her, she would lose her sanity.

In the conscious part of her brain, she knew she should warn him to run for his life. Run as far from her as he could get, but he was beyond warning—not when his hand was sliding down to her hips, pulling her more tightly against himself.

Under the protective canopy of the tree branches, she stepped back far enough to start tearing off her clothing. He did the same, both of them kicking off their shoes, then throwing shirts and pants onto the leaves to make a bed.

Gods, he was magnificent, standing naked in the forest, his body all hard muscles and flat planes, his hard-on standing straight up against his body.

With a whimpering sound, she came back into his arms, rubbing against him, feeling like her body was going to ignite and set the woods on fire.

He reached up to take her breasts in his hands, his thumbs stroking over the hardened tips, bringing another whimper to her lips.

She needed him on top of her. Inside her. Here. Now.

Grabbing his arm, she pulled him down to the make-shift bed under the tree boughs.

Hot and hard, he clasped her to him, murmuring her name as he slid his lips over hers, caressing her breasts with his face, then turned his head so he could take one pebble-hard nipple into his mouth, sucking on her, teasing her with his tongue and teeth while he used his thumb and finger on the other nipple.