Bite. Part 27

images roaring through her mind. Warm, soothing, strong, he cradled her. All of this is just detail. It doesn't matter. Touch me.

A bubble of silence formed around them like the eye of a hurricane. They were alone together. Even the cultists disappeared.

Suddenly he no longer seemed like some impossibly ancient predator, but a man. A man who struggled with a thankless, h.e.l.lish

job, yes, a man who despaired even as he continued to fight. A man she'd held and touched and loved. A man as vulnerable and lonely as she was.

Oh, a small voice said somewhere inside her. It's you.

Yes.

Caroline opened Galahad's eyes and looked across the chamber at the altar where the vampires held her pinned. She was inside him. The barrier that had blocked her from her magic had been left behind.

"Isc aff argia t'ri ke per," she said in Galahad's deep voice. The vampires looked around, startled.

Marilyn realized what was happening first. "Oh, holy f.u.c.k!" She lifted the blade to plunge it deep.

But even as it descended, Caroline and Galahad roared, "Ka avi ITA!"

Magic exploded from them in a flaming, boiling wave, whipping the knife from the priestess's hand. Marilyn screamed as the spell

hit Gierolf's Grail. She tried to throw the cup aside, but it was too late. The grail flared black and imploded, sending a blazing magical shock wave expanding outward.

The magical burst hit Marilyn and her vampire a.s.sistants first, vaporizing them instantly.

The watching vampire warriors bellowed and turned to run, only to vanish as the shock wave hit them, too. Even then it kept going. Caroline sucked in a breath as it shot over Galahad and slammed right through the complex walls.

The spell holding Galahad broke. He dropped to his feet with a grunt of satisfaction.

Caroline opened her own eyes and stared at the ceiling of the chamber, then lifted her head cautiously.

Galahad strode naked across the chamber toward her. She rolled off the altar and fell into his arms with a shriek of mingled relief

and pleasure.

But just as he lowered his head to kiss her, they heard a tiny whimper. They stiffened warily and looked around. "What the h.e.l.l

was that?" Galahad growled.

The girl they'd come to save lay looking at them, her eyes huge over her gag.

"Oops," Caroline murmured. "Forgot." Reluctantly they drew apart and went to free her.

C AROLINE lay on her back on Galahad's bed. Gloriously naked, he leaned on one elbow swirling a strawberry in a bowl of

frothy cream. "You know, I think I like this Truebond thing. Open up."

Lazily, she complied. He stroked the creamy berry into her mouth. She closed her lips around it and sucked gently, knowing the sight-and the mental image of what she imagined sucking instead-would drive him crazy.

"Are you goldbricking, or did you actually accomplish your mission?" Morgana demanded from the foot of the bed.

Caroline screeched and sat up. Only belatedly did she remember to zap jeans and T-shirts onto both of them. "Don't you knock?"

"No." The witch rocked back on her spike-heeled sandals, cool and elegant in a white suit that contrasted brilliantly with her

black hair. "Nice conjuring. Next time set wards instead, and I won't be able to do this."

b.i.t.c.h, Caroline thought.

That pretty much sums it up, Galahad agreed through their bond. Aloud, he added, "What brings you barging in, Morgana?"

"Do you still need help taking that little nest of yours?"

Disgruntled, Caroline drew her legs beneath her to sit up. "No, it's taken care of. We returned the surviving victim to her family,

and the police think the cult that kidnapped her died in a fire."

Turns out the Satanists had a house on the surface above the complex. Caroline had conjured it into charred rubble and added a few bones to give weight to the explanation.

The victim herself remembered nothing, thanks to Caroline's merciful alterations to her memory.

"Congratulations," Morgan said impatiently. "Where's my cup?"

Oops. "Ah...we destroyed it."

"What?"

One explanation later, the Liege of the Majae wore an expression of speculative pleasure that made Galahad more than a little

uneasy. "So that explains it." Catching his lifted eyebrow, she said, "Remember the vampire nest in Peru I told you about? It wasn't going at all well when a wave of magic rolled across the battlefield. I estimate fully a third of the enemy simply disappeared on the spot. Vaporized. Same thing happened to the forces fighting Arthur and Lancelot."

Caroline's jaw dropped. "A third?" A wicked grin crossed her face as she considered the implications. "And there were three cups. My spell must have wiped out all the vampires who were turned from that particular grail."

"Obviously. You do still have that spell, I a.s.sume?"

"Sure." Remembering the way Soren had transferred it to her, she winced. "I'll...write it down for you." Hastily, she conjured a piece of paper with the spell and handed it over. Though why the dragon hadn't done the same for her was another question entirely.

Morgana accepted it with a smile of pleasure. "All we have to do now is find the other two cups. Destroying them will be a h.e.l.l of a lot easier than trying to kill all those cultists one at a time."

"Don't count your chickens, Morgana," Galahad warned. "They're not going to give up the cups without a fight."

The witch gave him a vicious grin. "Too bad." She turned, reading the spell and started absently toward a gate that had appeared in the middle of the room. Just before she stepped through it, she looked back at Caroline, her expression more than a bit smug.

"I knew we needed you."

When the witch was gone, Caroline turned a disbelieving look on Galahad. "You stayed with her for a decade?" Then, reading an all-too-vivid memory of just what he'd found so appealing, she picked up a pillow and socked him with it. "You hound!"

"Now that's just offensive." Galahad plucked the pillow out of her hand. "I'll have you know I'm far more wolf than dog."

"We'll see about that when I make you sit up and beg."

But just as she was about to get her revenge, a deep rumbling voice filled the room. "Before you two start your mating ritual-I gather the spell worked?"

"Yes, Soren, thank you," Galahad said, pouncing on Caroline and wrestling her onto her back.

"Yeah, thanks. Galahad, cut it out!"

As they rolled and fought like puppies, the dragon, clinging to the side of the cliff, shook his ma.s.sive head. "Mammals." Catching

sight of a tempting shape standing above him on the edge of the cliff, Soren started climbing up the mountain face to meet her. "But it's not a bad idea. Come here, you."

C AROLINE squirmed as Galahad stretched her out and pinned her down, both wrists pulled up above her head by one of his hands. "Now," he purred, "are you going to get rid of this shirt, or am I going to eat it off?"

She glowered at him in mock temper before making it disappear. He lifted his head to contemplate her hard nipples with predatory interest. "That's better."

Caroline swallowed and licked her lips as he slowly lowered his head. The first hot flick of his tongue over the delicate peak made her jump. Through the Truebond, she caught an echo of how she tasted to him: slightly salty, deliciously feminine, uniquely Caroline.

He adored it.

And so he indulged, suckled, licked, nibbled. Slowly, enjoying the sensations she felt through the Truebond. No wonder you like this.

She moaned agreement and arched against him, then gasped at the feel of his hard, muscled weight while he enjoyed her lean,

satin softness. "Let me go. I want to touch you."

"I don't think so." He tightened his grip on her wrists. "I like it just like this."

"Mmmmm." It did feel good. "But you're not fooling me. You're afraid you're going to lose it." Deliberately, she gave him a slow,

sinuous wiggle, sliding her belly over his erect c.o.c.k in a way that made him groan.

Oh, so that's how you want to play, he said through the link. We'll just see who loses it first.

Oops. Tactical mistake.

Too late. He reared off her and rolled over onto his back. His c.o.c.k bounced, pointing cheerfully at his chin. I'm challenging you to sixty-nine. Whoever comes first...Well, doesn't exactly lose.

I was thinking that.

I know. Extending his arms over his head, he stretched, arching his back. The sight of that big body twisting against the sheets