He was here to stop them, at all and any costs. He was here at the charge of the gods to save the worlds of man.
He scratched idly at his healing thigh and decided he could hardly be expected to save mankind on an empty stomach.
He cut a slab of cake to go with his morning Coke and licked icing from his finger. So far, through wile and guile he’d avoided Glenna’s cooking lessons. He liked to eat, that was true enough, but the actual making of food was a different matter.
He was a tall, lanky man with a thick waving mane of tawny hair. His eyes, nearly the same color, were long like his cousin’s, and nearly as keen. He had a long and mobile mouth that was quick to smile, quick hands and an easy nature.
Those who knew him would have said he was generous with his time and his coin, and a good man to have at your back at the pub, or in a brawl.
He’d been blessed with strong, even features, a strong back, a willing hand. And the power to change his shape into any living thing.
He took a healthy bite of cake where he stood, but there was too much quiet in the house to suit him. He wanted, needed, activity, sound, motion. Since he couldn’t sleep, he decided he’d take Cian’s stallion out for a morning run.
Cian could hardly do it himself, being a vampire.
He stepped out of the back door of the big stone house. There was a chill in the air, but he had the sweater and jeans Glenna had purchased in the village. He wore his own boots—and the silver cross Glenna and Hoyt had forged with magic.
He saw where the earth was scorched, where it was trampled. He saw his own hoofprints left in the sodden earth when he’d galloped through the battle in the form of a horse.
And he saw the woman who’d ridden him, slashing destruction with a flaming sword.
She moved through the mists, slow and graceful, in what he would have taken for a dance if he hadn’t known the movements, the complete control in them, were another preparation for battle.
Long arms and long legs swept through the air so smoothly they barely disturbed the mists. He could see her muscles tremble when she held a pose, endlessly held it, for her arms were bared in a snug white garment no woman of Geall would have worn outside the bedchamber.
She lifted a leg behind her into the air, bent at the knee, reaching an arm back to grasp her bare foot. The shirt rose up her torso to reveal more flesh.
It would be a sorry man, Larkin decided, who didn’t enjoy the view.
Her hair was short, raven black, and her eyes were bluer than the lakes of Fonn. She wouldn’t have been deemed a beauty in his world, as she lacked the roundness, the plump sweet curves, but he found the strength of her form appealing, the angles of her face, the sharp arch of brows interesting and unique.
She brought her leg down, swept it out to the si
de, then dropped into a long crouch with her arms parallel to the ground.
“You always eat that much sugar in the morning?”
Her voice jolted him. He’d been still and silent, and thought her unaware of him. He should’ve known better. He took a bite of the cake he’d forgotten he held. “It’s good.”
“Bet.” Blair lowered her arms, straightened. “Earlier rising for you than usual, isn’t it?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“Know what you mean. Damn good fight.”
“Good?” He looked over the burned ground and thought of the screams, the blood, the death. “It wasn’t a night at the pub.”
“Entertaining though.” She looked as he did, but with a hard light in her eyes. “We kicked some vampire ass, and what could be a better way to spend the evening?”
“I can think of a few.”
“Hell of a rush, though.” She rolled any lingering tension from her shoulders as she glanced at the house. “And it didn’t suck to go from a handfasting to a fight and back again—as winners. Especially when you consider the alternative.”
“There’s that, I suppose.”
“I hope Glenna and Hoyt are getting a little honeymoon time in, because for the most part, it was a pretty crappy reception.”
With the long, almost liquid gait he’d come to admire, she walked over to the table they used during daylight training to hold weapons and supplies. She picked up the bottle of water she’d left there and drank deep.