I smiled. Only the second time he'd come to Rockabill, right after all the drama at the Alfar Compound so many months ago, I'd told Ryu about a family trip we'd taken years and years ago when my mother was still with us. A conversation Ryu had not only remembered but also included in his plans for my visit. It was unbelievably sweet, but part of me wanted to curse at such sensitivity. This was the kind of shit that made me want to fall in love with the vampire, and that was too complicated for words.
“Yeah, I was only, like, five, so the memories aren't very clear. And maybe they're not even my memories, but just me remembering looking at the pictures. We came to Boston the year before my mom went away. I like to think I remember it.”
I walked over to where he stood, leaning over the bridge to look out at the water and the pavilion where the boats sat moored.
He watched me in silence as I tried to place myself, even shorter than I was now, on this same bridge, holding the hands of both a man and a woman. The woman would soon leave, and my life would never be the same, but for that moment I must have been happy.
Ryu brushed my hair behind my ear, turning his body so that we were hip to hip, facing the same direction, looking out over the water.
“Jane,” he said. “I want to ask you something. You don't have to answer now, and we don't have to do anything about it yet. It's just something I want you to think about.”
I turned toward him, looking up into his face. I'd never seen him so serious.
“It's just that I like us together. I like us, period. I like being with you, having you near me…” Ryu's voice trailed off nervously, and he reached up to fidget with the strap of my top. He ran his fingers down to trace my bicep. “You feel right. We feel right. I know you don't like to talk about this stuff…” His finger continued its featherlight trail down my forearm, but when he went to take my hand, Ryu accidentally hooked my bracelet in his finger. When he pulled down, it came off.
“Shit, sorry,” he said, as we both bent down at the same time to pick it up and knocked noggins. We laughed ruefully, rubbing our foreheads.
“I'll get it, hold on,” I said. The bracelet had been my mother's; I didn't want to lose it.
Which is what saved my life. Just as I knelt to scrabble around at my feet for the bracelet, a wall of flame came blasting out of the darkness from our left, straight toward our heads.
Ryu hadn't been kidding about magical reflexes. His shields were up the moment the first tingle of magic hit us, a split second before the fire came. Unfortunately, his reflexes had yet to include me, and I had missed that lecture altogether. So when the blast hit, I was barely covered by the edges of his shield. Which stopped the majority of the fire; otherwise I would have been well cooked. But his shields didn't stop the sheer force of the power behind the flames.
I'd just managed to grab hold of the bracelet when I was launched into the air. I don't remember hitting the cement light pole that stopped me from hurtling into the pond, nor do I remember falling to the concrete ground of the bridge. But I do remember pain and I do remember smoke.
I also remember thinking I'd better learn me some reflexes, pronto.
CHAPTER FIVE
When I swam back to consciousness, Ryu's polished Gucci ankle boots were planted on either side of my waist as he protected me with his shields. Blast after blast of power hit us, but he held the flames at bay. He was barking orders into his cell phone and seemed in control. But he shook with every fresh barrage of that deadly combination of fire and raw force.
I reached out my hand—the one not clutching my bracelet—to touch his calf through the black wool of his trousers. But with my focus distracted by pain, I needed skin-to-skin contact, so I wiggled my hand under the hem of his pants' leg in order to wrap my fingers around his ankle.
I wasn't trying to get frisky; not even I am that licentious. I knew Ryu's shields were sucking the strength out of him. So I added my strength to his, visualizing my own power arcing down my arm, out of my palm, and into his body.
The moment my power hit him, he jerked. I was tied to the element water; as a baobhan sith, Ryu cultivated essence, which was elementless. So he couldn't “absorb” my power to strengthen himself, but he could funnel that force directly into his shields. In a flash, he'd built his defenses till they were more like stable walls surrounding us than a shield held out in front. Ryu glanced down at me to give me a tight smile of thanks. I nodded, continuing to pulse power down the thread connecting us.
My little bit of shared power allowed Ryu to go on the offensive. From behind our walls, he began to launch arrays of little blue energy balls out into the darkness toward where the fire was emanating from. They weren't meant to hurt; they were more like probes. Ryu was trying to determine exactly where our attacker was located.
He was still shouting into his phone, but when I heard a note of triumph in his voice, I knew he'd found his mark. He was immediately yelling directions, and this time he was sending out larger bursts of energy that were tinged with red. They were meant to hurt.
Suddenly, feet pounded past us on the bridge, and I heard shouts and thumps coming from somewhere far off. Voices were yelling in the distance, but I tuned them out and focused on sending my little tendril of power up through Ryu.
It wasn't until he bent down and pulled my hand from his ankle that I stopped. He crouched over me, running his hands over my body.
“Jane, are you all right? Where are you hurt?”
I was exhausted, having given him, magically, just about everything I had in me. In my confusion and pain, I hadn't controlled my output very well.
“… back…” I mumbled, trying to struggle upright.
Ryu held me down, shouting for someone named Julian.
A tall young man wearing small wire-framed glasses knelt next to me. He looked kind and very young.
“She's drained herself. She needs a boost,” Ryu barked.
“Water, right?” asked the boy.
“Yes. Hurry.”
Julian put a cool hand on my forehead and suddenly power arced into me. Not only was it power, but it was also my power—the force of the sea roared through my system as if I were roiling about in the Old Sow rather than lying on the dirty concrete of the Public Garden's footpath.
Julian's power boost chased away the exhaustion, making me realize just how much my back hurt. I hissed, going pale, and Ryu's hand tightened on mine.
“Caleb!” he barked.
The kind-faced boy backed away, giving me a sweetly crooked smile. I closed my eyes as the pain intensified, and when I opened them again, I was staring at a pair of huge hooves.
My gaze swept upward over powerful, shaggy goat haunches, past what could only be described as a “prodigious manhood,” to a powerful torso and finally to a handsome, craggy face replete with mussy blond hair and an impressive set of ram's horns.
The goat haunches crouched down, putting me uncomfortably close to the goat man's naked haunches. The satyr—for this had to be a satyr—ran his hands lightly under my neck. I felt healing warmth flow through me and I closed my eyes. Both to block out Caleb's dangly bits but also because the healing really hurt. I felt bones knitting and muscles restitching, and I gritted my teeth against the pain.
I felt Ryu's warm lips on my fingers as he kissed my knuckles and crooned comforting nonsense.
The powerful hands on my neck gently began to push me over until I was on my stomach. Ryu lay down next to me, his hand cushioning my cheek from the dirty pavement. The satyr started on my back again, unzipping my corset-style tank top so that he could have full access to my spine. But this time, the healing didn't hurt. It just soothed and relaxed.
“There were a few cracked ribs, a chipped vertebra, and torn muscles.” The satyr's smooth, deep voice reverberated down into my body through his hands on my back. “Everything's fine now, although she'll need another few healings or she'll be sore tomorrow. But just some basic work, nothing you can't handle, sir.”
The satyr put my clothing back to rights, and Ryu helped me roll over and sit up before he gathered me into his arms. His eyes searched my face as he ran a trembling finger over my lips.
I wanted to ask him what had happened, now that I had a chance, but as I opened my mouth, exhaustion flooded through my system. Ryu saw the look on my face and nodded.
“I'll explain everything when we get home, I promise. You rest now,” he whispered, kissing my forehead gently before turning toward the small knot of people suddenly surrounding us. If I was honest, I wanted answers now, not later, but I still wasn't entirely sure I was capable of keeping conscious. So I had little choice but to take Ryu's advice and listen as I rested my head against his chest.
“What the fuck happened out there?” demanded a dark-haired, swarthily handsome man pushing his way to the front of the little crowd.
“Conleth is back,” Ryu replied, his voice dark. “He caught us unawares.”
“Damn. How do you know it was Con?”
Ryu looked up, his eyes hard. “Fire, Daoud. Shit loads of fire.”