Christine Feehan - Dark Demon 16

Her teeth sank deep and she felt him shiver with rising hunger. She wanted him. She would have him. She pressed her breasts against his chest, moved in a restless, enticing way, deliberately adding to the painful ache in his body. She felt him thicken, heard his breath leave his body in a rush. He tasted like nothing she'd ever experienced and it wasn't enough. She wanted it all. She flicked her tongue over the small pinpricks and stepped back, reaching to remove her shirt.

Behind Vikirnoff, the ground rippled as something raced beneath the dirt toward them. At once her ankles burned and hurt, just as if the creature that had dragged her below the surface had a hold of her again.

Chapter 7

«Something moved under the ground.» Natalya jumped back and reached down to rub at her suddenly burning ankles. «Do you think it's that creature, the one that grabbed me?» She shuddered and backed up another step. «The ground did move, Vikirnoff, I saw it. Watch out. It might be after you. We so deserve this for acting like a couple of sex-starved teens in the late night movies.»

Vikirnoff picked her up and settled her on the outcropping that had a half-inch crack zigzagging down the face of it. «I will be fine. You are obsessed with your movies, Natalya. I do not think viewing them has been a good influence on you.»

«Well, I should have known better than to make out when deadly peril surrounded us. Please be careful. The Troll King could burst through the ground any minute now and take you to some disgusting lair. I'd have to rescue you again and…»

He shook his head, his faint intriguing smile capturing her attention and wiping out all coherent thought before she could finish. «Your imagination is running away with you. Tell me what you want to do.»

«I want to get the hell out of here, but I can't. I have to go into the cave and get rid of this compulsion.» She caught at his shirt. «I know you're thinking of taking me away from here, but I'd just have to come back and I'd search without you. Please don't do that, Vikirnoff.»

He studied the desperation in her eyes. «I know you have this to do, Natalya. I am with you all the way. If Freddie or Troll King try to bother you, I will keep them off your back until this is finished.»

Natalya let her breath out slowly, leaned forward and brushed a kiss over his lips. «Get up on this rock with me before that thing eats you alive.»

His eyebrow shot up. «One of us has to be on the ground to find the opening. I know it is here, somewhere around this rock. We will have to be wary of traps. The cave does not want us to enter it.»

«Good luck to you then.»

He laughed softly. «I thought you might say that.»

«Yes, well, I'm the practical type.»

Vikirnoff studied the niche and outcropping, pacing back and forth around the front and sides of the boulder several times. Natalya was right, not only was something moving beneath the ground, but it was mimicking his every stride. The ground swelled slightly as if something large searched in serpentine motion just inches below the surface parallel to him

each time he took a step. He also noticed, whenever he ceased to move, the creature raced to the boulder where Natalya was perched and remained still, melting back into the earth. The mist thickened around them, rolling in with cold blasts of air, but hovering to blanket the small peak, rather than continuing out in a path over the mountain as it should have. Voices howled and moaned and something dark and shadowy moved in the mist.

«Okay, this has gone way beyond spooky,» Natalya said. «And I am so not putting my feet on the ground if there's a chance that hairy-armed, ice-pick-for-fingernails creature is anywhere near here.» She looked around her, peered at the ground and rocks. «There has to be an entrance here. Why would it be so well-guarded if we aren't in the right spot?»

«The entrance is here,» Vikirnoff agreed, keeping his eye on the moving soil. Small plants wiggled like worms as the thing beneath the ground disturbed them in its passing. «Do you see those rocks right there? The small ones? Do they look right to you?»

Natalya almost fell off the boulder as she leaned over the side. Vikirnoff steadied her with one hand at her waist. «They're set in a pattern, but…» Her voice drifted off.

«It's not quite right,» he finished for her.

«Watch that thing,» she pointed towards the shifting ground. «I think the rocks need to be put in a different order. More like this…» She reached down, still balanced on the boulder and nudged a rock out of the lineup to exchange with another three spaces over. She frowned in frustration, shook her head and leapt off the boulder to crouch down beside the smaller rocks. «This is it, Vikirnoff, the way to the entrance. I just have to rearrange the rocks into the right order.»

Vikirnoff hunkered down beside her, close, where his body could shield hers, if necessary. He kept a wary eye on the churning, thickening mist, as well as continually scanning the ground.

«I've got it!» Natalya dropped the last rock in place with evident satisfaction.

The ground beside her hand erupted like a small geyser. A foul-smelling eel-like creature with spiked teeth bored straight at her fingers, emitting a high-pitched scream. Vikirnoff caught the serpent by the back of the neck, dragging the struggling body away from Natalya. The teeth snapped repeatedly, the body twisting frantically to get at her.

«Look out!» Vikirnoff warned as the ground around Natalya burst open in half a dozen places, the serpentine heads rocketing out of the holes straight at her from every direction. «Jump!» He flung the snake away from him and lifted his hands toward the sky. Lightning arced through the swirling mist, lighting the edges in fiery red tones.

Natalya didn't even care that his tone held both compulsion and command. She somersaulted onto the boulder and glared at the writhing creatures. «I detest snakes. Really, really detest them.»

Lightning sizzled and cracked, a great whip slamming to earth, scorching the ground in a small circle. At once a stench rose, the foul creatures turned to ash. The blackened spiked teeth wiggled, as if alive, then disintegrated.

Natalya pressed her hand to her mouth and choked back a cry of alarm. «That was just gross. Totally disgusting. Never let those things near me again.»

Vikirnoff studied her for a moment before realizing she was serious. He caught her in his arms and pulled her off the boulder. «You are shaking.» Holding her close to the warmth of his body, he tightened his arms around her in an effort to bring her comfort. «You were not really afraid of those creatures, were you?»

«I loathe snakes.» Natalya leaned in close, trying to get her knees to stiffen up. «I've always had an unreasonable fear of them.»

«You kill vampires and destroy shadow warriors. You never even flinched when you faced either adversary.» He caught her chin in his hand and bent his head to hers. «You are going to intrigue me for all time.»

She put a hand on his chest with the idea of pushing him away. «And drive you to drink. Don't let's forget I annoy you.» She couldn't afford to be distracted. And Vikirnoff was very distracting. «And we're in deadly peril. I refuse to be a too-stupid-to-live teenager necking while the snakes return.»

He hadn't budged an inch, his skin touching hers, body heat warming her. «I had forgotten.» His smile was slow and sexy and took her breath somewhere other than her lungs. «Completely.»

She looked up at him with a small frown. «We're in the middle of a siege here. Those things were going after me this time, not you.»

«I noticed. Why would that be, do you think?» He dropped his hands reluctantly and surveyed the crack in the boulder that was significantly wider. «We will have to do a little maneuvering to slip through.»