His foot caught on a tree root hidden under the leaves and he fell flat on his face. His sword landed a couple of feet away, protruding from a fallen tree.

Lyka skidded to a stop and turned around to help him.

He pushed himself back to his feet before she reached his side and made his humiliation complete by offering him a hand up. It was bad enough that he’d been clumsy; she had to come to his rescue, too.

“Think about my ass later, Theronai,” she said. “We have ground to cover.”

She’d heard his thoughts? He couldn’t help but smile at that. They were making progress, which meant that somewhere deep down, she was starting to trust him, even if only a little.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” she said. “Your thoughts about my ass were just really loud.”

She spun on her heel to take off again when Joseph saw the glow of green eyes in the woods on the other side of her.

He instinctively amplified his vision to see what was hiding, and drew power to his eyes to turn night into day.

A sgath was there, lurking in the darkness.

It leapt toward her.

Chapter 33

Lyka felt Joseph’s burst of panic and knew instantly she was in the way. She wasn’t sure how she knew that, but she followed her instincts and dove to the side, away from his swinging blade.

Moonlight bounced off steel and muscles gleaming with sweat. Shirtless Joseph was a wonder to behold, complete with the kind of potent strength that made a woman’s knees turn to liquid, along with the rest of her.

The new leaves on his lifemark were shiny, though she had no idea how that was possible. They trembled with the force of his blow as he jumped into the air, meeting the charging sgath head-on.

His sword sliced one leg off the demon. It howled in pain and skidded to a clumsy stop, where it began licking the blood flowing from its wound.

Joseph didn’t pause for a second. He walked right up to the thing, half-naked and deadly, and finished off the demon in one hard stroke. Its head flew into the woods, coming to rest at the base of an old oak tree.

Two more demons charged in, and he dispatched them with the same brutal efficiency.

Lyka hadn’t even made it to her feet yet before the whole thing was over.

She’d seen a lot of men fight, but none had the same kind of controlled grace that he did. Slayers were much more emotional when they fought—filled with a feral kind of berserker rage—but Joseph’s mind had been completely calm the whole time. At least it had been once he knew she was out of harm’s way.

He was fast, powerful and nearly silent in his attacks. Hell, the man wasn’t even breathing hard.

He offered her his hand and pulled her to her feet.

“That was beautiful,” she told him.

He lifted a dark eyebrow. “Beautiful?”

Embarrassment washed over her. She shouldn’t have said such a thing. Men didn’t want to be beautiful. They wanted to be handsome, masculine.

Joseph was all of that, too, but she was always stunned by the way he fought, as if he had all the time in the world.

It was so freaking hot, she just wanted to run her hands over him and feel that strength firsthand.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “I’m getting a weird vibe from you.”

“Then stop poking your nose in where it’s not welcome. We’re almost there.”

He cleaned his sword and motioned for her to lead on.

At least now she had her back to him, so he couldn’t see her cheeks burning with embarrassment. She had no idea what was wrong with her or why seeing him fight had suddenly rattled her so deeply, but it definitely needed to be fixed. Fast.

Lyka led him the rest of the way to their temporary hiding spot. She hadn’t been in this tree house since she was a child, but it had been kept in good repair, used by Slayer young who, like her, had needed some time alone away from the settlement.

The climb was longer than she’d remembered, and her muscles were burning by the time she’d made it all the way to the top of the rope ladder.

Joseph crawled up through the trapdoor of the tree house right behind her. He pulled the ladder up so demons couldn’t make use of it, and shut the wooden door in the floor.

They were alone now, relatively safe, and it struck her that if she had to be holed up with someone, she was glad it was Joseph. He was easy to be around and such an intense distraction, she was able to let go of her worries, if only for a few seconds at a time.

Shadows draped across his face as he settled back against some cushions that had been left here recently. He was such a powerfully built man, with the kind of broad shoulders that looked like they could carry the problems of the world. Smooth, tan skin stretched over his muscles, delighting her with the kind of masculine contours that made a woman remember just how differently men and women were built. And why.

It was hard not to think about how well they fit together and whether she’d ever again allow herself the pleasure of his body.

A breeze slid through the gaps in the wooden shell, stirring dust through the space. She could smell the scent of teens and the hormone overload they left behind. Beyond that was the darker, more mature scent of Joseph’s skin, luring her to reach out and touch, taste.

“Hell of a climb,” he said.

She spread out a couple of cushions to pad the wooden floor and stretched out on them. It eased her sore muscles, but did nothing for the deeper, hungrier ache growing in her abdomen. “The tree wasn’t this tall when I was a kid. Guess they had to get a longer ladder.”

“I’m not complaining. Demons with enough claws might be able to make the climb, but we’ll definitely know they’re coming from all the heavy breathing.”

It was dark inside the space, lit only by the glow of the rising moon.

That’s when it struck her. The moon was full. That’s why she’d gone all mushy watching Joseph fight. That’s why she wanted him. This was the time of the month that Slayers became fertile and hormones ran rampant.

Hers were about to get out of control. It was probably already too late, but once the moonlight hit her skin, she would be lost in need, desperate for sex from a man who lit her up.

She’d never been with a man at this time of month before—at least not with one she wanted. Many of the Slayer males would lock themselves away until the full moon passed, rather than take a chance that they might ravish some unwilling female. And the women . . . they would band together, the older ones helping keep the younger ones in check until the need had passed.