“Your problem is that you’re just too damn polite.” Nicola released him, shoving her jeans down to her calves before she bent to brace her hands against the bed. “I remember you wouldn’t let me do this.”

“No.” Gabriel fisted his penis and guided it to her, closing his eyes as he felt the delicate lips of her sex enclose the dry, tight head. “And I swore to myself I would never trespass here.”

Her thighs shook as she clenched around him, trying to draw him in and hissing with impatience when he clamped his hands on her hips to hold her in place. “You’d better start trespassing. Right now, pal.”

Gabriel smiled as he slid his hands up, stroking her breasts before he followed the tight muscles of her arms down to her hands. As he entwined his fingers with hers, he sank into her, bringing another long, soft sound from her throat. When the curve of her buttocks pressed into his belly, he put his mouth to her ear. “So now you know. This is how I wanted to take you that night. With you beneath me, trembling as you are now. Eager to feel me inside you.” He drew back, and then surged into her again. “Needing more.” He went deeper. “Wanting more.”

“Oh, God.” Her hips jerked as he brought her hand and his to feel the slick, hot juncture of their sexes, and pressed the heel of his hand to the swollen, exposed pearl of her clit. “Don’t hold back this time.” She turned her head, shifting her curls away from her left shoulder. “Gabriel, please.”

He kissed the lovely line of her throat, pushing into her as he rubbed her clit and sank his dents acérées into her flesh, tasting the cool, spicy nectar of her blood. The twin penetrations brought her over the edge, and he drove into the center of the tight contractions around his penis, fucking her through her pleasure and feeling the dark satisfaction of their bond, of the delight only he could give to her, only he would ever feel her take.

He held himself inside her as he took his mouth from her throat, and used his hands to keep them joined as he turned her onto her back. “I want to see your eyes,” he said as he began to work in her again. “I want to see you come for me again.”

“You won’t have long to wait.” Her voice shook as much as her hands as she latched onto his arms. “I love the way you make me feel. I love this.” Her eyes went wide as he brought her over again. “Gabriel. I love you.”

The words she rarely said slammed into him, smashing through everything he was and making him more than he thought he could ever be. As his body drove into hers, he felt the fire of that love healing him again, erasing more of the hidden wounds he had carried for so long. Never had he dreamed it could be like this, not even on that terrible night when she had found him, and as he pumped his seed into her, he lost himself in all that was Nicola, all that they were together.

She held him for a long time, drawing him onto the bed with her and kissing his mouth with dreamy absorption. “You really should have done that the night we met, you know. You were way too polite.”

“Perhaps I was.” He nuzzled her throat, and as she turned her head to give him better access, he felt her go still. “Nick?”

“Something’s taped under the nightstand.” She reached out to the small bedside table, feeling under it until she pulled off a book with strips of tape across the top and bottom of the outer cover. “Well, what do we have here?”

Gabriel reluctantly withdrew from her body and settled her against his side. “A book.”

She opened it. “Better than a book. A journal . Hmmm. Starts off like a letter: ‘Dear Paracelsus, If anything happens to me, I hope you’ll be the one to find this.’ ” She glanced at him. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

“Paracelsus was a well-known physician and alchemist who died in the sixteenth century,” Gabriel told her. “And before you ask, no, he was not made Darkyn.”

“Lucky him.” She flipped through the handwritten pages, pausing now and then to read. “Okay, it looks like she mostly wrote stuff about her work. Wasn’t all dog-catching. Caught a coyote, relocated a gator, rescued a kitten down a well, yada yada yada. Wait, here’s something.” She read for a few moments, and then blew some air over her lower lip. “Whoever this Paracelsus guy is, it seems like he wasn’t around. All she did was work or spend her nights here, alone. Had a hard time coping with the solitude, too.”

He felt a twinge of pity. “Perhaps he was someone she met on the Internet?”

“Maybe. She doesn’t give too many details on anything. Must have been afraid someone else would find it. Here’s the last entry, dated a few days ago.” Nicola frowned. “She was planning to move after the first of the year. She was afraid of something. Seriously afraid.” She flipped the page over. “Oh, shit.”

“What is it?”

“There’s another reason she was locking herself in here every night.” She handed him the journal.

Chapter 13

Like every building in the town, the small hotel appeared old and well built from the outside. The interior, crowded as it was, kept out the cold and seemed reasonably secure. Lilah openly admired the thousands of objects the townswoman had used as decorations, especially a small red wagon filled with shabby stuffed toys.

“Look at this one, Walker.” Lilah pointed to a bear with an eye missing and honey-colored, patchy fur darkened by years of being handled by small, grimy hands. An old metal button stitched inside the tuft of its left ear bore the image of a tiny elephant. To Annie, she said, “Isn’t this a Steiff bear?”

“I wouldn’t know,” the older woman said, her voice gruff. “I just like them. Now, I’ve got a room on the second floor with a nice view overlooking Main Street—”

“We will stay on the first floor,” he told her. When both women stared at him, he added, “Mari is tired and hurt. The stairs will be too much for her.”

“Shoot, I didn’t think of that. Of course you can stay downstairs. Let me get some clean linens and make up a room for you.” Annie hung up her coat and disappeared down a hall.

“I don’t think you have to worry about these people,” Lilah chided. “I’m sure they believe our story.”

“For now.” The sheriff had taken an instant dislike to him, and would probably check on their identities as soon as his phones and computer were functioning again. The only way to know what the man was thinking would be to have Lilah read his mind, but he wasn’t allowing Ethan Jemmet within ten feet of her. “You must be exhausted.”

“After what happened the last time I fell asleep, I don’t know if I’ll ever close my eyes again.” Her smile turned rueful. “I hope Annie’s water heater is still working. I’m dying for a long, hot shower.”

The image that came into his head made heat surge through him, and he took off his hat and jacket. When he noticed her staring, he went still. “What is it?”

“You can’t feel it?” She reached up and ran her fingers over his scalp, which was no longer bare. “It’s like black mink. Sometimes mine does that, you know, seems to grow a couple of inches overnight, but yours is … ” She stopped herself and gave him an apologetic look. “It’s okay. I mean, it happens to all of us. Sometimes our fingernails and toenails do the same thing.”

He caught her wrist, and then brought her hand to his mouth to kiss her palm. “It’s only hair, Lilah. Not snakes.”

She stared at his mouth. “Snakes?” she echoed, her voice soft and dreamy.

Annie emerged from the hall, her mouth curling on one side. “You two really do need a room. Come on, it’s just down here.”

The room was large, not as crowded with things, and had an adequate bath adjoining it.

Lilah seemed enchanted, and ran her fingers over the heavy stitching of the old white coverlet on the large bed. “What a gorgeous quilt.” She bent closer. “Wow. It’s all one piece.”

“Whole cloth,” Annie said. “I make ’em myself on a rack in the back room. Helps pass the time when I don’t have guests.” She gestured toward the bath. “I put some nightclothes in there next to the towels. Before you go to bed, turn the taps on to a trickle. It helps keep the pipes from freezing. If you need anything, I’m right down the hall. Good night.”

“Thank you.” Lilah waited until the other woman left before she sank down onto the bed. “She’s such a nice woman. Everyone here is.”

“Yes.” They were all a little too welcoming for his taste, but as isolated as the town was, strangers were probably a novelty to them. Once he locked the door and checked the windows, he investigated the size of the bath. The freestanding tub appeared to be large enough for both of them, and the thought of bathing with Lilah made his blood surge. He ran the taps to check the temperature, and then shut them off and walked back out.

“There is no shower, but I think—” He stopped as he saw Lilah using her thumbs to type something on the keypad of a mobile phone. “How did you get that?”

“I swiped it from the doctor.” She finished and pressed a button. “There we go.” She smiled up at him. “I thought with the storm clearing I’d try to send a text to Samuel’s e-mail. Looks like it went through.”

The sound of the man’s name made something brutal and ugly twist inside him. “What did you tell him?”

“I couldn’t risk going into details, so I just gave him the phone number. Hopefully he’ll call back soon.” She set the phone aside and rose to her feet. “Walker, Samuel was changed when he was a baby, like me. He’s my friend; he can help.”

“So you think.” He turned his back on her. “What if he was one who betrayed you?”

“He’d never do that.” She sighed and came up behind him. “I know after what happened to you that you don’t want to trust anyone, but there are good people out there.” She rested her hand against his back. “Not everyone wants us dead.”