“Let’s go to the spring,” he said, breaking through my thoughts.
He tucked his bag under the bed before leading the way out of the room. I followed. We climbed out of the cavern from another passage that branched off from the main chamber of the cave.
“Better not to be seen leaving by the clan,” he explained. There were a few moments of silence as we carefully crossed a fissure that dropped a good thirty feet to a dry riverbed below. When he spoke again, he sounded like he was steeled for a reprimand. “I should’ve asked you about the phone.”
I stared up at the hot blue sky as I caught my breath. How could it be so breathtaking and straightforward while we struggled so much? “It was a mistake,” I said. “There was a lot to think about at the time.”
Dorian said nothing. We continued to climb the canyon, not too far from the hiding place of the vampires.
“Let’s try to be quick,” Dorian said. “I’d like to be back before the scouts return.”
A plane passed overhead, high above. An eerie calm settled over the land.
He helped me up the last steep edge of the canyon, which suddenly turned to crumbling rocks. I found my footing with his hand in mine but looked around skeptically. A spring over here? Then I heard it—water bubbled somewhere nearby. Hidden in the desert under an overhang, a gorgeous verdant space.
It was shocking to see such lush greenery in the desert landscape. The cliffside revealed a spring that started a few feet down the side. Small leaves split the rockface. The cliffside had caved in to form a shallow grotto with moss and leaves bunched on the underside of the slope in the shade.
“It comes up from the ground, through the cliff,” Dorian explained as we descended the slope to the pool with careful steps.
I shook my head, slow and reverent. “Wherever it comes from, I’m thankful.”
We arrived at the base, where the spring collected. The water fell gently but steadily from an overhang covered with dripping leaves. I gathered the canteens I’d collected from our gear bags and the plastic emergency bags packed for survival purposes. Dorian helped me arrange them on a smooth stone to the side of the dripping water. His movements were fluid as he arranged the bottles.
Our fingers brushed as we set two bags next to each other. He didn’t pull back immediately but waited for a beat before finishing placing the container. I bit my lip, feeling a surge of excitement.
It would take several minutes to fill the bottles and bags.
My skin was hot from our climb, and my throat ached with thirst. I wasn’t sure when I would next be in a place with running water. It certainly wouldn’t be anywhere as beautiful as this. I padded to the other end of the stream and stroked the plants clinging to the rock. A trickle of water slipped blissfully down my skin. I stepped fully under a more substantial stream and drank deeply as the water washed over me, slowly soaking my hair, my bare arms, my shirt. I pushed my wet bangs back from my grimy forehead, gasping slightly as the fresh water rinsed away the dust and sweat, leaving me refreshed. The chaos bubbling from panicked thoughts briefly faded.
A familiar throb stirred in my chest. I tensed and opened my eyes, leaning out of the stream. My heart nearly stopped.
Dorian was watching me.
So still and centered, he blended into the beauty of the setting. The only thing separating him from the vine-covered stone was his focus, so alive and intense it sent a shiver through my body. I wanted to kiss him again… without the world watching.
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. His lips parted slightly, sharp fangs peeking through. My own lips parted in response, remembering how soft and smooth his had felt against mine.
The chest pain intensified in a stabbing pulse, and I couldn’t hide my sharp inhale. The spell was broken. His face transformed from a transfixed expression to one of realization, and he drew back a step. The pain lessened, but disappointment surged, followed by frustration.
“Don’t run away from me,” I said.
He scowled.
“There’s no way to escape if you expect to help me carry these rations back,” I reminded him. I jerked a thumb in the direction of the precious water provisions, almost full now. He didn’t bother responding to the lame joke, instead getting down to the heart of the matter.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, his voice dark. “I had to stop.”
That was rich coming from the vampire whose attraction toward me seemed to change every hour. The memory of the pain his stonewalling had caused after I’d returned from the hospital came back. The sudden switch to coldness.
I scowled, stepping out of the stream. “You realized this back at our lovely trial compound? Yet you didn’t give me a chance to talk to you about it.”
Shadows flickered in his eyes. “It was too hard. I was worried I would hurt you even more.”
“And you thought ignoring me with no explanation wouldn’t cause me any pain? You didn’t even talk to me when I came back,” I pressed. He hadn’t. He had just stared right through me like I didn’t exist. Did he think I would brush that under the rug? We had kissed! I vividly remembered the glorious pain that had sprung from that moment.
In jerky, annoyed movements, I began to collect the rations. I let him hold the plastic bags as I wrestled the canteens into the small backpack I’d brought. We split the load of the bags as we headed back.
He cleared his throat. “We’re talking now.”
I shot him a look of sizzling frustration as we picked our way down the canyon. “Yes, how nice of you to consider that now.” Nice of him to have the decency to have a conversation after I forced him into it. He was lucky I was too exhausted to spar.
“I wasn’t trying to exclude you.”
“Yes, you were, Dorian. That was exactly what you were trying to do.” I had never felt like that before. Rejected and confused and isolated… and I never wanted to feel it again.
We paused for a moment, partially shaded in this spot. Out of the sun, his shadows danced more prominently beneath his skin. My mouth dried. I remembered the sensation of throwing my hands around him yesterday, how our bodies pressed together. I licked my lips, the hurt fading away.
He looked at me, a little startled, finally seeing me.
“I was afraid for you,” he said finally.
The desert air was suddenly suffocating. I took a deep breath. It was true that he wasn’t perfect, but neither was I. My three-day coma hadn’t been nothing. Perhaps it was somewhat reckless of me to push past it despite the implications that our relationship was dangerous.
“I was afraid too.” I turned my head back toward our path. “I didn’t understand what was going on when I came back from the hospital.” The water in the canteens sloshed as I shifted the bag and took a step forward. My team needed water. I couldn’t delay for the sake of my personal drama.
I began walking, and Dorian took the cue. He caught up to me and started to respond as we rounded a corner of the canyon.
Roxy and Colin stood there. In full fighting regalia.
We froze in place. There was a moment, a beat, a breath. Then my former teammates exploded into movement.
I cried out as Roxy and Colin lunged for Dorian. The water bags flew into the air as Dorian stumbled backward, but he caught them with a swift movement. I dropped the bags I was carrying and threw myself into their path. My chest burned painfully from the moment at the spring, but my feet acted before the rest of my body caught up.