The Jackal (Black Dagger Brotherhood: Prison Camp #1)(29)

She should have gone with him—

The sound of heavy footfalls brought her head up, and when she recognized the scent, she wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or not.

The Jackal emerged from the darkness, and he had something in his arms.

“I got some food,” he said as he headed by her. “I figured you must be hungry.”

When he kept right on going, she didn’t immediately follow, and he glanced over the provisions at her. “Are you coming?”

“We’re not staying here?”

“Does it look like there’s a bath where you’re standing.”

Falling into step with him, she peeled her pack from his shoulders and strapped it on. “So where’s this bath place?”

“Close.”

Some distance along, he stopped short. Looked both ways. Triggered something. “We’re here.”

As a section of the rock walling slid back, Nyx recoiled. But not because things smelled bad.

On the contrary, the scent of clean water was as obvious as it was a surprise.

Nyx walked forward, called by the relief from the cloying aroma of earth. As she entered a narrow passageway, she rushed forward, her way lit by candles that flared one by one down at the floor. In the back of her mind, she had the sense that he was lighting her path, willing the wicks to life.

Then she made a corner and faltered as she confronted a dense black space. The sound, though . . . oh, that was gently falling water. And there was humidity in the air—and warmth.

The Jackal stepped into the darkness behind her. “This is where I go when I need . . .”

He didn’t finish the sentence. Then again, as candles flared in a broad circle around a natural spring, he didn’t have to.

“Oh . . . my God,” she whispered.

From somewhere in the ceiling, a natural flow of water dropped into a ten-foot-wide pool, some kind of heat vent down in the natural basin bubbling the clear water and causing steam to rise up.

“I thought you might like it here.” He put the bundle down. “So, yes. At any rate.”

He sat on the smooth back of an enormous boulder, unpacking bread and what looked like cheese. There was also an old-fashioned milk bottle filled with something the color of a red poker chip.

“This is not fancy,” he said, “but you can have it all.”

Nyx approached him and lowered herself onto the granite “sofa.” “What about you?”

“I can find more for me. It’s more important for you to be strong.”

He leaned to the side and took something out of a hip pocket. Flipping the cloth free of its folds, he made a little table and then laid out the picnic.

“I wish I had something better to offer.” He opened the glass bottle. “This tastes wretched, but it has singlehandedly kept me from getting scurvy.”

He took a deep drink and swallowed. As he closed his eyes, she thought it was a little odd that he was savoring the stuff as if it were wine—

His lids flipped up. “It’s safe.”

“Safe?”

“Untampered with.” He offered the drink to her. “I didn’t make it, so I have to be sure it’s okay for you.”

Nyx took the glass container, her fingers brushing his. “Thank you.”

He nodded and then tore off a piece from the loaf. As he chewed, he closed his eyes again. Then he did the same with the cheese.

“This is all safe as well.”

Putting her lips to the open neck of the container, she had a thought that his mouth had been where hers was now—and that really shouldn’t have mattered.

As she took a test taste, she frowned and looked at the red liquid. “This is Kool-Aid. Or at least that’s what it tastes like.”

“What is that?”

“I’m not sure whether this has any vitamins in it.” She drank some more. “But it’s good.”

Funny how everything was relative. Back home, she would have given the swill a solid pass. Down here? It was strangely comforting.

“I haven’t had this since back in the seventies,” she murmured. “I used to make it for Posie before her transition.”

“Another sister?”

“Yes, the youngest in the family. Do you want some more of this?”

“No, it’s all for you.”

“I’m willing to share.”

When he just leaned back on the rock wall and extended his long legs, she shrugged and finished what was there. Then she hit the bread, which had been baked fresh and tasted pretty damn good, and the cheese, which had almost no taste but was definitely not spoiled. She ate fast, her hunger much sharper than she’d thought.

Then again, the sense of imminent danger made her feel like she could be interrupted, in a bad way, at any second.

And then the food was gone.

Nyx shifted her eyes to the swirling water because things got too intense when she was looking at him. But as the silence went on, she had to glance over at the male.

His eyes were closed, his breathing even. But he wasn’t asleep.

“Finished?” he said softly.

“Yes.”

His lids opened, but not very far, that vivid blue stare glowing.

“How many people know about this place?” she heard herself ask.