Hunger Untamed (Feral Warriors #5)(56)

She glanced at him, her expression pensive. "No. But I can feel the gathered energy still waiting to strike me with more memories. It may take days for me to sort through them all."

"Hawke and Tighe don't have days."

Her eyes softened, saddened. "I know. I'm trying, Kougar. I'm as desperate to defeat this thing as you are."

He reached for her, cupping the back of her neck. "I know." He pulled her toward him. When she turned to him, he covered her mouth, losing himself in the feel of her warm lips against his, her sweet taste and scent. The need to do something, to save his friends, was eating a hole in his gut. But kissing Ariana, he could almost forget anything and anyone else existed.

He stroked her bottom lip with his tongue, and she opened for him, her tongue sliding over his lips greedily. Blood began to pulse through his veins, pressure building in his head, in his chest. He pulled her tighter against him, the need to hold her, to be one with her, a pounding in his body. How had he survived a thousand years without her?

His fingers dove into her silken hair as his lips moved over her cheek, her jaw. Her taste was nectar on his tongue, her soft moan, as he trailed his mouth down her throat, the sweetest of music.

Fire burned inside him, a need as much of the soul as the body. A need to touch and hold, to be one with her.

Soft palms slid over his cheeks, her fingers curling around the back of his neck as she pulled him down to take one perfect breast in his mouth. He drank in the sweet scent of lilies of the valley mixing with Ariana's unique, seductive mating scent as he pulled her to him and suckled her soft flesh.

Some part of his brain warned him not to give in, that he was in serious danger of losing all perspective, of losing himself, if he didn't pull back. But his cat hissed, ears back, urging him to take her, to claim her all over again. And that's exactly what he wanted to do.

Sweeping her into his arms, he laid her down, his gaze locked with hers, the question asked and answered in a lush, carnal smile.

He told himself to take it slow this time, and he tried. But when she spread her thighs, lifting her arms to him, he was lost.

Holding her gaze, he came to her, entering her, tumbling into the beauty and fire and strength that was Ariana.

Over the next few hours, he made love to her twice more and held her through three more painful memory downloads while she waited for Hookeye to sleep. He was lying temporarily sated in her arms when she tensed beneath him. Not with pain, this time, but excitement.

He lifted off her, and she sat up, her eyes glowing with triumph. "The bright chaos just turned dark. Hookeye's asleep." Her eyes gleamed. "Are you ready for a bit of dream walking?"

Hell, yes. A feral smile lifted his mouth. "Anything I need to do to prepare?"

Her gaze trailed seductively down his body. "He'll see us exactly as we are now. I'm getting dressed." She slid her fingers up his erection. "Up to you."

He purred at the feel of her fingertips on that highly sensitized flesh. It didn't matter how many times he'd come inside her, if she was anywhere near him, he wanted her. Especially when she turned on her siren's charms. Goddess, if she kept touching him like this, he was going to come again, right there in her hand.

If they hadn't waited so long for the bastard to sleep, he might take her first, but dreams didn't last.

Wrapping his hand around her wrist, he lifted that talented little hand of hers to his mouth and kissed her palm. "Can I shift when I'm in the dream?" He licked her palm and watched with satisfaction as she shivered, her mouth twitching at one corner.

"I don't know. I guess we'll find out." She pulled her hand from his and leaped to her feet to retrieve her clothes.

Kougar joined her, dressing quickly, then sat cross-legged on the smooth stone floor beside her. He eyed her quizzically, feeling a frisson of unease. "How exactly does this work?" Goddess knew how anything worked in the Ilina world.

A hint of a smile played at her mouth. "You'll see." But the smile didn't reach her eyes. As she took his hand, he understood. Her hand was damp, a faint trembling deep in her bones. The thought of facing the creature who'd caused her so much pain had her rattled as he suspected little ever did.

He squeezed her hand, reminding her silently she wasn't going alone.

"Close your eyes and keep them closed," she told him.

He did as she asked, and, a moment later, an odd sensation hit him, a brief moment's dizziness not unlike Ilina travel for him now, a dizziness that was gone almost as quickly as it came. And suddenly he was standing beside Ariana in a firelit cave the size of his bedroom at Feral House. The hair rose on the back of his neck.

Along the walls, corpses hung--five adults and a small one that must have been a child, though he was hard-pressed to tell how many were male, how many were female. They were dressed in the simple, gowned peasant garb of millennia ago, a manner that had been largely unisex. But though their garb appeared unharmed, the flesh of the people had been all but burned away as if they'd died in a fire that had left their clothing unscathed.

The cave was clearly a living space, a cooking pot hanging over the central fire. To one side sat a table laden with bowls and vials and colorful, plastic containers. Kougar frowned at the anachronism of plastic in an ancient cave until he looked at the man standing behind the table, reminding himself he was in a dream.