But then he smiled.
Admiration, definitely, but interwoven with a desire that washed through her. This time, her legs did give way, but he caught her. Caught her, and held her, his strong fingers supporting at her waist and hip.
The second he made contact, the emotional energy surged between them. And the desire wasn’t all hers.
His eyes widened. “Who are you?” he asked, his voice so deep it resonated right through her.
She wasn’t sure she could draw enough breath to speak. Her reply, when it came, was barely a whisper.
“I am Aria.”
“Aria...”
Her world lit up with pain. A horrible, escalating crackle penetrated her dream as the energy coursed into the collar and through her body.
“No! What—” the word cut off as the man before her vanished. In its place stood the Unicorn. For a moment its eyes blazed silver, then they turned inky black. The fog swirled, the red lightning firing through it, seeking a target.
“Show me.” His voice thundered, and Aria opened her mind to him. She showed him the Torshin, hands glowing with the power he sent surging into her.
Another pulse of it. She staggered and fell to her knees.
A scream, hoarse and ragged with rage, as the Unicorn reared above her. But the form was no longer solid—she could see the stars clear through him.
“No!” She reached, but he was already gone, and the fog went with him.
Bereft. It was the best word for what she felt at that moment.
Then the Torshin’s raw energy blasted again through her mind and took any awareness away with it.
* * *
Sitting on the rock ridge he’d selected to spend the night, Nikolai draped his arms over his knees and tried to calm his hammering heart.
The rock beneath his butt no longer held the day’s heat; he felt the coolness of the Kalahari Desert night. The life essences surrounding him radiated nothing but calm, and he breathed them in as he contemplated his dream.
The woman had seemed so real.
It had started off so perfectly. She was beautiful. So much so that he swore his heart had stopped beating when he gazed upon her. She’d been clad in red and gold scales, and it hid her from his gaze—he had wished them gone, and like many dreams, they complied, falling away to reveal her full splendor to him. He’d been struck dumb by it, frozen and yet aware that his body ached, urging him to do—what?
She’d reached out to touch him, but he hadn’t been himself. He’d been something else, something powerful, and dark. To his frustration, he lacked the hands to touch her.
Then she’d made contact, and her emotions had flowed through his heart and soul. She’d trembled, almost falling, and he’d tried to support her. His need for arms seemed to trigger a transformation, and suddenly he was able to wrap his hands around her waist and hip, and support her. Her skin was warm beneath his fingers and his heart bounded like a startled deer.
Then there had come a pulsing agony, something that coursed into the woman. He’d felt her pain. Nikolai had demanded she show him who it had come from.
Now, the newcomer’s image was etched in his mind. Man? The villain had eyes the color of blood, razor-sharp features, and shark teeth. Distinctly inhuman. Why had Nikolai dreamed of such a creature? Was he a spirit, like some Khomani believed to exist? He certainly possessed power. He’d sent that vicious energy ripping through her until she screamed.
Nikolai had been so angry—ready to kill to protect her. Just like he’d done with Ngubi. But before he could act, the dream had faded away.
She is nothing. It was just a dream.
Again, the voice and presence that were subtly not his own. The mark on his neck burned as though it were linked to it.
Nikolai could make no sense of it. Had what he done to the poachers fractured his mind? Ngubi had a cousin who claimed to hear voices in his head. At times, the man raved like a lunatic. Would that happen to him, too?
He took a cleansing breath as his heart slowed down, and Mai peeked out from her little crevice in the rock. And as the presence within him faded, another, more familiar rhythm called to him. A deep thrumming that penetrated the ground. He’d often heard it from afar; a seismic song so familiar that he was not surprised when the massive forms moved toward him out of the darkness.
The elephants stepped close to the rocks on which Nikolai sat. Plugged into their song, his heart pounded in rhythm to their movement—all part of a perfectly choreographed dance, from the trunks that swayed in time to their footsteps, to the bobbing heads and huge, flapping ears.
