His accent thickened, making his English harder to understand. “Oh, but I do. You’ve always thought you were better than those of us stuck living in the darkness of Kalithia.”
Maybe if she kept him focused on talking, the crazed fever burning in his gaze would fade away long enough for her to escape. “That’s not true! I’ve never thought I was better than anyone. Besides, I was only a child, hardly even walking yet, when my father and grandfather brought me here to live.”
Wrong thing to say. His pale face flushed with rage. “Yet they left me behind, knowing the same illness that drove your mother to die on a Paladin’s sword also ran strong in my bloodline.”
His fist connected with the side of her head. As he hauled his arm back to swing again, a deep voice rang out across the clearing.
“Hit her again, and you’ll lose that arm for good!”
Tiel surged up to his feet to plant himself between Safara and the intruder. “This woman is mine. Find your own.”
She took advantage of Tiel’s inattention to scramble backward. When he realized she was heading right for her sword, he kicked it out of reach, leaving her gun as her only defense once more. She’d never had to shoot anyone and hated to start now. Regardless, she wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger if he came after her again. It was tempting to run away while his attention was split between her and the second man, but she couldn’t leave her would-be rescuer to face Tiel alone.
The man circled around the edge of the clearing to get closer to her. When she got a good look at him, her fear jumped to a whole new level. He was a Paladin, one of the human warriors who made it their life’s mission to keep her people from crossing into this world from Kalithia. Had to be. Considering his incredible size and powerful build coupled with the ease with which he handled that broadsword, there could be no other explanation. How had he found her? She and the others of her kind who lived in the area had worked long and hard to prevent their age-old enemy from discovering their existence. They were all as good as dead if the murderous Paladins had tracked them down.
She had to get away. Had to warn the others now while all of his attention was on Tiel. Safara drew her gun and backed away until she reached the edge of the trees. But with her eyes still fixed on the two dangerous men and dazed from shock and fear, she lost her balance when her foot caught in a shallow hole. Her gun went flying into the bushes as she hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of her. Gasping for breath, she tried to stand, only to fall on her ass again when her ankle gave out on her. Damn, could this night get any worse?
Waiting for the pain to fade, and hidden behind the thick trunk of a tree, she stared across the clearing to where the two men were now locked in battle with their swords. If the fight hadn’t been so deadly, it would’ve almost been a thing of beauty. Her cousin was lighter on his feet as he swung his curved Kalith-style blade hard and fast. The stranger’s technique had less finesse and more brute strength as he blocked each of Tiel’s blows with ease, gradually forcing her cousin to retreat step by step back up the mountainside. Her cousin favored his left side as if he’d taken a solid hit to his ribs. For his part, the stranger was breathing hard and dripping blood from his forearm.
Suddenly Tiel broke and ran, most likely heading back to the cave that shielded the entrance to his world. The Paladin started to follow, but then turned back in her direction. She had to get moving, but her ankle still refused to cooperate and gave out as soon as she put any weight on it. That left her to face an implacable enemy, unarmed and unable to defend herself or warn her people. That didn’t mean she would go down without a fight. Using a sapling for support, she pushed herself to her feet again and tried to hobble away, but the Paladin quickly closed the distance between them.
His big hand clamped down on her shoulder. She tried to fight free of his grasp, which only sent her stumbling backward. Once again, he reached out to capture her arm, easing her fall. As soon as she was safely on the ground, he released his hold on her and retreated a step.
“Leave me alone! I’m not your enemy.” She scooted back a few inches. “Can’t you forget you ever saw me?”
The deep rumble of his voice when he answered destroyed what little hope she had. “All things considered, that would be a little hard to do, don’t you think? Besides, we need to tell the authorities that some nutcase is up here on the mountain attacking people with a sword.”
He was clearly talking about Tiel, but she gave his broadsword a pointed look. “You really want to call the police in on this? I thought you Paladins were all about secrecy. You wouldn’t want the world to find out that you guys have a free pass to kill all of the innocent Kaliths you want with no repercussions even when they don’t present any kind of threat to you or anyone else.”
To her surprise, he leaned his sword against a rock and knelt on one knee right in front of her, his expression reflecting nothing but concern. “Are you all right? Maybe you hit your head when you fell, because right now you’re not making any sense. I’ve never heard of anybody called a Paladin outside of a history book, much less Kaliths. Is that guy one of them?”
His concern sounded genuine, which surprised her even more than his denial of any knowledge of the Paladins. From everything she’d ever been told about them, they swung their swords first and asked questions only if there was anyone left alive to answer them.
Right now, he was still talking. “I realize you don’t know me from Adam. My name is Eli, and I have no intention of hurting you.”
As if knowing his name made him any more trustworthy. He tilted his head to the side as if waiting for her to introduce herself, but she ignored the unspoken invitation.
“Okay, then. Let’s see what’s wrong with your ankle.” He moved toward her slowly as if afraid of startling her into trying to escape again. Finally, the warmth of his big hands settled around her ankle, his touch gentle as he did a quick assessment of her injury. “My guess is that it’s only sprained, but you might want to get it x-rayed to make sure of that once we get you back down the mountain.”
Before she could do more than squeak in protest, he suddenly swept her up in his arms. “I live just over that ridge. Once we’re there, I’ll wrap your ankle and then we can decide what to do next. We can’t risk hanging around here in case that guy comes back again. I managed to hold him off this time, but that was pure luck. It’s not like I have any experience fighting with swords for real.”
So if he didn’t usually fight with swords, how did he happen to have one when he came charging to her rescue? Nothing about this guy was adding up right, but she was in too much pain to think straight. For sure, it was stupid to let a total stranger carry her off to his cabin. On the other hand, she was probably in less danger going with Eli than she would be stuck out in the woods on her own, especially if Tiel did come back. To make matters worse, it had started to rain, which would only make her position even more precarious.
Resigned to her fate, whatever it might prove to be, she settled against Eli’s muscular chest. Besides, once he wrapped her ankle, she’d stand a better chance of slipping away from him if necessary. The less time she spent in his company, the better. He was bound to start asking questions she couldn’t afford to answer.
After taking only a couple of steps, he spun back around and leaned forward a little. “Can you grab that sword? I could come back for it later, but I’d rather not leave it out here if at all possible.”
It took both of her hands to lift the heavy weapon, but the added weight didn’t slow Eli down at all. He wasn’t even breathing hard when they crested the ridge. She spotted the lights from his cabin in the distance and thought she recognized the place. If she was right, it had belonged to Martin Jervain, one of her grandfather’s old chess partners. She’d been in it once or twice, but that had been years ago.
As far as she’d known, the cabin had been vacant since Martin’s death several months ago. Just how long had Eli been living on the mountain? No one in the police department had mentioned anyone new taking up residence in the cabin. As a deputy herself, she was pretty sure she would’ve heard if anything had been said about it.
Safara waited until Eli carried her inside the cabin before asking any questions in case she was mistaken. But no, as soon as they crossed the threshold, she knew she was right. The place hadn’t changed much at all since the last time she’d visited with her grandfather. “Isn’t this Martin Jervain’s cabin?”
Eli set her down on the overstuffed sofa and propped her ankle up on a pillow. Once he had her situated to his satisfaction, he carried the sword over to the kitchen counter and dried it off with a couple of paper towels. After inspecting the blade, probably checking for any damage from the fight, he returned it to its place on the wall surrounding the stone fireplace. Wow, she’d hadn’t realized Martin had such a huge collection of bladed weapons.
She had about decided that Eli wasn’t going to answer her last question when he finally glanced in her direction again. “Yes, this is Martin’s cabin, or it was, anyway. He left it to... his grandson when he died six months ago.”
Had she only imagined that slight hesitation in his explanation? She couldn’t be sure. “How long have you been living here? I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen you around town.”
