Exile: Sídhí Summer Camp #3 (10 page)

Brianna screamed shrilly as she shot out of
the tunnel.

Seconds later, Nick and Sarah followed her.
The massive chasm glowed with power.

Nick grabbed for Sarah, but her lighter body
shot farther out into the open air of the vast area.

Sarah twisted her head around, seeking a
possible solution. She started falling.

Of all the rotten, stinking luck, she fumed.
She mentally screamed for Mac, but he still didn’t answer her.

She looked down, dreading what she would see.
The massive river was made entirely of whitish-clear liquid, synth
crystal, Dragon Valley’s primary crystal spring.

A spikey, white ceiling arched high above
their heads. Several miles separated the un-scalable walls of
crystal. Dozens of caves gaped along the jagged walls, dotting the
entire length with massive waterfalls. Pure, liquid energy plunged
into the deep chasm, creating a massive ocean of untapped
power.

Stubbornly refusing defeat, she reached for
the ability to control the synth crystal surrounding her, but the
barrier remained firmly in place.

The instant they shot into the air, she
watched Nick’s gaze latch onto her. He angled his body like a
skydiver, trying to use the wind of their fall to maneuver closer
to her. A second later, they plunged into the underground synth
spring. The liquid surrounded her, tingling across her skin.

Surging upward, she broke the surface and
gasped for breath.

Nick, right beside her, did the same.

His hand slid around her arm, urging her in
the opposite direction. “Can you see it?” he shouted over the roar
of the falls, nodding his head to something behind her.

She turned and saw Brianna swimming toward a
ledge.

They struggled against the churning water and
finally managed to reach the milk colored ledge. The smooth surface
rose two feet above her head. She grabbed the curve of the ledge,
but her hands slipped off.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nick go
under.

Heart racing, she reached for him and
missed.

His hands wrapped around her waist, and he
surged upward, shoving her higher toward the ledge.

She grabbed the slick ledge and pulled
herself onto the smooth surface.

Turning, she scrambled on hands and knees.
Leaning over the side, she stretched her hand toward Nick.

Nick scowled at her. “Help Brianna up first,”
he ordered.

Sarah curled her lips into a snarl. "No," she
stated flatly, leaving her hand held out toward him, she held his
eyes in a silent battle.

Murmuring softly under his breath, she almost
didn’t hear him call her stubborn before reaching for her hand.

She closed her fingers around his and pulled.
Immediately, she began sliding over the slick surface toward the
edge. She tried to stop her forward momentum, but his weight was
too much. Her grip began slipping.

Without warning, he released his hold on her
and she sprawled backward.

“Now, help Brianna,” Nick said, glaring holes
through her.

Sarah snarled and finally moved a few feet
away toward Brianna. The girl's slender hands appeared on the edge
as she tried climbing the slick wall.

Sarah grasped her wrist and pulled. They both
slipped, but she succeeded in dragging the girl up.

Brianna knelt on the ledge for a few moments,
coughing up what liquid she swallowed. She rasped her thanks.

Together, they reached for Nick and pulled.
Every time they managed to get him partway up, he began slipping
backward.

Finally, he hooked an arm over the edge and
stopped sliding backward.

They paused, catching their breath.

Knowing they were at a standstill, Sarah
reached over his back and slid her hand between his denim-covered
thighs. “Hang on,” Sarah said in a growl.

She felt him shudder, growing hard.

“Sarah,” he said, groaning her name.

She curled her hand to the side of his
private area. Clenching his inner thigh, she pulled as hard as she
could. Suddenly, he slipped. She grabbed for anything to hold onto
and pulled him toward her.

“Sarah!” Nick bellowed in a deep-throated
voice, sliding over the rim of the ledge and into her lap.

^____________

Nick ground his teeth together as another
shaft of desire slammed through him. Hard as a rock, he groaned and
opened his eyes to paradise.

His nose lay between Sarah’s pert breasts. He
shuddered and slammed his eyes shut. That increased his other
senses. He inhaled. Her sinfully addictive scent, a heady mixture
of heather and hyacinth, uniquely Sarah, swirled through him. Her
scent intensified, entwining around the heady smell of an afternoon
thunderstorm, fresh and explosive as the wind whipped through the
trees.

Her heart raced as she released him ever so
slowly.

Groaning with pleasure and agony, he pushed
away from the one woman he wanted more than his own life, a woman
that he could never claim as his very own lifeMate.

“Nick,” she said in that soft voice that went
straight to his heart every darn time.

“Not now,” he growled, clenching his teeth so
hard he feared they would crack. He jerked his body farther away
from hers, relishing in the pain it caused him. That is, until he
looked at her face.

Her flushed face lost all color and her eyes
filled with moisture. His soul cringed as the pain of his rejection
flitted across her face. She blinked rapidly, destroying the trace
of weakness.

Her trembling lip lifted in a snarl. Jumping
up, she stalked away, following the narrow ledge as the path ran
along the base of the crystal cliff.

He released a pent-up hiss.

Even furious, Sarah was the most exquisite
female he had ever laid eyes on.

Hours later, Sarah’s long legged stride
slowed to a halt. Head tilted upward, she looked at the glowing
script etched around the entrance of a wide tunnel. The odd opening
was the only break in the massive cliff wall.

Nick prayed the solitary tunnel led to the
surface. If it didn't, they were stuck in the crystal chasm.

"You think it goes to the surface?" Brianna
asked worriedly, echoing his thoughts.

Sarah remained silent, ignoring him and
Brianna as she walked into the tunnel.

"Hope so," Nick said, following Sarah down
the tunnel.

The thirty-foot cylinder of synth crystal
slowly narrowed to twenty feet then ten feet. Gaping holes appeared
along the wall. He had no way of knowing, but he had a feeling that
if they had aimed for the right-hand tunnel they would have ended
up here instead of the synth spring.

The curved walls became straight. Doorways
with no exits appeared every few feet on either side of the
corridor. The walls, the doors, everything was made of synth
crystal.

Sarah reached forward to touch the hard inner
surface of a doorway.

His gut clenched, and fear ripped through
him.

He grabbed for her hand. Unsurprisingly, he
missed as her hand slipped gracefully through his grasp. "Touching
old things of power is never a smart move," he said in a growl.

Her eyes, cold as ice, glanced at him and
dismissed him without another thought.

The brush-off hurt a heck of a lot more than
her cold attitude would have three weeks earlier. Meeting only
through dreams, he could stand firm against wanting her as his
mate. She had been nothing but an evil exile. That firm stance
stopped the moment he laid eyes on her for the first time.

The memory was the most vivid one of his
entire life. He remembered her standing on the cabin deck, her
glorious, moonbeam colored hair whipped around her slender hips and
captured his very soul. He would take her beloved image with him to
his grave.

His big body trembled as reality hit him in
the heart.

He loved her.

At the beginning of camp, he had tried
killing the emotion by being hateful to her, but every harsh word
he spoke to her cut him until he bled from the pain he knew he
caused her.

A slight movement pulled his attention to the
very painful present.

Sarah turned. Staring at him with an
emotionless mask covering her face, she slowly and firmly placed
the palm of her hand in the middle of a doorway. A single,
sarcastic eyebrow shot upward annoying the hell out of him.

He clenched his fist against his thigh. It
was the only thing that kept him from reaching for her once more.
Blast her. Even though he’d never uttered the words, she had to
know he loved her. That he would die for her. She also knew why he
refused to bond with her.

He could easily overlook her blood-only diet.
Every vampire craved blood, but she wasn’t just a blood-drinking
exile.

He could’ve even learned to accept her
family, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t see past her
evil reputation, a rep built on the torture and assassination of
innocents. A bloody reputation she arrogantly admitted to.

He swallowed a curse and knew he would even
overlook her horrid past if not for his brother. He had a sinking
feeling that his first contact with Sarah had not been her first
contact with his family.

He watched Brianna walk farther down the
hallway, glancing at each doorway.

“We need to talk,” Nick said quietly,
motioning in the direction they had come.

She shook her head. “No need, you’ve made
your position quite clear. You don’t want me – the female who was
supposed to be your mate – to be physically hurt, but you also hate
me with a passion. My very touch disgusts you.”

“Sarah,” he growled.

“You needn’t worry about my continued
unwelcome advances. I finally understand how much you hate me,” she
said glaring at him. A hint of pain glimmered in her eyes, hitting
him so hard he nearly gasped from the hurt he caused her. “Once we
get out of here, I’m finding one of the Dyrst’Lye dragons. That
should put an end to everything.”

Nick snapped his teeth together. He hated it
when people threatened things that went totally over his head. “And
who are the Dyrst’Lye?”

“Very funny. You’ve become more of a comedian
than Mitch.” She turned her back to him, sliding her hands down the
doorframe. “Everyone knows a Dyrst’Lye dragon can destroy the
lifeBud before the organ fully blooms, but not after the mate bond
is sealed.”

“What?” Nick snarled in horror. Fear surged
through him at the thought of forever losing her. If a person had
their lifeBud destroyed, they could not mentally bond with their
mate. He grabbed for her, but his hand grasped empty air.

“Do. Not. Touch. Me.” Sarah glared at him, a
look filled with lethal promises. The deadly expression was one he
had never received from her.

“I never said I hated you,” he said
carefully, once again curling his hands into fists.

She snorted. “As if you had to tell me how
much I disgusted you when your actions spoke of your hatred. No,”
she held up an imperious hand, “I’m sick to death of you not
trusting me.”

“And what have you said to convince me?” he
demanded. He stepped into her private space, glaring into her
ice-cold eyes. “Nothing, not one thing have you said to make me
trust you. But even after all of that, I’d ignore your bloody
reputation if I thought you weren’t the one who killed my
brother.”

With a sinking heart, he watched her eyes
widen a bare fraction.

^____________

Sarah blinked and simply could not meet his
gaze so she glared at the wall behind him.

“What about my brother?” he questioned in a
shaky voice.

“Brother?” Her blood ran to ice, draining
from her face in a rush. She carefully shook her head. There was no
way he could know about her involvement with his brother. She
firmly told herself that he'd been too far away to recognize
her.

She steeled her nerve and looked him in the
eyes.

“Yes,” he hissed, as his gaze burned holes
through her. He was only a few inches taller, maybe four or five,
but at that moment, he seemed to tower over her. “You keep rambling
on about protecting your people, but you forget that I know exiles
don't protect, they kill.”

He sucked in a deep breath and looked like he
was about to visit the gallows. “Seven years ago, my brother took
me to the Alaska State Fair. He wanted to show me the massive
vegetables they grew because up north they have so much daylight.
He raved about it.”

Nick swung away from her, stomping several
feet away. He shoved a shaking hand through his tousled hair. “We
were leaving the fair when I asked for another funnel cake. I
remembered he laughed and told me to meet him at the car. God, I
was only twelve, but his trust in me made me feel so grown-up.”

“Please, you've said enough. I get it.” Her
heart tightened painfully.

“Do you?” He asked harshly, grabbing her
arms, he lifted her until they stood eye-to-eye. “He was everything
to me and you people, you filthy exiles killed him. I was running
toward the car when I saw the assassin port behind him. The
assassin was a girl, a mere slip of a girl with white-blond hair.
She looked straight at me. Her eyes glowed red in the setting sun.
I swore I'd remember her face, but she was a pre-pub and after
puberty, she changed. Did you know he looked straight at me when
she killed him? I shouted, but he never stood a chance. She thrust
her sword through his back. Before I could take another step, they
ported away.”

“Richard was older. A sword through his chest
wouldn't have killed him,” Sarah said softly, aching with the pain
she'd inadvertently caused Nick. Could fate have dealt her any
worse a blow? She didn't think so, at least not until he spoke
again.

“You’re right. A sword through his heart
wouldn’t have killed him, but I'm sure over the next few weeks he
wished he was dead. The assassin even sent us a lock of his hair
wrapped in a black ribbon,” he said, glaring at her. “A black
ribbon is Lady Sarah Trellick’s calling card. Isn’t it?”