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"All I need now is the powdered eggs, canned beans and coffee that were in my pack and I&039;ll die happy"
Too exhausted to care whatfor a tasty hue and down a steep incline The ceiling constricted and lowered, until she had to crouch and kneel How long she crawled, she didn&039;t know Minutes? Hours? She only knew she needed to find a smooth, dry surface so that she could sleep Gradually a ribbon of light appeared The er She followed
And found Paradise
Light crowned a small, iridescent pool of water? The dappled ice-blue liquid seeel Instead of lying on the ground, however, the pool hung upright at a slight angle, much like a portrait on a wall Yet there was no wall to support it
Why wasn&039;t it spilling over? she wondered dazedly Her foggy brain couldn&039;t quite sort through the bizarre information Balmy tendrils of mist enveloped the entire haven A few ethereal strands reached the cavern top, swirling, circling, then gently dipping back down
She uttered a nervous laugh, and the sound echoed all around her
Grace reached out carefully, e substance At the moment of contact, a violent jolt exploded within her, and she felt as if her entire being was sucked into a vacuu her in every direction
The world cruile, needed piece, until finally ceasing to exist Terror unfurled and consu down Her arible object greeted her palh-pitched, dishar all around her She covered her ears to block the sound She needed the noise to stop, had to rew louder More intense
"Help me!" she cried
Stars burst like fireworks at her side, spinning her round and round Spinning her up and down Waves of nausea churned inside her stoain any sense of ti quieted
Her feet touched a hard surface; she swayed but didn&039;t fall The nausea slowly receded Cautiously she shifted her feet, ascertaining that she truly stood on a stable foundation
In Out Relieved, she drew in a breath and slowly let it out In Out When her head cleared, she cracked open her eyelids A haze of dew still rose fro ivy coht was spoiled only by the stark contours of the gloomy cavern-a cavern that was different from the one she&039;d first entered
Her brows furrowed Here, the rocky walls were covered with strange, colorful otten ash And was that splattered blood? Shuddering, she tore her gaze away The floor was das, rocks and straw Several crudely carved chairs pushed against the far corner
Instead of miserable humidity, she inhaled air as cold as winter ice Air that possessed a sickeningly metallic bite The walls were taller, wider And when she&039;d first entered, the dappled pool had been on the right side, not on the left
How had her surroundings changed so drastically and quickly without heron? This couldn&039;t be a dreahts and s Had she died? No, no This certainly wasn&039;t heaven, and it was too cold to be hell
So what had happened?
Before hersnapped
Grace&039;s chin whipped to the side, and she found herself staring up into cold, ice-blue eyes that swirled in startling precision with the mist She sucked in an awed breath The owner of those extraordinary eyes was the most ferociously masculine man she&039;d ever seen A scar slashed from his left eyebrow all the way to his chin His cheekbones were sharp, his jaw square The only softness to his face was his gloriously lush ave hiel
He stood in front of her, at least six foot five and pure, raw muscle He was shirtless, his stoth A six-pack, she mused, the first she&039;d ever seen in real life Shards of listening beads of moisture on his bronzed, tattooed chest
Those tattoos were glowing, but on spread criht out of his skin, like a 3-D ion&039;s tail dipped low, past the waist of the black leather pants Around its body were black syed points These stretched the length of his collarbone and around the biceps
The man hi, h her, but that didn&039;t stop her froly sensual He reed, wild anier radiated from his every pore, from the dark rim of his crystalline, predator eyes, to the blades strapped to his boots
With a flick of his wrist, he twirled the sword around his head
She inched backward Surely he didn&039;t her as if he really did h "Put that away before you hurt soave the lethal weapon another twirl, brandishing the sharp silver with strong, sure hands His washboard abs rippled as he moved closer to her Not a trace of eer, fear, orher no clue as to why he felt the need to practice sword-slicing techniques in front of her
He stared at her She stared back, and told herself it was because she was too afraid to look away
"I ed when he didn&039;t respond
Before her horror-filled eyes, his sword began to slice doard, ai to kill her! On instinct, she swiped her gun froed in her throat, burning like acid as she squeezed the trigger Click, click, click
Nothing happened
Shit Shit ! The cylinder was empty She uide The gun shook in her hand, and terror wrapped around her with the chill of a wintry stor for a way out The , strong body now blocked it
"Please," she whispered, not knohat else to do or say
Either the man didn&039;t hear her, or he didn&039;t care what she said His sharp, deadly sword continued to inch closer and closer to her neck
She squeezed her eyelids tightly shut