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Teddy grunted in pain and blinked his eyes open He was still in his zipped-up sleeping bag, or mostly, his arm had escaped and he&039;d turned in his sleep and thuainst the stone lip of the fireplace It was the source of the pain radiating up his ar, he pulled the arood hand, his eyes shooting to Katricia She was still asleep on the couch, but her sleeping bag was undone and half off her
He wondered briefly as happening in the drea, then tried to settle down to sleep again, eager to get back to it, but now that he ake he are that the room was much colder than it had been when he&039;d fallen asleep Frowning, Teddy glanced to the fire to see that it had burned down to enored it and went back to sleep anyway, but recalling that Katricia was farther away from the fire and half-uncovered, he reluctantly sat up and then slid fros to the fire There were only two logs left, he saith a frown He hadn&039;t noticed earlier they were running low or he would have fetched in s in the fire and poked at thehtened and quickly pulled on his jeans and sweater over his flannels He then started to head over and get his coat, but paused beside the couch long enough to cover up Katricia Immortals weren&039;t affected by cold like mortals, but they were still affected The nanos would be using up blood at an accelerated rate to fight the cold and Katricia couldn&039;t afford that As confident as she&039;d been that, snow or no snow, her blood delivery would come, it hadn&039;t shown yet
Katricia stirred sleepily as he tugged the sleeping bag back into place over her, and Teddy paused to peer at her for a moment The dream was still fresh and clear in his mind, but it suddenly occurred to him to wonder if that wasn&039;t all it had been Maybe he just wanted to believe they were life mates and it had really just been all his own drea When she&039;d said it was a shared dream and they were life mates, he&039;d been happy to believe it In fact, he&039;d eagerly e what both Mabel and Elvi had found: a relationship of earthshaking passion, co friendship and love
Teddy was too pragmatic to believe he loved Katricia already It had only been a day, but he was pretty sure he was firmly headed that way The woman was justWell, she was sassy as hell, smart as a whip, and had a killer sense of huht, card gahed with any woman ever
She was also sexy as sin He hadn&039;t been kidding in the dream when he&039;d said he&039;d been half-erect all day Every time he&039;d looked at her, little Teddy had perked up like a happy dog&039;s ears And he wouldn&039;t have been surprised to hear his tongue had been hanging out half the day like that saue He&039;d never encountered a female who affected hi one for Teddy He&039;d been half in love with Ellen "Elvi" Black since he was a boy No other woman had been able to compare, in his ht such an abrupt end to their conversation when Katricia had asked if he meant he&039;d never found anyone he loved, or anyone he&039;d loved as much as Elvi Because he&039;d alht in his head had startled the hell out of Teddy in that moment But he now realized that, as much as he&039;d loved Elvi, it see boy&039;s love, a sort of adoration, but without the gritty lust he felt for Katricia If he&039;d felt half as hot for Elvi as he did for Katricia, he wouldn&039;t have simply stood by and watched her marry her mortal husband, and then he wouldn&039;t have set out to find her a vampire mate He&039;d have been desperate to claiht he&039;d stood aside for Elvi&039;s sake, that he&039;d not wanted to stand in the way of her happiness But the fact of the matter was, he suspected she&039;d just been an ideal to him The perfect, untouchable female He didn&039;t even think he&039;d wanted her for real Not like he wanted Katricia, because while he&039;d stood aside for Elvi, he already knew he couldn&039;t do that with Katricia He couldn&039;t and wouldn&039;t stand aside for her to find happiness with someone elsewhich would be a problem if they weren&039;t really lifeon his part
Sighing, Teddy ran one hand wearily through his hair, then turned and rab his coat and boots Rather than risk waking Katricia, he took them with him and slid out into the icy vestibule He pulled the door silently closed before quickly donning thehts and slipped outside
It had been cold that day, but it was even worse in the dead of night The snow crunched under foot, the wind hit his face like icy sandpaper, and the moisture in his nose froze before he&039;d taken half a dozen steps They definitely needed the wood, he thought griot back inside, he should probably set his watch alarain In this kind of weather, they could freeze to death if the fire went out Chances were the cold would wake him, but if it didn&039;twell, he didn&039;t even want to think about that
The tarp crinkled stiffly when he pulled it back to get to the wood it protected Teddy quickly scooped up as e He was nearly to the deck when he spotted light through the leafless trees between the cottage and the lakeshore in front of it Pausing, he eyed it for a ed direction and walked around in front of the deck, traveling several feet down the gentle incline to get a better look without the trees in the way
A slow smile curved Teddy&039;s lips when he was able to see it clearly A cottage across the lake was lit up like a Christ from everyIt wasn&039;t the fact that they had power that made him smile, but that there was so he could walk across the frozen lake and ask to use the phone to take care of the power probleht even be able to beg a ride into town for better provisions to get them by until the road was clear and they could drive out
A loud rustling in the trees behind and to the side of hiht his ear Teddy stiffened, and then slowly turned his head to peer over his shoulder He spotted the large, lunized it at once as a bear There were few ani one of theh, was a rarity indeed Bears didn&039;t hibernate, as ht, at least not a true hibernation with the metabolic depression and lower body teht&039;s stor nearby its den orWell, it could be anything, but whatever the case, the beast was up and probably hungry
Teddy didn&039;t panic right away He was doind and in the shadow of the trees The bear wasn&039;t likely to see or smell him and would, no doubt, lumber on his way after a moment or two He just had to wait out the beastand maybe pray the anirie when the door suddenly opened
"Teddy?" Katricia called, stepping out onto the deck in her coat and boots and peering toward the shed "Do you need help?"
Panic seized Teddy then He didn&039;t even think; seeing the bear pause and turn slowly in Katricia&039;s direction, he let all but one of the logs he carried drop and started forward, roaring, "Get back inside!"
Katricia turned his ith surprise, but Teddy&039;s attention was on the bear, who had turned and was now facing them both The beast hesitated, and for one moment, Teddy had hope that the bear would be scared off by the sudden activity and noise But it was h that noise and motion wouldn&039;t put hied
"Get inside!" Teddy repeated, raising his log as he ran He continued to shout as he raced forward, log upraised,and threatening as he could The bear didn&039;t even slow It was like a game of chicken, but at the last e and swung for the side of the bear&039;s head with all hisup his arh and felt the claws of one paw tear into his chest and stoain even as he stu to whack the beast in the snout as the bear turned toward him The bear roared in pain and fury and rose up on his hind legs Teddy was pretty sure he was done for when the sudden blast of a gun exploded to his side
Startled, Teddy turned to find Katricia rushing down the stairs, his gun in hand, and pointing at the air as she loosed another bullet He stared at her blankly, wondering how she&039;d got inside, grabbed his gun, and got back so fast, but then recalled immortals had incredible speed He turned to peer back toward the bear, relieved to see the large back end of the beast disappearing into the trees Apparently, the coh to ht?" Katricia was in front of hih to reveal the concern on her face "I s in his hands, teeth gritting as he beca in his chest, but merely shook his head "Don&039;t worry about it, I&039;s he&039;d dropped
"Teddy, your coat&039;s ripped," Katricia said, following "Lether away "We need to get the wood and get inside in case he changes his mind and comes back You can look at it then"
Katricia hesitated, but then hurried past the stairs and the end of the deck to quickly gather up the logs he&039;d dropped to go after the bear Teddy was relieved not to have to do it hiinning to seep out of hi her to it, he stopped at the stairs and pressed the log he carried to his chest to free his other hand to hold the rail He started up the four short steps, frowning at howMount Everest, and he aying, his hold on the rail the only thing keeping hiht
"Teddy?" The concern in Katricia&039;s voice hten and force hied to pull it open and stagger inside He even e, but then he was suddenly on his knees and slu to his chest, instinctively pressing it tight against the pain beginning to radiate there
"Teddy!"
He heard the crash of the wood hitting the vestibule floor behind hi slipped from his hold and dropped to the floor as she lifted him to his feet from behind and propelled him out of the doorway and inside The dahed no ust as she moved him to a kitchen chair and set him in it These io