Raina’s sprint through the forest started to slow from her exhaustion. Her tired mind began to wander and she thought about Jarek as she pushed her way through unforgiving branches. He and Stephan shared the same brand of sarcasm and the same cool demeanor but that’s where their similarities ended.
Jarek had used his penchant for domination to help her but never to harm her. He had pushed her to open herself up and had only broken her down so that he could help to rebuild her. He had insisted that she trust him and then had proven his loyalty in everything he did for her. She had drawn strength and confidence from his insistence that she look into his eyes during the intimacies she had always turned away from and though he had made her fearful at times, it was always followed by tokens of affection and understanding. He had gathered the pieces of her shattered heart and made her whole again despite the fact that she had always been an unsolvable jigsaw no one could ever piece together quite right.
Her heart called out to him as she picked up speed again, running deeper into the forest. Though he didn’t have their leader’s power of mind speak, she felt that Jarek might be able to hear the desperation inside her heart faster than Dominic would hear the screams for help inside of her mind.
The trees closed in on her as the forest became more dense and Raina had to push away at the branches that tried to block her way. Thorns scratched at her cheeks and the dew from their leaves splashed into her eyes each time she smacked a branch away. When she stopped to regain her bearings, she realized she was completely lost and could no longer tell from which direction she’d been running. Shooting glances in every direction, she utilized all of her senses to their highest capabilities and felt a hot prickly sensation run through the ends of her fingers. Though she heard and saw nothing out of the ordinary, she knew she was not alone.
In sync with her thoughts, she heard something from behind a smaller bush a few feet to her right. Whipping her head toward the sound, she concentrated mainly on her auditory abilities and used them to magnify the sounds around her. The tinny pitch from behind the bush continued but it was difficult to decipher. It sounded like a crying baby or a meowing cat and as she stared at its leaves, her chest shook with the pounding of her heart.
Raina’s peripheral vision caught a movement to her left but when she turned her attention to it, a sound from behind made her turn back again. Raina knew someone hid quietly behind the bushes and that she would not be allowed to flee deeper into the forest. When the noise sounded again, she recognized it for what it was. It was laughter and it was the laughter of a woman.
Slowly, a figure began to appear from behind the bush. As it rose carefully, Raina watched it reach its full height of about five feet. A petite woman with the round face of a pixie stared back at her with a shy smile. Her dark hair fell into crimped locks, as though they had just been released from hundreds of tight braids and her eyes were as dark as her skin was light. Her lips were full and pouty and amused all at once and when Raina spoke, she giggled.
“Who are you? What do you want?” Raina asked, breathless.
Though the pixie did not answer, she continued to snicker in a high, tinny voice that Raina found disconcerting. Her seductive appearance was in sharp