Free Warrior Rising by Linda Winstead Jones Page B

didn’t stir. She would think the witch dead if not for the healthy pink of her cheeks and the gentle, steady breaths. She called again, louder, and then she reached out and shook the bed.
    That did the trick. Nevada came up in a shot, with a sharp intake of breath and a shake of her mussed red hair. “What’s wrong?”
    “We have no time to waste,” Indikaiya snapped. “You have a task and you need to see to it.” Luca would be leaving this place soon. He needed something to dampen his annoying gift .
    “I’m starving,” Nevada said as she rolled out of bed. She wore the most ridiculous nightwear. Short pants, small shirt. And was that… ducks? The creatures on Nevada’s wrinkled pajamas looked like no living thing that had ever existed in reality.
    “Rurik is bringing food.”
    Nevada headed for the bathroom. “I don’t think it will take long to finish up. This job is much easier than the last one.” She glanced back. “The sanctuary spell is holding?”
    “Yes.”
    Her relief was evident. “Good.”
    The girl spent several minutes behind closed doors. Indikaiya heard the flush of a toilet, running water, the brushing of teeth. There was an annoying long wait before the door opened and Nevada stepped out, dressed casually, and with her hair pulled back into a hastily formulated and somewhat messy braid. It was a sensible hairstyle, which is why Indikaiya herself had adopted it long ago.
    Rurik arrived with a plate of eggs and bacon, along with a piece of toast. “Protein,” he said, a testy aside to Indikaiya. He looked at Nevada with… longing? Lust? Caring? All of those, it seemed. As if they could afford such complications!
    “Never fear, pretty witch,” he said. “It was one of the conduits who did the cooking. I am not what anyone would call good in the kitchen.”
    The girl smiled at Rurik. She was too sleep-muddled and stressed to show much in the way of interest in anything or anyone, but her eyes did spark a bit.
    Indikaiya turned her head away. It was as if she were intruding on a private moment. She frowned. It would be beyond foolish for Rurik to get involved with a human. When the time came, when this war was over, the Warriors would return to the burial grounds of others of their kind, and they would walk back to their own world to wait for the next time they were called. That was what they lived for. The next battle.
    Rurik placed the tray on a small desk near the window and left the room — reluctantly, it seemed — and Nevada sat to eat as if she had not consumed solid food in days.
    Before she finished, the vampire Sorin walked into the room. He did not knock, but then Rurik had left the door open. So he could peer in now and then? Perhaps.
    “I have found your family,” he said, directing his words to Nevada. “They are all well.”
    The witch dropped the piece of bacon she’d been carrying toward her mouth, sprang to her feet with a girlish squeal, and ran to the vampire to hug him. The hug did not last, and the girl moved back and away as quickly and sharply as she had moved in. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m just excited. First the sanctuary spell and now this. Where are they? Are they safe? Did you talk to them?”
    Sorin looked taken aback. By the hug or by all the questions? “I located them shortly before sunrise. I didn’t drop in for tea.”
    “You didn’t even…” Nevada began.
    Sorin’s words were sharp. “I kidnapped them, in case you have forgotten. I suspect they have not. Not one of them would be so foolish as to throw their arms around me.”
    The girl blushed. “You’ve changed,” she said softly.
    “You put a spell on me,” he said, accusation in his voice.
    Nevada glanced to the side, as if she had been caught doing something she should not. “Maybe a little one, but you had begun to change before that.”
    He waved an impatient hand, ending the conversation. “I have much to do. Vampires have finally made the news. For days our existence