NIGHT EMBRACE Read Free Page B

pain. Worse, his head pulsed as he struggled to stay conscious.
    But it was hard.
    An unconscious Dark-Hunter is a dead one
. The fifth rule of Acheron's handbook came to mind. He had to stay awake.
    With his powers waning from the pain of his injuries, the fog shield began to dissipate.
    Talon cursed. Any time he felt any sort of negative emotion, his powers diminished. It was yet another reason he kept such a stranglehold on them.
    Emotions were deadly to him in more ways than one.
    Slowly, carefully, Talon pushed himself to his feet at the same time he saw the Daimons fleeing down another alley. There was nothing to be done about it. He'd never catch them in his current condition, and even if he did, the worst thing he could do to them was bleed on them.
    Of course, Dark-Hunter blood was poisonous to Daimons…
    Shit. He'd never failed before.
    Grinding his teeth, Talon fought the wave of dizziness that consumed him.
    The woman he'd saved ran to him. By the confused look on her face, he could tell she wasn't sure how to help him.
    Now that he could see her up close, he was taken by her pixielike face. Fire and intelligence burned deep in her large, dark brown eyes. She reminded him of the Morrigán, the raven goddess he had sworn his sword and loyalty to all those centuries before when he had been human.
    Her long, straight black hair fell in braids of all sizes around her head. And she had a smear of charcoal across one cheek. Impulsively, he brushed his hand over it and wiped it from her face.
    Her skin was so soft, so warm, and it smelled strangely like patchouli and turpentine.
    What an odd combination…
    "Oh my God, are you okay?" the woman asked.
    "Yeah," Talon said quietly.
    "I'll call an ambulance," she said.
    "
Nae
!" Talon said in his own language, his body protesting the gesture. "No ambulance," he added in English.
    The woman frowned. "But you're hurt…"
    He met her gaze sternly. "No ambulance."
    She scowled at him until a light appeared in her intelligent eyes, as if she had had an epiphany. "Are you an illegal alien?" she whispered.
    Talon seized on the only excuse he could give her. With his heavy, ancient Celt accent it would be a natural assumption. He nodded.
    "Okay," she whispered to him as she patted him gently on the arm. "I'll take care of you without an ambulance."
    Talon forced himself to move away from the glaring lamplight that hurt his light-sensitive eyes. His broken leg protested, but he ignored it.
    He limped over to lean against a brick building where he could take the pressure off his damaged leg. Again the world tilted.
    Damn. He needed to get to safety. It was still early evening, but the last thing he needed was to be trapped in the city after sunup. Whenever a Dark-Hunter was injured, he or she felt an unnatural urge to sleep. It was a need that would make him dangerously vulnerable if he didn't get home soon.
    He pulled his cell phone out to notify Nick Gautier he was hurt, and quickly learned that his phone, unlike him, wasn't immortal. It was in pieces.
    "Here," the woman said, moving to stand beside him. "Let me help you."
    Talon stared at her. No stranger had ever helped him like this. He was used to fighting his own battles and then cleaning up after them alone.
    "I'm all right," he said. "You go do—"
    "I'm not going to leave you," she said. "You got hurt because of me."
    He wanted to argue, but his body throbbed too badly to bother.
    Talon tried to move away from the woman. He took two steps and the world started to shift again.
    The next thing he knew, everything went black.
    Sunshine barely caught the man before he hit the ground. She staggered from the sheer size and weight of him but somehow kept him from falling over.
    As gently as she could, she lowered him to the sidewalk.
    Note, she said
as gently as
she could.
    As it was, he slammed into the pavement rather forcefully, making her hurt for him all over again as his head practically made a dent in the sidewalk.
    "I'm