Samhain Publishing Ltd, Ebooks and Books in Print

“We’ll need to give up the chase for this one,” Jorash said, his back-world Alterian twang making the words hard to decipher.

“Why?” Dante asked, and Nick could already hear that note of demand creeping into his voice. The prince didn’t like to be told no.

Jorash stood, his head barely reaching Dante’s chin. “Won’t be worth it. She’s too hard to catch.”

The prince narrowed his eyes, his delicate lips stretching into a thin line, but the effect was spoiled by the sweat pouring off his brow. “Not for me she isn’t.”

Nick rolled his eyes and watched with interest as Jorash tried to dissuade him.

“I have sworn not to chase her again.” The old man shifted, his shadow throwing the flower into darkness, giving definition to where the woman had been lying down to watch them.

Wrong move, Nick thought as his hunter’s brain analyzed the imprint of her body. He’d been wrong to picture her as small and fragile like a captured song bird. She was tall, possibly a few inches shy of his height, and the imprint she’d left implied she had some substance to her.

“Again? How many times have you tried to capture her?” Dante’s excitement jumped in the words, his face looking like a child who’d just been promised a sweet. Nothing turned on the bored prince more than the forbidden. As long as having it didn’t involve real work.

“Many times.” Jorash stared off in the distance, his leather face thoughtful. “I caught her once. Beautiful. Truly beautiful.” He shrugged a scrawny shoulder. “I held her for ten hours before she escaped, killing one of my men in the process. Since then, I’ve chased her only by accident. She is kind enough to leave her sign to warn me off so I don’t waste my time.” A slow smile spread on Jorash’s face, filled with admiration for the Morjan woman.

“Then we’ll have to capture her. No one else will do.” Dante’s voice had a snap to it that was final.

“You will waste your time and money, Prince. It is not worth the investment. We can capture another for you with a fourth of the effort.”

“I want this one,” Prince Dante snarled. “And I’m paying more than you’re worth for the effort. You’re charging by the day, not by the capture.”

After a pause, Jorash nodded to him. “Then we need to hurry. She’s already gotten quite a lead on us. We’ll be lucky to catch her if she’s going into the desert.”

Jorash and Dante returned to their horses, leaving Nick standing there, looking at the flower drawn into the sand. She’d killed for her freedom. She’d escaped. She could warn off her enemies just by making a mark on the ground. She wasn’t small and wilting, but tall and strong and capable.

A chill traveled up his spine. His mind warned him of the danger of letting his obsessive instincts take over, even as the Trilec part of his being slipped its cage, unable to resist the challenge. His nostrils flared wide, searching for her scent. His blood pumped inside his veins, whispering for him to catch the prey, bring it down, possess it.