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As he carried her to the car and placed her gently into it, he surrendered in his internal battle. No matter that it didn’t make any sense at all. Marie was his, and he would avenge every scratch, every bruise, every touch from that knife.
Travis was going to die screaming.
SEVEN
While Ethan made several phone calls warning his pride members of the danger and informing them of Travis’s alpha challenge, Marie spent the time in the car on the ride back to the cabin trying to overcome the terror that had frozen her into immobility in the encounter with Travis. Gradually, fury—both at herself and at Travis—won out over the fear.
By the time Ethan whipped the car into the small driveway in front of Kat’s cabin, anger definitely held the upper hand. She shoved the door open and stumbled out of the car, barely taking a step before Ethan was there, scooping her into his arms again.
“I am able to walk. These are minor injuries, Ethan. Please put me down,” she said and was dismayed to hear the tremble in her voice.
“Humor me,” he said, striding up to the door. He gently lowered her to stand at the door, then quickly opened it and lifted her again, not letting go of her until he reached the overstuffed couch. For a moment his arms tightened around her, and he dropped his forehead to hers. “Never again,” he muttered, and it had the ring of a promise or a threat. “Never again.”
He gently lowered her to the couch and headed for the kitchen. “I know Kat keeps a first-aid kit around here somewhere.” He flung open cupboard doors with barely controlled ferocity, and Marie sat where he’d placed her, just watching him, the tension in all that lean muscle somehow mesmerizing her.
“First-aid kit,” she murmured, realizing what he must mean. “Does that contain medicines to render assistance? If so, it is unnecessary. I have some small skill at healing even in matters not related to childbirth. Perhaps you could find a cloth for me to clean these wounds, though?”
He ran water in the sink and brought a small wet towel to her. “Here’s the cloth. But are you sure? You need antibiotics. Hell, you need to go to the hospital. What was I thinking?” He dragged a hand through his hair, looking every bit as wild-eyed as Travis had. Marie shuddered, not wanting that particular memory to surface just yet.
“No, I do not need the hospital or one of your human doctors. Although they are quite fine at their craft,” she tacked on, not wanting to offend him.
As she wiped the gravel and debris out of her wounds, she fought to keep from wincing too much, since every involuntary flinch seemed to sear through Ethan, as well. “It looks worse than it is, perhaps,” she lied.
“He hurt you,” Ethan said in a feral tone of voice she’d never heard from him before. “There could be nothing worse.”
Her anger at herself returned. “I was useless. I have the ability to call water, and I never thought to use it. I was rendered completely immobile from shock and fear.”
He lifted a dangling strand of her hair and tucked it behind her shoulder. “That’s nothing to be ashamed of, Marie. You’re not used to violence. I was damn near frozen, too, when I saw that knife pressed against your throat.”
She shuddered. “I have never been touched in anger of any kind, let alone harmed or threatened. The violence of it is soul-deadening, is it not?”
Ethan stood, clenching his fists and paced back and forth in the small space, as if the fury riding him needed some outlet before he exploded. “Yeah. It is. And those of us who live by violence wonder sometimes if there is anything left of our soul.”
She finished cleaning her wounds and folded the towel and placed it on the floor. “You echo the concerns my brother and his fellow warriors have all shared at times. But when there is no recourse but for violence, and it is done in the name of protecting the defenseless, surely the gods will forgive any stain upon the soul caused by the doing of it?”
He crossed back to her and crouched down next to her. “I don’t know the answer to that. The doings of gods are far above my territory. But we need to get you to a hospital, please, Marie. Your neck is still bleeding.”
She drew a deep breath. “First may I hold your hands?”
He unclenched his hands and held them out to her. “That’s the best offer I’ve had all day.”
She smiled a little at his attempt at humor, then took his hands in her own. The healing was fairly minor, but she was weakened by the residual fear and the pain. She could amplify her healing powers through the strength of another, and she suspected Ethan’s strength was far and away powerful enough to assist her. “Please hold still and do not remove your hands while I do this. You will feel a faint warmth.”
He nodded, and she closed her eyes and called to the Goddess. “O, Goddess of the Nereids, it is your First Maiden who calls upon you. Please lend me your strength and your healing and your power, through my own small means and through the freely offered power of this man before me. Heal my injuries that I may serve you in full measure, O Lady.”
For a moment, there was nothing but the pain in her hands, knees, and throat, and the rapid beating of her heart, caused as much by the feel of Ethan’s hands in her own as by her injuries, she suspected.
Suddenly, the warm glow she’d experienced before in hundreds of healings swept through her body, focused and concentrated on the wounded areas of her skin. Even as the healing sent shimmers of sparkling heat through her, she watched the abrasions and cuts heal before her eyes. Ethan made some small noise, and she looked up to find his face mere inches from hers, his eyes wide.
“It’s like magic,” he murmured.
She smiled at him, invigorated by the healing power of her Goddess. “You who are part human and part beautiful, lethal cat would doubt the existence of magic?”
“Any man who looked at you could not doubt the existence of magic, Marie,” he said. His eyes darkened to a burnished gold, and he leaned forward and kissed her.
He kissed her, and the healing warmth exploded into an inferno. Flames swept through her body and her blood, and she was helpless to do anything but lean into his kiss. He never released her hands, but somehow she was on his lap and felt the hardness of his desire pressing against her.
Ethan’s tongue pressed against her lips, demanding entrance, and
