She howled as the fiery steel sizzled against her flesh. Burnt skin odors burrowed into her senses. Writhing, she thrashed against the rocker. Jerked against the crazed stranger's grip. "Hold still." Cursing, Reeve wrenched her wrist in a tightening grip. "You ain't goin' nowhere." He peeled the blade away, ripping a…
A wisp of smoke curled from the fireplace and traced the storyteller's jawline. Reeve sucked his crooked teeth as he surveyed the writhing flames. "There's critters born tender as kittens. But earth's foul air can poison things. So a purr can't be trusted. At any moment, a sweet-sounding thing'll carve your…
Between her shoulder blades, hairs prickled up her spine to the nape of her neck. Rayanna shuddered under the grizzled hunter's glare and forced herself to sit in the unsteady rocker. "If I don't know my story, how can I ..." She hesitated, regretting the impulse to blurt her concern aloud.…
Musky stew grease still coated Rayanna's tongue. And her host's line of questioning didn't help the swill of bad tastes filling her mouth. She grimaced, unable to swallow away traces of bile. "Guilty of what?" She rose a few inches, but didn't make it to her feet. Reeve kicked the…
Reeve glowered in the shadow of the flames raging at his back. With his curled lip and statuary position he seemed almost like a grotesque carving mortared in with the hearth stones. The fire's heat surged past him and pricked at the scabbing wounds on Rayanna's face and arms. She dipped…
Greasy strings of flesh clung to the utensil as Rayanna rested it against the edge of the pie tin. She inched the pungent stew across her lap, toward her knees. Raising her chin, she inhaled welcome pine smoke odors. "What's the story about these wolvish creatures?" As she eased her shoulders…
Steam and smoke slithered around the cauldron and hissed over the hearth. Reeve hooked his poker into the lid and removed it. He ladled marshy chunks into a pie tin. When he handed it to her with a flick of his wrist, its stiff lumps remained mudded to the center…
Silence compressed a million racing thoughts into each moment, until the shack's limited air space became too dense to breathe. "So..."Rayanna shifted in her chair. She pointed at a stack of newspapers next to Reeve's feet. "Do you get that delivered from the local press?" "This henhouse liner, here?" He snatched…
Bristly appendages stretched up over the table's edge in front of her. A spider emerged with them and Rayanna gasped. It skittered past the lantern and traced her host's forearm, resting on the table's surface. The man didn't flinch. "You got nerves strung higher'n cat gut on a fiddle. But are…
Bristly appendages stretched up over the table's edge in front of her. A spider emerged with them and Rayanna gasped. It skittered past the lantern and traced her host's forearm, resting on the table's surface. The man didn't flinch. "You got nerves strung higher'n cat gut on a fiddle. But are…
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