Eternal Beauty

Go! Go now!

But the male didn't move. It was as though he were rooted to the spot, unable to look away, unable to break free. Didn't he understand? Daybreak was seconds away. Petra's mind spun, her skin shivered with anxiety. And as the first pale yellow rays moved over the stretch of earth below her, panic flared white hot inside of her. Living with Shifters had taught her to trust her instincts above all else. She may not understand what drove this desperate fear raging through her blood, but she believed something terrible was about to happen.

Her gaze lifted, caught the rays of the sun, and followed them as they moved over their prey. Petra froze, her eyes wide with terror and shock as she watched the female's body begin to smoke.

Smoke . . . Gods, where there is smoke there will be-

Petra's eyes cut to the male. He remained, standing over the female, watching her. Heat surged into Petra's chest, and she opened her mouth to scream.

Move, damn you! Move!

But before she could utter a word, the female's body erupted into flames.

The male cried out and dropped to his knees.

Unable to hold herself back a moment more, Petra leaped from the edge of the cliff, hit a rock below, and jumped again. She landed with a jaw-cracking thud onto the black earth several feet away from the male. Every inch of her shaking with fear, she ran at him and threw herself on top of his massive frame. He was huge and blisteringly hot. Growling in pain, no doubt out of his mind, he tried to buck her off. But Petra refused to let go. Instinct as old as the dirt they struggled atop drove her to protect him, but the sun was even older and far more powerful. For reasons she knew not, it attacked every inch of skin it could claim on the male-his hands, the front of his neck. He fought it like he fought her, but it was useless. Weak with pain, he jerked forward and collapsed beside the red-haired female, who was turning to cinder and ash before her eyes.

Not the male! her mind screamed. Not knowing or caring where the strength would come from, she grabbed his arms and began pulling him back toward the cave. His deadweight had her stumbling a few times, but she was past determined. She was possessed. However hurt this male was, he would not die; he would not sustain any more burns than he already had. As she strained and pulled, groaned and cursed, she kept her gaze on his blistering face, his closed eyes, and his bared teeth. Teeth? No . . . those were . . .

Canines? Did he belong here? Was he a Shifter? And if he was, why wasn't he protecting himself? Why wasn't he-

"No," he uttered hoarsely, cutting off her thoughts as they reached the mouth of the cave. "Leave me. Let me be."

Petra ignored him. The internal drive to save him, keep him for the sun, was too strong. In fact, the more he struggled, the stronger and more determined she became.

"Stop fighting me," she said through gritted teeth. "Do you want to die?"

"I need to be with her." His accent was strange and unfamiliar.

"You need to be out of the sun!" she returned.

Groaning with the effort, she continued to pull him inside, yanking him back, all the way to the deepest, darkest part of the cave. Once there, she breathed a quick sigh of relief, but it was all he would grant her. The moment she released him-the moment she collapsed in an exhausted heap-he was scrambling to his hands and knees and crawling back toward the mouth, toward the sun.

Dammit! She ran after him, her legs slow and her arms shaking. But she managed to catch him, grab him by the ankles and start the process over again.

"Goddamn you, stop it!" she cried out. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Release me."

She squeezed his ankles even tighter. "You're insane."

"I have to see her," he said, his voice hoarse and desperate as he fought to move forward. "I can't make that mistake again."

Panting, she continued to try and haul him back toward the cool darkness. "What mistake?" But it was like trying to rein in a charging bull.

"I thought she was dead once before," he said, nearly at the mouth of the cave-nearly in the path of the sun. "I have to see her."

It was all she could do. Petra leaped on top of him, taking the sun's rays upon her. The male cursed and moaned, but ceased his struggle as he stared straight ahead. Petra lifted her gaze, wanting to know what had changed his manic need to get outside, get to the female. But when she saw it, she gasped with horror and shock. The female's body was gone. Only a pile of sparkling black ash remained. Black ash that, before their very eyes, was rising slowly into the air and little by little blowing away on the morning breeze.

Her breath catching in her throat, Petra watched until the very last bit of ash was gone. Then silence followed. The wind calmed. Not even a single heartbeat sounded.

Slowly, Petra rolled off the male, trying to make sense of what she'd just witnessed. She knew magic, she knew the amazing gift that was shifting from human to animal, but never in her life had she seen anything like that.

"I should've gone with her," the male rasped miserably, crawling over to a patch of shade against the cave wall.

"No." It was all she could say in her state of confusion. Confused by him, by her own actions, what she'd just seen.

He glanced up to look at her, his face and neck destroyed by the sun, but his dark eyes wet and swimming in misery. "You have never known the wondrous and debilitating depth of love, have you, Veana?"

Veana? The male spoke in a different dialect-or was it madness?

She was about to answer him, tell him she didn't know what a veana was, but that she had a family and knew all about love, when his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed on the floor of the cave.