A Hero's Bargain Read Online Free PDF Page A

me?”
    His only response was another moan.
    “I’m here to help you. You’re
injured. I want to help. Can you understand me?” Very gingerly she touched his
shoulder. He flinched and screamed hoarsely, trying to move away from her.
    “I won’t hurt you. I want to help.”
He was twitching now, caught in some sort of spasm or seizure. His legs flopped
about in a strange lifeless manner while he held his stomach tightly.
    Whatever afflicted him, he didn’t
have much time left. There was no way she could carry him to the village by herself.
She’d have to ask Tyree to help and face his anger for going back into the
woods alone. She reached out and grabbed the stranger’s hands. He screamed
again, a horrible agonized wail that spoke of unimagined pain.
    “I have to go for help. I’m sorry I
have to leave you. I know you don’t understand, but try not to move. I’ll be
back as soon as I can, I swear.”
    She scrambled to her feet and
backed away. She turned to run, then froze as his tortured voice reached her.
    “Don’t let me die.”

Chapter 4
     
    He was dying and it hurt like hell,
far worse than he’d ever imagined. He’d never believed all the stories about
sleeping peacefully away and floating into a nice, white, dreamy, cloudy place.
Of course, he’d never believed all the stories about burning in hell, either,
but that’s where he was. Burning from the inside out.
    He was going to die, and die alone.
The angel who had visited him had turned out to be a demon in disguise. Her
touch sent lightning searing along his nerves, burning him. Then the demon had
left him alone to face the flames.
    He desperately wanted to believe
the angel. She said she wanted to help, that she would come back for him.
    He didn’t want the demon to come
back. Not now. Not when she could touch him and cause such pain. He didn’t want
to die, but once he did, the pain would be gone. Or so at least he hoped.
    The heat suddenly left him. He
wasn’t cold, exactly. Or was he? His legs were gone. He couldn’t feel them. He
listened intently at the pulse beating in his ears. That meant his heart was
still pumping. His blood was still flowing. He sucked in a deep breath that
miraculously didn’t hurt until the cold air made him cough. His mouth filled
with a metallic taste.
    Yep. Ryder Vaughan had reached the
end of the line. He closed his eyes and prayed for death to come swiftly as the
black void sucked him down again.
    * * * *
    There were voices in the void, both
male and female. He recognized the voice of the demon. She spoke so softly, so
soothingly, that he wanted to believe her.
    “I’m here to help. Do you remember
my name? My name is Saba. This is my friend Tyree. We need to put you on the travois
so we can carry you back to our village. I’m sorry, I know this will hurt, but
we’ve got to do it.”
    He couldn’t live through the fire
again.
    “No.”
    The demon grew excited, babbling at
her minions. They laid hands on him, rolling him onto his side. Agony screamed
up his spine. He was floating above himself looking down with the very
philosophical opinion that if he could feel that pain all the way up and down
his back, he should be able to feel his legs. He couldn’t and that confused
him.
    They were lifting him. The
angel-demon was beside him, holding his hand, and speaking to him.
    “We’re taking you back to the
village, to my hut. You’re going to be all right. Try to sleep until we get
there.”
    Sleep? He was about to die and the
angel-demon wanted him to sleep? She was a sly creature. He had a thing or two to
say to her about that.
    “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
    Her hand squeezed his. Miraculously
his hand merely tingled at her touch instead of bursting into flame.
    “You’re not ready to die.”
    So she wanted to talk, did she?
Everything he said, she would use against him. That’s the way an angel-demon
worked. That’s the way all women worked. He tried to clear the phlegm from his
throat and