One minute Ryuth holds up the red plant in triumph, and the next he is leaping at me from the top of the beam he's just traversed. The glittering blood-red plant is forgotten and it falls beside him, soil pattering down from the clump surrounding its roots.

Time slows as I watch.

I know my mouth is open in surprise as I take in his spread wings, the sun glowing through the thin membranes, highlighting the fine network of bones. His tail whips in the wind behind him, his form edged in light, backlit as he is because of the lack of roof.

He's shirtless, the ripped muscles of his chest and abs flexed, standing out in sharp relief. His eyes are intense, his mouth pressed in a firm line as his hair blows back from his face, his horns just peeking out of the dark, flowing mass. I don't know why he's jumping or why he dropped the plant.

But he looks sexy as hell doing it. Exotic and dangerous.

I should be worried about why he's suddenly decided to jump. But all I'm thinking is how much I want to touch him. Desire overrides the pounding in my head and the ache in my muscles.

He lands in a crouch just feet from me, his eyes focused on something on the ground. What is he looking at—

"Aaaah!" escapes my mouth, and I’m falling.

I scrape my hands and bang my knees as something pulls me to the ground with a jerk. I twist frantically to look down at my ankles where something is wrapped around them. Two separate leafy vines are curled around my ankles, tight enough that they're cutting off my blood flow. They twitch, pulsing like they have a heartbeat.

I think I'm going to throw up. The pain in my head explodes, momentarily blinding.

They pull me across the floor, inch by inch. Blinking away the stars and pain, horrified, I follow their length back to where they originate, almost too afraid to look.

But I have to know.

My breath hitches as I see the huge, bruised purple of the core of the plant. I couldn't call the thing a flower, but it's formed like it with large flap-like petals surrounding a scarlet, wet-looking center.

It looks suspiciously like a mouth.

I scrabble to grab onto anything around me, to stop it from dragging me farther, but it easily pulls me another six inches towards that gaping opening like there’s no resistance at all.

I've heard of these things. We were warned about them by the Zmaj. They pull their prey into their center, where they drain it of blood and then slowly digest it in what amounts to stomach acid. It sounds even more horrifying now that I'm faced with the reality of it.

Oh my God, please don't let me die being eaten by a plant monster!

It just sounds so stupid. Like a really bad episode of X-Files or something.

But then Ryuth is there, his knife flashing in the light as he slices through one of the vines wrapped around my ankle. The vine draws back quickly as if it feels the pain, the center shuddering.

Yes!

Then Ryuth is a whirlwind of stabbing and slicing as multiple vines spread out in a rush, trying to wrap around him in defense.

I watch him as I sit up, trying to pull off the one still holding my ankle, but another slithers out and wraps around my thigh.

Shit!

I twist around, extending my arm to hook the bag I dropped. It's just out of reach. I stretch as far as I can and hook it with my fingertips. Got it! I pull it to me and in a frenzy, dig around inside it. Finally, my fingers close around the smooth hilt of the knife Ryuth brought back for me when he found the one he's using now.

I turn back to the plant.

"Not today, Satan!" I yell.

I slice through the vine still wrapped around my ankle, the severed edge gushing red, blood-like liquid. Actually. Maybe it does bleed. Eeew. That's just wrong.

As I go to take care of the one still wrapped tightly around my thigh, another vine swiftly wraps around my torso, pinning my arms.

Seriously?

I struggle, unable to stop my inexorable slide towards that gaping mouth. If it thinks I'm going to go down easy, it has another think coming! I’ll give it indigestion if it’s the last thing I do.

Ryuth leaps over me. He slices through one of the vines and then takes another in his hands, his back straining, biceps bulging as he literally rips it apart.

Yes, even in the middle of being hunted by a plant, I can still admire how hot he is. Maybe it's just one of my talents.

Snarling, Ryuth turns back to the plant and stomps on another vine creeping closer. It pulls back with a quick rustle, the movement wary now. The center shivers again and gradually closes until it's hidden in the shadows, back where we hadn't seen it when we walked in.

I blink at it. "I guess it’s had enough," I say shakily.

Ryuth's rib cage expands and contracts with his deep breaths as he stares at the plant, his arms splattered with that red sap—yep, that's what I'm going to call it—his entire body still ready for action.

He turns at the sound of my voice, his face hard. But the rage of battle clears as he sees me. He rushes over, his face a little panicked.

"I'm okay," I reassure him as he helps me to my feet and runs his hands over me.

Oh. That sends a thrill right through me, once again overriding the pain. I really need to get a hold of myself. Life and death situations are not the time to ogle him. Swallowing my throat and mouth feel like sandpaper.

Once he sees that I am, in fact, fine, his attention turns back to the floor. He strides away, back towards the beams.

I look back uneasily, at the shadows where I can't see the plant anymore.

Hmm. I walk after him. Just in case.

I watch as he looks back and forth, his face determined as he combs the area. Finally, he crouches and picks up the plant he originally climbed for. It looks pretty much intact.

"What is it?" I ask curiously, taking in the shimmer of its leaves. It's even prettier close up. And it must be really valuable if he went through all that effort to get it.

He breaks one of the leaves off and holds it out to me. I take it gingerly. I mean, I was almost just massacred by one of its cousins. I look back and forth between him and the leaf, confused about what he wants me to do with it.

He takes my hand in his and lifts it to my mouth.

"You want me to eat it?" I ask dubiously, frowning down at it.

He pushes the leaf against my mouth. I wrinkle my nose, nausea gripping my stomach. Shaking my head but he pushes it towards my mouth again.

All right, fine. Breathing deep until the nausea passes.

He went through a lot of trouble to get this thing. The least I could do is not be rude about it. Especially after he just saved my life.

"Okay, I'll eat it," I say grudgingly. It can't be that bad. I open my mouth and put the leaf in. Here goes nothing. I bite down cautiously, not knowing what to expect. But the flavor that bursts forth from it . . .

It's like an explosion of something almost minty, but not. No, it isn't minty.

It's . . . refreshing.

Huh.

I keep chewing and that cooling, fresh feeling slides down my throat to my stomach, settling the nausea that’s been cramping my stomach for days. The sensation floods my legs, my arms. It washes through my head, getting rid of the ache there.

It flows through my entire body in a cold wave.

I feel . . . amazing. So much better. It's like someone just snapped their fingers and everything went away all at once! I hold up my hand and find it steady as a rock.

Swallowing, I look up at Ryuth, my eyes wide.

"Wow. I feel so much better!" I blink back tears at the glorious absence of pain. "Thank you, Ryuth. Thank you so much!" I step forward and throw my arms around his neck, taking another deep breath, enjoying feeling like me again.

Ryuth puts his arms around me, tentatively at first but then pulling me to him firmly. His chest is hard against me, and the sound of his heartbeats is familiar to me now. The feel of his body against mine is comforting. Solid and steady. But now that I'm feeling better, it's also something else.

Clearing my throat, I step back, feeling a little embarrassed at my own reaction. But Ryuth isn't embarrassed. I don't know if he can feel embarrassment though. Not the way he is now.

He takes my hand and leads me back the way we came. The way is a lot easier for me to traverse now that I feel so much better. I don't need Ryuth's help to climb the rubble or navigate under the beams. I'm practically floating off the ground I feel so good.

"I feel amazing!" I exclaim, laughing as I twirl over a smooth patch of floor. "This place is great! We should bring everyone back out here with us." I look over at Ryuth. "Well. Maybe after they've had a little time to get over the way you escaped," I say with a wince. "Do you think—"

My voice is abruptly muffled as Ryuth pulls us to a halt and puts his hand over my mouth. The ground shakes underneath us for what must be the billionth time. Now that I don't have a headache and I'm not battling bouts of nausea, it's not so bad. Ryuth's sharp eyes take in the area around us, just like he always does. We wait a little longer after it stops and then continue moving.

The quake is sobering. I may feel better, but that doesn't mean we're out of danger.

The tremors continue to happen periodically and Ryuth still stops me with a gentle hand over my mouth as he looks out for a threat I’m not sure is real. Though I'm inclined to believe it is real after the plant incident. If he remembered that, maybe he remembered something about these tremors. At least they get less frequent the farther out we go.

Finally, we make it back out to the room just off courtyard where we've been storing our things.

"Are you hungry?" I ask as I move over to where I've organized the food we've been able to hunt and gather. Well, mostly Ryuth, though I try to help as much as I can. "I can make—"

I stop as Ryuth's hand closes over my wrist.

My heart kicks in my chest as I turn to look back at him.

He's watching me with a serious expression. One that I haven't seen before. There's so much heat in his eyes. They lock with mine as he steps close, his other hand coming up to cup my cheek.

I swallow as I stare back at him, the attraction between us so clear I can't deny it.

His thumb moves to rub my bottom lip and his eyes slip down to track the slow movement.

I shiver under the gentle touch.

"My treasure," he whispers in a rough, hoarse voice.

Everything in me goes still.

He spoke.

Ryuth spoke.

The shock of that doesn't have time to settle in before he's bending towards me, putting his mouth on mine in a soft, lingering kiss.

A bolt of heat runs through me at the light touch.

Oh.

This is . . .

I lean into him, all thoughts running right out of my mind as I sink into the feel of his lips on mine.

Yes, please.