Page 80 of Deep Within Me
“I’ll take him to the next level,” Zeke said. “There—”
“No, here,” Diaz insisted. “He’s already too weak to be moved any more than he has been.”
Zeke said something Liz didn’t catch. Diaz continued to argue, his voice also lowered, his words indistinct.
Seconds later, Zeke carried Pedro into the meeting room and put him on the table.
Liz leaned against it for support. She stared at the wounds Carreon’s men had left on the boy’s lanky body. Many were infected. Sweat matted his dark-brown hair and bathed his face, no doubt from a fever.
“You’re going to be all right,” she said.
“No.” Zeke grabbed her wrist to keep her from touching Pedro.
She twisted her hand, trying to get free. Zeke wouldn’t let her. “I have to do this,” she insisted.
“Get her father,” Zeke ordered Jacob.
“No,” she said. “His power’s stronger than mine. If he uses it on someone this young, it might cause more harm than good like it did with his sister. He finally told me about her. What happened.”
“What are you talking about?” Diaz said. “You can heal. You can reanimate. Dammit, do something to help him before it gets that far.”
Pedro moaned.
“Don’t let him suffer because you want to protect me,” Liz begged Zeke. “I’ll be all right. You and Jacob saw to it earlier. You can see to it again. Please, you have to let me do this. I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t do something.”
Zeke glanced at Jacob. His brother looked as unsettled as he did.
Pedro stiffened as though he were about to convulse. He gasped.
Zeke’s hand fell away from Liz.
She murmured to the boy, “You’re going to be all right. I’ll take care of you. Carreon and his men will never harm you again.”
Diaz stayed close to his cousin as he spoke to Zeke. “I swear I didn’t know what Kele had planned. She left me in the Jeep and ran toward the strip club. I should have followed sooner. Maybe if I had…” He shook his head and continued, misery in his words. “By the time I could see the building, it was on fire. The man and woman we saw during that earlier transmission drove away in Carreon’s SUV.”
“It’s all right,” Liz said when Zeke didn’t comment. “We don’t blame you.”
A strangled noise poured from Zeke as Liz laid her hand on Pedro’s forehead that burned with fever. Gently, she stroked it, doing everything she could to control her power so she didn’t pour too much or too little into him.
Within seconds, his forehead cooled. His color returned.
She worked on his wounds next, healing the deep gouges left by Roberto’s torture.
Within minutes, Pedro opened his eyes and looked around, confusion on his youthful features.
Liz moved aside as Diaz went to his cousin. He pulled the boy into his arms.
Zeke touched Liz’s shoulder. “How do you feel?”
She couldn’t lie to him. “A little tired—but only because I haven’t slept, the same as you.”
Zeke didn’t appear convinced. “Jacob, take care of things here, all right?”
His brother looked as though he wanted to join them. After a moment’s pause, he didn’t argue the point as he might havein times past. He simply nodded. His expression said it all. This wasn’t about passion…it was about making certain Liz was all right and accepting that she belonged to Zeke first.
Despite her insistence that she wasn’t an invalid, Zeke carried Liz to their bedroom and wouldn’t allow her a moment free of his touch. His lovemaking was tender and desperate, betraying his love, his worry. Through the coming hours, he took her repeatedly, burying his cock deep within her cunt. With his mouth on hers, he quieted her pleased cries with his tongue.
They made love as if this would be their last time…or as though it were their first. Unruly desire made their actions and responses fevered, out of control.