The crunch of snow, however, sent apprehension shivering up my spine. One could be a fluke.
The second?
Eyes open, I twisted on the rock and faced the stranger standing in the center of the garden. Deep, dark eyes stared back at me from a bearded face shrouded by messy hair that hung to his shoulders. His skin was darker, almost tanned, like he’d been sun worshipping.
It was the absolute lack of expression that had my stomach bottoming out. That, and the very real sensation of power crackling the air—not a whiff of lust rolled off of him, yet he stared at me like he weighed and measured me.
Maybe for a coffin.
Licking my lips, I pushed off the rock to face him. “Take a picture,” I told him with a hell of a lot more bravado than I was suddenly feeling. “It’ll last longer.”
Maddox growled and snarled, but he hadn’t worried me. Nor did Fin, who made me laugh and could be irreverent and playful. Rogue, for all his reserve, infuriated me more than terrified me.
This guy?
The fact that I was half-naked and considerably isolated and lacking any kind of weapon hit me like an avalanche of bricks.
At my statement, however, the corners of his mouth tipped upward. It was the only change in his expression.
“Fiona,” he said in a raspy voice. But it was more than just shaping his lips around my name, it was like he intoned all of me in those three simple syllables, and his gaze kept me pinned in spot like a butterfly on a board.
“Yep,” I said, warier. “That’s my name. Don’t wear it out.”
He cocked his head.
One moment, he was over there, the next, he was in front of me.
Right in front of me.
I hadn’t blinked.
Holy.
Shit.
“Fiona,” he said again, then tilted his head and struck. I had zero time to react. One moment, he was looking at me, and the next, he sank his teeth into my throat, directly over the spot where Dimitri had bitten me.
I was pretty sure I screamed.
Or maybe I just froze.
But the brand of his bite rocked all the way down to my soul, and then the world shifted as he began to drink.
Fuck.
Hello, Alfred. Some distant part of my brain offered the introduction as my life pumped out of me, and all I could do was cling to him.
Really not nice to meet you…
Asshole.
Chapter 14
“Clip her wings if you dare. She will grow new ones.” - Unknown
Alfred
The first whispers reached him when Fin came to see Rogue.
“She’s there, I know it’s her.” Always optimistic and profound in his faith.
“You can’t know it’s her.” Always the skeptic, warier and cautious.
“I do know,” Fin insisted. “She’s a succubus, or she was. Some idiot drained her while screwing her, and instead of letting her heal naturally, he panicked.”
Rogue’s sigh carried the weight of the ages. “He force fed her blood?”
“Far as I can tell. A lot of people don’t want to talk about it. Their prince has ordered silence. I got there an hour after they took her. She went right for him—the prince and the asshole.”
“Where’s the asshole now?”
Yes, he would like to know this, too.
“In the wind.” Frustration etched Fin’s words. “I’ll find him, or Maddox will. For now, we need to get to her. The prince sent her to Nightmare Penitentiary. He’s determined to cover this up before the American council learns about her. Hybrids are myths after all.”
A snort. “You want to go after her.”
Then silence.
“Fin.”
“Maddox is on his way in. It took me time to track an access point. They’ve improved their spellkeepers on the gates. Not that much, but he’s on his way in. I’m going after him.”
“And you’re telling me because you want me to come…”
“Just back up. If you haven’t heard from us…”
The words faded as they argued. Rogue would go. He wouldn’t leave their brothers alone, not if they asked for him.
He drifted.
“Rogue…why the hell did you do that?” Maddox’s snarl ripped through his sleep.
“Because she stinks of shadow demon, and if you hadn’t noticed, he can already call her.”
“I was blocking him,” Fin argued.
“She’s not even through transition.” The disgust curling in Rogue’s tone roused him further. “We’ll need to drain her, repeatedly. Lance the shadow from her, break the addiction, then infuse her with our blood.”
“That will save her?” Hope crept into Maddox’s tone. A hope that hadn’t been present in so long, Alfred had forgotten the last time he heard it. He was one of the last of his kind. Maybe the very last.
They’d saved him from the hunters who came for him. He and Rogue had both protected the wounded beast and found a friend.
A brother.
“There are no guarantees, Maddox,” Rogue told him, and no one but Alfred would have heard the sympathy in his tone. “We’ll try.”
“What about Alfred?” Fin said. “We should wake him. She’s the one.”
“We don’t know she is,” Rogue reprimanded him. “Alfred will wake when he’s ready.”
Was he even truly asleep?
They seemed to have it in hand.
The slam of a rapid heart and screams of ecstasy ricocheted off the walls. A scent tickled at his nostrils.
“…you’re not wrong,” Fin agreed. “But I can be jealous because I want to know her, too. I’ve dreamt about her for centuries. Unlike the rest of you, I knew she was coming. I never broke faith.”
“Lust-filled dreams about her breasts are not what I would call prophetic,” Maddox stated drily, and Rogue gave a half-laugh.
He dozed.
“Ask me no questions, and I’ll tell you no lies.” Her husky voice wrapped around him like a lure.
Maddox snarled, “Stop poking in her head. We’re supposed to be convincing her, not chasing her away.”
“I was playing,” Fin argued. “Besides, she thinks I’m pretty. So suck it.”
Flashes of impatience from Rogue. The boys argued. They always had. It was good for them. It kept them alive.
“…what the fuck were you thinking?”
“He’s lust drunk, what do you think he was thinking?” Fin snapped. “Just feed her. He’s all knotted up inside her and not moving for a while.”
Quiet again.
Movement roused him. Movement and pain. He tried to focus on it. The stranger moving about the keep. Her light steps landed like warning thuds. Change eddied in the air. Change he hadn’t tasted in generations.
It wasn’t time yet.
“…shadow demon…”
Hmm. What was that about a shadow demon? Demons kept their distance. They knew better than to disturb him or his.
The thread faded away.
“…Fin believes she’s here.” Rogue. “I am only telling you because she was in Nightmare Penitentiary. She may not survive her transition. We may not have gotten to her in time. If they come for her, we will lead them away. If we must flee the keep, they will never get in here, but you will find us in Fin’s lands.”