“I wish we could hold the world at bay,” she admitted and petted his soft hair. “No sea witches casting spells. No battles for you to fight. Just you and me making love.”
“Yeah.”
But that sense of contentment had faded. She didn’t know why. Instead, she yawned and fell asleep.
Orion frowned. No more fighting? That’s what he wanted? That didn’t sound right. Neither did making love when he loved fucking or having sex. But then he slid his hand through the mess he’d made on his sea nymph, covering her with his scent, and forgot about his confusion.
Yeah, she’d probably think it gross, but he liked marking her, saturating her with his possession. They were so close to mating. He could almost taste the union, could almost feel himself coming inside her, flooding her with his seed.
He groaned softly and patted her belly, wishing he could get over this odd, gnawing feeling that something was missing.
But it wasn’t, and he should be thankful to have such a wonderful female by his side.
He watched the stars twinkle in the sky and let himself bask in peace. A few hours later, hungry for her again, he woke her to indulge in some sinful sixty-nine.
His face, her place, where everything made sense.
Her chuckle had him laughing as well.
“‘My place?’ Really?”
Ah, his mate was reading his thoughts. Perhaps they didn’t need to have actual sex to cement the bond, because he couldn’t imagine being any closer to perfection than he was now.
Kraft yanked Duncan to face him, finally away from the others on a mission to scout a den of ghouls away from the city up north.
“I don’t know why you’re touching me, mate, but you’re close to getting that limb nipped,” Duncan drawled, his accent annoying. Like his designer suit, flashy shoes, and expensive haircut were annoying. His witchy mate, she was annoying too. They waited for her to finish scoping out the empty ghoul den with some bloode magic, waiting by the car as they’d been ordered.
Ordered by a witch—a lesser being. Meh. He liked Macy, but if she hadn’t been a Bloode Witch and under Varu’s protection, Duncan bedamned, he’d have taken a bite of her already. Kraft couldn’t seduce or mesmerize like the others, but his ability to instill fear was bar none.
“If your mate doesn’t stop avoiding the issue of Orion being gone, I’m going to bite her.”
Duncan hissed. “Fuck off. You lay one fang on her and die.”
Kraft didn’t often get angry. Well, really angry. He raged all the time for fun, but the powerful beast that lived deep inside him, when let loose, could not be stopped or contained until it tired itself out. Worry over Orion the past ten days had taken its toll.
Though the others couldn’t seem to care less.
Mormo didn’t seem bothered; Varu was apparently too busy with his mate and “talking” to the third new Bloode Stone they’d found; Hecate had conveniently disappeared due to some catastrophe in fae lands. But Kraft knew that Orion was in trouble.
Hell, even Smoky acknowledged the loss, meowing in sorrow until Kraft had taken the tiny meal to his own bed to stop all the howling, telling the kitten he’d wait to eat him until the vryko returned.
But that didn’t stop his grief or his suspicion that their Bloode Witch knew a hell of a lot more than she’d admitted. She’d come back smelling of Orion the past Friday but said Kraft had been mistaken when he’d called her on it.
Enough of that shit. “I don’t need your permission to talk to her though, do I?” Kraft flashed his fangs at the cocky bastard. Duncan might be faster than all of them, but he wasn’t stronger. Kraft attacked without warning and shoved the revenant into the SUV, crushing the vehicle to pin him inside. While Duncan swore and struggled to go free, Kraft yanked a tree out of the ground and shoved it through the front windshield, making it that much harder for Duncan to escape.
It wouldn’t take the revenant long, so Kraft raced to the ghoul den and rushed Macy.
She glanced up from the sigil she’d been carving into the cave wall with bloode magic. “Hey, Kraft, what—oomph.”
He put her over his shoulder and moved deeper into the cave, jumping into the nearby pit a good thirty feet down. They landed, surrounded by the strong smell of ghoul. He withdrew a small, sharpened, wooden stick from his back pocket and held it to her throat, all before she could move.
Though Macy shared Duncan’s bloode to power her magic, she had to be alert to the threat to act. And Kraft, her kin, shouldn’t have posed a threat.
She blinked at him but didn’t move.
“Smart. You try one thing with your magic and I’ll stab you. You’ll heal, sure, but before the poison has taken effect? I wonder how Rathenow ghoul toxin will mix with your bloode. Because in my old clan, we used it as a form of torture to get enemy vampires to talk.” He smiled, showing his fangs.
“Oh boy, ah, please don’t stick me.”
Duncan’s roar was closing in.
“If I stick you, you will no longer be mated to your revenant,” he whispered, nose to nose with the pretty human. “Because you’ll be too interested in consuming his flesh. And should you reverse the toxin, you will be rendered infertile.” He smiled wide. “Effective, no?”
She swallowed. “Very.”
Duncan appeared above.
“Tell him not to move or your future dies.”
“Stay there,” Macy yelled. “Please, Duncan. Don’t move.”
“I’ll fuckin’ kill you,” Duncan threatened. “True death, nachzehrer. You bloody rotter.”
“Sehr gut.” Kraft nodded, ignoring Duncan. “Now, where is the vryko, and why are you hiding him from me?”
“Seriously?” Duncan yelled. “That’s what this is about?”
Macy swallowed, her eyes glued to Kraft’s.
“You will tell me.” He pushed the stick no bigger than a pencil into her throat. “It takes little to break the skin, ja?”
“He’s been bespelled,” she said in a rush, her heart pounding. “He’s safe with a friend of mine.”
“Who?”
She blinked. “Kaia.”
“He’s with your sister?” Duncan shouted. Though Kraft could hear the revenant speaking in a normal volume from such a distance, Macy was still human.
“Loose lips, asshole,” Macy shouted back while remaining very still. “Look, Kraft, Orion’s in a precarious situation. He’s not himself, and I didn’t know if Varu or any of you might hurt him.”
He lifted a brow. “Right. So you kept him from us to save him from us.”
“Exactly.”
“My, my, I have the wrong end at your neck.” He flipped it. “This side is much more pointy.” He put pressure on it.
The muffled grunts of ghouls approaching grew louder. Apparently, they were hiding out in this cave after all.
“Shit.” Macy’s heart raced, and Kraft smelled her fear. “Jesus. I’ll take you to him. I swear. I was going to leave after we got back tonight anyway. I found the cure.”
Duncan landed several feet from them, his eyes red, his claws out. The sophisticated vampire in all his glory.