“Who is he?” she asked Orion in a low voice.
“That’s Kraft.”
“That’s your friend?” Huh. Kraft seemed like a jerk, but then, perhaps he’d been worried.
“Bester Freund, ja.”
Orion grinned. “He’s the only one of them who can almost kick my ass.”
“Almost? I do it on a daily basis. It’s the only way to keep that bloode-gut in check.” Kraft looked him up and down and shook his head. “What have you been doing since you’ve been gone?”
The sudden silence had all attention shifting to her. “What?”
Macy blinked. “I think I see something.”
“I smell it. He marked her good.” Duncan winked. “Nice job, mate.”
Kraft glared. “What’s this? I thought you said he was under a spell.”
“He is,” Kaia said. “Macy, help him, please.”
Orion shrugged. “It won’t change the fact we’re mates.”
“Fuck me,” Duncan said as he studied her. “Oh boy. Another Dunwich in the house?”
“I think already one is too many,” Kraft muttered, his accent thick.
“Watch it, wolf breath.” Macy scowled. “You’re already on my short list.”
Kraft grinned, showing sharp teeth.
Kaia didn’t know what to think of him. He seemed angry and jokey in equal parts, though he didn’t seem to like her much and she didn’t even know him.
Macy nodded for them to follow her outside.
Kaia and Orion joined her by the lake, with Kraft and Duncan behind them.
“You two, in the water.”
“The water? Why?” Kraft shut up when Macy shot him a look.
She explained to Kaia and Orion, “The witch who cast the spell was a sea witch. The one who took over for the sea witch is a sea nymph, her daughter. And Orion is bound by water and by bloode, by lust and by heart, of two shall he become one again.”
Power swirled in the air.
“Daughter?” Orion looked at her.
She blinked. “Didn’t I tell you that?”
“No,” he said slowly as he walked into the water.
“I told you she was a sea witch.”
“Yes, but not the White Sea Witch.”
Kaia hadn’t intentionally kept that information from him. At first maybe, but in the days they’d been together, she hadn’t intended to keep that from him. She’d never lied about it, she just hadn’t told him point blank, “Hey, my mom bamboozled you.”
She moved into the water with him, but Macy remained back on land. She drew sigils into the air and had her mate hold a paper and read off the spell, which she repeated in a language Kaia couldn’t place.
“Now, Kaia, put one hand on his head, the other over his heart. Like before.”
“Okay.” She had to reach but she managed it, staring into Orion’s eyes.
“Still mates,” he promised in a low voice.
She wanted to reassure him, but the magic swelled, burning through her. Around them, water swirled and turned a bright blue, the power in Kaia flowing through Orion, lighting him from the inside out as it traced through his veins and heart to his head. His eyes flashed blue then faded to black, no longer red.
A subtle difference in the vampire before her startled Kaia, and she lowered her hands, unsure.
Orion wobbled for a moment but quickly righted himself. He blinked and stared at his hands, at Kaia, and all around. “What the ever living fuck?”
Kraft laughed. “Oh yes, he’s back.”
Macy blew out a breath. “That wasn’t as hard to undo as it must have been to set. The tough part was getting the right spell to sunder your love lines.”
“Love lines?” Duncan asked.
“Well, under Kaia it was molded to a love line. But Sabine had it more like a collar and leash, spelled for obedience.”
Kaia half-heard, studying Orion as he studied her. “Do you remember this week?”
“I remember everything,” he snarled and hauled her off her feet, staring at her eye to eye. “Your bitch of a mother stole bloode from me. I intend to get it all back,” he promised, his eyes glowing red before fading to black.
“I-I rescued you.” She feared him as she had upon their first meeting.
“Did you? Or was this some power play to steal from the mother you resent as much as you love?”
It hurt that he’d use what she’d shared in confidence.
He dropped her and turned to growl at Kraft, no one safe from his vitriol, apparently. “And what the fuck are you laughing at? I was under some ass-nasty sea witch’s power for days and not one of you shitheads came for me?”
“Hey,” Kraft barked. “I was the only one who wanted to come after you. Mormo acted like you being gone was no big deal. If you remember, old man, you called in several times telling us everything was fine.”
“What the hell good is working for a goddess if she has no idea when her clan is in danger?” Orion stomped out of the water, swearing and glaring, his gaze unerringly finding Kaia each time and casting nothing but blame.
She tried to hold back her tears, but they came anyway. Falling in love had been a stupid thing to do, and she knew it. Because she’d fallen in love with a fantasy.
Everyone knew vampires were nothing but monsters.
Orion watched the pretty sea witch, no sea nymph, Macy was explaining, walk into the water and disappear. She needed a minute.
Oh really? Because I need a minute. I’m a walking hardon for a beauty who cast a spell on me. No, wait, it was her mother. And fuck it all, I think I told her about the Bloode Stones and the Night Bloode. Oh yeah, we’re all royally fucked now. Terrific.
He brooded while Duncan brought him up to speed on what he’d missed. A whole lot of not much.
“She’s still in there,” he said to no one, bemused that he even cared.
He’d lied about remembering everything. He clearly recalled his time with Sabine, the White Sea Witch. Of her casting a spell, trying to take his bloode then doing so successfully with some magic dust and a dagger coated in brimstone. And of course, stealing not only his bloode but information she shouldn’t have, especially if she was working with demons. But his memories of sweet little Kaia were murky.
He remembered wanting her, walking around with a painful erection half the time. He also thought he might have mentioned his father and kin from Santorini, about being alone or wanting a mate. Damn it. What had he told her? He felt a foreign sense of shame that he might have acted like less than the top-tier predator he was.
Done in by not just one witch, but two?
“Are we leaving or what?” He walked into the water. “I’ll just go grab her.”
He found the sea nymph floating listlessly across the lake underwater in her clothes, her eyes a bright blue and so sad he hurt deep inside. Which made no sense.
“Yo, nymph, it’s time to go.”
She looked at him with longing, which confused him. There was no sense of shame for her actions or hostility that he’d been freed from her spell. Just a well of grief atypically found in a sea nymph, who were known for their free lifestyles filled with sex, fun, and joy.
He studied her, having no problem whatsoever with her looks. She was gorgeous, much prettier than the sea witch who’d nabbed him. Then again, the sea witch had used her face to trap him, though it had been artificial. Nothing like the true beauty before him.