“Of course you can. I’m one of the good guys, Goldy.”
She seemed to blush at my response but continued moving her hands over my face. Next, they slid down my neck before resting on my shoulders. I swallowed hard, struggling not to get turned on. As I said, it had been a while since I’d been with a woman.
“I’m half-elf,” she said then, presumably concluding that she could trust me. “I have the talent of seeing into the future. At first, Ridley tried to drain my power to use it for himself, but he didn’t succeed. The spell went wrong and ended up blinding me. He decided to keep me prisoner so that whenever he needed a prediction, he could use my ability.”
“Christ,” I muttered, staring at her with wide eyes. “I bet you’re glad my friend Ira bit off his hand, eh?”
“Hearing his pain was a small revenge,” she said, nodding. “Where are we? Can you bring me back to the city? My parents live there.”
“The city’s a no-go area at the moment. You probably don’t know this, but there was a reason why Ridley was leaving. The vampires have taken over. They’ve been slaughtering humans, and there’s also been some magical business making the humans go crazy and kill each other. You don’t want to go there for a while.”
Suddenly, tears sprang to her eyes. “Are all the humans dead? My parents …”
“No, no, they’re not all dead, but it’s still not safe to go there yet. Not with the vampires so bloodthirsty. Oh, and there’s a mad sorcerer on the loose.”
She slumped in my arms, her small frame resting against me. I guessed what I just recounted was a lot to take in.
“Come on, stay with me for a little while, and we’ll figure out how to return you to your family.”
She nodded, wiping at her eyes. “Yes, thank you. I appreciate your kindness and help.”
“It’s no trouble. Listen, I’m going to carry you back to my vehicle because I don’t like the look of those bare feet on the road.”
“Oh. Okay,” she said, nodding. She gave a soft gasp when I slid my arm under her legs, scooped her up and carried her back to the minivan.
2.
Tegan
“Let’s go outside,” I said, my sated, naked body on top of Ethan’s, our limbs intertwined in rest.
We spent half the day having sex, but I didn’t feel tired. No, I felt wired. His blood was better than cocaine … not that I knew what taking coke felt like, but this had to be better. I could run a marathon right now.
Ethan chuckled deeply. “Okay. Where would you like to go?”
“I don’t care. Anywhere. I just want to see you out in the sun.”
I hopped from the bed and began jumping up and down, completely hyper. I suddenly had all this energy that I needed to burn off. I only became self-conscious when I remembered I was naked, and Ethan was watching my breasts as they jiggled.
A hot, affectionate expression crossed his features, and a little jolt of panic hit me. There was so much love in his eyes. I’d never considered myself a commitment-phobe, but committing to the most powerful vampire in the city would give even the most relationship-needy person anxiety. What made me even more anxious was the love I felt in return.
I loved him.
Maybe it was the blood high, but I was feeling everything way too intensely. Bringing my hands up to my eyes, I could see every tiny line on my skin, every pore. It was like I had super detailed vision. Not only did I want to see Ethan in the sun, but I also wanted to see other things with this new sight before it ran out.
No high lasted forever.
Ethan pounced on me, scooping me up into his arms and carrying me to his bathroom, where he turned on the shower. He settled me under the spray and began lathering both of our bodies with soap. His hands roamed my skin, exploring every inch, before he turned off the water and wrapped me in a towel.
I didn’t have any clothes here, but Ethan laundered the ones I’d been wearing. They sat neatly folded on the arm of a chair, and I had a strange vision in my head of him doing laundry. So out of place.
I slipped on my jeans and T-shirt and laced up my boots. Once dressed, I found Ethan standing in his front garden, his face held up to the sun. He’d been doing the same thing when he was sitting in his chair this morning. My heart fluttered at the knowledge that I gave this to him. I gave him my blood, but he didn’t turn into a monster. He’d simply been made better. He was no longer imprisoned to live only in the dark.
I stepped up beside him and laced my fingers through his. His eyes turned down to meet mine, and he smiled fondly.
“What’s been going on in the city while I was sleeping?” I asked warily as we walked away from his house and down the quiet street. I really didn’t want to ruin my good mood with reality, but I was worried about Finn and the others. In fact, I was antsy as hell to know where they all were.
“My people cleared away the dead as I instructed them to. Much of the human population tried to flee, but they couldn’t.”
I arched a brow at him. “What do you mean they couldn’t?”
Ethan sighed as though he had been hoping we could avoid the heavy subjects for a little while longer. “There’s some sort of magical force field surrounding the city. Nobody can get out. There’s also a block on all forms of electronic communication. No calls, emails, messages of any sort can get to the outside world.”
I gasped, my heartbeat speeding up. “What?! Did Theodore do this?”
My skin crawled with claustrophobia. We were all stuck in Tribane. Indefinitely.
Ethan shrugged, and I found the gesture far too nonchalant for the topic we were discussing. Just because he was now indestructible didn’t mean we shouldn’t worry about being imprisoned in the city. “He’s the most likely candidate.”
“We have to find him, Ethan. I can’t abandon Rita, and if you leave Theodore to his own devices for too long, he’ll come up with something … I don’t know, something bad. The fact that he can imprison us all is frightening enough. Aren’t you scared?”
“I wonder if I could kill him,” Ethan pondered, ignoring my question. “Well, I’d have to find him first.” He shook his head. “Normally, the only person who can kill a sorcerer is another sorcerer. A pity I don’t have any of those in my address book,” he joked and squeezed my hand, placing a kiss on my temple.
I narrowed my eyes at his louche attitude. Being out in the sun had made him a little too carefree. Then my thoughts raced at his statement. I may not have any sorcerers in my address book, but I did know of one out there. I glanced up at Ethan. “Um, there’s something I need to tell you.”
His eyes flickered with interest. “Oh?”
“You remember Emilia? My grandmother? The one who took Pamphrock’s daughter?”
“I do.”
“Well, before she went all Hand that Rocks the Cradle on us, she told me that my mother was the result of an affair she had with a sorcerer called Roman. My grandfather is a sorcerer! There must be some way that I can get in contact with him. I mean, maybe he won’t want to kill Theodore, but he might be able to offer us advice.”
“So that’s why you have so much magic,” Ethan breathed, stopping to stand in front of me. He ran his hands from the ends of my hair down to rest on my shoulders. He seemed to mull the idea over a moment before dismissing it. “We would never find this Roman. Sorcerers are notoriously elusive.”