“You came in so fast I could barely see you.” He looked her over, and she noticed him as well, clad only in trousers, his bare chest broad, his arms muscular, tapering down to large hands that waved back and forth as he remained in one place in the water. Still so handsome, violence shining in his dark eyes, but also something else. Something that tugged at her.
She floated toward him for a better look but stopped with plenty of distance between them. “I needed to swim. I feel better in here, away from everything and everyone.”
“Yeah, I do too.”
Surprised he’d share that with her, she didn’t speak, just watched him bobbing in the water, tendrils of her power unfurling to slyly kiss the currents holding him fast. He tasted of dark power and need. A need for blood? For sex? For dominance? She wished she knew.
Orion frowned. “Did you call me here?”
“To my house? No. Frankly, I thought I’d never see you again.”
He watched her. “Macy is coming by to get you later. Varu, my patriarch, needs to see you.”
She swallowed. “Is he going to kill me?”
Orion scowled. “Of course not. If anyone was going to kill you, it would be me.”
“What?”
“I’m not going to kill you.” He wiped a hand over his mouth. “I just mean no vampire gets between a vampire and his... prey.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
They continued to float, just looking at each other.
Kaia stared at him with hunger, having missed him terribly despite just a day having gone by. Orion seemed fascinated by whatever he saw, and she didn’t have the heart to ask what he wanted from her. She just wanted him to stay close.
“Did you put another spell on me?” he asked.
“What? When?”
“After Macy removed your spell at the lake. Did you put another on?”
“Why would I when I did everything I could to make sure you went free?” She flushed. “Though in hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have let you drink from me. Blood can be a magical tie, though I hadn’t thought about it at the time.”
“I drank your blood?”
She blinked. “You don’t remember?”
“Not all of my time with you is clear. I remember the sea witch. Your mother.”
She flinched and couldn’t be sure, but he seemed to take pleasure in that.
“But I don’t remember all of my time with you,” he continued. “I see us laughing or playing cards. A few times I remember kissing you.” He stared at her mouth, bemused, the anger fading. “I took your blood,” he murmured and moved closer.
Which had her automatically moving back.
He stopped and watched her, his gaze calculating. “What can you tell me about Sabine Belyaev?”
“Aside from the fact that she’s my mom and captured a bunch of magir to steal power, not much.” She sighed. “She got that island from a warlock who died. I don’t know if she killed him or she just got lucky, but she snagged it and it became hers.”
Warlocks were human, witches who had turned to dark arts, intent on sacrifice and pain to bolster their power. But sea witches surpassed humanity, “sea witches” an odd, technical term for those magir tuned to water who also had power. Kaia had always wondered why her mother wasn’t called a sea sorceress, because the term fit better. She was a mage gone wrong, turned sorceri.
“Why is your mother the White Sea Witch?” he asked, mirroring her thoughts.
“Because she’s one of the most powerful sea witches born in her generation, I think. My dad might have a better answer. I only know my mom is pretty old, a few hundred years at least, and power is her drug of choice. She’ll do anything for it.” Kaia shrugged. “She tried to sacrifice my ex-boyfriend. And you, my ex-mate, er, ex-friend, I guess.”
