Anger heats my chest as I realize this freed incubus is using my memory of my mate to lust after her, even as his remaining fated one is trapped in slumber nearby.
"Stop looking at her," I snarl in the darkness of my mind.
“What harm is there in looking?”
"You are yet bonded," I remind him. "She will never be yours to look upon. In all ways, she ismine."
Veld’s echoing voice is amused. “Your jealousy is almost as amusing as Nivarrah’s. I wonder what she will do to my pretty Feeling One."
Protective rage envelops me.
I will not have his putrid history repeating itself with my mate.
I just have to escape this slumber and reach her before this monster does, or kill him first.
10
HEIDI
I skimthe several messages Everett sent me early this morning as I walk down the sidewalk, bundled in layers against the windy March chill clinging to Chicago. I had to park farther away than usual from my therapist's building, thanks to the early morning rush hour.
Big Kahuna: Everything from the excavation has arrived safely at the big fae research facility just outside of Syracuse, NY. They haven't reopened either of the two recovered sarcophagi. Yet.
Big Kahuna: Brahm is still blaming you for the sleepers waking up yesterday, some bullshit about you trying to steal from them. Noah and one other eyewitness both saw Brahm get into an altercation with you and insist that he opened a sarcophagus himself. Unfortunately, Brahm is a silvertongued asshole and he riled up Marwood, who’s been making a bunch of threats about teaching you a lesson.
Big Kahuna: Don't worry. I'll get through to Marwood's people and find a way to talk him down from whatever shitstorm he's stupid enough to create. In the meantime, we’ll have people out looking for the escaped sleeper. My quintet and I will join the search once Maven returns.
The thought of Veld on the loose makes unease settle in my bones. Just remembering the way his dark eyes bored into me, his empty, meaningless lust clawing into me as his poor “fated one” watched on, hurt and jealous…
I shudder.
As a monster, Veld doesn’t feel emotions to a full extent. But the ones hedoesfeel remind me a little too much of my mother, Daphne. From everything I’ve mentioned about her to my therapist, I’ve been assured that my mother was definitely a narcissist.
Something about the way Veld flaunted his interest in me in front of Nivarrah on purpose, belittling and manipulating her for his own humorless amusement…
Even though Nivarrah was terrifying, I honestly feel bad for her. I can’t imagine being trapped in such a powerful,permanent bond with someone who enjoys breaking my heart, but I don’t want a front row seat to that incubus’s inhuman emotions ever again.
Nauseated from the memories of those two in yesterday’s kerfuffle, I read Everett’s last text.
Big Kahuna: Oh, and there was a slight complication with Kenzie Baird’s delivery, so Maven stayed in Halfton longer than expected. Baird should be fine. Her twins were both safely delivered twelve minutes apart. Maven can’t believe that she missed “all the action” yesterday, but that’s nothing compared to her pet lizard’s reaction to hearing that there seems to be a black dragon shifter still alive. He won’t shut up about it.
"Good tidings?" Athanis asks from beside me when he sees the big grin on my face.
I startle a little and sigh, tucking my cell into my back pocket.
I can only imagine how lonely this poor priest must have been for the last few thousand years, so I don't blame him for sticking around me now that there's someone who can see and hear him.
But gods, I need a vacation from ghosts.
Except Jess, of course. She's still off haunting Stephanie's hot brother-in-law. I can't wait for my therapist appointment to be done so I can drive home and make thank-you-for-being-my-guardian-angel cookies for her.
I also can't wait to tell her about all the insane things that happened yesterday. Finally uncovering the sleepers, meeting this dead priest, the sleepers getting free, the fallout… Maybe she can help me feel sane again, because I'm still reeling from theshock and confusion of it all. I could barely sleep last night, with the strange way my inner animal was acting.
"Great news," I confirm, smiling at Athanis as I pause at a crosswalk, waiting for the sign to go. There’s another random ghost waiting here at the light. I don’t get why they want to spend their limited time left in this plane of existence waiting at a light, but to each their own. “All the valuable records your people left behind are going to be safe in the hands of the fae."
Athanis considers that, turning to take in the city around us in fascination. He's been marveling nonstop about the human world ever since I agreed he could follow me home after Silas, Everett, and I left the excavation-gone-wrong yesterday.
Really, Athanis hasn't been bothersome. All I had to do was turn on a new documentary TV series about the history of legacies and the exodus of the Netherborn, and he was glued to the television all night while I tossed and turned in my room.
