I smiled, stroking over the flower’s petals.
Then I touched the soft scrap of papyrus next to it, where Lanlin had drawn the one symbol that I would be able to read: The Ankh.
I pressed a kiss to my Ankh bond mark in thanks.
I didn’t expect Lanlin to feel my touch because he would likely be sleeping. I hoped that he finally would be. Yet after a long moment, as if he was rising from sleep, I felt a slow, languorous kiss.
My smile widened.
“Brilliant!” Daire grinned, snatching up two daggers that glistened between the loaves. “Just let someone try and hunt me now.”
He bared his fangs, arcing the daggers through the air.
It was an apology.
The breakfast and flower for me, the daggers for Daire.
Well played, vampire.
Now, it’s daytime, and under the sun, my head aches because as much as Lanlin is fast becoming my nighttime Alpha, my daytime Alpha is flying here at great personal risk.
And they are mortal enemies.
I ball my hands into fists.
It feels like I am being torn in two. Both Lanlin and Aurelius are my pack. I am certain about it now.
Along with Daire, we are the four Golden fated mates.
Yet how is it possible to quieten the ghosts of the past and learn to love each other?
Lanlin risked Daire but then he saved him.
Lanlin has bonded with Daire, taking him as his Blood Lover.
Lanlin may not know how to court, love, or even socially interact but he is trying.
I have never seen anyone try so hard.
He has never been touched but he was prepared to face that challenge for me.
It isn’t only on the battlefield that this Alpha is brave.
I can see why Aurelius and he would be friends. I hate that they are enemies now.
Daire twirls even faster like he can’t keep in his energy. How desperate is he to fly?
How much does it hurt him not to be able to?
His wings flap, faster and faster.
“I learned in the Blood Lover’s Guild,” Daire pants, “that the priestesses from the Scarlet Temple, damn them to hell, gather up lotuses from this holy pool. They use them in their incense, brewing drugged drinks with them that drive folks into heats and ruts, as well as in burials…”
He breaks off, dancing to the side of the courtyard beneath a fig tree with breathtaking speed and beauty. Unfortunately, he heads straight toward the lotus pools, as if he doesn’t even see them.
“Watch out,” I yell.
Daire stumbles over the lip of the pool and unable to catch himself, falls face first into the water with a loud splash that breaks the quiet of the courtyard.
