Chapter 17
The soundsof swords clashing echoed over the mountaintop. A deadly katana winged in the air—shit! Dagan jumped back before half his face landed at Nik’sfeet.
Chest heaving, he held up a hand and called a halt to the training, his mind still on how Shae had found out about him and Kaerys. With her penchant for causing trouble, he wouldn’t put it past Kaerys to induce the fuckingdreamShaehad.
Frustration gnawing at him, he pulled out his cell and messagedAngelus.
“Just an hour and you’re quitting?” Nik drawled, dropping his sword to the ground. He picked up his t-shirt and pulled it on, covering the myriad of tatts on his body and his nipplepiercings.
“Angelus can take my place.” He hauled off his shirt, wiping the sweat off his face and chest, then gingerly pressed a hand on his stinging wound. It was probably bleeding again. “I gottago.”
Showered and changed, Dagan headed to the kitchen where he sensed Shae. Her back to him, she appeared to be staring at several grocery items on thetable.
He slipped his arms around her and pressed his lips to her nape. Just holding her eased the upheaval inside him. “What are youdoing?”
She turned in his arms, a smile brightening her pale face. “Baking. I thought you’d be hours withNik.”
He shrugged. “I’ll make it up later. I needed you more.” He lowered his head to kiss her but cupped her chin instead, eyes narrowing. Despite the gold specks warming her stormy gray irises, pain edged them. “What’s wrong? Is this about…Kaerys?”
She shook her head. Her throat worked as she swallowed and waved a hand at the table and the things she had there. “Mom used to make this stacked applesauce cake my dad and Iloved…”
“I’ll make everything right for you, Shae. Just give me a littletime.”
She didn’t say anything for a second. Then she stepped back and frowned, sending her gaze down his torso and up again. Everything inside him went into slow burn. He’d made love to her twice last night—didn’t dare risk anything more until he got his damn thirst locked down. Now, he hungered for heragain.
“Are you goingout?”
Her voice pulled him back to sanity, and the work he’d elected to do. “For a short while. I want to check out the church’s parking lot after the fight last night. Why don’t you come with me? Afterwards, we can stop in at one of those little sidewalk cafés youlike.”
“Really?” Her eyes sparkled in excitement, then faded. “But you don’teat.”
“Solids, no. I can consume liquids. All right, let’s get all the fallacy about me out of the way. I won’t burst into flames in sunlight, but it tends to weaken me. My eyes are extra sensitive to it, so dark shades help. Liquor doesn’t inebriate me with my quick metabolism. A stake in the heart won’t kill me, but beheading? Yeah, that shit will probably kill anyone. However,wehave never been caught inthatsituation, so it remains to be seen. But certain angel weapons and our Gaian onescankill animmortal.”
“Silver? Crosses? Holy water?” she threw in fast like there was a time limit to himanswering.
He cut her a sardonic look. “Only if you’re the undead. I still have a heartbeat. I didn’t die, Shae. My DNA simply changed overtime.”
“Just checking,” she countered, putting the cake things away. “Because I don’t want anything to happen toyou.”
Shaking his head, he crossed to a drawer near the wine shelf, then got out paper and a pen and jotted a message on it. He set the note on the microwave and continued, “Bodily functions? Sure, I can take a piss, but that’s about it. And yes, I get a fucking erection every time I see you. Can I sire children? I don’tknow.”
Shae stared at him for a moment then she smiled. “We can deal with everything else as it occurs. For now, I’m happy I have you. Let me change my slippers and get a jacket.” She hurried to the kitchen door, skated to a halt, and spun back. “I’m really, really glad you still have a heartbeat, and you aren’t like the vampires movies and books depict—the ones who don’t breathe and drop into a dead sleep at sunrise—that would be scary ashell.”
“And you think I’mnot?”
“Oh, I know youare.”
“Good.” He cut her a serious look. “Never forget, Shae, I’m a predator first andforemost.”
* * *
Honestly,she didn’t care how threatening Dagan appeared, he was whom she wanted. This attraction had taken root that night outside the club when he’d abducted her, though she hadn’t appreciated it at thetime.
In the bedroom, she traded her warm, fuzzy slippers for boots. The long-sleeved, maroon knit-dress would do. She grabbed her leather jacket and sprinted to the front courtyard where she sensed himwaiting.
He turned from staring into the gorge below, the light breeze playing with his unbound hair. At the darkness in his expression, her steps faltered. “Dagan?”
He shook his head. Was he thinking about his past? When she recalled his awful confinement trapped in the wasteland of Tartarus with nothing—no one to talk to for five centuries—her chest hurt. Maybe, in time, she could ease some of those nightmares. Replace them with betterones.
