“And where is that?”
She opens her thighs for Second, and I wonder what her other scar is from.
He doesn’t balk. He gets on his knees, slides open her dressing gown, and finds the mark on her inner thigh. Second sinks his fangs into her flesh, and Hannah lets out a relieved sigh, like she’s thankful the journey to her end is beginning.
“What will you call yourself?” he asks as he releases himself from her and swipes her blood away with his finger.
“Ellie.”
“Not much of a vampire name,” Second teases, backing away from between Ellie’s legs.
“It’s the name I would’ve given my daughter.”
Her words slice through the air, and Second’s eyes flick to mine. I return his gaze with a soft smile.
“Ellie it is, then,” he says, standing to inspect the travel packs Del brought.
Across the room, Del is whispering to Aurelia, her tears running and head nodding. She rushes him, hugging tightly before he releases his palms gripping her shoulders.
Del meets my eyes. “Write the letter,” he tells me. “It’s time. Andweneed to start a very large fire.” He grins, plum eyes flashing through his dripping charm.
I pull parchment from the desk drawer in the corner and scrawl the message for Officer Holton at the wall.
Second drags Samantha’s and Aurelia’s travel packs over his shoulders beside me.
I savor the ink drying on the page before I fold it, the edges of my signature bleeding my promise into permanence.
“Be safe. Be swift,” I say, shoving the note into Second’s palm.
He looks down at me. “We will be, my queen.”
CHAPTER 16
KADE
Two Hundred Years Ago — Goreon Kingdom
ISECURE GRACE’S second bracer, pulling the strings taught over her slender forearm. “What can I do to convince you to stay behind?”
She smiles up at me, cheeks still aglow from her arousal. “You married a woman who will sacrifice and defend until her last breath. Get the fuck over it, Kade.”
“Those are fighting words, woman.”
“Yeah, well,we’regoing to have plenty of that, aren’t we?”
I grunt. “I guessweare.”
“Aye,” she says as Riot barrels through the basement door.
“What the hell is taking so long down here?” he demands, eyeing our state of dress.
“Just taking our Captain for the ride of his life before we go play with swords and rescue Sam’s ass,” Grace says, grinning up at me.
Riot’s mouth falls open behind her. He turns on his heel in a huff. “You have no boundaries, Grace,” he mutters, disappearing back up the stairwell.
I smirk at my wife as we clothe. “You do that on purpose.”
“He’s so easily riled by it.”
