Again, I nodded, though it was more a small jerk of my chin. I didn’t want to argue with him, not right now. His thumb traced the curve of my bottom lip, citrine eyes blazing in the dark. My hands clutched his shirt and I could not decide if I wanted to pull him closer or push him away.
“You are my dawn and twilight, my dusk and deepest night,” he whispered in Kysoi. My eyes burned with the tears I had yet to shed while he leaned in. “I will never leave you again.”
His mouth covered mine before I could answer, swallowing my sob as it left my throat. My head spun when he sucked my lip between his teeth, biting softly and brushing his tongue across the mark. A low moan strummed through his chest, hands delving into my hair to tilt my face up to his. He devoured me as I knew he would—with a wild abandon that spoke of a longing I could understand so well.
A longing that would make my dreams come true.
A longing that would make my fears turn real.
A longing that would chew me up and spit me out until I was unrecognizable.
Eamon had said he would never leave me again, and I knew when he spoke the words he believed he was telling the truth. I did too. But that did not stop me from fearing the moment when the world came crashing down as it was wont to do—as his immortal fascination for the shiny and new creptback in. As I aged and decayed while he stayed as he had always been.
I had to find a way to avoid that fate, to avoid the fate I’d seen play out before my eyes as a young girl, if I was to have any chance of surviving this.
If Icouldsurvive it.
Chapter Seventeen
Adrienne was quiet while I carried her back to the house.
My mind swam with the implications of what had happened tonight. I had almost destroyed Lord Montag and, with him, everything I’d worked so hard for. Our kind was inconstant and loyalty turned like the wind. Taking another’s intended blood giver and then killing the rightful drinker in the process would be plenty of reason for many to turn their back on me.
I could only hope that the truth of the matter would be enough to keep my tenuous position within our society.
Though a small sense of peace settled within my chest, it was tenuous—especially as I gazed down at my mate. Her golden brows were furrowed, jaw working as if she was chewing on her thoughts. When I’d healed her wounds tonight it had not been enough to create a temporary bond within her. Though I could sense her disquiet and the occasional word drifted from her mind, she could feel nothing of my devotion or my reassurance.
“Would you take my blood?”
She froze, eyes widening. “Your blood?”
I nodded, reminding myself she wasn’t ready to seal our mating bond. “It creates a temporary bond between us,allowing us to feel each other’s emotions—even physical sensations if we wish it—and would allow me to find you faster should you need assistance.”
With each word I spoke, her face paled. Slices of images ran through my mind. An older woman with hollow eyes and beauty gone to seed.
“What is it, little bird?”
She shook her head, fingers splaying wide across my chest. “It is nothing, my lord.”
Agony speared through my heart and I pulled her closer until my mouth was at her ear. “You do not need to call me that.”
A small shiver ran down her spine, arousal blossoming in the air, and it reassured just a fraction of my concern. “But you are?—”
I drew back until I could look at her fully. “Your blood mate. Such formalities are unnecessary in private.”
“So what should I call you then?”
My lips curved into a smile. “Eamon, if it pleases you.”
She rolled her lips together, eyes flicking back and forth between mine. “And you would call me…?”
“Adrienne, if you would allow it,” I murmured, leaning forward to press my lips to her forehead. “Little bird. My heart. Nasicya, goddess of dawn.”
Heat burned across her cheeks and she softened in my arms. I kissed her cheek, only vaguely aware of the house looming in the distance through the trees. “So will you?—”
Eamon!Mateo’s call barreled through my mind, his panic urging me forward.
I sliced through the remainder of the forest at greater speed, tucking Adrienne’s head into my neck. A small crowd gathered in the garden around Mateo, who knelt in the grass, cradling a body tight to his chest. The scent of blood was thickon the air and I staggered, placing my mate on her feet before falling to my knees beside him.
