“Idiot.” I cuffed him lightly across the head and pushed the blanket off. “C’mon, let’s tidy up and head back. Oh, unless…”
“Unless what?” He wriggled back into his borrowed coat, then helped me fold the blankets and store them back in the chest.
I told him about the remaining gravestone I’d noticed, and how it might be relevant to Dalziel. Charley insisted we go straight back to the churchyard to check it out.
Snow was falling heavily now, and soft flakes were creating a pretty layer of icing-sugar powder over everything. I pointed out the grave, a little separate from the Millar cluster, and Charley’s pulse jiggled. “Suppose it’s something I don’t want to know?”
“Like what, doofus? You’re Dalziel’s son, his biological child. Whatever it is, I don’t think it will matter. Not to you, or not long term.” I squeezed his hand in a manner I hoped he understood as comforting. “I get this is hard. Those little kids were your brothers and sister. I don’t think this can be any tougher. Can it?”
Reassured, he brushed away a light dusting of snow, and we read the inscription together.
Catriona McNab. Born May 1716. Departed this world March 10, 1761. Torn apart by fate. Loved forever.
Underneath was carved an angel, and the much smaller outline of a sorrowing figure, a man with shoulder-length hair tied at his nape. It didn’t take a genius to suspect who the man represented.
“Hmm,” Charley mused. “Anyone else think Daddy dearest wasn’t so much in love with his wife, but had the major heartache for this Catriona woman?” He pronounced her name with four syllables.
“I think it’s usually said, ‘Catreena’”, I corrected him carefully. “But yes, I suspect you’re right. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. Catriona was only tiny when Elizabeth died. Can’t expect a bloke to spend eternity alone.”
“Except she died.” Charley’s tone hitched on a half sob, and he gave me a pained glance. “She left him, and now he’s alone again. He’s immortal. And she left him.”
Oh.Oh!I rose, pulling Charley with me. “When you ran off earlier, it wasn’t anything about Dalziel or his family, was it?”
He shook his head, avoiding my gaze. I gripped his chin between my thumb and forefinger, and gently turned him to face me. “Tell me, babe.”
His breath rattled out of him in a whistle, painting the air between us with a cloud. In a halting voice, he said, “Is that what will happen to me? Will you die and leave me alone? I don’t think I could bear it, Luc.”
Oh, Charley.
I undid my coat and tucked him against me, needing to feel his body next to mine. “You have human blood, darling. There’s no reason to think you’re immortal.”
“I have Fae blood too,” he muttered.
“You do, but the Fae aren’t immortal either. Long-lived, for sure, but not immortal. My best guess is you’ll age slowly, and live a lot longer than your average human. Bit like me.”
China blue eyes rose to meet mine, hope tinting them. “Wolves live a long time?”
“Oh yeah. Some of our kind up to two hundred, even more. Something to do with shifting, apparently. And our fabulous wolf genes.” I released my hold on his chin, and brushed my fingers over his cheek, around his ear, settling them in his hair where I could rake my nails gently over the back of his skull. “I reckon you’re the same as me when it comes to ageing. Remember how I asked you for ID?” He nodded. “I wasn’t sure you’d even left school, or were old enough to shag, let alone vote. And yet you’re nineteen. If that doesn’t illustrate slow ageing, nothing does.”
“I was old enough to shag before I was sixteen,” he shot back, but his eyes were definitely less wary. He leaned into my touch, and I scratched a bit harder. He purred.
“Not legally you weren’t, and I don’t want to hear about it anymore. Freaks me and my wolf out.”
“Okay, I won’t mention it again.” He sighed, and his eyes fluttered shut. “Can we check what Dalziel thinks, to be sure?”
“Of course. And if he’s doubtful of your mortality, or the Council thinks there’s reasonable evidence you could be immortal — which I don’t think there will be — we can petition for someone to turn me.”The fuck?some internal part of me screamed. I didn’t bother answering. I was too stunned at the words leaving my mouth. Did I mean them? So help me, I did.
Charley stepped away from me as if I’d pushed him, a look of utter shock draining his already pale complexion. “Y-you’re a wolf. C-c-can you even be turned?” he stammered, his eyes like saucers.
I swallowed. “I don’t know for sure. But if it would mean spending eternity with you, I’d do it. I mean it, Charley, I won’t abandon you. I won’t.”Mate. Tell him. Forever mate.
30
CHARLEY
I stared at Luc,unable to form a single word. I had nothing in my vocabulary suitable. He was a wolf; diametrically opposed to any and all things vampire. For all I knew it was hardwired in his genetic make-up, and yet he’d offered to get himself bitten by a vampire so he could stay with me forever.Forever.
I had to say something. React. He’d given me his heart on a, well not a silver platter if the myths were correct, but something precious. And I needed tofucking say something!
