“All right, so to recap,” I say from the where I’m standing at the bar, “Staying here will be Brynnie because she’s too pregnant, Caiden because he can’t be far from her or he dies, Fiona because she’s human, and Tier because he’s a cosseted king.”
Tiernan looks up from playing a game on his phone. “Bite me, bro.”
“Don’t tempt me,” I banter back with a flash of fangs. “That leaves me, Taryn, Connor, Conall, and Dmitri who will head to the veil in Joshua Tree to wait for Edevane to show up with the spear. If he does, we stop him with an as of yet TBD plan. If he doesn’t show up within forty-eight hours, we’ll have to assume he beat us to it, which means we stop him in Faerie. Since time moves much slower there, the hope is that he shouldn’t be able to do any real damage before we get to him. Questions?”
Taryn raises her hand a little sheepishly, drawing my attention. “Just one. If we have to travel to Faerie, you guys will need my magic to cross the veil. Except Dmitri. Ironically, the only one who doesn’t need to drink my blood is the vampire.”
The vampire shrugs. “I bring my own for snack.”
“What’s your question, solnyshko?” From the corner of my eye, I see Dmitri raise an eyebrow at my use of the Russian endearment, but I ignore him, focused on what Taryn and whatever has her nerves showing.
“My question is how. I mean, are we just going to…” She gestures at the side of her neck, and the image of the Woulfe brothers drinking at Taryn’s throat has me seeing red.
“Fuck no, we’re not,” I growl. Stalking over to her, I take her hand and pull her up from the couch. “Come on.”
I grab a glass water bottle and a knife from the kitchen, then lead her into my private bathroom, closing the door behind us. Taryn perches on the counter, her wrist extended towards me. The knife in my hand feels heavy, its blade glinting under the fluorescent light, but I remind myself that she’s strong enough to heal quickly when we’re done.
With a steady hand, I make a precise cut across her wrist, the blood welling up immediately, dark and crimson. I hold her wrist over the mouth of the bottle, the sound of the steady drips almost hypnotic in the silence.
“I wish you wouldn’t have cast that sleep spell on me,” I say softly, my voice barely above a whisper. “You masked the truth to protect me. I don’t want you doing something like that again.”
Taryn’s eyes meet mine, a mixture of defiance and tenderness. “I make my own choices, Finnian. I wanted to spare you any suffering, so I did. You would’ve done the same thing in my position.”
Fuck, she’s got me there. “Maybe.” Definitely. “But you need to honor my choices, too. So let’s agree that we’ll always be completely honest with each other so we can make our own decisions. Fate might be real, but not everything has been mapped out for us. Deal?”
She nods, her gaze softening. “Deal.”
When the bottle is nearly full, I press a towel against her wrist and hold it there for a few seconds, then watch as her skin knits together. Once it’s smooth and unbroken, I kiss the spot where the cut had been, then find her mouth with mine. What starts out as sweet and gentle soon grows in intensity, filled with the raw emotions leftover from the turbulence of the day.
Her lips are warm and yielding as my tongue sweeps inside to stake its claim. She moans and wraps her arms around my neck. My hands grab her ass and pull her to the edge of the counter to eliminate as much space between us as possible.
She lifts her head to catch her breath, so I trail open-mouthed kisses along her jaw, to the place behind her ear, and down her neck.
“Drink from me, Finnian.” I hesitate, pulling back to search her eyes. “You’re going to need my blood anyway if we have to cross the veil. I want you to,” she says, urging my head back to her neck.
Giving in, I let my lips find the pulse in her neck. I slowly graze the line of her vein with my fangs, offering her a chance to change her mind, while hoping she won’t.
Then she whispers my undoing. “Please, sire.”
Growling, I bite down, piercing her soft flesh with the sharp points of my fangs. She gasps as her blood fills my mouth, and I moan from the way she tastes. Like a heady blend of an aged honey whiskey and the smoky sweetness of a summer bonfire.
I’m surprised at the rush of warmth and power.
I begin to drink her down, and with every pull, her moans of pleasure tell me this is every bit the passionate act I’ve heard it was. A rush of warmth and the thrum of an unfamiliar power flows through me. I feel my senses get sharper, my mind clearer.
“Finn!”
I pull away, terrified I took too much. “Fuck, did I hurt you?” But she doesn’t look hurt. She doesn’t even look fazed. She’s actually looking at her left palm and laughing. “Taryn?”
Meeting my gaze, she gives me the biggest smile. “We can try Plan A first, after all.”
Still reeling from the aftereffects of her blood, I frown. “What do you mean?”
“It took its sweet time, but it worked.” She shows me her palm, where the next clue is glowing faintly in my grandmother’s handwriting.
My eyes flare wide. “You magically transferred the clue onto your hand?” She nods, beaming with pride, as well she should. “Taryn Emory, you’re my fucking hero.”
Her laughter is infectious, and I can't help but join in as I grab her in a bear hug and swing her around in celebration. Score one for the good guys. We’re not out of the race yet.
When I set her down, she grabs the bottle of her blood and sashays out of the bathroom, swinging her hips and glancing over her shoulder at me. “Come on, big guy. Let’s go find us a spear.”
TWENTY-SEVENTARYN
Where neon spirits rest their glow,
secrets past lie far below.
Star and dust, grand and staid,
hides the hall of riches made.
A sire lost does guard nearby,
seek the room of fortunes high.
Fortunately, this was the easiest clue to solve, thanks to Caiden. The oldest Verran immediately understood Moira’s cryptic instructions, and since he was always intimately involved in his family’s businesses—Tiernan not so much, apparently—he knew exactly where we needed to go.
Since we needed Caiden in the search party, that meant Bryn had to come along, too, or their distance apart would kill him, due to the blood curse Aine heaped on the royals of both Celestial Courts. The idea of bringing Bryn into a potentially dangerous situation nearly gave him an apoplexy, until she reminded him that as the Darklight, she was more powerful than him by miles. It was quite something to watch a former king be humbled so fully by his pregnant wife. It made me like her all the more.
