by Chloe Hart
Liz took Celia’s free hand in hers. “Jack called me back, once—the last time I drank absinthe. But I don’t know how he did it.” She turned to Jessica again. “If you want to help, go downstairs and send Jack up here. And make sure we’re not disturbed. I’m sure your people have called the clan leaders, so tell them whatever you have to to keep them off our backs.”
Jessica stared at Liz for a minute, and Liz glared back. Evan remembered that Jessica was a Fae princess—the Queen’s daughter. Would she take orders from someone like Liz, a lowly sixteenth-blood Fae who’d dared to mate with a vampire?
Apparently she would. Jessica nodded once and rose to her feet, striding out of the room without looking back.
“Do you think we can trust her?” Evan asked Liz.
Her face was twisted with worry as she held her friend’s hand, but at Evan’s words she almost smiled. “An hour ago, I might have asked the same question about you. You’ve got a reputation in this town, Evan Grant, and it’s not as a man who would go out of his way to protect a Faery women.”
Evan looked down at Celia. “She’s not just any woman,” he muttered.
There was silence between them for a minute, while they both watched Celia’s face and listened to her shallow breathing. Then Jack was there.
“How is she?”
“Not good,” Liz said, scrambling to her feet. “Jack—can you call her back the way you called me? What did you do the night you found me like this?”
Jack frowned as he came to join them. “I drank from you, and took the absinthe into my body. That helped me find you. But I was only able to call you back because of the bond between us. Because we had claimed each other.” He glanced down at Celia’s still, pale form and then looked at Evan. “You haven’t claimed her,” he said.
“Of course not,” Evan said, his voice sounding harsh. “Jesus. She deserves better than me, and you know it.”
“But you love her.”
Evan opened his mouth and closed it again. He looked down at the girl in his arms, and nodded once. Then he met Jack’s eyes again.
Jack turned to his mate. “Liz. Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
It was a simple answer, but the look that flashed between them was so intense and so intimate that Evan looked down again, fixing his eyes on Celia’s white face. He heard Jack say softly, “As I do you, beloved. I need you to trust me now, with Celia’s life. I need to talk to Evan alone.”
A beat went by. Then: “All right,” she said. She pressed her lips against Celia’s forehead and rose to her feet, and a few seconds later he and Jack were alone in the room with Celia.
“How much do you love her?” Jack asked. “Would you be willing to bind yourself to her, if that could save her life?”
Evan couldn’t answer right away. A rush of something went through him—a yearning so fierce he trembled with it.
“Yes. But I can’t make that decision for Celia.”
“You don’t have to. You can claim her, and you’ll be bound by that claim—but Celia won’t be. Not unless she claims you in return. But if you bind yourself to her willingly, the power of that claim will reach her. And it will give her a way home.”
Evan didn’t hesitate. “I’ll do it.”
Jack frowned. “Do you understand the consequences? You won’t be able to claim another woman while Celia lives.”
His fear of losing her had hollowed him out, leaving nothing inside but truth. “I won’t want to.”
Jack dragged a hand through his hair. “I’ve known a few vampires who made one-sided claims. If she chooses not to claim you in return, it will cause you emotional and even physical pain. You’ll feel like—”
“Jack. Don’t take this the wrong way, but get the hell out. I’d like some privacy.”
Jack looked at him once more and nodded. Then he left the room, closing the door behind him.
The claiming ritual was so simple that every vampire knew what to do—even a vampire like him, who never imagined in a million years that he’d ever want to claim a woman. To bind himself that way.
He couldn’t bring himself to mark her throat—not while she was unconscious. He took her wrist, instead, as he whispered the words of the ritual.
“You’re mine.”
They were words of possession, but unless Celia returned them, only he would be bound by them. That one phrase was a vampire’s promise to love, to be faithful and true, to protect his beloved with his body.
His demon was already there, trembling with hunger and the bone-deep longing that Celia had woken in him. Cradling her hand in his, he pierced her milky skin with his fangs and fastened his mouth over the cut.
He didn’t drink deep, but his system felt the shock of her blood like an electric current, igniting every nerve in his body.
And he felt her spirit, so far away it was like glimpsing a star in a distant galaxy.
He reached towards that star with everything in him.
***
She was lost. She’d tried to follow Jessica back, but Jessica had flown ahead of her, leaving her behind.
She wasn’t in the court of the Dark Fae, or anywhere she had been before. She was lost in a place of shadow and fog, as insubstantial as she was.
She wondered how many years of wandering it would take before her thoughts, her memories, her very self faded away into nothing.
You’re mine.
The words echoed through her, and with them came a surge, a rush of sensation like nothing she’d ever experienced.
Evan!
She wanted to cry out to him, but she had no voice. She tried frantically to reach for him, but he was too far away.
Come back to me.
This time, she didn’t let her consciousness thrash around like a bird caught in a trap. She made herself still, utterly still, knowing he would call to her again.
Celia, I love you.
Her heart soared. And then she felt her way towards him, step by step, following his voice like Ariadne’s thread in the labyrinth.
Come back to me, beloved. Come back…come back…
Her eyes fluttered open, and he was there.
She was home.
She knew he’d bitten her—the waves of pleasure still reverberated through her body, bringing her back to life as surely as his voice had. But his fangs were retracted now, his eyes human as he stared into hers.
“Evan,” she whispered, reaching a trembling hand towards his face. She was cold, icy cold, but a delicious warmth crept through her, emanating from her wrist.
He caught that wrist in his hand, kissing the marks he had made and intensifying the pleasure until she gasped.
“You’re not bound by this,” he said, his voice sounding broken. “I’m sorry I had to do it, but it was the only way to get you back.” He kissed her wrist again, as if he couldn’t help himself. “But you’re still free, Celia. This doesn’t have to mean anything for you. You can forget it happened, you can—”
“Does it mean something to you?”
He went still. Then he nodded. “It means everything. It means I’m bound to you. But the truth is, I was bound to you from the moment you walked through my door. Claiming you—” he looked at her wrist again and smiled faintly. “Claiming you was just a technicality.”
She remembered what Liz had told her about vampire claims. “But you won’t be able to claim another woman. You gave up your freedom to save me.”
“I’m starting to think freedom’s overrated. But, sweetheart—the important thing to remember is that this doesn’t have to affect you. You can go on with your life like this never—”
“Shut up.”
To her surprise, he actually did. She reached for him again, trying to tug him down to her, and when she finally managed to get him close she pressed her lips to his.
The flicker of warmth inside her ignited into flame, and Evan groaned as he deepened the kiss.
“How do I claim you back?” she asked, once she co
uld tear herself away.
“You don’t. I won’t let you do that, Celia.”
“I’d like to see you stop me,” she said, her eyes narrowing.
He smiled again as he framed her face in his hands. “How about this. Why don’t we save the world first, then talk about the claiming ritual?”
His words brought the absinthe trance back. “Jessica believes me now. She saw what I saw.”
“I know. She said so.”
“But it’s still dangerous, what I have to do. Convincing Jessica was a big step, but it’s only the first one.”
“I know that, too.”
“I just…I don’t want you to think you have to be in this with me. Just because you—”
“Celia. Shut up.”
That made her smile. “I’m just saying that nothing’s certain. I don’t know what the future holds. But I know how I feel about you.”
He shook his head. “You feel that way now because I pulled you back from that place. You’re weak and you’re vulnerable and you—”
“I love you.”
She’d never seen anyone look the way Evan did when she said those words to him.
“I love you, too,” he said after a long minute. “That’s why I want to wait before we truly claim each other. We’ve only known each other a few days. We could…” he hesitated. “We could go on a date.”
A bubble of laughter rose up inside her. “You’re asking me out on a date? With the Dark Fae threatening our world, and everything that’s already happened between us?”
He settled her more securely against him. “Yes. I am.” His voice became formal. “Will you dine with me one evening, Miss Albright?”
She was warm all through now, wrapped in a quilt and nestled in Evan’s arms. The future was uncertain, and their work against the Dark Fae had only just begun.
But right here, right now, she felt only joy.
“Yes,” she said, smiling into her lover’s eyes. “I will.”
About the Author
Chloe Hart spends a lot of time lying awake at night, thinking about vampires, demon hunters, and creatures that lurk in the darkness. During the day she writes about them. You can email her at [email protected].
The Blood and Absinthe series:
Taming the Vampire, Book 1
Bound by the Vampire, Book 2