“All of those things.” She lifted her right hand, wrapped it around his left wrist. Her fingers twisted in the black silk. She just touched him. “I have missed you.”
“Not nearly as much as I missed you.” He jerked her off her feet, lifting her until her mouth was level with his. “It was pure hell to be in another realm without you.”
Kindara wove her fingers through the dark hair wild around his head. She brushed one finger against his horn. He shivered at her touch. Like she had known he would. “You shouldn’t have sent me away, then. You should have trusted me by your side. That’s what’s going to have to happen, demon. If we are to make a go of this. None of this overprotective ridiculousness. Not anymore. I’m an equal partner in this, got me?”
“I have got you, pet. And I will not be letting you go.” His lips met hers.
Kindara wrapped her legs around his waist and held on as he carried her into the resort. He carried her past her brother and his where they waited inside the lobby; past Dhar Rydere and his Emily. Past Jierra and Mickey. Theo and Bronwen.
Bronwen. Thank the Goddess.
It had been a long three weeks of worry for the young healer, too.
Face buried in his shoulder, against his racing pulse, Kindara barely saw those watching them.
They did not matter all that mattered was that the damned demon had returned for her.
He was never getting away from her again.
Their souls were bound now, and she liked it that way.
They would be for eternity.
He was never escaping her now.
Epilogue
Rathan held her close, satisfaction curling through him. He had loved her well tonight. She had been equally as enthusiastic about feeding him. When they were finished, she curled up next to him and drank her fill.
Like his little bloodsucker was meant to.
His spawn was causing obvious changes in her body. She had filled out again, putting on weight that she so desperately needed. And there was a healthier glow than had been there before.
But now…there was concern in her eyes. “Thank you for finding Bronwen.”
He nodded. “That was what delayed my return to you. The twin kings…required much convincing to return Danae and Bronwen, even with the ransom money.”
He fought tensing as he remembered what those two young females had endured. Because of him. He would always hold responsibility for them. As king, it was a given. “There is something I must tell you.”
“What is it?”
“Something happened to the healer girl while she was in Koios’s care.”
She tensed and sat up quickly. “What is it?”
“She somehow saved my sister’s life. And it came at great cost.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying Danae would have died without her—but the healer girl nearly died in the process. Phelius said it was a great miracle that both females survived. And the spawn.”
“Spawn? I swear if that demon brute put one hand on Bron I’ll kill him myself.” She sat up, as if she would do that right in that moment. Rathan soothed her quickly.
“Danae’s spawn. She and the twin king Sinrik have made a spawn between them. I am still investigating whether it was of Danae’s choice, pet. It might not have been. And if it wasn’t, there are laws that must be followed. But Danae was poisoned by someone in their castle. Your healer girl healed her and the spawn. But she has lost what remained of her sight because of it. Phelius does not know if or when it will return.”
“He did this to her.” She looked practically sick. “She’s going to be so confused and hurting and afraid. She’s so young, sheltered. Oh, Goddess, Aureliana will be infuriated, too. She practically raised her.”
Rathan wrapped his arms around her. “No matter what has happened, we will face it together. On the morning.”
He snuggled her back into his arms and held her until that morning came, making one more vow to her that he would never break—he would hold her every night for eternity.
Just what is Jade planning for Barlaam?
COMING SOON!
NOW A FULL-LENGTH NOVELLA:
* * *
Her photo haunted him. Barlaam Dardanos, second healer of the vampiric Dardaptoan Kind, stared at the four-by-six snapshot. The blond female was beautiful. Young. Human.
A reminder that he would never be a part of sanctioning the deaths of innocents like her again. Three of the girl’s cousins and her elder sister had almost died at Dardaptoan hands. That they hadn’t was a miracle brought only by the goddess of his people.
Instead, the four once human females had been converted into bloodsuckers. Their humanity stolen from them because of the sins of their own grandfather.
Her grandfather was a murderer, and the Dardaptoan high court had ruled that his bloodline was to pay for his sins.
Four females, barely in their adult years, had been the ones chosen.
It sickened him.
He had taken her photograph from the files he had been forced by his brother, the king of his Kind, to gather. He’d told himself he’d taken it as a reminder that he would never act in such a despicable way again. But Barlaam knew the truth.
He had taken her photo because, once he saw it, he could not let it go.
He had prayed to his goddess with every drop of faith and strength he possessed that this mischievous blonde would not be one of the females chosen to die.
His prayer had been answered. Her sister and three cousins had been chosen instead.
Now it was time to put her photograph away and get back to the task that had been put before him.
He was the Second Healer of his tribe, and it was his task to find why his people were dying out. It wasn’t just the actions of those girls’ grandfather, though the old man was responsible for almost two thousand Dardaptoans losing their lives.
It was something else. Something to do with the Curses. Legend had it that the Dardaptoan females were not always as weak as they were now.
It was only three thousand years ago that Dardaptoans had begun to change.
Barlaam had to find out why.
He and Kindara, the First Healer of their people, had been working on the task for more than twenty years now.
They had yet to find a single answer. Or even a place to start. Except for with the newly turned females.
The older sister of the girl in the photo had nearly been killed by Lupoiux werewolves just days ago. She had survived, but there had been strange antibodies he had never seen before in her blood.
Antibodies that intrigued him.
Someone knocked on the door, and he called out for them to enter.
His assistant, Jannen, stood in the door. “Barl, I…have news you must hear!”
Barlaam hastily slipped the photograph into his pocket.
He sighed. Jannen was young, perhaps as young as the girl in the photo. Slight, pale, and nervous—with the mind of a genius. And a truly strong healing gift. But her anxiety kept her from doing the great things she was meant to.
She was still young. And she had some of the greatest teachers of their Kind to help. “Jannen?”
“Have you heard?”
“Heard what?” It was late; what could have happened between the last time he had seen his brother and now? Rydere had been injured, along with one of his female’s young cousins, just mere days before. “What’s happened?”
“Kindara and Ji…” She wiped at tears.
Barlaam tensed. This wasn’t just her nerves. It was more. He stood quickly. “Tell me.”
“They’ve disappeared. Someone has taken them.”
Barlaam swore. He grabbed his keys and cell phone. “Let’s go. Tell me everything on the way.”
He’d find his brother and get answers.
Kindara was his closest friend. Her daughter was like a niece to him. And the last thing the two of them needed was this.
He bit back another curse as he pushe
d the fear aside. Kindara had been abducted many times before. So had Barlaam. Healers of the Dardaptoan Kind were extremely rare. Many of the other Kinds thought nothing of stealing Dardaptoan healers for their own use.
Abductions were not all that uncommon in the world of the Kinds. Most ended with financial negotiations. Some weren’t even all that unpleasant. There had been a female Druid who had had him abducted two hundred years ago so that he could heal her young daughter after her mate had abandoned her.
He hadn’t minded at all. They still kept in touch.
But for Kindara, an abduction of her and her daughter would be particularly traumatic.
He shoved thoughts of the once human girls aside. There was nothing he could do to change what had happened to them.
But he might be able to find Kindara and save her in time.
Something didn’t feel right. Something bad had just happened.
Jade tightened her hands on the wheel and kept driving. She was miles away from the family vacation home and would be there in just a few minutes. Hopefully, no one would be there except the security guards her father insisted patrol every Taniss property. Her father was a bit of a worry wart when it came to safety.
But then again, after what had happened recently, Jade couldn’t blame him.
Her breath hiccupped out in a barely suppressed sob. Her sister…her cousins…no one knew where they were.
And when her father and cousins told her that Joselyn, Mickey, Mallory, and Emily were safe, she knew they were lying. Just like she had always known things.
It had been bad, whatever had happened. To her sister and her missing cousins. Something worse than what had happened over two weeks ago.
That nightmare had had Jade screaming so loudly in her room that her roommates Loren and Mara and her cousin Becca had all come running.
Jade had convinced herself it had been a nightmare. Until she’d made it home the next morning and realized her sister and the others were missing.
And Jade knew she was supposed to be here at the vacation property right now to find out why.
No one in her family had ever said it, but they all knew. Jade had something extra that gave her feelings when something good or bad was about to happen.
Emily’s brief phone call three days ago wasn’t going to change that.
Jade’s feelings were never wrong. The extent of that fact was a secret that not even her family was fully aware of.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the vacation home came into sight. She entered the access code into the gate, then identified herself to the security camera.
Usually, someone answered right away. This time, they didn’t.
Jade said a word her father would have chided her for, then entered the second code to open the gates anyway.
She’d get settled into the suite her family had always shared on the third floor and just wait. See just why she was supposed to be there now, after all.
See why she just knew that whatever had taken her sister and three of her cousins wasn’t human.
And figure out why they—he—were coming for her.
Bound To The Demon Page 25