“And if it isn’t?”
“Then your brain will overheat – fry like an egg.” Aine looked at him, her face impassive.
“You’re not being very encouraging; you know?” Antoni looked at all of them imploringly, begging for reassurance.
But Aine remained poker-faced. “I am not trying to sell you a holiday package, sir. This is what could happen. You may not be strong enough to tolerate it, and that’s a reality. But if you want us to do it, then yes, it can be done.”
Elise stared at Aine. She felt so close, but yet so far away. There she was just in front of her, and yet they were once again divided by the politics of their kind. She could still taste her, reliving the hours she had spent with her head between her thighs. Making her moan. Making her remember what it had been like to be together. She realized that it was so much better now, all these years later. Now that Aine knew what kind of woman she was, what kind of woman she wanted to be.
“I’ll do it,” Antoni nodded. “What do we need?”
“Blood,” Nora nodded. “Yours, mine, and Elise’s. That should be enough to channel Marcel, to create a connection strong enough to link you to him.”
“Why do you know so much about this?” Antoni felt a little resentful. He was taking the biggest risk, yet he felt left out.
“Because I told her we might not survive the process,” Elise said. “Because you could go crazy and we could die trying to overpower whatever is left of Ben, who was a very powerful vampire.”
“We are far more powerful than this Ben person,” one of the warlocks at Aine’s side said. “If you can assure us that we will get our lands back, that we’ll be able to settle down in your town, then you have yourselves a deal. We will make sure you make it out of this, all of you.”
Another warlock who, until now had remained silent, watching everyone with intelligent, beady eyes spoke. “We don’t usually trust vampires, but an alliance with your clan, in particular, could benefit us all. We know that now. We knew that thirty years ago, when everything shattered because one of ours and one of yours couldn’t keep the rules.”
Blushing, Aine locked eyes with Elise. Elise looked down at her lap, contrite.
“Adjustments must be made to our arrangements, new clauses need to be created and we need your word that you will stick to your word, since this is such a time sensitive subject.” Aine had regained her composure and authority.
Nora cleared her throat, and hesitated a moment. “Octavia called me this morning. She told me that while we’ve been away Ben has been showing up more and more; overtaking Marcel’s mind and body. He killed two more guards, so Marcel is not being fed any more.”
Elise gasped. “Oh my god!”
Nora continued speaking as evenly as she could, though she quaked with dread. “We don’t have much time. Marcel’s heartbreak seems to be overpowering his will to fight. Ben could suddenly live again if Marcel just hands himself over. And it seems that Ben is winning.”
The room was silent for a moment as everyone took in this new information.
Nora stood and approached the witches. She had lost all her cool, and now she pleaded. “We will make it happen. We will make it work somehow, Aine. In all these years, I never spoke a word about you two. Please believe me. I will do everything, everything I can to make sure you get your town back. That we will share peacefully. All you have to do is help me prove that we’re on the same side, that you will save our leader with nothing but my word in exchange.”
“Okay.” Aine’s voice was clear and resolute.
“Okay?” The word was echoed throughout the room. Nora almost fell to the floor, overcome with emotion. Tears of gratitude sprang to her eyes.
“Okay. Let’s do this. Let’s help you save Marcel.” Aine smiled. Her council nodded, one by one.
Chapter 41
The sun had set a few hours before their plane landed. Nora and Antoni moved down the steps to the tarmac slowly, with Nora glancing over at Antoni every few seconds.
“I’ve told you, I feel fine. There is nothing to worry about, at least not yet.” He grinned crookedly.
“Aine said I should check for changes, make sure you didn’t start babbling incoherently.” She smiled. “Not that it would be so unusual!”
“I’m not sure you have the intellectual soundness to determine that.”
She let go of his arm, shoving him away, watching him stumble down the last few steps. “Dick.”
It was difficult to believe that there had been a time when the two of them had been antagonistic. As they stumbled into the town car waiting for them, they were playful and teased each other, but it was all tender. Caring.
Nora could feel Fletcher, could feel his anticipation and a strange sort of inner peace that made her wonder what had happened in her absence. She returned triumphant, with Antoni by her side and a letter from Elise, who would remain with the witches until an arrangement that benefited her love for the coven’s leader could be reached. It seemed silly for Nora to fight a union that would let them return to the sun, let them live their lives like humans, or at least as close to humans as it got with creatures who fed from them.
In no time their taxi pulled up to the house. Fletcher stood on the porch, waiting. As she slipped out of the car, she caught a small glimpse of the look Fletcher and Antoni gave each other before she was in Fletcher’s arms, kissing him long and hard. The relief in a promise kept was too enormous to conceal.
“I knew you would do it,” Fletch mumbled between kisses, stepping back into a house that was loud with the excitement of a victory and the buzz created by the news that the clan would be able to walk during the day. Fletch whispered in her ear. “I knew you could do it, and now all I can think is giving you a good celebratory fucking.”
Nora grinned. “I think that is a very noble mission. I can’t say I am against it at all.”
There were things to be done, people to see, and news to be delivered, but she figured that could wait as she saw Marcel and Antoni disappear into one of the lavatories downstairs.
Taking Fletcher’s hand, she dragged him through the house, down the halls and to the room where they would be crashing for as long as they wanted and as often as they wanted in an eternity where they would get to see the rest of the world whenever they pleased.
She shut the door behind her and, before he could say another word, threw herself at him with a force that made them both crash hard against the wooden bed-boards. She barely felt the pain as she reached to pull Fletcher out of his jeans, delighted to find he was already rock-fucking hard.
“Did you miss me?” she asked, nuzzling her face into his strapping chest.
“Like a fucking madman,” he growled. He held her face a moment, looking at her face. The strength in her. The wisdom. The kindness. He stroked her cheek, her neck and lifted her necklace with his fingers. On a silver chain she wore a deep blue opaque stone, with glimmers of sparkle in it.
“What’s that?”
“That’s sun, baby,” she said, kicking her jeans away. “That’s how we are going to be able to walk around during the day.”
“With your necklace?”
“It’s an amulet; lapis lazuli, that the witches charmed. It protects us from daylight.” She bent down to retrieve something from the pocket of her jeans. Holding up a ring made with the same stone. Placing it on his ring-finger, her eyes lit up and she cried “Perfect fit! I knew it!” We’ll have fun in the sun!”
“What about being recognized?”
“Well,” she frowned a little, “you will have to wear a disguise. But that will be easy.”
“What do you mean?” he heaved, her grip on his dick making it difficult to concentrate on anything other than how hard he was and how much he wanted her.
“It’s a witch thing,” she said simply, the explanation good enough for the moment.
Good enough as she lowered her body onto him, took him in with one swift roll of her hips that felt like getting the f
ix she’d been needing for weeks. The fix he had been praying for. And suddenly, nothing else really mattered.
He got tired of holding back. Tired of being passive. Tired of waiting for her.
It was like that first night, a night that felt like lifetimes ago. A night when a mysterious and sexy woman had shoved him up against the wall and fucked him. When a mysterious sexy woman had fed on him, tasted his blood, and changed his life forever. A woman who never stopped fighting for her kind and those she loved. A woman that, he hoped, he’d get an eternity with.
Her name was the only creed she needed as his hips rocked hard into her, her moans and cries a rhythmic melody to the repetition of her. Each echo of her name holding a different meaning.
“Nora.” I missed you.
Her cries escalated, her leg draped up over his shoulder.
“Nora.” I have never wanted anyone the way I want you.
His thrusts were vicious; each more desperate than the one before. Each hungrier, needier, more frantic for her cries. Her shaking body.
“Nora.” I love you.
He kept moving as she tensed, her nails cutting into his back as she gripped him tightly. Her body shook with violent pleasure, her lips apart. Her orgasm was so intense it was impossible for her to state the simple truth; a truth he knew, he shared; a truth he could hear at the back of his head as clearly as she could hear all of his now that she had learned to listen; a truth that had been incontestable from that first night when she had fed from him and found herself recognized in his beautiful eyes. From that first kiss, that first smile, that first taste of his cock? She had loved him.
She had loved him all along and, until someone proved her wrong, she was sure that she could promise him forever.
She still had to talk to Lena and Octavia and still had to see Marcel. For now, though, she was right where she wanted to be; bruised and sore with the force of collision. And happy in the arms of the man that she loved.
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Bree Branigan loves to explore life and romance in situations she can mostly only fantasize about. Throwing alpha men and spirited women into a variety of tense situations; teasing and building arousal is so much fun!
Bree lives with her husband and two dogs in Western Canada. She loves reading, live theatre, travelling, Netflix binging, playing guitar and writing titillating romance stories. Join Bree and her many varied characters in hot romantic liaisons.
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Kindred Souls: Entire Series Books 1 - 5 Page 17
