Page 102 of Immortal Burden

He stared at me for a moment.

Then, he nodded and took a step back, blowing out a breath. “Look, there’s a lot up in the air right now. Questions where there need to be answers. We’ll get them, but it’s going to take time. What we do know is that Draco is here, you’re part of the Covenant to take him down, but Cornelius doesn’t want you to be.”

“Yeah, that winged bastard couldn’t have been any clearer on that.”

“I think I’ve figured out why that is.”

I cocked an eyebrow.

“It goes way beyond his normal overprotectiveness of Mia, which is where his beef with me comes from. Nah, with you, this is about that infection I just healed.” His eyes flashed. “Draco’s magic. From what I can tell, it was trying to open you up to him, to his darkness. It was trying to transform you. Into what, I’m not sure. But whatever it was, whatever Draco’s intention, it’s fucked up enough that Cornelius is prepared to do anything to keep you out of this Covenant, and away from Mia. You being mates makes that a supreme violation of the natural order. He’s going against his own beliefs and his advocation of free will on this.” He thought for a moment, a frown marring his brow. “Speaking of his unhinged actions of late, why did he only subdue you when he was here? Given what a threat he believes you to be, why wouldn’t he go for the kill right off the bat?”

“He said he couldn’t.”

Ryker frowned. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

He looked shocked. “I can’t… that shouldn’t be possible. The only being he can’t kill is another Immortal.”

“Beats me. Another thing we need to get to the bottom of.” I sighed. “That list is growing.”

“Yeah, it is.” He studied me, then announced, “I need your blood.”

“What?”

“I need a vial of your blood. For testing.”

“Why? You think I’m one of those winged bastards?” I thumped my chest. “I’m pure wolf, the Alpha.”

“That’s the energy read I’m getting from you too. But there’s clearly a reason Draco tried to infect you, a reason Cornelius couldn’t erase you from existence, why he’s willing to lose a formidable ally for his Covenant when it’s all he’s fucking cared about the moment we got word on Draco resurfacing. We need to know the reasons if we have any hope of figuring out all of this and surviving what’s to come.”

I held out my wrist and he seemed transfixed with my tattoo sleeves for a moment, before he managed to snap back to focus and get down to the task at hand.

With a puff of green magic, a vial appeared in his hand.

I felt a sharp pain in my lower arm in the next second, he muttered some a hushed incantation, and then the vial was full of my blood.

“Sweet trick.”

He smiled, then waved his hand over the vial and it disappeared into the ozone.

I shifted my weight uneasily, all this dark talk, all magic-related stuff that I had no clue about, getting to me. “So, how did you cure me? I don’t know much about this high-level magic we’re dealing with here, but I do get that you’re not as strong as some Immortal. So, how in the hell did you manage to neutralize actual Immortal magic running through my veins?”

“An opportunity arose a little while back and I was able to store some Immortal magic away for a rainy day. This, curing you today, was the last of it.”

“Damn, you’re a sly fucker, aren’t you?” I said, my gaze running the length of him.

He really was something. Compact hard muscle, a sexy swagger to him, and one hell of a pretty boy face. And through all that hoity-toity magical shit, he was actually one real down-to-earth guy with a tough edge to him that I always liked.

I blinked, catching my thoughts. What was I doing… why was I going there?

The corner of his mouth turned up, indicating he’d caught me looking my fill. “I prefer to call it resourceful.”

“It’s gonna help you out big time with Black.”

He tensed, that playfulness disappearing in an instant at me invoking his lover’s name in a negative sense. “What does that mean?”

“It was hella obvious in that disturbing dreamscape that you guys are something.”

---