Page 109 of Princess Avenged

“Lighten up.” Flame claps Blade on the back. “Details don’t matter right now. Phil is alive. So are Ana and Crusher. They all made it back. Why can’t you just be happy?”

“I am happy.” Blade swallows, hard. “Very happy. But I need to understand.” He turns toward Crusher. “Back in Philadelphia, you’re sure that Phil was staked through the heart, correct?”

Crusher nods. He’s been standing near the door, ever since Ember and her men left.

Blade looks at Phil. “Listen. I’m thrilled you’re alive, and that you’re no longer hearing the demon. But…” He rubs his head. “I was keeping this thought to myself, but I was terrified that if you ever got the demon out, you’d die from that wound to your heart.”

“I fucking didn’t die. Did I?” Phil’s annoyed. And weary.

“Phil.” I tuck myself under one of his arms and lean into him. “You need to feed. Can you make it upstairs?” My body tingles, thinking about feeding Phil—feeding him properly—not to mention what will come after.

“He needs human blood too,” Crusher says from the doorway. “We should have asked Ember to arrange that before they left. Kind of hard for us to find a suitable human in the daylight.”

“I’m okay.” Phil pushes himself off the table to stand straight, his heavy arm falling around me. “I do need more blood.” His fingers grip my waist. “But first I need sleep. When I feed, I want to be ready to enjoy it.” He looks deep into my eyes, and warmth spreads inside me.

“Let’s get you upstairs.” Crusher walks toward us.

He and Flame support Phil as they climb the stairs to the bedroom. At the top of the stairs, Phil turns toward me, and the longing and love in his eyes fills me with a massive amount of hope for the future. Not just the near future of feeding and fucking him later today, but the rest of our lives.

I know I’m getting ahead of myself, but the idea of it plays out like a fairy tale in my mind.

Flame and Crusher lead Phil into a bedroom, while Blade and I wait in the foyer.

“I think I’ve figured it out,” Blade says.

Blade was the first of these men I fell for, but his need to understand every little thing is getting on my last nerve today. “What do you understand?”

“Why Phil survived.”

“Spill it, then.” Crusher jumps down from the balcony, quickly followed by Flame, and the three of us face Blade, waiting.

“Granted.” Blade shakes his head. “This is all just a theory?—”

“Get on with it,” Crusher says gruffly.

Blade frowns at him. “I will, if you give me a chance to speak.”

Crusher folds his arms over his chest.

“First, it’s reasonable to assume that Rasputin only lived so long, only survived multiple assassination attempts, because of the demon.”

“Tell us something we don’t know,” Crusher says.

“Let him finish,” I say, now curious myself. Blade’s expression tells me that he’s still working this out, but he’s not one to throw around half-baked theories. He wouldn’t be sharing anything, if he wasn’t mostly sure.

Blade glances to the side, as if thinking, and then turns back toward us. “We know that Rasputin made bargains with the demon. Deals in exchange for his life.” He looks into my eyes. “And at least one of those trades involved promising you as his mate.”

A shiver runs through me, followed by gratitude that Rasputin is dead, that the demon is gone, and it’s all in the past.

Blade turns toward Crusher. “Did Phil make a deal with the demon?”

“No fucking way,” Crusher answers.

“Are you sure?” Blade asks.

“Have you met Phil?” Flame’s voice drips with sarcasm. “No chance would Phil make a deal with that demon. Not even in exchange for his life.”

“I agree.” Blade nods, his eyes widening with obvious delight, as if he’s just placed the last piece in a puzzle. “The demon kept Rasputin alive because of their bargain, but Phil never made any bargain. To use Phil’s body, the demon had to truly repair Phil’s heart.”