Page 72 of Seduce Me in Shadow

“The average is two days.”

“But they’ll sleep, right?”

“No.”

“Are you telling me they’ll be…”

“Shagging all that time? Most of it, I’m afraid.”

Olivia winces. “I see what you mean about stamina. Can this…process last longer?”

“Indeed.” I scrub a hand over my face. Frightening the witchling who has yet to undergo her own transition is something I’d rather avoid, but being dishonest benefits no one. “My transition came two years early. In my ignorance, I fought it. My parents knew little about magic, since mine came frommy grandmother, who had long since disappeared. So when I transitioned, it was harsh, as I suspect Caden’s will be.”

“And yours took longer?”

Before I can answer, a thumping against the wall echoes through Sydney’s little living room once, twice, again, then settles into a rhythmic pace.

Bloody hell.

I nod grimly. “Three days.”

It was one of the few times my body and magic completely overrode the decorum that was drummed into me my entire life. For those few days, no amount of sex was enough, no act too wicked or depraved. I rejected food, water, family—anything but pleasure.

“The poor woman must have been exhausted. No wonder you’re worried for Sydney.”

When I transitioned, my emotions weren’t engaged with any particular woman, as Caden’s are. I started with a woman I was dating casually. When she fell into an exhausted sleep, I didn’t think twice about opening my bedroom door to growl for another.

But I say nothing. No reason to alarm her.

Still, my discomfort must show on my face.

“More than one woman?” Olivia chokes.

I close my eyes and sigh. “Four.”

And the last had nearly had to be replaced.

A good thing, I think in retrospect. At the end of every transition, each witch’s or wizard’s special power, unique to them, emerges—without any warning when or what will manifest. When my special power presented itself, if the woman I was with hadn’t been mostly unconscious, she would have screamed in utter terror.

“What happens if Sydney isn’t strong enough to pull him through?”

“Let’s just hope for the best, shall we?”

Olivia peers at me, clearly upset. “Are you trying to avoid telling me that he could die?”

I pat her hand to reassure her. “You will be better prepared. Bram will tell Marrok well in advance what’s to come and how to behave. My family was not so lucky. Fear not; your transition will come off splendidly.”

“I’m not worried about me. Marrok will do everything in his power to get me through. But I’m worried about Caden. What if Sydney can’t? Who will?”

“Replacing her doesn’t seem to be an option. Caden is dangerously attached, and I can only hope we find some way to separate them before he cements the bond by issuing the Call or?—”

“Yes. Yes!” Sydney wails on the other side of the wall.

“We won’t ever pry them apart,” Olivia finishes.

“He’ll kill anyone who tries. A wizard will fight for his mate to the death.”

“But she’s a reporter who could spill every one of our secrets. Caden says she’s ambitious and determined to make a name for herself. Blowing the magickind story wide open would be a disaster for us. She already knows too much about the war and Mathias and?—”

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