Page 24 of Lifeblood

“Agreed,” Tristan said, now looking a bit more with it. “We can work on the mate bond portion over time, but we need to have it on record we are sharing the lifeblood—no offense, Ava.”

I shook my head. “None taken. So, what, you bleed me?” I was already holding up my wrist.

Lance chuckled and pushed my hand back down. “Not fully, anyway. You’re to give us your blood, but just a small amount. To cement its power in this unique case, it’d be best we solidified our bonds first.”

I raised an eyebrow.

Lance returned it. “Exactly what it sounds like. We submit to the bond. Just a little bit. Intimacy and blood, those are the answers.”

“Um…” I trailed off.

It wasn’t that Iwantedto sleep with all of these men as the mate bond demanded. But if it stopped the attacks, if it helped the kings deal with whatever this massive, looming threat was, then sure. Why not? Now that I knew they hadn’t killed any previous wives, there were worse people to be intimate with.

“This isn’t right,” Gareth argued, still seething from yesterday, it seemed.

Mordred nodded. “It is. It’s the only way, and you know it. This is our plan, butno oneclaims her. Got it?”

Claims?Oh. My cheeks flushed. Tristan’s did, too.

“Not yet,” Mordred added as we all took in his words. “There is time, but regaining our immortality is more important than the mate bond, no matter how powerful it might collectively make us.”

The four kings grumbled an agreement without my say in the matter. Perhaps that was why I finally then blurted out: “Okay, with that plan out of the way, what the hell are you all afraid of? Other than infighting amongst the courts, that is.”

Smoke billowed around Gareth’s head. His fists clenched at this sides. But I couldn’t tell if he was angry with me or the other kings’ decisions.

“Morgan,” Gareth said, too simply for the anger written in his expression. “Morgan le Fay.”

I paused, holding his gaze for a long time. There was no evidence he was fucking around with me. “For real?”

Gareth nodded. “The one and only.”

CHAPTER9

Istared at Gareth. Then at the others. “I’m going to be really honest here and say that I thought the whole naming scheme between you all was more of a nod to Arthurian legends than anything else.”

Gareth’s eyes widened a fraction before he released a hissed breath and shook his head. “For fuck’s sake.”

Mordred held a hand out to him. “We kept it this way for a reason. Don’t forget that.”

Gareth whipped back around. “Forget what? That we let the humans muddy our actual history to have themselves a fun story to tell? Screw that.” His fiery eyes settled on me. Smoke had yet to stop slowly spiraling from his nostrils. “Yes,theMorgan le Fay, lifeblood. And no, it’s not a ‘naming scheme.’”

Yeesh, okay.“Understood.” I was afraid to say anything else, not just to Gareth, but in general, that might offend them.

Lance sat beside me on a plush banquet chair. He glanced up, studying me closely for something. “You really believe as the humans do? About the Knights of the Round Table?”

I shrugged. After the last several days, I wasn’t sure what I believed anymore. “I always thought your names were inspired by them to… I don’t know. Win the humans over with something familiar. But I’m guessing that’s not true.”

“No,” Tristan said. He was aloof-looking again, his words directed to me and the other kings, but his gaze elsewhere. “The Demon Courts were cursed long ago, when there were more of us and we were all in hiding. Long before supernaturals were accepted in society, back when we stayed hidden at all costs. Those curses keep us tied to our vices, and our true forms and power locked away.”

“We’d organized ourselves under a single banner that we attempt to hold to this day,” Mordred added when Tristan stopped. He’d paced over to the broken stained-glass windows and was now running his fingers over the remaining frames while looking out over Tintagel. “You would call it the Round Table. There were more of us, more Demon Courts, but they were wiped out and their kings killed or lost to their curses.”

“Cursed like you,” I guessed.

Mordred nodded. “We’ve been lucky so far. For some reason, we get close enough to removing those curses that we stay alive, but that fight’s not over yet. We’ve never removed them. Maybe it had something to do with you being around but hidden, our lifeblood mate.”

That would make sense. “So, you know how to remove the curses, then? You just can’t?”

“Not exactly,” Gareth said as he found himself a chair as well. “It’s individual to each of us. But I think now it’s safe to say that a component of it was finding our fated mates. You… may have the power to save us as well as make us immortal.”

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