Page 36 of Reign of the Beast

He hesitated and looked away.

“Ryker?” I pressed.

With great reluctance, he met my gaze.

Drawing in a breath, he told me, “That stake was coated with holy water, along with magically-infused sunlight trapped at its core.”

“Excuse me?” I said, shocked to say the least.

“I know,” he said, gravely. “It was a major shock to me as well when I realized you weren’t healing and I questioned Jaxon about it.”

“The wolf possesses the means to take my life.”

It wasn’t easy to obtain such a weapon, one that had the means to actually take the life of an Ancient. We weren’t as fragile as run-of-the-mill vampires. A simple stake couldn’t get the job done. Furthermore, this special weapon had to be forged by an exceedingly competent magic-wielder through a lengthy and most difficult process. The price he would’ve had to pay for such an item would’ve been incredibly steep also.

Evidently, his hatred for me ran deeper than I had even realized. For him to still carry the weapon on his person meant it had not abated despite all the years that had passed since we had crossed paths wherein I had incurred his wrath.

“And you wish to keep me bound and defenseless in light of this?”

“He’s in no state to go after you. He’s grieving hard. Besides, I’m sure it hasn’t gone unacknowledged that you saved Mia yesterday. That will be enough to stop him from harming you again. Don’t forget either that he had the chance earlier when my magic was tapped out to take you out with an instant shot to the heart, but he wounded you instead.”

“All good points,butones which are built on assumption, not facts.”

Ryker finally drew closer and actually took a seat on the edge of the bed close to me. He reached out and ran his fingers through my hair, mimicking the loving act that I often treated him to. “If you can’t trust him, put your trust in me. I am back at full strength. No one can hurt you with me here, no one can get past me. All right?”

“Thank you.”

He smiled. “I’d do nothing less for you.”

“I have lived a very long time, Ryker. I have seen everything there is to see, experienced everything there is to experience. I do not fear death.”

“Lucian,” he said, shaking his head, not liking the subject matter.

But I needed him to hear it, to understand my truth. So, I went on, “Until recently, I’ve never felt real peace. I’ve never felt what it is to be loved andtolove so deeply, so purely. And now that you have gifted me that rarity, I don’t want to forsake it, not even for death itself. I don’t want to leaveyou.”

His eyes shone at my admission and he reached out and squeezed my hand. “I feel the same.”

I took a moment to swallow down my emotion, then I looked down at his hand clasping mine, how close he’d moved to me. “You are forgoing your caution?”

“You’re lucid, rational and there’s no sign of the rabid vampire from earlier.”

“Their blood still calls to me, still teases the demon within,” I admitted.

He nodded. “I can’t replicate the cloaking veil that Cornelius had in place without it depleting too much of my energy. It’s something that needs to be powered constantly, not an issue for Immortals, because they don’thave a cap on their power like I do. It’s one of the things that sets them apart from the rest of us.”

“I see.” Something occurred to me then. “How were you able to recover so quickly from your severely depleted state?”

He waved his hand dismissively. “It doesn’t matter. All that does is me being back at full strength.”

“Ryker,” I pressed. What had he done?

He pulled his hand from mine and shifted his weight. “Our priority right now is dealing with your bloodlust issues. We need to find a way around it. Not only do you need to be at peace with the scent of Immortal blood until Mia is able to wield heavy magic again and resurrect that cloaking veil, but to complete the Covenant ritual, you actually need to ingest her blood. Everyone needs to bind themselves to her. For me, it means I have to meld my magic with hers. For Jaxon, he has to make a wolf bite. But for you, as a vampire, you need to feed from her. Right now we are nowhere close to you being ready to do that.”

I cursed at the predicament.

“I have an idea,” he announced.

Judging by the look on his face, I was certain I wouldn’t like it.

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