Page 18 of Blood and Hexes

Echoes of Time

They all stared at the black circle left by the demon for a beat too long.

Suddenly, Diana was downright exhausted. No vampire her age needed much sleep, but she hadn't rested for a while, and right now, she wanted nothing more than to crash in one of the guest rooms on the hill. She hoped Alexius kept a few of them dusted off.

"Are you going to let me in or what?" she asked her brother.

Before Alexius could invite her into the territory, Mikar interrupted. "Wait."

If the man protested against her walking into her own home, she was going to turn his balls into mochi cake and make him eat them.

"We still haven't tested the theory that someone can walk in when they're touching an Oldcrest resident. Might as well try now."

He could keep his testicles. For now. Diana wasn't likely to forget that the hottie had restrained her by the throat and threatened to bite her. And she certainly wasn't ready to forgive. Maybe he had taken her for an intruder, but that was no excuse. And she was all the more pissed off because part of her had liked it. It wasn't usual for a man—or a woman—to be able to get the best of her. The display of brawn had aroused the monster that was barely hidden under the surface at the moment.

She was mature enough to admit that she hadn't exactly tried to explain herself. She was on edge. Plus, over the last few hours, she'd fought—three times, had met a demon, and had been informed about the Eirikrson clan coming back. That was more oddities than she'd seen since the start of the Age of Blood, at least. It had been a long night.

"Good idea." Alexius offered his elbow.

"Hang on a second." She went to her bike. The front wheel had been destroyed on impact, flattened into a pancake when it hit the barrier. Belial had been right: the shields around Oldcrest were seriously powerful. The rest was intact, but she couldn't hope to ride it without giving it a little TLC.

She grabbed the bike by the exhaust and lifted it on one of her shoulders, upside down so the leather seat rested on her skin.

"All right, I'm ready."

"I can carry that," the guard offered in a reluctant grunt.

She sent him the most condescending glare she could muster, before reaching her brother. She hadn't needed a man to hold her stuff for almost a thousand years. She certainly wasn't going to start now. Maybe he was offering an olive branch after the whole attack thing, but as she had no intention of forgiving him, she wasn't biting.

Alexius chuckled, after looking between them.

"What?" she asked her brother.

He shrugged. "Not gonna say a thing at all. Come on, then."

He took her hand, and together they stepped over the immaterial line.

The moment the magic shield washed over her, Diana saw it. The three green hills, the lake shining under the dark of a reddening sky. The Wolvswoods. Adairford, the village where her old friends had lived back in the day. As a sickly kid, she wasn't likely to get along with the power-hungry lot on Night Hill. The castle that had housed a witch clan in her days.

"It hasn't changed at all," she managed to say, her voice small.

Time had barely caressed her home. She noticed a few newer buildings in the village, and in the distance, she could see that some of the houses on the hill had changed. But it was still the Oldcrest of her dreams.Oldcrest even smelled the same. Clear and pure.

"Tell me about it." Alexius's mouth was thin. To him, the unchanging territory had been a prison.

"I'm surprised you're here at all, rather than traveling the world," she mused.

He shrugged, leading the way to Night Hill. "Things are complicated at the moment. Besides, my wife is a student here."

Diana blinked. "Wife?" She'd known he was mated, but the specific term was a surprise to her. "You got hitched?"

He grinned. "As of today, in fact. You're crashing a party. Not that I knew we were throwing it at all."

He'd gotten married without her. Diana wasn't going to lie: that hurt. She hid it under a smile. "I'm… Wow. Congratulations. I wouldn't have thought you'd do the marriage thing. How mortal of you."

Immortals didn't like marriages for various reasons. One of them being that most marriages promised a bond until death. Vampires their age had lived long enough to realize that after a while, they could get tired of their spouses. The fae used to swear to each other for a hundred years. A lot more reasonable.

"Avani's my fated mate, Diana," Alexius told her. "I can't wait for you to meet her. In about one minute, I suppose."

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