Page 13 of Embers in the Wind

The minute we get to a clearing, closer to the side of Romano’s, I’ll get word to him that I’m definitely staying. Send a message to Descallia and have him move the meeting for the warriors. The applicants have waited this long, what’s a few more days? Besides, it will test their endurance and patience and show me how they react to delay. Perhaps not a bad thing after all. But as half an hour passes and then forty-five minutes, my own patience begins to thin.

I give the door to the bathroom a good rap. “Are you planning to be in there all night? By the time you finish getting ready the moon will have made its appearance and the night will be half over.”

The door opens slowly, and my groin pushes uncomfortably against the inseam of my jeans. The little seductress is more captivating now than she was before. Her freshly washed and dried hair practically glistens, cascading over her shoulders as her eyes watch, fascinated with my response. Because there is no doubt that my response to her is visceral, an almost primal need to mate with her right here on the floor.

Her heart beats strong, that pulse on the side of her neck ready for what I want to take and to give. That little shirt she has on does nothing to cover up her navel, and the jewel on the end of that silver navel chain tempts me to no end.

The little seductress knows exactly what she’s doing, shifting in her little shorty boots, calling attention to her lean and creamy legs, her thighs barely covered with a miniscule wrap of material she calls a skirt.

I’ve almost convinced myself to put the fact that I am the superior in this relationship as a lord of the purebloods, she is or at least was a warrior, and still best friends with our queen out of my mind and give in to the temptation of her flesh. Damn destiny all to hell. She has clearly drawn me into the web of forbidden fruit.

She won’t win at this game. I’ve been self-sufficient without the curtails of a mate for many centuries. Embry looks up at me, her eyes now shadowed on the lids and emphasized with black mascara that she didn’t need at all. I thought she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen as I laid until the early evening hours just watching her sleep.

Embry closes the scant distance. “This thing between us. It’s just a passing thing. You know, an attraction that you have for someone but after a while, it blows over. This too shall pass.” She looks me up and down. “Because you are just not my type.”

She passes me, the sound of her little shorty boots tapping against the floor as she makes her way to the door. “Are youcoming? Night’s wasting. Besides, I want to find Rupert again. He’ll be able to answer some of our questions, at least I think so.”

I let out an inhalation of breath. “Pray tell, who the hell is Rupert?”

“He lives in the forest. He’s come to the aid of the vampires many times over the centuries but is friends to the witches and vampires alike. A good friend in a time of need. He pointed me in this direction, and didn’t ask many questions. I like his style a lot, unlike yours.”

The sexy little vixen is about to get on my last nerve, but still I follow her into the night, my trusty sword tucked into its sheath with two daggers securely in the vest around my chest. “At least tell me what we’re looking for so I can try to find it. I’d like to get home before another century has passed.”

She stops and pushes some leaves around as we enter the forest floor and the moonlight grows dimmer, sheltered by the canopy of autumn leaves not yet fallen as we move through the forest.

“Rupert!”

“Shh,” I tell her. “We don’t want to alert the entire world that we’re here. Did they not teach you anything as a warrior?”

I do not expect the backlash that she throws my way, turning on me in a split second, her fangs descended and hissing at me like a little wildcat. Fucking sexy as hell, but a very dangerous vampiress when giving way to her anger. “I was a hell of a warrior, a great warrior even. I trained with the best of them. Days and nights, in forests, over bridges, in tree canopies, just to learn balance and test my might. You, sir, can kiss my ass.”

It's really hard not to smirk, but I do try and fail miserably. Her anger sparks, and her eyes light in the dark of night. “Do not test me, vampire. I have had enough of life and enough of you for one day. It wouldn’t bother me one bit to run you through.”

But yet, I think the little sexpot does protest too much. She runs hot and cold, a visceral reaction to her sexual need, one that I can see and smell from here. The attraction and clawing desire is not hers alone, because this connection, this fated-mates draw is much stronger than people know. It is like fighting a magnet that won’t let go of its hold.

Yet, destiny has got it all wrong this time. This is not a match that will work, perhaps as the little temptress says, a passing fancy to scratch an itch, because the closer we get, the more time we spend together, the more the need.

That is without a doubt. The urge to bed her and sink my teeth deep into her creamy white throat causes my cock to swell with desire just thinking about it at all.

And she knows it, too. The same desire flashes in her eyes, almost daring me to say it isn’t so, but she’ll not get a lie from me.

Fucking destiny…

What pray tell does destiny and her mingling in history and personal lives have in store for me? I was perfectly happy in my position of authority and now destiny has me chasing this vampiress who could have the heritage of a centuries old witch, halfway around the world.

But Embry seems oblivious to it all as she whispers loudly into the night, calling out for her friend who is nowhere within sight. Until a swooshing sounds splinters the air, causing animals to scurry from the trees and a big black awkward bird to land on a branch just above our heads. “Rupert!”

Chapter 12

Embry

The bird comes in for a landing on a branch right above our heads. “I knew you’d come back girlie.” He looks left then right. “But it’s not safe for you here. At least not while you’re with him.”

Corvinus openly assesses Rupert, an awkward looking bird, a raven with spiky black hair, a long beak, and beady white eyes. I try not to worry about what he thinks. “I found the cavern, and my grandmother, too.”

The dark-eyed vampire’s eyes narrow with stark disapproval, but he keeps his runaway thoughts quiet, although I hear every word he thinks. I choose to ignore him, and his disbelief that gramma had anything to do with the quarts of blood or any of my clothes. Rupert flips to a lower branch right above our heads. “She’s here?”

It’s hard to look him in the eye. Rupert and his family try to stay neutral in the never-ending war between the witches and vampires, but he had to have known my gramma yet never mentioned a word to me. “You knew Lucas before you knew me. Did you know my gramma? Do you know if she’s here, in the Mystic Forest?”

---