Page 59 of Never Run from an Immortal

They passed Thadlia, the female’s eyes fixed on the way Aidan pressed Rae to his body, hands entwined where his arm encircled her waist, but he knew the other Provident wouldn’t make a scene here.

Cormac found them first, Rae thanking him for the human food and complimenting him on the interior decoration. It was the only time Aidan released her hand, so she could hold Cormac’s with both. Aidan let a little of his Provident abilities wash over the Vampire, not that he doubted any of Rae’s skills.

More Vampires tried to catch their attention as they left, but Aidan wasn’t interested. Orion walked on the other side of Rae as they returned to the elevator, only stepping back once the doors closed. She stepped out of Aidan’s hold as if she’d realised she no longer needed it.

I’m sorry for taking you down there,he told her.

Rae kept her attention fixed on the doors as they ascended.The last thing I want from you is your pity, Vale.

He studied her face.What do you want from me?

“How long do we have?” she asked, tilting her face up to meet his, all traces of heat long gone from her eyes, anger simmering beneath the surface once more. How long until the coordinated attack on the facilities, the entire reason for their visit to Cormac’s residence.

“A week.”

The elevator completed its ascent, and the doors opened to the remainder of First Unit waiting to escort them from the warehouse back to their vehicle.

“I’ll get your magic back to you and be out of your life in a week then, as soon as I’ve got Nim somewhere safe,” Rae said as she slid into the passenger side of his car, fastening her seatbelt.

“Farren.” Aidan fired up the engine. Nim likely didn’t have a week, if she wasn’t dead already.

“Don’t say it. She’s out there.”

They drove in silence for a moment as he cast a wide net with his abilities, making sure no surprises awaited them. “Cormac was given a list. We’re all on it. Me, Baelin, every one of my units.”

He felt Rae’s eyes on him. “You’re worried,” the Witch said.

Aidan swallowed. “Baelin is…” More than his Ascendant. Baelin was like a brother. “Very few Elymas remain.”

More anger rolled from her. “Those Fae fuckers. You’re all as hot-headed as each other.”

“It’s only the Liberalist Fae, Farren, I know you’re not naive enough to believe it’s all of them. The Royalists aren’t like their counterparts.”

“Aren’t they? They were willing to let their prince marry a young girl he’d never met. How is that any better?”

Aidan couldn’t answer that. He’d fallen out with Elred, the Fae king, over it. Had damn near fallen out with Casius over it too, but he’d never shared that information with anyone, and he’d already told Rae more than even Baelin knew.

“One week,” Rae breathed, a heaviness to the words Aidan felt in the very centre of the scar over his chest.

One week to find Nim. One week until he got his magic back. And one week until Rae was out of his life. Aidan let her anger settle into his bones as they returned to the manor in silence.

Chapter twenty-nine

Rae couldn’t sleep for the second night in a row, her body clock all over the place.I think we both know this goes beyond me simply giving a shit.Aidan’s words played on repeat as she tossed and turned. It wasn’t the only memory playing on repeat. No, it was perfectly spliced between him bending her over her workbench and fucking her from behind, and how he’d practically feasted on her in Cormac’s basement. Except he hadn’t actually feasted, and Rae realised with a jolt that she was a little disappointed about that.

“You are seriously fucked in the head,” she muttered to herself, throwing aside the covers to grab her vibrator from the bedside table. A joint would add to the vibe, but Rae settled back into the covers, closed her eyes, flicked on the vibrator, and tried to focus as she moved it over her centre, tried not to think about Aidan’s canines sinking into her flesh, a shiver racing through her at the thought. But then—nothing. Out of battery.Fuck my life.

She was too wound up to work for it. A smoke and a swim were the only two things that would help, so she grabbed the joint she’d rolled earlier and made her way to the natatorium.

Everything was in place. Her cadets were all ready and waiting for the next order at the end of the week after the facility raids, and then it was time to neutralise every last drop of magic the Vampires and Fae residing in the city possessed.

Less than a week and she’d be out of the manor and out of Aidan’s life for good. Too many times, Rae had almost given up the location of his magic. Too many times she’d almost given in, but she couldn’t, or all of this would have been for nothing. She didn’t dare let herself dwell on what finding Nim was going to look like when her thoughts were so fractured, her resolve so frayed.

Quinn and the rutok—Ru, Bae had named him—bounded along behind her as she padded down the stairs, but Rae needed some peace from the rutok’s antics, shutting them both out of the natatorium with a quiet apology. Hiding everything from Aidan had been an exercise in mental acrobatics, and she felt worn thin from the effort of it all.

She’d finished her joint before she even made it to the showers and breathed a sigh of relief as the weed eased some of the tension in her shoulders. Getting through the rest of this week was going to be damn near impossible. Between her blind hope that Nim was still alive, trying to keep Aidan out, coordinating Omnia, and practicing reaching for all her enchanted pieces of silver, Rae wished she could dive under the surface of the water and remain there, just like the Sirens could.

A foolish wish, but she jumped in regardless. Underwater, the thoughts swirling around her brain were easier to control, to silence. Well, almost all of them. Even beneath the surface, her skin burned at the memory of Aidan’s touch, her heart beatfaster at the way he’d filled her, at how he’d made her come apart around him with his tongue.

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