Page 321 of Dragon Slayer

“Vlad will see to that.” And he was surprised to find that he felt confident about it. He and Vlad had seemed like enemies once…but that was in the past. And, after walking into his brother’s memories, he knew it hadn’t been true. “The second we left, he took that place in hand. They’ll be following his agenda now, and he’ll be turning his eyes to the east. Toward Romulus.”

“Still. I don’t want to take our baggage to Donna’s doorstep just yet. I don’t want to take…” She flushed and her gaze dropped; she pressed her face into his chest.

“Me?” he guessed.

“Me. I’m…different.”

He ran his fingers through her hair. “How are you different, love?”

She made a disbelieving sound. “I’m avampire, for one.”

“So?”

She lifted her brows.

“You have different nutritional needs. And you’re faster, and stronger. And you won’t age. But you’re stillyou, Mia. Nothing can change that.”

She glanced at him again, a sharp, measuring gaze.

“We are animals, just like everyone else. We aren’t the depraved creatures of novels and movies. Well.” He rolled his eyes. “Some are. But so are some humans.”

She stared at him.

“Darling, I would never have turned you if I thought I was dooming you to an eternity as a bloodthirsty monster.”

She swallowed. “I know,” she said, with quiet wonder.

His throat ached, suddenly. “I want you to have the life you deserve.”

“I want the same for you.”

His eyes started to burn, too. His sinuses swelled up. Nearly six-hundred years without crying, and he wanted to do it all the time now, from his brother’s embrace to his mate’s. He didn’t know what to do with so much love at once; it was incomprehensible.

They both started laughing together, sniffling and dabbing at their eyes.

He hugged her close again. “We have time,” he told her. “We can figure everything out.”

“Yeah,” she said, and he couldsenseher contentment. That was the thing about being a vampire, the thing she would come to learn: it was hard to keep secrets from one another. “But I think we should lay low for a little bit, before we try to head back to Colorado.”

“Alright.” He wanted to go to her home, to sit on her couch in person, sleep in her bed…do other things. Stroke Brando’s handsome nose with his flesh-and-blood hand. But he was relieved in a way. Because even if Vlad had sent him off to live his own life, to escape this war…he didn’t think he could just ignore its coming. And he wanted, badly, to have a visit with his two favorite Russians, and get a feel for the current state of affairs in the immortal world.

“I canfeelyou thinking,” Mia said.

“You’ve caught me out. I was just thinking I know where we ought to go for now.”

“Where?”

“How do you feel about New York City?”

~*~

They had two rooms at the La Quinta, one for each couple. They weren’t even an eighth as grand as their quarters at the manor. But there was something to be said for stiff sheets and hotel soap when they came with total and complete privacy.

Fulk hadn’t slept much. They’d arrived late, and had stripped down to undershirts and underwear, all but falling onto the bed. Anna had turned to him immediately, urging him onto his side so they lay front-to-front, her small head tucked into his chest, one of his arms draped around her waist. The skin-to-skin contact was important – essential, really, for wolves. Humans and vampires and mages enjoyed their pair bonds, the emotional support and stability provided. But wolves could go into deep depressions without a pack or mates. A pack would help, in place of a mate…but it was the mate that made them whole. Pack or not, with a mate, a wolf could gladly take on the world.

After high-adrenaline events, Fulk always felt himself drop into an almost dopey state: exhausted but restless, needy, clingy. Anna said it was the same for her, but she handled it more gracefully – as she did with most things.

He clung to her now, as the first gray light of dawn slipped through the gap in the hotel drapes, a sinuous glide across the bed. Pressed his nose and mouth into her hair and breathed in the scent of her, of them, their pack of two. They each had their own scent, colored by one another, and then there was a third scent, unique to their union. He drank that in now like water, slow sips through his open mouth.

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