Page 8 of Fated In Forever
Malachi dipped his head, the rumbling in his chest turning into more of a purr.Thank you for standing up for me.
Don’t thank me. I’m still beyond pissed at you for leaving me that stupid note and going off alone to die, like some martyr. I liked you better when you were the villain, Malachi.
I was trying to protect you. You were supposed to stay in New York.
And I was supposed to stab you in the heart because I’m a slayer, but here we are.
Here we are.Another long, slow blink of those strange amber eyes and a wonderful, delicious heat spun through me like warm honey.Despite the circumstances, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, Evangeline.
For a second, I got all tangled up in the intensity of his magnetic attention, like he was sucking me deeper into his gravitational pull.I’m glad, too.
Someone cleared their throat, and I pulled my eyes away to find the entire room staring, like they’d never seen anyone speak mind to mind before.
“We will begin making our preparations for France. You came to see Brendan for a reason, we’ll leave you three alone to discuss…” Nikolai’s amused gaze skimmed up and down Malachi’s formidable form. “Matters.”
4
MALACHI/ORCUS
Ikept Evangeline close as we followed Brendan Thorne down one floor, where the chalky lime smell stung my over-sensitive nose and the stones held all the dampness of Ireland in their old, aching bones. This was a relief, to get away from all those thoughts and emotions and fears clogging the room above us.
I heard everything.
Felt everything.
Kneweverything, as if I was an unwilling voyeur to every last secret in everyone’s minds. Being around that many vampires at once was like enduring chaos itself, but thankfully, down here, the stone dampened those voices screaming inside my head.
I didn’t know what to make of myself.
My body was too cumbersome for these small spaces, every one of my senses too sharp. My skin was on fire, my instincts roaring for me to rip apart every threat to Evangeline, and it had been a constant battle to keep my claws from accidently tearing out someone’s throat.
Vicious was consuming me from the inside out with a slow, aching thoroughness.
Her smell, her touch, her closeness.
Every mouthwatering nuance became a searing needthat pounded through my veins, urging me totake, take, take, especially now as she gripped my hand tightly, leading me down the steps, as I ducked through doorways not meant for anyone my size, my shoulders scraping against rough stone more than once.
We ended up in Brendan’s office, a stuffy, dismal affair of half read books and a lamp with a burned-out lightbulb that spoke of too many lonely nights spent without Lyra, his queen.
Five minutes around the male, and I knew every last detail of their doomed love affair.
How they defied Lilith herself to be together, followed by centuries of happiness, then the birth of their daughter, Aisling, who had to remain a secret, but was the joy of their lives, until an Elder came calling and those happy lives fell apart.
Now Lyra was dead, by Nikolai’s hand, who was now his daughter’s mate.
Strange, indeed, how the world worked.
Little glimpses of irony that would be funny, if they were not so sad.
I settled onto an old, sturdy bench in the corner of the room, elbows tucked in, shoulders rounded, listening to Vicious painstakingly recount the last hours in detail as Brendan made notes. I didn’t remember much after the water’s cold embrace had enveloped me in a wash of pain, nothing except I’d made Evie swear she’d kill me, if I became a monster.
Now I was that monster.
And shehadpromised. Even if she’d crossed her fingers behind her back, as she was wont to do, I meant to hold her to that oath.
“Orcus?” Brendan looked thoughtful. “The Roman godof the Underworld? And you said there was a portal leading to a different realm, do you know where?”
“Somewhere dark and filled with shadows, and I saw what looked like red lightning.” Evie recounted. “But the portal never factored into the ritual, the magic from the ley line was what changed Malachi, that and whatever was in the water.”
