Page 86 of Wolf Queen Ruin
I grinned.“I sure won’t stop you.”
I tried to imagine Damien in period clothing—powdered wig, brocade coat, and silk stockings—but the image wouldn’t quite form.Out here, with dirt all over him, his clothes torn, and smelling of sex, he seemed too primal for that level of foppery, despite his refined manners.
As we set up camp, I noticed how he maintained physical distance, as if crossing that boundary again would unleash something he couldn’t control, and we’d screw each other into oblivion.His movements were precise but tense, and when our fingers brushed as he handed me supplies, he withdrew his hand so quickly that the contact might as well have burned him.
“Are we going to talk about what happened earlier?”I finally asked, deciding directness was the only way through this strained awkwardness.
His shoulders stiffened.“If you want.”
“Do you regret it?”
“No,” he said without hesitation, his voice dropping to a register that vibrated through me.“Do you?”
“Not even slightly,” I admitted.
The tension between us only thickened even more until it felt like I could reach out and touch it.A living thing with its own heartbeat.
Damien’s eyes darkened as he looked at me, giving me serious come-hither vibes, but when I lost myself in his stare, I thought he might close the distance between us himself.
Instead, he cleared his throat and said, “We should examine the Shadow Fang piece more thoroughly.”
I bit back my disappointment and retrieved the specialized container from my pack.More sex could wait until we were out of danger.
Down, you pesky hormones.
As I opened the container, feeling the Shadow Fang piece’s subtle warmth and vibration, Damien maintained his distance.
“You can come closer,” I said.“It won’t bite.”
“The Wolf Queen mentioned certain sensitivities vampires have to it,” he admitted.“I’ll likely need special gloves to handle it.”
“Ah.So it will bite.”I removed the Shadow Fang piece from its protective case.
The artifact responded to my touch, its subtle glow intensifying in my palm.The curved fang was about two and a half inches long, a translucent silvery material that wasn’t quite bone or mineral but something between.The housing encasing its base was intricate gold filigree inlaid with tiny crystals, each etched with microscopic symbols.
“It’s warm,” I said, turning it.
“It’s always pulsing.”Damien leaned closer, his caution momentarily forgotten.“The frequency synchronizes with your heartbeat.”
As I studied the piece, strange sensations filtered through my consciousness.Not quite visions, but impressions emanating from the fang itself.Feelings of connection, protection, and an overwhelming sense of longing for its missing pieces.
“It’s incomplete,” I murmured.“Like it misses the other parts?That sounds crazy, but if magical fangs have feelings, that’s one of them.”
“Not so crazy,” Damien said.“In my research, I learned that many powerful magical artifacts develop a form of consciousness over time, particularly those created from living tissue.The ancient Egyptians believed parts of a being’s essence remained in anything taken from their body.The Greeks had similar beliefs.”
He spoke with the casual authority of someone who had discussed philosophy with those ancients personally, and it struck me again how little I knew of his long existence.
A sudden, intense wave of emotion surged from the artifact, so powerful it disrupted my thoughts.Images flashed through my mind—Aria and Jade lying in their Repository beds, their skin marked by the luminescent orange moss of their illness.But instead of the memory I expected, the vision shifted, showing them in a strange misty realm, suspended in a twilight state neither sleeping nor waking.
And they were…
They were smiling.
Tears sprang to my eyes.
“Luna?”Damien was at my side instantly, cupping my face.“What happened?Did it hurt you?”
“Jade and Aria… They’re…somewhere else,” I managed, struggling to hold on to the fading vision.“Not just unconscious.It’s like they’re trapped in some kind of in-between place.”I looked up at him, my vision blurring.“They’re actually there, Damien.They exist somewhere I can’t reach them.”
