Page 34 of A Vampire in a Pear Tree
The rest of the druids murmured similar excuses, and in a few seconds, they’d all left.
I touched Owain on the arm, pulling his attention from glaring at the sky to me.“What did you do to your mother?”
“What you suggested,” he answered, frowning when Orla hopped onto his head.He lifted her off, setting her on a stone planter next to the door before examining my arm.It still hurt, but was already starting to heal.
I dug through my memory of the last half hour, but came up blank.“What did I say?”
“You mentioned sending Orla to the Akasha—”
“That bitch!”Orla said on a birdy gasp.“She did?Well, I know whose head I’m going to poop on the very next time I have the chance.And I’ll be sure to eat a bunch of berries first, so it’s nice and seedy, and extra runny!”
“—so I sent my mother there.It seemed like the best way to get her to leave us alone until we find the blood moon,” he finished, ignoring Orla.“She’ll get herself out eventually, but it takes longer to get out of the Akasha than the Beyond, so we should have at least a few weeks of peace before she does so.”
I smiled, using my nonhurt hand to wipe blood from a scratch on the side of his face, aware of, but not paying attention to, the dragons and vampires who were tidily stacking up the bodies of the (evidently temporarily) dead druids against the side of the house.“That is the perfect solution, and you know that I’ll do everything I can to help you.”
“You already have,” he said, pulling me up against his bare chest.For a moment, I hesitated, testing my emotions to see if we were go for everything that I badly wanted to do to, and with, him, and getting the go-ahead, I tipped my head back to kiss him.
“Oooh, he has his soul back.Nice job, Berry,” Allie said, emerging with a bunch of coats and shirts in her arms, handing them out to the men.
For the next four minutes, I paid no mind to anything but allowing my libido to unleash itself in kissing Owain, the sense of him sinking into my veins, filling me with a sense of rightness.
“I’m in so much trouble,” I whispered against his lips.
“Why?”he asked, his eyes pale as the winter moon, but at the same time so full of warmth, I almost felt like stripping down.
Or perhaps that was just the feeling of his skin beneath my hands.
“Because I’m going to fall madly in love with you, and then I’ll have the mother-in-law from hell.”
“Literally,” Aisling said with a laugh as she and the others entered the house, leaving us alone with Yrian and Becket, both of whom were draping some tarps over the druids.
I searched Owain’s face, asking softly so they wouldn’t overhear, “What did Allie mean about your soul?”
He hesitated for a few seconds, then said slowly, “Many Dark Ones are born without souls, which can only be redeemed by their Beloveds, what you would call soulmates.”
“OK,” I said.“But you aren’t a vampire.”
“No, but when Desislav and the others laid the bloodlust curse upon us, they took our souls as punishment.It was part of the curse that was passed down to our descendants.”
“I doubt it was Desi who insisted on you forfeiting your souls,” Yrian said as he and Becket walked past us to the front door.She entered, but he paused to add, “I’ve long suspected that Kashi had his fingers in that pie, and from what my youngest brother tells me, it is likely Kashi, not the other princes of Abaddon, who wanted the souls of you and your brothers.”
Owain’s lips thinned for a few seconds.“That is of some comfort, but it does not change my stance on Desislav and the blood moon.”
Yrian inclined his head in acknowledgment of that statement, and entered the house, the door closing softly behind him.I one-handedly helped Owain into his shirt and coat, ignoring Orla when she went into a detailed rant about people who want to unfairly banish helpful witches-turned-ravens.
“So you got your soul back?”I asked him.“How?”
“You sacrificed yourself for me,” he answered, a slow smile raising my temperature at least five degrees.“A Beloved who does that redeems their Dark One’s soul.”
“I’m not a Beloved any more than you are a bloodsucking vamp,” I told him, wanting, for some reason I didn’t wish to examine closely, to dance and sing and kiss Owain all over his body.
“I am happy to have you do so, but only after I’ve taken my turn kissing your delectable self,” he said, turning toward the house.“And yes, I want to feed from you.”
I gave a little jerk to the side, sure I had kept that thought well hidden in the shadows of my mind.“Really?Will it ...er ...hurt?”
His smile was made up of such lasciviousness, a blush swept up from my chest.“No, but I promise you’ll be a boneless heap of satisfied woman by the time I’m done feeding.”
“Oooh,” I said, a shiver of anticipation rippling down my back.“I’m going to hold you to that promise.But ...”I paused, making him turn back toward me.“What are you going to do about the dragons?”
