Page 28 of Toadstools and Vampire Kisses

If the dragon is here for a treasure—well, there’s only one thing I’ve seen him attentively focus so much of his time and energy on and that is Katherine Durmont.

“Shall we?” she asks, her eyebrows arching inquisitively.

I chuckle as I shake my head. “I swear, you seem almost excited as the children, and you are the one who planned every step of this!”

She gives me a mischievous smile. “Ah, it’s one thing to plan and another to see it all come together with one’s own eyes. Already I’m quite impressed.” She looks over at Reynard. “Your mists are even more impressive than what you showed me the night before. I am surprised you managed to keep it all here around the garden, though the eerie hints of fog over the ground have been the talk of the coven all day.”

They have? Apparently, I’ve missed more than I believed while hiding away in my bedroom. Not that I can’t appreciate the artistry of his magic. As we pass through the hedges, I admire the play of the small tendrils of mist along the ivy that twines on the bushes. It is a dance of air and magic, and I can feel the hedges of the maze respond to my presence. These hedges are old, older than any living member of our coven, and they know and remember me. I can feel them awaken to greet me, their energy touching the power within me, their life pulse sliding against mine. The branches bend toward me, and my mother smiles.

“It is always so good to have you home, Fran. I don’t think that I’ve seen such life in the hedges all year.”

“It has been too long,” I admit, reaching out my hand closest to the nearest bush.

I smile at the energy that springs to life between the shrub and my fingertips seconds before small cracking sounds coming from the hedge as new leaves spring out toward me and dot with tiny pink flowers. The hedge’s silent greeting stirs a feeling of happiness and belonging in me, but suddenly the flowers tremble as the mist rises up in ropes around them to pour over my hand. I watch it curiously as it slips around me in a cool, sensuous dance and glance up at Reynard.

“You are doing this?”

“In a way,” he murmurs. “The moment I summoned the elements forth, this mist is a part of me as much as any part of my body, so it is naturally responding to your presence in ways that I long to.”

I raise an eyebrow at him as the mist teases between my fingers in tiny, gentle caresses.

“You want to touch my hand?”

He pauses, drawing a sharp breath through his nose. Dipping forward, his eyes pierce me, sending hot floods of heat pooling deep within me. “I want to claim every inch of you so that I am so thoroughly imprinted on you, and you on me, that there will never be separation again.”

I blink in surprise at his strange wording and hear a sharp breath from behind us followed by the deep rumble of Adeon’s voice as he speaks quietly to my mother behind us. As much as I want to satisfy my curiosity as to what that is all about, I’m unable to look away from Reynard’s eyes. I can hear my mother talking as she shoves Adeon past us. From the corner of my eye, I watch them, unable to completely tear my gaze from Reynard.

“That’s all right, dear. You and Reynard have a lot to talk about. Take your time enjoying the labyrinth. There is something I need to show Adeon, anyway.”

“There is?” There is a soft thud followed by a grunt. “Oh, yes! That’s right!” Adeon replies overloudly in a stilted, burly voice. “There was that the thing… the thingity thing over in the… that place… that you must show me. Well, let’s get to it!” he barks, half-dragging my mother with him as she chuckles.

“Subtle,” she says around a delicate cough as they hurry away with the heavy crunch of footsteps over fallen leaves and twigs.

My mouth parts on a question before Reynard’s warm fingers caress my cheek in a glide of fingertips and claws before dropping away.

My gaze shoots back to his, and my breath stutters, my heart pounding an erotic rhythm with every echoingthump, thumpdeep within me. I feel it pulsing through me, igniting my desire as I drown into his eyes.

“You are so beautiful,” he whispers, the rasp of his deep voice rumbling through me. “I have longed for this moment since the separation. It pleases me so that you will allow it. Though I know you are still angry at me since such emotion cannot be dismissed so easily, I want you to know that never have I wished to harm you or bring you pain in any way. Nor to embarrass you in front of family and friends as I understand now that I did. It pains me to think of it, but be assured that the separation has already tormented me with the need to see your face and hear the sound of your voice.”

His obvious longing kindles an answering response in me. I have secretly wanted and needed it, too, even though it has made me so angry at myself. Again with the strange wording. The separation seems to point to something significant rather than just merely a distance between two bodies. I can only gather that it must be a vampire thing

His pupils have practically swallowed his irises, and those dark orbs are infinite, possessing midnight skies and thousands of eternal nights. They also hold the pain and sorrow of stories that have yet to be told. The pale blue rim rings them in a burst of light as a carnelian sheen reflects over the surface of their depths in a magical overlay of colors. For the first time, it strikes me that his eyes are larger than most humans, likely to draw in the limited amount of light that will come when the sun sets. I shiver as I recall the myths of vampires and wonder if his eyes also serve as energy conduits.

“Are you using some power to seduce me?” I whisper, a shiver working its way through as I wait eagerly for what is to come next as I silently beg him to continue with it and take the choice and its burdens from me.

To my disappointment, his face shutters and he steps back, breaking the atmosphere of longing surrounding us. “No,” he says in a clipped voice. “Although many of my kind possess the allure, I am one of the few who do not. If that dragon is correct, it is likely a side effect of being dragori. Among vampires, it makes me lesser than them, but you can rest easy knowing that you are safe with me.”

I shake my head, my eyebrows knitting together in confusion. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about—I’m not worried about my safety with you, and I don’t care if you don’t possess the allure. You do enough to me without it.” I take a challenging step toward him, the flowering greenery of the hedges creeping around us among the spider silk wafts of mist. I smile inwardly at the expression of bafflement that crosses his face. “Unless you’re the sort to start something without any intention of following through?”

“Nothing of the kind,” he rumbles, his eyes searching mine. “If you are certain?”

I shrug, a smile playing on my lips as I reach for his hand. “Walk with me and let’s see how we can tease each other in wonders of the labyrinth.” I hold up a finger as he takes a step forward as well, his eyes gleaming down at me with an intensity that makes my insides melt. “I don’t understand what all this entails or why you feel such a strong need when we have only known each other for a few days, but I want to perform an experiment.”

His eyebrow raises. “For science?”

“If you like,” I whisper, drawing him down by his cravat so that my breath brushes his lips just inches from mine.

I’ve never considered myself a seductress of any sort, but with the wildness of the maze and the forest beyond singing through me and something within the night enflaming my blood, it seems to be a primal instinct rising to the fore.

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