Page 10 of Slake His Thirst

Chapter Eight

Sage

One moment, she was sucking on Lucius’s tongue. The taste of his blood hadn’t been coppery and terrible—it had been dark and sweet like fine port. She’d gotten drunk on him before landing in a whole different world.

Sage was with him in a time when children were trained as warriors, as killers. Kids fought with razor-sharp swords and were forced to lock down their emotions. It was dim and horrible, like some terrible medieval movie. She was in the mind of Lucius as a child fighting to contain his emotions. She felt everything the boy felt: the determination and the way he fought the other children was ruthless but for a purpose. It was that or death.

The god Apollo had taken the Immortals of the world and bred them for wars with the other gods. His father was the top breeder. He had a sister and brothers in that place, and if he didn’t watch over them, they would die. Kaia was the littlest, other than the babies, and he worried that she showed too much emotion. She was four and failing in her training, and he didn’t know what to do. His father snuck into the camps whenever he could, but even his talks didn’t help. Lucius would be seven soon, and they would move him to be with the bigger kids. He’d told his father of his fears.

Sage wondered how the hell a six-year-old mind could feel so ancient, so jaded. Sage’s childhood had been filled with love, not death. That came with time, but she’d been older. Damn it, her heart was breaking at his thoughts and all the memories that played in that space. She saw him coaching his little sister, Kaia. Sage saw the girl’s wide, tear-filled eyes and the little fangs that retracted whenever she was upset. He lectured her, worried until his stomach twisted into unrelenting knots.

She was tossed into more and more memories of him fighting, breaking bones, and limping off in agony, though he didn’t show it. She was in his mind when his captors watched over him as he honed his telepathy and hunting skills. She was there when he’d first taken human blood and was ordered to decipher the memories. If she’d been in her own mind, she would have thrown up.

She was crying inside by the time he finally got his sister out of there. His father had risked his life to free them. Lucius’s father looked so much like he did that they could almost be twins. Tynan. Lucius’s father’s name was Tynan. Tynan’s face was a mask of calm, but she saw the shadows in his eyes as he ordered a seven-year-old Lucius to protect his sister. The two children were being ushered through hidden tunnels partially filled with dank water in order to flee to a sanctuary at Aphrodite’s palace.

The whole thing was horrendous and grew worse as she felt the boy’s fears as if they were her own. He worried his father would die for this, or maybe the other kids would. He worried he wouldn’t be able to protect Kaia, but she would have died or been forced to do awful things if they’d stayed. It was too much for a child to bear, but he schooled his features into nothingness and bade his father goodbye, all the while completely terrified. He turned like the man he thought he was, grabbed his sister’s hand, and rushed her out of the narrow rock tunnels. He never let her go as he scanned for threats, ready to protect her with his life.

She wasn’t sure she could take any more. She had been thrown into so many memories of a growing man who’d been raised as a warrior. He hadn’t lied when he’d said she would see a lot of blood. She did. She also saw the forests of Demeter. So many sightless eyes stared up with viscous black liquid dripping from their lips from the poisons. She saw him leading men and women into battle.

She saw and felt history in the making. It was a historian’s dream. Not hers. She felt like she’d seen too much. She’d lived through Lucius’s life, his emotions and dreams, and it wasn’t getting better.

The gods were destroying Earth in their madness. Only three gods weren’t insane, but it didn’t matter. The creators returned when they all thought the world wouldn’t survive. She was there in his mind when the great exile came and the creators sent the gods to sleep and the Immortals away. Humanity had almost been wiped out in the wars, so the creators apparently hadn’t taken any more chances with their more powerful creations.

From there, it was far less bleak. Lucius battled beasts and helped his father with a resort in on an island in the other Realm. He’d grown restless and bored. Centuries passed as if they were days.

Then Sage found herself at the end of the world, the thundering of the realms crashing and resurging, and Lucius’s exhilaration at battling beasts and protecting mortals. He’d been in the thick of it all. Once the fighting had stopped, there was so much magic and destruction all around him and his sister and those he’d led into the fight. They helped rescue the humans caught in the aftermath.

She felt his joy in freedom. She watched as he learned more and more about combining technology and magic to keep those he cared about safe. He was a born protector. It was in his very bones. He didn’t know any other way to be.

Then she moved to the present, at Slake. The day she’d arrived, he’d been drawn to her immediately. She felt everything he wouldn’t share when he blocked his thoughts from her. The second he connected with her mind to wake her, he’d known she was his. He’d been gutted. There was no real way to feel the emotion that came from him when he learned he had a mate. It was true reverence. She felt his worry for her and his caring when he learned things he liked about her. It was insane to be in his mind and feel his emotions, knowing that those possessive and protective instincts were for her. He wanted to cherish her. He wanted to do filthy things with her, but at the same time, he was scared to hurt her.

In the course of all of this, Sage realized she was falling in love. Living his entire existence with him made it impossible not to care for him. He was incredible, and he thought she hung the moon.

She awoke in the warmth of Lucius’s arms, and she breathed in his seductive masculine scent. Her head was tucked beneath his neck, and she stayed there for a moment, listening to the steady beat of his heart.

She felt his breath against the top of her hair. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, but I don’t know what to say. Or do,” she admitted. She felt so much for him. The timeline of their relationship was less than a day, yet she knew more about Lucius than anyone else in her life—maybe more than she knew about herself. Falling so hard so quickly was impossible. She leaned back to look at him. There was such tenderness in his gaze that she had to swallow through her emotions. He really was hers.

“I think it’s time we get out of here.”

His words made her frown, but when she looked around, she saw that the paths had cleared. “How?”

“The blood bond allowed me to siphon some of the power from you. Do you feel better?” There was so much concern in his tone.

She still felt the power inside her, but it had eased. How had she not noticed?

He stood, lifting her to her feet as if she weighed nothing. She looked down at her bare chest and shredded jeans and shook her head. Searching the ground, she found his T-shirt and commandeered it. “I’m stealing this.”

She crouched to unbuckle her high, strappy sandals then dispatched her ruined pants and underwear, balling them up to toss as soon as she could. She was mostly covered by the length of his tee on her much smaller body. She let out a breath, readying herself for the most epic walk of shame ever.

When she stood, she noticed he was staring at her with hunger in his eyes. “Lead the way, big guy.” She rolled her shoulders in a failed attempt to release some of the building tension. “My sister is probably losing her mind right now.”

“Kaia explained everything to her, including the fact that we will be unavailable for the rest of the night.”

The seductive promise in his voice sent a shiver of anticipation running through her.

He took her ruined clothes and shoes in one hand and engulfed her smaller hand in his as they walked through the forest. He scanned the space. Leaves slid over her cheek, and she tempered her anxiety and accepted the gesture as a loving one. The woodlands were still alive, but they’d moved back to their old spaces and seemed to only lean into her as she passed.

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