"If something happened to him, you'd risk your life to save him," Fenn growled as I entered the gym, slamming his fist into a sorry looking punch bag as he did so.
So that had been his trigger; Katie's remark about me having twice saved Conn.
"If something happened to you, I'd risk my life to save you too," I replied, every word honest, so much so that the person I'd been at the start of the year would have been truly shocked.
"But if we were both at risk and you could only save one, you'd choose him, right?" Fenn slammed his fist into the punch bag again before adding, "Don't answer that, I know you would. I've always known. I accepted it would always be that way. I don't know why I'm letting it get to me."
"Abroðen," I whispered softly, stepping towards him and tugging him away from the punch bag. "I'd die trying to save you both. Or if I failed one of you, then I'd die trying to pull whichever I'd lost back."
"Don't you do that," he murmured as he turned towards me, his eyes brilliantly yellow as he insisted in a desperate tone, "Don't you ever risk your life for me, Wiðercorra. I would rather suffer in Valhalla for all eternity than be the reason you end up with Tiw."
"You say that because you've never seen or suffered in Valhalla." I didn't meet his eye as I spoke, examining his split knuckles instead. Bare knuckle boxing the leather bag hadn't been the best idea he'd had.
"You think I can't see what it did to him? You think I haven't heard you scream? That Tiw never described, in minute detail, what awaited me if I failed to 'fulfil my destiny'? That changes nothing. It would be worse to suffer it knowing you had sacrificed yourself to him in my name." Fenn shook his head. "Never risk it. Not ever. Promise me."
It was a promise I couldn't make because I would always fight for him, just as I would always fight for Leof. Brushing my thumb over his injured knuckles, I sent a burst of healing magic into him at the same time as wiping away the blood. It was unfortunate that the smell of it, of him, caused my fangs to slide down. My vampire senses heightened, the smell of my lover's blood awakening desire, for both sex and blood. Not that I could feed from him. Not without assaulting Leof, who wasn't really up to that right then.
Fenn's grief seeped into me as he watched my eyes shift to fire opal. "Have you considered that perhaps we simply suffer from a fatal incompatibility? Doesn't this show it? You want to feed. I want to feed you. Yet if I did, your soul would lead you straight back to him."
My heart clenched and I finally met his gaze, a sick feeling twisting through my gut. "Are you choosing this moment to dump me, wolf?"
"No," he denied determinedly. "It won't be me who walks away from this." Pulling me forward, he pressed his mouth to mine. His tongue careful touched the tip of a still extended fang, not pressing, not enough to draw blood, before he kissed me fiercely, with all the passion he possessed. "I will adore you until the day I die, Fríge. Whatever comes."
When he took a step back, the absence of his heat against my front was devastating. Whatever he saw in my expression made Fenn smile as he brushed his fingers over my cheek. "After we save your co-Sire, I'll show you what I wish I could do to you now, but I'm not going to insult O'Dowd by fucking you senseless in his gym."
A laugh bubbled up and I shook my head at my reprobate. "Tactful. But that had better me a promise."
"It's a promise." He smiled again, a lopsided quirk of his lips which was sexy as sin, before he grew serious again. "There'll be a team of wolves here well before sunset. I'll keep them in the dojo so we can brief them and keep them out of the main house, as I assume that would be O'Dowd's preference. Is that ok? Do we have a plan of attack?"
