"Vallen." She reached for him. Her eyes searching him for any injuries. Her hands trying to touch him everywhere. "Are you okay? Where did they get you?"
"I'm okay."
He looked okay, but her mind couldn't seem to understand that. They'd been all over him. Clawing and ripping at him.
"I'm okay. It wasn't real, remember?"
"Are you sure? Conway, call Julio. Call the new doctor. Never mind. I'll_."
Vallen caught her hands and waited for her to look up at him. "I'm okay."
She nodded and tried to calm down.
Seeing Conway watching them, she got upset all over again. "What were you thinking? What if he couldn't find me? I can't believe you were going to leave him there."
"In my defense, he left me very few options."
"You could have been sending him to his death." She growled.
"I chose to trust in his confidence that he could find you." Conway took a sip of his tea. "I learned something very important today. Not to underestimate the bond between the two of you. There should have been no way he could find you, and yet he did."
Vallen grunted from behind her.
"Now, can you take him and leave? It's been a very tiring day."
Him asking her to leave and not demanding to hear about what she saw gave her pause. That's when she saw that his office was a mess.
Overturned tables and chairs. Broken vases.
She winced. The older man was very particular about his things.
It would be really smart to get these two out of each other's company. She said a spell to clean up as much of the mess as she could, then she did another spell that would see her and Vallen to her house.
To her room.
She looked at Vallen because he'd just noticed where they were, too. "In case you want to pick up where we left off."
He looked sick at the thought. "Not going to happen. Can you try to remember you're a virgin?"
"No one says I have to remain one."
"Me. I do."
"What would be the fun of that?"
When she took a step towards him, he took two away. "That's it. I'm out of here."
With a spell, she shut and locked the door. "Why can't we just be together?"
"You know damn well that won't keep me in. I told you. I can't do that without marking you, and I'm damn sure not ready for that."
She did a spell, and they both ended up in her bed. Nevaeha looped her arms around his neck. "Would that be so bad?"
"Hell yes."
Her lips found his chin.
"Nevaeha."
The way he said her name electrified her. His voice, husky like that, stirred her desires. "Can we at least make out some more?"
"Hell no," He whispered. His eyes closing.
She learned something very important today. Vallen lost all thought when she nibbled on his ear.
He was about two seconds from tossing up her skirt again when she rolled to her side so she could study him some more.
"I swear you have to be using your spells on me."
"No, but I can understand why you might think that. I feel like there's a few controlling me, too."
"If I don't see you, then I go crazy. Then if I see you but spend too much time with you, I go crazy. I can't win."
He finally looked at her. "Do a spell. Stop this from happening to us."
"I want this to happen."
He groaned.
She reached for his hand and laced their fingers together, holding on when he would have pulled away.
"Believe me, you don't. I'm the one who killed your were, remember?"
She was instantly filled with pain, but she didn't let go of his hand. "My mom told me she walked many lives and in all of them, you killed him. The ones I was with him and the ones when I wasn't. I imagine that if I was with him, I'd been very loyal to him. I imagine I would have loved him very much because just in the brief time I got to spend with him, I loved him a lot. It would be the same way with my other lifemate, I'm sure, and that's why my mom hid him from me. Two boys I could have been happy with. Two boys I could have made a full life with and I would have been loyal to them until the day I died because that's who I am. But." She kissed their joined hands. "I believe with all of my heart that the moment I met you, no matter who I was with, if there was none of my mom's spells to keep us apart, I would have felt you and wanted you. Conway is right. We have a bond that can't be underestimated."
She brought his hand up to her lips and pressed a kiss to it again. "There's no fighting it. It's consuming and scary as hell but thrilling at the same time. Vallen, you found me when you shouldn't have been able to. You brought me back from the dead when you still hated me and still couldn't decide if you wanted to kill me or not. You'll never know how much I wish Carrigan and Shayla were here. How much it hurts to know he is gone, but even if he was here, if I had to choose between you and him, I would choose you. Bad attitude, wrong choices, and all."
"I should have killed you when I had the chance. That day at the cliff when I killed Pike, I think I still could have done it then. If not then, then definitely before I killed that damn fancy peacock and was punished. That's when things started going sideways. Nothing seems easy anymore. Nothing seems clear anymore."
Still clinging to his hand, she moved closer to him. "Tell me about it, Vallen. About the punishment. About the lives you had to live."
"Why? So, you can_."
"Because I want to understand you better."
"You want a fairy tale. I can't give you that."
"Fairytales are all G rated, and that's not what I'm wanting with you." She smiled and moved closer. "I just want you to share a small piece of yourself with me."
"I don't like you. Not even a little. I damn sure don't understand you." He reached out with his free hand and ran it through her hair. "You have sand in your hair and a big red mark across your forehead. And this is you on a decent day because the dress you're wearing is of this century and is only one color."
"My hair is darker and longer now because of you. Your eyes are brown now because of me. That has to mean something."
"I don't want to talk about it. I was a better, stronger person before I had to walk in their shoes. That boy you cared so much about was lazy and boring. He spent his entire day with his head in the clouds. A fucking shiny rock could make him happy. I guess you and him had that in common. Your mom is right, he had to die. You had too much in common with that idiot. You would have never chosen me over him. I wish when I was a kid, I had an ounce of the freedom he had his whole life. He had no worries. No clue to what was coming his way."
She felt his pain and held on to his hand tighter.
"Killing him was like killing a child. I know I was ordered to kill his younger sister and I would have, but I'd never actually done it before. Kill a kid. You don't understand what it's like where I come from. It's killed or be killed. It's as simple as that. I've done what I've had to do, and I've done it for so long that I don't even think about it anymore. Survival. You're just like the rest of them. You don't know what it's like to have to survive. I hope you never have to be tested to see what lengths you'll go to just to stay alive, and I'm not talking about now, when dying would be a blessing. I'm talking about a kid being handed a gun and told if you don't kill the man at your feet than your mom gets her arm broken before she's tossed into a hole in the ground. Those fucking holes in the ground. Some of them had bars so you could get air and light and some of them didn't."
Nevaeha whispered a spell to ease his pain and then she wrapped her arms around him, her lips pressed a kiss to his forehead.
"That damn werewolf couldn't have made it five minutes in my life. I'm strong. Powerful. I survived when others didn't. When others couldn't. Do you think you've saved that little were child? Because you haven't. Because I didn't kill her, my father will send others to do it. Do you think he cares about any damn curse? He doesn't. And because I failed him, he thinks I'm rebelling against him. That means Cato's mate, if she wasn't already dead, is probably dead now. I know him. I'm expecting her head to show up in a box any day now."
"Let me help. You and I can find her together."
"No."
"Because you don't want me to touch your best friend?"
"Because I don't want to kill my best friend."
"You can be there, and you'll see that there's nothing between Cato and me except for you."
"Don't say his name."
"Surely you can see that saving his mate is more important than your jealousy over_."
"I'm not jealous."
"Great. Then there's no reason for me not to come over_."
"You're banned."
"Which you're planning to lift since we are together now." She kissed his ear. "That way, we can spend more time together and get to know each other better."
His chuckle was humorless. "Never happening."
Her eyes narrowed. Then, with a sigh, she dropped back on her bed. "I don't want to fight with you. Not after we've had such a nice day. Not after you offered a piece of yourself to me."
"I didn't offer you shit, and I would not call this a_."
Nevaeha scooted closer to him again and laid her head on his shoulder. "If you're going to go back to hiding from me tomorrow, then I want to soak up all the yummy Vallen goodness while I can. Hold me."
"No."
"Oh, come on. You were doing it earlier."
"Earlier I was thinking with my_."
She kissed him softly and with a smile. "Want to be my date to the wedding? We could_."
"Never going to happen, and that's my cue to leave. I should have fucking left a long time ago."
Letting him go wasn't easy. There was still so much she wanted to tell him, so much more she wanted to learn about him. When he started to undress, she didn't bother looking away this time.
"You know I'm a virgin, but I doubt you know that I know very little about sex."
He paused with his hand on his zipper.
"I only get three channels. The tv hints at a lot but it never really shows anything. Conway's daughter gave me a book today that is supposed to teach me some things, but up till now I've always stayed away from those kinds of scenes in books. Do you think I should learn as much as I can? I know you're very experienced and I don't want to disappoint you too much. Are you still disappointed that I don't look like your other witch friend?"
He sat on the end of her bed and hung his head. "This is my fault. I should have left the moment we showed up in her room. And she thinks the fates aren't out to get me."
"Do you at least find me a little prettier now?"
"Remember when we talked about you keeping some thoughts and questions to yourself? This is one of those times."
"I'm being serious."
"Me too."
She felt his reluctance as he looked over his shoulder at her. "You know how you look. You don't need me to tell you."
"Yeah, but I thought now that you like me, then maybe you'd see me in a better light."
"I don't like you. I remember clearly that I told you that today."
"You have to like me. We've been making out for hours."
"I've screwed women for longer and never even learned their names. You're letting all this shit go to your head. Eventually, I'm going to defeat this pull you have over me."
She frowned. "You can go now."