“I like that you’re looking,” she said, hooking her bra. “But it’s going to take you some time to get those leathers and boots back on. You should probably get started.”
He chuckled. Again. He wasn’t even sure why, except that she addressed him without the slightest awe for his position as ruler of Swanicott.
His chest grew tight and hungry for something he’d never had in his entire life, not even with Emily. Could things be different with a woman like Olivia?
He took another deep breath and forced the question out of his head. At the same time, he recalled how much pain his marriage had brought him. He couldn’t go there again, always worrying about the woman in his life, not so long as the Invictus were such a threat in the Nine Realms. He knew that his fear for Emily’s safety had prompted many of their arguments.
Once he was dressed, he flew Olivia across the Arundel Mountains, heading to the coastal area where he’d left his Valkyrie.
When he told Olivia what he was doing, she laughed. “Do you really think it’s still there?”
“No, of course not. Or at least, not all in one piece. But a vampire can hope.”
She leaned her head against his shoulder, holding him tight with an arm around his neck. She used her free hand to fondle his bicep. Knowing that she enjoyed his body, he longed for things he shouldn’t even be thinking about.
Reaching the east coast of Swanicott, he let his internal guidance system direct him back to the spot where he’d left his motorcycle. He groaned. Only a few ripped up chrome pieces remained of the once high-powered machine. He heard a rustling nearby and had a sudden desire to catch one of the damn gremlins and wring its neck. But they were quick devils and would use up way too much of his time and energy to hunt any of them down right now.
“Ease up, Mastyr,” Olivia said. “Your ire is like a snake crawling over my skin.”
He blew the air from his cheeks and huffed a sigh. “Fine. They took my bike. I’m letting it go. At least I have a back-up Harley in the garage.”
“That’s the spirit. Move on.”
She was damn practical, and as he held his arm wide for her, he couldn’t help but smile. She stepped up onto his booted foot and slid her arm tight around his neck once more.
Move on. Sounded like a good idea, maybe on more than just one front.
With Olivia pinned to his side, he rose into the air and headed southeast. His lighthouse compound was a good fifty miles away, and he needed a shower and a change of clothes. Once more he crossed the Maris Luna Inlet, and Wraith Island. He could have taken Olivia back to her home in Barker’s Bend, but right now he didn’t want to let her out of his sight.
She also seemed oddly accepting of their destination.
He tried to put himself in her shoes and asked, “Do you need some alone time? Do you want me to take you home?”
“Hell, no,” she responded quickly. “From what I’ve seen tonight, there’s a good chance you’ll need me again. I’m not going anywhere until this shitty situation with Margetta-the-bitch is resolved, as in, you find a way to kick her out of Swanicott for good. Or break her neck. Though, I’d prefer the latter.”
Of all the things that had happened over the past couple of hours, even more than learning that Olivia was a blood rose, these words slapped his mind but good. The woman thought the way he thought, speaking aloud his own logic and desires.
“Good,” he responded simply.
A few minutes later he landed on the front gravel walk of his home near a several-centuries-old lighthouse. The house faced south with blue shingles and white trim around the door and windows. The shrubs already had a tight, getting-ready-for-winter-look and the lawn had turned beige.
He opened the door for her and when she moved inside, he offered, “Roam at will.”
“Thanks.”
The funny thing was, she didn’t seem all that intrigued by his choice of home or the lighthouse. Most women he’d brought here were fascinated. But then Olivia wasn’t like anyone he’d ever known before.
He showered and changed into fresh battle leathers and a clean maroon, woven shirt. He had several Guard coats and pulled one from the closet. The boots he’d worn would need mending, so he grabbed another pair, one without the skulls. He’d watched Olivia fondle them and knew she’d be disappointed in the simpler silver medallions.
She even liked his metal skulls.
Back in the living room, he found her flipping through a book he had on the history of the Nine Realms.
“So, I’m wondering about something,” he began. “Don’t you think my home next to a lighthouse is somewhat noteworthy?”
“Sure. I guess.”
“You’re not easily impressed, are you?”
Her brows rose. “Have I offended you because of my lack of enthusiasm?”
“Yeah, maybe you have.” But he smiled, wondering what she would say.
She rose from the couch and glanced around. “I spent a lot of time on the Internet searching for info about you. The first time I ghosted you, I was totally freaked out, but it led me here. So I think it’s more that I’m really familiar with your home than that I’m not intrigued. I definitely was at first.”
He frowned, thinking this through. He’d brought a lot of women to this house over the past year, especially those doneuses who liked sleeping with him. “This ability you have to ‘ghost’ me as you call it. Does it mean you’ve watched me in the bedroom?”
“Sometimes.” She’d already told him she knew about his adventures at the Elf Lords Hideaway. Maybe she’d watched him there as well. Probably.
“How about the shower? You watch me in there?”
A slow smile overtook her lips. “Often, though usually when you didn’t have a woman with you. You have a magnificent physique, Mastyr. The shifter in me has had a hard time not looking.”
He held her gaze for a long moment. “You know something, I like you,” he said at last.
And for the first time since he’d met her in Margetta’s camp, she seemed surprised. Her brows rose. “You do?”
“Sure. What’s not to like?”
Her cheeks colored up. At first, he thought she might be embarrassed by the compliment. But after a moment, he understood that she was pleased.
But this wouldn’t do, all this almost-flirting and passing back and forth of compliments. She wasn’t a relationship kind of woman, and he’d had enough of marital bliss to last him a good century or two. He could never go back to that kind of daily quarreling.
Clearing his throat, he said, “I’m still trying to wrap my head around your ghosting ability. You sure that’s what you did?”
She shrugged. “Answer me this, how do you suppose I knew you were at Margetta’s camp, or that you’d been taken off the street in Britchett Falls?”
“Good point. So, exactly how does it work?” He adjusted the weapons sash that went from his right shoulder to his left hip, making sure the new set of daggers were in tight.
She shrugged. “I just think about you and I’m there, like riding on your shoulder. Not my body, of course, but I can see and hear everything you do. It’s annoying as hell, though, because I wish my tracking device wasn’t stuck to you. I’d undo it if I could, but,” and here she sighed, “I know it’s there for a reason. And at this point, I’m thinking it might have something to do with keeping you alive.”
He stared down at her for a long, long moment. She had a remarkable level of power. But then he knew most of the women who served as a blood rose, also brought something extra to the table. Samantha, of Bergisson Realm, had the power to dissolve the wraith-pair bonds, setting the enslaved realm-person free. And Hannah, of Kellcasse Realm, could release fire from her hands, a power capable of destroying the disabling mist Margetta had used to take him down in Britchett Falls.
And now here was Olivia, half-human but with the ability to ‘ghost’, to cover him with a kind of invisibility shield, and her blood had ended decades of suffering.
“Well, here??
?s the deal, Olivia. I agree with you and I plan to stick close through the rest of the night. We’ll head back to your house because I’m thinking maybe you’d like a shower as well.”
“Yes, and a new pair of jeans. I love swimming in the ocean, but a rinse-off with fresh water would be wonderful.”
He led her back to the front gravel walk. Once there, he held out his arm to her. She gave a little hop as she stepped up onto his booted foot.
Slinging her arm around his neck, and leaning down to look at his hip boots, she said, “I liked the skulls better.”
He laughed once more. “Me, too.”
He took to the air and flew quickly back to Barker’s Bend, landing near her front porch.
Once inside, Olivia excused herself to take her shower. He took the opportunity to call his Communication Center and check in with Marian again. She reported that the realm had grown very quiet. He then contacted Sawyer and asked how things were going in the south.
Sawyer also confirmed Marian’s assessment since Helms Watch had no reports of Invictus activity, the same with the entire southern part of the realm. Even so, Sawyer had his portion of both the Vampire Guard and the Shifter Brigade patrolling back and forth constantly.
With Chase in the north and Sawyer in the south, Zane had another hundred Guardsmen flying over the towns and hamlets in the rest of the realm, on the lookout for the vicious, deadly wraith pairs.
When he contacted Chase, he asked for further details about the attack at Britchett Falls.
Chase gave a detailed report, including his horror that upon entering the city, Zane was nowhere to be found. The Guard had gone to battle immediately with the Invictus Margetta had left behind. Once the pairs had been vanquished, Chase and his team had worked with the local law-enforcement to seal off the area until the damaged cars could be towed way, the debris removed from the streets, and the broken windows sealed up.
“That end of the city is under control now,” Chase said. “We took all the drunks to jail for the rest of the night to protect them from wraiths looking to forge illegal bonds. So what the hell happened? Do you know yet exactly why we couldn’t get into the city?”
Zane told him about the hidden camp in the west over which Margetta had created yet another powerful spell. He didn’t hold back about the whipping he’d endured or the details about Olivia’s part in getting him out safely. Hesitating for just a moment, he also added that Olivia was a blood rose.
Chase whistled. “So, it’s your turn.”
“Yes, but she’s different.”
“What do you mean? How?”
“I don’t know.” He thought about what she’d been like after sex, how she’d shifted, gone swimming then called him out to play. He found himself smiling. “She’s … well … for one thing she’s part shifter and for another she’s really independent. Even remote.”
Chase laughed. “Sounds exactly like what you need.” He knew Zane well.
“Maybe you’re right. I don’t know anything anymore except that my realm is under siege and I only learned about the camp because the Ancient Fae took me there. Olivia saved my ass. I don’t think I would have gotten out of there alive without her.”
“Then we owe her.”
“Yes, we do,” Zane said.
“So, how long do you think the camp has been there?”
“I honestly don’t know. But given that Swanicott has always had more attacks than the other realms, maybe decades.”
“Do you think you could locate it again? This could be a tremendous opportunity for us.”
“I’m not sure I could,” Zane said. “But I’m confident Olivia has that kind of capacity. But on the other hand, I’m not liking the idea of a civilian being so closely involved.”
“Why? Is she upset? Is she super-sensitive like Emily?”
It struck him that in just about every way possible, Olivia was the opposite of his artistic, fae wife. “I’m not sure she’s sensitive at all.”
He heard her call to him. When he turned in her direction and she saw he was on the phone, she made a never-mind waving gesture with her hand. She then pointed in the direction of the backyard.
He watched her for moment as she went outside. Because of the sliding glass door, he could see she was headed to what he soon realized was a fire pit. She then crossed to a woodpile, returned and stacked some logs, kindling, and wadded up newspapers.
To Chase, he said, “She’s building a fire.” She lit a match and moved around the pit, setting the dry paper on fire.
He headed slowly toward the glass door, the phone still to his ear. She’d put on a dark blue, pullover sweater that showed off her blond hair.
The fire was starting to blaze and she now had a brush in her hand, working out the tangles from her damp hair.
She wore jeans again and with what he knew about her already, he was pretty sure she had a stack of them in her closet and not much else. She wore running shoes, probably another staple in her wardrobe.
Sweet Goddess, she was beautiful, with strong cheekbones and large, green eyes. Her brows were arched and suited her face really well. She had full lips. He’d loved feeling her lips beneath his own. And he loved that she still showed fur on the backs of her hands. He had the sense she liked the fur even though it wasn’t the usual thing to always have it on display.
Of course this led him to think about the other places she sprouted her fur and decided the next time he sexed her up, he would kiss that line of fur that went from hip to hip.
“Zane?”
Chase. Right. Sweet Goddess. One look at Olivia and he’d forgotten Chase was there. “Anything else?”
He heard Chase chuckle. “You tell me?”
Zane turned away from the sight of Olivia by the fire and focused on the matter at hand. “I’m going to stick around here for now. I need to find out more about this woman. FYI, she lives across from the Elf Lords Hideaway.”
“Barker’s Bend?”
“Yep. And can you take lead for the next few hours, field the calls from the Communication Center? I’m thinking at some point I’ll want to take Olivia into the mountains to confer with Luther. She hasn’t presented herself.”
“Shit. No kidding, but then she’s half-human. Maybe she doesn’t know the rules.”
“Maybe. But my gut tells me it’s something else. Not sure. And if you want to know what she looks like, I’m pretty sure she’s related to Luther.”
“She’s a beauty then.”
Zane felt a ripple of anger that Chase would actually comment on Olivia’s looks, whether he’d actually seen her or not. “You don’t need to be talking about how pretty Olivia is. Got it?” Had he just spoken those words? What the hell was wrong with him?
He was pretty sure he heard Chase stifle his amusement. “Good to know. Consider the subject off limits. I’ll contact Marian and let her know what you’re up to.”
“And give Sawyer a shout as well.”
“Will do. And Zane?”
“Yeah?” Chase wasn’t given to offering advice, but the question seemed geared that way. Zane was already annoyed. “What’s on your mind?”
“Take your time with this one.”
“What the hell do you mean by that?”
“I mean, don’t rush her off like you do all the others. She’s here for a reason and it might just have to do with Emily.”
Zane was thunderstruck. Chase knew better than to mention his wife’s name. The topic was forbidden. He was about to come down like fire on fuel-doused charcoal, but he realized the line was dead.
Smart move on Chase’s part. Zane was ready to start shouting at his second-in-command.
But why had Chase said that to him? He didn’t really rush women off; he never got involved in the first place. The weird thing was, though he’d just met Olivia, he already felt involved. Maybe that’s the way it was when a blood rose showed up, a sense of engaging whether you liked it or not.
With his phone tucked back into his leat
hers, he stood at the backdoor. Olivia was actually sitting down enjoying the fire and she had a couple of beers perched on a small table between two wood Adirondack chairs. The picture appealed so much to who he was that he was stunned all over again.
He knew nothing about her, yet what he saw, he liked; he related to her. The woman had no airs. She was very down to earth, very physical. A fire in the open air, a beer … yeah, he liked her a lot.
When he opened the door, she turned and called to him. “Hey, I thought maybe you could use a cold one about now.”
“Can you read minds as well?”
At that, she smiled and for a moment his heart got pulled into a knot the size of Swanicott. He could hardly breathe.
Sweet Goddess, was this what Malik and the rest of the mastyrs had gone through? Had each met up with their blood rose, then jumped into a full-blown relationship faster than his battle energy could fly through the air?
He forced his gaze away from her, trying to regain his equilibrium, and made his feet move in the direction of the waiting chair.
The fire was blazing and the air chilly. He sat down and picked up his beer. The first swallow, like heaven.
“Did you get everything settled with your lieutenants and your Communication Specialist?”
At that, he shook his head. “Is there anything you don’t know about me?”
“I’m psychic.” She tapped her forehead with her index finger, then laughed. But when he just stared at her, she added, “Hey, I’m kidding.”
“Listen, I’ve seen you run then bound off sixty foot high cliffs like they were nothing. You have this cloaking thing and you brought me out of a deadly camp at Angler’s Cliff. So why wouldn’t you be something as simple as psychic?”
“Point taken. But, no, I’m not psychic. I just enjoy the Realm Internet. I think I’ve read every blog and article there is about you. I mean, I suppose I sound like a stalker, but the truth is more that I’ve been really worried about my weird ghosting gift. And since that power seems to be attached to you, I wanted to know who you were, what I was in for.”
“I’m waiting for a verdict.”
“Oh, I don’t really have one. I think you are who you are. You’re a bit of a wild man, a player, but you take your job seriously and you support your friends. I imagine when Mastyr Malik asked you to help out in Ashleaf Realm you didn’t take long to say yes.”