Page 78 of Accidental Blood Lust
“I’m so sorry,” Roman says. “I just wanted us to have a nice night.”
“We did,” I say softly. “My mates killed two of my attackers.”
Loch presses a kiss to my cheek. “We’ll find the rest of them too when this fae mafia shit is sorted.”
“That’s right. They’ll be very sorry for what they did to you,” Roman snarls.
I turn to see the restaurant has been put back to normal. The blood and vampire bodies and parts are gone, and the other supes are sitting at tables enjoying the ambience again. Gotta love the supernatural world.
“Do you want to get out of here?” Roman asks.
“Are we allowed to stay?” Lochlan asks.
“Oh yeah. Supe fights break out all the time in the city.”
I smile. “Then I vote we stay and enjoy our date.”
“I agree. We won’t let them spoil our night.” Loch looks down. “Shoot. I ruined Cas’s clothes anyway.”
“He’ll get over it.” Roman kisses first Lochlan, then me, tenderly. “Come, my perfect mates. Let’s have dinner and then see what we can get up to.”
TWENTY-FOUR
JARETH
Lying between my mates with two sets of arms wrapped around me and Roman’s steady snoring right next to my ear, I can’t imagine a safer place in the entire universe to be. But I still can’t stop picturing their faces. Those vampires, the monsters who attacked me all those years ago. I didn’t properly see what they looked like before, shrouded in shadow in the forest, but now that I’ve seen them again, my memory is filling in the gaps, making me relive that traumatic night over and over with fresh detail.
Roman snuggles closer to me instinctively in his sleep, but I feel like I can’t breathe. I’m suffocating. I’m too vulnerable, still mortal. Powerful, yes, but I could die so easily, and my mates would be devastated.Iwould be devastated to leave them.
I almost laugh out loud at that thought. It was only yesterday that I comforted myself about getting in the middle of their mate bond with the knowledge that I won’t live forever but they will. It’s different now. I can see how beautiful things could be between the three of us, and I want it. I want all of it. I want forever with them.
I roll over and nuzzle Loch. He doesn’t stir, and I’m glad. I don’t need to worry either of them with my middle-of-the-night existential crisis.
“You’re mortal, love.”I keep replaying Loch’s words from earlier. He was right; it wouldn’t have been safe for me to go after two strung-out vampires, even if I hadn’t been actively having a panic attack. In the end, I know I helped. I gave them the edge to defeat those assholes, but I’m so vulnerable. So fragile.
The thoughts I refused to entertain this morning come roaring back. Could I ask Loch to turn me? If I were a vampire too, I would be strong, even stronger than most other vampires with my mage blood. The idea sits in my gut like a boulder, and I don’t think it’s just because of my decades of distaste for vampires. It doesn’t feel like me. It doesn’t feel right.
With my thoughts still swirling, I climb carefully over Loch to get out of bed. He twitches in his sleep, but Roman rolls closer to fill the space I just left, pulling his fated mate into his arms, and they both settle back into a deep sleep without realizing that I’m not there. I just need time to think. I need to be able to breathe.
We didn’t even get to sleep at my house and make love in the garden like we wanted to. We were stubborn enough to stay and finish dinner, but Roman was nervous that after the fight there might be some way for the fae to track us or find us if we stayed topside, so we came back down to the compound. I pick a shirt and a pair of pants up off the floor in the dark and pull them on. The way they hang loosely on me, I’m sure they’re both Roman’s. Then I slip out of the apartment, into the winding, torchlit hallways.
I don’t have anywhere in particular I want to go, I just feel like walking instead of lying there, tossing and turning all night. I round the first corner, and I hear the padding of paws and the click of toenails on the stone floor. The big three-headed dog,Grim, trots towards me and then turns and falls into step with me.
“Oh, hey, buddy. You looking for some company?” I pat the nearest head. One of the other heads whines and the third cranes its neck to lick my fingers. I laugh and use my other hand to give him a scritch behind a different set of ears.
I try to turn down one hallway, but Grim leans his full weight into me and steers me in a different direction. Okay then, it’s not like I had a destination in mind anyway. We wander for a few minutes until I reach an ornate set of double doors that are standing wide open. I peek my head inside and find a massive library. There must be thousands of books in here.
“Grim’s not allowed in the library.”
Rune’s voice startles me and I jump a little, digging my fingers into the scruff of one of Grim’s necks. The dog whines, but I don’t think it’s from my grip. He huffs and plops his butt down right at the threshold of the library, then slides into a lying position with what can only be described as a pout.
Rune’s head appears as he sits up on the couch in the middle of the room.
“That’s not Auri’s rule,” he explains. “He lets that mutt go anywhere it wants. I’m the one who had to set up a spell barrier to keep him out after he drooled on an irreplaceable ancient text.”
“Ah. Yeah, he does seem a bit moist.” I step into the library for a better look.
“I didn’t think you guys would be back tonight. Wasn’t it your big date night?” Rune asks, setting aside the book he was reading and picking up a teacup to sip from. I don’t bother pointing out the irony of the fact that beverages are allowed but not hellhounds.
