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Did the potion Layden gave me allow me to permanently sever that connection to our shared memory, or like the long bout of wakefulness, will it too wear off?
We haven’t had any more run-ins with the vampires since that battlefield more than five hundred years ago, and Romulus always thought the encounter with my angel runes had sent it scurrying underground like a cockroach.
We only heard tales of pale bloodsuckers over the years from the same region of eastern Europe. Yes, I have to say my interest is piqued to meet them again.
If only these were different circumstances. I frown deeper and feel my eyebrow furrowing as I continue to look at Lo-Ren. Fuck, she’s so young and perfect and. . . innocent. That word whispers like a curse through my mind. And now we’re taking her from one den of monsters into another.
All for what? Because I wanted a consort? I press a hand to my chest and swallow.
“What is it?” Kharon asks. “Are you well?”
I drop my hand. “I’m fine,” I bark gruffly. Lo-Ren’s eyes pop open, and she looks at me, which makes me feel even—
Dammit, that’s the problem. She’s making me feel things. Things other than want and lust and bloodlust, the only emotions I thought myself capable of. But this. . .
Again, my chest squeezes uncomfortably, and I want to press my palm against it until the sensation goes away again.
For the first time in my whole life, I worry I’ve done the wrong thing.
If I end up putting her in harm's way, I’ll never forgive myself. She is not just another human. I knew she was a prize above all others, but I did not anticipate how…
Yes, my dumb brothers were capable of falling for their humans, but I thought getting a consort of my own would just be like any other thing I conquered. She is not just some prize, though. She is more. She is—
“Okay,” Layden says from the front. “We’re about to land. Glamours on.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
LAUREN
“Be calm,” Remus says from beside me as the chopper begins to descend. It’s strange to see him and his brother without wings, hidden under the guise of whatever a glamour is. I want to ask a thousand questions as I look up into his face, which is even more slightly altered, as if the proportions have been pulled back into a less exaggerated shape. He doesn’t exactly look like his twin, but it’s nearer. Speaking of—the glamour made Romulus disappear completely, cloaking him with a natural-looking head of hair.
Even Kharon looks fully human, with only two arms, like a large wrestler with tan skin instead of blue. In one arm, he holds his swaddled newborn, and in the other, he cradles Ksenia, who looks exhausted from the mid-flight birth.
“I’m calm,” I say in a whisper.
Remus arches an eyebrow down at me. “Your muscles are tense as stone, and I’m sure your heart is racing. Our new guests will be able to hear it.”
I feel my eyes pop wide. “That doesn’t help!” I squeak.
He shrugs and reaches over, intertwining his fingers with mine. “I suppose it’s better to be more on guard than less in this situation. But you should know better than to worry when you have me at your side.”
I look up at him, still a little weirded out by how, well, normal he looks. “Are they really—you know—” I gesture with the hand he’s not holding, not quite able to bring myself to say the word ‘vampires.’ Because, seriously?
“I’ve only met one, and he was very,” Remus wiggles his eyebrows, “you know.” What? No, I do not know? But then he looks away, not offering any more explanation. “Let’s hope they’ve become a little more civilized since the last one I encountered.”
Well, now my heart is really racing. But I guess I should have known better than to turn to Remus, of all people, for assurance. I know what everybody says about him, but surely he’s not looking for a fight, is he? Is it bad that I’m kinda sorta wishing it was Romulus in charge of the body right now instead of him? Immediately, I feel bad for the thought and squeeze his hand tighter. Maybe I’m just letting everyone else’s voices get in my head. Remus squeezes my hand back. I try to take it as reassurance.
And then we touch down.
Moments later, the back ramp is lowering. It screeches before making it past a certain point and continuing, I assume, because of the damage incurred when we were in that terrifying other place when the creature attacked us. My eyes immediately zoom in on the claw marks.
That is, until the ramp lowers more to see a tight grouping of about twenty men, all dressed in sleek black and standing in the courtyard where we’ve touched down. They stand ramrod straight, hands behind their backs, identical black hair and dark eyes watching us.
My nails dig into Remus’s hand, but he doesn’t so much as flinch. Indeed, when I look over at him, he’s smiling.
Layden immediately walks up the aisle and down the ramp before it’s all the way lowered, easily hopping off to the ground. The rest of us stand up, Abaddon taking the lead and pushing his wife, who’s holding his daughter, behind his large, bulky, glamoured shape. Even disguised as a human, he’s still intimidating, especially with the scowl permanently plastered to his face as he waits to see how Layden will be received.
Layden walks right up to the group and instead of holding out a hand, tugs down his collar and bares his neck. I hear a little growl from Remus in front of me and immediately know there’s no way he’ll be offering the same in greeting.
