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“Really, as in one-hundred-percent human?” She was stunned.
“Yes, but she’s now one-hundred-percent vampire.”
“So, he changed her.”
“More like she embraced what could be hers.”
“Do I actually have the capacity to become a vampire?”
“I have no idea. I’m guessing not because you’re half-fae. In our world, the species, though they intermarry, generally fall to one side or the other; the genes just line up that way.” He paused, then added, “And you do understand now, that you’re part-fae?”
She nodded, but her head swam with so much information. “The vision alerted me. I’ve been studying your world at university so I know about fae and visions, but it’s still so hard to take in.”
“When you’re ready, you can speak with one of our fae leaders, even Vojalie, who is the most powerful fae in the Nine Realms. For now, though, can you tell me who your mother was? I mean, she was probably long-lived. I might even have known her.”
“Andrea. My mother’s name was Andrea Bergisse. Oh. I see.” She even laughed, though she wasn’t amused. “Bergisson. I just never made the connection before.”
But Ethan stared at her like he’d seen a ghost. In fact, he seemed angry.
She took a step back from the screen door as she searched his eyes. “Ethan, what is it? What did I say?”
“Andrea was your mother? There’s only one fae I’ve ever known by that name. Did she have dark hair, a little lighter than yours?”
“Almost black and wavy.”
“She wore it long to the waist.”
“Yes, all the years that I knew her as my mama.”
He shook his head. “Sweet Goddess, for you to be ignorant of who you are, she must not have spoken of Bergisson or her heritage at all.”
“No, not even a little. Whenever I asked about your realm, she told me to look it up on the Internet if I was interested. I thought she just didn’t care about the Nine Realms. It never occurred to me to read her any other way. Besides, she’s been gone ten years. I was only eighteen, still too young to have pieced things together. But, why do you seem so upset? Did my mother do something to you, or what?”
He was silent for a moment, looking away from her, his gaze glancing round the yard, lifting to the dark night skies as though searching, then back to her. “It was something she didn’t do, but it happened forty years ago for reasons I’ll never understand.”
Samantha felt divorced from whatever her mother might have failed to do so many decades ago. She hadn’t even been born and Andrea had been gone for such a long time that she was more ghost than a factor in her life now.
She’d loved her mother, but there had always been something off about Andrea, disconnected maybe from life. Her father’s death one year before Andrea’s, had stolen the last of her mother’s spirit. She’d died the following spring from pneumonia, which she’d left untreated until too late.
Her grandmother was gone now as well, which led her thoughts in a new direction.
“Ethan?” He’d turned away from her, his gaze fixed skyward again, watching for Ry, maybe.
“Yeah?” But he didn’t turn to look at her.
“Do I have family in Bergisson?”
At that he glanced at her, a swift searching look then set his gaze once more into the night. “I’m certain you do.”
Some part of her longed to know but more, but for now, she didn’t think she could handle a more detailed accounting.
“I have no family here.” The words came out like a whisper. She wasn’t even sure she’d spoken them aloud.
She half expected Ethan to respond, instead, he shifted to what she could only describe as a fighting stance, bending his knees, lowering his shoulders, arms held wide. A long blade flashed beneath the porch light.
He called out. “Ry, you motherfucker, make yourself known and how the hell did you get past the access point Guardsmen?” Ethan’s voice echoed through the neighborhood, but he must have disguised it because not a single dog started barking, a sure sign he’d been telling the truth about being invisible to her neighbors.
If a frog sneezed, dogs started barking.
The next second, Samantha gave a cry as another vampire dropped out of the night sky, a warrior-type almost as big as Ethan and wearing the same garb; the leather sleeveless duster over a loosely woven shirt, black leather pants, and heavy, sexy boots. He held a blade as well.
His gaze slid past Ethan’s shoulder and landed on her. The porch light exposed him completely but she had a feeling that even if the light hadn’t been on, she could have still seen him.
She reached up and switched it off.
Sure enough, she saw both men as in a glow. Fae night vision? Realm vision?
“I can still see you, Samantha of Shreveport. Don’t think you can hide from me.” Ry’s voice had a tinny edge, almost desperate, and maybe he was.
“You can’t have her, Ry. Not now, not ever.”
“Anyone can have her. She doesn’t belong to you. You’re not mated. She’s free game and as far as I’m concerned, I have as much right as you’ll ever have. More, because I’ve lived a century longer. Haven’t you stolen enough from me?”
“I stole nothing. You know that. And Samantha is a U.S. citizen. By law, she belongs to no one. Taking her against her will, would be kidnapping and Bergisson allows U.S. law enforcement into our realm to extradite, simple as that.”
“She’s a blood rose. That cancels all her U.S. rights where she’s concerned.”
Samantha’s nostrils flared and for a sudden powerful moment, Ry’s scent came to her and, worse, she liked it. She smelled a heavy spice like cloves only muskier. He was a handsome vampire, not in Ethan’s blond, almost flamboyant mold but darker, more dramatic, earthier.
Her body suddenly responded, her heart beating heavily as it did for Ethan, wanting to nourish both vampires. There could be no doubt that she recognized him as a mastyr, another sure sign that she was exactly what Ethan had called her in the vision: a blood rose.
“You’re feeling me,” Ry said, his voice husky. “Don’t hide it from me, Samantha. I know that you are. You want me.”
These words, however, brought a terrible sound from Ethan’s throat, something between a growl and a roar. Before she could shout a word of warning, Ethan charged Ry.
Blades flashed in the glow of her vision and a heavy vibration from the battle pulsed through her in waves that kept her heart beating hard in her chest, longing for either of the vampires, wanting them both, needing to give up her vital blood supply.
