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“You dreamt of my brother touching you?”
“I had no control over the dream, but I’m telling you he did.”
His nostrils flared as he tried to control his jealousy. “There is only one called mate. They do not... You’re mine. This must be a mistake.”
“Then how do I know I have to drink your blood to bond?”
“I explained the process.”
“No, you explained a transfusion. I know you need to be inside of me, drinking from me, and feeding me.”
His eyes shifted, pupils elongated.
She gave him a knowing look. “You never explained it in that sort of detail, Adam. But Cain did. He was trying to bond with me in the dream.”
He sprung off the bed. “Impossible!”
“Do you think I’d make this up?”
“You’re upset with me about last night—”
“Adam, I don’t care about last night! I’m telling you something is happening, and it involves your brother!”
His hair fell around his face as he paced the room. She never saw him so agitated. His muscles bunched and his fingernails lengthened into claws. He roared and slammed the chair into the wall.
Annalise flinched, covering her head as the wood splintered. “Adam, you’re scaring me. What does this mean?”
He shoved his fingers through his hair, a demonic set to his eyes. “If he’s found a way into your dreams, you’ll need to avoid sleep.”
“For how long?”
“Until we complete the bond.”
She shook her head. “Then we have to do it tonight. No more delaying the inevitable.”
He nodded. “The Elders have no record of nightmares or any information on Cain’s whereabouts. He’s in hiding and will likely stay there so long as the Council’s looking for him.”
He approached the bed and took her hands. “Ainsicht, is it possible this might just be the workings of your imagination?”
“He tried to force his blood down my throat, Adam. Never in a million years would I imagine that.”
His body shook visibly, and he dropped her hands, turning his back toward her. When he spoke, his voice held the calm hiss of a lethal weapon about to detonate. “He tried to make you drink from him?”
“I fought him. I told him I was yours.”
His shoulders stretched with muscle as he panted slowly. Seething anger radiated from him as his body seemed to coil with tightening rage.
Adam’s fear seemed to feed her own. “Can he turn me in a dream?”
Glancing over his shoulder without fully looking at her, his brow creased. “Turn you? No. But I don’t know about bonding.” He angled his face away. “If another male bonded with you, my soul would be forever lost.”
A chill knifed through her. All his patience would have been for nothing. If Cain got to her first, Adam would die.
“Then we need to finish this, Adam.” She was done taking chances. She cared too much about him to play any part in his death. “I want you to change me tonight.”
“The preparations have already begun.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Larissa silently dried the dishes, staring out the window as the sun drooped low behind the trees. The closer evening crept the more her stomach knotted. Silus sat at the table, offering occasional criticism and adding to the continuum of misery that was her existence.
Obedience had been ingrained in her since birth, yet those firm lips that kept her tongue in check were not enough to silence the profane thoughts running through her head.
Movement along the darkening horizon caught her eye. A male. And they were purposely hiding their approach as they slinked along the property line.
“Someone is approaching.” Her voice, so seldom used, sounded foreign to her own ears.
The chair scraped over the planked, wood floors, and the tension in her shoulders tightened as Silus sidled beside her.
“It is your brother. Finish your work and bring us something cool to drink.”
Silus left the kitchen, and she placed the last of the dishes in the pantry, uncovering a cool pitcher of juice she’d made earlier that day. Pouring two glasses, she leaned over one and spit into the liquid, using a long spoon the dissolve the saliva.
She carried the glasses to the porch, the screen squawking as she backed through the door. The scent of Silus’s pipe soured her stomach. The tobacco was all she smelled at night when he climbed on top of her in bed.
Cain’s smile was the first she’d seen in days. “Hello, my beautiful sister. Are one of those for me.”
He reached for a glass, and she gave a subtle shake of her head, pushing the cleaner drink into his hand. His gaze held hers, and he hid a smirk. “Homemade?”
“Of course,” she agreed with a knowing smirk of her own as she passed the special blend to Silus. “Were we expecting you, brother?”
“An unexpected visit.” Cain bowed his head as if apologizing for any intrusion.
Larissa grinned. Her family could never be an intrusion. She missed them painfully since moving to the far end of the farm.
