“Yes,” I say. “This vampire in particular can help. He has Blackwood magic inside of him.”
Her lips part. “Oh.” She blinks and her ears perk forward. “But he was not born a Blackwood?”
“No. But Mother Fate gave it to him.”
Mara goes quiet. She considers this for a moment and then nods, her chin lifting. “It’s not good to question Mother Fate.”
She goes stiff when she hears more movement in the trees. I chuckle and pull her out of the forest toward the coven. The trees thin out and the castle comes into view, massive and dark against the night sky. It’s built into the hillside, the upper floors rising into the dark. Mara stops walking. She tilts her head back to take in the full height of it, her tail dropping behind her.
“Why does this coven need so many rooms?”
I point to the two vampire guards posted at the entrance. They’re standing with their weapons resting against their shoulders, eyes forward, faces blank, and neither one has moved since we stepped into view. “Amari is the master of this coven. A king of sorts.” I glance at her. “He’s got an army. Couple hundred soldiers, I think.”
“Why?” Mara asks, and her grip tightens on my hand.
I pull her toward the entrance and she presses closer to me as we walk up the stairs. Her tail is stiff behind her, her stare fixed on the guards the whole way up. She mutters something under her breath that I don’t catch, her ears flattening against her head.
“My guards on the pride don’t behave this way.” She frowns at the nearest one like she’s offended on his behalf.
I chuckle. Lion shifters and vampires couldn’t be more different. Her guards greet visitors, bare their teeth in welcome. These vampires look like they’d let us walk into a wall before they opened their mouths. Mara keeps glancing back at them as I pull her toward the top of the stairs, like she’s waiting for one of them to blink.
The double doors swing open before I can lift my hand to knock and Mara is right behind me. Her fingers fist the back of my shirt and her tail wraps around my thigh. I fucking love it when she does that.
I step inside and she follows, pressed against my back. The entrance hall stretches in front of us, wide and dark with torchlight flickering across the walls. The air is cooler in here. Amari is at the far end and he’s not alone. A burgundy spider skitters beside him, legs clicking against the floor. It’s about the size of a dog with a leg span wider than my arms. One that size is going to make Mara lose her mind.
She peeks out from behind me, gasps, and bolts for the doors.
“Baby, no?—“
We agreed we’d stay together through this, but our agreement is the last thing on her mind right now. She’s already at the doors when they swing shut, the magic in the castle sealing her in. She starts clawing at the wood. Her nails extend into full claws and she digs grooves into the surface.
“Mara.” I walk over to her. “Baby, stop.”
She doesn’t stop. I wrap my arm around her waist and lift her off her feet.
“Put me down!” She kicks and pulls at my hand and her tail whips against my leg. “Aaron, put me down!”
I hold her tighter and carry her away from the door while Amari and the spider approach. I’m about to tell her to breathe when an image flashes in my head. Letters, bright and shimmering, spelling out two words.
Beautiful mate.
Mara stops kicking. Her whole body goes still in my arms. Her ears go forward and her lips part. Her head turns toward the spider.
Amari looks down at the spider and smiles. “Yes, Tofi. Aaron’s mate is beautiful.”
My head jerks up. “That’s Tofi?” I look at the spider and back at Amari. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen her. She’s gotten bigger.”
“Not by a lot.” Amari grins and there’s pride in his face when he looks at her.
An image of the wordDaddyflashes in my head. I set Mara down on her feet and she stands still, watching Tofi with her chin tilted. She holds up her hand.
“Hi,” she says.
Tofi taps her legs against the floor and new images flash in our heads.Hi Aaron’s mate.Her legs tap again.Aaron’s mate is nice.
Mara smiles, her tail swaying behind her. That makes two of us. She looks up at me.
“You know her?”
