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Grieve reached for my buckle and I let out a whimper. "Not here, not in plain sight, please."
He quit tugging on the belt. "I forget. The Fae aren't modest about sex. But Cicely--I want you. I want you now."
Reason hammered against the fog. There was a group of Indigo Fae out to kill us, and here we were, standing in the middle of the kitchen, making out.
"Stop--please, just for now. I need to make sure Kaylin and Leo make it home safely." I pushed against his chest. Damn it, I didn't want to stop, not even though I knew he was tasting my blood. I wanted to strip him right here, pull him down on the floor, and fuck his brains out.
He struggled for a moment to hold me, but then lifted his head, his platinum hair falling forward to graze my face, and let go, trembling as I stepped back. A drop of my blood remained on his lips, and his eyes were glowing.
"You taste so good. I want you--all of you, again and again."
His teeth showed, needle-sharp and brilliant white, but I had lost my fear. Whether it was shock from the close call, or just the feeling that we were inevitable, I had to trust that he was on our side--as much as he could be.
I shivered, suddenly cold. "I . . . oh, Grieve, I don't know what the fuck I'm getting myself into but I love you."
Before he could respond, I pulled down my shirt, turned, and darted into the living room. Rhiannon was sitting beside Chatter on the sofa and they looked up at me in unison, Chatter with a worried expression on his face, Rhiannon--questioning.
"Have Kaylin and Leo gotten--" Before I could finish, there was a noise at the door and I stiffened. A second later, Leo and Kaylin burst in, slamming the door behind them. Kaylin looked utterly exhausted.
"We lost them, I think. But they know where we live. We have to ward the house and the land. There's no other way to keep them out."
"We'd better start warding the land. I think we have a book about protection spells in that pile over there." I rifled through the stack until I found a grimoire dedicated to purification and protection spells.
"I think I saw something in here when I was leafing through . . . here it is. A spell for warding an estate. We'll need of lot of quartz crystals--they don't have to be large but they have to be spiked on at least one end. We'll need garlic . . . crap . . . a lot of garlic, and sulfur, and blood. Our blood."
At that moment, Grieve joined us, slipping his arm around my waist. I leaned back against him and he pressed his lips to my head.
"Cicely, do you realize your neck's bleeding?" Leo pointed to my shirt and I glanced in the bronze-framed mirror on the wall. A trail of red droplets slowly dripped from my neck down my right shoulder to stain my shirt.
Kaylin stared at me. Hard. But he didn't say a word. Leo looked pissed. They both gave Grieve a cold once-over but said nothing more.
"I'll just go clean up," I said, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.
"I'll come with you," Grieve said.
I knew that one step inside my bedroom would be all it would take. I shook my head and pressed my hand against his chest. "Please, wait here. We've got to ward this place before your newfound family sends out a hunting party after us."
"They're more likely to attack the house at night, with all of you here sleeping," Grieve said. "While you change, Chatter and I'll have a little talk about just how we're going to handle this when we have to go back to the Barrow. With a little luck, the Shadow Hunters won't know we helped you escape."
I turned to Kaylin. "Tell Leo and Rhiannon what we saw. Tell them who we saw." And then, I hit the stairs before anybody could say a word.
By the time I rinsed off my neck and changed my T-shirt for a cami, I felt relatively back to normal. Dreamwalking with Kaylin, and then Grieve's passion had thrown me into a tailspin. I wasn't sure just what the hell to expect next--I just knew that there was no walking away from Grieve, not now.
As I headed down the stairs, I heard a shriek. Rhiannon! I leapt over the last five stairs, landing in a crouch, and raced into the living room.
"What's going on? What happened?" I glanced around the room, expecting to see something horrible, yet all I saw was Leo holding her against his chest. But the smell of smoke alerted me.
"Look over there." Leo nodded to one of the chairs.
The upholstery was soaked through, an upturned pan on the floor next to it. A large burn mark scorched the seat. Kaylin gave me a sideways shake of the head and gave a slight nod at my cousin. Oh shit, she'd caught the chair on fire.
"Rhiannon? Did you do that?" I sat down on the other side of her and took her hands in mine.
She nodded. "Yeah, I did. I was arguing with Leo about Chatter and . . . the chair caught on fire. I told you that once I unleashed it, I wouldn't be able to control it."
It was then that I realized Grieve and Chatter were nowhere to be seen. "Where are the two of them, anyway?"
"Out on the porch, talking." She sniffled. "You're right. I have to learn how to master this. Now that the fire's loose, there's no way I can stuff it back down. I get angry and it wells up inside." Gazing at her hands, she turned them palm up in mine.
