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He narrowed his gaze, but his lips curved. “So, you spied on me.”
“I couldn’t seem to help myself. Even then, I was drawn to you almost uncontrollably as I am now. But I do apologize for invading your privacy.”
He shook his head, and gently slapped at the surface of the water. “You’re forgiven.” He even sighed. “I suspect that had the situation been reversed, and knowing how I feel just looking at you, I probably would have done the same thing.”
“You really shouldn’t let me off the hook so easily.”
“Hey, we’re both trying to understand what’s happening here, to make the best decisions.” He leaned over and splashed water on his face, then huffed a sigh. “Let’s give Davido’s suggestion a try. Maybe knowing each other better would help. So, go ahead, ask me anything you’d like to know and I’ll do my best to answer honestly and openly.”
She pushed away from the side of the spring, floating toward him just a little. “Okay. I know you’re old, but how old?”
“Eleven-hundred-and-one, to be exact.”
She shook her head. “I can’t even imagine what that would be like, living that long, seeing so much. Can you tell me about it, especially your early years?”
* * * * * * * * *
Seth stared into large, warm brown eyes, the amethysts sparkling along the curve of her ear. He wondered if she knew that her sympathetic manner had chipped away at his need to keep her at bay.
On some level, he trusted her. He understood that now as she continued to hold his gaze. She watched and waited, letting him move at his own pace.
Finally, he began to speak about his first century in Walvashorr. “I had two lives really. The first occurred before I was mastyr and I didn’t rise to that level for a hundred years. But when I did gain mastyr status, the Sidhe Council voted me ruler the same year.”
He didn’t know the why of it, but he spoke first about the worst moment in his life, that during a family picnic, the Invictus had slaughtered his parents and younger brother while he’d been in the woods exploring. In addition, an un-bonded wraith had gotten hold of his older, sixteen-year-old brother and hauled him away, forging the hated Invictus bond.
Years later, when he began battling Invictus wraith-pairs, he came across his brother. He’d become a killing machine, without conscience, and Seth had been forced to destroy him. The despair he’d lived with for years afterward had added another layer of solitude to his life.
By this point in his story, Lorelei stood next to him, her hand on his arm, rubbing back and forth. “I understand what it’s like to lose someone you love, who you’ve lived with your whole life.” She shared with him all about her governess, Genevieve, the woman she would always think of as her real mother, how Genevieve had helped her escape Margetta’s prison-home, but who in turn had died in the process.
“Do you miss her?”
“Every day.”
He surrounded her with his arms, pulling her against him, her nakedness more a comfort in that moment than anything else. He’d never had someone close to him like this, someone he could share his past with. And their early experiences had a similar feel, loss of a family connection, a lot of grief to process for young minds.
“I’m glad you had Genevieve.”
“Me, too. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like otherwise. Afterward, that’s when I went to work as a servant in Davido’s home. I loved being there because it was an incredibly peaceful place. I used to watch him with Vojalie. I’ve never seen a man dote on a woman like that before. Have you ever seen them together?”
He chuckled. “A few times. He’s very affectionate with her.”
“You’ve known him a long time, then?”
“Yes. He’s what I’d call a real family man. Over the centuries, he’s had dozens of children and makes time for them all. But he’s very old and no one really knows his age. I suppose, as far as that goes, we might all be related to Davido.”
She laughed at that. “Maybe we are.” After a moment, she leaned back to look at him, pulling out of his arms to float once more. “So, tell me about Walvashorr, about the realm you’ve ruled for a thousand years.”
His heart expanded as he thought of his world, of his people, how he knew every farm, hamlet, town and city, the way he knew his own reflection in the mirror.
And he opened up a little more, telling her about the terrain itself, the seaside in the south, how the land rose up and up to the vast Shauck Mountain Range that covered the entire northern part of the realm, how he loved the hundreds of deep gorges, the tall mountain peaks, the ruggedness of the land and that he had such a large shifter population that roamed the mountains.
“I have a connection with the shifters that I’ve never understood, although perhaps it’s starting to make more sense now, especially with what Davido said about our basic DNA. But I do seem to understand your shifter qualities better than most vampires.” He smiled as he met her gaze. “Okay, your turn. What happened after you left Davido’s home.”
She shared how she’d lived, moving from realm-to-realm. How hard it was, how lonely. She’d kept a low-profile, usually working in restaurants or hotels and leaving the moment she felt Margetta’s presence, knowing that her mother had found her yet again.
But she’d also explored every realm, mostly on foot at night. She’d come to know a lot of wonderful people, most of whom she’d had to leave behind. “So you can see why, when Quinlan and Batya championed me, helping me get to Ferrenden Peace, that I couldn’t believe I might have a chance at a normal life.”
His heart stilled. “Yet, now, instead of normal, you’re a blood rose and a prime female.”
