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“Things are changing,” he murmured, his gaze falling once more to the fur still enhancing Lorelei’s hands. “If Jude’s fae thinks there’s something here and that he needs to be present, then he should come. But don’t worry, I’ll take care of this. I’m at Shauck Gorge and Lorelei’s with me.”
“Your bodyguard.”
He drew a deep breath, one of many in recent hours. “Yes. And there’s something else you should know.” He trusted Aaron implicitly not to spread the word around, but he felt his second-in-command should have full knowledge of what was going on. “She’s a blood rose.”
Long pause, then, “Holy fuck. You’re kidding. So, she’s your woman.”
He made the statement so succinctly, that Seth spoke before he could even process what he ought to say. “Absolutely, she’s my woman.”
And there it was again, that powerful need to lay claim to her. And yet, he knew how he’d responded to Batya as a blood rose the moment he’d seen her two months ago
in the queen’s receiving room. He’d lost complete sense of where he was, took her in his arms, and would have pierced her neck with his fangs if Quinlan hadn’t knocked him flat.
Which meant that if Jude was coming anywhere near Lorelei, he needed a plan in place and to make sure one of the biggest mastyrs in the Nine Realms knew that Lorelei was taken. Returning to the kitchen doorway, he glanced her direction.
She now stood by the far window near the table and stared out at the falls, her glass of wine in hand. He called to her quietly, “One more phone call, and I’m all yours.”
His choice of words surprised him, but they were damn accurate. The fact that she turned toward him and smiled, a blush rising on her cheeks, gave him confidence that they were on the same page.
He headed back to the living room and called Jude.
A moment later, the mastyr’s voice came on the line. “Seth, you dumbfuck, how’s it hanging?”
Seth smiled. Jude was a lot like Ethan, just really out there. He might even have been Seth’s opposite, built as Jude was like a tank. He had more muscle than Quinlan but probably ranged at six-six. And no doubt when he flew, he bruised the air that rushed toward him.
“I got a message from Aaron that you’ve had some kind of fae revelation.”
“Yeah. Looks like you’ve got an attack coming, something big. Remember when we last spoke, after you met Queen Rosamunde and you shared what you knew about Margetta?”
“Of course.”
“Well, it’s Margetta again. According to my fae source, Margetta needs to shut something down in your realm and if she can do this successfully, she’ll gain a huge advantage in her bid to dominate all the realms.”
Seth thumbed his forehead. “And what is it she needs to shut down?”
“The fae couldn’t say exactly, but she kept having a recurring image of long slender female hands, fae hands, trimmed with white fur. Which made no sense to me. Does it to you?”
And there it was, another indication that he and Lorelei were caught in a powerful realm experience. “Perfect sense.” But he didn’t like that Lorelei, despite her intricate enthrallment shield, was still in danger.
“And I’m supposed to lend a hand.”
Seth scowled. “What kind of timing are we looking at?”
“Within the next two days, that’s all I know. And I was to be at your bidding. I’ll come now if you want.”
“Was that part of the vision?”
“No, only that I was supposed to wait for your call and do what you said. So, it’s up to you. I can come now or later. Whenever you want.”
Seth’s arms shook with the thought of Jude being anywhere near Lorelei. He debated not saying something about his current predicament, but he reconsidered. If he’d had a heads-up about Batya, he would either have controlled the impulse to pull her into his arms, or he would have made himself scarce the moment she showed up without Quinlan in tow. “Jude, I have another situation here.”
“Thought you might.”
“These rumors you’ve heard about the blood rose are undeniably true. Not that you wouldn’t have believed Gerrod or the others, but mine has arrived and it’s Lorelei.”
Jude whistled. “No fucking shit.”
“I’m as shocked as you are.”
