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Now that the terrifying situation had been brought to an end, Regan shook worse than ever. Her legs felt rubbery as she made her way back into the foyer.
It looked like her plan to return to Swanicott wouldn’t be as simple as she’d imagined. There were other mastyr vampires in each of the realms. If she left Ian’s side and one of them came after her, she knew by the strength of her reaction to Stone, she wouldn’t be able to resist bonding with the first one to gain her attention.
Better to stick close to the devil she knew, especially since Ian would resist completing the blood rose bond with her. In that sense, she could buy a lot of time here in Camberlaune.
Anywhere else, she’d be at risk.
CHAPTER THREE
A few minutes later, with Regan safely ensconced in his library, Ian sat opposite Stone in his living room. Stone held an ice pack to his face and kept moving his jaw back and forth. He sat on an ottoman, his body angled forward with one elbow supported on his thigh.
Ian leaned back on the sofa, a pack of frozen peas pressed to the bridge of his nose. Stone had gotten in several major hits, but this one had practically slammed his nose into his brain. Davido had done him a solid and set the bone.
Oh, shit had it hurt.
Davido’s blue eyes glittered as he glanced from one man to the other. “Sorry I missed the first part of the brawl. Must have been a sight to see.” He rubbed his hands together.
Stone glanced at Ian, and offered a crooked smile. His lip was bleeding. “It was a sight to hurt, I’ll say that.”
Ian chuckled. “It was.”
“And Ian, those rings of yours … brutal.”
“What were we thinking?”
At that, a shard of concern passed through Stone’s swollen eyes. “I didn’t think. I saw Regan and I was done for. Why didn’t you warn me she was a blood rose?”
“Zane was supposed to head you off. Didn’t he call?”
Stone shook his head. “My phone rang, but I was already in flight. And he might have tried pathing, but lately my telepathic frequency has been hit-and-miss.”
Ian nodded. “
It happens.”
Stone narrowed his eyes. “But were you actually going to let her out of your sight?”
Ian shook his head, shifting his gaze to the floor, working to think it all through. “I don’t know what to tell you. I knew what the other mastyrs had said on the loop. Guess I hadn’t thought it out, or not as far as I needed to.”
Davido brought him a scotch neat. Ian drank it quickly, but came up sputtering. Even his throat felt swollen from the fight.
Finally, he answered Stone’s question. “It was all too new and we’d been quarreling as we do when we spend more than a few minutes in each other’s company. I needed her to leave and she wanted to go.” He shook his head several times. “I can’t believe I was going to take her to Swanicott and leave her there.”
The horror of what he’d almost done and how he would have essentially left her wide open to other mastyrs, made every bruise on his body throb. His nose started bleeding again.
Davido brought him a couple of tissues and refilled his tumbler.
Ian plugged up both nostrils. He then leaned his head onto the cushion, removed the bag of peas and pinched the bridge of his nose. After a minute, he gently pushed the tissue aside and slowly sipped the scotch. The burn did him some good.
He’d engaged his healing power, most of it focused on his smashed nose. But sweet Goddess, he hurt in so many places, he was afraid to move.
“So, tell me about the fortress,” Stone said.
Ian related everything Regan had told him, adding that because of the mist, he’d only seen a small portion of one of the south-facing stone walls. “But the army size, according to Regan, would indicate we would need to join forces to accomplish much of anything.”
Stone nodded, shifting his ice pack to his opposite cheek. Davido offered him a tumbler as well and Stone took it, throwing it back, then wincing. “Shouldn’t have done that. Ian, what the hell did you do to my neck?”
Ian could only laugh, but he groaned afterward since his ribs ached. “Not sure. But if it makes you feel any better, I think you broke a couple of my ribs.”
