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She gained her feet as well and gathered up her own dishes. “But don’t you see the predicament that puts me in? I’m going to have to go out there at some point in the very near future and find a vampire mate. And I don’t want to.”
She swore his hands shook as he started rinsing the dishes. She also felt a wave of his mastyr power rush over her, full of possession, in the same way he’d grabbed her wrist.
His jaw was rigid. “I promise you, I’ll help you do just that.”
She hardly knew what to say. It was the last thing she’d expected to hear from him after a day’s sleep. His words rankled. His attitude as well. Wasn’t she good enough for the deserter? Except he wasn’t a deserter and it now seemed disloyal of her to even think it. He’d served the entire northeast for the past two years and had saved dozens of lives in the process, especially in those places the Guard couldn’t have reached quickly enough.
Still, why wasn’t she good enough for him?
“You know, I’m considered a catch at university.”
He took her dishes from her hands. Somehow her words poked a hole in the tension and he smiled. “I’m sure you are. You’re not the woman I thought you were, either. You’ve surprised me several times since this all began.”
She opened her mouth to protest, when another thought struck. “I just realized I could say the same thing of you. You’re not at all what I expected.”
“Stone’s waiting.”
She glanced at the remnants of eggs in the frying pan and the crumbs by the toaster. She lifted her brows and nudged him away from the sink. “I won’t leave my kitchen dirty. Period.”
His smile broadened. “I’ll help.”
~ ~ ~
“I had you investigated.”
Rez shifted his gaze to Stone, but the ruling mastyr didn’t look at him. Instead, he stood facing the lake, arms crossed over his chest, gaze fixed to the skies.
Rez felt his heels start to dig in. “Investigated about what?”
This was not a good beginning. He wondered if he and Stone would end up fighting again. Maybe they should have stayed with their women since the last time this happened, Rez had thrown a punch.
Stone lifted an arm and gestured with a sweep across the sky and well above the lake, east to west. “Margetta was there surrounded by powerful Invictus mastyrs. She’d created an impenetrable mist. I wasn’t sure any of us would survive.”
Rez had
no idea why Stone was going down memory lane but it boded ill. If Rez had stayed with the Vampire Guard, he would have fought alongside his brother warriors right here. Seemed Stone had a point he wanted to make and it wasn’t good.
Rez remained silent.
Stone finally shifted in Rez’s direction, both arms lowered, neither in fists.
But Rez was ready. If he needed to battle Stone, he would. So be it, but like hell he was apologizing for the decisions he’d made.
“You weren’t here, Mastyr Rez.”
“No. I wasn’t.” Rez kept his breathing steady and slow, though his hands had already begun to ball into fists.
“At the same time the Guard was here, there was an Invictus incident not far from Millerell, a hamlet called Rockpoint. A troll child by the name of Seth, seven-years-old, was plucked off the street. By all accounts, seems a vampire warrior type went in pursuit, saved the child and dispatched the wraith-pair.”
Rez looked away from Stone. He remembered getting the panicked call. He’d gone out in his blue jeans, tank, and no shoes. He’d flown like a maniac.
He’d heard the child’s screams. The wraith had her fangs ready to sink into the boy’s throat.
When children were involved, a switch always got thrown for Rez. He couldn’t remember the details of the fight. That was a blur. But by the time he reached the female wraith, Rez had already sliced her vampire Invictus mate to the spine. With her mate dead, she’d fallen in a heap and the boy had rolled from her arms. Ending the wraith’s life had taken a split-second.
He’d picked up the child, limp in his arms, and had flown him to a fae healer who lived on the outskirts of the village. He’d gotten the child to her in time.
Stone’s voice cut through the memory. “You slaughtered an Invictus pair and saved a child.”
