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“Shhh,” Luna admonished, sucking in deep breaths as she worked with matter I couldn’t begin to understand.
Alek and I stood watch for what seemed like hours as Luna somehow siphoned off Genevieve’s magic. The flush faded from Jocelyn’s cheeks, and her hand cooled by degrees so minimal they were almost imperceptible.
Finally, Luna broke contact with Jocelyn and sat back, her shoulders drooping with exhaustion. “Check her temperature.”
I took the thermometer from the nightstand and checked. “Ninety-nine-point-four.”
Luna nodded, a slow smile lifting the corners of her mouth. “That’s fine. Her body will burn off whatever else it doesn’t need. I took as much as I safely could.”
“Thank you.” My gaze locked on Jocelyn’s face, studying her delicate features as if I might never see them again. If this didn’t work, we’d both be gone in a few hours. There was simply no world for me without her in it.
So slowly, I thought I might be imagining it, Jocelyn’s eyes fluttered open.
“Oh, thank God,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand.
“I’ll give you three some privacy,” Alek said softly, exiting just as quietly.
Jocelyn’s violet eyes met mine and she smiled, her focus then shifting sideways to Luna. “Luna?”
“You idiot!” Luna lunged for her sister, enveloping my mate in a hug. “How could you do that to me? How could you be so completely, utterly foolish?” A hiccup came between accusations, and Jocelyn sat up, looping her arm around her sister’s back even as she laced the fingers of her empty hand with mine.
“I’m okay,” she whispered to Luna, but her eyes were on me.
Relief sang through my veins like the most addictive of drugs. She was okay, really and truly okay. She would live. We both would. My smile was shaky, but my grip firm on her hand.
“You nearly killed yourself!” Luna snapped, yanking herself back with her hands on Jocelyn’s shoulders. “Taking that much power was a giant mistake! Huge! Colossal!”
“You seemed to have known exactly what to do,” Jocelyn replied, grinning at her sister.
“Ugh!” Luna scooted back on the bed. “You’re just damn lucky I put two and two together! What would you have done if I hadn't? If I’d assumed the power signature here was just a fluke and Mother had truly been killed by just some vampire?”
“Just some vampire?” I questioned.
“I haven’t even started with you.” Luna narrowed her silvery eyes at me. “You knew my sister was alive.”
“True.” I sat back in my chair.
“I had to take her by surprise,” Jocelyn argued. “You couldn’t know. And I knew there was no way you’d have known what she was doing behind your back. There was no way you would have negotiated with the Sons for more land, so I needed to keep you as far away from all this as possible. You have to understand that.”
“I do,” Luna said thoughtfully. “But thinking you were dead…” Her eyes squeezed shut, and Jocelyn pulled her into another hug. “Don’t ever do that to me again.”
“Never,” Jocelyn agreed. “Thanks for taking the high octane out of my system.”
Luna laughed. “You’re not incredibly pissed that you’re no longer the most powerful witch to ever walk the earth, even if it was kind of killing you?”
Jocelyn shook her head, her gaze meeting mine. “That much power isn’t meant to be contained in one body, and I’m happy just being the first witch-vampire hybrid. Her power is meant to be yours. You’ll wield it so much better than I ever could have.”
“I’m more powerful than you are, now,” Luna teased.
Jocelyn grinned, and leaned her forehead against her sister’s. “In every way that matters, you always have been.”
She’d been on her feet for all of four hours, and I couldn’t stop touching her, couldn’t stop grazing my hand across hers or sweeping my fingers along the small of her back. The few, hungry kisses we’d shared once Luna headed home weren’t enough.
I wasn’t going to be satisfied until I had full possession of my mate again, but there were priorities, here.
“You ready?” I asked, holding my hand just above the scanner on the keypad.
“As I’ll ever be,” she responded, holding my hand tight.
The scanner read my handprint and the massive steel door opened in front of us, revealing the war room and its occupants.
Every Assassin stood as we entered, and I noted that they’d even left two seats open, side-by-side.
“Welcome,” Alek said, motioning to the seats.
“I have to ask, am I the first woman to ever make it into this little treehouse you have going on?” Jocelyn asked, taking her seat as I took mine next to her.
“We’re not that discriminatory.” Alek’s eyebrows rose. “Every queen, princess, and their bodyguards have been in here, naturally. We’ve just never had a female member of the Order...yet.”
Jocelyn’s eyes sparkled at that last comment, and her hand reached for my thigh.
