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Chapter Thirty-One
Xander
I watch Rowan and Ven from the doorway of the hospital room. The doctors had treated Ven’s burns but want to keep her overnight for observation since she’d had such a traumatic experience. The police had come by earlier to take statements. Rowan worked a bit of magic to alter their memories, so they thought the big hole I’d blown in the side of the police station was caused by lightning. We’d of course kept the other supernatural details out of our story—just told them that some nutjob who thought he was a witch hunter had killed all of the women and that we’d rescued Ven but he’d escaped. When they realize the sheriff is missing, maybe they’ll put two and two together.
They don’t know, of course, that the sheriff—who wasn’t really a sheriff at all—is now a pile of ash.
My brain is still having a hard time wrapping around the fact that my father’s best friend—someone I’d looked up to for centuries—had become so twisted by hate and vengeance that he became a demon-summoning murderer. How had it come to that? At what point had he gone off the deep end and forgotten everything the Order stood for?
Maria and several other witches arrive. I don’t miss the wary glance she casts my way as she enters the room, but I do my best to smile and make it clear we are not enemies. She speaks with Rowan and Ven for several minutes, her eyes growing wider and wider as they quietly recount their tale. When they’re finished, Maria takes Rowan’s hand and leads her away from Ven’s side.
“You need rest. We will stay here and watch over Ven.” Her tone holds no room for argument, and Rowan nods.
Maria’s gaze falls on me again as Rowan approaches the door. “You’ll see that she gets home safely, dragon?”
“I give you my word.”
She nods, a sharp jerk of her head.
Rowan and I head home in my truck, which we’d gone to pick up after leaving the cavern. I’d needed clothes, too, because of my shift during the battle. The hospital is in a neighboring town, so it takes us about forty-five minutes to get back to Raven Manor. The ride passes in silence, each of us deep in our own thoughts. When we pull up at Rowan’s house, it seems like only an instant has passed.
She turns to me after I cut the engine. “Thank you for helping me defeat Aleric. I know that was incredibly difficult for you.”
I nod. “It was the right thing to do.” Not that doing the right thing hadn’t caused a scar on my soul, killing someone who was practically family. A shiver moves through me. Over time, will my thirst for revenge drive me as mad as Aleric? Will darkness claim me as it claimed him?
Rowan’s eyes search mine a moment, and then she says, “I guess this is goodbye, then.”
I hesitate, trying to find a way to say the things I need to say to her. I’d thought about it the whole drive over, but now that we’re here, my tongue seems stuck in my mouth. She shoots me a final look, her expression dark with emotion, and gets out of the truck. I watch as she approaches the steps to the house. She doesn’t turn around again.
I whip open the door so fast I nearly tear it off the hinges. “Rowan!” I call.
Slowly, she turns to face me. She stands there in the dark, a soft wind lifting her hair, the moon shining down on her from above.
I close the distance between us in three big strides. I stop in front of her and our eyes meet, green against gold. Then I pull her into my arms, heat and desperation surging through me. My lips find hers and we meet in a tangle of need and hunger. I crush her against me, eliminating any space between us at all.
After a moment, she moves her hands to my chest and pushes me back. “I told you before—” she begins.
“I was wrong,” I say, my voice steel and stone. “I can see now that there’s the potential for darkness in any group, be it Order or Society or something else. I misplaced by anger about my father on all witches, when only a few committed crimes.” I reach up and cup her cheek in my palm. “I’m so sorry, Rowan.”
Her voice is shaky when she speaks. “And what about your vow? How do I know you’re not just going to change your mind again?”
“I will still remain vigilant to make sure that no witches turn to darkness,” I say. “As I will within my own Order, and any of the other supernatural groups. I will seek justice and protect those who need it. But I will no longer discriminate against a whole group for the actions of a few.”
“I think your father would be proud of that decision,” Rowan says softly. “A vow based on honor instead of hatred.”
She’s right, I can feel it in my core. I reach down and wrap my hand around the small of her back, drawing her closer to me. The heat of my dragon flares out around me, and Rowan’s fire magic rises to meet it. Sparks of red and orange and gold spiral around us.
“Tonight, I make a new vow,” I say. “You have enchanted me, Rowan Stonecroft, mind, body, soul, and dragon. There will be no other that I love for as long as I live. This is my vow to you.”
She stares at me a moment, then she traces her fingertips along my jawline and pulls my mouth to hers. Her lips are sweet salvation, absolving me of my sins, of the pain and the anger I’ve carried for so long. Her tongue is wicked, darting in and out, teasing and tantalizing. After several moments, she pulls back, then grazes my earlobe with her teeth, sucking it into her mouth for a moment before releasing it.
A growl escapes me as my inner dragon surges to the surface. I pick her up by the ass cheeks and carry her to the stone steps of the house. I set her down on the top step, leaning over her, my mouth finding hers again for a moment. Then I kneel before her, my lips moving down her neck, along her collarbone, to the tops of her breasts. With another growl, I tear open the blouse she’s wearing, sending the buttons flying. Rowan moans and reaches behind my head, pulling me into her chest.
Her bra is off a moment later and I grab one of her breasts in my hand while my tongue works ferociously over the nipple of the other. It hardens beneath me, pink and perfect, and I can feel something of my own harden in response. I continue my trail of burning kisses, working down her stomach to the waistline of her jeans.
I yank her pants down and she wiggles out of them. She’s bare to me now, bare to the night. All that skin waiting to be explored. But I’ve waited too long for this to tease her as I should. If I don’t taste her right now my dragon is going to explode out of me. I hover over her sweet core of magic and run my tongue over the entrance. She’s already so wet. I let out my own moan and flick my tongue over her clit.
Rowan gasps and arches her back up off the stone steps. I run my tongue over her lips one more time, then I wrap my hand around her lower back, lifting her higher, and bury my face between her legs. She cries out as my tongue penetrates her, deeply and relentlessly. Her sweetness is irresistible. I suck at her clit as my tongue continues to ravage her.
