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“Exactly. What am I doing here?” She gestured from herself to him. “This, us, it’s insane. And apparently, humans aren’t regarded that highly here. I don’t wish to stay where I’m not wanted.”
“You’re wanted. You’re very much wanted.” He leaned closer, the gleam in his eye leaving no doubt of her welcome right now.
“Relian, the med—” His mouth cut her off. The rasp of his tongue against her lips sent tingles ricocheting through her body. She moaned, half in pleasure and half in despair. How could he make her lose control like this?
His hands came up to cup her face. “You’re an enchantress,” he murmured against her lips. Then he deepened the kiss until time and space narrowed down to him. Nothing else existed.
“Ahem.”
She and Relian broke from their embrace. His father stood in the doorway, Maggie and a medic behind him. Heat swept across her cheeks. Great, they had an audience.
Talion pretended to peek around the hand he’d raised to shield his eyes. “Everyone clothed?”
Relian sent a cool stare toward his father, though a streak of red highlighted his high cheekbones. “Everything is and was in its place, Father.”
Maggie smirked and pushed Talion aside. “Except your lips.”
Cal closed her eyes. This was degenerating faster than anticipated.
Talion snaked out a hand, stopping Maggie in her tracks. He ignored her objections, keeping her next to him, and considered the couple on the bed. “You two have that flush of health. Come, Mirdir, let’s make sure the lady retains her glow.”
As the medic treated and bandaged up her cuts and scrapes, they talked about what awaited Eamon. “Banishment,” Talion said.
His proclamation rang in Cal’s ears. She tightened her fingers on Relian’s. “So he’ll be banished if he survives?”
Relian caressed the back of her hand as his father answered. “Yes, and only renegades will take one such as Eamon in. No kingdom will have him.”
Cal frowned. That seemed a dangerous decision. What would stop Eamon from seeking revenge at some further time? And there were other kingdoms? She filed that knowledge away for later. “How can you trust he won’t come back and do more harm?”
Relian answered the question. “More than likely, he won’t survive long. Worse things are roaming the land than renegades.”
The room went quiet until Maggie’s voice broke the silence. “Animals?”
A wry smile curved Relian’s lips. “You could say that. But unfortunately for Eamon, even the darkindred no longer favor traitors, as it doesn’t bode well for their armies. They like to corrupt the pure of heart.”
Cal seized onto this information. “Darkindred?” Her mind went back to the creature in the courtyard. “The creature in the cour—”
Relian laid a finger over her lips. “Our traditional enemies. Nothing for you to be concerned about.”
Talion walked to Relian and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I think this knowledge will do little harm.” He turned to the medic. “You are done?” After Mirdir nodded, the king took a protesting Maggie by the elbow and ushered her out. The medic followed.
After the door closed, Relian surprised her by lifting her sideways onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around her. “You haven’t studied much of our history yet, have you?” At her shake, a dark smile played over his lips. “The darkindred are patterned closely after elvinkind.”
She tilted her head so she could shoot him an inquiring look. “How so?”
“They were once elves but are no longer. The darkindred are converted creatures. Using dark means, they change others into what they’ve become.”
“So they can change anybody?” Her voice quavered. She couldn’t imagine fighting such beings, but she couldn’t imagine fighting elves, either. Whenever the two clashed, it was sure to be a hell of a fight.
Relian tunneled his fingers through her hair. “Yes, but it’s a secret process known only to them. They can’t convert us through simple bites or slashes on the battlefield, or we would all be darkindred by now.”
“Bites and slashes?” That sounded very animal-like, not at all like the elves she’d come to know.
His hands caressed her neck, carefully skirting the bandage. “That is their main difference from us. Their animal senses override any ingrained elvin restraint, especially in the newly converted. The older ones are still animals but can act as civilized as an elf when the situation calls for it. Newly converted darkindred appear feral and wild in appearance. You saw the one we brought into the courtyard. He was young. As they become older, they revert to their original form, looking very much like they did before the conversion. Except for their eyes. Those are yellow and stay that way, for the most part. Only the strongest and oldest of their kind can control their eye color for limited periods. Still, there are other ways for the ones who’ve returned to their original form to hide their eye color. I believe you can see how all this could be troublesome?”
She leaned her head against his shoulder, a shiver racking her. “It’s becoming harder to tell who is who or what.”
“Yes. It’s posing a problem as more and more people are taken. In the beginning, it wasn’t such a dilemma, for the darkindred started out of a very small group. We knew exactly who and what they were capable of, for we were the ones who’d determined their punishments.”
