AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And then over, over, over, over.
It came upon her fast, her body’s surrender, and when she opened her eyes, she was warm and soft and curled up within his arms.
His arms. Not a dream.
Luke.
It was over.
And then she wept, his soft murmurs caressing her as the tears spilled out.
“How long?” she asked when she could speak again. “How long was I in that place?”
“A week,” he said, wiping her tears. “But you’re free now. And you’re in control.”
She closed her eyes and looked within, where the serpent was bound up deep. “Yes,” she said. “I won.”
She smiled up at this man she loved, and who loved her. “I knew you’d be there. I knew you’d help me through it.”
“I was terrified that I’d lost you. That I’d failed you.”
“Never,” she said, pressing a hand to his cheek. “You saved me.”
* * *
“You’re spoiling me,” Sara said, setting aside the biography of Augustus Caesar that Luke had brought her the previous afternoon.
“And I will continue to spoil you,” Luke said, stepping into the room with a breakfast tray. “So I suggest you get used to it.” He settled the tray over her lap. An English muffin, sausage, coffee, and a thermal mug filled with warm blood. Looking at it, she realized how hungry she was, even for the blood, which she’d discovered was surprisingly tasty. Or, perhaps, her taste buds had simply changed. So far, she’d sucked down liters of the stuff, with Luke assuring her that the thirst would wane as time passed, and she would not feel the need to feed at such regular intervals.
She took a sip, then turned her attention to the muffin as he sat on the edge of the bed beside her. “I’m not an invalid, you know.”
His mouth twitched. “Have I been treating you as such?”
She recalled the vigorous sex they’d had the previous night, and had to concede that he hadn’t. “It’s been more than two days, though. Leviathan is going to think I skipped out on him.”
“Two weeks off,” Luke said. “And if my memory is correct, he instructed you to take it, or else.”
That much was true. After the ordeal at the crypt, Ryan Doyle had apparently gone to Leviathan and explained what had happened. Following a brief review of Sara’s notes and a short interview with Luke, the charges inPEC v. Dragoswere dropped. In support of the dismissal, the PEC entered a stipulation formally outlining the facts as known. That Dragos’s ward had not entirely prevailed during her Holding. That herAzag Mahruhad broken free and was, as Ryan Doyle had once commented, clever enough to wait, silently watching the workings of their world even as the serpent became more and more entwined with the girl who’d become obsessed with having Luke all to herself.
She’d concocted a plan to force Luke to go on the run with her, and although no one knew for sure if Braddock had actually raped the girl, everyone was certain that Tasha had taken advantage of Braddock’s past history. She’d gone to Luke hysterical, swearing she would kill the judge for what he’d done to her.
When she knew that Luke was going after the judge, she went first, attacking him and leaving him injured in the park. Luke found him like that, and if he’d had any hesitation about killing the judge, Tasha’s actions had resolved that. Luke would not allow Tasha to risk punishment, and had stepped in to protect her, hiding her attack under his own DNA and going so far as to drain the last drops of blood from the already critically injured victim in order to frame himself.
“A decadent plot,” the judge had said. “Maybe someday we’ll know all the pieces to the puzzle.” And Sara, who heard about the judge’s words after the fact, had to agree.
The judge had signed the dismissal of the charges against Luke at the same time that he’d issued the warrant for Tasha’s arrest. It was not a case Sara looked forward to prosecuting, because every day that Tasha was on trial would be another twist of the knife in Luke’s heart. Another reminder of the depths of her betrayal.
“Has there been any word?” she asked.
“None,” he said.
“There may never be any,” she said gently. “She could be on another continent by now. And you can’t keep me hidden in here forever.”
His smile was small and sad. “You see too much now.”
“I see you,” she said. The bond between them had grown stronger since the change, but even without the new connection, she would have known what he was thinking. What he feared.
And known that there was something he wasn’t telling her.
