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“I mean—” He cleared his throat. “—I’ll talk to Mikalis. Try to negotiate. He doesn’t need to use Jayden against you.”
“We tried talking.” Saint stood and crossed the room to the fireplace, needing to move, to think. “Talking doesn’t work.”
“Then we distract him. I’ll keep him busy while you free Jay?”
“He’s not going to fall for that.” No, there was only one way out of this. Mikalis knew it too. “I know what to do.”
“Which is?”
Saint headed for the door, passing near Octavius. “Exactly what Mikalis wants.”
Octavius’s quick hand shot out and caught Saint’s arm, pulling him to a halt. Saint met his questioning gaze, but then Octavius dropped his hand, as though he’d made a mistake in stopping him. A sharp awkwardness seemed to have fallen between them and it hadn’t been there before the kiss.
It might have been a mistake, but Saint had so desperately wanted him to know his worth, and how damned precious he was. He could be loved, if he wanted it.
“Mikalis wants me,” Saint said. “He doesn’t care about Jay. If I give myself up, he’ll let him go.”
Octavius’s eyebrows pinched inward. “Mikalis will kill you.”
Saint smiled, hoping to alleviate some of Octavius’s concern. “The world’s ending anyway. I’ll just miss the show.”
He started for the door again, but when Octavius added, “He’s just a feeder,” Saint stopped. He’d thought they’d been through this.
“You’ll sacrifice your own life for a feeder’s?” Octavius asked.
“Jay is human, with a heart and soul, and he’s one of the good ones,” Saint said. “I don’t need more time, not at the cost of Jay’s life.” If Octavius didn’t understand, then there was no hope for him. It wasn’t his fault. Mikalis had only showed him one side of the story.
He stepped outside into morning sunshine. Sunlight glinted off every dew drop clinging to the grass and moisture in the trees, piercing Saint’s eyes like needles. The drive to the address where Mikalis was holding Jay would take a few hours. Already weak, it would be grueling. But Jay needed him.
Octavius brushed by Saint and strode into the trees. “It’ll be quicker if we take the chopper.”
The little wolf was coming along?
A tic of a smile lifted Saint’s lips. Perhaps he hadn’t scared him off with that kiss after all. And what a marvelous kiss it had been, before Octavius’s overthinking had gotten between them.
He followed him, avoiding the patches of sunlight blazing through the tree canopy. When they reached the lumberyard, the main gates lay open, and a small crowd of workers had gathered around the chopper.
Saint was about to warn Octavius, when the little wolf strode on ahead. He sauntered into the open, in full view of the workers. They saw him—there was no way they couldn’t see a young white-haired man striding from the woods, right at them. But every single one of the men and women inexplicably turned away, then wandered off, deciding there was no chopper and there most definitely was not a white-haired stranger in the yard.
Octavius was a damn marvel. The Brotherhood was foolish to shun him.
Saint climbed into the chopper alongside him and caught his little, sly smile. The smile he wore when he believed nobody was watching him. Octavius fired up the engines, his hands skimming the controls, and the chopper lifted into the air. “What?” he asked, glancing over.
The engines whirred, the blades thwomped. Saint stared from the tinted window as the forest shrank beneath them. “Not a damn thing.”Only that you’re unique, and I hope one day, you find someone who sees how special you are.
“You said Mikalis will always find you because he’s your sire. Does that work in reverse?” Octavius asked.
“Don’t you feel your sire?”
Octavius shrugged. “I killed mine right after I was turned, so no.”
“You did?” Fuck, with every new revelation he became more and more alluring.
“The village I was raised in believed me to be godtouched.” He gestured at his head. “There aren’t many white-haired Greeks around. When I refused to be their sacrifice, they hunted me down, beat me, and tossed me in the temple with their so-called god.”
“A nyktelios.”
“Yeah. It had been starved and imprisoned in that temple for generations, feeding on sacrifices. The villagers thought if they kept it fed, it would bless them with bountiful harvests.”
