20. Aurora
Aurora
T he evening wore on as we gathered for dinner in the drawing room, just off the formal dining room. Floor-to-ceiling windows stretched from the marble floor, opening out over the water. The cream rug highlighted the white walls, table, and upholstered chairs. Above us hung a crystal chandelier, smaller but just as ornate as the ones in the grand hall. There was a peacefulness to the room that made me feel as though I was sitting in a cloud, a slight relief to the weight of the darkness enveloping us.
“If you think this room is beautiful now, you should see it in the morning,” said Mac as he came up behind me, his hand softly touching the middle of my back. “The early morning sun will sometimes catch in the crystals and scatter rainbows around the room. It is breathtaking, like a scene from a land of fairies.”
“That sounds amazing.” I looked at him and smiled.
“Did you have a restful afternoon? We missed you for tea.”
I pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. “I fell asleep, but I feel better now.”
He smiled. “I’m glad to hear it. Come, we should take our seats.” He pointed at the table where white-and-silver place settings showed which seats to use.
“We should,” Conall’s jovial voice said as he appeared beside us, Lyra trailing him. “And I’m starving.” He opened his mouth, his fangs showing as Lyra walked past him.
“Conall, mind yourself,” said Mac, rolling his eyes.
“Yes, mind yourself.” The voice had an air of haughty sarcasm as if the speaker were mocking Mac, which I am sure he was. “You’ll never find a woman that way.” The blond gentleman walking up behind Conall clapped him on the back. He held the hand of a woman with long, curly red hair.
“Declan, what does my brother see in you?” Conall smirked at the man.
“Much more than you.” The blond man, whom I presumed was Declan, pushed past Conall. He pulled out a seat for the woman.
“Thank you,” she said, her eyes full of warmth and tenderness as she smiled at him.
Joshua and Dani entered the room, adding place settings to the table and leaving a large tureen and loaves of bread.
Mac looked at Lyra and me sitting next to each other. “Rory, Lyra, this is Declan and his mate, Isla.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said with a smile.
Isla met my gaze, her eyes glistening. “Same. It is wonderful to have other women here.” She glanced around the table at the men filling their bowls with the hearty beef stew. Large slices of fragrant bread graced their plates.
“I’d settle for someone who didn’t fawn over a vampire,” muttered Lyla.
I kicked her shin softly under the table, glaring at her before glancing at Mac, curious if he was going to admonish her. Instead, his eyes sparkled as he sopped up some of the stew with bread, raising it to his mouth. His relaxed demeanor was contagious as I felt my own shoulders loosening at the sight of him. Why did this place calm him?
Conall cleared his throat. “Declan, what’s going on with my brother?”
“Same old shit in Charleston.” Declan pulled a silver flask from his pocket.
My ring burned as he took a deep drink before he shook his head. I turned my head to the side and glanced at it from the corner of my eye. On the front was the same design as the flask in the plane, a knotted heart topped by antlers and a seal head. A thrill rose in my chest as I realized I had located the source of the magic. Now, why was it happening?
Declan held the flask out in front of him, continuing his thought. “I find it amusing that he went from killing Charles here to the city of Charleston. Any connection?” He took a long swig from the container.
Mac looked up sharply. “That’s enough. I am sure we can find a much more suitable dinner conversation than Aiden.”
Declan and Conall exchanged glances and looked at their food. Silence fell over the table as if a father had just reprimanded his children. Isla and I smiled at each other. Was she the same one who sent the lineage?
“Who’s Charles?” I asked, assuming Aiden was Aiden O’Cillian, the third born of the O’Cillian brothers.
Conall glanced at Mac as though seeking permission. Mac looked at me. “It is a story for another day.”
I shook my head, suppressing the urge to tell Mac to tell me all the stories now. But maybe I could focus on the flask. Why did Declan have one that matched the one on the plane? And was the vampire they were discussing in Charleston the one the coven was warned about?
“Declan, where are you from?” I had noticed a Southern drawl when he spoke.
“Kentucky, ma’am.” He lifted his eyes to me. His sclera glowed red, and his irises were the color of ash.
I gasped, the change in his eyes revealing the monster within. I had heard of it but never seen it. I stared at the flask he had left on the table.
Isla’s voice was calming as she spoke. “Don’t worry about his eyes. He’s just had a bit of blood, is all. It happens to all vampires when they feed. It scared the shit out of me too the first time I saw it.”
I nodded, my questions forgotten. I focused on my stew, the meat melting over my tongue, its richness filling me with a warmth that reached all the way to my fingertips, including under my ring. Finally, Mac caught my gaze and smiled, his lips curling at the corners as he gestured toward the window behind me. “It’s beautiful around here, isn’t it?”
I nodded, looking over my shoulder to see the view of the harbor. “It absolutely is.”
He glanced down at his bowl, looking uncertain, before raising his eyes to me again. There was a rare glint in them, which I would say was vulnerability in anyone else. “I was wondering,” he stammered before looking me in the eye, “I was wondering if you might join me for a walk after dinner?”
I could have sworn I heard a faint chuckle from somewhere, though I couldn’t be sure why. Lyra gasped, but I simply smiled at Mac. “I would love to.” My heart fluttered, and I had to admit I was looking forward to spending some time with just him.
“Fantastic,” he said, lifting his glass of wine and glancing at it. “I very much look forward to it.”
A lopsided smile came to Conall’s lips. “Well, friend, I guess that means you and I aren’t going out for a drink then.”
“You can go with Declan,” said Mac, his look changing to complete nonchalance. “Just leave your victim breathing.”
“Always,” Conall whined before looking at Declan. “But you aren’t going, are you?”
Declan wrapped an arm around Isla, pulling her into a side hug. “She is the only one I want.” He kissed her deeply, causing Conall to roll his eyes and throw his napkin across the table, hitting Declan’s shoulder.
Mac stood, his gaze not leaving mine. He held out his hand. “Aurora, shall we retire before this descends into madness?”
“Madness could be fun,” I said with a mischievous gleam in my eye. “But I would love to.” I took his hand to stand before dropping it.
He led me out one of the dining room doors into a garden full of ivy and roses. As I stepped onto the path, I could feel the connection to my ancestral magic flow through my foot into my body, creating an energy I pushed to the side.
The scent of the harbor mixed with flowers swept over me as the evening air caressed my arms, raising goose bumps along them. Or maybe that was from my feelings toward Mac. Antique sculpted bushes lined a path, allowing us to walk unhindered, much like Mac’s home in Kentucky, but here, the plant life was alive and vibrant, like him. One path led to a cottage I’d yet to see, but another seemed to wander into an open area. Mac led us down this path, taking us along the cliffs, high above the sand, overlooking the harbor.
Without thinking twice, I looped my hand through his arm, feeling an unexpected comfort in the gesture. I could only imagine what it must have been like here hundreds of years ago, wearing a dress with skirts instead of the jeans and crop top I’d found this morning when I opened the wardrobe in my bedroom. As Mac had said, it was filled to the brim with every needed bit of clothing in various sizes.
The cool air around us made me want to pull closer to him, but I held back, uncertain where these feelings led me. “Was there a reason you wanted to go for a walk?” I asked, trying to keep the conversation light.
“None, other than to get away from the others.” I could feel him glance at me as he placed his opposite hand on my arm looped through his and giving it a slight squeeze. It was a gesture of a man from a different time, one of caring and gentleness that I never knew a vampire, even one that is half human, could possess.
“You seem to know a lot about the coven.” I wanted to find a conversation of some sort, our silence almost too comfortable.
He nodded, but his eyes remained glued to the water. “Yes, it’s something I’ve learned a lot about over the years.”
I hesitated for a minute. “Are there any other stories you can tell me?” A hand gripped my heart. I wanted answers to my past, to why I had to grow up without my mother. Answers that maybe a man nine hundred years old could give me, but I feared it would be something I couldn’t face.
“Aurora.” My mother’s voice echoed in my head. “Be careful what you ask. It may be more than you want to know.” I shook off her warning.
We shuffled along as he took a deep breath. “There is one,” he said.
His eyes perked up as though he heard something. He pointed into the distance where seals played in a harem. I strained to see the little white waves around them, and my brain imagined the sounds of joy they might be making.
After a moment of watching them, Mac took a deep breath, one with a sense of determination and finality. “Centuries ago, probably around the 1700s, there was a story about the High Priestess of the coven. She was courted by a vampire, a progeny of the O’Cillians.”
“A vampire and a witch were involved with each other?” I asked, incredulous.
Mac nodded. “More than involved.” His voice held a puritanical tone. “When her husband died, she was devastated, although she already had a daughter, the High Priestess Heir. As she faced years alone, she met a man. He would accompany her on her nightly walks into the woods as her protector. At first, she didn’t realize who he was, only that he made her feel alive again.”
We turned away from the water and continued to walk. The parallels between the High Priestess’s love and my own growing feelings capturing my heart. Mac continued speaking. “Not only did they fall in love but they ended up getting married.”
“How was that allowed? The coven is supposed to be neutral.”
“You mean, as neutral as you are today, teamed up with and married to some of the hunters?”
I cringed, knowing he had a point but also knowing we had no other choice. I ignored his question. “What happened?” I asked, fearful of where this was going.
“The High Priestess became pregnant with her second husband’s baby. Unfortunately...”
I gasped. “The High Priestess died giving birth to her second daughter.”
Mac nodded solemnly, stopping and turning toward me, catching my gaze. “Yes. That was the beginning of the High Priestess curse.”
I dropped Mac’s arm as a pain stabbed my heart. “Then how can I ever…?”
I suddenly found myself looking around, recognizing the place we had stopped. A chill went down my spine. I couldn’t understand what this meant. The green fields stretched out around me, and there was a wall in the distance—the same one from my dream in the woods.
Mac took my hands in his. He looked deep into my eyes, his voice steady and reassuring. “The O’Cillian curse and your own are related but not the same. I fear that finding the Cure will not impact your curse.”
My heart and shoulders fell.
His finger lifted my chin so he could look into my eyes. “Aurora, I won’t let anything hurt you. We’ll figure out what needs to be done—why the curse happened and how to break it as well as find the Cure.”
I wanted to pull away, but I was lost in his gaze. More than anything, I wanted to believe him. Beyond the wall, the sun was setting, painting the sky in oranges, purples, and pinks. The cold breeze wrapped around me, and I could smell the sweet scent of his cologne as I felt his hand on the bare skin of my back, pulling me toward him.
“Are you sure?” I asked, my voice thin and strained.
“More than anything,” he said before his lips claimed mine. His hand held me close to him as I melted toward him, the heat of the moment engulfing me as I focused on how softly his lips touched mine, the hesitance, followed by a firmness that spoke to his own desire. A dampness spread between my legs, my body screaming of wanting more in a way I was afraid to confront. I knew I wasn’t alone as I felt the ridge of his cock hardening against me.
Gasping for breath, he broke away from me, resting his forehead on mine. “We should get back.”
The insects of the night sang their songs, the cold air enveloping me, taking away the warmth of Mac’s body pressed against mine. The moonlight danced on the dew-covered grass, more exquisite than it had been when it shone down upon me during the ritual that started this madness. My heart seemed to betray my deepest desires. Of course I wanted love, but I also wanted a marriage and children, regardless of my coven’s curse. How could I be stupid enough to believe that being with a vampire was something that could work?
I wanted to argue, to tell him to forget the world and take me where we stood as he had in my dream. Instead, I let him guide me by the hand, through the garden, the night heavy with the scent of roses—and my heart more conflicted than ever.