Chapter 21 #2
“Cas is teaching me how to channel my thrall. I can’t mentally communicate with you the way I can with other supes, but I can draw you into my thrall and you can feel what I feel when I do.”
“Incredible.”
Roman looks dazed, and he blinks several times before he shakes his shoulders out. “What the fuck was that?”
Cas smiles proudly. “My thrall. Cool, right?”
“I didn’t know that could work on me.”
“Normally it wouldn’t,” Cas explains. “But you’re mates, so you can feel everything Lochlan feels.”
A thought comes to me, but I immediately start to mentally recoil at it. Lochlan already gave a name to the elephant in the room, suggesting that the best way for me to become immortal with them would be for him to turn me too. But the thought makes my stomach roil.
Cas tilts his head, his eyes locked on mine, and I feel the prodding in my head, trying to get in. I’ve practiced blocking vampire telepathy many times, but I’ve never had to resist as much as I do with him.
“Stop that,” I whisper.
Cas grins before nodding and pulling back. It’s like finally breathing after holding your breath for too long.
“Of course, there are ways,” he says, winking at me.
I shake my head, refusing to entertain such thoughts. We’ll find another way. We have to.
“What’s happening?” Lochlan asks, his gaze darting between me and Cas, who must be blocking his thoughts from Loch at this point, or I think he’d know.
“Nothing at all.” Cas drains his glass. “Stop by whenever, Loch. I’ll be around.” He rises from the table and leaves.
“Stop by for what?” Roman growls.
“Clothes,” Loch says. “I don’t have anything nice to wear out. I figured Cas would have stuff that suited me since we have similar builds.”
Roman huffs but nods.
“This is good,” I say to Roman. “This is what we wanted—a vampire to mentor Loch. Remember?”
Roman blows out a breath and nods. “Sorry. It’s my wolf being territorial. I trust Cas with my mate as much as I trust you and myself.”
“And me,” Loch says. “You need to trust me. I’m your mate.”
“Of course I trust you.” Roman smiles.
“I should go home for a bit. I have a garden to tend to,” I say.
“We’re coming too, then,” Loch says. “Right, Rome?”
He nods immediately. “Right.”
I smile at them both. It feels good to be with them, and having them in my space sounds like a dream come true.
“I’d love that.”
LOCHLAN
“Are you sure? This is incredible.”
I hold the silky blouse up to my chest, feeling like a fairy-tale princess with a magical godmother all of a sudden.
“Yes, I’m sure. Roman and Jareth will love it too. Brings out your eye color.”
“Thank you.” I shimmy out of my t-shirt and put the blouse on, then look in the mirror.
After I turned, I was surprised that I could still see my reflection.
Cas tells me there was a time period when that was a widely held belief, but in his existence, he’s always been able to.
He can be out in the sun much longer than I can too, but recommends always having a recent feed before exposure.
“I wish you had been my maker. It would’ve been a lot easier. ”
Cassius scrunches his nose. “Except I wouldn’t have done it.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t turn people. It doesn’t appeal to me or my ego. I don’t mind helping you at all because you’re Roman’s mate, but ordinarily, I can’t be bothered with such responsibility, and I’d never turn someone and abandon them like your maker did. What was his name again?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think we exchanged names.”
“Do you think you’d recognize him?”
“Probably.” I shrug. “I guess so.”
“He’d know you. If you know anything about him, I could ask around.”
“Why?”
“To fuck him up, of course. What he did was wrong.”
I smile. It’s nice to think that as aloof as Cas can be sometimes, he still has my back. “That’s okay. I don’t want you to fight with another vampire on my behalf.”
“Doesn’t mean I won’t.” He walks over and hands me a bottle. “Use this in your hair. Your men will go wild. Even more wild.”
“Okay.” I pour some of the sticky liquid into my hand then drag it through my hair. It does a nice job taming the flyaways and giving me a more styled and sensual appearance. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Now shoo. I need to change and I don’t want your wolfie in here mad at me for being naked in front of his mate.” Cas gently pushes me toward the door. “Have fun tonight.”
“I will.”
I step out of the room just in time to be stampeded by Grim, the three-headed hellhound. He loops back, jumping up and pressing me against the wall, licking my face with one of his heads.
“Stop.” I laugh, pushing him away. “You’re gonna ruin Cas’s blouse.”
“Grim.” Drax appears, calmly calling the dog off me. Grim immediately lets me go and bounds over to the demon. “He gets so excited.”
“He’s adorable.”
“He is, but watch this. We’ve been working on it.” Drax squares his shoulders. “Grim. Danger.”
The dog reacts by stiffening, turning his heads in different directions, and growling. The sound makes the walls vibrate, and a strip of fire flickers across the fur on his back as his eyes glow red.
“Down, boy,” Drax says, and Grim immediately settles, panting happily and wagging his three tails. “Good, right?”
“Frightening.”
“Yes,” Drax says proudly. “He should be scary. He’s a hellhound, even if he is just a big marshmallow.”
They walk off and I turn to go to Roman’s room, but I don’t make it far before Roman and Jareth find me. Roman inhales deeply, baring his teeth in a very sexy way.
“You smell divine.”
“Oh. Thanks. Cas gave me something for my hair.”
“Gods,” Jareth says, admiring me, “you are beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
“Are you ready to go topside?” Roman asks. “We can stop at Jareth’s, then go on our date.”
“I’m ready.”
Roman is wearing tight black jeans and an equally tight gray t-shirt, showing off all his muscles.
A tuft of fur sticks out of the V-neck of his shirt, and I want to rub my nose in it.
Jareth is still in the same clothes, which I assume he’ll change once we get to his cottage, the place I’ve longed to be invited back to since the day I turned.
Which makes me wonder… “Will we live down here?”
“We’ll live wherever we want,” Roman says, wrapping his arms around mine and Jareth’s waists. “We can split our time or choose a place. Whatever works.”
“You’re not required to stay down here?” Jareth asks.
“Not technically, but I would certainly need to inform Auri if I planned to spend more than half my time in the mortal realm. Rune and Atlas spend several weeks at a time in one of Rune’s many homes.”
Jareth looks miffed, and I wonder why. Roman seems to notice it right away.
“What’s wrong, love?”
“All this time I thought you had to live here. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Roman looks a bit sheepish. “It didn’t matter before. I wouldn’t have assumed you were interested in where I lived.”
“I’m interested in everything about you. Always have been, you silly wolf.”
Roman kisses his temple. “Now I know. Ready, boys?”
“Ready.”
Jareth nods and as the room goes dark and squeezes around us, I close my eyes for the few seconds it takes us to get back to the world I know. We appear right in Jareth’s garden.
“Go inside,” Roman says. “Loch and I can handle the garden.”
“Are you sure?” Jareth asks.
“Yes, then later, we’ll come back here and spend the night. In the morning, we’ll have tea and make love out here.”
Jareth’s cheeks turn a lovely shade of pink. “Deal.”