Chapter 26
Hours had passed since Dax carried Veya back to the eastern guest suite.
She lay curled beneath a thin blanket, her lashes resting against flushed cheeks while her lips parted around shallow, habitual breaths. Every so often, a small tremor moved beneath her skin, suggesting that the heat had not disappeared so much as retreated deeper into her body to wait.
Dax sat in the chair beside the bed with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands locked together.
His jaw ached from clenching it.
He could still taste her.
The memory of her mouth against his returned with brutal clarity, along with the sound she had made when he answered the kiss and the frantic strength of her hands gripping his shirt.
He remembered the heat of her skin beneath his palm and the violence of his own reaction when she told him she had wanted him before the library.
He should have pulled away sooner.
He had not.
More troublingly, he had not wanted to.
The bedroom remained heavy with the scents of smoke, sweat, Rhen’s blood, and the arousal neither of them had managed to conceal. Dax’s desire lingered alongside hers, answering in spite of every argument he had used to keep himself under control.
He wanted Veya.
It was not because she was tethered, fevered, or vulnerable.
He wanted the furious woman who demanded choices inside a house constructed from orders.
He wanted the reluctant laugh she tried to hide, the intelligence behind her questions, and the stubbornness with which she continued fighting for herself after the world had torn her apart and remade her without permission.
Something in that defiance caught him more deeply than attraction alone.
That realization frightened him far more than the kiss.
Dax had not wanted anyone this way in more than a century. He had been a warrior, a brother, and a killer for so long that he had stopped considering whether anything more remained.
Veya had begun forcing him to wonder.
Rhen should have been handling the consequences of the maker tether he had created. He should have monitored her, fed her when the stored blood failed, and ensured the useful asset he had dragged into the stronghold did not destroy herself during transition.
Instead, Rhen had performed the minimum intervention necessary to keep her alive before walking away.
Dax remained.
He moved from the chair when Veya whispered something he could not understand. A deeper shudder passed through her, tightening her features even while she slept.
The heat was rising again.
Dax placed the back of his fingers against her forehead. Her skin had become unnaturally hot, and her eyelids fluttered without fully opening.
He could call Rhen and force another direct feeding, although getting his brother into the room would require an argument Veya should not have to hear. The alternative was medical sedation, which might interrupt the episode long enough for her body to settle.
Dax leaned closer without touching her again.
“Veya, can you hear me?”
Her eyes opened slightly.
“The heat is coming back,” he said. “I want to call the medical team and have them sedate you until we understand what is happening. Is that all right?”
Her gaze struggled to focus on him.
“Will it stop?”
“For a while. I cannot promise more than that.”
Veya gave a weak nod.
Dax straightened and called the compound’s medical staff.
“This is Dax. I need assistance in the eastern guest suite. A newly turned female is experiencing another severe tether reaction, and she has consented to sedation.”
He listened long enough to receive confirmation before ending the call.
The door opened hard enough to strike the wall.
Cole filled the threshold, his attention moving immediately from Dax to the woman trembling beneath the blanket.
He drew one slow breath and went still.
The room carried Dax’s scent alongside Veya’s arousal and the darker trace of Rhen’s blood.
“Do not start,” Dax warned.
Cole looked at Veya before turning his attention back to his brother.
“What happened?”
“She kissed me.”
Cole’s expression hardened.
Dax rose and positioned himself between Cole and the bed, not because he expected his brother to hurt her but because protecting her privacy had become instinctive.
“I kissed her back,” Dax continued. “I stopped before it went any further.”
“She is tethered to Rhen, destabilized, and barely in control of her body.”
“I know exactly what condition she is in.”
“Do you?”
Dax stepped closer.
“Watch your tone.”
Cole held his ground.
“I am not accusing her. I am asking whether you can remain in this room without allowing what you want to influence what she needs.”
The question struck because Dax had already asked it of himself.
“I called the medical team.”
Cole’s gaze returned to the bed.
Veya looked small beneath the blanket, although nothing about the woman he had briefly encountered suggested fragility would define her once the transition released its grip.
“She consented?”
“Yes.”
Cole’s anger lowered by a fraction.
“Then you should leave while they work.”
Dax’s expression darkened.
“I told her I would stay.”
“You also reek of each other, and her body is responding to every stimulus in the room. Give the medics space to determine what is transition, what is the tether, and what is you.”
Dax wanted to argue.
He wanted to be present when Veya woke, and he wanted his face to be the first one she saw rather than another stranger in a house filled with them. He also knew Cole was not entirely wrong.
The sound of hurried footsteps approached along the corridor.
Dax looked back at Veya.
“I will be outside.”
Her eyes remained closed, but her fingers moved faintly against the blanket as though searching for something no longer within reach.
He left before that movement broke what remained of his restraint.
As Dax passed, Cole shifted to block the open doorway from the corridor, shielding the bed from view.
“You are already in too deep,” Cole said quietly.
Dax did not answer because denial would have insulted them both.
Cole remained beside the door while the medical team entered with a compact case of supplies. Their movements were swift and controlled as they checked Veya’s responsiveness, temperature, and the tremors running through her limbs.
Malakai arrived moments later and stopped where Veya remained visible.
His expression sharpened.
What happened?
Cole faced him before answering.
“Dax stayed with her after the tether flare.”
Malakai’s eyes narrowed.
Cole shook his head.
“Not like that. He stopped before it went further, but the symptoms returned after he left the room.”
Malakai’s hands moved again.
The tether flared after Rhen fed her, and now her body is reacting to everything around her.
“That is what it looks like.”
The lead medic prepared the sedative.
Cole moved closer to Veya.
“She consented before Dax called.”
The medic nodded and injected the medication into her arm.
Veya made a faint sound as her head turned against the pillow. The habitual movement of her chest gradually slowed, her hands relaxed, and the tension along her throat began to ease.
“She should stabilize temporarily,” the medic said.
Cole continued watching her.
“Temporarily?”
“Stored blood fed her, but it did not prevent this tether reaction. Sedation may interrupt the symptoms, but if they return with the same intensity, she may require more of the blood that created the connection.”
“Rhen.”
“Yes.”
The answer made the room seem colder.
Malakai looked toward the doorway and signed, Then we call him before she wakes.
Cole’s mouth tightened.
They all knew Rhen would come if Veya’s continued survival remained useful enough to justify the interruption.
None of them believed he would come for any other reason.