Blaire
BLAIRE
“No!” snarled, clinging tighter to Roman’s forearm. “No fucking way!”
Roman glanced down at her, tension radiating off him, as he gently extricated her nails from his skin, winding his fingers through hers and gripping on tight.
“We won’t,” he murmured, leaning closer and pressing a kiss to her forehead. nestled against his side, relishing the warmth of him, the smell that felt like home to her now.
“Told you they’d never agree to it,” Ellis crowed from her spot sprawled on the chaise lounge, arms behind her head, expression smug.
Farida narrowed her eyes at Ellis, then turned back to the Joined pair.
“It’s not forever. But given how dangerous life is for us all at the moment, I think you should perhaps consider—”
“How do I say this so your crusty old immortal brain will understand?” snapped. “No. Fucking. Way.”
Ellis cackled in the background, but Farida’s face was unreadable.
“Roman, you can see the benefits to this,” she said, ignoring ’s outburst as if she wasn’t even there.
scowled up at Roman, daring him to contradict her. He pulled her closer, wrapping his arms firmly around her. She knew what he was doing, using his immortal strength to keep her still while he pondered his response.
“I can see the benefits,” he finally, carefully agreed. growled at him. He turned her, pulling her into him, pressing his mouth to hers. Silencing her.
And, damn him, it worked! She opened for him, her tongue finding his, her canines sharpening, grazing his lip. A taste of his blood had her moaning into his mouth.
When he broke away, she was dazed enough to let him finish speaking.
“But I don’t believe that the benefits are a suitable compensation for what we would lose.”
“Exactly!” she managed, nuzzling her mouth into the crook of his neck, just grazing a fang there. He groaned softly, his fingers digging into her waist.
“It’s a temporary solution to the mirror wound problem!” Farida countered, frustration tingeing her tone. opened her mouth to argue some more, but Farida held up a finger, and no sound came out of ’s mouth.
What the fuck?
“I’ve narrowed down an area that I feel is most likely where they’re holding Ju—Jack … and your mother too, I’d imagine. And if you want us to retrieve them, your lack of full immortality is a liability,” Farida explained calmly.
worked her jaw, panic and fury mingling in her as she struggled, and failed, to get the words, ‘Fuck no!’ out.
Let Farida speak, Roman whispered in her mind. Let her feel like she’s had her say and that we’ve listened. We don’t have to agree to anything.
But she took my voice!
Roman’s lips were at her temple, warm and comforting.
She’ll give it back, I promise.
“If you two are quite finished having your little Joiney Woiney Pow Wow over there, maybe you could return your attention to Farida?” Ellis suggested archly. scowled at her.
Farida’s face was tight when they turned back to her.
“You want your voice back? You listen to me,” she said, her British accent clipped. ’s stomach swooped. What was going on here? Farida was the most level-headed one of the lot of them, but something in her expression, in her tone, suggested she was a hairsbreadth from losing her shit.
“As I was saying. You want to get Jack and your mother out … and find Jude … we need Roman at his full strength. And whether you join in the mission or not, Roman can’t be at full strength if he’s constantly worrying that any injury he sustains has the potential to kill you.”
hated how much that made sense. But it didn’t change her mind. Jaw set, she shook her head emphatically. Roman’s grip tightened again. She hoped he wasn’t being swayed by Farida’s argument. Stupid male, he was so ridiculously overprotective. Just because she’d taken a couple of phantom bullets a few weeks ago …
“Uh,” Ellis piped up. “Can we focus on the more pressing matter? That none of this is even pertinent if we can’t, in fact, find these wayward people of ours. Farida, you say you’ve narrowed down an area … where exactly is it?”
Farida sucked in a breath. “I think he … they’re in the Alaskan Taiga.”
’s mouth fell open. She stared daggers at Farida. The female met her glare for glare for a long moment, then with a long-suffering sigh, she flicked her hand at , and her voice returned.
“The Taiga covers most of Alaska!” snapped immediately.
“I’m aware,” Farida said dryly.
“And we’re here arguing that Roman and I should break our Join, so we can what? Wander the entire Taiga forest calling out, ‘Here, Jack, come on boy!’?”
Ellis choked on a laugh, but was too furious to find her own joke funny.
“You want to use us saving Jack … and Jude … and Mom … as leverage to blackmail me into agreeing to break my Join with Roman, and you have nothing more than, ‘They’re somewhere in Alaska’ to go on?”
Farida’s eyes flashed.
“It’s a temporary break!” she snarled. “The Joining pains, the mirror wounds, they’d disappear. Your feelings for one another won’t! And then when all of this is over, you fuck again, you feed again, and you’re right back where you were, disgustingly loved up and constantly horny!”
’s anger was so overwhelming she couldn’t even find words to explain to Farida how stupid she sounded.
Thankfully, Roman wasn’t as speechless.
“But we’d still crave each other that way. Which would be just as distracting as the worries about mirror wounds. It wouldn’t work … you saw how bad it was before we Joined … how I couldn’t keep away. We’d both be a liability in any plan.”
“So, you break the Join, we leave her behind with Raoul! No Joining pains to prevent you from being apart. She’s safe, you’re distraction-free, and we get him … them … out!” Farida snapped as if wasn’t even in the room. A low growl rumbled in the back of her throat, and Roman pulled her closer, pressing her into his warmth.
“I will not leave her behind. I will not make her stay here and worry that I might not return. I will not separate from her.” His voice was cold, calm, and utterly resolved.
Fuck, she loved him so much.
“Then more fool you,” Farida grunted, beginning to turn away.
Oh no you fucking don’t!
“You don’t get it!” blurted. Farida froze.
, Roman warned silently, but she ignored him, stepping away from that comforting warmth, eyes fixed on Farida.
“What don’t I get?” Farida asked, a warning in her tone that chose to disregard.
“You think it’s so simple!” she scoffed. “But of course you’d think that! To you, it must seem like a no-brainer, compared to what you did.”
The air in the room suddenly chilled by a dozen degrees. shivered but kept her glare locked on Farida.
“And what exactly did I do, Rodgers?” Farida asked, her voice low.
Leave it, Sweetest , Roman begged in her mind.
“Well, compared to murdering Jude’s Joined … a temporary break must seem like child’s play to a cold bitch like you.”
Ellis’s gasp was the only sound in the pulsing silence.
Roman stood frozen, his fingers curled around ’s arm. Farida’s normally dark skin turned gray. She blinked, her fingers twitching.
“Farida,” Roman murmured, a slight tremor in his voice.
The female’s eyes flicked to him and then back to . There was something feral in her stare, something that sucked the air out of ’s lungs.
Energy throbbed around them, popping ’s eardrums. A warm trickle of liquid slid down the side of her face.
“Hey, Far … you know how loopy we all get at the pointy end of the transition,” Ellis added, taking a step towards the older female. “Just …”
But before Ellis could tell Farida anything more, the female spun, her braids clinking violently, and she stormed off into the darkness of the Vault.