36. Just Sex then
DAMIEN
“How could you?” Maeve’s eyes flare with her anger.
“You admit it,” Eloise shouts. “The candle was spelled to keep him a prisoner forever!”
The table rattles as Maeve’s power rises in the room. “He murdered a witch, Eloise! My ancestor. He deserved what he got.”
A growl tears from my throat and I position myself between them, my shadows crawling the walls and pointing dark and razor sharp in Maeve’s direction. “Mind your power, Gowdie.”
The table settles, but the witch’s hands remain balled into fists.
Eloise points at me, her ears growing red with her anger. “Only because your family conjured him from his home. He’s served the Gowdies for multiple lifetimes. Any debt he owed you is paid.”
Maeve slashes a hand through the air. “How did you break the spell?”
“I tossed the candle into the fire.”
She scoffs. “That shouldn’t have worked. The wax is enchanted never to fully melt. It’s laced with his own blood.”
“It didn’t melt,” Eloise says through her teeth. “It exploded into a shower of sparks.”
Maeve grips the back of a chair until her knuckles turn white. “Goddess, El. Don’t you see what that means? It’s like I told you, your tattoo does mean something. The vibes I get in this house… the fact the Wi-Fi never works… there’s something magical here. Something magical in you. You may not be a witch like me, but you have power.”
What Maeve says is true. I’ve sensed it for a while now. But hearing her say it sends a frisson of fear through me. If I wasn’t such a fool, I’d run from Eloise immediately, because whatever this power is, it’s sinking its teeth into my soul. I don’t move and I realize maybe it already has.
Eloise runs a hand down her face. “I think I’d know if I had any power. But that’s not what’s important here. What’s important is that Damien is finally free, and I want you to promise me you’ll let him go.”
I dart a glance between the two women. Do the Gowdies still have my blood? If they’ve preserved a vial, they could attempt to recapture me, but I would not come easily. Once again Eloise has surprised me. To leverage her friendship with Maeve to secure my freedom is a gift I do not take for granted.
“I can’t do that. It’s not my decision to make. This won’t go over well with my family. It will weaken our position.”
Eloise grips the collar of her robe, her jaw clenching. “Promise me, Maeve. As your best friend.”
Maeve groans, her eyes rolling toward the ceiling before she tosses up her hands. “You don’t understand.”
“I do. I’m asking you, if you ever truly were my friend, to promise me you’ll do everything you can to keep Damien free.”
“You’d end our friendship over him? Over this monster!”
“He’s not a monster!” Eloise bellows. “And I love him.”
“Goddess help me.” Maeve stares at the floor, gripping the chair and shaking her head. “Fine! I’ll do what I can.”
“Thank you.”
Maeve scowls. “Don’t thank me. I’m doing this for you, for the sake of a friendship that used to be precious to me.”
“Used to be?”
“This isn’t okay, El. Freeing him without my permission, isn’t okay.” For a moment, the two women just stare at each other, the room thick with shadows and charged with barely contained magic.
Eloise sighs. “I think you should go.”
A strangled sound comes from Maeve’s throat. “No. We need to talk. If you have power, you and Damien have to be careful. If you’re a witch, it could explain why he’s enchanted by you. Don’t you see? That’s why he’s here. You’re binding him, and if you continue, he’ll claim you as his mate. There’s no candle to stop him now.”
I growl low and deep, baring my fangs. A small part of me acknowledges the possibility that what she says could be true. Eloise hasn’t forced me to take her blood, and she doesn’t command me now. I am here because I desperately want to be, and I can leave anytime I choose. But I don’t want to leave. Not now. Not ever. And that is frighteningly close to the enchantment she describes.
A tense silence spreads across the kitchen, punctuated by the way Eloise is looking at me, almost as if she wants me to confirm she is my mate. The urge to possess her twitches along my spine and pulses in my fangs. “We should both leave,” I say to Maeve. “Eloise needs rest and a chance to mourn in private. This conversation can be had another day.”
I’m a coward not to address the mating instinct I’m battling head-on, but if I don’t leave Eloise’s presence now, I will take her and I will claim her as mine. Already everything in me feels it. She is mine.
“Fine,” Maeve says, sweeping her coat from the chair and throwing it over her shoulders. “We’ll both go.”
Maeve shoves past Eloise toward the foyer. I follow. I refuse to leave until I know Maeve is on the other side of the door.
“No,” Eloise says firmly. I stop. Maeve does the same. “Maeve, I’ll call you tomorrow.” Her piercing gaze locks on her friend and then shifts to me. “Damien, I want you to stay. Please.”
“Eloise, you don’t know what you”re doing,” Maeve bellows.
“I know well enough!” Eloise’s crossed arms hold a marked tension. For the first time, I’m gripped with despair and truly sorry I’ve caused her the pain I see in her eyes.
Maeve shakes her head one last time. “Never say I didn’t warn you.”
“I won’t.”
The witch exits the house without another word. Eloise locks the door behind her, then whirls to face me.
“She’s right, you know. You have power. It’s possible this attraction between us is magical… metaphysical.” I hate admitting the truth and my voice comes out gritty, the words forced.
“Are you suggesting you only love me for my power?”
“No,” I say with certainty. I should stop talking. I’m revealing too much. “But I will not deceive you. Your magic is strong enough to bind me. I sensed it last night. Maeve was telling the truth.”
“But my power isn’t why you’re here.”
“No.” I swallow. “I fell for you long before I thought you had any magic. My feelings for you are true, but your feelings for me might not be. Magical creatures create magical bonds. You’d do well to fear what is happening between us.”
“I don’t believe that for a second. Nothing I feel for you is because of some magical spell between us,” she hisses through her teeth and takes another step toward me. “Is it true you want to mate with me?”
Her words burn through my blood, and my cock grows hard instantly. “Yes.”
“What’s that mean? Sex?”
“More than sex.” My voice is a rusted-out scrap heap, nothing but grit and growl.
“Then what does it mean to mate with a shade?” Her lids droop, her gaze drifting to my mouth.
The short leash I’ve kept myself on all evening slips from my hands, and I sweep into her like a dark wind, only stopping when her back is against the wall. Spreading her robe open, my hands grip her waist, and I press myself against her, my lips lowering to her ear.
“Careful, little dragon,” I growl. “When you speak about becoming my mate, it does something to me.” I hoist her up my body until we’re face-to-face. Her legs wrap around my hips. “To be a shade’s mate is to be his. To belong to him in every way. To be claimed by him. Once you are mine, you will always be mine. Do not tease a commitment you’re not willing to bear.”
“Do you want that?” she asks softly. “Do you want me to be yours?”
“More than you know.” Running my thumbs along her bottom ribs, I grind against her.
“I want that too,” she says. “I want to be yours.”
It’s almost more than I can resist. With her pinned against the wall, I wrap one hand around her throat in a loose grip, and lick along her jugular, barely keeping my instincts in check. But it’s wrong to do this when her grandmother has just passed. She’s vulnerable. It’s too soon. “Then you will be mine. But not yet. Not now, when your wings are clipped by loss and heartache. When I claim you, it will be at your strongest.”
Her breath hitches. “Not tonight?”
I swallow hard. “No.”
Her arms wrap around my neck, and her voice is all breath as she says, “Just sex then.”
Her lips crash down on mine.