Chapter 12
TWELVE
ROMAN
We all crowd into the room behind Rune and Jareth. My nose twitches with the multitude of scents, herbs, and magic lingering heavily in the air. I sneeze and so does Mac, a little burst of flames sparking in the air in front of him.
“Damn, how can you breathe in here?” he asks before sneezing again.
“Quiet in the peanut gallery, please.” Rune grabs a wooden bowl off of one of the shelves and fills it with a mysterious blue liquid from one of his many vials.
Jareth watches with interest, his gaze occasionally going to the numerous jars and bundles of dried herbs lining the shelves, along with dozens of leather-bound notebooks that I’m sure are filled with spells and rituals Rune has recorded over the years.
I’m also sure that all of the notebooks will curse anyone who touches them.
Rune sets the bowl on the table in the center of the room and beckons Jare over.
The rest of us try to stay out of the way, lingering near the door and staying quiet.
I know we have bigger problems to deal with first, but guilt is still simmering in my gut over my brief exchange with Jareth.
Even if I haven’t confirmed anything, he knows.
He can tell that something is going on between Loch and me, and I don’t know how I’m supposed to actually say the words out loud that Loch is my fated mate.
I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
First, we have to find him before some demon snatches him up and decides to drain him dry for a ritual or sell him to the highest bidder.
He’s been a vampire for, what, a few weeks?
And twice he’s been closer to death than he ever was when he was mortal. Only Lochlan, I swear to all the gods.
Rune and Jareth join hands and start to chant under their breath in tandem.
Rune’s tattoos glow brighter and brighter until it’s almost painful to look at him.
Jareth’s tattoos are far less showy than the other mage’s, and they may not glow quite as brightly, but they’re utterly stunning, if you ask me.
I can’t take my eyes off of him. Even knowing that Lochlan is fated for me doesn’t stop the fantasy I’ve held on to for years of stripping Jareth naked and tracing each of his tattoos with my tongue.
The bowl rattles on the table between them and they both stare into it. I can’t see what they’re looking at from over here, and even if I could, without magic, I’m not sure I’d see anything other than swirling blue goo.
Jareth gasps.
“Fuck a duck,” Rune mutters.
My pulse spikes and I rush forward, fur rippling across my arms and my wolf vibrating violently inside me with the need to protect our mate.
“What?” I growl. “What is it? Can you see him? Where is he?”
“He’s in the fae realm,” Rune says darkly.
An anguished howl tears from my throat before I can stop it, and my muscles start to strain and ripple.
I couldn’t fight my wolf right now if I wanted to, and I don’t have it in me to try.
I whine and growl as my body twists and contorts into its other shape.
My wolf is a simple creature. He’s all about action and basic needs.
Our mate is in danger, and we need to go get him.
Now. Since I can’t say any of that with my canine mouth and vocal cords, I growl again and turn to snap my teeth at the nearest person, which happens to be Cassius, who is trying to get them all moving.
He yanks his hand back and glares at me.
“Don’t you snap at me, Wolfie. I told Lochlan not to fuck with the fae.”
Jareth jumps up and rushes at Cassius.
“You knew he was interested in the fae? What even put that idea in his head? What the fuck is he doing in the fae realm?”
Cassius grimaces, and I lay my ears flat and growl at him. What the fuck did you do?
“I didn’t do anything.” He somehow manages to read the exact question in my growl. “He was complaining about his aversion to blood, and I told him that he either had to get the hell over it or… uh… you know… ask the fae to do their voodoo and make blood more appealing to him.” He laughs nervously.
Jareth snarls like a wild animal and lunges at the vampire, grabbing him by the front of his silk robe and baring his teeth.
His blunt human teeth aren’t much of a threat, but I appreciate the sentiment, so I lend my own snarl as well, lowering my head and curling my lips back with a deeper, more menacing growl.
“I didn’t think he’d be dumb enough to do it. Besides, I told him right after that the fae are bad news and he should steer clear,” Cas says.
Atlas steps forward and calmly pries Jareth’s hands off of Cas, though the vampire could easily manage it himself if he wanted to.
“Pointing fingers isn’t going to get us anywhere.” He looks over at his mate, Rune. “How do we get to the fae realm?”
JARETH
I pace the small room with my heart thundering and a mixture of rage and desperation swirling inside me.
How could Cassius have put such a dangerous, stupid idea in Loch’s head?
How could Roman have let him out of his sight to begin with?
And how could Lochlan have done something so fucking reckless?
I let out a growl of frustration and Roman, still in his wolf form, whines and presses his massive body against my legs in his best canine approximation of a hug.
He’s one of the many people on my shit list at this particular moment, and I haven’t forgotten that he may or may not have hooked up with Loch, but I reach down and thread my fingers through his thick, dark fur anyway.
He pants and leans a little harder against me, and I let myself take a small amount of comfort in the familiarity of it.
Rune and Atlas pull notebooks off the shelves one by one and flip through them quickly, presumably trying to find where he made notes about the fae.
“Wouldn’t it be faster if we all looked?” I ask, making a move to step forward and reach for a notebook on the nearest shelf.
Roman growls and gently clamps his teeth around my wrist to stop me.
“No, they’re all cursed,” Rune says absently, barely looking up before tossing his current notebook aside and grabbing the next one.
“It would take longer for him to uncurse them than for us to just look,” Atlas explains for his mate.
“Fae,” Drax mutters, shuddering dramatically. “I’ve never known a bigger bunch of self-important assholes.”
“Interestingly, fae and demons share common ancestry. Billions of years ago in-fighting caused a split and a certain subspecies of fae found a way to create their own realm, separate from the mortal one and apart from the rest of the fae.” Rune gestures around vaguely, clearly meaning the underworld is the separate realm.
Drax grunts, not seeming particularly interested in the history lesson. I have to admit I’m curious to learn more, but now isn’t the time.
“Found something,” Atlas says, turning the notebook he’s flipping through towards Rune.
He snatches it and quickly reads over whatever he has written down there.
“Good news and bad news,” he announces after a minute. “The spell to open a pathway to the fae realm isn’t particularly difficult, especially with two mages and my own personal magic super charge.” He pats Atlas on the chest and the gargoyle preens.
“What’s the bad news?” Cas asks, and Roman whines.
“It requires fae essence.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Mac asks.
“Anything belonging to the fae. It could be a strand of hair, a personal possession, anything that carries fae energy,” I say, and Rune nods.
“Oh great, so we just need to find a fae and ask them nicely to give us some hair or their favorite dildo.” Cassius rolls his eyes.
“Does it have to be a dildo? Because I might have something, but I doubt it was a sex toy,” Mac says.
Rune snorts a laugh. “If it belonged to a fae, it should work. What do you have?”
“I can’t remember,” Mac admits, “but my dragon feels sure that we took something from a fae prince a while back.”
“That’s the other thing about fae—how can they all be princes?” Drax asks.
“Can we stop fucking joking around?” I growl through clenched teeth. “Lochlan is in danger.”
Roman nudges my hand with his nose and then gently laps at my fingertips to reassure me, even though he’s still in wolf form, stress panting.
“I know he doesn’t have the best track record so far, but you’re still thinking of him as the fragile human he used to be. Lochlan is a vampire now, with fangs and super speed and near indestructibility. When his back is against the wall, his survival instincts will come out.”
I take a deep breath and try to let Cassius’s words sink in. He’s right; in spite of everything, in my head Loch is still a helpless human, but that’s not who he is anymore.
“We’ll go to the hoard and look around for anything that might have come from the fae,” Drax says, wrapping his arms around his mate. Mac nods and leans into the demon.
“Everybody have a snack, take a nap, and we’ll be back.” Mac winks and then the two of them vanish.
“Mac’s right, everyone should take some time to regroup and recharge so we can be ready when they get back to head into the fae realm and get your man back.” Rune’s looking at Roman as he speaks.
“I’ll go fill Auri in, you two rest up.” Cassius pats me on the shoulder before leaving the room.
“You sticking with wolf form?” I ask Roman. He whines again and I scratch behind his ears. “Come find us the second they’re back?”
Rune is already engrossed in reading again, but Atlas nods and gives me a reassuring smile.
I tangle my fingers in Roman’s fur, and he leads me out of the room and through the hallways back to his quarters.
I’m not sure if I’m in shock or if I’ve just reached my mental limit for stress, but by the time we get to his room, I feel like I could sleep for hours.
We step inside and I close the door, kicking off my shoes and nudging them off to the side so they won’t be in the way.
“I really need you human right now, Rome,” I say quietly, sounding every bit as tired as I feel. The realization that I haven’t slept in the last couple of nights washes over me, not to mention that I’ve cast several energy-draining spells back-to-back.
Roman pants and grunts, and slowly his fur ripples and his body trembles and contorts until there’s a naked man kneeling in front of me instead of a giant wolf.
He doesn’t bother trying to cover his nudity.
Something I learned from years of living with wolf shifters is that body shame is a very human concept.
My mind is a chaotic mess of worry over Lochlan and jealousy that I’m sure I have no right to. Neither of them are mine, even if I love them both. And he still hasn’t confirmed my suspicions, but somehow I know. There’s something between them. He wouldn’t have gone wolf like that if there wasn’t.
“Do you want to take a nap?” he asks, getting to his feet and dragging his fingers through his wild hair to tame it.
I nod and start to shuffle towards the bed. He snags a pair of shorts from a drawer and then joins me, pulling the blankets back so we can crawl in together. Neither of us have to say anything, we just instinctively scoot into the center of the large bed and wrap our arms around each other.
“The spell to get to the underworld and that one I just helped Rune with to locate Loch were both much stronger magic than I usually do, and I’m sure the one to get us into the fae realm won’t be as easy as he made it sound either.”
A worried look crosses Roman’s face, and he gently cards his fingers through my hair.
“Rest. That will help,” he says.
“It will. But just to be safe, maybe…”
I lick my lips and weigh my words. I don’t need it.
He’s right—rest will help and I can already feel my power recharging just from his touch and the immense energy in the compound.
But I want it. I want comfort and reassurance, and I want to pretend for a few more hours that I’m not about to lose the two men who hold my heart.
Even if Cassius is right and Loch is completely fine when we get to him, whatever is going on between him and Roman is going to change things, and I’ve learned enough lessons in my life to know that things rarely change for the better.
“Tell me, Jare.”
“Kiss me?” I whisper.
Roman’s breath catches and I’m close enough to see his pupils dilate instantly. I open my mouth to keep talking, prepared to give him my whole spiel about how mage magic works and how much innate energy and power shifters hold, but before I can say any of that, his lips slam into mine.
I moan and melt into him instantly. Sparks of energy crackle between our lips as he slides his tongue into my mouth, tangling it with mine.
My cock stiffens against his belly even though I already know that we won’t go further than a kiss.
I would if he wanted me, but we played this scenario out more than once when we were younger and it always ended the same way; with both of us hard and panting and Roman painfully explaining to me that sex would only make this more difficult.
His needy grunt vibrates around my tongue and his erection notches against mine, both of us hard and throbbing. My magic buzzes in my core and hums along the surface of my skin, recharging to full power within a few seconds.
Roman wrenches his lips away from mine and I let out an embarrassing whimper. His breathing is fast and heavy, and even without super senses, I swear I can smell the lust on him. He rests his forehead against mine and presses a peck to the tip of my nose.
“Rest, beautiful. We need to be at full strength to go into the fae realm and get our—” he clears his throat. “Lochlan back.”
I sigh and nod. He’s right. I shouldn’t have let myself get carried away kissing him when Lochlan is in danger anyway. I snuggle a little closer, slinging one leg over his hip so we’re as close as we can possibly get, and then I close my eyes and let the exhaustion finally overtake me.