Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
ROMAN
I wake after only a brief nap, my wolf too agitated to fully rest. He wants to take off now and search for our mate, but I can’t do that without Rune and Jareth anyway.
So I watch Jare sleep, carding my fingers through his soft hair, entrenched in guilt over my conflicted feelings.
Lochlan is my mate, that’s undeniable, but my heart is with Jare too.
I thought meeting my mate would override any lingering feelings I had for him, but nope. If anything, they’re stronger, and I do find it surprising that my wolf doesn’t protest our closeness or our kisses. This just keeps getting more confusing.
We need to focus on finding Loch though.
Once he’s safe, I can figure out the rest. There’s no way Jareth doesn’t suspect even more now that my wolf forced a shift upon hearing where Loch is.
That doesn’t just happen unless the wolf is in complete control, and there’s no reason for that unless, you know, we’ve lost our mate.
Jareth stirs, blinking his eyes open slowly. As he focuses on me, he smiles, but it quickly fades.
“Loch,” he croaks.
“I know.”
He nods. “How long have I been down here?”
“Fuck if I know. Time makes no sense here. It’s a human construct.”
“Yeah, I know.” He taps his chest. “Human.”
“Magical, stunningly beautiful human.”
His brow creases for a second as he lifts his hand to touch my cheek. “Just tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“What happened between you and Loch.”
“I didn’t sleep with him. You know I wouldn’t lie about that.”
“Okay, but… do you have feelings for him? You never got along before. How could that change so quickly?”
There’s no way I’m telling him anything now when so much is on the line. “He’s important to you, Jare. So he’s important to me.” I brush my thumb across his bottom lip. “And I’ve been able to see him in a different light when I wasn’t filled with jealousy.”
“The jealousy is your fault. You could’ve had me long before I even met Jare.”
“But it’s good you met.”
“Oh yes, so I could have my heart ripped out twice.” He shoves the blankets off and sits on the edge of the bed, burying his face in his hands. “This whole situation is such a mess. Why did he do it, Rome? How could he become a vampire?”
“You didn’t tell him. He thought you just didn’t like vampires. He has no idea of the trauma you endured, and this was the only way he thought you could have what he thinks we have.”
Jareth lifts his eyes to me, and the sadness in them squeezes my heart. “What we have isn’t because we’re supes. Obviously, we aren’t bound by anything other than…” He stops himself.
“Than what?”
Jare shakes his head. “Doesn’t matter. He did all that for no reason.”
Not for no reason, but I can’t make myself say the words. It would feel like plunging a knife into both our chests.
“We’ll find him and then we’ll figure things out.”
He scoffs. “There’s nothing to figure out. Not for me. It doesn’t change anything. I just need to know he’s taking care of himself.”
I wrap my arms around Jare from behind and he sinks into me. Nuzzling his hair, I inhale his scent, and if I focus, I can pick up remnants of Lochlan still clinging to my gorgeous mage.
Why is fate so cruel? I’ve spent decades in love with this man, yet fate decides to give me a mate who already has my mage’s heart? This is bullshit.
I squeeze him harder, burying my nose in his neck, tempted to bite him, but I can’t do that. It wouldn’t be right to mark him with my scent knowing he isn’t mine to keep.
My ears prick at the sound of the others’ voices in the distance. “They must be ready.”
Jareth nods, turning his head to look at me. Leaning in, he presses a too-brief kiss to my lips. “Thank you for helping.”
“Of course.”
Another wave of guilt hits me but I shove it down. Action first, feelings later.
We dress and hurry to the common area where everyone is gathered. Mac holds up a strangely shaped object.
“Found it.”
“What the fuck is that?” Cassius asks.
Mac shrugs. “Don’t know. Snatched it centuries ago from this fae asshole who was bragging about his riches. It was easy.”
Drax smiles at his mate like he has hearts for eyes.
“That,” Rune says, extending his hand, “is an amphora used to hold dreamvines. The fae use them to cast dreams upon unsuspecting mortals.” He unscrews the top part and a green vine creeps out of the container like a very slow moving snake.
Drax scrunches his nose, waving his hand in front of his face. “It stinks.”
“To non-mortals, it will,” Rune explains. “This is perfect, Mac. Come, Jareth. Let’s do this.”
Jareth glances at me, offering an uneasy smile.
“We’ll find him.” I hope I sound confident. We will find him. I just hope he’s alive and safe when we do.
JARETH
Rune and I huddle around his workstation while the others linger close by.
I’ve got my hand on Rune’s while he chants and pours different concoctions into a bowl.
As he works, his tattoos light up, and mine follow shortly after.
He was born with his, I can tell, while mine were slowly added over time as my abilities grew. I can’t imagine the power he has.
The gargoyle stands beside his mate, his hands resting on Rune’s shoulders, and I can feel the magic flowing between the three of us. How interesting. I had always heard gargoyles were immune to mage magic, but he seems like a conduit for it.
My hand starts to vibrate and the room around us blurs at the edges.
I sense Roman right behind me as his hand slides around my waist, holding me.
Rune adds the dreamvine to the bowl and everything around me goes dark, the pressure squeezing the air out of me.
I can’t take a deep breath, and as panic starts to rise, Roman’s soft hair brushes against my cheek.
“I’ve got you,” he whispers, his voice instantly calming me.
The pressure intensifies, and just as it feels like my head might pop off, it dissipates, dropping us on a bed of moss in a cool, dark forest. I suck in air, but there’s something off about it. It’s too thick, too sweet.
“What the hell…?”
“Perfect.” Rune smiles as he releases my hand. “Good stuff.”
“Where are we?”
“The fae realm,” Roman says. “I’ve been here once before. Don’t trust anything you see, and don’t eat or drink anything.”
“I’m not an idiot.”
“I know. It’s just easy to forget.”
“Right. Fuck.” I rub my forehead. “What if Loch ate something?”
“We’ll deal with that when the time comes. Let’s find him first.” Roman twitches his head as he tilts his back and sniffs the air.
Before my eyes, he shivers and drops to his hands and knees as his wolf takes over. A tree branch snaps and I turn to see Mac shifting into his enormous dragon form. Drax and Cassius climb onto his back, and he launches himself into the air, only to tumble back down seconds later.
“Fuck,” he mutters, half-shifted and half-human. “What was that?”
“You can’t fly here,” Rune says.
“What do we do, then?” Drax asks.
Roman makes a grumbly noise then takes off running.
“I think that’s our sign to follow him. He’ll find Lochlan.”
That knowledge causes a strange mix of emotions. Happiness that I know we’ll find Loch, but sadness when I realize why. Roman is connected to him for some reason.
We run through the thick forest after Roman, and without him leading the way, this would be near impossible. The trees seem to close in around us the deeper we venture, the ground softening beneath our feet making it harder to keep our footing.
Roman stops suddenly, sniffing the air, then whimpering before growling and tearing off again. My chest tightens. I don’t think that was a good sign.
Blowing out a breath, I shake my shoulders out. Find Lochlan. Deal with everything else after that.
Please, gods, let him be safe.
LOCHLAN
“Ouch!”
Another branch pops out and scratches my arm, drawing blood, and even though the wound will heal quickly, it still fucking hurts.
I keep running though. I have no idea where I’m going, but I can’t just sit and let them find me. There has to be a way out of this place, an exit somewhere. If I can just get to the edge, I can get back to the mortal realm. Then I need to find Roman and apologize for yet another dumbass move.
Roman.
I swear I can smell him, taste his blood on my tongue, but I must be hallucinating at this point. I’m growing weaker. Expending this much energy is wearing me down, and without blood, it won’t be long before I run out of steam, even after my big fae meal.
Cassius warned me and I still walked straight into a trap. Stupid!
Another branch swings out and slams into me, knocking me to my feet, but I’m up quickly and tearing off into the darkness again.
Angry voices come from all around me, making it difficult to know which direction to run, but then I remember Cassius telling me how to focus and block out everything but what I need.
I pause, ducking behind a large rock, and close my eyes. At first, it’s all just garbled noise, but slowly it all falls away and I hear…
Gods!
Jareth.
I shake my head. It can’t be. I focus again, searching the darkness, then I catch a familiar, comforting scent.
Roman.
Roman and Jareth are here. Are they though? Maybe it’s a trick. Maybe they’re close but not actually in this realm.
I squeeze my eyes shut tighter, focusing on the two men in the hopes that somehow, if they are close, they can feel me. The energy around me shifts and Roman’s scent gets stronger.
“This way, guys. Roman found him.”
Definitely Jareth.
I get to my feet and turn in the direction of his voice, but a massive branch slams into me. It knocks the wind out of me, wrapping around my ankles and sweeping me up until I’m hanging upside down.
I almost scream, but I hold it back and instead focus all my thoughts on Jareth and Roman. The trees rustling around me terrify me, and birds begin to squawk, alerting the fae to my location.
Damn. This is it. They’ve got me. Even with my super strength I can’t break free from the tree’s hold. I squeeze my eyes closed as the movements get closer. I don’t want to see what’s about to happen to me.
“Loch!”
I snap my eyes open. “Jare. Gods. You found me.”
Roman is in his wolf form and he lets out an anguished cry that I feel in my chest like I made the sound myself. Jareth soothes Roman while Atlas partially shifts, his arms turning into massive weapons that he pummels the tree base with.
Jare and Rune join hands then extend the others toward me, and while Rune chants and their tattoos light up, I stare in awe.
Jareth is so beautiful. My eyes well with tears that will never fall while Roman gnaws at the tree base.
The dragon uses his tail to smash the branches while the Drax and Cassius guard the woods around us.
When none of that works, Roman launches himself up the tree, tugging on my pant leg to get me free. Atlas joins us, pulling the branch away from my ankle, and then all three of us fall to the ground as Rune and Jareth’s spell kicks in, causing the tree to shrink back with a shriek.
Atlas launches himself forward to hold his mate, and Jareth rushes over to Roman and me, falling to his knees. The three of us lie in a heap and Roman whimpers, nuzzling my chest as Jareth strokes my hair.
“We have to go,” Cassius says.
“Not enough power,” Rune mumbles as Atlas holds him. “Drained.”
“I can fix that, right?” Atlas says, stroking Rune’s hair.
“Yes, but I need Jareth too. They have this place fortified.”
Jareth looks unhappy about that.
“What can you do to get your power boosted?”
He holds my gaze and in his eyes I see the love I always knew was there, but I stupidly thought I needed to do more to keep it.
Roman stirs beneath us, shifting back to human. “I can help.”
I look up to see Rune and Atlas making out on the forest floor, and I’m confused for a second—it doesn’t seem like the time for that—but then I see Rune’s tattoos flickering with light, getting stronger by the second.
“Oh.”
“It’s the quickest way,” Jareth says, his gaze on the ground.
“Whatever you need to do. Let’s just get out of here before they find us.”
Jareth nods as he looks up and meets Roman’s gaze. They tentatively move closer, with me sitting between them, and when their lips meet, I expect rage or jealousy to flood my senses, but that’s not at all what happens.
Heat and desire wash over me, and then a sense of happiness I’ve never experienced before. It’s like every dream I’ve ever had is coming true all at once, and instead of feeling negative about it, I want to join in. I want to feel their lips on mine too.
“Uh-oh,” Cassius murmurs, but he’s smirking.
I’m too enthralled to ask him what he means by that, and when Jareth’s tattoos flicker back to life, my chest expands with an ocean of pure joy.
That feeling spreads, warming me through, until it arrives at my cock.
My breath catches as it swells and my gums begin to throb. I want to taste them. Both of them.
I’m almost overwhelmed enough to do it, just lean in and sink my teeth into their flesh, but the kiss breaks and both men stare at each other and then at me.
I don’t know what’s happening, but something is. Jareth’s panting and Roman looks wrecked. I’m about to ask what’s going on, but Roman throws his arms around me.
“Are you hurt?”
“No. Thank you for coming.”
“Later.” Rune sounds strong and alert again. “Let’s get the fuck out of here before my shields break.” He extends his hand and Jareth takes it as the others make a circle around us. Roman holds on tight to me.
Rune begins to chant and the air shimmers, then squeezes around us. Slowly the landscape fades away, and then it’s nothing but darkness for a few seconds until the scent of sulfur swirls around me. When my feet touch down in the underworld, the strangest thought pops into my mind.
Home.