Chapter 34
Dax had not moved far from Veya after their bodies finally stilled.
He leaned against the headboard with his legs extended beneath the sheets and one arm resting loosely across his stomach. Veya remained beside him with her knees drawn up, staring toward the closed curtains as though she could see the darkness beyond them.
Neither had entirely settled into the silence following what they had done.
“I want to understand,” Veya said.
Dax turned his head toward her.
“That is an ambitious opening.”
“I mean everything.”
His eyebrow lifted.
“You may need to narrow that down.”
“The prophecy, Norse, the heretics, the maps downstairs, and whatever war I walked into.” She looked directly at him. “I want to understand what I became.”
Dax held her gaze before rubbing one hand across the back of his neck.
“That is not a small request.”
“I’m not small anymore.”
The words stopped him.
Veya did not speak with pride. She was stating the only truth available to her. She had been remade by the blood of a male who had never intended to care what happened afterward, and something inside her now responded to a world she had never known existed.
She no longer felt entirely human.
Worse, she could no longer remember whether being human had ever made her feel entirely herself.
Dax shifted until he faced her more fully.
“You are tethered to one of Sule’s original line.”
“I know what it feels like.” Veya tightened her arms around her knees. “It feels as though part of my body belongs somewhere else. There is a thread constantly pulling toward Rhen. Sometimes I can taste his blood when he is nowhere near me. Sometimes I smell him before I see him.”
Dax’s jaw tightened.
“The connection came through his blood. That much is obvious.”
“What else?”
“The heretic magic attached to you may have changed the way the tether formed, but nobody in this house understands enough to tell you exactly how.”
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
The direct admission surprised her.
Dax continued before she could speak.
“I know what I have seen. Stored blood feeds you, but the tether has triggered separate physical episodes. Rhen’s blood stopped the most severe one. Everything beyond that remains theory.”
Veya looked at her hands.
“What do I do when I feel it pulling?”
“You send for me.”
Her attention snapped back to him.
Dax held her gaze.
“Or Mary, Cole, Malakai, or anybody capable of reaching you before it becomes another crisis. I am asking you not to face Rhen alone again.”
“You think you get to decide that?”
“No.”
The answer came without hesitation.
Veya’s suspicion faltered.
Dax leaned forward, resting his forearms across his knees.
“I do not get to make another decision for you. I am asking because Rhen will use every weakness you show him, and he has already told you exactly how little your suffering matters.”
“What happens when I cannot choose?” she asked. “What if the pain becomes stronger than I am, and he is the only one whose blood will stop it?”
“Then I stand beside you while he does the minimum required.”
Veya studied him.
“And if you are not here?”
“You tell somebody before it becomes that bad.”
“You cannot always know where I am.”
“No.” His expression darkened. “That is the part I hate.”
Veya lowered her gaze.
The skin covering her hands appeared paler and smoother than she remembered. She could not recall the moment of transformation, but she remembered everything after it: the sensory overload, the hunger, and the way Rhen’s presence struck her body like a violent magnetic field.
Dax did not feel like that.
His presence did not pull her apart.
It gave her something to move toward deliberately.
“I don’t want the tether.”
“I know.”
“Will it always be this strong?”
Dax took his time before answering.
“It may weaken as your body stabilizes. It may change when we understand what the heretic magic did. I will not promise that it disappears because I do not know.”
“How long before it weakens?”
“Anyone who gives you a number is guessing.”
The honesty hurt, but less than false reassurance would have.
Veya looked toward him.
“You are choosing to be here.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Dax’s expression shifted.
For once, charm did not arrive to protect him from the question.
“Because I want you again.”
Heat moved through her despite everything.
Dax continued.
“I want to know who you were before Rhen found you. I want to hear you laugh when you are not fighting pain, and I want to see what you become when nobody else is trying to define you.”
His gaze dropped briefly to her mouth.
“I want to touch you again badly enough that remaining in this bed is becoming a questionable decision.”
Veya’s lips parted.
Dax looked away before desire erased the reason he needed to leave.
“And because the thought of abandoning you inside this mess makes me violent.”
Her eyes stung, but she refused the tears.
“Will you always choose me over the tether?”
“The tether does not get a vote.”
Veya allowed that answer to settle.
Dax pushed himself from the bed and began dressing.
She tightened the sheet around herself.
“Where are you going?”
“The others will be reconvening in the war room. We attack before dawn, and I need the final plan.”
“What about this?”
Dax stopped with his shirt partly fastened.
“What about me?”
He crossed back toward the bed.
“Tonight, protecting Norse and finding Sule have to come before what either of us wants.”
Veya’s face closed.
Dax caught the reaction immediately.
“That does not make you disposable.”
“Then what am I?”
He stood before her, visibly frustrated by the limitations of every answer he considered.
“Someone I am choosing much faster than good sense permits.”
The tension in her expression eased by a fraction.
“I cannot promise you what shape this takes,” he said. “I cannot offer you a formal bond or pretend one night has answered every question.”
Veya looked away.
“But I am not walking away.”
Her eyes returned to his.
A soft knock sounded before she could respond.
Dax crossed to the old bell pull beside the hearth and gave it one decisive tug.
“You summoned someone?”
“I sent for Mary before we started discussing the collapse of civilization.”
The door opened.
Mary entered with silver hair gathered into a loose knot and several soft strands framing her face. Her forest-green dress moved around her ankles as she crossed the room, and her eyes carried a warmth Veya had rarely encountered inside the stronghold.
“Mary,” Dax said, visibly relaxing. “Perfect timing.”
“My timing is always perfect,” she replied. “It is one of the few advantages of spending centuries cleaning up after males who believe planning is a substitute for sense.”
Her gaze settled upon Veya.
“So this is the young woman who has turned the entire house upside down.”
Veya blinked.
“I did not do it deliberately.”
“Nobody ever does the interesting things deliberately.”
Mary approached without crowding her.
“You look as though rest is the last thing your mind intends to permit.”
“I’m not sure what I am supposed to be doing.”
“Then we will start with getting you cleaned up and putting some blood into you before your body discovers another dramatic method of complaining.”
Despite herself, Veya laughed.
Mary’s eyes warmed.
“There. That is already an improvement.”
She looked toward Dax.
“Go. I will look after her.”
“She is not a project.”
“Neither are any of you, although that has never stopped me from fussing.”
Dax returned to the bed and paused before Veya.
“I will come back.”
“That sounds suspiciously like a promise.”
“It is the nearest thing you are getting tonight.”
He cupped the side of her face and waited until she leaned into the contact before pressing a lingering kiss against her forehead.
The gesture held no claim.
It was simply another choice offered and accepted.
Mary watched with unconcealed satisfaction.
“It is about time one of you remembered how to smile.”
Dax gave her a halfhearted glare before leaving the room.
Mary turned toward Veya.
“Come along. Let us make you presentable before those brothers decide they require another crisis to avoid discussing their feelings.”
Veya accepted her offered arm.
“You are very calm about all of this.”
“I knew Rhen when he was still offended by trousers with buttons. There is very little left capable of surprising me.”
Mary led her from the room.
* * *
Dax took the longer route to the war room.
The weight of the past several hours followed him through every corridor, but regret did not accompany it. The relationship had accelerated beyond anything sensible, yet he did not regret Veya, the intimacy, or the fact that he had chosen her openly.
When he entered the war room, Cole looked up immediately.
Malakai stood beside the map table and followed Dax’s entrance with a level, assessing stare.
Rhen did not lift his head from the marked heretic positions.
Dax crossed his arms.
“What is the final plan?”
Cole leaned back in his chair.
“Are we really going to ignore the fact that you just slept with the fledgling tethered to Rhen?”
The room became silent.
Dax looked toward him.
“Do you want to discuss it?”
“I think we have to. This war was already unstable before you added another possible fracture.”
“Veya is not his.”
“I did not say she was.” Cole’s voice sharpened. “I said the tether exists, and none of us understands what your involvement might do to her.”
Malakai stepped into Dax’s line of sight and signed.
She is still connected to Rhen’s blood. That may have consequences for her, for you, and for the clan.
“I did nothing she did not choose.”
Nobody accused you of forcing her.
Cole pushed away from the chair.
“But this entire house has been collapsing since she arrived. Rhen is leaving drained humans outside the perimeter, Sule has disappeared, and you are prepared to fight your own brothers over a woman you met hours ago.”
Dax’s eyes flashed.
“She is not responsible for any of that.”
“No,” Cole said. “But you are making her your responsibility.”
“Somebody should treat her like a person.”
Rhen finally raised his head.
A slow, unpleasant smile formed without reaching his silver eyes.
“If you want to waste your time managing her, do it.”
Dax’s attention snapped toward him.
Rhen continued in the same indifferent tone.
“She remains useful, and you are keeping her functional. Beyond that, I do not care what happens between you.”
“She has a name.”
“I know.”
“Use it.”
Rhen’s smile widened slightly.
“You found a wounded creature, decided you could save it, and fucked it before the blood on the floor had dried. Do not make your lack of judgment my moral failure.”
Dax moved before conscious thought could stop him.
He caught the front of Rhen’s shirt and drove him against the wall hard enough to shake the portraits.
“You piece of shit.”
Rhen laughed.
The sound held no delight, only cold amusement at having found the exact place to apply pressure.
“Did that touch a nerve?”
“You do not get to speak about her that way.”
“I can speak about the asset I created however I choose.”
“She is not an asset.”
“To you, she is apparently salvation.” Rhen’s eyes remained empty inches from Dax’s face. “Do not blame me when she burns through every noble fantasy you have constructed around her.”
Malakai closed one hand around Dax’s shoulder and pulled him back with practiced force.
His free hand moved sharply between them.
Enough. Both of you.
Dax allowed Malakai to separate them, although every part of him remained prepared to strike again.
Rhen straightened his shirt.
The coldness returned to his face as though nothing had happened.
“The tether is a nuisance. If it can be severed without wasting what she carries, it will be. Until then, keep her contained and stay out of my way.”
Shadow gathered around him.
He disappeared without another word.
The room settled into a heavy silence.
Cole dragged one hand over his face.
“Three days without Sule,” he muttered. “And we are already trying to kill one another.”
Dax looked at the space Rhen had vacated.
“No.”
Cole lowered his hand.
“Not one another.”
Dax turned back toward the map.
“Now tell me the plan.”