Chapter 45
DANTE
The front door slammed open.
The sound yanked me out of the past hard enough, my teeth snapped together.
Nico came in first, footsteps quick and sharp. Angry. Emberline was right behind him, her presence hitting me like a spark to dry tinder.
Relief was followed by a sweep of gut-tightening jealousy, every muscle clenching with the need to toss Nico against a wall and… No. I trust Emberline. Trust is the foundation we’ll build our lives on.
I pushed to my feet, soaked to the skin from the rain, and headed inside.
“Fuck, Dante…” Nico surveyed the damage with pure awe and a low whistle. My wife, on the other hand…
“What happened here? Were we attacked? Was it Giovanni? Are you alright?” Emberline’s questions came faster than gunfire as she ran her hands over my arms, my chest, cupping my face to stare up into my eyes with enough worry, I finally managed to shake my head, flinging water all over her.
“We weren’t attacked. Everything is under control,” I lied.
Nico snorted. “Tell that to the cabinets. They look like they spontaneously combusted.”
“I said everything is handled.” My wife’s gaze snapped back to my face. The feminine smell of her hit my nose—delicious and citrusy and sinful—and fear flooded through me, along with the urge to never let her out of my sight again.
“I take it the Basin wasn’t at Rocco’s?” I asked instead of throttling Nico for dragging my wife into danger.
Silence dropped between the three of us, sharper than a guillotine blade.
Nico shifted his feet, tension coiling in his shoulders. “Look, I know you’re pissed, but it was a last-minute thing. Gabriel set up a meeting with Rocco, so we capitalized on the opportunity. We weren’t gone long, and the danger was minimal.”
So even my brother was part of the plan. I ignored that little stab of betrayal.
“Oh, I know, because if there had been danger, I would have been there.” The words came out rough as I rubbed my chest. “The blood bond’s real helpful like that.”
Emberline stilled. “You were tracking us?”
“Hard not to when you light up my entire chest like a godsdamn firework.” I tried to smile. “A note would have been nice.”
“I-I’m sorry.” She dipped her head. “I just thought…”
“That I’d pitch a godsdamned fit and forbid you from going?”
“Yes. That. And now you’re angry.” She sounded wretched, and I couldn’t stand it. And she was right not to tell me anything. I was acting like a fucking pussy. Stuck in my head and lashing out, losing control because I couldn’t handle my… feelings.
Unable to tell her the truth, because it was too terrible.
“I’m pissed because this was dangerous, and you kept me in the dark.” I held up my hand. “And yes, you had good reason not to tell me. But I made you a promise, and it’s time I start keeping that promise.”
“Promise?” She looked confused, her gaze drifting around the smoke-filled kitchen.
“No cages. No protections. Side by side.” I leaned in, close enough, the heat of her skin sank into mine. “You make your own decisions, you go wherever you want, whenever you want. But for my sanity, please promise me you’ll take precautions and never go alone. And leave me a godsdamned note.”
A small, tentative smile curved her mouth. “I thought you had a firework in your chest.”
“I do, but I happen to like written correspondence from my beloved wife stating her intentions before they occur. Is that fair?”
Gods, letting Emberline jaunt off on dangerous missions without me was like stabbing needles in my eyeballs. And while knowing she’d rather be with Nico was worse, my jealousy aside, he would never let anything happen to her.
I wondered what other stupid shit I was going to agree to. Personal growth fucking sucked. This was hard work. I’d rather just smash things up with my fists and feel better.
“That’s perfectly fair.” She looked up at me with glowing eyes, and that honey warmth in my chest grew thicker because if I wasn’t mistaken, that was pride on her face.
“What did you find at Rocco’s?” Steam rose from my wet clothes, heat radiating off me like I was a furnace. Inside, the ifrit was gloating, reveling in all this emotional carnage. The fucking nosy bastard.
All traces of amusement fell from her face. “A lot of shit. We need Gabriel here to debrief. But he’s keeping Rocco busy at the moment.”
“Their meeting shouldn’t take much longer.” Nico had that pinched look about him, as if everything was about to go sideways. But Rocco had never been a major player, so it couldn’t be earth-shattering.
“Well, at least the old bastard’s not making some back-room deal with Giovanni,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood. “Who’s probably taking one of his midnight strolls around that island… what did you call it? Isola della Cenere?”
The words hung between us, and my wife’s expression shifted.
Her eyes widened. “Isola della Cenere.” She was staring straight at me, but she didn’t see me.
“He’s been going there for years. It’s isolated.
Rumored to be haunted, so everyone avoids it.
A human place, not vampire. If you were hiding something like the Basin, wouldn’t that just be the perfect place? ”
My heartbeats stalled, replaced by a slow, reluctant realization.
“You think your uncle hid the Basin on the island,” I said, and our bond flared again, but this time, it wasn’t anger that flowed between us. It was purpose.
And for the first time all night, the fire inside me went completely dark.