Chapter 4
Ambrose
Iwant to kill him.
I can’t hear their conversation, but I can feel the change in her when he’s talking to her.
How settled she feels, how safe, despite everything about him.
I don’t understand it. I don’t understand how I can be her mate, and she can love him.
All three of us are connected. I hope to the gods there is some explanation that will make all this worth it.
Right now, I’m very tempted to do what Nyx keeps asking me to do and kill him.
Almost. But then, she’d really never forgive me.
Lumi yawns, and Nyx looks back over his shoulder as if realizing he can’t fuck her without dealing with me and the rest of the room. Without saying a word, he vanishes.
Lumi closes her eyes and wraps her arms around her body for a second, already missing him.
I let her have her moment, keeping my mind from invading hers. She yawns again, and this time the room erupts in yawns.
“It’s been a long night. We should all sleep for a few hours, and then we might have some clarity about what our next steps should be,” I say.
“We can’t sleep. We need—” but another yawn interrupts Lumi’s words.
“Come on, I’ll show you to one of the guest rooms you can use,” Sylara says.
“What about my room?” Lumi asks before her face drops, and she shakes her head.
“Nyx’s room. That’s Nyx’s room, not my room.” Her mind practically shouts into mine.
“Two hours. Everyone sleeps for two hours, and then we meet back here again,” Lumi says, looking from face to face for someone to have the answers, for someone to say we should stay awake and solve things first.
But we all need way more than two hours of sleep, so no one is going to fight her.
People start scattering throughout the house, finding spots to rest, but I follow Sylara and Lumi until Sylara stops at a door.
“I’ve got her,” Sylara says, eyeing me with daggers.
“There should always be two people with her. Your words, remember?” I say.
“Not you,” she snarls.
Lumi holds her hand up between us, trying to stop a fight.
“I’ll be the number two,” Kael says suddenly from behind me, killing the tension.
Sylara rolls her eyes. “Anyone else available?”
Kael smirks. “Nope, Emeric and Talonis are taking a shift outside. Riven and Brax are already asleep. Nyx is off sulking in his room. That leaves you and me, baby.”
“Call me baby again and see if you have all of your toes in the morning.”
“My toes? Really? That’s what you’re going to threaten? Although that seems kind of hot. I didn’t take you for a foot fetish girl,” Kael retorts.
“You’re one of Lumi’s best friends. I figure she won’t mind you missing a toe or two. But I can also settle on some more important appendages,” Sylara glares at his crotch.
Kael chuckles nervously. “I’m going to enjoy sharing a bed with you.”
“The floor. You’ll be sleeping on the floor.”
Lumi has been ignoring this entire exchange, her mind clearly elsewhere.
“We’ll save him,” I speak into her mind. “I need someone to hate and be able to fight to show you I’m the better man.”
She gives me a tight smile, but it’s just to placate me.
“Sleep, the world might feel different after you do,” I say aloud.
She nods and starts to turn toward the room where Kael and Sylara continue to bicker, but stops herself. “Stay with him.”
I frown. “I’m the last person who should be watching him. Talonis and Emeric will check in on him. He’s fine.”
She shakes her head. “Please.”
I sigh. “Okay.”
“Thank you.” She turns into the room, looking like a fucking dream in an oversized white T-shirt that just covers her ass.
But I can still make out every inch of her body beneath the thin material.
The curve of her breasts, the dark shade of her areolas, and the hint of hair shading between her thighs.
I swallow down my arousal, knowing it’s the last thing she needs.
But I can’t help but remember how good we were together.
The universe shifted when she was with me, making me truly believe in mates.
She stills, and I realize I’ve been sending my thoughts through the bond.
“I won’t apologize for wanting you. For remembering how good we are together.
For fighting like hell for you. You deserve to be fought for, and I plan on making you want to choose me by the marking ceremony, not just because of some blood deal. ”
“I don’t know whether to hope you’re right or wrong.”
I smirk. “I love you, my queen.” And then I lean in and kiss the corner of her lips.
Her face goes pale, her body stiffens. I realize how fucking foolish I was for saying the words that should be celebrated, but cause her immense pain.
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“I’m sorry. Sleep well, Lumi.” And then I run to Nyx’s room like I’m on fire and he’s the key to putting it out.
I open the door, not even bothering to knock, and am blinded by the bright sun streaming in. How the fuck is he able to be in this room?
“You’re going to need my help getting Lumi to fall in love with you again,” he says from the shadows.
“Like hell I am,” I growl back, waving my hand and immediately covering the expansive windows with thick curtains.
“Impressive, but it’s not going to impress Lumi.”
“It did before,” I snarl.
“That was before you took the one thing that was important to her away from her.”
“You’ve controlled her, too.”
Nyx smirks. “Never. She controls me, not the other way around.”
I shake my head. “I watched you control her, you motherfucker. Don’t fuck with me.”
“It was different. And every time I’ve tried to control her, I’ve fixed it immediately, so she has all the control. With you, you control her wolf and who she chooses in the marking ceremony.”
I’m going to kill him myself. But that’s probably the bastard’s plan—taunt me for the rest of my days. He knows that if I kill him, Lumi will never forgive me. And for some reason, he has a death wish.
Suddenly, I feel the familiar snowflake flurry in my head that tells me she’s searching for our bond and about to speak to me.
“Does he need blood?” Lumi asks.
“Lumi wants to know if you need any fucking blood,” I shout at him.
Nyx smiles again in that twisted way. “Does she?”
“Well, do you?”
“Yes, but I’m not going to drink any.”
I grab the covers, climbing into bed. I need sleep if I’m going to have a chance of dealing with him in a couple of hours.
“Did you tell her?”
“I’m not your personal telephone to communicate between the two of you.”
“It seems like you are.”
“She cut her connection off with you. She chose me!”
“Fine,” he whines.
I huff, closing my eyes, knowing that if I can just calm down for two seconds, I’ll be out. I need sleep. We all do. I’ll deal with him after I’ve gotten the two hours of sleep I’m allowed before Lumi demands we all get up to try and figure out how to solve the curse.
“You dreaming about her?” Nyx suddenly says in my head.
“What the hell? Get out!” I scream, slamming my walls down hard to block him out of my head. This is going to be hell. I need to figure out how to permanently block him from my head.
“Is she asleep? No, don’t answer that. I know she’s not asleep because you haven’t answered her question. So every minute that you are stubborn is another minute she doesn’t get to sleep.”
I growl. “How the hell are you in my head?”
“Not sure. I hate it here. Too hot. Too volatile. Like you’re a volcano about to explode at any moment.”
“I’m perfectly in control.”
“If you say so. Now answer our girl so that she can sleep.”
“She’s not our anything.”
He chuckles in my head. “I hate to break it to you, but she’s ours. She will never just be mine or just be yours. Even when I’m dead, my memory will haunt her forever.”
“You are insufferable.”
“I know. Now answer Lumi so that she can sleep.”
I roll my eyes. “No.”
But then I feel her tentative snowflakes at the edges of my mind again. Soft, floating up while trying not to fully enter my mind like she’s afraid to intrude.
“Nyx is okay, Lumi. I’ve got him. You should sleep.”
“He needs blood, doesn’t he?”
“Yes, but he’s got it under control. I won’t let him hurt anyone.”
“He should drink. Now that the curse is triggered, he shouldn’t have to avoid it anymore. He shouldn’t be in unnecessary pain. And he needs his strength to fight your curse.”
I pause, not sure what to say to her. I hate how much she cares for him, when I still want to strangle him to death in his sleep.
“I’ll pass along your message. Sleep, my queen. Two hours, and then I’ll come get you, and we’ll figure out how to break these curses.”
She doesn’t respond, but I feel her fading slowly from my mind.
“She says you should drink,” I say out loud, hoping that will satisfy him.
“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” he says, slithering his way back into my mind again.
“Get. The. Fuck. Out. Of. My. Head. And. Stay. Out!”
“It bothers you that you’re not as powerful as you thought you were, doesn’t it?”
“Godsdamn it.” I sit up, looking around the room so I can look the bastard in the eyes. I find him still standing in the corner of the room, where the shadows usually are. “What do you want?”
“I want you to admit that you need my help.”
“Why? What does it get you?”
He smirks. “Lumi needs to like you. Maybe even love you before this is all over. I’m your only chance of that happening.”
I grunt. “So cocky and self-assured. I don’t see what Lumi sees in you. Sleep if you vampires even need to sleep.”
I feel the bed shift as he falls onto the bed next to me. “I can’t believe I have to play babysitter,” I grumble under my breath.
I close my eyes, letting sleep start to pull me under, when I hear him speak.
“Lumi is blinded by her love for me, and I for her. We don’t see each other’s flaws, or if we do, we don’t care.
We love each other so much that we’re destined to destroy the world to keep our love for each other.
You’re the only one with the power to stop us.
She loved you once. You’re her mate. You share something that she and I will never share.
You can stop her and me from doing something foolish.
I know you love Lumi. Get her to fall in love with you again. ”
His words feel like a premonition, like he visited a seer who told him as much. I would argue with him, but then again, I love Lumi. I want her to love me again. I want her to want to be my mate. But I sure as hell don’t want or need his fucking help.
I’m about to tell him that when sleep pulls me under.