Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
ETHAN
Ifelt the shimmer of magic in the air a few seconds before Cernunnos popped into existence.
Knew the bastard couldn’t stay away. For some reason, he wanted this, and I wanted to figure out why. He should have no idea Moira told me about his plan, and I didn’t plan to tell him I knew. Let’s see how he played this.
“Lord,” Cernunnos said.
“God,” I responded.
I was sitting on the back patio, watching the deer decide whether they wanted to risk my wrath to munch on the flowers I’d planted earlier in the season. They were just backing up when the god arrived. Once they spotted him, I watched their confidence boost just enough to step forward once more.
I let out a low warning growl.
They bounded away in a few quick leaps.
Cernunnos made a tsking noise. “A few pretty flowers are worth disrupting the cycle of life, Lord?”
“They’re my pretty flowers. Plenty more to go around off my main property.”
I held a beer in my hand. Guess I could have offered him one, but I didn’t feel like it.
“What can I do for you?” I asked.
“May I sit?” Cernunnos asked, irritation flashing over his face at my lack of deference.
That was the thing about the old gods. They expected everyone to bow and scrape for no reason. Cernunnos hadn’t done shit for me. Why the hell should I bow to him?
A good part of me wanted to kill him for manipulating Moira, but she knew what she’d walked into. And thank the gods for that. If she hadn’t, I might have tried, even knowing Cernunnos could strike me dead with a snap of his fingers if he wanted to.
“If you want,” I said after a long pause, “though I hope you don’t plan to stay too long.”
Cernunnos smiled at that, more of a teeth baring than anything resembling amusement. “I’m hoping we could talk.”
“About what? Doesn’t seem like we have much in common.”
“I can think of one thing we have in common,” the god said.
My teeth clicked together. Asshole.
“Does Moira know you’re here?”
“She doesn’t. I’d prefer to keep this visit between the two of us, if possible.”
“Keeping secrets now?” I made a humming noise in the back of my throat. “Can’t say I’m surprised.”
“This is for her own good,” Cernunnos snapped.
I learned long ago to beware when I started going down the ‘it’s for her own good’ road. “She’s a grown woman. Maybe she should be the judge of that?”
I planned to tell her as soon as this asshole left. Keeping secrets wasn’t good for anyone, and I was keeping a hell of a secret from her already. I wouldn’t weigh it down with more.
“When I know your answer, I will tell her,” Cernunnos said tightly.
No, he wouldn’t. He’d hover above us, trying to pull our strings and make us dance until someone took mercy on us and cut us loose.
“Ask your question, then.”
Cernunnos’s attention sharpened. “Why do you assume I have a question?”
“You’re only here because you want something. The only thing we have in common is Moira, and you think you’re looking out for her best interests. So you want something from me for her, right?”
His eyes narrowed. “Don’t presume you know me, Lord.”
I waved a hand. “Ethan. Let’s not bother with the formalities, Cernunnos.”
The god’s jaw clenched, and I stifled my amusement. He really was an arrogant sonofabitch.
“Fine. Moira has special dietary needs, as you may already know.”
“She’s a vampire. Everyone knows.”
The god shook his head. “Yes, and no. She’s been able to go for long periods of time without blood, but when she has consumed it, she’s chosen to go for bagged human blood.”
I hadn’t known this. Against my better judgment, I listened carefully to what he was saying, eager for any knowledge of Moira I didn’t already have.
She trusted me. I could tell in her scent when she was around me, but Moira didn’t volunteer much of herself unless she had to.
Occasionally, she offered glimpses into her past and current life, and I gobbled up those crumbs she threw me.
“I believe Moira requires magical blood to thrive.”
I blinked in surprise. “Her diet was the reason she was losing so much weight.” That made sense. She’d grown so thin I was beginning to worry about her.
Cernunnos inclined his head in agreement. “I suspected there were gaps in her diet for a while now. She has solely fed on me for a few months and seems to be thriving.”
Judging by his gleaming eyes, he took a little too much pleasure in saying that last part.
“I don’t understand how I come into play here.” How he would spin this, I had no idea, but now I was curious.
“It’s time for her to vary her diet, to see if other types can fill the gaps human blood cannot.
My blood is fae and powerful. She has gone weeks without feeding again, though she was able to stretch out her feedings while consuming bagged blood.
She has no lagging energy or fatigue, and she has not lost any of the weight she gained. ”
“Why can’t she use bagged paranormal blood?” There weren’t a lot of places that offered magical blood, but Rowan was connected enough to source it properly.
“Therein lies the problem,” Cernunnos said.
“Blood loses much of its potency when it’s removed from the body.
Humans inject special solutions inside to extend its life, but that blood has a shelf life.
Paranormal blood is similar. Magic drains away as soon as it’s removed from the subjects’ bodies. ”
His making so much sense was pissing me off.
“Alright. What’s the solution?”
Cernunnos tapped the side of his neck. “She needs to take it straight from the source.”
“Which is what she’s doing with you.”
“Yes, and what I hope you will allow her to do with you.”
“Why,” I said flatly. “Of all people, why have you come to me? You know Moira and I have a complicated relationship.”
The god had the nerve to shrug. “She trusts you.”
“She doesn’t need to trust someone to feed from them. Moira can hunt whomever she wants.”
“We both know she won’t do that.”
“She will if she has to.”
“It needs to be you.”
“No. It doesn’t. Any of the other Lords would be willing. She could easily ask Rowan, probably even Caelan.”
Cernunnos crossed an ankle over his knee. “You would stand aside and allow Moira to share such an intimate experience with another man?”
A chuckle escaped me. “Are you really able to ask that with a straight face?” I leaned forward. “Moira is her own person, and for whatever reason, she has chosen you. I hope temporarily, because we both know you aren’t good for her.”
“And you are?”
I spread my hands out. “In my current situation, I am good for no one. The difference between us is I am self-aware.”
Cernunnos’s eyes flashed with anger. “You have not said no.”
“If Moira wishes to feed from me, she can come to me.”
Cernunnos gave me an annoyed look. “She would never ask.”
“Then maybe you should leave this be and let Moira handle her own issues.”
Cernunnos let out a heavy sigh. “I see you’re going to be difficult.”
“And you’re not telling me the entire truth. There’s a reason you’re here asking me. What is it about my blood you’re so concerned with?”
The god stood. “I am only concerned with Moira. She trusts you, and you are the most powerful Lord, aren’t you? Your blood will be a worthy replacement for mine.”
With that, he was gone in a shower of emerald and gold.
“Asshole.” I tipped the rest of my beer back, just as another shimmer appeared by the garden.
Today was Grand Central Station.
Rowan appeared, spotted me, and stalked over, not bothering to ask if he could sit down. “Cernunnos was just here, wasn’t he? I can smell his magic.”
“Yep.”
I’d opened my wards to Rowan several months ago, as he’d done the same for me. The difference was Rowan rarely used the privilege because I was on his lands far more than he was mine.
I reached into the cooler beside my chair and tossed him a beer. Rowan caught it one-handed and flipped the cap open.
“Evie asked me a weird question today.”
I jerked my thumb over my shoulder. “Does it have to do with the asshole who just left?”
“Sure does.” Rowan hesitated. He scratched the edge of his jaw. “When Moira started feeding from Cernunnos did you notice?”
I frowned. “Excuse me?”
“When Moira feeds from him, do you know?”
Odd question, but Rowan wasn’t a man who spoke just to hear himself. He had to be going somewhere with this. “I knew when they started having sex.”
Rowan nodded. “Every shifter in my godsdamn Keep knew. Half of them went into mourning.”
I couldn’t dwell on that statement without wanting to tear something apart with my bare hands, so I focused on Rowan’s question. “She started gaining weight and had more color in her cheeks. But no, I never smelled his blood on her.”
“That’s what I thought. I knew because her magic started smelling like his.”
I went still. Rowan merely sipped his beer and watched me. Shifters were resistant to magic, some of us more than others, but the Lord before me had proven to have an odd affinity for it. None of us thought too much of it. We all had our quirks, right?
“Her magic?”
Rowan nodded. “Moira never smelled like blood to me, even if I saw her consume some. The moment she and Cernunnos started their experiment, something in her magic changed.”
“You’ve asked some of your other people?”
Rowan nodded. “They said the same thing you did.”
I shifted in my seat, uncomfortable with the direction this conversation was taking. “Why would you scent something different than the rest of us?”
Rowan smiled this time.
“Godsdamn,” I swore, realization hitting me like a truck. “You’re fae, aren’t you?”
“Part,” Rowan clarified. “But qualified enough to tell you I think if you decided to feed Moira, Cernunnos would probably know.”
“She doesn’t want me to.”
“I don’t believe that’s true.” Rowan tipped the rest of his beer back. “If anything, Moira is trying to spare you from being under Cernunnos’s microscope.”
“Too late,” I muttered.
Rowan’s look was too perceptive. “Is there a particular reason he’d be so focused on you?”
Rowan had shared a deep secret with me, but I wasn’t ready to share mine. Moira deserved to know first. “I wouldn’t know.”
The other Lord knew I was lying, but he didn’t press. “Very well.” Rowan stood. “You up for sparring?”
He and I had taken to sparring for exercise and stress relief. Sometimes we stayed in human form; sometimes we sparred in animal form. But now that I knew he was fae…
“You limited to bear form?”
Rowan grinned. “Nope.”
“Shit.” I stood and stretched. “Make it good then, bear.”
Rowan’s smile turned a touch savage. “You got it.”