Chapter 23
Cain
I took my time on the drive back, keeping the Ferrari to a smooth, steady glide.
Talon sat beside me, the two of us talking about nothing much, just like old times.
For a few miles I let myself pretend things were simple again.
We rounded a curve, and the castle came into view, rising out of the cliffs, its four black towers stark against the moonlit sky.
I glanced at Talon. “Remember that night we came back with Prima Lenore?”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “I was scared shitless.”
“You, too? My pulse was banging in my ears so loud I couldn’t think.”
“I almost threw up all over the shark mosaic. And then she marched us down to that cave beneath the lair. Tide was high enough that it was half underwater. I figured if we didn’t make the cut, she’d toss us in and let the great whites clean up the mess.”
My lips twitched. “She would’ve, too. She was efficient like that.”
A short laugh. “Yeah.”
We fell silent, and somehow I knew he was back in that cavern with me, our throats bared for the prima’s bite. I’d been shaking in my cheap boots, but I’d held my ground, feet planted, refusing even to blink.
I would’ve sold my damned soul for some of Lenore’s strength, her power, her pitiless will. But she hadn’t wanted my soul. She wanted my humanity.
And I gave it freely, shedding it like a snake’s brittle, used-up skin. What remained was cold, ruthless, heartless—like the old ones who’d walked this path before me.
But I guess I wasn’t as untouchable as I believed. Every vampire’s got a crack in the armor—their mate.
And mine was named Nyx.
And I’d fucked it up.
Something real had been growing between me and Nyx, and I’d torn it out with my bare hands.
Because I’d listened to Baker’s voice—the one that called me weak for wanting her, that said needing her made me soft.
And in trying to drown him out, I’d hurt her.
I swallowed over the boulder in my throat and glanced at Talon. “Can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.”
I flexed my fingers on the steering wheel, made a tiny correction to the rearview mirror. “What’s it like—being mated?”
“She… completes me.” A corner of his mouth tipped up. “It’s like finding the piece you didn’t know was missing. And she’s always in here.” He brought a fist to his sternum. “Even when she’s not beside me, I feel her. Like a heartbeat that isn’t mine.”
Last year—hell, even last month—I would’ve laughed off something as sappy as a missing piece of yourself. Soulmates, destiny, all that poetic bullshit.
But I wasn’t laughing tonight. The truth of it smacked me in the chest, leaving me exposed and off-balanced.
Nyx felt like my missing piece, too, the one thing my money couldn’t buy. Her unhappiness was now my unhappiness.
When I didn’t say anything, Talon sent me a look from beneath his brows. “You still think I should’ve held out for a vampire?”
I shook my head. “Maybe at first, but not now. You two have something special—even I can see that. You find your mate, you claim her.”
He nodded, slow. “Yeah. You just know. And when you do…” He exhaled, shoulders rising and falling like the weight of it lived in his lungs. “It’s everything. Nothing else on Earth even comes close. It doesn’t matter that she’s not a vampire. She’s just Eden.”
He eyed me, waiting.
I glued my gaze to the road. Saying it aloud would make it real, break open something I’d never be able to close again.
He snorted. “You gonna make me drag it out of you?”
“I’m thinking,” I growled. “This is—” I shook my head.
“Alright, then tell me this. What would you do to keep her?”
“Anything.” My voice was low, guttural, the words ripped from my heart. “Burn down the world. Bleed it dry. Whatever it took.”
“Does she know?”
“I offered her sanctuary, didn’t I?”
“So? She’s an in, a way to get to Nazaire. You would’ve done that for anyone close to him—right?”
“Probably,” I admitted. “But I wasn’t thinking of him when I made the offer. I was thinking of her, that she needed a safe place. Somewhere away from that controlling sonofabitch.”
“So you want to protect her,” Talon said, “and you’d do anything to keep her.” He shook his head. “You, my friend, are well and truly fucked. Because right now, she thinks that all she is to you is bait. Those texts—”
My back teeth clamped together. That was the curse of brothers. They were world-class bullshit detectors.
“I did it for the syndicate. For you—all of you.”
“So she is bait.”
“Fuck you.” I swung into the next curve, tires screaming.
Talon gave a little half-smile and braced himself so he didn’t get flung out of the convertible.
“Okay,” I conceded after the car righted itself. “I saw an opportunity and took it. But she’s not bait—he’s not getting anywhere near her. I’ll take him apart with my bare hands if I have to.”
“Then you better make sure she knows that,” he said. “Because if she thinks she’s just a pawn, it won’t matter what that bastard does. You’ll lose her anyway.”
“Not going to happen.” I eased off the gas, every muscle locked tight at the thought of Nyx walking away for good.
Mine.
My Nyx. My forever.
It wasn’t love. That word felt too pale, too soft for what burned in me. Love was for humans. What I felt was older, hungrier—something forged out of blood and bone and magic.
She was the only woman for me. The one who could break me just by turning her back.
And I’d smashed her trust.
“I’ll make this right,” I told Talon. “Whatever it takes.”