Though Ethan now spooned her, she could tell he’d shut down as well. But this kind of intense coupling reminded her of the descriptions her girlfriends would give of honeymoon experiences, but she barely knew Ethan and he was a different species, neither human nor fae.
And she was just getting used to being something that she’d never known about in her twenty-eight years of living on the planet.
He cleared his throat. “Hey, I loved what we just did.”
“I know. Me, too.” She yawned and patted his arm. “It’s okay. We have a lot to figure out in the next few days, but right now, I think I need some sleep.”
“Good idea.”
Though Samantha felt unsettled by the awkwardness of the moment, the fatigue of the night fell on her and she drifted into a deep sleep.
*** *** ***
The next afternoon, Ethan awoke to an empty bed and his first thought was something close to panic. His concern for Samantha’s safety rode his nerves constantly, from the time Ry had shown up outside her Shreveport house.
He sat up and looked around, listening intently into the depths of the house, but everything sounded normal. He released a deep sigh and slid his legs over the side of the bed.
He knew his household well, that his staff would have already made Samantha, as well as Vojalie and Davido, feel welcome. Because he had a state-of-the-art security system, and all vampires were still indoors at this hour, he let his fears slide away. Even wraiths had a certain sensitivity to sunlight. At least for now, Samantha was safe.
His clothes still lay where he’d dropped them and he smiled. He crossed to his leathers and found his phone. Calling Finn, he got an update on the night’s patrols and found that the battle at the Guildhall had quieted the Invictus, at least for the present, and only two patrols reported skirmishes, each squad dispatching the enemy, no survivors.
“Good. That’s good. I’ll be joining you at full dark, as usual.”
“You could take the night off.”
“No reason to.”
Finn didn’t respond.
The Guardsman’s silence ticked Ethan off, because he could feel his lieutenant frowning his disapproval yet again. Damn Finn. For the past two years he’d been riding Ethan hard about letting his men do more. But how could Ethan relinquish what had been so solemnly given into his care? The one thing Finn would never understand was what it felt like to be a mastyr vampire, what level of responsibility came with that title.
So, he’d just have to suck it up. “See you at nightfall.”
He hung up and set his mind to what items of realm business he needed to attend to. The mayor of Cameron, his realm’s largest city, wanted a conference sometime next week about setting up a federation of sister-cities of the Nine Realms. Ethan might be in charge of border security, but the mayors held the cities and towns together, which still didn’t eliminate the need for Ethan to have his hand in the day-to-day political machinery of realm-life.
Showering, he recalled what he’d done with Samantha just a few hours ago, how she’d lathered him and he’d returned the favor, the intense love-making, the unexpected depth of connection because of shared frequencies.
Sweet Goddess, he’d like to do that again.
But as he toweled off and started blowing the mass of his hair dry, he scowled at his reflection. What the hell was he doing with Samantha, anyway? Yes, her blood had stopped what had been decades of blood-starvation and he would always be grateful, but beyond that, she was a half-human who didn’t want to be here and he had no interest in a long-term anything.
He also knew that if he didn’t take steps to create some kind of tolerable distance from her, things could get messy. She might get attached to him in a way he couldn’t reciprocate.
He had to figure some way to keep her safe and get rid of her at the same time.
It dawned on him that his other fae guest, Vojalie, might hold the key for him and his chest expanded as a full-blown concept came to him that would answer all his problems and be a good thing for Samantha at the same time.
*** *** ***
Samantha held the fresh, sliced strawberries to her lips, carried there by a fork, and stared at Ethan. “Say, what?” Had she heard him right. She let the strawberries slide into her mouth then chewed, but she’d lost the ability to taste what had begun as a promising bowl of ripe fruit.
“It would only be temporary.” He scowled, then crossed his arms over his chest. He stood next to the table opposite her, having arrived with a clear purpose in mind.
Davido sat beside Samantha, holding baby Bernice over his left shoulder, rubbing her back in slow circles.
Vojalie was at the long table as well. She’d been nursing the baby and was waiting for a burp before continuing. She had a flannel shawl, in a soft shade of lavender, draped over her shoulder to her waist. She was a mother with practice. She glanced slowly from Samantha to Ethan, her large brown eyes wide.
Samantha drew a deep breath and addressed the subject straight out. “Ethan, I don’t know what bug crawled up your butt, but the last thing I’m going to do is leaving Bergisson for Merhaine Realm. Even I, in just the infancy of my powers, know I belong here.”
“You’re going. The Mastyr of Merhaine, Gerrod, is already bonded to his woman, Abigail, so I won’t have to worry about him going after you. Vojalie can teach you from her home as well as any other place. And right now, I need to focus on Ry and his current leadership of the Invictus. We could be attacked at any moment and I need you safe.”
“You need me out of the way.” She set her fork down and leaned back in her chair. She’d finished half her breakfast, but had suddenly lost her appetite for the rest.
She watched Ethan beneath hooded lids, his aggressive stance, the set of his chin, his biceps flexing then releasing.
She’d felt those arms last night, same reflexes, different situation.
When she’d awakened and seen just how deeply he slept, she’d left his bed, returned to her room, and dressed for the day. But the entire time, butterflies had flitted around her stomach as she wondered what Ethan would think of the night they’d spent together, whether he’d in any way felt as altered this morning as she did, and somehow hoping that his first words would be as full of awe as she felt.
She couldn’t have been more mistaken, since after an initial greeting upon approaching the table, he’d said, ‘I’m sending you to Merhaine.’
“I’m not going. I’m staying here. I belong here. I feel it in every fae-ish vibration through my body right now.”