Page 36

Theon held his hand out, palm up, and Luka cut a line down the center. Theon tipped his hand so the blood ran down his palm, and Luka held up a small vial to collect it.

When the vial was full, the cut was already healing as Theon said, “Do you think I should wake her and tell her before we do it, or just…do it?”

Luka glanced up at him from what he was doing before refocusing on his task. He had pulled another vial from the case, and it was filled with a white liquid. Dumping the vial of Theon’s blood into the other, he replaced the cork and gently began mixing the two. “I think she has had enough surprises,” he finally answered, the mixture becoming a darker shade of red.

Theon pursed his lips and nodded, watching silently while Luka took a syringe from the case. He uncapped the needle before drawing the mixture into it. “You probably want to bring her out here though. That room is too small for both of us to be in there with her.”

“Yeah, all right,” Theon agreed.

Pushing out a heavy breath, he returned to where Tessa was sleeping. Pulling her hair back over her shoulder, he bent down and said softly into her ear, “Hey, beautiful. I need you to wake up for a bit.”

When she didn’t stir, he gently pulled the blankets back some and sat beside her on the small bed. Trailing his fingers up her arm, he tried again. “Tessa. Wake up. Just for a bit.”

After several seconds, her eyes fluttered, and she rolled over gingerly, her brow pinching in confusion. “Theon?”

“Yeah, I need—”

But he didn’t get to finish.

Tessa pushed herself up, and her lips landed on his. Theon froze, too shocked to do anything, but that only lasted for a second. The bond was humming away in excitement, and Theon slipped his hand into her hair and angled her head back just the way he liked it. Her hand came up and gripped the back of his neck, tugging him closer. Her lips tasted better than he had imagined, and he ran his tongue along the seam of them. She immediately parted, and she tasted like rain and pure light with a hint of something…darker he couldn’t place. The cord in his chest was pushing him to take more and more, to claim her and make her his in every way, and he groaned low in his throat.

Tessa suddenly wrenched herself away, sliding up to the head of the bed and cringing against it. She pulled the blanket up to her chin, her eyes wide with horror. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was doing…” She trailed off, her fingertips coming up to touch her lips. If they were tingling with pleasure the way his were, he understood why.

“It’s all right, Tessa. It’s the bond,” he said, reaching for her, but she shrank back from him even more. He dropped his hand. “I was away from you much longer than I should have been. The bond demands our closeness right now. This is how it should be.”

She stared back at him like that was not a justifiable explanation for what had just happened. Meanwhile, he was trying to stay focused on the task at hand instead of thinking about how he could get her to kiss him like that again.

He cleared his throat. “There is one more thing we need to do to complete the first Mark. Afterwards, you can rest and recover without interruption.”

Horror filled her grey eyes for a completely different reason now. “What else could you possibly do to me?”

Something in his gut twisted at the words, any desire coursing through him quickly snuffed out. “Come out to the bedroom, and I will explain.” When she didn’t move, he reached out a hand to her again. “I can carry you if you are in too much pain to walk right now,” he offered.

“I can walk fine,” she retorted, but the bite of her tone, or rather lack thereof, betrayed how weak she was feeling.

Theon stood to give her room, and she slid carefully from the small bed.

A bed she would not be sleeping in again. Not when there was a bed ten times more comfortable in the other room with plenty of space for both of them. The bed was designed to comfortably hold a Lord or Lady, their Match, and their Source.

He followed her a step behind in case she stumbled. Luka was standing by the fireplace, sipping on another glass of liquor. He glanced discreetly at the mantle where Theon spotted the syringe. Theon nodded in acknowledgement while Tessa took a seat in the chair. Neither he nor Luka moved, and she looked between them, exhaustion heavy in her features.

“Can you just do whatever it is you’re going to do to me so I can go back to my room and sleep?”

Theon let the comment about her room go for now as he came to stand before her. Crouching down, he peered up into her face. “To make sure your body fully accepts the start of the bond and the Mark, we need to give you an additional dose of tonic.”

“Of tonic,” she repeated. Luka had moved behind her and had drawn her hair back over one shoulder, exposing the column of her throat. She glanced back at him before returning her eyes to Theon. “The same tonic I drank before you cut me with a dagger?”

“It is a mixture of the tonic you were given by the Priestess and my magic.”

Her eyes went wide again. She tried to lurch to her feet, but Luka’s hands were on her shoulders, keeping her in place.

“What? No! Please don’t! Theon, don’t! My body is adjusting to everything fine. I feel the bond. The Mark is there. I will stay closer to you. I will do better with this!”

“This is the last thing. I swear, Tessa,” Theon said, turning and grabbing the syringe off the mantle. When he turned back, tears were streaming down Tessa’s face. He’d lost count of how many times he’d seen her cry in the last day.

She was pleading with him not to do this, and Luka’s face was strained with effort not only to keep her seated, but to not hurt her while doing so. “We either need to move her to the bed so I can hold her down without hurting her further, or you need to entrance her, Theon,” he gritted out.

Theon reached out and took her chin between his fingers, and she cried out in despair. “Please! Don’t, Theon! It hurts so much,” she sobbed.