Page 67

Sixty-Two

HARLOW

He winks before becoming a blur through the trees, only unlike every other time I watched him with human eyes, this time I’m able to track his precise path, right down to the last-minute direction change he takes before disappearing deeper into the undergrowth, using the closely packed trees to successfully hide.

Once two minutes have passed, I take off after him, merging into the forest and following his scent. It weaves around trees and doubles back in places, reminding me of how I once ran away from him in this same forest.

Around another tree, and then…he’s gone.

I pause, inhaling deeply. His familiar scent is definitely on the wind, but muted. My eyes flick around the dark forest, examining the shadows, seeking signs of the being who’d stick out but finding nothing. Far away, a bird chirps and elsewhere, squirrels scurry, but no vampire.

I pace backwards a few feet, picking up his scent once more. Stronger now, clinging to the ground. It leads me in the same path, and around the tree, it’s gone once again.

“Where are you?” I whisper to myself, but it’s as much to him as well.

He’s close. He’s watching. It’s a test.

I feel him.

I tilt my head back to regard the branches high above my head, barely finishing the movement before my vision is overtaken with complete blackness as a figure drops from a branch and comes down on top of me.

At the last second, I duck to the side, my speed making it possible, causing him to fall messily. He peers up at me, his crimson eyes flashing in the dark and his lips pull apart in a way that’s both sexy and alluring.

“Good job. Now, let’s see if you can catch me. Ready or not.”

He zips off.

* * *

By the time we make it out of the forest, I’m more than excited for a shower. In fact, I never plan on leaving the damn room. Alec leads me toward the castle at a mortal walking pace, which I find interesting, but it allows me to take in everything. He pushes open the large wooden doors with as much effort as a human would opening a closet door.

I enter the castle, this time in a much different manner than him dragging me in as a captive and me running away as an escapee. There is no more being locked in a dungeon. No more claustrophobia?—

“Shit, vampires don’t get phobias, do they? Do those transfer from human life?”

“Never heard of it happening.”

“Yet another bonus of being immortal.” After the run home, the chase through the forest, and pretty much everything since chugging the cup Cedric taunted me with, I’ve loved it.

Being a vampire is like being reborn. Harlow Sinclair, witch, holder of the cure, last living Sinclair, died and in her place is a witch-vampire hybrid who embraces both kinds of magick. With a mate by my side, which I could never have guessed wanting.

“You know what’s funny?” I ask, trailing Alec to the stairs. “When you once taunted me with keeping me alive forever, I thought that I’d rather burn in Hell before ever letting you bite me.”

His grin is full of a heat, rivalling my fire. “I’m a persuasive man when I want to be.”

At the base of the stairs, my attention goes down the hallway, where the ballroom is. His throne, where he lorded over all the vampires he tried to sell me off to. “If you’re king, does that make me the queen of vampires?”

“Queen of vampires. Queen of me. Queen of the witches, if you your power doesn’t stop developing.”

“How will the other vampires take you having a witch as your consort?”

He yanks me against his body, his growl echoing around the staircase. “First, you’re not only a witch. Second, fuck them. Third, you’re my equal, not my consort. Now, let’s find a shower so I can show you how I bow to my queen.”

* * *

His tribute is worthy of a queen.

* * *

Later, an hour before the sun is scheduled to rise, I lean on the balcony attached to his bedroom. A feature I hadn’t noticed last time. Perhaps if I did, I would have saved the trouble of breaking the window in my room and propelled myself down from here.

Alec lingers beside me, his hands resting on the railing as he monitors his property. He seems calm, but every once in a while his nostrils will flare and his gaze pauses on something in the distance, before continuing his watch, apparently deeming whatever he sees as no threat.

Me…I’m too focused on the moon above. It’s a bright white, a beacon in the darkness. Exactly like what Alec ended up being for me.

The wind blows, warm and gentle, and wraps around me like black magick does. Like it’s Hecate’s way of greeting me.

“Do you think She’s mad?”

“Who?” Alec looks away from the treeline.

“Hecate. The Goddess. I’m a combination of three things, two of which go against what She believes.”

“If that’s true, she sucks as a leader. Besides, Freya said she isn’t.” He pushes off the balcony, trailing his lips over my bare shoulder, only a towel wrapped around my frame form the shower. “Come to bed, Hellion, so I may show you what eternity will be like.”

It’s tempting but doesn’t feel right to abandon the outdoors yet. “Five minutes, then I’ll come in.”

He drops a kiss to my forehead before entering his room, shutting the door to give me privacy.

The wind blows again, this time gentler. With it, there’s the scent of flames, like two old friends meeting one another.

“Is this your sign, Hecate, that you’re watching over me? Freya says you are. Is it true?”

Utter and emptying silence.

No more wind.

With a defeated sigh, I push off the balcony, twisting to go inside when a voice, silky and soft, soundless from a form without a physical shape. Different than Darkness and Alec, with an influence only She has.

Yes, daughter, it is true I have not forsaken you. You’ve become exactly what you were meant to. You are the hybrid of Light and Dark, of witch and vampire. You are the reason the cure has been extinguished. The reason vampires and witches will one day unite for good. You are the only witch truly capable of wielding the Dark gift in a manner that will not destroy yourself. I am very proud of you, Harlow Sinclair, and very pleased to call you mine. Blessed Be.

And then, all is silent once more.

Blessed Be, Hecate.

I enter the bedroom, finding Alec seated in one of the chairs by the unlit fireplace, a drink in hand. I slide into his lap and take the glass, sipping from it. The strong alcohol doesn’t have the same kick it once did.

“Find everything you were looking for out there?”

“I did, yeah.”

We fall silent, sharing the drink. With a mindless wave of my hand, a spell ignites in the fireplace, setting the wood on fire and casting a heat neither of us need around the room. The flames flickering against the stone backing reminds me of how Alec and I came together.

Thank you for kidnapping me. For not killing me. For helping me get my powers back. For apparently fulfilling fate.

Fuck fate, Hellion. No matter what, I would have found you and made you mine. My powerful witch, my Bride…all mine.

I love you, Alec Dormer, asshole bloodsucker.

Forever?

Only if you tell me your true age.

He smirks and finally admits it.

Apparently, I like older men.