Page 125 of Seared Fates

I peck his lips, encouraging him to continue.

His grip on my hip tightens. “Úlfr’s number.”

“Your oldest son?” I ask, perking up.

He nods slowly.

“I…” Vidar clears his throat.

“Wanna call Ulfr?” I hope I pronounce his name right. From the way Vidar smiles, I don’t think I have. But he doesn’t correct me. “I’d love to meet him.”

Tension drains from Vidar’s tightly coiled body. “Have I told you today that I’m the luckiest bastard alive?”

I press a kiss into his cheek. Then his jaw and his nose. All over his face until our lips meet. “I’m pretty sure you did this morning, when I woke up with your mouth around my prick. But I ain’t opposed to hearing more compliments.”

Vidar laughs easily, loud and booming and filling every corner of the room.

Grinning, I loop my arms around his neck. “Ready to call Ulfr?”

Vidar brushes my scarred cheek with his thumb before swiping on his phone a few times.

After three rings, where Vidar doesn’t dare breathe, the phone is answered.

“Hello?”

It’s startling to hear a voice so similar to Vidar’s, yet completely different. Ulfr’s voice is deep, steady. Like he’s slow to anger, and his every move is well considered before acting.

Vidar clears his throat. “Hello, son.”

A pause.

Then the smallest exhale. Maybe a laugh, or a sigh of relief—or both.

“Hey, old man.”

***

Standing outside the mansion, the wind whistles through me. Warmer than it was yesterday as winter begins to lose its vice-like grip, and we creep into the beginning of spring. The evening sky is shot through with stars and fluffy white clouds.

There’s no sound to warn me when Sen appears at my side.

“Looks like I won’t be getting paid for the job that brought me here,” Sen says casually, hands tucked into tailored black trousers.

“And you're sure it was Summer who hired you?”

“It all checked out, and she used a fake name, which isn’t unusual, so I didn’t know it was her when we met.”

“I guess you could chase her down for payment. You did technically lead her to the First Tome.”

He chuckles. “Not this time. I’m thinking about sticking around. For a while, anyway.”

“At Vampire Manor?”

“That’s what you call this place?” Sen grins, fingers running through his wave of midnight-dark hair. “I’ll stay somewhere in the city.”

“It’ll be good to have you close by,” Vidar calls as he walks down the steps towards us, gravel crunching underfoot.

Sen strolls over to his car, a sexy, sleek thing wrapped in shiny black. “And it’s good you’re no longer apathetic.”