Page 27

Lorcan

I waited until I knew she was at the top of the stairs.

I held her napkin to my lips, inhaling the scent of her blood.

I shouldn’t have tasted it or even brought her hand to my lips, not after how she kissed me and the storm of feelings already raging inside me.

My entire body relaxed as my heart pounded, the scent more intoxicating than any blood I had ever had.

So much so that the idea of feeding from anyone else became ludicrous.

And that was the problem, the same thing that had happened to Ashdowne from the mere scent of Lady Isobel’s blood. The desire to go to Briar, to stay at her side, and to love and cherish her pulled at every inch of me. I gritted my teeth.

I needed to talk to Cormac. I needed to get out of here. I grabbed my phone from my pocket, feeling ridiculous. I dialed his number.

“Hello?”

“Where are you?” I asked my question hurriedly.

“In my office. Go to the Henderson’s side of the building and take the elevator to the top floor. Our offices are there.”

I hung up the phone and made my way to the corporate side of the building. Taking the steps, I was in front of my brother’s office door in seconds. I looked around and saw an office for each of my brothers and me—an office I had never set foot in.

“Lorcan, you can come in.” My brother’s voice floated through the door.

I walked through the assistant’s office into the inner sanctum. It looked like any modern office one would imagine. The room had once been servants’ quarters, but now, the beamed ceiling with its recessed lighting gave off an elegant and refined corporate feel.

Cormac looked up from behind his oversized desk, papers strewn out before him. “Brother, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Can I get you a drink?”

I shook my head. “No. Now that Briar has the documentation on Lady Isobel, I only need you to take us home. I would get a commercial flight, but Briar would question it. Please, Cormac.”

His eyes darkened. “We need your help.”

My lip quivered. It had been over a hundred years since I confided in my brother, but I had no choice but to do so now if I were to untangle Briar from our family. I lowered my voice. “I need to be away from her. I can no longer be beside her.”

“She looked quite fond of you when you returned from the gardens. Did you have a row?” A sarcastic smile played on his lips.

“Brother, this isn’t funny. You have a witch at your side if Aiden comes to power. Briar would be killed.” I didn’t want to plead with him, but I would if I had to.

“Then help us,” he growled. “What has changed anyway? Why are you so insistent on going now?”

I pressed my lips together and looked at the ceiling.

I hated him, but I loved him too, trusted him.

I pulled air into my lungs, feeling them expand.

“I tasted her. I tasted her blood, and it was the most exquisite I ever had. If I spend another day in this house with her, I won’t be able to continue to deny myself.

And the last thing I want is to fall for her. I cannot have her be a part of this.”

He folded his hands and closed his eyes, almost like Father did when trying to guide us. “Do you think she’s your—”

“Don’t even go there. Don’t say it.” I clenched my teeth. “You know the bloodlines are the same. The chances of this being the same cursed pairing as Ashdowne—”

“Are extremely low. Ashdowne only wanted control of Isobel, yet I haven’t seen a hint of that with you and Briar. You are ready to deny yourself her love so you can protect her. But right now, that is the worst thing you could do.”

“What do you mean?” I struggled to keep my voice flat.

Cormac sighed, staring at his desk. “We’ve recently heard from the coven in Savannah. Aiden has moved several of his people into the city. They aren’t near the plantation yet—”

“You’re not helping your cause.”

“He’s going to the plantation because he wants the Cure. And if you have any feelings for Briar, you have to think clearly. She’s in more danger away from us than with us, where we can protect her.”

My heart slammed into my ribs as my stomach twisted.

I groaned and dropped my head into my hands.

“How can we protect her when he’s invincible?

All it takes is one stake, and you and I are both dead while he lives.

” I raised my eyes to look at him, his face stone, a look I knew well.

“Oh my God. There is more to this, isn’t there? ”

I stood and walked to the side of the room. Stopping before the mantel, I gripped it. “What are you not telling me?”

Cormac sat back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. “Aiden is not the only one of us who cannot die.”

The words knocked the air out of my lungs, and I struggled to breathe. “What are you saying?”

He was beside me in a flash, his hand on my shoulder. “To find the Cure, the spell Aurora had to complete needed the heart blood of an O’Cillian coating a stake of ash. I gave her mine.”

“Yet you are here, so you—”

“All of us, brother. There is so much our parents never told us.”

I wanted to scream and fight, but my insides fell. “More than this?”

He bit the inside of his cheek. “Our ability to walk in the sun was not passed to us from Runa. Someone supplies her with O’Cillian blood to allow her to be a daywalker. I’m starting to suspect that person is Aiden, but I cannot prove it.”

The laugh that escaped my lips was bitter. “But Aiden nearly ended the truce.”

“Unless it was all a setup, a ruse so the two of them could work together.”

“Do you have anything besides a suspicion?”

Cormac shook his head. “I don’t. But what I know is this. We need to find the Cure. And if you have these desires for Briar, you must keep her here with us.”

I searched his eyes. “What am I supposed to do about this feeling, brother? About her?”

He put both his hands on my shoulders. “Follow it. Embrace it. Fall in love.”

I wanted to protest and argue—put up a fight. I wanted to collapse under the weight of everything he just told me, to run and never look back as I had for the last one hundred and fifteen years.

“I’ll take that drink now.”