Page 9 of Wedlock

“I guess,” I frown, thinking through her answer and recognising the sense of it.

‘No woman would, surely, marry a vampire if it were not for the fact that they gained immortality. No woman except someone stupid enough to fall in love with one.’

“The Games wouldn’t exist if women didn’t seek immortality through vampire husbands,” I muse out loud, “that’s the main reason humans marry vampires.”

“The Games would still exist,” she snorts in disgust, “as they once did. Women would not volunteer, and so they’d be hunted. Without the bite they wouldn’t last long. A vampire might catch and marry thousands of women in his long, long lifetime.”

“Oh.”

“I’ve once again shared knowledge with you that no vampire can know,” she sighs heavily, “even as you rip the heart out of my castle. So, answer me truthfully, Angelina. Do you have a sense of where Falcon is?”

I shake my head, once more wishing she could read my eyes when I answer, because by-fuck I’m trying to impress upon her that something is very, very wrong.

“No.”

She looks down at her hands, folded in her lap, nods as though I’d confirmed what she needed to know and, rising, heads for the door.

“Eleanor!” I shout to her retreating back, but she doesn’t turn, merely shaking her head as she keeps walking, as though she can’t bear to hear any more from me.

After she’s gone I lie back on the pillows, one hand resting on my sleeping baby’s head, and allow my mind to wander and seek.

It doesn’t take long to find him.

“Gotcha,” I whisper, frowning as I concentrate on Viper’s surroundings.

Impressions float through my mind like tendrils of coloured smoke. He’s far away on a castle grounds somewhere. The castle is bigger than this one, and older. There’s a big forest in the background, pine trees, I think, no, spruce. I can smell them, and something else…

I gasp and pull back from his mind as I sense through his perception someone’s terror — and his excitement.

8

“Not at all,” I drawl as I consider the map laid out on the table before me, indicating where Wolf plans to travel next. “Accompanying you will give me something to think about other than ripping my former friend apart and burning down my castle. I’m very happy to come with you.”

“Terrific,” Wolf grins.

I answer his grin despite myself andtake another drink.

This will be the first sister-search I’ve carried out with Wolf since arriving a week ago. I know I’m holding him up from it and he’s itching to leave. He’d only stayed on at his castle this longbecause I’d called telling him I was desperately seeking a refuge. I don’t bother telling him that I don’t believe he has a sister; that ship sailed long ago. Right now I need any distraction I can find, because fucking, killing and drinking, not necessarily in that order, certainly aren’t helping at all. Quite the opposite.

So, he searches, I accompany.

In between trips I intend to live here in his isolated castle like a medieval hermit, attended to by his geriatric servants.

There’s something comforting about this place. Jag once called it a ‘bachelor pad gone feral,’ but for me it holds a certain charm in its faded grandeur.

Either way, this is exactly the bolthole I need right now. The place may not have been redecorated in centuries, but Wolf does have a very healthily stocked wine cellar, which I fully intend to put a major dent in.

Then in three years I’ll go home and do what has to be done.

“How do you keep your faith, Wolf?” I murmur as I consider all the little red crosses on his map, each one indicating a place he’d combed for his missing sister. Thousands and thousands of crosses marking centuries of searching.

“I know what I know,” he shrugs. “I loved her then, I love her now. I want her back. Is that so hard to understand?”

“No,” I murmur, downing my drink. “I understand more than you imagine.”

‘Because even now I crave my wife. As she’d rested her head against my chest and begged me not to hurt her baby I’d railed inside that it wasn’t mine, but I knew I’d never hurt her or any part of her, even as she ripped my heart out. Even then.’

“You know, the Queen won’t be put off for long,” Wolf says quietly, looking up to meet my eyes before flicking his attention back down to the map. “She wants to see your heir.”