Page 10 of Wicked Bonds

Balthazar canted his head, curious. “If anything, that would only intensify our connection.”

“Stay out of my head.”

“Not a chance, Lee,” he murmured. “It’s only fair that I read your mind and recover what you stole from me.”

She considered misting—something she kept thinking about doing—yet remained as though ensnared by his presence.

Balthazar told her with a look similar to the one he’d just given her in the hallway that he didn’t recommend her following through with that idea. She might be able to teleport herself out of here, but he’d find her, and he would make her talk. Better to face the truth now than to prolong the inevitable.

“Why?” he asked. “Why did you take my memories of you?”

“Because it wasn’t time for you to know me yet. I shouldn’t…weshouldn’t…” She trailed off and cleared her throat. “I’m here to protect Stas. Nothing else.”

Her mind immediately contradicted her words.

He studied her as the memory peeked at him, reminding him of a day he wouldn’t soon forget.

Lizzie and Jayson’s wedding reception on the beach. Attacked by Jonathan’s men. An enigma dancing between Balthazar and the lethal bullets destined to kill him.

He arched a brow. “I see.” That certainly wasn’t a memory he desired to replicate, but it told him a great deal about her intentions. She might be here for Stas, but it’d been his life Leela had saved that day. His ability to manipulate emotions told him how she felt about it, too.

Protective.

Like he belonged to her.

And it was her duty to keep him alive.

For Stas, she added.He’s a good guardian for Stas.

Balthazar’s lips curled. “And that’s the only reason, hmm?”

“Stas is what matters,” she reiterated. “Her legacy trumps everything else.”

The whispers of a prophecy hummed through her thoughts, grabbing his attention.An unknown power is surfacing. She will possess the strength and will to destroy us all unless certain measures are put in place to curb her inclinations.

Balthazar hadn’t heard the exact wording of Prophetess Skye’s premonition before, but he committed it to memory now.

Being a mind reader definitely had its perks, such as being able to interrogate someone whilst naked in a shower and capture all the answers he required without drawing a speck of blood. It was why he believed in making love over harming others.

There was a time and a place for violence.

But all that pent-up aggression could be used for other means entirely.

And he certainly preferred those latter methods.

He drew his fingers through her damp hair and walked her into the tiled wall at her back. She grabbed his hips, her nails biting into his skin as he pressed his groin to her flat belly.

“I promised to take care of you,” he reminded her softly.

She’d just finished delivering and saving his best friend’s child. It was one of the primary reasons Balthazar had chosen this method of interrogation. Not only did she need a shower to remove the blood from the birth, but she also deserved his gratitude after everything she’d sacrificed.

Not just in protecting Stas or saving Balthazar’s life at the beach that day.

But in what she’d just gone through to coax Jayson and Lizzie’s child back into existence.

Balthazar had heard every word, every whisper of a thought, and then he’d felt her fertility energy drawing the seraphic soul back to its corporeal infant form. It’d been magnificent, heartbreaking, and beautiful all at the same time.

However, she’d left her mind vulnerable throughout the experience.