She glared.
“This can’t go down like this. You need to trust me.” Then my eyes trailed down the front of her and my cock hardened. “If another fuckin’ guy looks at you like this, I’m going to lose it. Have some mercy here. This shit is complicated. Give me some time.”
“You had two years.”
I sighed. “I need you to do this for me. Please.”
I felt the moment she gave in to me as the stiffness went out of her body. “Fine. But I want to know every detail. And if you’re longer than an hour, I’m coming down naked.” She slipped from my grasp and turned to go back to her room, hips swaying provocatively. She glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, and it was your cock straining against your jeans that convinced me to let you win—this time.”
I groaned. Hell, I was in trouble with this chick.
“Where have you been for two years?” Keir demanded as soon as I entered the living room.
I walked over to the bar and helped myself to a Bombay and tonic. “Nowhere special.” Reliving the hell I’d been through and trying to rid myself of the vampire blood was not something I wanted to go into. Ever.
Waleron, who rarely sat in anyone’s presence, sat in the high-backed leather chair, one leg resting over the other. Casual. Too casual. “Did you mention Danielle to anyone?”
“I was trying to forget her, not torture myself.” And it had failed miserably considering she’d haunted my mind twenty-four seven.
“I don’t understand it,” Keir said. “Who can do this? And why? What is the point of Bonding two people together? It has no purpose. Even Trinity can’t bond two people together like this.”
Shit. Could it be possible that some fuckin’ witch put a spell on us? “Bonded? That hasn’t been done. At least I’ve never heard of it being done.” I leaned up against the cabinet that held an array of ancient artifacts and took a sip of my drink. “As far as I know, only a damn powerful witch can pull that shit off.”
“And a witch would have nothing to gain.” Keir shook his head. “No, someone more powerful. Danni would’ve died if you’d been put in Rest.”
“More powerful,” Waleron repeated. “Did you feel anything while you were away? A spell being cast?”
I hesitated. I’d spent most of my time fighting the tainted blood inside me. It took every bit of control to refrain from seeking vampires and joining them. The constant thirst begged me to drink from any who came near me.
“Balen?” Waleron asked.
“No. Not that I was aware of,” I replied. I couldn’t tell them I had drunk Ryszard’s blood and Danni’s. It couldn’t be the reason for our connection; I’d driven all the tainted blood from my system.
“How far were you from here?” Waleron asked.
“I went to England for the first year then returned to Canada. However, I never came to see her until recently.”
“And when you came back?” Waleron asked.
All I knew was that I’d had this urgency to be with Danni the minute I laid eyes on her again. “It was odd. I never thought of it before now, but when I came back and saw her again, it was like . . . shit, I don’t know, like I was compelled to be with her. God, I even stayed outside her place like some stalker.” It had to be a spell.
“Shit.” Keir pressed his fingers to his temple. “Sounds like a spell. Why, though?”
“Delara knows something,” Waleron said. I froze, drink halfway to my mouth. “She warned me that Danielle would die if I put you in Rest. She refused to tell me anything more.”
“Refused you?” Keir asked, brows rising.
Waleron ignored him. “Bonding is an old spell used by the ancients. It was originally for breeding purposes. The most powerful male Scars were Bonded to the most powerful women so reproduction was guaranteed to produce a child with the strongest abilities. It was a way for us to gain strength. Damien is of a Bonded line. That is why he is a Tracker and a Visionary.”
“But there is nothing gained by Bonding us together. She’s human.” Fuck, this was bad. I’d be hunted by the Wraiths and now I was Bonded to Danni—a human.
“Who is capable of Bonding?” Keir asked.
“Few,” Waleron replied. He placed his untouched brandy on the coffee table and rose. “Be ready. The Wraiths, they will come for you. I’ll be back shortly.”
“I promised to tell her about us,” I said before Waleron had a chance to Trace.
Keir swore under his breath, but remained quiet.
Waleron nodded. “Yes. It’s time. She must join us.”
“What the hell does that mean?” My eyes narrowed and my body tensed.
Waleron said, “She must become a Scar. If she doesn’t, she’ll die. Because, Balen, the Wraiths will capture you and put you in Rest. It’s just a matter of when.”
Before I could ask how the hell it was possible for a human to become a Scar, Waleron Traced from the room.
Waleron had become a cold, heartless bastard who had no compassion for anyone. A few thought his lack of emotion was an after effect from when Waleron was captured by a Lilac over a hundred years ago. Lilacs were Center World Others—females, nasty. They lured men into their web and sucked the life right out of them. Sometimes Lilacs placed their prey in cocoons and let them stay alive for weeks, trapped in hell.
Waleron had been a Lilac’s captive for sixty-one years.