Suddenly, I’m overcome by a powerful sense of . . . sexuality. Erotica. Deep-core horniness that makes me scream and grope at the body pinning me down.
“Someone better fucking hurry up over here,” the voice on top of me says. “If she gets loose, someone’s in trouble.”
His breath brushes my lips as he speaks. I reach, wriggle beneath him. Gotta have him . . .
“Hold her still,” a voice says.
“I might like her kind of trouble,” a new voice comments. Accent . . . funny. Hard to understand. Familiar.
“This is as still as she gets,” the voices says on top of me. “Hurry.”
A pinprick, and as soon as the sensation has begun to claw at the body hovering over me, it disappears. I settle, ease, and the pain leaves me as I drift into a weightless black cloud of nothingness. . . .
The ebb and flow of waves against the shore pull me out of my deep slumber. The heavy brine of salt and sea life wash over me, and I inhale. Familiar.
“Hey,” a voice says gently. “You’re back.”
I’m on my back, a thick softness below me, and a chilly breeze lifts my hair. I open my eyes and blink rapidly as the light pours in. Finally, my eyes can tolerate the sudden change and I focus on the figure kneeling beside me. His face grows closer, and he reaches out and strokes my cheek. I lift my hand and thread my fingers through his.
“Noah,” I say, and my voice comes out croaky and broken. My throat feels as if someone has dragged a handful of thorns across it.
“Shh,” he says, and covers my lips with his finger. He leans closer, mercury eyes searching my face. “How ya feeling?”
I look at him. “My whole body aches.” My gaze goes beyond Noah’s figure, to the lean-to palm roof I’m lying under. Several feet away, the edges of the sea wash up onto the shore. It’s late afternoon, and a low sun falls somewhere behind us. “I’m at Da Island?”
Noah nods. “Yeah, darlin’, you are.”
I stare up at the palms covering my head. Fear chokes me into a panic, and my breath hitches in my throat, quickens. “Noah?” I don’t even know what to ask, or what to say. I don’t know what’s happened.
“What do you remember?” he asks. His hand squeezes mine.
I concentrate. “The realm. Victorian.” I squeeze my eyes shut. “Jesus Christ, he killed his brother,” I say. Then my eyes flash open and I force myself to sit up. “You,” I say on a painful whisper. “Eli—you bit him. Noah, Christ—”
“He’s alive,” Noah says with a smile. “Fine, no, not yet. Far from it. He’s in deep detox. Deeper than you, Riley. Couldn’t even keep him on the same island as you. I’m surprised even on the same continent. He’s not out of the woods yet. He’s . . . in it bad.”
I sit back and my brain hurts from trying to sort things out. I push my fingertips to my temples, massaging, trying to force the memories out. “I don’t remember anything.”
Noah chuckles, and another biting breeze whips through. “Yeah, I guess you don’t. Another hell of a plane ride. Had to take two jets. You on one, Eli on the other.”
I stare up at the fading sun peeking through the makeshift roof made of scrub palms and pine limbs. I’m not as settled as I should be, hearing that Eli made it out of the realm. “Tell me everything, Noah,” I say. Tears choke my throat and claw behind my eyes, and finally, they escape. “Where’s my brother? Preacher? Victorian? Rhine?”
Noah reaches over with a finger and wipes my cheeks. “It’s just you and me here, darlin’. We have the island to ourselves. Rhine and the Ness boys are fine. Had to make that young pup return to Inverness. He wanted to come here, watch over you, insisted on flying back with us. He left a couple of weeks ago, and he calls or texts me every day, asking about you. And yes, everyone else is . . . alive.” He narrows his eyes. “You sure you’re up to this?”
With a gusty sigh, I nod. “Might as well be.” Relief washes over me. Rhine and the boys are safe. Everyone is alive.
Noah scoots close, pulls me up in his arms, and settles me against his chest. He pulls the patchwork quilt—one I recognize is made by my Gullah grandma, Estelle—over my legs and waist. “This is going to take all night.”
Part Ten
SACRED VOWS
I’m your density. I mean . . . your destiny.
Before this is all over I am probably going to lose my mind. I don’t remember ever being so off track and restless. I’ve got chunks of time missing in my memory, and I can’t seem to get a straight answer out of anyone. What I thought was one thing turns out to be something else. What have I become? Something feels different this time, something inside me is different. Almost . . . like I have two people inside me. Or more.
“It’s what?” I ask, almost jerking out of the comfort of Noah’s arms.
“Settle down, wildcat,” he says quietly. “It’s mid-January.”
No longer comforted, I sit up, turn around, and face Noah. He’s sitting with his back against the pile of quilts and pillows. “How in the hell can it be mid-January, Noah? We were in Inverness in early November.”
“I know.”
I blink, awaiting a decent answer.
Where has all the time gone?
Noah rests his forearms against his drawn-up knees and looks at me. “Do you remember everything that happened in the realm?”
I think about it. “I killed Carrine. Then Eli attacked me.” I look at him. “Valerian tried to make me kill Eli. But . . .” I think hard, my memories starting to blur. “Victorian showed up. He killed Valerian.” Panic rises in my throat. “I saw you . . . bite Eli. Then Vic picked me up and ran. Everything else is a . . . blur.”
Noah nods, his gaze locking on to mine. “It’s called a cluster fuck, Riley. I had to subdue Eli. He was . . . out-of-control sick. His bloodlust . . .” He shakes his head, and a long dread falls over his shoulder. “It was greater than any I’ve ever seen before.” He looks at me. “Ever.”
“What’d you do, Noah?” I ask. My fear has risen and turned to bile. My stomach hurts.
“I gave him my venom. Maybe too much. It was the only thing to do at the time. He was going apeshit crazy in there. It made him calm enough to get him out of the realm and back to the Crachan. I had him in chains by the time Jake and Gabriel showed up. And then, hell. There was you.”
I look at him, waiting.
“Jake, Gabriel, and Luc took one jet with Eli, back to Savannah. I grabbed another one with you, Seth, Phin, Rhine, and Arcos. Preacher, his cousin Garr, and Eli’s parents were waiting for us at the airport. Preacher accompanied Eli’s parents to the other island with Eli. Jake, Gabriel, and Luc went, too. Garr set us up here. Arcos, on another island.”
I cock my head, puzzled. “What do you mean?”
Noah shrugs. “Between Preacher and Garr, and Eli’s parents, they insisted that if Arcos was going to hang around here, he had to be cleansed. It didn’t take long. He was pretty cooperative.”
“Where is he now?” I ask.
Noah rubs his chin with his hands. “Lucky for us, Vic killed his own brother, instead of me killing Valerian. He’s back in Romania right now, clearing things up with his family.”
I notice Noah is telling me everything there is to know about everyone . . . except me.