Forever Bound Series 1-4(89)

“When were you born?” Jamie pressed.

Her gaze was still on the stars. “Long before men ever thought they’d travel up there.”

“Iona…”

Another little shrug. “Around 600 A.D., give or take a few years.”

He tried not to let his surprise show.

“I know, I look good for my age, right?” Her lips had curled into a faint smile.

Very good.

He found that he was curious about her. Maybe too curious. “How did you know…what you were?” He’d always known he was a werewolf. When puberty hit, there’d been no surprise when he grew fangs and claws and had the urge to howl at the moon. Surrounded by others of his kind, it had been an easy transition for him.

“I got the first clue when one of my father’s warriors stabbed me in the heart, tossed my body in a shallow grave, and left me to die.” Her gaze drifted to him. The smile was gone from her face. “Yes, that was my first big clue. He left me to die, only…I didn’t.”

His hands clenched into fists. “Why did he do that?”

Her gaze turned back to the stars. “Have they traveled up there? While I was…under…did they travel more to the moon? Maybe to another planet? I’ve seen so much in the years I walked the earth, but I’ve always wanted to go beyond the sky…”

He caught her hand. Twined his fingers with hers in order to catch Iona’s attention—and just because he wanted to hold her hand. “They’ve sent out robots. Rovers. They captured images of planets and stars. Searched and explored.” Hell, he’d take the woman on a little NASA field trip if she wanted…after they were done with Latham. He’d make sure she learned every advance that had been made in space exploration.

“It hasn’t changed,” she said, and with her free hand, she pointed to the sky. “Venus waits. Jupiter shines. The constellations are just as they were. Clothes are different. Music. Technology. But up there…it all looks the same to me.”

He squeezed her fingers. “Why did he stab you?”

“Because my hair wasn’t gray. Because my skin hadn’t wrinkled. Because I wasn’t bearing children for my husband.”

Her husband?

“Did I mention…” Iona murmured, “that my husband was the warrior who stabbed me?”

Sonofabitch. “No,” Jamie bit out the words, “you didn’t.”

“Purebloods usually stop aging around twenty-five. Their bodies just…they freeze. I didn’t realize that had happened to me, of course. I learned later that my father and my husband—they thought I was bewitched.” Her lips tightened. “Or that maybe I’d even made a deal with the devil.”

Blood Queen.

“When I got out of that grave, I made the mistake of running back to my people for help. You see, I still didn’t get it. I thought my father would help me. I was sure he couldn’t have known what Tylar had done. I was so scared and…” Her stare dipped to Jamie’s throat. “Hungry.”

Because her vampire side would have kicked in with all of the blood loss she’d suffered.

“But my father knew. The attack had been his plan. As soon as he saw me, he ordered his guards to prepare the fire.”

The fire. Jamie found that he couldn’t speak. His hold tightened on her.

“The guards bound my hands. Tied me to an old, rotting tree…put brush around me, and it was my father…he was the one to bring the first torch to start the blaze.”

The Blood Queen slaughtered a whole village. That was the tale he knew of Iona’s birth. Whispers had told of a Born Queen who’d been so stricken by bloodlust that she’d turned and attacked every person near her.

Only the story that Iona told was much different from what he’d heard. Jamie found that he didn’t doubt her account, not for an instant. There was too much pain humming beneath her words.

“I begged for help,” she said quietly. Her lips trembled. “So many were gathered around the fire, but no one would step forward to save me. No one.”

Now her fingers were squeezing his.

“I’d never known my mother. My father…he’d said that she was attacked by our enemies shortly after my birth. But there were rumors about her. Stories that said my mother could do magic.” Her long hair slid over her shoulders as she turned her head and gazed at him. “That day, I used magic, too. The fire should have consumed me.”

He knew vampires were particularly susceptible to the flames. Their bodies burned so quickly.

“But I managed to control the fire. I don’t know if it was my fear or my fury, but…something broke in me and I felt a surge of power.” Her breath sighed out. “I got away. I ran and I ran and then I realized…he’d always hunt me. My father wouldn’t stop searching for me because, to him, I was some kind of—of punishment.”

“Punishment? For what?” He didn’t understand, but he sure would have enjoyed doling out some justice to her sadistic father.

“For killing my mother,” Iona said in a soft, sad voice. “Our enemies didn’t kill her. I found out that truth too late. She died by my father’s hand.”

She’d had one sick bastard of a father. Family. Sometimes, you couldn’t live with them…