War of Hearts(82)

“You would not. And your wolf was probably so focused on his tracking of you, he did not notice the change in your scent. Ironic.”

“Scent?” Thea snapped.

Eirik’s eyes narrowed. “You have mated with the werewolf, Miss Quinn.”

Thea felt a flush crest her cheekbones. How did he know that?”

Eirik chuckled softly. “Not sex. Anyone can have sex with a werewolf. Mated. As in true mates. Although I hear the mating scent only occurs after two mates first have sex.” He looked at Vik as Thea almost staggered back into Conall at the realization. “Like Adélie fucking penguins, the fae mate for life. They passed the ludicrous bond down into our bloodlines. Thankfully—unlike my brother who wasted centuries trying to return to his mate on Faerie—in all my years, I have escaped the disease of love and a lifetime of imprisonment to another.” Again, he said the words without venom. Just jaded fact. “I cannot allow the wolf to live. I am sorry. When I kill his mate, he will try to plague me until his inevitable death. It is better to kill him now and save him the pain.”

Mate.

Mate?

Mate!

Thea turned to Conall, and he stared down at her, not in shock or horror, but with such realization, such feeling, she felt like her heart might explode.

Mate.

The breath whooshed out of her.

“I am sorry it has to be that way. You are one of a kind, Conall MacLennan.” Eirik’s voice cut through Thea’s moment of overwhelming emotion. “I do hate to snuff out those who are particularly special.”

The threat was made with such casualness, it was almost like he was talking about what he would have for his dinner that evening.

The threat to Conall stirred a rage inside Thea, and she watched his eyes light with fierce pride as the air around her grew static.

“Now, now, Miss Quinn, we cannot have that.”

She whipped around to Eirik, knowing her eyes were gold, that all the supernaturals in the room could feel the energy buzzing through her, looking for somewhere to unleash it. “Touch him and die.”

Eirik flicked a casual finger behind his shoulder. “Now.”

The vampires flew at them. A blur of black figures, shooting at them in overwhelming speed. These were no ordinary vampires. Six were on Conall while eight fought Thea. She ducked and spun, a punch sending a vampire soaring clear across the loft. Fists and legs glanced off her body, barely hurting, barely making an impact. But she broke necks, snapped wrists, punctured ribs through lungs until—

“Thea,” Eirik’s voice cut through the chaos and he didn’t even have to raise it. There was something about the taunt that made her stop. The four vampires still left standing peeled back to reveal Conall on his knees. They had plunged a silver knife into his gut while five of the vampires who had attacked him held his arms spread wide so he couldn’t remove it. The sixth was dust on the ground.

And Vik was no longer anywhere to be seen.

The traitorous bastard.

Thea squashed the panic that wanted to rise from her chest at seeing Conall captive and in pain.

She watched Eirik as he crossed the room to tower over her. His eyes swept down her body and back up again. “You are almost as lovely as the fae.”

His wording confused her. “I thought I was fae.”

“You are. However”—he studied her carefully—“it is almost like you are a fae trapped in a human body. Does that make sense? Viktor told me of your capabilities, and they are nowhere near the power of a fae.”

“If you let Conall go, I won’t fight you.”

“No,” Conall growled, low and deep. Fierce even while in agony.

“Unfortunately, that is not an option.”

Thea narrowed her eyes, feeling the energy inside her shift. It felt different now that she knew what she was. Almost like that part of her, that energy, that magic, never fit until she was given the knowledge of its origin. Like a misplaced key finally slotting into place and opening a door to unimaginable power.

And it was there, in the depths of her.

A golden, sweet, heady, beautiful, terrifying eternity of power.

Suddenly, Thea wasn’t afraid. “If you kill Conall, I’ll end you.”

Eirik smirked, the first real expression she’d seen on his face. “I am two and half thousand years old, Miss Quinn. I have killed my brother to stop the gate opening between realms and I have hunted many children whom I believed to be bearers of the fae queen’s spell. In the last twenty-five years, I have snuffed out three of the lives of your fae siblings.

“And now I finally have you in my grasp. The fourth. I will not stop until all seven of you are dead. Now, you can make your death easy or difficult.”

Thea’s heart bled at the news three others had died already. Three beings like her, like the woman in Prague, killed by this bastard just because they’d been born. The rage churned in her gut. “I’ll make it easy if Conall lives.”

“Thea, no!” Conall roared in fury.

She couldn’t look at him.

Eirik cocked his head. “I have heard it is an awful thing to force a man to live with the death of his mate. So, no. What I will do is spare him having to watch you die.” He turned toward the vampires holding Conall, and Thea felt that door inside her blaze wide open.

“Kill him.”