Wicked Soul (Ancient Blood #1)(96)
I glanced at Aleric. Or what it meant that he knew the name of this Thea, when Warin did not.
Later, once we’d saved my friends, there would be time to get to the bottom of it all. But not now.
“We’re not helping anyone.” To my surprise, it was Aleric, not Warin. “You need to stay out of this—far, far out.”
“She has to come with us,” Warin said. “We cannot leave her behind—it could easily be a ploy to pull us away so she’s vulnerable.”
“I’ll watch over her,” Roy said. He was standing at the other end of Warin’s study, arms crossed over his massive chest as he kept an eye on the gathered vampires. Besides Aleric and Warin, Carina was also in attendance, as were five male vampires. I vaguely recognized a couple of them from the first time I visited Warin’s home, and from his meeting with the other Ancients. They were his Guard—vampires he tasked with upholding the law of his territory and the security of his home.
“Thank you,” Warin said. Then he turned to his Guard, face solemn. “We go to war tonight, against skinwalkers who have drank the blood of an Ancient. These beasts will not be easy to kill. We need the witches for this fight—and so we will all need to put away our prejudice for the time being. I know we have centuries of mistrust to feed our mutual hatred, but tonight… we need each other. Do not disappoint me.”
The other vampires nodded in begrudging agreement. None looked happy, but they understood their place in this, and above all else, they trusted their Lord.
I too trusted Warin, though I was hardly thrilled about being left in the car. As Carina and the others turned to leave, Aleric cast a long, hard look my way before lifting his gaze to Warin.
“Be careful, brother,” he said, to which Warin nodded so solemnly, it must have been some kind of vow.
Aleric retreated with the others and Warin turned to me, his face a grim mask. “I only wish to keep you safe, Liv,” he said at my sour expression. Not that I wanted to be in the middle of this fight, anyway, but it still felt a lot like being sidelined. “I have only your best interests at heart.”
“I know,” I told him, taking a step forward to lay my hand over his chest. It was unnerving, his lack of pulse, but I knew that didn’t matter in terms of what he felt for me. There was nothing but warmth, love, and desire in there, despite how cool he was to the touch. “And Aleric’s right. Please—be careful.”
Lifting my hand to his mouth, Warin folded my fingers down and kissed my knuckles. It was such a formal, yet intimate gesture that it spawned butterflies in my stomach and fire in my cheeks.
“After all we’ve done, I can still make you blush,” he mused, his lips tipped at an amused slant. “You amaze me, little one.”
“I’ll amaze you even more if you come back to me,” I promised, and Warin blew a laugh through his nose. But the moment couldn’t last, and all tenderness melted from his face like candle wax in the face of a vengeful flame as he turned and headed out with the rest of his Guard.
“C’mon,” Roy said from behind me, “the vampers’ll be all right. Worry about yourself.”
But that was just it. Where Warin was involved, I couldn’t bring myself to care about my own safety—and that, I realized as Roy led me out to the car, had been the case from the very start.
* * *
By the time Roy pulled up our Lexus in front of the shop where I’d last confronted Kevin, the butterflies in my stomach had turned to pure bile. I curled up against the tinted window, cradling my midsection as if holding onto it would somehow stem the tide of nausea threatening to rise. There wasn’t just tension inside our car—it spilled out over the world outside too, the air tight and charged like the moments before a storm.
In the rearview, Roy’s eyes flicked to my face. “Won’t be long now,” he said.
I nodded mutely, afraid that if I said anything, I’d throw up.
“Didn’t get a chance before, but I guess now’s as good a time as any,” he continued, eyes shifting to the coven’s safehouse. “But thanks. For savin’ my life back there. With your—”
“Warin can’t know,” I interrupted him, one worry traded for another. The last thing I needed, that any of us needed, was for Warin and the others to think I was in league with the witches somehow. Even if I kind of was. They were my friends, after all, and I’d summoned a small vampire army to defend them. I’d been brokering deals between the coven and the Night Lord of Chicago for a while now, and I’d even hidden the extent of those terms from Warin in favor of keeping my abilities a secret.
I chewed my lip until it stung. Couldn’t I be loyal to both? Why did I have to choose a side in their stupid feud?
“I get it,” Roy said, lifting his hands in a disarming gesture. “Heard ‘em go on enough about witches to see why you’d wanna keep it under wraps. Your secret’s safe with me.”
“Thank you, Roy,” I murmured, my attention still fixed on the safehouse.
He nodded in my periphery. “Least I can do, after you sent that skinwalker ass over teakettle.”
“About that…” I turned to him finally, curiosity winning out over concern. “How’d you do it? Withstand my magic, I mean. It didn’t affect you like it did Dennis.”