Serpent's Kiss (Elder Races #3)(113)

Then euphoria hit. A wave of heat washed over her skin like a sheet of flame. When she turned around to face Rune, her eyes had gone garnet red.

His own expression flared. He whispered, “Hello, beautiful spiky girl.”

She growled, launched at him and took him down to the floor where they made love in a frenzied white heat.

Now she was able to ingest as much as a quarter of a cup of his blood at a time, mixed in a glass of wine. The Power in his blood knocked her nearly senseless every time, although she felt more energized than ever. There were side effects other than “crazed monkey sex” as Rune so eloquently put it. She was beginning to lose her ability to sense other creatures’ emotions. She also became more grounded in a way that she had forgotten. Her own Power was no longer revved at such a constant state of high velocity, and she tired more frequently. She was not able to hold her spell of protection against the sun for longer than an hour at a time. As soon as she had lost that ability, Rune had gone shopping online for cloaks, SPF +100 sunblock, and other protective gear.

And just that afternoon she had taken a half-hour nap. It was such merciful refreshment, she woke with tears in her eyes. Rune stretched out on the bed beside her, his head propped in one hand, watching her as she slept. She turned to him and surprised a look of such tenderness on his face, her eyes watered more than ever. They moved at the same time, and held each other tight. He rocked her a little, his face buried in her hair.

Maybe it wouldn’t last. Maybe it was just a reprieve, and her symptoms would return. Neither one of them wanted to take the ghost of crazy Python’s word for anything. The wisest, most prudent thing they could do was continue to pursue all avenues of research, which was why they wanted to recruit Seremela to work on the project full-time. But for now they were holding steady, against time and everyone else. They held their own.

Other people got in touch. Carling had Duncan petitioning Julian to allow him to oversee the safe removal and transport of her library. She was almost certain she had managed to coax Duncan into opening a law office in Miami. She might even convince him to relocate. She was talking to other people too. She suspected Julian would miss several highly talented people from his demesne very shortly.

Aryal called Rune daily to tell him how much ass he sucked, and how much she hated him. Once she called to tell Carling how much ass she sucked too. Carling laughed and invited the harpy for a visit. The other sentinels called, sometimes to ask work-related questions and sometimes just to shoot the shit. Dragos never called, and Rune never called him.

Carling watched Rune carefully as he talked and laughed with the sentinels who were his friends. She ached that she couldn’t make that better for him. But no matter how much she looked for it, she never saw a hint of anything other than what he had told her. He missed his friends but he really did have no regrets.

Still, it would be good to get a better picture of what they might do next. As Rune told Constantine one day with a grin, “I think I might have to buy a Don Johnson suit while I’m down here. You think you’re suav-ay, brother? Johnson was suav-ay. You don’t hold a candle to him.”

Carling was not a big fan of TV, so she had to Google that reference too. She found herself chuckling at the photos of the 1980s Miami Vice series. Then she turned thoughtful.

For now she set aside her iPad and her books, and she ran her hand down Rune’s arm to ask silently for the remote. He handed it to her, tilting his head back to give her a sleepy-looking, sexy smile. She turned off the flat-screen and asked him, “Are you all right?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“We’ve both had quite an abrupt change of lifestyle,” she said carefully. “It’s a lot to adjust to.”

“I know. It’s going to take a while. The answers will unfold over time.”

“I just want to be sure they unfold fast enough for you,” she said.

“Are you kidding? This is the best vacation ever. It’s too bad we’ve only got the villa for two and a half more months. I could use a good six months more of this. Besides, we’ve figured out a lot already. We should start looking at houses in the greater Miami area, and we’re going to open up a research facility and coax Seremela to come on over to the dark side. You’ve already got your baby boy Duncan half-convinced he needs to move out here, and Rasputin and Rufio are arriving tomorrow evening. As for me . . .” He shrugged and ran his fingers along her arm. “I might look into consulting opportunities with the local police force as a temporary gig while we sort everything else out. That won’t hold my interest forever, but it will be enough for now, so stop fretting.”

Her gaze narrowed. “I do not fret. I consider all angles.”

He started to laugh. He tugged at the shirt she was wearing. “You’re so full of bullshit sometimes. You’re fretting, darling Carling. It’s cute. You also swore you would never wear a T-shirt with a hairy, bespectacled man on it.”

She looked down at herself. She was wearing his old Jerry Garcia T-shirt, a pair of panties, and nothing else. “This is the ugliest item of clothing I have ever seen,” she said. It had also become her most favorite item of clothing. “It’s a good thing I don’t have to look at myself very often when I wear it.”

“It looks much better on you than it ever did on me,” he told her, his voice turning husky.