I shrugged. “It’s too late to back out.”
“It’s never too late. I don’t like you being used as some sort of pawn in whatever game the coven is playing.” I could feel his desperation through the bond, even if he looked cool as a cucumber on the outside.
I can’t, I told him through the bond. Leaving would mean a fight.
Dastien wasn’t scared of fighting, but that was exactly what I’d been trying to avoid. “At least we sort of know why they told Luciana.” I bit my lip as I considered the situation. “They’ve helped us twice. I have a feeling these weeks are about repaying the favor.”
“I have a feeling you’re right.”
The doorbell rang. “Time for the dog to leave.” Luciana’s voice filled the house.
Dastien growled and I stepped into him, wrapping my arms around his waist. Calm down.
I hate her.
I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual.
Luciana was waiting in the living room, but neither of us said a word to her as we walked out the front door.
When we got to the front gate, Dastien took off his shoes, shirt, and pants, but left on his boxer briefs. He handed it all to me, but I wasn’t paying attention. The sight of him took my breath away.
“Cherie?” He reached to cup my chin.
“Right. Sorry.” I took his clothes and held them to my chest.
He pulled me close, and ran his hands through my hair. His lips came to mine, and I lost myself in the feel of them. His tongue ran along the seam of my lips, and I opened. Somewhere along the way I must’ve dropped the clothes because I wrapped my arms around his neck. My heart thumped in my ears, and I couldn’t get close enough. I slid my hands down his abs and around his back.
This was what I was missing. We’d been too sad last night to really do anything, but I ached for him. My wolf craved him, and so did I.
Dastien bit my lip and rested his forehead against mine. “Call me if you need me.”
I wished I could say the same, but I doubted I’d be free to leave the compound for anything related to the Weres. I kissed him lightly. “I’m going to miss you.”
Since I’d stopped running from him and trying to escape St. Ailbe’s, we hadn’t really been apart. I saw him everyday.
As soon as he stepped beyond the gates, it was like he’d been ripped away from me. If I couldn’t see him with my own eyes, I would’ve thought he was dead. The sudden break in the bond left both of us gasping.
“Holy shit. This is worse than it was last time.”
“That’s because you were distracted last time. Now you know what that feeling is like.”
I ignored the icky sensation and reached over the gate to feel him. As soon as my hand touched his skin, the bond snapped back into place and I instantly felt better. “This is really going to blow.”
He gave me a sad smile. It wasn’t very reassuring. “I know.” He stepped back and shifted. It took less than a second, and then I was staring at my mate in wolf form. His boxer briefs were under his feet. He nipped them up with his teeth and passed them to me through the gate.
I stood there and watched him run until he disappeared around the bend in the road. I tried to reach him along our bond, but it was gone. Not just muted, but gone. A side effect of being on separate sides of the barrier. It was meant to warn other supernaturals away, and it would’ve worked if I weren’t being forced to stay here.
I closed my eyes for a second. My head knew that Dastien was fine. He was running home, back to his cabin, back to the pack. And he was safe. But my heart, my gut, my bond, told me that everything was completely and totally fucked.
It was time I dealt with the coven for good. Maybe if I did whatever Claudia and Raphael needed, I could go back sooner than planned.
I let myself back into my cousins’ house, and walked into the tchotchke-loaded living room. Claudia and Raphael were sitting on the floral-printed couch talking softly, but Luciana was gone.
Thank God for small favors.
First things first. “I can’t deal with all the smells. Did Dastien get rid of everything?”
“Yes,” Raphael said.
I could still smell the roses, orange, vanilla, cinnamon, cloves and a million other things from all the potpourri and candles that had been everywhere in the house. “Can we open some windows? Air it out?”
Claudia started into motion. “Yes. Of course.”
We went through the house, opening all the windows. She had a fan in her room, and I snagged it for the living room. Texas didn’t have a ton of wind this time of year, and the downstairs was the most offensive room in the house. I aimed the fan to blow out the window.