Honestly, I had no issues getting naked and dressed right here. I’d done it a million times on job sites. Like I said, archaeology wasn’t for sissies, or for prudes. All the same, though, I felt unaccountably vulnerable around Drake. I was trying really hard not to think about him, about these feelings that kept popping up when I thought about him. He was different. I mean, yeah, there was the whole werewolf thing, but different as a man, too. Huh. Maybe that was the werewolf thing in play.
And see, here’s the part where my brain got all mushy, and my heart welled with this . . . emotion, and I wondered . . . no, I wanted. I wanted him in the same way I wanted to see my mother one more time. It was that ache . . . that yearning you felt when you wanted, so badly, the things you could never really have. I would never see my mother again.
Drake would never be mine.
How could he?
It was scary and confusing and fucking weird.
“Thanks.” I took the bag and headed into the trees. It wasn’t my modesty I was protecting, but my pride.
The trees offered plenty of protection from prying eyes. I opened up the duffel and removed the same kind of black combat clothes Drake wore. I yanked off my shirt and went to unzip my pants when I heard the snap of a twig.
I whirled around, taking a fighting stance, and saw Ruadan leaning against one of the trees. He grinned at me. “Sorry, darlin’. Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Waiting for the pants to come off before you announced your presence,” I accused.
“I do miss the days of the frolicking nymphs. And you do so remind me of them, Moira.”
“Did they kick you in the balls, too?”
He laughed. “A time or two, love. Nymphs are fickle creatures.”
“I hope there’s another reason you popped in,” I said. I shimmied out of my khakis and put on the black pants. “I have to get to the Underworld in a few.”
“We vampires owe you a debt for rescuing Shamhat and Amahté.”
“Yeah. I was just the meal, Ruadan. I should be glaring down at you from the Fields of Offerings right now.”
“I would’ve never sent you in if I hadn’t thought you’d survive.”
“I remember that night you glamoured me, so I wouldn’t remember how my mother died. Or what I was. You always knew that one day I would be here, releasing your ancient vampires.” I put on the black T-shirt. “You knew the ambrosia wasn’t there, didn’t you?”
“We couldn’t put the very last portion of the food of the gods in the same place as our Ancients. Seemed a dangerous thing to do.”
“You’re avoiding. You blocked the memories of my mother’s death. My grandfather knew you. He was on a lot of digs in the Sudan looking for your Ancients. And you knew about that whole unicorn thing.”
He watched me shuck off the hiking boots and sit down to pull the black combat boots on. “We had to protect you, Moira. Your secret needed to stay a secret. You truly are the last of your kind.”
I tied the boot strings into tight loops. “So my mother died because she was a unicorn? And my father was a raving lunatic, apparently.”
“Unicorns were shape-shifters, Moira. They were unique even among the unique. Beautiful creatures.”
“I heard they were hunted to extinction because their blood and their horns were so awesome.”
“That’s true as well. People and paranormals can be real bastards.” He watched as I tightened the loops on the other boot. “Your mother was the last unicorn, Moira. And before her, your grandmother, Camille.”
“And my father?” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my tone.
“Your mother didn’t know her heritage, either. She loved unicorn mythology, though. When she was a little girl, she saw your grandmother in her unicorn form, and that sparked something inside her.”
“Why wouldn’t my grandparents just tell her?”
“They wanted to protect her. Only pure-bloods can shift, and your grandfather was a human. Regina had the blood, yes, but not the abilities. And neither do you. But you were asking about your father. Regina went to China to join a famous professor, Dr. Cecil Brannigan. He was the foremost authority about the Ki-lin. Chinese unicorns—long extinct. But he knew about your mother . . . about her unicorn blood.”
“How? If it was such a big secret, how did he know that?”
“That answer I do not have. After he seduced your mother, he managed to keep up the ruse of love for a while. Then she discovered the truth about his intentions. They fought, and she left. He fell off a cliff, and she thought him dead.” He smiled at me. “My mother and I helped deliver you into the world. You could say I’m your godfather.”