“We should’ve done this sooner,” Mindy said as she walked up beside him, holding her recently stitched arm.
She couldn’t contain her excitement at what they were doing, and it set his blood pounding with need. It had been that way since the first time he saw her, ten months earlier. She understood him as no one else did. And she understood what he was after.
Aisley walked slowly down the hall, her hands shoved in the back pockets of her jeans. She reached them and rammed her shoulder into Mindy. “Try not to look so pleased with yourself.”
“And why shouldn’t I?” Mindy retorted angrily.
Aisley glanced at Jason before she said, “You can’t take credit for this. This was Jason’s handiwork.”
“I’m not taking credit.” Mindy then turned to him. “Jason, baby, you know I’m not taking credit.”
He wrapped an arm around Mindy and brought her against his side. “Of course no’, darling. However, Aisley does have a point. These are our people dying.”
“They’d die anyway,” she said with a shrug. “So what if it’s a few years early. Besides, the population needs to be thinned out. The weak have no place with us.”
Jason raised his gaze to Aisley. His cousin’s hatred of Mindy grew by the day, as did Mindy’s for Aisley. There would come a time he didn’t want to keep them from the showdown that had been brewing since he brought Mindy to the mansion.
He wasn’t sure who would win, though. Mindy was powerful, but she was reckless. She often used her magic without thinking things through, which caused her to lose.
Aisley was much better in battle, but he still wasn’t convinced her heart truly lay with his goals. She did everything he asked without fail. Yet, he couldn’t help but think that she had doubts.
“Do you no’ share Mindy’s view, cousin?” Jason asked, his tone soft and deceptively light.
Aisley held his stare. “Killing adults is one thing. Killing a child or a baby is another.”
Mindy began to laugh, and Jason watched as Aisley’s face flushed red with anger.
“Why do you care about babies?” Mindy asked.
Jason didn’t stop Aisley when she grabbed his lover and shoved her up against the wall. He smirked when Mindy gave a scream of outrage.
“Don’t speak of what you don’t know,” Aisley said through clenched teeth as she got in Mindy’s face. “If you do, not even Jason will be able to protect you from me.”
“Now, now,” Jason said as he gently pulled Aisley from Mindy.
It took a minute, but eventually Aisley released her. She turned to Jason and poked her finger in his shoulder. “Control your bitch.”
He watched her walk away with long, angry strides, her high-heeled boots clopping loudly, until she disappeared around a corner.
“I can’t believe you let her talk to me like that,” Mindy whined.
“There are things about Aisley’s past you doona know, darling, but if I were you, I’d heed her warning.”
She frowned up at him. “You wouldn’t protect me?”
“You’re a Druid. Protect yourself.”
“But,” she said, and then paused. “I’m your lover.”
Jason resumed his stance against the wall. “What do you think that affords you?”
“Besides your attention? It should also afford me your protection.”
He raised a brow at her petulant tone. “If I wanted to protect a woman, my lover wouldna be a Druid. You share my bed, Mindy, because you’re powerful. You earned the spot in my bed. You’ll earn everything else as well.”
Just as he expected, Mindy stomped away, her exit much less dramatic than Aisley’s. But then again, his cousin always had a way with flair.
Jason forgot about Aisley and Mindy as two more people came rushing into the hospital with symptoms of the contagion.
“A prelude to things to come,” he said with a smile as he watched a man collapse on the floor.
Charon reached Dreagan property faster than he expected. Even with it raining. Then again, that’s what happened when he drove like a madman.
He didn’t slow as he pulled onto the one road in and out of Dreagan. The only time his foot came off the gas pedal was when he pressed on the brake to stop the car.
Charon opened his door and stepped out in the rain to find Guy standing before him.
“That was quite an entrance. Do you often practice sliding your vehicles to a halt on gravel?” Guy asked with a cocky grin.
“I doona have time for games. I need to speak to Con.”
Guy’s grin slipped as he motioned Charon to follow him. Charon slammed the Porsche’s door closed and jogged to catch up with Guy.