Of course he could. Their souls were bound to each other. His body ached for her, his balls tight with unspent seed. You’ve had your pleasure; now give me mine. She’d run from him, all but terrified when he spoke her name. Why? “Yes. But I cannot pinpoint her location.” Which was at the same time curious and maddening.
“Did she drink from your vein?”
Michael cut him a look.
“What? Some humans are into it. They think it’s kinky.”
“Had she taken from my vein, I could have found her no matter the distance.” And while the thought of her drinking from him sent a lick of heat up his spine, wishing it had happened wouldn’t do a damned thing to help him find her.
“It doesn’t matter if she didn’t ingest your blood, though. Right? You have hers and that’s enough to establish a link. It might be weak, but it’s there. We’ll simply find her.”
Michael gave a derisive snort. “It’s easy for you to sport such a cavalier attitude, Ronan. It’s not your mate that’s missing.” Michael stopped midstride as the words he spoke registered.
Ronan leaned forward in his chair, rapt. “Mate?”
“No.” Michael resumed his pacing. “I misspoke.”
“The fuck you did,” Ronan said. The dhampir rose from his chair with a wide grin. “What happened between you and the female? And don’t even think about lying to me, Mikhail, because I know you did not simply take her vein.”
Didn’t he, though? Even now her scent clung to his fingertips, but the contact was innocent compared to what Michael had wanted to do to her. “I took her vein.” There were things that even Ronan did not need to know. “And nothing else.”
“You’re tethered.” Realization accented Ronan’s words as he studied Michael with wide eyes. “The human returned your soul to you. Holy fucking shit, Mikhail! I knew you were different, but … Jesus. This is a game changer. When word gets around—”
Michael bared his fangs, Ronan’s words sparking a protective instinct that spurred him just shy of an act of violence. “You will speak of this to no one. Do you understand me, Ronan?” No one could know about his mate. Not yet. Not until he could make sense of what had happened and how. Not until she was by his side where he could protect her from those who would use her. Exploit her. Gods. My mate? Again the thought struck him. Impossible.
“Take it easy, Mikhail.” Ronan raised his hands as though in surrender and crossed to the bar to refresh his drink and pour a second glass. He offered the heavy crystal glass of sixty-year-old Macallan and Michael took it gladly, enjoying the smooth burn and warm glow in his gut that he could only enjoy thanks to the fresh blood that had awakened his body. “I meant no offense. I’m simply saying that we should find her as soon as possible.”
“I’m well aware of what has to be done.” He bit off the sentence before he was tempted to remind Ronan yet again just who had kept him from the female tonight. “Our enemies wait in the shadows for just this sort of event. The awakening of our kind will only spur them to action. If they learn of the female…”
Then nothing would stop them from seeking her out as well. The Sortiari would surely kill her.
His mate.
A feral snarl built in Michael’s chest. He rubbed at his sternum, feeling the raised flesh of his scar through the shirt.#p#分页标题#e#
“They think you dead,” Ronan replied. “In fact, I’ve seen no evidence that the Sortiari even exist anymore.”
“They are as real as you are, my friend,” Michael assured him. “They’re everywhere and see everything. The Sortiari will learn of my tethering. And they will come for her if only to weaken me first. I will find her,” he said through a haze of barely restrained rage. “And I will annihilate anyone who dares to stand in my way.”
Ronan smiled and raised his glass in a toast. “Welcome back to the land of the living.”
Michael downed the rest of his drink in a single swallow. “Indeed.”
* * *
You’ve had your pleasure; now give me mine.
She was back there, in the club, held tight in Michael’s embrace. But in her dream Claire didn’t pull away. Didn’t run. Instead, she gave herself over to him, desperate for another kiss and the light sting of his bite at her throat.
She writhed in ecstasy, her mounting passion igniting every nerve ending in her body with a delicious heat. Michael yanked her pants down around her ankles and Claire kicked them off, desperate to be unfettered. The club full of partiers surged with the heavy bass of the music, undulating and moving as a single body. Claire paid them no mind as Michael lifted her effortlessly, positioning her back against the cool wall.