The Mate Mistake(The Woolven Secret 3)(34)

"I wasn't born or made yesterday, Princess."

"I'm not a princess." She remembered what Randi had said about being the dragon. Belle wanted to be the dragon, too.

So far, she was failing miserably.

"I wouldn't know when you were born, or when you were made. I don't care." She closed her eyes and sank deeper into the bath. "Nothing about you means anything to me."

"I just wonder, will you send your mutt after me?"

"Why ever would I do that? You must've been born yesterday, because you don't listen. You think you're telling me something, and my words don't matter. A wise individual listens to what their enemy has to say."

"Contrary to what you think, princess, I'm not your enemy. I only want to bring you home."

"There you go, telling your version of the truth, as if mine doesn't matter. And you wonder why I think you're my enemy."

"Vampires belong with their murder."

"I'm not really a vampire anymore, am I? I'm something else. I always have been."

"Come home, Belle."

"I am home." Her words rang with truth and the bliss she was feeling wouldn't let her block it out or ignore it. Being with Parker, it was home in a way she'd never felt before. Not even when she was a little girl and had been brought before Tirigan. Not even when he proclaimed her his "daughter."

He sighed. "Tirigan has shown you how far he will go. Do you really want to go to war against him?"

"I've been at war with him since I was twenty."

"I suppose you're right about that."

"Why do you care anyway? What did he promise you if you got me to return home?"

"You."

She opened her eyes and looked at him. "See? There's the problem. He thinks he can just give me to someone like I'm property."

"And yet, here I am, asking you to return with me."

"It seems we’re at an impasse, then. I've said no, and I'm not going to change my mind."

"I think you might. There's a storm coming, princess. Only you can hold the tide back from your precious Woolvens."

"You act as if they have no defenses."

"They have none against Tirigan."

"I guess he shall see." The good feelings were fading quickly as the blood lost its potency.

"So shall you." He eased back into the shadows, seeming to melt into a dense, dark fog.

Damn it, she wished she could do that. Maybe Westwood could teach her the fog. Or the even the wolf.

If she could learn to shapeshift into a wolf, she could run with Parker.

She suddenly realized that the fog hadn't yet begun to dissipate. It was still there and it was creeping in thick, smoky tendrils toward her.

Holding out her hand, she tried to conjure a spell she and Eleanor had been working on. It was her first. She wasn't even sure she could do it.

Or should do it.

But it was the only one she knew, and she wasn't going to let Tirigan's henchman intimidate her, or put his smoky fingers wherever he wanted with impunity.

Small bits of light sparked in her open palm, but it was nothing like what she needed to banish the encroaching darkness.

She pulled from all the places Westwood had taught her. From the light she imagined to be inside of herself, to the power of the blood coursing through her veins.

Belle got only sparks until she thought of Parker. The way he reminded her of the sun.

How golden and warm he was.

The taste of his blood on her tongue.

His scent.

The way she felt in his arms.

The golden orb exploded in her palm, searing her hand, but best of all, burning away the darkness.

A shriek that sounded like it'd been ripped straight out of hell echoed through the room, causing her eardrums to rupture and blood poured out of her ears, but she didn't even feel the pain. She was still a little stoned on the blood, and her joy at having protected herself from the Asakku was worth it.

She hadn't run.

There'd been nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. She'd had to face him.

And she'd won.

She dipped her hand into the bath and watched the scorch marks heal.

The splintering of the door ripped her out of the strange cocoon and Parker stood there in the full glory of his warrior form.

She could hear the rushing of his blood through his veins, the pounding of his heart in his chest as he prepared to do battle. She could even smell the venom that dripped from his fanged maw.

He was terrible.

He was horrifically beautiful.

And he was hers.

When he turned his full attention on her, she couldn't help but feel like prey. If she didn't know he was still inside of the monster, that it was still Parker, she might've been a little bit afraid.

Then she noticed the blood dribbling from his ears. The shriek had wounded him as well.

"I'm okay," she said.