"This is rather awkward," she finally said with a shy smile. "Would you like to come inside?"
"No," replied Allora, offering a smile in return. "We are not fond of confined spaces."
Willow whinnied from her corral, seemingly anxious. Sienna couldn't blame her. The horse had finally accepted the presence of the hart wolves only to see these strangers standing here, still smelling like the hart wolves that had watched over her while Sienna was gone.
"Over here then." Sienna gestured toward a fallen pine log near the corral fence where she often sat and painted. Those days of leisure felt so far away.
Sienna took a seat first and Allora next to her, angling her body toward her. Not surprising, none of the men sat or even spoke. Crossed arms and feet planted apart, they commenced to dark brooding and glaring.
Allora took Sienna's hand between both of hers. "How do you feel?"
A flush of heat crawled up her neck into her cheeks as she glanced up at Nikolai where he leaned against the fence, arms crossed.
How did she feel? She felt completely and utterly sated by her vampire lover. She could not say that.
Nikolai's blank expression didn't waver but his mouth ticked on one side as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. His penetrating gaze intensified the flush in her cheeks. She cleared her throat.
"I'm feeling well."
Allora gave a knowing smile and her hand a squeeze. "It's not every day someone is brought back to life."
Curious, Sienna leaned forward. "What did the hartstone do to me? I mean, other than restore me to life. I feel as if something has changed."
"She is able to read minds," interjected Nikolai. "Or at least memories."
"I see," said Allora, not seeming surprised at all though her smooth brow pinched briefly. "We don't know what the hartstone has changed inside of you. It does not bestow the same gifts on the creatures it touches. It is a stone of making."
"And it made you, didn't it?" asked Sienna.
"Not exactly. It made my ancestors, giving us the duty to guard over this forest and the hartstone."
"When did this happen to you?" asked Sienna. "I mean, your people."
"Not long after the queen became the first vampire, thousands of years ago."
Sienna frowned. "You always knew it was the queen and not the king who was the first of the immortals?"
She answered with a slight nod of the head. The humans and vampires alike had believed all along that it was King Grindal who had been the first of their kind, the one who'd killed his brother and had wiped out over half the human race in a blood frenzy, the first to experience sanguine furorem. But it had always been the queen who was now guiding her loyalists back into the age of darkness.
"And so"-Sienna cast a glance to Bron, Connell, and Dane-"you are all immortal, too."
"All creatures can be killed," Allora continued. "But yes, any being the hartstone touches with her magic is given unnaturally long life. This means you too will have long life, Sienna. The stone also transforms or imbibes one with a magical gift or power, just as it transformed the queen into a vampire."
Allora's gaze flicked to Nikolai. Sienna looked up to find his face still unreadable. The man's expressions made her want to either shy away or pull him close, the mystery of what was going on behind those otherworldly eyes always drawing her closer.
"You see," said Allora, "my ancestors were tribesmen of this region long ago. The first generation of vampires had nearly killed them all till only four warriors were left standing. Those warriors sought solace in Silvane Forest, for it had already become a forbidden place for humans. But our forefathers, these warriors, had nothing left to fear with all of their clansmen and family dead. The stone only shows itself to those it chooses. And our forefathers were given that gift. Summoned by the stone, they were lured to its heartbeat and were transformed into beasts, into the first hart wolves. Each warrior became the leader of his own clan, his blood carrying the hart wolf gene which would pass on down the line to their clansmen. My mother had gone against her father in her choice of mate. She hid me and my brothers away from the pack with her mate, our father. But both our parents were killed by the queen's guard out on a hunt. And your grandmother took us in. She cared for us, raised us, kept us warm and fed. In return, we kept her safe when we'd grown, deciding to keep our secret since we preferred our wolf forms more than our human ones anyway. And so, when you came along, we wanted to protect you as well."
Sienna stared down at their clasped hands, Allora's delicate yet rough. Working hands. "I-I don't know what to say. I feel strange … the way I saw you before."