Heart's Blood(68)

"Excellent." Grey beamed his too-beautiful smile at her, and her heart bled a little more. "When sha-"

"But-" She held up a hand to stop his words. "It will be a temporary bond. Just until the new moon is over. Afterward, we will break it again. By Sunday, at the latest."

"The crisis may not be over by Sunday," Grey protested. "And there are still the dead zones to be-"

"Sunday," Pearl said firmly, despite the whisper in the back of her mind crying, Can't I keep him, please?

"Pearl." He looked sternly down at her. "We cannot keep making and breaking our familiar bond. We must make it and let it stand, for however long is necessary."

"We will not keep doing it. We will do it once. Make it, then break it, and never make it again."

"But what if, God forbid, we don't catch the killer?" Grey's animated face began to freeze up into that carelessness she hated. "What if the demon returns? With friends?"

She shook her head, bowing her back against him with all the stubbornness at her possession. Which was a very great deal. "We're doomed anyway against demons, or so you've said. If you feel the need for familiarity, ask one of the others. I'm sure they'll be happy to take you on. Some of them."

"Pearl." Now his tone changed to sweet reason, but his face remained that blank, amused, aristocratic mask. "We worked well together, didn't we? You're the best. Already a sorcerer. Our magic meshes perfectly. We know this." He smiled, as false and bland as the mask he wore. "But, very well. You win. We will remake the bond, and by Sunday, if you insist, you can break it again."

She knew his intention without the benefit of riding his blood. He thought he could convince her to change her mind. It was the power. Men would put up with women they didn't want if it gave them power, whether wrought by wealth, by influence and connection, or by magic.

"You can't pretend with me, Grey," she said, weary to her soul. "We will share blood. You know what that means."

The mask faded a bit, some of his false amusement dropping away. "I never lied to you, Pearl, or hid from you. I won't now. Can you swear the same?"

Could she? "I never lied."

"But you hid."

Because it was safer to hide, to be invisible.

She shrugged, refusing to admit or deny. "It will be what it is, for as long as it is." She hadn't felt very hidden at the end of their time together, in the week and a half of their full-blown affair.

"Blood bond only," she said, suddenly feeling the need to make that clear. She couldn't make love to him again, not when the love was on one side only.

"Of course." Grey bowed. "Soon."

"Now?" Was that suggestion or objection? Sooner made . . . not sooner ended, she didn't think, but the sooner they could use their combined magic to search for the missing girl.

"If you like." He bowed again. "I know I have behaved . . . not well. I apologize. I mean to accede to your wishes as much as possible in this."

Pearl didn't trust him. She believed him, but she didn't trust what he meant by "as much as possible." She turned and led the way back toward the private parlor, searching through the slit in the side seam of her skirt-white, now that she was officially a full-fledged sorceress-for one of the pockets dangling by its ribbon from the waistband of her skirt.

"How do we do this?" Grey asked when they were inside the parlor with the door shut. He presented his hand with its assortment of fingers.

"The same way we did before."

She took a deep breath, inhaling his scent of chalk, sandalwood, and Grey, which did not help. She touched his hand, and magic did not crackle. It always had, before. But then they had been familiars-or potentially so-since the very beginning.

There was magic, however. Pearl could feel it seeping from . . . where? Out of her skin? His? It hovered, as if waiting. Yearning? It tasted . . .

"Can you sense that?" she asked, her hand barely in contact with his.

"Magic?" Grey shook his head. "No. Dark of the moon makes everything trickier. It's a good sign, don't you think, if you can?"

Not especially. Amanusa had explained how the magic inherent in sex could be raised even by a kiss if there was desire behind it. If they could stir magic with a mere touch-

Pearl didn't want to think about it. She tightened her grip to steady his hand, adjusted the fit of her lancet, and punctured his right forefinger. Quickly, she lanced her own left forefinger and pressed it against his, blood to blood.

The blood soaked up all the hovering magic before she could decide whether that was a good idea. She swept more of her own magic into it. Then his blood hit her bloodstream, dizzying her. She snagged her lancet on Grey's sleeve when she clutched his arm for support. Had it done that before, made her dizzy?

Grey clasped her lanced hand with his, as if seeking support as well. "I remember the dizziness," he said. "I thought it was just the situation-the jail, the blood, and the aching bones." He paused, a look of revelation and wonder coming over his face. "That was when it began to go away. The headache and the pain in-in my bones, as if I had shared Angus Galloway's torture. After the blood oath, it got better."

Pearl allowed herself a small smile. "So it wasn't all terrible, then?"

"None of it was, and you know it. I-" He huffed out a breath, back in teasing mode. "I panicked. There. Are you happy?"

"No. But I am relieved to know you remember being dizzy. I didn't, and it worried me a bit."

"I tried to put magic in my blood this time," Grey said. "I couldn't tell if I did anything at all, but perhaps I did."

Perhaps. Pearl wasn't so sure. But the hovering magic created from desire-most of that was from Grey. He could make it, even if he could not move it. She wasn't about to tell him. He would be touching her and trying to kiss her all the time. As he was now.

He brought her hand to his mouth. "I also ingested your blood, didn't I?"

Oh dear. He didn't mean to kiss her hand, he meant to-His sin-filled mouth closed around her fingertip, and her knees almost buckled at the feel of the wet, desire-filled heat. He suckled a moment, then removed her finger to squeeze out another fat drop of blood.

"I took in more than that tiny exchange, if I recall correctly." His eyes held her captive as he licked up the fresh drop, the sensual slide of his tongue undoing all her insides.

He sucked her finger back into his mouth, then held up his own blood-smeared finger, a significant look in his eyes. She'd swallowed more of his blood during their wine drinking before she rode it, hadn't she? He laid his finger on her lips, offering without insisting, and she slid her tongue out to taste.                       
       
           



       

She pushed his hand away, overwhelmed by the intimacy of the moment. But if they were to remake the bond the way it should be- "Take more," she said. "I probably put too much in the wineglass, before I rode your blood. More is safer than less, and I wanted you to be safe."

He took her finger from his mouth to squeeze out another drop.

"Guild secret," she remembered belatedly to say.

He nodded solemnly as he licked up the fresh drop.

Oath. The word echoed faintly through Pearl's mind. From a far distance and through a veil, but she heard it, and it made her jump with surprise. She hadn't actually remade the bond yet.

Grey touched his damp forefinger to her mouth again, resting the remaining fingers on her cheek. Pearl wanted to turn her face into the caress, but was too afraid. She pushed his hand away, then squeezed his finger for fresh blood. "More is safer," she reminded him, though he made no objection.

Finally, she took his fingertip into her mouth, copying his action as she gazed back into his dark eyes. It seemed far too intimate for what it was, the simple working of magic. The gazing into each other's eyes made it so. Maybe if she stopped staring and worked the magic, it would be less so.

Pearl had been allowed to investigate the familiar bond between Amanusa and her Jax, from the outside. It was a tether, of sorts. A conduit for the magic that flowed between them, infinitely stretchable and unbreakable. It had layers, and strands, and it glowed, shining with their love for each other.

This bond wouldn't shine, built of nothing more than blood, magic, and desire, but it would serve. She threw out the first strand of magic, watched as it caught on the blood in his veins. "Do you want this?" She improvised with what they'd done before.

Someone should have warned her, given her time to look up the appropriate method for formalizing a familiar's bond. But she hadn't expected to remake it. Hadn't expected to ever want a familiar again. Still, it had worked the last time, without even their intending it. Blood, magic, and willingness seemed to be all that was required.

She threw another layer atop the first, hunting through his blood-that now inside her and that in him-for magic. "Do you want the bond of familiar to sorceress, to me?"

The magic had caught, but its hold was tentative, ready to break at any moment. "Grey, do you want this?"

"Yes." The word seemed surprised out of him. "Yes, I want it. Haven't I spent the last age talking you into it?"