"What are you thinking, my beloved?" Killian covered my naked body with his, and I smiled as his warm skin melded to mine.

"I was remembering our first night together. When you gave me this," I said, touching the medallion.

"I gave you my heart that night, Eira."

I wrapped my arms around his neck and rolled him so that I was on top of his chest. "According to Diana and Calliope, it's much more than just a pretty diamond."

His eyes darkened, guilt and fear surfacing in their gla.s.sy blue irises. "I should've been honest from the start, but-"

"Telling me you were an immortal from another realm wasn't really feasible. I understand that now. I was angry at first, but I do understand."

He raised his head and kissed my lips, teasing and tugging the bottom one until my s.e.x throbbed. I needed him inside me. On me. And I could have him. For just a few minutes, we could pretend we weren't on the run from a Lama.s.su psychopath bent on taking over both of our worlds.

"I planned to stay with you your entire human life, loving and taking care of you until you pa.s.sed from my life. There was nothing to explain. Nothing that would've ever mattered. Eventually, you would've learned my secret."

A smile played with my lips, and I traced my fingertips along his cheek. The blonde stubble of his beard was soft under my touch. "You mean you would've had to tell me because you wouldn't grow old. Unless you call these few grey hairs behind your ears age."

"I do not have grey hairs." He swatted at my hand, capturing my wrist in his and rolling us again so that I was pinned beneath his broad chest. His hard shaft lay against my mound, and I opened my legs, wrapping them around his waist and pulling him even closer.

I craved the connection I felt when we were entwined. I wanted to disappear into it and forget about the s.h.i.tty world around us that fought and warred and killed people we loved. Life was never easy, but at least a thousand years ago, it was easier to see your enemies before they snuck up on you.

"You have a few," I said, catching his gaze and dismissing the depressing thoughts swirling through my head. "But they blend well. Barely noticeable."

"Hmmm, except to your vampire laser vision." He chuckled and latched his mouth on one of my b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Pleasure zinged through my body, and I arched my back, pushing my breast deeper into his mouth. A moan slipped from my throat, and my toes curled. His tongue and teeth tortured my nipple in the most exhilarating of ways.

"Please," I murmured, nipping at his shoulder closest to my mouth. "I need you."

"Anything for you." He adjusted his hips and thrust forward, sinking his hard length into my waiting body.

Slowly at first. Then he moved faster, until we fell into a satisfying rhythm. His body rubbed just right against my c.l.i.t, and the feeling of a building climax writhed inside me.

I closed my mouth to m.u.f.fle my scream of pleasure as my climax rushed forward. My body clamped down hard, and he groaned, crushing my lips against his and claiming my mouth with possessive sweeps of his tongue. His hands grasped my body, one palm kneading a breast while the other gripped my a.s.s, holding me firmly while he continued to drive home.

Stroke by stroke, my body wound tighter and tighter. The burn of another building climax coiled and swirled inside me. He thrust again and again until I came apart. This time the scream escaped, and he joined me in my bliss, his warmth spilling into my body.

I loosened my grip on his shoulder and side.

He rolled slowly to the left, pulling me along with him until I was on his chest again. His hard c.o.c.k was still buried inside me. My muscles tensed, and I sighed, loving the way my p.u.s.s.y gripped him within my body.

I never wanted to leave this farmhouse. h.e.l.l, I never wanted to leave this bed. If only the world would stand still and let me relive moments like these over again.

"I love you, Eira Rennir, with every breath of my body and every beat of my heart. I am yours eternally."

"I love you, too, Killian. I can't imagine living without you again."

"You won't have to. I will be with you forever. Wherever you go, I will be there."

"Even if I move to Sanctuary?"

"Of course. I've lived in that rundown house for too long already. There are so many..." His voice trailed off, and he closed his eyes. Pain was etched into the lines of his face.

I reached up and cupped his cheek. "We both have demons, Killian. Don't feel as though you have to hide them from me."

He buried his face in my neck and took a deep breath. "The things I have done would make you ashamed. I cringe at the thought of how my brother looks down on me from the afterlife. It started as revenge. As payback. But then it turned to hatred and cruelty. I enjoyed killing. Relished it. Eira, I am not the man you loved all those years ago."

I ran my hands through his hair, stroking the wavy blond tresses. Pressing a soft kiss to his temple, I tipped his head up and made him look into my eyes.

"No matter what has happened in the past, you are that man. You will always be that man to me. You have my heart for as long as you will hold it." My eyes welled. I wanted him to understand. I didn't care about his past.

If anyone was a monster, it was me.

I was a vampire.

I'd killed so many I'd stopped counting. Their faces had ceased to haunt my dreams because I couldn't tell them apart any longer. They were merely a casualty of my existence. With training, I'd learned not to kill all my victims, but for the first several hundred years, death had followed me like a dark cloud.

"My brother would be happy we found each other again," he said, kissing my lips gently. His tongue slid across the seam of my mouth, and I smiled. I wanted more. We could both certainly go again. His c.o.c.k felt deliciously hard inside me, but the restless movement downstairs warned me off.

We'd stolen enough time for ourselves. It was time to move again. The few hours head start I'd bought us wouldn't last if we stayed much longer. We needed to reach the bridge at Vicksburg before the SECR army found us here.

Chapter Twenty-Eight.

EIRA.

Voices carried up the stairwell as I followed Killian down into the main level of the farmhouse. Jared and Alek were arguing about finding a vehicle while Travis and Garrett were hovering over Charlie, asking if she needed anything while setting out a spread of breakfast for the inhabitants of the house.

I took a deep breath and turned my gaze to the complacent farmer, sitting off to the side. His eyes were gla.s.sy from the influence I'd placed over him. As soon as we left, it would dissipate. He would be fine and remember nothing of our stopover.

"Feel better now?" one of the wolves snapped as Killian and I entered the room.

To my surprise, Mikjall jumped to defend my honor, moving faster than even Killian could. Both men breathed down the male Lycan's neck, growling threats and reminding him if it hadn't been for me, none of them would've lived past those brief moments in the empty mine shaft.

I took a closer look at the bearded, scruffy face and sank into the chair next to him at the table. My eyes gla.s.sed over, and I placed a hand on his tense arm. I knew him. It was Jesse Luca, Charlie's cousin. I'd buried his mate on the sh.o.r.es of the river.

"Eira," Killian said, warning heavy in his voice.

I glanced up at him and then Mikjall, shook my head, and turned my attention again to Jesse. "Let him be."

Jesse's hands flew to my shoulders, and he shook me, enraged. "You were there. You should've been able to see them. To warn us all!" His canines elongated as he shouted. His eyes flashed yellow. Pain rolled from him like a fog, and I fought to hold back a flood of tears as his pheromones washed over me. His anguish was mine.

"I'm so sorry." The words slipped from my lips like a dying breath. So many had been lost. Friends. People I'd known for decades. Family.

Killian stood back, and Mikjall left the room.

Jesse leaned forward in his chair and pressed his head to my shoulder. Sobs broke free from his body, and he wept. His arms tightened around my shoulders, and I returned the embrace. His breath was warm on my collarbone, and his tears ran down my skin like trails of fire.

"I will forever carry your pain, my friend. They were my family. Each and every one of them."

Shuffling footsteps echoed around me on the battered wooden floors. I looked up from Jesse's dark hair to see everyone had crowded into the room.

Everyone who was left.

Nine.

Only eight made it out of Savannah. And two of them were strangers. So really... only six of the pack survived. And we weren't home yet.

Tears streamed down Charlie's face. She didn't hobble as she made her way to Jesse's side. At least her outward wounds had healed. I knew the pain of losing both parents would take years to fade. Lycans were used to living with family for generations. Most lived to be nearly five hundred years old before they pa.s.sed on. Her parents had barely been a hundred and fifty. Centuries had been stolen from them and from the others who died on the riverbank at Vicksburg.

"We will make it through this together, Jesse. I promise, in time, all our losses will be avenged," Charlie said, her voice soft but filled with determination.

He took a deep breath and released me from the tight embrace. "I want their blood on my hands for this, Charlie. I want to paint the earth with it."

Charlie nodded, but Mikjall spoke first. "We will have our revenge, brother. The time will come, and he will pay for his sins."

Jesse wiped his face and stood from the chair. "I need some air."

The Lycan quietly exited the farmhouse through the patio door. An uncomfortable silence swallowed the room as each of us waited for someone to speak first.

"Can I ask a question?" Jared spoke up, breaking the silence.

Everyone released the breath they'd been holding, and movement started again throughout the room. Travis and Garrett followed Charlie out of the room, and I turned my attention to Jared.

"The Djinn female, the one called Manda."

"What about her?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. The mention of her name made my flesh crawl. The desire to beat the life out of her raged within me, but at the same time, she'd saved Charlie and the others by breaking them out of the prison. If we had gone in, there would've been more casualties.

It didn't make sense. All the lives she'd cost us at the river ambush. Why had she turned on us there only to save a handful later?

"She was the informant the Masons relied on for years, right?"

I nodded. Killian moved to stand behind me. Just his closeness helped relax the tension in my body.

"Why didn't you burn her?"

He shrugged and glanced away. "She wanted to die," he murmured. "But I couldn't."

Something wasn't being said, but I didn't care enough to press him now. Manda had made her choices. She would have to live with them. In my eyes, nothing could redeem the woman who had betrayed those I called family.

She'd thrown herself against Jared, seeking death. That much was obvious. Death should've been immediate, but nothing had happened. Why Jared spared her was beyond my comprehension.

"You shouldn't feel sorry for her," I said. "The bodies we buried at the river were on her hands. Jesse's mate died there, along with many others. She will have none of my pity. She shouldn't have yours, either. She's paying for her sins, as Mikjall put it so succinctly."

"Can you truly know what is in her heart? You called her friend not long ago."

"She betrayed me completely. I will not mourn the loss of her friendship."

He took a deep breath before rising from his chair. "Sometimes even the worst betrayal is not as it seems."

I scoffed at his token of wisdom, and he left the dining room without another word.

Killian's hands rubbed up and down both my arms, and I leaned against his waiting chest. "In time, my beloved. In time, this will pa.s.s, too."

"I'm fine," I a.s.sured Killian. "There is no time for looking over my shoulder at what might have been. Manda made her choice, and I will leave her with it." Turning in his arms, I cupped his face. "She will die or live depending on hers. And I will do the same depending on mine. We must all move forward one choice at a time. This is the one constant I've learned over centuries of life. Time stands still for no one."

He nodded and placed a gentle kiss on my lips. "Are you ready to do this again so soon?"

"I have no choice, my love. There are enough who can feed me. I will keep my wits. We will all make it to the border safely."

"You don't have to do this."

"Yes, I do."

"I wish you didn't."

"I know," I answered.

He brushed his fingertips over my cheek. His blue eyes held concern and love. I could spend a thousand lifetimes content if only I could see those eyes every day.

"Let's go find out who's going first," he whispered.

Chapter Twenty-Nine.

EIRA.

"I need to take someone I can feed on along with another person. If there aren't two of you, the Djinn could easily target and teleport you away. We'd never even know where you were."

"It needs to be Killian and one of us," Jared said, standing from the couch.

Alek stood next to him. "I agree. Killian is the connection with the TR military behind the fence. It would be prudent to have him there first."

"Get your bags together. No time like the present. The SECR scans will start spreading out by ten mile increments for every hour."

Jared nodded and grabbed a large black duffle from the floor. "Let's do this."

Both men followed me outside. I wrapped an arm around each of their waists and took off.