My fingers itched to touch him again. To feel the connection between us surge with life. But a thousand years of being alone had taught me to be cautious. Logic explained his reasons for lying, but following my gut had kept me alive longer than most of my kind.

His bright blue eyes were cloudy with fear. The muscles in his neck flexed, and his cheek twitched. He was fighting the urge to come closer with every breath.

"I want to tell you that I love you and that nothing has changed," I whispered. "But it has."

"I will wait for you another millennia if that's what you need, Eira. I can't begin to imagine what you've been through. Just know that I will never leave you again, and I do love you more than words can convey." His pulse raced, and his hands fisted at his sides, but he remained stationary.

Hearing him tell me that he loved me warmed a place in my heart that had been cold for too long. Even so, I needed more time than the s.p.a.ce of a few minutes to tell him how deeply I still loved him, too.

Chapter Twelve.

EIRA.

He took a step forward and every muscle in my body tensed. If he embraced me, I'd turn into a mushy puddle of emotional mess. I couldn't deal with that right now. I needed answers, explanations, and I really needed a shower. My skin was grimy and covered in my dried blood. Even though my clothes had self-cleaned, thanks to Calliope's enchantment, they were ragged.

"Killian." I stepped closer to him, ignoring the warning alarms in my brain telling me to keep my distance. The scent of death clung to the air in the barn, distracting me from my overwhelming desire to touch him. I'd noticed the essence of it when I first arrived. And once the sun had risen to its full height, I'd also been made aware of the freshly buried bodies behind the barn, too.

"Yes?" He glanced up, meeting my gaze with a burning hunger in his eyes that melted my insides.

I shook my head, communicating for him to keep his distance. He turned away and walked toward the sword I'd relieved him of earlier. After sliding it into the empty sheath on his back, he slowly turned around to face me again. His expression was grim but calmer. The tension had left his face, and his hands hung relaxed at his sides. I appreciated that he was willing to give me the s.p.a.ce I needed without making me feel guilty for needing it.

"You kill here." It was a statement, but he answered it like a question.

"Yes. Then I bury them outside and plant a tree on their graves. Something good should come from their death. It used to make me feel like I was avenging my brother, but now..."

Jon was dead. Sympathy for his loss made a few more tears cascade down my cheeks. They had been so close.

His words had trailed off, but I had a feeling I knew where they were leading. Somewhere he didn't want to acknowledge, the riots had changed the way we lived on earth. Everything was done more carefully. Even the Others that didn't give a s.h.i.t about hiding what they were still remained guarded and careful. Just because they didn't mind killing humans to survive didn't mean they wanted to be fighting a war every day.

But this barn with its years of dried blood, chains on the wall, and graves in the field outside spoke volumes to the life he'd chosen to lead. I wanted and hoped the man I'd fallen in love with was not completely lost.

"Now you just kill because it's the only thing left to do." I understood killing and death. I'd killed just to survive for hundreds of years. But I killed to eat, not because I was taking vengeance for a family member. My hatred had been turned inward for so long. It'd taken centuries for me to regain my humanity. To reach past the self-loathing of being a vampire, past losing the life I'd wanted to live.

The sword he'd picked up from the floor was the very sword he'd fought with a thousand years ago. It was the sword I'd been stabbed with. I'd never seen more beautiful blades on earth than the ones Jon and Killian North owned. Now Killian carried them both. He'd called his Dragonfire, and Jon had called his blade Dragonbreath.

"They took him from me," Killian finally continued. "It should've been me that died. Not Jon." He took another deep breath. "After he died, I enlisted with the TR Army. They were glad to have me. They encourage Others to enlist. I taught an entire regiment the art of sword fighting. But after forty years of more blood, I retired and moved here. I stay off the grid, and it was quiet for a while. But then SECR teams started sneaking around. When one team came into my house, I killed them all. Then it just turned into more and more. Until that was what I did again. Kill."

"Most of them do deserve it." I moved closer, pushing away the alarms in my head that warned me if I touched him all my anger would melt away. Touching him was all that mattered right now.

My hands lifted to cup his face, and I stared deep into the blue pools of regret and pain his eyes broadcasted. His hands remained at his sides, and in that moment, I only wished for his embrace.

I moved my hands down the sides of his neck and leaned against his chest, pulling him into the embrace I so desperately needed. When he finally raised his arms and wrapped them around my back, pulling me tighter to his chest, I breathed in the sweet smell of his scent and buried my face in his shirt.

"I'm sorry about Jon."

"Thank you, Eira." His lips pressed down on the top of my head in a gentle kiss. It was intimate without being out of control.

I breathed in his earthy scent and sighed. I'd missed him so much. Nothing mattered more than building a future together from this point forward. We'd both suffered through the last thousand years. He needed me as much as I needed him.

I just hoped when I told him I had to leave for Savannah to save Charlie, he'd come with me. Charlie was my "Jon," the sister I never had. I couldn't leave her in SECR clutches to be slaughtered by Xerxes. I could only hope I wasn't already too late.

The sooner I could reach Hannah in Sanctuary, obtain another ring, and find those two Lycans Charlie was in love with, the better. They would help me find her and the rest of the missing Mason pack. I knew they would.

For now, I had a few hours to kill. Until the sun set, I was trapped in this barn.

"Let me make love to you, my beloved," he murmured into my hair. "I want to feel your skin against mine again before circ.u.mstances steal you away from me once more."

I wanted that too. My emotions had run the gamut today, and I'd come to the conclusion that I loved him more than I wanted to argue with him about his past decisions. Still, I was filthy and this barn stank of pain and death.

"I can't leave this barn while the sun shines. And once it sets, I have to go."

"Follow me. There's a tunnel between the barn and the house. Once night falls, I'm going with you. Don't leave without me," he begged, his voice thick with concern.

We walked to the side of the barn, and he moved a stack of pallets to the side, revealing a steel grate. He grabbed the grate and lifted it, gesturing for me to climb down the ladder connected to the side.

The floor was only about ten feet down. I dropped into the hole instead and landed softly. Glancing up, I watched him climb down after me. He stepped off the last rung of the ladder and grabbed a flashlight from a shelf to his right I hadn't noticed. The light made me squint and quickly move behind him. I could see decently well without the flashlight, but for a human or Other without my extraordinary sight, the tunnel was pitch black.

A dozen yards into the concrete tunnel, the floor began to slope upward just a little. Soon we reached a dead end, and Killian pushed against the wall, revealing it was actually a door. The concrete sc.r.a.ped against itself, and we stepped into a small storage area -a bas.e.m.e.nt from what I could tell.

A staircase led up to another door, which I a.s.sumed opened into the house.

"How long have you lived here?"

"A few years," he answered. "I have blackout shades on most of the windows. Is that enough to protect you from the sun?"

I nodded. "Yes. As long as it's not direct sunlight, I'll be fine," I answered, cursing the man who'd taken my ring. Climbing the stairs behind him, I squinted into the brighter indirect sunlight once he opened the door. The clean white tile floor of the kitchen surprised me. The air was a bit stale, but every surface was spotless and barely lived in. It was cleaner than my room at the lodge in Ada.

"This way," he beckoned, taking my hand and leading me through the house. The small living room was dim and spa.r.s.ely furnished with a small couch, one recliner, a side table, and a lamp.

I followed him up another staircase, loving the feel of his strong hand wrapped around mine. He led me to the right, into a large bedroom, and knelt at my feet.

"Shoes first. Then clothes and a nice hot shower for us both."

"Sounds perfect."

Once the laces were loosened on both my boots, he lifted each foot and removed the shoe then the sock. However, his hands didn't stop there. His fingers slid up my calves, over my thighs, and along my hips until I swayed above him.

"It's been so long since I enjoyed being touched." Closing my eyes, I released a sigh that took with it the stress I'd been holding close since seeing him again. I loved the feel of his hands on me as he undressed me bit by bit.

"Eira?"

"Mmmhmm," I murmured as he slid my pants down my legs.

"How did you end up in my barn injured like you were?"

My eyes shot open, and I peered down into his somber blue ones. "My friends and I were betrayed. Most of them were killed or captured. I escaped only because I blurred away and abandoned them. I was bleeding so badly..."

"You made the right choice. A smart soldier knows when to retreat. A dead soldier can't return later to save his comrades."

"I just hope I can reach them in time. Once the sun sets, I have to make it to Sanctuary. Hannah can make me another ring to protect me from the sun, and then I can go to Savannah. I won't leave Charlie and the rest of the pack to be tortured and killed by that b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

"Shhhhh," he whispered, tracing his fingers along the inside of my thigh. "We'll leave as soon as it's dark. It will be good to fight for a cause other than my own hatred. Until then, my only goal is to take care of you and worship every inch of your gorgeous body." He nuzzled under the hem of my shirt and pressed a kiss to my stomach.

Grabbing the edge of my ripped up shirt, I yanked it over my head and sent it sailing across the room into an empty corner. Then with a quick snap, I unlatched my black lace bra. It fell to the floor with my pants, and I kicked the pile into the same corner where my shirt had landed.

He rose to his feet, cupped my chin with his right hand, then brushed away a stiff strand of my dirty hair, and kissed me ever so gently on the lips.

It was a sweet kiss. The kind you used to see at the end of chick flicks in the early 20th century. The kind where the hero has just promised to love and cherish the heroine forever and her foot pops up as he kisses her in that picture perfect way that only those old romantic movies could pull off.

Those movies didn't exist anymore except on the black market. And if you were caught with them, it wasn't good for you or your family. After the new laws pa.s.sed and the United States broke into five different Republics, they banned social media, entertainment, pretty much everything that had any enjoyment value.

When the kiss ended, my eyes opened and met his gaze. For a moment, the man behind the angry soldier shone through. The man Killian had been. The man he could be again. War hardened us all. h.e.l.l, living for centuries stripped away a lot of humanity, especially when you lived without someone to share it. Friends were good, but souls craved a mate. It was just how all beings were wired. We needed to love and be loved by another.

I let him lead me through the door behind us, into the bathroom. He turned the water on, and in a few minutes, it had steamed the small room. After he stripped out of his clothes, I stepped into the shower and sighed as the hot water sluiced over my body. Blood and dirt turned the water at the bottom of the shower brown. Killian's hands ran over my shoulders. Then he poured a handful of gel into his palm and began ma.s.saging it into my scalp. The lavender scented suds slid down my neck, and my eyes closed as he continued to work the shampoo through my long hair.

"I remember waking with this beautiful hair sprawled across my body like a blanket."

A smile curved my lips as the memories of those morning surfaced in my mind.

"I'm glad it's still long."

"I cut it short in the 1920s. But I hated it."

A soft ba.s.s chuckle echoed in the small tiled bathroom. "I can't even picture you with short hair." A bottle squirted, and cold gel hit my shoulders. His hands ma.s.saged my shoulders and worked along each arm, down the length of my spine, on and around my b.r.e.a.s.t.s, continuing down my body until he was kneeling in front of me again, rubbing my calves.

Shifting to the side, I moved my head farther beneath the showerhead and rinsed the soap from my hair, letting the suds slid down the length of my body. Not much on earth felt better than smooth, clean skin.

Once the water ran clear of suds, I took a bottle of soap from the wall shelf and squirted some into my palms. "Stand for me, Killian."

He complied, and my hands began at his shoulders, relishing the feel of his hard muscles beneath my fingertips. I rubbed and traced the lines on his chest, finding myself amused whenever my touch triggered a nerve and made him twitch.

I moved to stand behind him, rubbing the soap up and down between his ma.s.sive shoulders. My pebbled nipples abraded his skin as I pressed closer to reach around him. Then my searching fingers found their target, wrapping around his hard shaft. With my other hand, I paid special attention to his b.a.l.l.s, ma.s.saging them gently until he groaned and leaned against the shower wall.

"Stop, woman. Or I'll take you here."

"That doesn't sound like a threat," I answered, a smile spreading across my face.

"It's not. It's just a courtesy warning that I'll have you here and then again in my bed."

I squeezed his c.o.c.k a little harder, urging him to follow through.

He carefully removed my hand from his c.o.c.k, turned, and pushed me against the steam-warmed tile.

"I'll take that as my invitation to begin."

Grinning up at him, my hungry soul drank in the heat blazing from his deep blue eyes. The shower and the bed might not be enough for me before the sun set and life resumed its course. These precious hours, trapped with him in his house, might be the only ones I had. Guarantees were a fantasy. We'd not likely have another chance like this again anytime soon.

Chapter Thirteen.

KILLIAN.

Her evergreen scent filled my lungs, just like it always did when I awoke every morning, but this time it was real--not a figment of my imagination. Eira, my beloved, beautiful warrior, was nestled in the crook of my shoulder. Her bare skin was cool against mine. Her long, black hair trailed over my arm and across the white sheets on my bed.

Turning my head, I peered down into her bright aqua blue eyes. So strange to see them that color, but they suited her. In my dreams, she always had brown eyes, but now those dreams would change. New memories would overwrite my nightmares. Perhaps I could finally find some peace.

She'd returned to me. As a vampire. But I didn't care. I had her safe in my arms. That was what truly mattered. Keeping her close was my new mission in life.

"It's time." Her voice was soft and raspy from the cries of pa.s.sion I'd coaxed from her over the last five hours. I'd lost count of how many times her beautiful body had climaxed, and even for a vampire, she seemed thoroughly spent.

I knew it was time. The sun had set a few hours ago. Now that darkness had descended, it was safe for her to go outside again.

She rose from my chest and stared down at me, tracing a finger from my neck to my shoulder. Her blue eyes were rimmed with just a hint of scarlet.

"Hungry?"

A frown spread across her face, and she glanced away, guilt replacing the pa.s.sion I'd just seen. "Sorry. I'm h.o.r.n.y, and that usually makes me hungry, too."

"Drink, Eira. You only need to ask, and I will give." I stretched my head to one side, baring my neck to her for easier access.

"I don't need it."

"Then just take a little."

She licked her lips and fixed her gaze on my neck for a moment.

"Give me a kiss first," she said, her voice hushed and more tender than I'd heard it all evening.

I lifted an arm and wrapped my hand around the base of her skull, pulling her mouth to mine. She tasted sweeter than any dessert. Her lips were soft, but so much strength lay behind them. Her life had been a fight, more so than mine. No one knew I was an Other unless I stayed somewhere too long and they realized I wasn't aging. My eyes were a natural hue of blue. I didn't have super strength... I just didn't age.

Elvin could live for thousands of years. We had natural immunity to sickness. We didn't fear cancer or other degenerative diseases. But we could be killed, just like humans. My brother had been shot and bled out right in front of me. It could've just as easily been me.

"Be with me, Killian. Don't fade away to your past," she murmured into my ear then bit down on my neck.

"Ahh," I gasped, feeling each pull she took of my blood. Only the initial bite caused pain. Once the venom from her fangs started to flow into the wound, it numbed it and sent messages to the brain that the bite was pleasurable. Ingenious, really. A predator that could make its prey feel pleasure as its life drained away.

Eira released my neck, and an involuntary shiver coursed through me as she swept her tongue across the wound.