“No, to think.”
“Can I help?” the boy asked eagerly. Golden hair gleamed in the moonlight. He smiled, two of his teeth missing. He was not a vampire, like Nicolai and Dayn, but he was powerful all the same. Though he had a warrior’s heart, he took after their mother and sister in so many ways.
“Of course you can.” Nicolai sat and patted the sand.
Micah plopped down beside him. For several seconds, they breathed in the moist, salt-laden air, silent. Of course, Micah did not do this calmly. He shifted and he kicked out his legs, trying to get comfortable but never quite succeeding.
“Thinking makes me tired,” Micah finally said. “Not like playing.”
Nicolai bit back a smile. “What do you want to play?”
The image changed in a heartbeat, not giving way to a single moment of darkness. Nicolai was suddenly lying in the bed beside his father. Somehow, he knew a few days had passed since his night on the beach.
The king was recovering. Healers had drained him and Nicolai had fed him blood straight from his own vein. Every drop that he could spare, Nicolai had given—and even some that he couldn’t. Finally, success. The poison had been vanquished, and now, the two men were recovering together.
“Pick a female and marry her,” his father said. “If not one of the princesses, someone. Anyone. Please, Nicolai. I nearly died. Might still, though I feel stronger every hour. Please. You need an anchor, like your mother is to me. Someone to pull you back from the madness. Please.”
His father had never begged for anything. That he was now, over this…Nicolai did not have the heart to fight him any longer. He’d been pushing himself to this conclusion, anyway.
“As you wish, Father. It will be done. A princess from a neighboring kingdom, as you’ve already approved.”
Tides of relief permeated the room. “Thank you. Thank you, my son.”
Darkness, there again. Indomitable.
Nicolai heard a female scream, jolting him.
This time, when he came back to himself, he was crouched on a flat rock in the middle of the crimson lake. Closer to the moss-covered castle. The monsters had scented him, and were peering over at him through beady eyes. Their tails swayed, ready to strike at him if he dared move any closer.
The moon was still high, the hooked edges bleeding into a sky covered in a thick film of ash, hiding all the stars.
Those fiendish fish darted around him, teeth chomping at him, closer, closer. He was soaked with sweat, his heart a sledgehammer against his ribs, his muscles trembling. His mind, still lost. Aelfric. Alvina. Names.
Every member of his family now had a name.
Damn it, where were they? Did they still live? How long had he been away from them?
Quite a while, if this landscape was any indication.
He needed to search for them, but that scream…female… His female, he realized. Jane was screaming.
Jane!
His blood burned in his veins, singeing, leaving blisters. Those blisters caught fire, tiny infernos that swiftly spread. With a growl, he pushed to his feet. His boots slipped on the slimy rock, but he managed to maintain his balance.
The monsters tensed. He should challenge them. Wipe the castle stones with their entrails. Yes… His heartbeat slowed, becoming a sporadic fist in his chest. No, he decided next. He would have revenge, would find his family—after. Jane needed him now.
His gaze skated over the violated water, the crumbling cliffs farther ashore, the hideous castle straight from a nightmare. He’d traveled here through his memories. Therefore, it stood to reason he could reach Jane through his memories, as well.
He closed his eyes, pictured her as he’d last seen her. Underneath him. Her naked body splayed for his pleasure.
Her expression was soft and heated, her teeth nibbling on her lush bottom lip. Her eyes were at half-mast, the long length of her lashes casting shadows over her flushing cheeks. That long, glorious mane of honey-colored hair was spread around her, the ends curling.
Her breasts were small but firm, her nipples pink and beaded. He’d kissed them, sucked them. Her stomach was flat, her navel a work of art. He’d licked, down…down. Between her legs was the sweetest patch of honey-colored curls, shielding his new favorite place in this world or any other.
Her legs were long and lean, and they wrapped around him just right.
Nicolai, he thought he heard her whisper.
He would have liked her to call him Nicki. Anything that promoted familiarity between them. He wanted her tied to him, in every possible way, forever. A forever that Jane might refuse to give him. If he had proposed to a neighboring princess—and he did not delude himself into thinking that princess was Odette, making his life simple—someone was waiting for him.
They had not wed, though. Marriage was forever to his people, and his body would react to no one save his wife. But. Yes, but. He would have pledged his name, his life. Easy to dismiss when he’d had no memory of agreeing to do so. Not so easy now, but that wouldn’t stop him.
Nicolai did not want to be without Jane. He wouldn’t be without her. He would find her and return to Elden. She would be his queen.
Elden. This decimated land truly was Elden.
The bloody lake was as much a part of his kingdom as the wasteland he’d first appeared in. His kingdom. Not the Blood Sorcerer’s. A man Nicolai had dreamed of destroying. Would destroy.
Sickness churned in his stomach, because he knew what that meant. The Blood Sorcerer had slain his parents. Aelfric and Alvina would never have allowed their lands to wither like this.
Nicolai ached with the need to return the favor.
Don’t think about that now. Find Jane.
He opened his eyes, realized he had transported himself back to the wasteland. Those slithering vines were closing in… He squeezed his lids shut, imagined Jane, felt his body disintegrate, the ground disappearing from beneath his feet. When next he looked, the lush forest of Delfina surrounded him. However, he did not see the camp or Jane.
He breathed deeply, catching her scent. He kicked into motion, running faster and faster, cutting the distance between them as rapidly as possible. All the while, he continued to picture her, the trees around them, until he blinked and at last found himself in the camp she had constructed.
Unable to slow his momentum, he smacked into a thick trunk and stumbled backward, into the water.
Another scream reverberated in his head, this one louder and far more desperate. His fangs lengthened, slicing into his bottom lip. His hands curled into fists, but his claws, not yet healed, merely tickled his skin. The daggers Jane had made lay at his feet. He strapped as many as he could to his arms and legs.
He started forward, his stride determined. Her scent was stronger now…tinged with fear… Every step closer to her heated his blood with fury. She was marked, his, the path she’d taken suddenly a beacon in the night.
Anyone who had touched her would suffer. It was time the entire kingdom of Delfina—and all the kingdoms in this realm—realized that truth. Even if that meant unleashing the deadliest force of his temper.
I’m coming, little Jane.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
MOVING THE FESTIVITIES to the king’s bedroom, Jane thought, had been smart. In theory. But she hadn’t known all the variables, or “monkey wrenches” as she’d called them, while working in her lab, which very often proved to be fatal while experimenting. The biggest monkey wrench this time around? In the throne room, she would have performed on the king of the monsters, and the king alone, while everyone else watched and probably cheered. In the “privacy” of his bedroom, he expected her to service him and friends. At the same time.