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22
Vanth felt like his bones were going to crawl out of his skin. He had to keep walking, keep breathing, keep his eyes off Elektra. Vanth had never been quick to violence, but it had taken all his control not to let his magic rip the two fae males to pieces. It wasn't like him at all. Elektra was a better fighter than he was. She didn't need his protection. She certainly wouldn't welcome the possessiveness he had no right to feel toward her.
Fae genes, fae genes, fae genes,he chanted to himself over and over. The alternative was that he was a raging dick. He had never been that way over anyone before. He hated the other males who controlled their partners, and he swore never to become one of them. Elektra hadn't kicked his ass into next week, so he would count his blessings and keep his mouth shut until they got back to Inferno.
Vanth knew the second they had stepped out of Faerie and back into the human world because his connection to his ghouls lit up in his mind like a magical flare. There had been no gateway or stone circle or any obvious door.
He looked at the ring on his finger. Maybe it found the nearest weak place between worlds and sent them through it? He shook his head and tried not to worry about it. If he survived the fight with Lazarus, he would be able to return to Faerie and ask Flynt.
They found his van ten minutes later. It was covered in a dusting of light-yellow pollen but otherwise looked in one piece. His ghouls were in the forest, eating gods knew what. Vanth tugged on the magic binding them, and they shuffled out of the trees minutes later.
"For fuck's sake, look at the state of you two," he complained, staring at the mud and blood that covered their fronts. He would have to get them some clean clothes once they had rested. They looked stuffed and slow from eating. He probably should have been more concerned about what they had found to gnaw on, but he had bigger problems. Starting with the reaper in his car. He locked the ghouls into the back of the van and climbed into the driver's seat.
Elektra was already on the passenger side, one leg drawn up to her chest and her gray eyes distant. Vanth pushed down all his worried feelings. She would talk to him when she was ready to.
The sun was going down in the city, and the time differences between Faerie and the human world were unpredictable at best. Vanth was wired, his magic dancing incessantly under his skin.
"I was seventeen when I first went to the temple," Elektra said, breaking the heavy silence in the cab. "My father and mother had already arranged a marriage for me. I was royal, so that's not uncommon. For other females, it's different. I don't know if you know this, but fae women go through certain hormonal cycles that can occur between the ages of twenty and fifty."
"Like a menopause?" Vanth asked, making her laugh softly. "Honestly, my mother did everything she could to keep me away from fae shit. So no, I have no idea what you are talking about."
Elektra shifted uncomfortably. "They aren't like menopause. We call them mating cycles. You basically pump out a whole bunch of pheromones to attract a suitable partner. Sometimes, it doesn't even result in a true mating. Some females who are in a relationship already will just ride it out with whoever they are with. Others will get a fuck buddy for the duration so they don't lose their minds."
Vanth had a sudden feeling about where this conversation was heading. "You are…in a cycle?"
"Your mother believes so, and those douchebags in the forest confirmed it. My cycles have been put off because I was living at the temple. I haven't been back in the human world for this long, and it's been triggered. I'm mortified," she said, her voice cracking as she covered her face with her hands for a moment.
Vanth resisted the urge to reach out and touch her. "And my mother told you this last night after we made out in the training room? That's why you've been…cooler?"
Elektra removed her hands from her face and leaned back in her chair. "Yes. I didn't want to believe her, but the way those males reacted, the way you and I have reacted to each other…"
"Woah up. You think me wanting to make out with you is because your cycle has hit?" Vanth asked.Fae genes.Had her genes been confusing him and not his own?
"It's possible, Vanth. I want to be honest about it because you might not be in charge of your own desires right now. My scent is like a beacon, and I don't want anything happening between us that we are going to regret once the cycle passes," Elektra replied, her face and neck turning scarlet.
"I understand," Vanth replied, his mind whirling. Had she been flirting with him because of the cycle? The thought hurt a surprising amount.
They were silent for the rest of the drive back to his house. Vanth let out the ghouls and followed them into the cool rooms in his morgue. His phone was dead, so he plugged it into the spare charger he kept in there.
Elektra leaned against the fixed embalming table, her skin still flushed.
"Are you going to say anything else? I thought you would be freaking out?" she demanded.
Vanth tried to appear relaxed, but his insides were anything but calm. "It's your body going through it, Elektra. I'm not entitled to have an opinion on it. You say it's only started in the last day or so?"
"According to your mother, yes. I'm at the beginning of it," Elektra said, her pointed ears flushing. "It's why you wanted to kiss me all of a sudden when we were in Faerie."
Gods, she was so damn beautiful. She was also wrong.
Vanth's mouth twitched into a smile. "I hate to break it to you, princess, but I wanted to kiss you long before that."
"How long?" she asked, gray eyes widening.
"Somewhere between the moment you first kicked my ass and when I watched you eat a burger the size of your head," Vanth admitted. He closed in on her, his hands moving to grip the cool metal table on either side of her, caging her in. "My urge to protect and possess you kicked in the moment I saw you. You might want to blame what's burning between us on your pheromones, but it started long before your cycle did. If you want to blame it for kissing me yesterday, you can. I know my own desires. I know what I want."
Vanth could see the flickering pulse on Elektra's neck and smell the sweet honey arousal building between her thighs. Shelooked up at him from underneath her long lashes. "And what's that exactly?"
"Right this second? I want to kiss you until you believe that I want you because you are Elektra, and not some bullshit fae impulse," Vanth replied.
