Page 129 of Soul Sucker

“Grandmother, may I introduce Miss Ella Walsh?”

“I know who she is, Cygnet.”

“Then you’ll know we are mated.”

The Fae waved an impatient bejeweled hand. “Naturally. I am the one who arranged it.”

Ella opened her mouth, but Vadim squeezed her fingers even more tightly in a clear signal for her to shut up.

“I wondered if that had anything to do with you.” He bowed. “As you can see, you might have forced my temporary return to Otherworld, but not my compliance.”

“You wish to stay bonded to thishuman? If you hadn’t interfered that maniac would have killed her for you.”

“I will never willingly give her up.” Vadim smiled. “You have done me a great favor, Grandmother. I can now live legally in the human realm with my mate.” He bowed again. “We have to get back to work now. It was a pleasure seeing you again. Take care.”

Ella gulped as a roaring sound filled her ears and she found herself outside the SBLE building on Market still holding Vadim’s hand.

“You don’t need to use the portals?”

“Obviously not.” Vadim dusted down his suit and headed toward the main lobby. “Are you coming? We need to get a special unit down to the Merton office immediately.”

“Wait a minute. Did you just tell your grandmother that you mated with me so that you could live permanently on the human side?”

“It is one of the advantages a bonded male gets for mating with an empath.”

“So I’m like your fricking psychic green card?” Ella scowled at him. “You’re way more than fifty percent Fae, aren’t you?”

He shrugged. “It depends on which version of my ancestry you believe.”

“Bullshit! She tied you to me so that you’d come running back to Otherworld begging her to release you from our bond.”

“I’m quite sure that was her original idea. But, as I said, she miscalculated.”

Ella simply stared at him and wondered whether he could see the steam coming out of her ears. He was the most infuriating man she’d ever met.

“Why did your grandmother call you signet?”

“It’s just a pet name.”

She stamped her foot. “Dammit, Morosov, you aren’t going to tell me anything, are you?”

He swung around and wrapped his hand around the back of her neck, yanking her hard against him. “I’ll tell you this. We’re mated. I’m staying and you’re just going to have to suck it up and deal with it, soul sucker.” He kissed her and then stepped away. “Got that, Ms. Walsh?”

He had already walked into the lobby and headed for the elevators before she deigned to follow him.

“Signet,” she murmured. “Just a pet name. Pah.”

A lone black feather floated toward her and she started to smile. “Silly me. Notsignet. Cygnet. Baby swan.”

A delightful vision of the future unrolled in front of her. How many references to Hans Christian Andersen, ballet and Natalie Portman’s fingernails would she be able to get into their conversations before Vadim finally lost it?

There would be a ton of paperwork to fill out, but for once she was happy to do it. Laney and the rest of the empaths had been avenged. She found herself smiling at the thought of taking Vadim to see her mother over the weekend and maybe suggesting their future offspring might be able to fly… There was no point in letting Morosov think he had the upper hand quite yet. He might have declared his intentions, but she certainly hadn’t declared hers.

She waved at Peach and waited for the elevator to return. She’d gotten over her fear of them. Life had suddenly become so much morefun.

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