Page 94

A grin tugged at the corners of my mouth. I wasn’t the only surprise Blue was getting today. There was a cooler with a picnic dinner waiting in the car.

Yep. Meet you in an hour.

As I slipped the phone back into my pocket, I watched Lucian pick through a pile of rubble. He shifted a piece of concrete and the late afternoon sun caught on something beneath it. With careful fingers, he retrieved it, brushing away ash and dust, and even from a distance I recognized it.

The sun-catcher that was hanging in Cordie’s window. The one that had belonged to her aunt. Luce cradled it in his big hands, gently wiping grit from the crystals and scattering rainbows over the destruction as he made his way back over to me. I couldn’t even be jealous that he was the one who found it because I knew how happy she’d be that it survived.

“How did you even see that?” I asked as he slipped the ornament safely into the gift bag with the other goodies we’d picked up.

“Not sure.” He wiped his dusty palms on his dark jeans. “I just knew where to look.” He drew a breath to continue, but went rigid instead. His face went deathly pale, gray eyes wide.

“What?” I grabbed his arm, worried he was about to pass out. “Luce, what? What is it?”

A shudder ripped through his solid frame. “I don’t know.” His voice was brittle. “Something dark. Something…” Terror clutched my heart in cold fingers as Lucian’s eyes swirled with shadow. “Familiar.” He raised a hand to squeeze the junction of his neck and shoulder, right over the place where he’d been bitten.

“Vamps?” I twisted to scan our surroundings, but kept a steadying hand on my driftmate.

“Must be,” he said, but I could tell he wasn’t convinced. He shook himself and clapped me on the shoulder. “I’m good, just nerves. Let’s go. I need my Heart.”

He didn’t wait for me to answer. As we walked back to Luce’s Challenger, unease continued to prickle at the base of my skull. I wasn’t about to discount the bad vibes that he’d picked up. Too much had already happened to not take every possible threat seriously.

Maybe it was just nerves, but the sick feeling now churning in my gut wasn’t going to ease until Blue was safely back in my arms.

60

CORDELIA

I brought the shopping bag up to my nose again and inhaled deeply, happily drowning in the rich blend of rosemary and sweet orange. Getting my own body products that didn’t have names like “Adrenaline Bomb” and “Sex Magnet” felt like reclaiming a piece of my soul.

“Why do you guys all smell so good?” I asked as we left the store. Now that I was thinking about it, the “Glacial Freeze” 3-in-1 in Bellamy’s shower couldn’t be further from the citrus and cedar that clung to him all the time. I didn’t think it was cologne, either.

Alaric’s lips quirked with amusement. “You think we smell good?” The late sun made the gold flecks in his hazel eyes dance.

“God, yes.” I didn’t even care how weird it sounded. “I can’t get enough of it sometimes. It’s like a drug.”

Rami chuckled beside me, the sound rumbling through his broad chest. “It’s one of the first signs that gryphons and Hearts may be fated to each other.”

“Like pheromones,” Ric added.

“Oh.” My smile grew. I’d be lying if I said that part of me wasn’t very pleased that even their scents were mine alone to enjoy. “Do I smell good too?”

My answer came in the way of hungry, masculine growls that made heat bloom in my belly and drip south. Before I could press for details, though, a familiar voice stole my attention.

“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”

“Bel!”

He and Lucian were walking toward us on the sidewalk, and the heartstring connected to my golden boy went wild. I shoved my shopping bag into a pair of waiting hands and launched myself at him, oblivious to the rest of the world. He caught me with ease, my legs winding around his hips, and we just breathed each other in.

“Fuck, Blue,” he murmured against my skin. “I don’t ever want to be away from you again. Being on campus without you was torture.” He held me a little tighter, and I melted as his warmth seeped into me.

“Fine by me.” Then my lips curved in a wicked grin, and I ran my nose up his neck to his ear. “I got new bubble bath. Maybe we can try it out later.”

His full-body shiver and impatient groan were like an aphrodisiac, making my heart race.

“Hey, you.” Lucian swooped in as soon as my feet were back on the ground. He tilted my face up with tattooed fingers and dropped a soft kiss on my lips.

“Hi.” I stopped myself from chasing him when he straightened. “How’d you get out of shopping with us?”