Hood's Obsession (18 page)

“For my kind,” he finished for her.

She touched the tip of her finger to the side of her nose. “Indeed.”

“Rumpel would not allow her into the castle to find herself a mate, Danika.”

Nodding vigorously, she gave him a look as if to say,
Now you understand
. But he wasn’t entirely sure he did just yet.

“Demone rarely venture outside of the castle. And once they do they are prompt to return. You are the first in centuries, and undoubtedly it will be years more before another comes along. By that point it might be too late.”

“So either I bind myself to her, or she faces an eternity of running?” He sighed.

Not that he didn’t enjoy her company. But that didn’t mean he meant to make it eternal. What did they know of one another? Other than she made him laugh and cooked terrible meals, and that sometimes she’d glance at him in a way that would make his breath catch and his body burn. But she was also slow to listen to his advice. Twice she’d run headlong into danger, once very nearly dying because of it.

His heart had nearly stopped beating in his chest at the sight of her bound and at the mercy of a sword’s blade. But then he recalled the kiss she’d given him after his rescue and how she’d looked at him in a way that shook him to his very core because he’d never known it before.

“Does she know? Is that why she was willing to run off with me? Is she hoping I will save her from herself?” he asked slowly, measuring each word, feeling the importance of it.

“Lilith is aware of how she is feeling, and knowing that cub as I do, I’m sure she’s terrified out of her mind. As far as she’s concerned she can fall in love with no one outside of her species or suffer death.”

“Why did she lick my finger?”

Standing, Danika smiled softly. “Because she likes you, Giles. She’s terribly confused. She understands that what she’s doing might very well end badly for her, and yet I believe that were you to ask her why, she’d simply say because it matters.”

“What matters?”

She shrugged. “Ask her, she’ll tell you.”

Giles shook his head. He set out on this journey with the mindset of finding the chalice and returning back to his castle. There’d been no other goal in mind. Falling in love had played no part in any of this, and he still wasn’t there. He liked her, true enough. But was that enough of a foundation to base ideals of love on?

“But my people, we do not mingle.”

“Who cares, Giles? Those are old conventions that mean nothing.”

“No, there are reasons. We are sterile outside of our species. I could never have a son, bear a daughter. Pass on my line.”

“Oh.” Her brows lifted. “That I did not know. Then I suppose it makes the decision all the harder for you. In truth, you do not need to take Lilith on as your mate. I understand that what I am asking isn’t part of your journey. You will find the chalice and return to your castle and your employment and your life can continue on as before. But I can promise you that if you choose to open your eyes and your heart, Lilith will bring you great joy.”

“But she believes this to be impossible anyway, so why would she even want me to?”

“Because as she’s matured she’s realized the truth of what she’s done. But I believe not until recently has the matter impressed itself upon her. I believe in my heart that she loves you, or is very nearly there, and love makes fools of us all.”

Giles clenched his jaw. He’d known Rumple his entire life, and that his prince would make such a deal, one that did not benefit him at all, it bothered him. Flexing his fingers, he watched as Danika began to slowly fade from sight.

“Why did Rumpel do that to her?”

Her ghostly smile was all he saw as she said, “I can only speculate. From here on out, her life is entirely in your hands.”

Lilith returned an hour later feeling exhausted but more determined than ever to focus on the task at hand. And that was retrieval of the chalice. For what purpose she still didn’t know, but it didn’t matter to her.

She’d made a fool of herself this morning and wouldn’t do it again. Giles couldn’t have made his position more clear, and regardless that she found him more fascinating than any other male she’d known before, he clearly did not feel the same.

Besides, she’d been playing a dangerous, stupid game with him. She knew full well the implications of her deal with Rumpel, that mating with anyone besides a wolf would mean her death.

Never could she have imagined the emotional strain she’d have to fight to stave off those powerful emotions. At thirteen she’d believed her willingness to never fall in love would have been enough to sustain her through her long-lived life. But now, only nineteen, she was beginning to comprehend the loneliness of the life she’d chosen for herself.

What St. John had attempted to do to her, it would only continue. Her parents knew that once this was over she was never coming back—she couldn’t. It was why she’d stared back at her home with a terrible sense of ache and longing when they’d passed the borders of her land.

If she went back the nightmares would only continue. Her brothers would be safe; they were each alphas and ran as their own pack, they had power enough to keep anyone away from them. But she was a female, one slip-up, one moment where she was out of their sights, and that would be it.

Even though she was an alpha, her will would never be stronger than a male’s. They would dominate and destroy her.

Pack law would not allow any mated wolf to molest another, so even though no one within her community cared for the fact that her mother and father were together, no one could ever harm Violet because of the way the laws of magic worked.

She, however, was under no such protection. As much as her family loved her and would do anything to protect her, they weren’t omniscient, and at some point somewhere she would be found and raped and made a slave to the perverse whims of the victor.

And she would rather kill herself first than to ever allow that to happen.

Staring at the shack, wondering if Giles had fallen asleep again, Lilith debated whether to spend the night outside camped under the stars. She’d not be bothered this night. This was sacred ground to shifters. Unless there was a bitch in heat pumping out her pheromones to every male wolf in the vicinity, the males generally left the clearing alone.

She could gather some moss and make herself a nice little nest, perhaps glamour herself to appear as something as deadly as a basilisk, who with a mere glance could turn any living thing to stone. No one would dare approach her then and she could sleep without being forced to share the knight’s presence.

Perhaps a little time apart would do them well. With any luck by morning she’d be able to plaster on a mask of antipathy and continue on as though nothing had happened between them.

Shifting quickly, she gathered up large clumps of moss and arranged them into a plush nest of sorts.

The bed was far from comfortable, but it was serviceable at least. Calling her magic she wove an illusion of a small green lizard with bright red eyes and then settled onto the spongy, cool bed.

“I hope you do not mean to sleep outside alone tonight. Especially when the bed is more than adequate.” Giles’s voice caused her to jerk in surprise.

He stood directly before her, gazing into her burning red eyes.

“I’m a basilisk—you should show a little fear,” she hissed.

His lips just twitched. “One,” he held up a finger before sitting cross-legged before her, “basilisk don’t talk, they hiss.”

She snorted.

“Two,” he held up another finger, and this time she could see the ugly red wounds he’d acquired from his fight with the wolves last night, “I saw you change.” He dropped his hands to his knees.

Lilith’s stomach curled with tendrils of heat at the sight of him. His hair looked tousled and his face was lined with exhaustion. The way the moonlight played off the darkness of his skin reminded her of the glimmer of India ink. She wanted to swirl her finger upon his flesh and feel its heated smoothness once more.

As much as she told herself repeatedly to not allow the man anymore footholds in her heart, every time she saw him her caution flitted right out the window like birds in flight.

It was almost painfully hard to look upon him, especially with the memory of his rebuff so fresh. She was grateful to be in an altered form where he couldn’t see the play of emotions on her face. Right now she was a lizard without much in the way of facial expressions to judge her by.

He reached out a hand and his fingers brushed hot against her shoulder blade. She inhaled deeply at the spark of touch, her already-rioting insides turned to jelly, and she hadn’t a clue whether to bolt off or sit still and let him fondle her.

His hand continued its slow exploration down her bicep and forearm until he feathered the slightest of caresses against each fingertip. She shivered under the onslaught.

Finally he pulled his hand away.

“Why did you touch me like that?” she whispered.

Dragging his knee to his chest, he hugged his leg and shrugged. “Your illusions intrigue me. I see nothing but air, and yet you’re tangibly all there.”

So he hadn’t really wanted to touch her? Just experience a taste of her magic. Feeling like a deflated balloon, she sighed. “I’m tired tonight, Giles, why are you out here?”

“I wanted to tell you thank you for the meal, it was good. And I was…unkind. For that I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. The words were nice enough, but hardly mattered to her at the moment. What she felt now went beyond the fact that he’d not liked her meal. And she could tell. It’d sat too long and grown cold and overcooked; if he’d been awake when she’d finished cooking it earlier it would have been much better. “Doesn’t matter,” she muttered and then gave a feeble chuckle. “It really was awful.”

“No.” His hand shot out and once again he unerringly found her hand through the illusion. “It wasn’t nothing,” he said with a gentle squeeze of her fingers that caused her already-splintered emotions to go haywire. “You took the time and I fear I can be quite bullheaded when on a mission. It’s always been that way with me sadly.”

When he let go of her hand it was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that he could continue to hang on to it, but she’d already suffered quite enough rejection for one day.

Irritated by her feelings, she shoved her hand under her butt. That way if he tried to grab it again he’d be unable to find it. Lilith clenched her jaw. The point of an illusion was to not be seen, and she didn’t want him touching her so casually anymore.

She should ask him to go back to the shack so she could get some rest. But they’d slept the afternoon away, the last thing she was was tired. Engaging him in conversation was a bad idea. It would only serve to strengthen the emotional attachment she felt for him and it was better for all involved to just sever it now. Her wolf would have to find a compatible shifter at some point that she could mate and be happy with. Lilith needed only to give it more time.

Allowing herself to become entangled with someone outside of her species was a death sentence. Why couldn’t she seem to get that through her thick head?

But against her better judgment, she murmured, “What way?”

Leaning back on his hands, he appeared to be settling in, and she wasn’t sure whether she liked that or not. Her stomach was a painful mess of quivering, dancing butterflies and her throat felt much too thick. Her tongue swollen, she had no idea what was the matter with her. Why all her wits seemed to have suddenly fled.

Nibbling onto the corner of her lip, she glanced at her toes.

“I was born from a pit of flame in a world called Delerium.”

Brows gathering into a tight vee, she peeked at him from the corner of her eye. She’d been asking him for weeks to tell her more of himself and he’d always seemed to have one excuse or another not to. Now suddenly he wished to share?

Not that she minded, but what had brought about the sudden change of heart?

“It is an old world full of old ideas. We live in a caste system, immediately born into it. Our lives and our roles in society are dictated from the moment we open our eyes and take our first breath.”

Wetting her lips, she stopped wondering about the why and decided if he was going to share than she would ask the questions that’d been gnawing at her from the moment she’d first spotted a demone.

“The wolves are much the same way,” she admitted hesitantly. When he smiled back at her, she felt bolder to continue. “Alphas are not made, they’re born. And they’re usually terrible, demanding everything, thinking of no one but themselves. I much prefer the company of real wolves over my own kind—isn’t that terrible?”

“No.” He picked up a twig and toyed with the dried edges of it. “Not so terrible at all. I found during my life there that I was good at what I’d been created to be, but I wearied of the life.”

“You were a warrior?”

His lip twitched just slightly. “Indeed I was. I even bore a moniker.”

Laughing, she played with the pile of loose moss strings by her knees. “Aye? And what was it?”

“The Black Death, for I brought it wherever I roamed.”