Lia shuddered. “A person used their own skin to bind the book.”
“If you take Lia back to your house, Rai, Elior will know,” Tara observed as she dried the dishes for Alatar.
“I probably don’t have a job anymore, so he probably won’t care where I go,” Lia fixated on Elior’s name. She looked at Tara’s face and then twisted to see Raiden’s. “What?”
“Elior believes that your blood made Lucian stronger and faster,” Raiden said gently. “And wants the same in order to heal and win the war.”
“That is what you meant when you spoke with the Wingless. That is why they are after me.” Her heart raced and she knew that the two werewolves at least could hear it. Raiden stroked his thumb over the back of her hand. “Because of what my blook does to vampires?”
“Yes, Lia.”
“They are not going to stop,” she said with panicked despair. “Not while my blood makes vampires stronger and faster. The vampires will keep chasing me, and the Wingless will keep trying to kill me.”
“We will work it out,” Raiden assured her firmly. “Don’t be afraid, Lia.”
“I wonder,” Alatar said hesitantly, and they all looked at him. He swallowed and shrugged. “Well, I was just thinking that if Raiden turns you, you will be a werewolf. I wonder what that will do? It has never been done before, right? That might change the attributes of your blood.”
“That is true,” Tara looked hopeful.
“We will find out next full moon,” Raiden decided. “What to do in the interim, is the question?”
“Can’t you just bite her now?” Alatar suggested.
“I have never heard of anyone being turned except on the full moon,” Tara was dubious. “I am not even sure it works.”
“When I turn Lia, I will do it right, under the full moon,” Raiden stood, setting her onto her feet. “I think we will go to Lia’s.”
“My house?” Lia was surprised.
“We will make a bed in the turret room,” he explained. “Alatar said that the protection spell was withdrawing towards the book, so hopefully it is still protecting the turret room, and that door is pretty well hidden. Without the blood bond, Lucian won’t know that you’ve returned. We will try to keep it that way for the time being, until we have had a chance to sleep and recover. Tomorrow, we will work out what to do next.”
“That is a sensible plan,” Alatar agreed.
“I will bring the car closer,” Raiden said. “Stay here with Alatar and Tara.”
“Alright.” It made her nervous to see him walk away, however. She watched Alatar and Tara put away the dishes into the cupboards, amused to see that the shelves were lined with newspaper, as her grandmother had used in her house. She realized that Alatar presented her with an opportunity that she might not get again. “Alatar,” she said, flushing.
“Yeah?”
“Do witches go on heat?”
His expression blanked. “I don’t… I don’t know. Warlocks don’t, ah…”
“Yes,” Tara replied with amusement. “All women go on heat, usually around ovulation. Even humans. Wolves can smell it. If you don’t want to attract unwanted attention, there are ways of hiding it. I will tell you all about it when it gets to that time, if Raiden has not knocked you up by then.”
“But, like…” Lia brushed aside the comment about being knocked up. She cringed. “Really on heat.”
“Yes,” Tara giggled. “Around twenty, you go through a period of really ramped up sexuality designed to attract a mate. I killed about three vibrators when it happened to me, and that was also being sexually active.”
“Really?” Alatar was paying avid attention, a grin tugging at his lips. “I have never heard of it. Happy to help out, by the way,” he slid a flirtatious look at Tara. “If the vibrator isn’t up to the job.”
Tara snickered. “It is not exactly something we advertise, or all the alphas and betas would be driving us nuts. Most of us know how to hide it, and it does ease off when you are in your mid-forties, according to my mum. I imagine it is the same with witches. I don’t think vampires would have it, they are sort of biologically frozen, after all. Humans have it, but not as strongly as werewolves, or at least, not that I have come across, and they are sort of oblivious to those things, so I have smelt them on heat.”
“Cael said that I was on heat,” Lia said, certain that her cheeks were as bright red as the design on Alatar’s tablecloth. “When I first met Raiden. Would it like… influence him?”
“Beside wanting to f-k you really badly?” Tara considered. “He would be feeling that due to the mate bond, anyway. But influence him to take you as a mate? I don’t think so. Maybe Cael’s people are more open about it,” she added thoughtfully.
Maybe, Lia added, they were also more sensitive to it, because Cael had used it as an excuse to almost f-k her on the kitchen floor. At least it would no longer be a problem now that she and Raiden were sexually active, and she should be well past ovulation… She frowned. How long had it been? She felt the shock like a blow. She and Raiden had never used any contraception…
And then a horrifying thought occurred. Had Lucian used protection?
“Lia, are you alright?” Tara was concerned by the expression on her face.
“Alright,” Raiden walked back in. “Everyone ready? Lia?”
“I am fine,” she said, pushing back the sudden nausea that rose in her, and her skin crawling. “Let’s go.”
She lay in the rear of the 4WD so as to be out of sight in case any vampires were watching the house and stared up at the vehicle ceiling as the streetlights slid through the windows, flickering the cab in various hues. Was she pregnant? Maybe not, she told herself. Her periods had always been irregular, and she had lost weight during her time with Lucian which could also affect regularity.
But it was possible. And what did that mean? If the baby was Raiden’s, it had been forming whilst she was under the influence of vampire blood. Could that have harmed it? If it was Lucian’s… The very thought horrified her. If it were Lucian’s she did not think she could… No, she pushed the thought away. It had to be Raiden’s. She just could not tolerate the thought of it being Lucian’s.
If she were pregnant, would being turned into a werewolf harm it?
She needed a pregnancy test, and some time with the grimoire to see if it held any useful information. She sighed heavily. Neither would be easily achieved with Raiden in the turret room with her, he was bound to notice if she started searching pregnancy or popped to the shops to pick up a test or twenty.
The car pulled up, and she could see the side of her house through the window. It was worse than she had imagined, and she stared at it in shock. “It looks like it has been condemned.”
“It isn’t as bad as it looks.” Raiden assured her. “We will fix it in no time, Lia, once this is… Well, I will go in and unlock it. And look around whilst I do so to make sure there is no one who will see,” he added in an undertone to Tara.
Once he was out of the car, Lia crawled closer to the back seat where Tara was seated.
“Tara,” she whispered. “Don’t answer.” Tara turned slightly in the seat and gave her the side eye indicating that she had heard, her werewolf hearing keener than Alatar’s. “I need a pregnancy test.”
Tara grinned.
The rear door opened. “Alright?” Raiden asked as he picked her up. He didn’t wait for a reply, striding to the front door swiftly, leaving Tara and Alatar to close the car door behind him. He carried her straight into the walk-in-robe. “Stay here a moment, until the front door is locked and Alatar and Tara are gone, okay?”
“I would love to have a shower,” she said.
“Yeah, we will do that.”
From the tone of his voice and quickness of his answer, he could smell Cael on her, she thought, and it was probably driving him insane, as Lucian’s scent had done.
He went back out to secure the door behind Alatar and Tara and she looked at the bedroom assessing the damage. The window was boarded shut, and someone had picked up the glass from the floor and bed. There were blood stains on the carpet from her feet, and vampire blood on the wallpaper near the door. The curtains were torn and tangled, as was the bedding.
She couldn’t imagine sleeping peacefully in that bed again.
She selected clean clothes from the shelves.
“They are gone,” Raiden returned to the room.
“You don’t have clean clothes to change into.”
“That is fine,” he shrugged. “Tara will bring me some tomorrow. Where is your spare bedding? I don’t think we can use anything in here.”
“True. There is a cupboard in the laundry…”
“I will get it. Stay in here. If you hear anything, go into the turret, and close the door behind you,” he didn’t wait for a reply. She took her clothes into the bathroom and started the water knowing that it would take time to heat after not being used for a while and watched him make trips with all the spare bedding from the laundry up the stairs.
She undressed, kicking the dress into the corner, and slid under the water, eager to wash Cael from her skin. Raiden finished making the bed as she finished shampooing her hair, and she watched him through the water-splashed glass as he undressed.
The bruising was yellowed and faded, she noted, he was almost healed. When he stepped into the spray, she reached out for him.
“You are so beautiful,” she told him.
He grinned, a flash of white teeth. “Isn’t that my line?”
She laughed, feeling the heaviness of the past weeks ease within her, banished by the rightness of being with him. She took the soap and ran it over him, from shoulders, down his arms, across his chest, and down the other arm, enjoying the rise and fall of his muscles. He watched her, his eyelids heavy and his eyes smouldering beneath the golden shimmer of the Other. He was hard, but he made no move to reach for her, content to let her touch him.
“Turn around,” she murmured and trailed the soap over his back. He leaned back into the spray to wet his hair, and she rubbed shampoo into it, stepping back so that the tiles were cold against her back whilst he rinsed it off.
He turned again. “Are we ready to go to bed?” He asked her, his voice husky.