Page 93 of The Rogue's Curse

Misha nodded. “Using my magic is exacerbating it.”

“Then you have to stop until Shoshanna breaks the curse. It scares me that you don’t have to be asleep.” His gaze was downcast as he continued, “I’m sorry I caused this.”

“It’s okay,” Misha said. He gently took Paris’s wrist, bringing his hand to his face. The cool cloth against his feverish skin was soothing.And the fact that Paris—his soulmate—wanted to care for him was the best medicine of all.

Paris’s head lifted, and he smiled faintly. Without speaking, he gently cleaned Misha’s cheeks, scraping over a bloody cut. When he finished, he set the cloth aside and said, “Thank you for handling that. You know, part of me wanted to try to draw out Shea as bait. He had enthralled a human family so he could use their crematorium. I think if I’d played it right, we could have drawn him out.”

“Why didn’t you?” Misha asked.

His throat worked silently. “Because the woman said no. She was frightened for her children. A year ago, I would have done it anyway. Greater good, and all that bullshit. But if I can dangle a human woman as bait for Carrigan Shea, I don’t deserve to call myself any better. Still, I can’t help wondering if I just doomed dozens, if not thousands, of humans to be hurt or killed.”

“You didn’t doom anyone,” Misha said. “That’s on Shea.”

He laughed bitterly. “It’s a lovely attempt at comfort, but we know things are more complicated than that.”Then he chuckled and said, “We should go.”

A few minutes later, they settled around the conference table in the so-called war room with Julian and Safira. Paris took a call on speakerphone from Sasha, who confirmed that he and Nikko had picked up Ella Goodwin. They were on their way to a hotel to reunite the family safely outside the city.

Misha stole a look at Paris, who was beaming at the phone. After telling Sasha to keep an eye on the Goodwin family for the evening, he hung up and reported the salient points of their interrogation with Georgina.

“We could make her lead us to Shea,” Julian said.

Paris shook his head. “We know where he is now. We don’t need her, unless we can get more information out of her. She could be leverage.”

“We need her blood,” Misha said. “I can use it to create a poison that’s designed to kill Shea. I may even be able to impact his entire court with it.”

Julian stared at him, then gave him a solemn nod. “I hope you’re right.”

“We’ll need to be ready to act soon,” Safira said, shaking her head. “I suspect Shea’s not going to take kindly to us taking his assistant. He may make a move against us soon.”

“You think he cares that much about his people? He let Lilah and Kieran rot in the Mausoleum,” Julian said.

“He may have let them simmer for a while, but he broke them out in less than three months. In vampire terms, that’s nothing,” Paris said. “And based on what Kristina told us, Georgina is his right-hand woman. Safira’s right. We need to be on alert.”

“You’re not keeping her here,” Julian said, barely a question.

Paris shook his head. “Kristina is arranging for Jonas to keep her. She also searched Georgina’s bodyguards and got their medallions, giving us three total,” he said. “Three of us could get past the barrier undetected and then break the spell from inside. Is it easier to do from inside?”

Misha nodded. “Much easier. From inside, I can find an anchor point and break it,” he said. “If we can manage that, I can divert my energy into building a cage ward around the building.”

Paris nodded. “I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds better than using all your resources to break the wall,” he said. He drummed his fingers on the table, then stared directly at Julian. “Shoshanna’s going to break my curse.”

Julian’s head tilted in confusion. Then his green eyes fell on Misha. Slowly, the realization washed over him like sunrise over the horizon. “Then you’re…” He smiled gently and said, “Wow. I didn’t expect that. Good.”

“Based on what happened with Nikko and Dominic, I’m going to need a day to recover. After that, we should be ready to make our final move,” Paris said. “I’m going to suggest we pull back to skeleton crews so everyone can rest and feed. Perhaps we can stage a diversion to distract Shea in the meantime.”

“I’ll handle it,” Safira said. “We’ve got eight new vampires who are reasonably ready to fight, though I’d suggest not putting any of the heavy lifting on them. They can drive or create distractions while we fight.”

They spent another hour discussing tactics before excusing themselves for the evening. Misha returned to his workshop, and Paris joined him several minutes later.

“You should get some rest, shouldn’t you?” Paris asked, gently rubbing Misha’s shoulders. It was strange how quickly this had become natural and normal, to have a partner who was eager to be near him.

“I don’t know if it would be worse to sleep or to stay awake. Doesn’t seem to matter, so I might as well stay up and work,” Misha said with a soft laugh.

“I’ll stay with you if you like,” Paris said. He chuckled wryly. “I have a few hundred years of experience in fending the bastards off.”

Misha nodded to him and said, “I’ve got a few things going. I’d like to start working on a weapon for you. Do you have a blade you particularly like?”

Paris nodded eagerly and said, “I’ll be right back.” He scurried out, leaving Misha to work in the quiet for a few minutes. When he returned, he lingered at the door and watched. “Am I allowed to be in the sanctuary of the great blood witch?”

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