Page 69 of Given

Given flung herself into my arms. She sobbed against my neck, her icy body pressed hard against mine. “I c-couldn’t get b-back! I w-was trapped there and I couldn’t f-find my way back!” She shuddered, her icy tears burning my neck.

I picked her up and carried her to the hearth. The chair looked sturdy enough to hold both of us. I kicked it closer to the fire and sat with her in my lap. She clung to me like a vine, her willowy body racked with tremors. At first, I sat there stiffly, one hand hovering over her back. It wasn’t lost on me that Laurent had recently occupied the same position.—and that my body had no problem with her being right where she was. Hers was altogether different weight compared to his. A different kind of feel, all soft curves instead of hard resistance. A woman who made a man want to ruin her.

And I did. I wanted to fuck this woman. Laurent was never wrong about these things, damn him.

She shivered and buried her face deeper in my neck. The scent of snow and cloves swirled into my lungs, embedding itself. Digging into the very bellows of my being. Magic brushed my skin, but this time it was a whisper. It beckoned, and something inside me lifted its head in recognition.

With a groan, I pulled her more tightly against me, one hand splayed across the center of her back. She wasn’t a small female. She was slender, yes, but she was also sleek and strong. Her curves molded to mine like they were made to fit. But her statuesque figure didn’t come from generations of vampires built to fight Nor Doru’s battles.

No, this was strength from another kingdom. And something inside me recognized that, too.

“You’re cold,” I muttered, rubbing my hand up and down her back. I sat her up and chafed her arms the same way, forcing circulation back into her limbs. Her knuckles were red and swollen. When I moved to her fingers, she whimpered and tried to pull away.

“Be still,” I said firmly, and she jumped at my tone. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, her resistance ebbed away.

My dick tightened. Cursing inwardly, I captured her hand in my larger one. Frostbite was the fear of every Nor Doruvian soldier. I’d learned to recognize the signs as a boy. I pinched her skin. “Can you feel that?”

“Yes!” She sucked in a pained breath.

I grunted. “That’s a good sign.” I sandwiched her hand between both of mine and rubbed vigorously. The wind had ripped all the pins from her hair, and it fell around us in a pale tangle, strands of it clinging to my stubble. I kept at her hand, forcing her to flex her fingers and make a fist. I moved to the next one and gave it the same treatment until the weight of her gaze brought my head up.

She stared at me. Her lips were still tinged with blue, but her cheeks were pink. And an undefined emotion shimmered in her eyes.

I stopped rubbing her hand. “What?” The word was perhaps rude but my tone wasn’t. My voice was hoarse and uncertain.

“You pulled me back,” she whispered. “I heard you in my head.”

I dropped my gaze to our joined hands. Her scent overwhelmed me. My heart beat faster. Any minute now she was going to notice my body’s reaction to her. And this time I couldn’t blame it on feeding.

“You shouldn’t stray too long from your body,” I said finally.

She made a funny sound, something between a cough and a whimper. “You’re not surprised”—her breath shuddered out— “about what I did just now.”

I shook my head. “No…I’m not.”

Silence stretched. Her scent filled my lungs. Cloves and forest. Part of me had known from the start, even before I spoke to Laurent in the Rose Room after I returned from the Rift. I’d known from the moment I faced her on the Bleak Pass. But it had been easier to close my eyes.

“Varick?” she breathed.

I lifted my head. Saw the confusion and fear in her gaze. I turned her hand over so it rested in my palm. With my fingertip, I traced the path of one delicate blue vein. “You know the story of the Fall of Eldenvalla?”

She frowned. “I think everyone does. My nurse, Helen, told me stories about it.”

“They’re not stories.” Under my fingers, her pulse sped up. “When the Rift opened and Vai Seren fell, King Avenor stayed in the city. By all accounts, he was a fine warrior and a good king. He refused to abandon his people. But he wanted the elven race to survive. He sent representatives of the twelve noble families out of Vai Seren. As the city crumbled, they raced toward the border. They were trying to outrun the demons, which by then had taken over the whole of Eldenvalla. The histories claim all the nobles perished in the Rift, but that’s not true. Five made it through the Thicket, and they married into vampire families.”

Her heartbeat thumped faster under my thumb.

“They hid,” I said, “and they passed down their blood. Their descendants are scattered across Nor Doru. There are just a handful of us left, you and I among them.”

Her lips parted. “My mother…”

“Elven-born. The blood is strong, and it carries magical gifts. Some of us are more powerful than others. What you did just now is called farseeing. I’ve only known one other who could do it.” I squeezed her hand. “You have to be careful. It’s only your spirit that travels. If you linger outside your body for too long you can lose the connection completely. Death follows.”

Her eyes were the color of the ocean after a storm. So deep a man could dive into them. Her gaze searched mine, her pulse still fluttering under my thumb. “Why did they hide? The nobles who survived.”

She was absorbing all this with remarkable calm. Then again, she’d just traveled outside her body. She didn’t have to trust that I was telling her the truth about elven blood or magical gifts. She’d just discovered hers.

I drew on mine. “Some power is too dangerous to be set free, Given.”

---