“I assure you it would do nothing but good for me.”
She shakes her head. “Zachariah, I never thought I'd see the night that you would let sex distract you from a mission.”
Her words bring me back to reality, where we’re on a mission set forth by our king. I have a moment to explore the tiny amount of guilt I feel before it’s rushed away by the connection I feel with Talia.
I dip down and kiss her quickly, loving that she lets me in, that she whimpers at the taste of herself on my tongue. “I can'tbe held responsible for how irresistible I find you,” I say. “How desperate I am for my mate.”
Talia holds my gaze, her playful features shifting to something more serious, something more guarded and just this side of scared.
It eats away inside me, and just as I'm about to kiss her again, she dances away.
“Still, I can't be a bad influence on you,” she says, completely ignoring my declaration as she heads toward the window across the room.
“My mother used to covet her jar of enchanted herbs,” sha says, sliding her fingers over a small bench beneath it, tugging it up, unleashing modern coats of paint that crumble in little chips on the floor. “And when death was about to take her, I took the jar and brought it here just in case it was as valuable as she always said. Probably the one thing I’ve ever done right in her eyes, not that she knew of it.” She reaches into a secret, hidden compartment beneath it, pulling out a porcelain jar decorated with purple flowers that’s ambered with age.
She holds up the jar triumphantly, wiggling it at me. “Got it,” she says, heading toward the door, unlocking it with her power before she even reaches the handle. She turns to look up at me. “Mission complete,” she says. “Why don't you wend us back to the residence. I'd hate to get caught returning to the group from a forbidden area. Jail time is the last thing either you or I need,” she teases.
I wrap my arms around her, laughing softly and folding my power around us both. As I wend us back to the residence, I do my best to not tell her that the idea of her and I alone in a cell with no distractions and no escape from the truths we need to lay bare isexactlywhat we need.
CHAPTER 14
Talia
Gabriel, the king's most trusted and loyal doctor, who also happens to be a genius in his own right, calls us into his offices the next evening after I turned over my mother's ancient jar of herbs.
Alek, Zachariah, and I wait quietly as Gabriel hustles to and from one table or the next, which are laden with vials and beakers and all sorts of modern science equipment.
Lachlan, the king's right hand and second in command, and his mate Valor, whisper to each other across the room, smiling and kissing randomly as fully bonded mates do.
“I know, I know,” Gabriel says. “I called you in here.” He doesn’t take his eyes off his work. “Something occurred to me. I'm testing it. One moment please.”
I raise my brows at the doctor, who looks like he could have strolled right off of the college campus that Daphne attends, his Edgemont University hoodie and casual jeans combo alluding nothing to the genius who happens to be studying an ancient herb at the moment.
I take his distraction to do my own perusal of his offices, wandering over to a table across the room that has some gnarly looking tools atop it. I pick up a long piece of steel with intricatedesigns on the handle, wondering what it’s used for, when the doctor immediately appears by my side, gently removing the item from my hand and placing it ever so carefully back on the table.
“Don't touch anything,” he says as kindly, but seriously. “This is something I'm working on, and I don’t want to be held liable if you injure yourself.” He glances at Zachariah. “There's no telling what he'd do to me, even if it wasyourfault for touching things that don't belong to you.”
I laugh softly, raising my hands in innocence, silently assuring him I won't do it again. I like him already.
He moves back to the table he'd been at previously, and I walk back toward Zachariah, who chides me with a silent look of his own. I merely shrug, indicating I'm bored.
I'm used to being on the hunt, used to being on the move, and I've grown way too comfortable here for these casual and drawn-out meetings.
But I can't say that I haven'tenjoyedmyself these past weeks.
More than enjoyed—I feel more at home here than I ever have before, and that scares the hell out of me. And even if I can confidently say that part of the reason I feel at home here is because of the wonderful friendships I've formed, I still know a great deal of it has to do with Zachariah.
“Damn,” Gabriel says after a few moments, finally turning toward us. “I appreciate you locating these herbs for us, Talia,” he continues. “But beyond their healing properties, I can't find a single correlation to why any of these herbs would be helpful with transitioning half-bloods.”
Valor and Lachlan come to stand near Alek, Zachariah, and me, the looks of concerns on their faces matching ours.
“I'll keep studying, Alek,” Gabriel says. “But so far, I've got nothing. I could be missing something, but I wouldn't knowwithout actually trying to transition someone with a drop of supernatural blood in their line, so?—”
“You could use me,” Valor says, cutting off the doctor and drawing equal looks of shock from each of us. “What?” she asks, eyeing Lachlan, who has frozen completely. “We've been talking about it for a while. If this could help Gabriel’s research, then we can kill two birds with one stone.”
Gabriel takes a calculative two steps away from Valor and Lachlan, almost as if his instincts are telling him to get out of the highlander’s sight as quickly as possible, even though it wasn’t his suggestion.
“I beg yer fucking pardon,” Lachlan finally says, breaking his stoic shocked stature.