Page 9 of Taken By the Blood God

Though I’d encouraged her to find a cottage when she returned from college, she insisted that she preferred to stay with me. I stopped discussing it with her because I didn’t want her to think I was kicking her out. I loved having Ally with me, and I never wanted her to think otherwise. Even if I did think she needed to spread her wings.

Now she was mated to Dax Tremaine, the only gargoyle in Devil Springs. She’d had a crush on him for nearly a decade. She tried to hide it because she knew Dax wouldn’t touch her when she was so young. But he and I had both seen it.

He ignored it. For years.

Me…well, I bided my time. I knew they were meant for each other, but she needed to grow up first. I saw the moment his regard for her changed. The way he looked at her when she returned from college wasn’t the way he had before—as though he were fond of a child. No, he looked at her the way men looked at women they wanted. The change seemed to happen overnight. As though he finally woke up and saw her for the beautiful woman she’d become.

Unfortunately, Dax was stubborn as hell. He resisted his feelings for her for years.

And Ally was no better.

It might have taken longer than I expected, but they had eventually come together. As I knew they should.

“Minnie?”

Ally’s voice broke through my thoughts. “Sorry, darlin’. You caught me in the still room, and my mind was still on what I was doing.”

“I can let you go if?—”

“No, no. I need to take a break. Until you called, I didn’t realize I’d been in here all day and missed lunch. What’s up?”

“I was in town today and saw Claire from the coven. She was asking when the store was going to open back up, and I told her I wasn’t sure.”

I winced. Now that Ally was newly mated, I didn’t have anyone to open and run the store for me. This early in their relationship, Dax was having trouble letting her out of his sight. He also wasn’t going to be able to handle other men around her any time soon. Or maybe ever. His mating instincts were too strong.

“It might be a little longer,” I answered.

“Why? Are you not healed? Minnie, you should have told me if?—”

I hated to interrupt her twice, but I could tell my niece was gearing up to give me hell.

“I’m fine, Ally. But I promised Talant that I would help him release his brother. We’ll be leaving tomorrow morning, and I’m not sure how long we’ll be gone.”

She was silent. “Are you sure you want to free Talant’s brother?” she asked.

At her quiet question, I sighed. “Want to? No, I don’t. But I think I need to. His power is feeding an entire coven of warlocks,and whatever they’re doing with that kind of magic cannot be good.”

She didn’t argue. Instead, she asked, “And you don’t know how long you’ll be gone?”

“No. I have no idea what sort of wards they have around his prison. Or how many warlocks are involved.”

“So it will be dangerous.” It wasn’t a question this time, but a statement.

“I’ll be okay, Ally. I promise. Talant will be with me, and I’m sure his brother will be able to do plenty of damage once he’s freed.”

“You’d better be okay. And you tell Tal that I said he’d better protect you with his life, or I will kill him.”

I almost laughed at her words until I realized she was being serious. “Honey, he’s going to have my back. He can’t do this without me, so I have no doubt that he will do whatever it takes to keep me safe.”

At least until I did what he wanted. After that, I wasn’t so sure. I was going to need a back-up plan.

Her sigh on the other end of the phone signaled the end of her argument. Like me, she knew when we weren’t going to come to a compromise. Over the years, we learned how to navigate our disagreements without tantrums or yelling. She was my only living family. I didn’t want to spend my time with her fighting or sharing hard words.

“I’ll open the store for half-days this week and weekend,” she said. “I’ll do some posts for the community website and pop a sign on the door.”

“Ally, you don’t need?—”

It was her turn to interrupt me. “Minnie, I’ve got this. Though I will suggest you hire at least one other person to help at the store. With Marjorie’s expansion and the new accountsI’m taking over next month, I won’t be able to run the shop more than once or twice a week.”

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