Page 30 of Never Run from an Immortal

“I guess I owed you one for Kuron,” she murmured, eyelashes fluttering as she fought to keep her eyes open.

“We both know you had it covered.” And if they’d had more time, he’d have done far more to Kuron than the state they’d left the fucker in. For what the bastard had intended to do to Rae.

Her quiet laugh vibrated against his chest as he made his way through the kitchens, calling out to his Ascendant.

Baelin.

I’m fine. Rae?

She’s alright. We’re on our way home.Alright was an overstatement. She was barely conscious in his arms, and he tried to convince himself the concern he felt was only for her knowledge of his missing magic.

I’ll have Orion move out. See you there.

A vehicle spun out of the parking area as he carried Rae towards his car, though the Vampires within it were of no concern to him. His car unlocked from its proximity to his PAD as he approached, another modification of Baelin’s and one he would have been stuck without since he’d handed the key to a steward soon after they’d arrived.

“How does it work?” Rae all but whispered as he lowered her into the passenger seat, pulling the seatbelt over her to fasten her in.

“What?” She’d barely moved, and he took his jacket off and laid it over her as she looked up at him and shivered, one hand still firmly around his gun, close enough she could shoot him clean through the chest if she wanted to. She tried to swipe more hair away with the other, but he caught her hand, easing the strands away for her and testing the temperature of her skin. Feverish.

“The whole letting you in my head thing. I don’t have Provident abilities. You can just pop into my thoughts, but I can’t pop into yours,” she said through a yawn, eyes closed.

He shut the passenger door and slid into the driver's seat, a quick glance in her direction as the engine started. “You’ll do the exact opposite to me.”

“And that is?”

“I can hear every thought of every human and Order within eight blocks from here if I let my shields down. You included, if you’ll let me in.” Aidan didn’t let his guard down the entire drive home, maintaining his speed as much as possible without rattling Rae around in her seat.

“So you’re saying I don’t need Provident abilities because you’ll just have permanent access to my thoughts if I allow it?” A huff of air. “I think we both know that’s never going to happen.”

“Opposites, remember? I’m opening up a space in something that usually keeps others out, you’re opening up a space to let me in.”

“That sounds like exactly the same thing.”

“So you understand then? It’s a space only we can occupy, and no one else. You don’t need Provident abilities because I’ll always be able to hear you when you want me to.”

She was quiet for a moment and then, “Does the eight block rule apply?”

Aidan chuckled. “No. One on one, I can speak mind to mind much further distances.”

“How far?”

“Further than you’re ever going to be from me.”

She was silent after that, but he remained close to the perimeter of her thoughts the entire drive home, and if she felt him, she didn’t argue. Her mind seemed intact, and he still couldn’t get in, but he’d never seen anyone bring down a ward, let alone multiple, and of that magnitude.

Rae waved him off when he tried to help her from the car outside the manor, but she clung to his jacket as Shaw opened the door for them.

Not a word, Shaw,Aidan told him.

Of course not, my lord.

Rae paused at the foot of the stairs leading to the bedrooms, one hand clutching the rail, her exhaustion so thick he didn’t know how she was still standing.

“Are we going to have to break the no carrying rule again?” he asked quietly, his hand brushing hers on the rail as he took a step closer. Rae tilted her head up to look at him, and he tracked the way her tongue darted across her bottom lip.

“I’m still holding the gun,” she said with a small smile, though he knew she’d turned on the safety when they got in the car.

Aidan took it from her gently, and she let him, before turning away and heading up the stairs to her room, his jacket still around her shoulders. “Goodnight, Vale,” she murmured without looking back.

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