Page 58 of The Eternal Mirror
“That’s a big responsibility,” I say. “There are a lot of people. But I promise you—Khaosti is not a threat. He’s on your side. You know he’s Sheela’s cousin, right? Not to mention, the last time his father met him, he tried to kill him. Slowly, admittedly. But he did try to kill him.”
The man halts and turns to look at me.
He’s tall, broad-shouldered, and scruffy. His dark eyes look tired, and beneath all that, he’s afraid. Afraid they can’t win this fight. I reach out a hand and pat his arm. He flinches.
“We’re going to win. We’re going to annihilate that fucker, Khronus. And Khaos is going to help. Once they know he’s here, the Wolfpack will join you. They are loyal to Khaosti, not his father.”
He frowns. “Who are you?”
Good question. And one with quite a few possible responses. I go with, “I’m Khaosti’s bonded mate. We were brought together by the gods for the express purpose of disposing of my father and his.” Actually, I don’t think Khronus was part of the original plan, but it’s evolving.
The frown deepens. “And who is your father?”
I smile. “Lucifer. And before you ask—he’s dead. Gone. And so is Hell and all the shadowguard.”
He thinks for a moment. “That means Khronus has one less enemy to worry about, and he can concentrate on us.”
“Do you know, you’re a definite glass-half-empty person—you need to work on that. I suspect Lucifer planned to destroy the Astral plane and everyone in it. So I did you a fucking favor.” Some people are so ungrateful.
He looks a little bewildered, opens his mouth, thinks better of whatever he was going to say, and walks on. I fall into step beside him. Finally, we come to a halt in front of a tent, guarded by two men who seem a little agitated.
“The prisoner is not happy, sir,” one of the guards says.
“I didn’t order you to make him happy,” Thorben replies. “I ordered you to guard him.”
“The prisoner said, 'let him the fuck out of here or he’ll burn the whole camp to the ground, starting with us two.'”
I grin. That’s the Khaos that I know and love. “Just to warn you—he’s quite capable of doing it.”
“That’s what we were afraid of. There was smoke coming out of his nostrils.”
I can feel the emotions boiling over inside the tent. “Let me go talk to him,” I say.
For a minute, I think they’re going to argue. But then Thorben nods.
As I peer through the tent flap, a hand reaches out, clasps my arm, and drags me inside.
I blink in the dim light, but don’t get a chance to say anything as I’m hauled into his arms and his mouth is on mine, hard and angry and oh, so good. His tongue pushes inside, and I’m drowning in his emotions. Need and want and lust all intermingle. His hands slide down my body and burn through my clothing, branding my skin. I press myself closer, rubbing my hips against his hardening erection as he bites my lips and his fingers dig into my ass.
God, I’ve missed him so.
Finally, we both pull back, gasping. He doesn’t let me go; he just stares into my face as if he can’t believe I’m real.
“What took you so fucking long?” he growls.
“I only got here five minutes ago.”
“As I said—what took you so long?”
I grin, then glance around the tent. “You could have gotten out of here.”
He shrugs. “I needed to talk to Sheela, find out what was happening. This seemed as good a place as any to wait. Until you turned up.”
And then he’s kissing me again. And I want to lose myself in that kiss so badly, it’s tearing me in two.
It’s the bond, I tell myself. But it doesn’t matter; nothing matters but the feel of his hands on my body, his lips savage on mine, his teeth at my throat.
But there’s a movement behind us, and Khaos goes still. A growl rises in his throat as he stares over my shoulder at whoever has been brave enough to enter the tent.
