Dark Possession - Aja James Page 0,99

or close to it, while Pure Mates need real food.”

“So Ramses is your Mate?” Grace asked to confirm the only logical conclusion.

Eveline was silent for a while before answering.

“I’m not sure,” she said hesitantly. “Obviously, the strength of my feelings for him made me grow my fangs. But he is a Dark One. I do not know if he reciprocates. He can only be my Eternal Mate if he feels the same.”

“But you don’t feel the effects of the Decline, do you?” Ava asked.

“No. But that doesn’t mean he returns my feelings equally. I don’t know if a Pure One and a Dark One would have the same chemistry.”

“Tal and Ishtar are the only other comparable example,” Ava said, thoughtful. “But it’s clear they love each other madly. Although…”

Eveline perked up.

“What?”

“Tal suffered some version of the Decline for the entire time they’d been apart. Many of the symptoms were the same, Rain told me, but they weren’t severe enough to lead to death.”

Ava looked hopefully at Eveline.

“You don’t feel any ill effects at all? No pains or soreness?”

Eveline wasn’t about to tell the ladies about one particular throbbing soreness between her thighs.

Ramses was very big, and she was very small. And he made her come for a very long time. Even with her Pure healing powers, even after this many days, her core still throbbed with a dull, almost pleasurable pain.

Or perhaps it was just because she missed him.

“No pains.”

“Then we should take that as a positive sign,” Ava concluded.

“I think we’re being too logical about this,” Grace interjected. Rather surprisingly, since she was the most logical, machine-like-minded of them all, a symptom of her Asperger’s Syndrome.

“What do you suggest, Grace?” Clara asked.

“Just seduce him and take what you want.”

Eveline blinked at her like a hungry, startled baby bird.

“You have the fangs. You’re not feeling ill effects. There’s nothing to stop you from showing him how you feel. The only potential negative outcome is hurt feelings, on the chance that he doesn’t feel the same. But at least you know you’ll live. You’ll recover. And you know that age-old adage—if first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

Eveline could only stare at the woman who was arguably even more logical than she was.

Put that way, what Grace said made a lot of sense.

The four women shared a conspiratorial grin.

“Good luck, Aunt Eveline! Go get him!” Annie said, looking up from her drawing.

And they all burst into helpless laughter.

“As with all living creatures, the universe demands Balance. While the Pure Ones embodied the purity of innocence and the strength of conviction, the Dark Ones were born to explore their opposite. All of the things that humans later ascribe as evil and sinful—lust, covetousness, gluttony, jealousy, aggression…Are they truly? Or are they simply the missing pieces to a half-formed puzzle…”

—From the lost oral histories of the Zodiac Scrolls

Chapter Eighteen

Eveline put Operation King Kong into effect the moment she left Clara’s apartment.

Much as it pained her, she decided to prioritize Ramses over books (all those thousands upon thousands of beautifully unique stories waiting for her in the Cove’s library!) for the next twenty-four hours.

Or however long it took to get a few things ironed out between them.

She showered and dressed with more care than her usual spartan efficiency, even brushing her hair out until the wavy mass shone with fiery brightness.

Somehow, in the days since they returned to the Cove, the clothes in her closet were replaced with her own. Ramses must have arranged for her things to be delivered from the Shield. As happy as Eveline was to see her own possessions again, she rather deplored her lack of “sexy” attire.

In her human life when she had lived in the monastery, her clothes had been shapeless, made of coarse, undyed wool, tied with a rope around the waist. She’d been covered from head to toe, always wearing a cape over her tunic with a hood over her head. She considered her “librarian” style of clothing in modern times rather scandalous in comparison, what with knee-length skirts displaying calves and ankles and short-sleeved blouses showing off most of her arms. Habits from her first incarnation, for those immortals who used to be human, were hard to break.

But Eveline had always had a rebellious and stubborn streak, though it was extremely well hidden. Since meeting Ramses, however, it had been rearing its insistent head with alarming frequency.

She indulged in that streak now, pulling on a light angora sweater that molded to her slight curves, with