And I’m not that woman.”
“I know you’re not.”
“Do you? Really?” She tipped her head to one side and her long hair swung over her shoulder to cover one bare breast. “I think we’re both coming into this with a lot of our own problems strapped to our backs. You don’t trust me and I don’t—”
“Don’t what?” He frowned as her gaze shifted from his. “Teresa.” Cupping her chin in his hand, he turned her face back to him until their eyes met once more. “You don’t what—”
Steeling herself, she said, “I don’t want to love you, okay?”
“Why? Because of that bastard of a boyfriend you had?”
Her eyes went wide in surprise. “You know about Miguel?”
“I know everything about you,” he said. “You think it was easy to watch that bastard with you? I saw how he treated you and I wanted to kill him for it. If he had ever struck you or harmed you in any way, I would have.”
She smiled at the hostile tone of his voice. “Even though you don’t really like me?”
“I do like you,” he said and silently admitted that liking her didn’t even begin to cover what he felt for her. “I just don’t know that I can trust you. And, yes, I would have killed him for daring to harm you. As I would anyone else.”
“I know I shouldn’t like hearing that, but I do,” she said, “so thank you.”
“You don’t have to love me,” Rune said softly.
“But you do have to trust me,” Teresa told him. “If this is going to work, if we’re to have a chance of succeeding, you’re going to have to trust me at some point, Rune.”
He nodded because he knew she was right. But knowing and doing were two different things. Still, he was working on it. “I’m trying.”
“That’s all I can ask for,” she said after a long moment. Then she smiled sadly. “You don’t trust me and I won’t love you. So there are a few strikes against us right off the top.”
“Hasn’t stopped us so far,” he said.
“True,” Teresa admitted. “So … back to Elena and what she said. Do you know which library she was talking about?”
“Yeah, I do. It’s an interdimensional library.”
“What?”
He looked down at her, his gaze moving over her features while he slid one hand up to cover her left breast. As if he needed to touch the mating brand, to link them somehow. To get past the powerful emotions flooding the room. Old pain had no place in his present and he would have to make a stronger effort to let it go.
“Torin and Shea,” he said slowly, “the first Eternal and witch to bond during the Awakening, discovered the library last month.”
His hand cupped her breast and the heat wound through him in a sensual ribbon.
“Tell me,” she said, urging him to continue.
“You know that you’re the reincarnation of one of the chosen witches. A member of the last great coven.”
She nodded, impatient for him to get to the important part. “Yes, that much I know.”
“Well, there are other witches, thousands of them.”
“Yeah, and they’re being hunted and rounded up by the feds, and by civilian hunters. But what does this have to do with—”
He blew out a breath. “For centuries, witches have been handing down knowledge through the generations. From one to the other in a long, unbroken link, they’ve passed down spells and secrets and legends.”
She’d had no idea that women of power had managed to retain all that they were throughout the ages. If the feds knew about this, she told herself grimly, they would increase their already rabid efforts to wipe out the witch population.
A shiver wracked her body and as if he understood, Rune dropped a quick, hard kiss on her mouth. She appreciated the kiss for its own sake, and for the reassurance that the awkwardness caused by their conversation was over.
“The witches crafted a ‘library’ to hold the ancient texts and vital information gleaned through the years. Any witch can access it if she’s close to a Sanctuary.”
“How close?”
“That wasn’t clear,” he admitted ruefully. “But I’d guess within a few miles.”
“And we’re nowhere near one now, right?”
“We are,” he said. “We just can’t get to it. The closest one is just outside Sedona—but before you say anything, we’re not going back there.”
“You’re right. Going back would be really stupid.” She nodded, then asked, “Do you know of any others?”
“There is one outside Veracruz.”
On the plus side, she thought, the state of