Bless The Beauty - By Stacey Kennedy Page 0,30

to my cheek, brushed his fingers across my skin softly. His eyes sank in despair. “You never told me you suffered that.”

“That’s because I don’t speak of it. It was over three hundred years ago and not a happy memory.”

Kellen stepped in close to me and rubbed his fingers along my other cheek. “It was why I turned her. I saved her from a lifetime of abuse and we destroyed those who harmed her.” He leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Besides, I knew she was to be mine, the moment I laid eyes on her.”

“Ours,” Chase corrected him instantly.

Kellen gave a firm nod as a sly smile crossed his face. “Right you are. She’s ours.”

“It is hers to decide what you should become,” Ellery interrupted us, clearly bored of our conversation. “Only she may change you. If she chooses not to, there is only one choice if you want to continue with her.”

Chase examined me for a moment then let out a deep resigned sigh. “Fine,” he said, releasing me from his arms. “Let’s get on with it and make me a pet.”

Ellery laughed as she went back to her chair. Once she sat she said, “Come and kneel before me, mortal.”

Chase shot me a disgruntled look before he took a step, but then he walked toward Ellery.

Kellen leaned over to me and whispered in my ear. “Got lucky with that one.”

I met his gaze, shocked. “She never told him.” I could hardly believe that Ellery had just lied for me. Kellen had just as much right to turn Chase as I did, but Ellery had kept that knowledge from him. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why she would do that.

Kellen’s grin said he knew why. I gave him a little wave to get on with it. “She must understand why you want to keep him a mortal and is helping you keep him that way.”

“I owe her,” I responded with a deep exhale. “Big time.”

Kellen inclined his head, gave a knowing look. “That you do.”

Ellery’s voice drew me back to Chase kneeling before her. “As consort to Kellen and Hadley you are obliged to feed them. Do you understand this?”

Chase glanced back at me and rolled his eyes.

I could only smile in return. Neither Kellen nor I would expect him to behave like a consort—basically a slave to us, but this was a step in the process. We needed to get through this.

Chase looked back to Ellery, then nodded. “Feed them, got it.”

“The secret of our kind cannot be told,” Ellery continued. “Will you promise with your life to uphold this?”

“I will.”

“The consequences of breaking this will mean your death.” Her look was firm and unyielding.

“Do you understand the gravity of this?”

“Yes.”

Ellery clapped her hands with a brilliant smile on her face. “Very well.” She placed her hand on Chase’s head. “Chase, consort to Kellen and Hadley, you are protected under their status with the Pacific Northwest.” She stood from her chair in one fluid movement.

“Follow me.”

Before Chase even had a chance to stand, I leapt forward and hugged him. “I’m so happy. It’s like we got married.”

Chase returned the hug and stood with me attached to him. “Fucking weirdest ceremony I’ve ever been to.” He kept an arm around my waist as we followed Ellery out of the sitting room.

Just down the hall, Ellery stopped and opened a door. “I must leave you now and I say,” she glanced Chase up and down, “it is a shame I cannot stay to enjoy this, but I am expected elsewhere.”

“Thank you for meeting with us.” Kellen leaned in and gave Ellery a proper kiss across her cheek.

“Just don’t keep me long, Kellen,” she replied in haste with the snappy tone I knew was usually Ellery’s way. “You have duties to attend to.”

Kellen gave her a firm nod in acknowledgement of her order. “My duties will be done with Hadley by dawn. I will return to Slade the moment the sun goes down tomorrow night.”

Right then, a deep voice sounded through the air, “Mistress, we must be off.”

I glanced toward it to see Locke—a scruffy vampire turned in the fifteenth century that still held the Viking appeal. I’d met him the last time I was here and he was a kind and loyal vampire who made me feel welcome whenever I came by.

When he stopped in front of us, I said, “Nice to see you again, Locke.”

He bowed his head in a proper way. “Pleasure is