met his—and hauled her arm back to punch him in the shoulder.
He caught her wrist in his hand and raised her fist to kiss her knuckles. “Why are you hitting me?”
“Because that hurt, asshole,” she snapped.
He raised an eyebrow but smiled at the lack of heat in her voice. Her fingers relaxed as he continued to kiss them.
“The venom from my fangs and my cock would have made certain that the pain was fleeting and that you felt good,” he said.
She grumbled her agreement. “Okay, that part was really great. Still, a little warning would have been nice.”
He gave her a curious look as he took her hand in his, brushing the back of it with his thumb. “If something causes you to feel physical pain, do you prefer to watch it or look away and try to ignore it?”
Diana’s brow furrowed. “I’m not sure where you’re going with this. I guess the pain is a little easier to handle if I don’t look at it, especially if I’m getting a shot or something. It’s a bit easier if I’m caught unprepared… Oh. I guess I do know where you are going with your question.”
Silvas nodded and pulled her into his arms. His heart was gladdened as she settled comfortably against him. “I worried that if you had been aware of it, you would have not been able to relax enough to be able to complete the bonding. That your body would have built up a defense to resist the venom. I didn’t want you to experience more pain than what was necessary in our bonding.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” she said. “Still, from here on out… I prefer to for there not to be secrets between us. If something is going to affect me, I want to know about it. Especially if it something big.”
He inclined his head in agreement. “Very well. I suppose now is a bad time to tell you that you are no longer human.”
She shoved back in surprise. “Say what now?”
Chapter 23
Diana scrabbled down the side of the mountain, her footing precarious. The gleaming white rocks were dry and stark as if the snow had never touched them, jutting up like jagged teeth from the ground. Silvas stood just ahead, watching her with a concerned expression. Even his long tail whipped behind him in agitation. He had been hovering ever since they left the cave.
It had only become worse when they encountered the broken the path to the next peak.
He turned his head, staring at their destination before he turned back and fixed her with a thoughtful look. Even among their bond, there was a watchful, wary stillness. She could feel the tension in him. He was worried, and that realization surprised her. He always seemed unshakeable, and at times amused with everything.
Even when he told her she was no longer human, it had been delivered with a raised brow and a little smirk that had annoyed her. It didn’t get much better when he set her on her feet and suggested that they move on as if the matter were inconsequential.
Anger churned hot in her belly. That she understood. The strange sense of gratitude took longer to fathom. It was because, despite his atrocious delivery, he had imparted important information she needed just as she asked. She had figured it out about the third hour into climbing down the fucking side of Mount Doom. At that point, she wouldn’t have been surprised to see a pair of hobbits bypassing her at the snail’s pace she was going.
Barely balancing on the sloped rock, she frowned, squinting. The blocky rock formations in the distance twisted and bulged in rolling motions. They cast grotesque shadows as they moved. The more she stared at them, the more she could make out the defined shapes of thick bodies that were supported with long, heavy limbs.
“You know,” she called over to Silvas, who had stiffened at the first spike of her fear, his ears pricking toward her. She barely avoided toppling over as she leaped to the next stone, keeping the threatening figures visible at all times out of the corner of her eye. “For not being human anymore, I’m disappointed with the fact that I haven’t gained any new abilities.”
He turned to look at her. “Abilities?”
She glared as she slipped down the side of one massive boulder. “I’m supposedly not human anymore and yet here I am, practically falling off the side of the mountain.”
“I did offer to carry