Her sigh echoed down to his balls. “For a guy who wanted to sleep, you’re sure not sleeping.” She rolled over to face him, resting her cheek on her now healed hand, her pretty eyes clear.
“A lot on my mind.” Like taking that luscious mouth beneath his—he didn’t want to leave this world with any regrets.
“Yeah, I get that.” She stretched, barely making a lump beneath the luxurious covers. “It’s weird. You and me and being in bed together. It’s just so weird.”
Weird wasn’t the word he’d have used. “I left you alone these five years because that’s what I thought you wanted.” Why in the world was he explaining himself? “And, if I’m honest, I’ve been pretty centered on my mission.”
“What have you been doing?” She yawned and covered the motion with her hand.
“Wasting a lot of time,” he said frankly. He couldn’t tell her about the fight to come, once the timing was just right, the suicide mission. She’d find out soon enough. However, she knew about the three Keys, so maybe he could try to keep the conversation going. “We’ve been trying to find the final Key before the Kurjans do, and so far, tonight was the best lead we’ve had.” Which, of course, had led them right to Grace and not to the one missing Key. “You know you can’t share details about yourself ever again on the internet, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Figured that one out on my own. Sorry.”
Her own inability to heal her injured wrist still didn’t make sense to him. “Perhaps we should make an appointment with the queen.” Queen Emma Kayrs was the best geneticist, scientist, and doctor in the entire world.
“I’m meeting with her when she returns home. She’s attending the same symposium as my sister and Ronan.” Grace’s gaze traced his face, a sadness in her eyes that caught him in the chest. “You seem even angrier than before, and that’s saying something. What else have you been doing besides searching for the last Key?”
His gut ached. “The Kurjans have been taking enhanced females, and we’ve had to rescue several before they were either forced to mate or be killed.” Often too late, unfortunately. The Kurjans were a powerful and frightening race that just needed to be put down, and he was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to make it happen. If he could give his blood brothers and Grace a decent future, he’d do it.
“Since the Kurjans can’t go out in the sun, I’d think you all would have a huge advantage,” she murmured.
“You’d think.” It was amazing how much evil could happen without daylight.
She shook her head. “I just don’t understand why they want to kill all enhanced humans. After all, they need mates, too.”
Adare’s body thrummed at being so close to her, and he struggled to keep the discussion going. Vampires and Kurjans produced males only, unlike the other races. “There’s a possibility they have a cure for their poison and can keep their mates safe. Plus, I think perhaps Ulric is the only one who wants enhanced females dead, because he’s psychotic. Thinks he’s some sort of religious cleanser. But don’t worry. We have him contained in a separate world, and he’s not getting free.” Which was a falsehood. There was no doubt Ulric would eventually free himself, and Adare meant to make sure he had nothing to return to—no forces to use in a fight.
Grace snorted. “Not even I believe that.”
Fair enough. Unable to help himself, Adare reached over and slid her shirt to the side, revealing a birthmark in the shape of an old-fashioned key on her upper chest. “He will be helpless, hopefully dead, before you have to get involved.”
Her heartbeat increased beneath his finger. “You don’t believe that. Fate dictates that the blood of three Keys is the only thing that can kill Ulric, and you know it.”
Did she believe in legends? Fate? “You’ve accepted this?”
“Nope. I think you’re all way too into history and the prophecies of the past, to be honest.” She shook her head. “I don’t believe in fate at all, in fact.”
If that helped her sleep at night, so be it. He released her, his body aching. “I think I’ll go for a run in the snow.” Maybe it’d clear his mind.
“Wait.” The feeling of her hand on his bare chest nearly snapped the chains around his control.
He stilled, tension cascading down his arms. “I’m doing my best here, but this is too difficult.”