Callum felt that feeling, the one he reckoned was fear but this time it was piercing.
“Sorry for what?”
Lucien lifted a hand to grip Callum’s bicep as if in an effort at containment. “Sorry to tell you that The Prophesies state your mortal’s life will be a short one.”
Callum’s body jolted before it locked as this statement seared straight through his system.
Lucien went on quickly and quietly, his fingers holding fast. “The Prophesies are vague, simply stating her human life will be fleeting. I haven’t told Leah and I suggest you do the same with Sonia.”
“You lie,” Callum whispered.
“I don’t and why would I?” Lucien replied gently.
He wouldn’t. There was no reason. They were in this together.
He yanked his arm from Lucien’s grip and took a step back, recognizing that feeling was fear.
Definitely fear.
And alongside it ran a new, agonizing thread of pain.
“We’ll fight it,” Lucien vowed. It was a vow, no mistaking it from the vein of steel in the words. “I’d offer my services but Leah would hate it so I suggest you find a vampire to feed from her –”
“You’ve got to be joking,” Callum growled at the very idea of a vampire feeding from his queen.
First, she was his f**king queen.
Second, she was his and no male would touch her for any reason.
Third, she was Sonia, not a meal.
And last, humans reportedly found the feeding of vampires a sensual experience. A highly sensual experience. A sensual experience his sexually responsive mate was not going to have.
Ever.
“We can ask a female vampire,” Lucien proposed, reading Callum’s thoughts or perhaps understanding them for they’d be his own.
“It takes years of constant feeding for vampire saliva to work its magic,” Callum noted dismissively. “And you suggested we don’t f**king have that.”
“She’ll survive until the war begins, Callum,” Lucien returned. “We have time.”
“Not enough,” Callum bit out.
Not enough.
There had never been enough but now, evidently, there was even f**king less.
His senses sought her in his castle. Opening up and reaching out, he found her somewhere on the second floor. Her discourse indistinct but there was laughter in her tone and it cut through him like a blade.
“Callum,” Lucien murmured.
“You’ll excuse me,” Callum returned and didn’t wait for a response. He was already exiting the room.
“This is troubling news but we’ll fight it, Callum,” Lucien called after him and made his vow official. “I vow it.”
This didn’t make Callum feel better.
“Tell Sonia I had something to attend to,” he ordered. “I’ll be gone awhile and I don’t want her worried.”