the night she’d been dragged from her bed and hauled to the burrow to be sacrificed. That sort of thing tended to overshadow everything else. Now a tangle of emotions overwhelmed her.
Then, without warning, Chaaya felt a cool power tingle through her. The mating bond. The delicious energy Basq offered helped to soothe her raw nerves and gave her the strength to square her shoulders and confront the female who was staring at her with a hint of disgust.
“I speak for myself,” she assured Greta, stepping away from Basq even as she continued to draw on his strength.
This might be her battle, but she didn’t have to face it alone.
The knowledge banished the last of the fog from her mind.
“Thank the goddess.” Greta curled her lips. “I was beginning to fear that he had somehow bewitched you.”
At last capable of focusing on the female who claimed to be her aunt, Chaaya took in the features that resembled her own. A sharp certainty that she’d encountered Greta when she was very young jolted through her. It wasn’t a specific memory, but more a sense of dread that curled through the pit of her stomach at the sight of her.
Instinctively, she grabbed the hilt of her spear. This didn’t seem to be a good time to get caught unprepared for…well, for whatever hideous surprise was waiting for her.
And there would be a hideous surprise waiting for her.
No doubt about that.
“Vampires have no magic,” she muttered, more for something to say than to make any special point.
Greta clicked her tongue, shooting a malevolent glance toward Basq. “So they claim. I’ve never trusted leeches.”
His own smile was as cold as the Arctic. “The feeling is mutual.”
“Stay out of this,” Greta snapped.
Basq growled, taking a step forward. Chaaya hastily reached out to touch his arm.
“Let me handle this, Basq,” she commanded.
She expected him to argue. He was a male. He was a vampire. And he was mated. Each one of those meant he was 100 percent convinced that it was his duty to protect her. Instead he gave a grudging nod and stepped back.
“Okay.”
She brushed her fingers down his arm in silent gratitude before she sent the female an accusing glare.
“You lied.”
Greta was instantly wary. “Excuse me?”
“You claimed you were a favorite of the village, but I remember you lived in that hut away from the others.” Chaaya used her spear to point toward the distant chimney just barely visible.
Greta shrugged. “I enjoyed my privacy.”
Chaaya shook her head. The ancient memories were returning. Not like an old movie playing in her mind, but in strange bursts. Like a flickering bulb that was on the verge of burning out.
“The others suspected you of performing foul rites,” she abruptly said.
Greta’s lips pinched in annoyance. “Your mother obviously poisoned your mind, sweet Chaaya.”
“Sweet Chaaya?” Basq snorted.
Chaaya smiled wryly. “He’s right. No one who’s ever actually known me would ever call me sweet.”
Greta grimly ignored the vampire, as if pretending he wasn’t there would somehow make him disappear. Good luck with that, Chaaya acknowledged wryly. She’d tried that trick herself. Complete waste of time.
“You said yourself you were very young when I left,” Greta said. “Obviously your opinion of me was tainted by your mother.”
She had a point. It was possible that Chaaya’s opinion had been swayed by her mother. But that didn’t explain the wariness crawling over her skin. Or the instinct that was screaming at her to stick the spear in the heart of her aunt before something awful could happen.
She didn’t believe for one second that Greta had been chosen as a sacrifice. The druid priestesses would never have allowed her to simply walk away. They would have scoured the world until they found her and returned her to fulfill her destiny.
She was careful, however, to keep the skepticism out of her voice. “Where did you go after you left the village?”
Greta frowned. “What?”
“Where did you go?” Chaaya repeated.
“I traveled the world.”
Well, that was vague.
“Alone?”
“Mostly.”
Even more vague. “How did you survive?”
The older woman waved a dismissive hand. “I used my healing gifts to earn food and a place to sleep for the night.”
Chaaya narrowed her eyes. There was enough truth in Greta’s words to convince Chaaya that she wasn’t blatantly lying, but she certainly wasn’t being completely honest.
The question was…what was she hiding?
“And you lived happily ever after?”
“I lived.” Greta blinked, as if fighting back tears. “I’m not sure how happily. It was a brutal existence that I barely endured. One I wouldn’t wish on my