into Oliver’s being as much as Gerrans was in her, because she was fairly positive she wouldn’t want to make her life on Vanguard Prime.
“I don’t know how you ride around the village on that contraption. I’d rather ride around on a broomstick than on that thing, and I almost failed broomstick training when I was at the academy.”
“You fly freely on broomsticks back on Vanguard?”
“If we want to.” He shrugged as if it was no big deal. “Vanguard Prime is very much a world for witches and warlocks, not a mixed populace the way Earth is. Non-magical humans are by far in the minority. However, we vary in strengths. Some can barely make a potion let alone cast a spell.”
“Maybe that’s why Vanguard had such a troubled history.”
He eyed her warily. She shouldn’t have said it. She knew how his father’s family had been involved in that terrifying unrest back on Vanguard known as the Bloodbayne Terror.
“The humans on this planet weren’t exactly kind to those of us blessed with magic hundreds of years ago,” he mused, making her concede his point.
“You are right. Ignorance always breeds evil.” She gazed to the distant waves crashing against the rugged shoreline. A few moments of uneasy silence stretched between them.
“I have never condoned what my father’s family did during that particularly ugly part of Vanguard’s history, Dallas. I can’t begin to imagine what would galvanize them into taking that course of action just because they could, but they did. No matter what happened during that dark period, Vanguard has come a long way. We’re a much more civilized planet now.”
“And how do you feel about your father finally having to pay for his crimes?” News of Raymond White’s incarceration and trial had been plastered across every magical newspaper and magazine, and even the nightly news broadcast from Halifax covered it. Earth was very much invested in justice being served to those who had been the driving force behind the darkness that had befallen Vanguard all those years before. And though Raymond had been a very young man at the time, he had still been a warlock who had knowingly taken part in the suffering and slavery of many witches and warlocks—her Aunt Angelica being one of those unfortunate souls.
He looked away from her curious gaze. “My father can rot for all I care. He made too many bad decisions in his life by choosing to follow in his father’s footsteps. He could have broken the chain, but he chose not to, and now he must deal with the consequences of his actions.”
“I guess that’s how I must look at what I did to my mother,” she said, sighing heavily as she opened the picnic basket.
Cold broiled chicken legs and thighs along with potato salad and fresh tomato and cucumber salad awaited them. For dessert, she’d made some sinfully chocolaty brownies as she’d discovered Oliver had a weakness for anything chocolate.
He reached across and gripped her wrist, pulling her toward him. “You didn’t do what you did knowing what would happen to your mother. You have to stop blaming yourself for her death. No one else blames you, so you shouldn’t blame yourself.”
“My father and brother don’t think that way. Why do you think they left me behind? They probably can’t even stand the sight of me anymore.” Her voice strained with emotional hoarseness and before she could react he’d pulled her to him and pressed his lips softly against hers. The intimacy of the moment made her senses reel. He could be so terrifying with his enemies and so very gentle when it came to handling her. She sank into his embrace and allowed him to deepen the kiss. It went from being comforting to highly erotic.
Oliver was hungry for more. She could sense the want rolling through him and as she reached up to stroke her fingers through his hair, she realized that she wanted more from him as well. They were in a nice, quiet, isolated spot but they could still be discovered if they decided to take their romance to the next level. She would rather have the privacy of her own home, and yet, she didn’t want to break this moment, didn’t want to give him a chance to cool his ardor.
Never in her life had she dreamt that a man like Oliver would want her. He was a god of a warlock. His looks were unparalleled, his magic unmatched and he had a winning personality to