would come to realize that their joined path was now set in stone. That there would be no escape from the destiny they had both been chasing for centuries. Time to herself would make her that much more receptive when he returned to her.
Finally, he swung his head back around to meet the older woman’s gaze and repeated, “No one goes in. I will take her food later.”
“Understood,” Anna said, sitting down in the nearby chair to keep watch.
Torin smiled briefly. He had every confidence in Anna’s loyalties. This woman and her family had been with him for generations, traveling from one country to another as he followed his witch through her many incarnations. They were honorable and unquestioning and he trusted them as he did few others.
Leaving Anna on guard, Torin took the stairs to the main level of the house and walked directly to the library. Acres of books surrounded him. Floor-to-ceiling bookcases ringed the room, broken up only by the wide windows that offered views of the landscaped lawn. In this room, too, the lighting was dim, as if Torin preferred the shadows to the light. And perhaps that had been true for the last few hundred years. Now, though, he had changed, he told himself. Now there would be light. There would be life.
All Torin could think was that finally Shea was here. Where he wanted-needed-her to be. His body ached for hers. His mind reached for thoughts of her, like a balm to his fragmented soul. With the completion of the ritual, they would be one. Her body, her soul, would be laid open to him-and his to her. As it was always meant to be.
And what had once gone so terribly wrong would at last be righted.
Every inch of his body hummed with need and it cost him greatly to remain apart from her. But he called on his immense will and vowed to give her an hour or two alone. To settle into the situation. To realize that she had no choice. The Awakening was on her and it was long past time for them to begin the ritual.
Damned if he would wait even one more night to claim what was rightfully his.
His mind racing, he stopped in front of one of the windows and stared out at a yard drenched in darkness. There were no spotlights on his property. Torin didn’t need them. His eyesight was as keen in the dark as it was in daylight. Incandescent lighting would have served only his enemies. Of which there were many.
And now that the Awakening had begun, those enemies would be gathering.
“Does she remember?”
He shook his head, barely sparing a glance for the man who stood in the shadows, watching him. Well over six feet five inches, Rune, too, was an Eternal. His long brown hair was tied at the back of his neck by a strip of rawhide. His features were sharp, his eyes swirling with power. He wore his standard uniform of black T-shirt and black jeans and the steel tips of his boots winked in the lamplight.
“No,” Torin told him, disgusted. “She looks at me and sees only danger. Her memories are still blocked. But her body remembers,” he assured himself, remembering how she felt curled up against him. “For now, that’s enough.”
Rune moved closer, the scowl on his face deepening. “With the Awakening, her mind should have opened as well. How are we to claim them if they don’t remember?”
Torin turned his head to glare at his old friend. “We make them remember. Force their hand if we must. Remind them of everything that has gone before. We’ve waited centuries for this and for me, at least, the waiting is done.”
Rune crossed his arms over his chest as he met his friend’s glare with one of his own. “I know what is coming as well as any other Eternal. But your woman is the first to Awaken. It’s up to you to set us on the path. If this doesn’t work, we’re all fucked.”
Torin snorted. He didn’t need to be told that their mutual goals were balanced atop a dangerous precipice. Every Eternal had been marking time through the centuries until the moment of Awakening arrived. If they failed now, all had been for nothing. Which was why he would not fail.
“I know exactly what’s at stake here. Nothing will go wrong.”
Accepting his friend’s word, Rune nodded. “My witch is still unaware of what’s coming. Until she Awakens, I’ll stay here and help you.”
Torin smiled, surprising even himself. How long had it been since there had been anything worth smiling at? How many centuries of agony had he survived, watching his woman and being unable to claim her? The constant burning of unquenchable want had been his companion through eons. Now, though, he sensed the end in sight. The time when all of the waiting would be rewarded.
“When have I ever needed help getting a woman into my bed?” But even as the words left his mouth, Torin knew that this woman was different. This was more than a few hours of pleasure. This was eternity. And unless Shea gave herself to him with that knowledge, with complete acceptance, nothing would change and their chance would be lost.
“How will you spark the memories?” Rune demanded.
“She’s already having visions,” Torin told him. He’d been keeping watch over her for years. He knew that her aunt’s execution had opened a narrow path into the past for Shea. He’d seen her wake screaming from nightmares that she didn’t realize were actually memories. He’d watched as she fought to maintain “normalcy.” In secret he had given her his protection each time she ran from enemies both real and imagined.
And he’d hungered. Just as he did now.
Through lifetime after lifetime, Torin had burned for her and only her.
“She must recall the past. That life.”
“She will.” She had to. Torin turned his gaze back to the dark landscape as his thoughts drifted briefly to that long-ago age. To the moment when everything had changed for them. Images flew through his mind, clear and distinct. He felt the power rising. Felt the crash of failure, the terror and the raw grief of regret.
They’d given up much on that night.
All in a quest for too much power.
He pushed both hands through his hair and refocused his gaze on his own image in the glass. He was a man and not a man. A legend, yet more than that. He was, essentially, caught in a stream of time that had no definition.
Until now.
His gaze took in the man beside him. An Eternal. A brother. Less than human, yet more than mortal. There were others like them as well. Beings who had survived the centuries and who now had one chance for something more.
All that was required was for their witches to accept their destinies.
And them.
Chapter 4
Shea waited a few minutes after her gorgeous kidnapper left before she quietly opened the bedroom door. The long hallway was dark but for a few lamps set into the wall. The illumination they gave off was barely more than candlelight. There were at least six doors off the hall and at the end, near the head of the stairs, Shea spotted a woman with steel gray hair and a stick-straight spine sitting in a chair. The older woman was reading a book, but Shea wasn’t fooled. The woman wasn’t taking a break.
She was on guard duty.
Crap.
Closing the door with a soft snick, Shea looked futilely for a lock, then silently admitted that even if there had been one, it wouldn’t have kept out the man who had just left. She’d never seen a man more… powerfully male. It was more than his muscles, though they were plenty impressive. There was something else that fed into the indomitable male thing. A sort of aura that clung to him. One that spelled danger to anyone foolish enough to cross him.
Which she definitely planned to do.
Mating ritual?
She really didn’t think so.
