“Mara.” His voice was hoarse. “Don’t doubt me for a moment longer. Open your eyes.”
I took in a choppy breath. “Rafael, if it’s not—”
“I’m yours,” he cut me off, brushing a kiss across my lips. “I’m more sure of that than I’ve been of anything. Now, open your eyes so you can be sure of it, too.”
Very slowly, I did, his dark wings the first things I saw. Then, my heart pounding, I met his unblinking sapphire gaze.
Tears immediately overflowed my eyes, blurring his features, but it didn’t matter. I’d seen enough. A laugh bubbled out of me even as my arms tightened around him until I must have been half strangling him.
“I told you,” he murmured, squeezing me back but far more gently.
I pushed him away after a moment, blinking to clear my gaze so I could see those five pinpoints of lights in his eyes again. To me, they were more beautiful than a basket full of diamonds.
“I’m going to make you so happy,” I promised in a voice gone scratchy from emotion.
His laugh became huskier while his hands began to travel down my back.
“I intend to make you happy as well, but slower this time.”
I lay stretched across Rafael’s chest, his wings gone except for those ridges decorating his spine, when his voice broke the peaceful silence.
“Tranquilizer shot. Very clever.”
Inwardly I cringed, but in reality, my muscles didn’t even twitch. My body felt like it was in a permanent state of euphoric lethargy after the past couple hours.
“Sorry. With everything I’d heard and how I knew you were lying to me about certain things, I thought you might be a Pureblood. Fallen never even crossed my mind.”
He dropped a kiss onto my shoulder. “It doesn’t with most people. That’s how I’ve managed to hide what I am for this long.”
I rolled over to look at him. “I told my family horrible things about you. Among other important actions, I need to clear that up with them right away. I don’t want them shooting their future son-in-law on sight.”
A hint of a grin tugged at his mouth. “No, that wouldn’t do.” Then his expression sobered. “I’ve already surmised that you went back to Nocturna intending to tell everyone what you thought you’d discovered about me. What happened? Did Ashton catch you unawares in the forest?”
“No, Jack set me up,” I said, cursing to myself at the memory. “I trusted him, so I told him about you, thinking if I had his support, other Partials would be more likely to believe me. But he knocked me out, and I woke up with him snickering as Ashton dragged me into a river where another barrier was.”
Rafael’s mouth curled downward. “Jack,” he repeated bitterly. “He hid what he was well over the past century. Out of my men, I suspected him the least.”
“Which others of your men did you suspect?” If Billy was also a Pureblood, I’d never trust my judgment in people again.
He listed a few people that, thankfully, I wasn’t friends with. Then again, that didn’t mean they were guilty and Billy was innocent. Or that any of them were guilty, for that matter. Wouldn’t it be a relief if all of them were innocent?
“What if Jack is the only Pureblood hiding in Nocturna?” I offered.
Rafael gave me a dark look. “There are at least two more. Every time the barriers are breached, I can feel it as a Fallen. That is why I knew to come to this realm looking for you. I felt one person enter Nocturna, and then soon after, two people cross over to this side. I correctly feared one of them was a Pureblood and the other was you.”
I shook off the suffocating, squeezing memory of being pulled through the dimensions. “So while you can’t tell if someone’s a Partial or Pureblood when the first barrier into Nocturna is breached, if the second one’s parted, you know you’ve got at least one Pureblood wandering around.”
“Exactly.”
And I’d thought that as ruler of Nocturna, Rafael had his hands full just keeping a bunch of partial demons in line. Little had I realized that was the least of his concerns.
“We need to get Jack to tell us who the other Purebloods are, fast. Before they escape through the second barrier, which you know will be the first place they’ll run once you take Jack into custody.”
“If they do, I’ll follow them,” he replied with deadly emphasis.
“And blow your cover?” I reminded him. “If someone catches you crossing those barriers, your masquerade as a Partial is over. Plus, even if you do follow them, you might not catch them. I haven’t seen all of it, but this realm looks huge. I’m beyond lucky you found me in time, but with a little head start, those Purebloods might get away permanently.”
There was also the other, uncomfortable possibility, that because of me, Jack had turned the opinions of Nocturna’s residents against Rafael. I’d told Jack where the other barriers were, and I’d told my family that Rafael was in league with Purebloods. At least several hours had passed since I left my sister in the Bed Bath & Beyond parking lot. Who knew how many other Partials she might have repeated my former, erroneous beliefs about Rafael to? Combined with Jack’s support, that meant Rafael could be slaughtered on sight.
“You can’t go back until we know who the others are,” I said, steeling myself for the fight I knew would come with my next words. “Because of what I told people, it’s too risky for you. I’m the one who has to catch Jack and get him to talk.”
Rafael sat up, crossing his arms over the sculpted beauty of his chest. “That is too dangerous—”
“I got the drop on Jack before,” I interrupted, my tone hardening. “This time, I won’t give him a chance to take advantage of my trust. Besides, I’m the
Rafael still had a look of utter objection on his face. I sighed, reaching out to smooth my hand across his clenched jaw.
“I owe Jack for what he did to me, and for what he helped Ashton do to Gloria. You’ll have your own battles in the future that I won’t be able to fight for you, even though I’ll want to, but this one? It’s
Rafael didn’t say anything for a long moment. I waited, my stomach churning. His response would either strengthen our relationship, setting a foundation that we could grow on despite our differences in age, race, and abilities, or fracture our new bond under the weight of stubbornness and chauvinism disguised as chivalry.
“Once you’ve secured Jack,” Rafael said slowly, to the accompanying burst of joy in my heart, “you’ll need help to get him to talk.”
I hugged him, feeling his fierce answering embrace and promising silently that I’d be the best damn mate in the history of demonkind. Then I let him go before the hard, sensuous feel of his body led to less planning and more time spent on the cushions.
“I know Jack’s got to rat out his kinsmen quick, before anyone gets word of what’s going on. I like the idea of sticking him with some hot pokers to get him to talk, but even that might take too much time.”
“I’ll show him what I am,” Rafael said in a quiet, frightening voice. “That should get him to talking.”
It no doubt would, but that presented its own set of problems. If Rafael flashed those incredible wings at Jack, then we’d have to kill him right away so Jack didn’t report what Rafael was to anyone else. No, it was better if Jack was left alive so his guilt could be shown to all the Partials in Nocturna, clearing Rafael’s name against anything Jack—or I—had said against him.
A wild idea formed in my mind. I stood up, ignoring the flare of heat that rippled through me when Rafael’s gaze lingered over my body.
“There
Rafael inclined his head toward the large crystal desk in the corner. “Inside that is the gateway that opens in my castle.”
He could travel between realms straight from one bedroom into another? Talk about convenient, and that worked out even better for what I had in mind.
I gave Rafael a wicked smile. “I know we’re not going to have a conventional relationship, but I’m going to ask my new mother-in-law for a wedding present anyway.”
