Eternal Sin

Okay, fine. Yeah, I’ll come. But I don’t like it.”

For several long seconds the only sound was the river trees gently scraping the exterior of the house. Synjon wondered if Petra was still listening on the two-way.

When a good minute had passed, he called out to her. “Problem, love?”

Supreme quiet met his query, then a sigh and, “The Romans are here.”

Syn’s skin hummed with tension. “For you or for me?”

“Not sure. But either way they’re going to be leaving this place alone and unhappy.”

And with that, she closed the bathroom door. Completely and forcefully this time.

6

“You drank from him, didn’t you?” Dani called over her thickly feathered shoulder to Petra as they flew past a stand of teak that housed three of the Avian’s twenty-two nesting grounds.

Avoiding her best friend’s massive wings, Petra leaned forward and wrapped her arms around the hawk’s neck. “Of course I did.”

“Well, I hope you drained him dry. I hope he could barely breathe. I hope he was coughing and sputtering and losing consciousness—”

“I get it, Dani,” she shouted over the wind. “You want him to suffer.”

Dani glanced back, her hawk eyes flashing with ire. “Did he tell you how close he came to having sex with me?”

“No, you told me, remember?” Petra returned.

“Of course, for me,” Dani went on, “it was all part of the act. We needed to get him alone, get him as vulnerable as possible. He’s a total manwhore, and last night I made sure he chose me.”

This wasn’t a subject Petra felt all that comfortable with. Especially a second time. And yet she couldn’t seem to stop herself from asking, “So, if Sasha and Val were late or hadn’t shown up, were you actually going to—”

“Fuck him?” Dani called back, sounding appalled before she actually snorted. “Hell to the no.”

“You make it sound like a fate worse than death, Dani. The guy’s incredibly hot. And the things he can do . . .” What the hell am I saying? She shook her head. It felt like someone else was running her mouth.

“I don’t want to hear about his magic tongue,” Dani shouted.

Heat flared in Petra’s cheeks. “You can stop now.”

Dani laughed. “Fine, then. His magic penis.”

“Okay,” Petra said, completely mortified now. “I think we should play the quiet game. Don’t you?”

“No. I don’t.” And just to send that message home, Dani dive-bombed into the forest, pulled up right before they would have hit the ground, and then started serpentining through the trees.

Petra gripped the hawk’s feathers, her mouth dry as she panted with fear. “That was unnecessary,” she called through gritted teeth.

“I don’t think so,” Dani called back. “You need your brain shaken up, reworked. You’re talking about this guy being all hot and everything, and all I can think is he screwed my best friend, got her preggers, and couldn’t care less.”

Petra winced. Her best friend’s words cut deep. As they were meant to. “You know my father took away his emotions. He couldn’t feel a thing now even if he wanted to.”

The hawk made an irritated sound. “Are you seriously defending him?”

“No.” And she wasn’t. That would be insane. That would make her foolish and optimistic, and worse yet, a glutton for punishment.

“You totally are,” Dani returned. “Please tell me that blood you took from him didn’t shatter the reality of the here and now, and his major dickhood.”

Jeez. Sometimes Dani could be a major pain in the ass. “Rest assured I haven’t suddenly become blind to reality. But his blood did calm me down. Made me able to think and feel, without pain and depression along for the ride.”

“Well . . . I suppose I am glad of that.” Dani was quiet for a moment. Then, “You think he’ll try to escape?”

Absofreakinglutely. “He tried once already.”

“What?” Dani cried, dropping about eight feet, making Petra’s gut fly up into her throat.

“Christ, Dani! Pregnant back here.”

“Sorry.” She quickly leveled out.

“He got burned, okay? Stepped right into the sun, trying to get past me. Didn’t work out very well. Skin started smoking and all that.”

Dani snorted. “Nice. Wish I could’ve seen that.”

“He’s not going anywhere. Val and Sasha are standing guard inside the cabin.”

“That should be interesting.”

“Yeah.”

“You hope he doesn’t go, don’t you?”

“What?” Then she sighed. “Oh, Dani, my love, he has the blood.”

Dani’s hawk made a screeching sound at that, then started circling the waterfall below and the gathering stones beside it. The stones that marked their borders, and that welcomed all outsiders to their world. “All right, vamp girl,” she called back. “Before we land, I really need you to repeat after me.”

Petra rolled her eyes. “What is it?”

“I. Hate. Synjon. Wise.”

Petra laughed. “Fine. Simple enough.” She raised her voice to the wind. “I hate Synjon Wise.”

“Barely convincing,” Dani drawled. “And this too: I will never let him touch me again.”

Petra’s laughter petered out. Now that one wasn’t so simple, and Petra didn’t want to even look into why that might be. She’d had enough worrisome admissions today.

Dani squawked at her. “You’re hesitating. You shouldn’t be hesitating. Hesitating will get you into trouble.”

“Shit, Dani. Look at me. I’m already in trouble. Seven months’ worth.” She laughed. “And I kinda have to touch him if I’m taking his blood.”

Dani glanced over one feathered shoulder. “Yeah, but he doesn’t have to touch you.”

“Look out! The tree!” Petra called, pointing ahead. “Jeez. Come on, Dani, focus. Mom and baby don’t have the ironclad shifter belly.”

Smooth and easy, Dani banked around the massive tree, then came in for a landing just outside the rock wall of the gathering stones. Petra slid off her back, spotting her mother already seated beside Sara on several small, flat boulders in the center of the stones. Petra’s blood sister. She still couldn’t get used to that concept. Neither of them had noticed her yet. They were deep in conversation, and for one second Petra felt a splash of jealousy move through her. Sara already had one mother. She didn’t need Petra’s too.

“Hey, Bestie,” Dani called out to her.

Petra stopped, realized she’d been walking toward her mother and Sara, and glanced over her shoulder.

Dani’s hawk eyes narrowed. “You never repeated that last bit.”

No, she hadn’t.

“I will never let him touch me again,” Dani urged.

Petra gave the hawk a quick grin. “Thanks for the ride, Bestie. I owe you.” Then she made her way toward the gathering stones and the family she barely knew.

* * *

Phane couldn’t take his eyes off the female hawk. He stood on the very top of the highest rock within the