Blood Twist (The Erris Coven Series) (25 page)

Except she’
s trying to leave.

After walking around Torin’s parent’s place hoping to find her, Lexie pulled him to the side and gave him hell. She said it was obvious her best friend had feelings for him and if he didn’t want to ruin his best chance at happiness,
he
better track her down and tell her how he felt.

At first he wanted to laugh. Lexie was one of the nicest people he had ever met and she didn’t do intimidating well. But once he realized what she was saying, that Liz was unhappy and on the verge of leaving, he quickly wiped his amused grin from his face. 
Lexie’s warning made him move. If Liz truly did have
feelings for him, he wouldn’t waste another moment second guessing if she wanted Riley instead.

I never knew I could feel this way about anyone
, but now that I have, I can’t let her just walk away.

Braden knew he
was hardly beautiful, but
s
he was – outstandingly so. Liz was
perfect in every way.
In the last twenty-four hours,
h
e had longed to reach out to her
, to say something that would remind
her
of the
kisses they shared in Vancouver. But,
like with everything else in his life,
he
could give directions, take down a bear, track the Serovs through the Allagash Waterway, but
was clumsy with words that were attached to feelings.

Moving soundlessly, he
edged
up behind her.

“Please don’t leave,” he said softly.

Liz spun around.

Braden was afraid to speak, afraid that he would ruin everything again with his desperation for her to stay. He wanted to put his arms around
her and kiss
her lips
. The way he did the other night
when they were outside the club and he couldn’t hold back – b
efore Garrick tossed him into the basement cell.
Or at Sunnydale, when Liz told him she chose to stay and fight fo
r him and not runaway with his brother
.

Liz tilted her face up to his. She looked as vulnerable as he felt. “I don’t know if I belong here.”

“You do,” he said, staring down at her. “Stay with me.”

Tears spille
d down her cheeks. “Someday you’ll have a fate-partner. There won’t be a place for me.”

“I love you, Liz. That’s all I know and nothing can change that. Can’t you feel it? Can’t you
tell there is something pulling us
together when we touch?
When we kiss
?
”

Liz closed her eyes, her bottom lip trembling. “I’ve tried to forget what it was like when we kissed, but I can’t. I keep telling myself that it was the trip and the stress – but I know that my head is just lying to my heart.”

Braden pulled her into his arms.
Once again he was struck by how amazingly she fit against him.
“Tell me you feel the way I do. Please.”

“I love you, too.”

Those three words,
intricate in
meaning, gripped with
in his soul.  Easing back, h
e gave her a slow seductive smile.
“I want to take you home.”

“To
Brigid?”

“No,” he said shakin
g his head, “to my father’s house
. It has sat empty for too long. It’s time t
o reopen it and bring life back there
.
”

“Okay,” she whispered.

“But first,”
he said, tilting her chin up to meet his, “I
’ve needed to do this all day
.” Bringing his mouth down to hers, Braden kissed her, tentatively at first, but with building passion.

Under his skin, his blood raced madly. Her body sang against his, calling to him, making him whole.
Riley was the first to say it – that there was something about her that was
truly special, that although Braden
hadn’t dreamt of her, his body couldn’t be near her without losing control.

Riley may have thought L
iz was the woman he would have been fated to
, but Braden knew he didn’t have to dream of Liz first to kno
w they belonged together. Just the
touch of her hand
folded in his
and he felt the beginning of their bond pulling them tighter.

Liz
was
his fate-partner. He already loved her, knowing the way she made him feel would o
nly grow,
made being with her now so much
sweeter.
His wild reactions to her all made sense, he had just been so focused on Riley, he hadn’t realized the gift of magic in front of him all along.

“Are you laughing
?” Liz asked breathlessly. Her lips were red from kissing,
making him want to kiss her
more.

“I was just remembering something I told Torin a few days ago. He was trying to figure out why he was dreaming of Lexie
so young and why he was ahead of schedule when it came to
developing so
me of his damphyr powers
. At the time, I thought I was pretty damn smart, but I didn’t realize I needed to take my own advice.”

“Really?
And what did you so eloquently tell him?”

“That we
could only use what happened to the elder’
s as
a guideline
.
T
hat we
wo
uld all have to experience
our
own changes in our
own way.
”
Trailing his finger along her jawline, be brushed his thumb across the lips he wanted to spend forever kissing. “As damphyrs, we fall in love with only one woman, our fate-partners and it is forever. I should have known it was you from the moment I found you in Lexie’s basement. I haven’t been able to get you out of my head since and I don’t ever want to.
When I look at yo
u, I feel whole, like I can face
eternity as long as you
’
r
e
with me.
”

“You think I’
m
your fat
e-partner?”
Looking up at him, her hazel eyes, fram
ed by
dark lashes
,
were on the verge of tears.
Her lips trembled, her hands too.
“There won’t be some
one
else?”

Watching
her, he couldn’t tell i
f she was going to laugh or cry, or if he would.
“No, there won’t.
There never will be. It’s only you, forever.
”

Standing there in the driveway, feeling the centuries of love
his ancestors
passed down from generation to generation, he didn’t want to take in one more breath without having her eternally a part of him.
Holding
her hand in his, he placed her palm against his chest.
“
Liz Sanders,
I bind my
soul to yours, forever.
”

31

LIZ

Glorious sun spilled around her. T
he rays, shining down, covered the
meadow
in rich gold and
garnet
tones. Laughing and danc
ing, Liz
raced
through the tree line.
Her body was as light as ai
r, her limbs working i
n unison as she moved beneath the cloudless sky
.
Braden was standing
by a fountain, h
is muscular build reminiscent
of Adonis.
His beautiful eyes were the color of the sky.
With his arms outstretched, she
dashed
to
meet
him. Just whe
n their hands touched, the marble base
of
the fountain began to crumble
, splashing its cool water in waves down their legs
.
Hand in hand, they
turned and looked
up
. T
he cherub statue
that rose up in the center
unfolded
its wings, shifting in form
to a gigantic owl
. Instead of water, blood poured
from its beak
, staining the grass, coloring the air, sticking to their skin.
Parting her lips
, she was about to scream
, but Braden swept her into his arms, shielding her from
the
blood and
crumbling debris. Sheltered within his embrace
, she closed her eyes and mel
ded against him. As the owl burst into the air
, all she could feel was Braden’s hearts beat
ing
wildly with hers.

Opening her eyes, Liz breathed out the
deepest of sighs.
Even after the creepiness of her dream, she felt safe and sound.
With her body
pressed against Braden’
s
,
she marveled how similar the sensation was to her dream. S
he could feel the double
beat
of
his hearts match
ing
her own. It wasn’t just the sound of them, reverberating near her
ear;
it was the bond between them, making them one.

I can feel him
inside me…

Liz’s heart
was so full, she could only smile
.
In the hours she had spent curled up
with him
in his childhood bed, arm to arm, lips to lips, i
t was so simple between them, like they had always been one. Just his touch, a gentle brushing of his skin or lips against hers and she knew the clearest sense of peace she had ever
dreamed possible
.

When he placed her hand against h
is chest and whispered
that simple little phrase, she felt the most intense expression of love course through him and pass into her that her knees a
lmost buckled
. Without him having to show her how, she brought his own hand to her heart and repeated the vow, completing the circle.

We’re forever, just the two of us,
kismet.

The idea of being his fate-partner
made her want to find the nearest cell phone tower and shout to all the world how happy she was
. No more would she be alone, no more would she be in the way.  He explained the bond
as being of “one flesh” –
like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
The damphyrs didn’t marry
in the typical sense, consisting of legal documentation and
blood tests – soul binding united them as man and women for eternity. Although he
claimed
he was the lucky one, having found her at the age of eighteen, Liz knew
she was the one God did a service to
and blessed. She had someone to belon
g to for the first time in her life
.
Nothing else mattered.
 

Liz
trailed her fingers over Braden’s shoulder, following the
swirling
lines of his sunburst tattoo. She still recalled her astonishment when she noticed it back at the Thunderbird Motel. At the time, she was surprised a guy like Braden who was so serious and conservative would want to be inked. But, not anymore – there was an edgier side to her blond haired
half-
vam
pire and it suit
ed her perfectly.

Earlier, while exploring each other’s bodies, she asked him about the tribal design. He told her it was a reminder
of what he would lose if he ever embraced the darkness: sunshine, life,
family – t
hat he didn’t ever want a day to pass where he could look in the mirror and not think about those things.

In response, s
he showed him her tattoo, a triad with the words “
Provehito
in
Altum
”
tattooed beneath
in
a beautiful
script on her ankle. Raising an eyebrow he asked what it meant and for the first time, she told him the whole truth about her father, about Petty Officer Louis and how terribly alone she felt that first year in Connecticut. But, once she discovered 30 Seconds to Mars, her favorite band, their music changed her life. Through them she met other members of the Echelon and
found
the strength to put her life back together and to be happy.
The words in Latin were roughly translated “launch forth into the deep” and encouraged her to work hard to follow her dreams, even if others told her she was a fool.