28. Chapter 28

Over the long years of being bound to a mortal body, I had come to feel a deep affection for my host. It might even be described as… love. Dyre was the portal through which I experienced this bright mortal world. He was the one who showed me what a sunset looked like. And taught me how to feel. He was my first friend. The only mortal I had ever wanted to protect. But sometimes, I wanted to use our own shared hands to choke him to death.

Because of him, Oleander was sad. Because of his stubbornness and his silly mortal ideas of right and wrong, I wasn"t allowed to wrap my arms around the woman we both wanted and revel in the novelty of her softness. And now, because of him, everyone else in this place was bonded to our witch except us. She had decided to go to the meeting in the other realm, where there were countless dangers waiting for her, and my host had severed the connection that would have made her nearly invincible.

Also, I was fairly certain this prickly, uncomfortable feeling in our chest and throat was what mortals called jealousy. And I didn"t care for the feeling.

Everyone cleared out of the kitchen to do whatever it was they planned on doing to prepare for this rebel meeting. Andy stayed to make herself a cup of tea. Dyre tried to leave the room, but I kept our feet frozen to the floor. I cared enough about the wellbeing of my host to let him keep the illusion that he was in control of his body. But I was tiring of his stubbornness. He burned so brightly for the witch before us. He yearned for her with such desperation, and he missed the brief feeling of being loved and accepted. Throwing that away had left a gaping wound inside him. Inside us. And I was sick of it.

What are you doing?Dyre griped from inside our shared consciousness.

I gave him the equivalent of a mental scoff. Being sensible. Tell our witch what you want.

He huffed. Fuck off.

I was right. He needed a reminder of who—of what I was.

Ungluing our feet from the floor, I paced closer to Andy. She turned from where she had just placed the kettle on the stove. Her gray eyes met mine, and she arched her brows. "Did you need something, Dyre? Or… Sunny? I can"t really tell who"s in charge right now." Her brow wrinkled adorably. "Your eyes are two different colors."

I reached out and touched her, laying my chilly hand along her warm cheek. Tell her you were wrong to dissolve the lifebond, I silently snarled at my host. Or I will take control of this body permanently.

Dyre"s mutinous emotions were loud in our head. He carried on about consent and coercion and how unfair I was being. I did not care. And he could sense that loud and clear.

"Hello?" Andy said, giving us a quizzical look when we just stood there, cupping her cheek while we silently argued.

"This is stupid," Dyre bit out.

He tried to pull his hand away from her cheek, but I simply chuckled at him inside his head and kept touching our witch. Don"t think I won"t take full control and simply take whatever I want from you. From her. I"ve seen things that would make you cry like an infant, necromancer. I"ve destroyed stronger men than you, for far less reason.

"Sunshine is throwing a hissy fit," Dyre said dryly. "He thinks he"s intimidating."

But I knew his flippant words were a lie. He saw how serious I was, and it terrified him. It also hurt him. He felt betrayed. And that hurt me, but it was for his own good. For the good of us both. He felt my resolve and heaved a mental sigh, giving in to my demands.

"Dissolving our lifebond when we did was a mistake," Dyre said softly, our deep voice nearly a whisper.

Andy"s eyes widened slightly, and she lifted a hand to cover ours, where it still rested on her cheek. "Duh," she said with a wry twist to her lips.

Dyre sighed. "I want to reestablish a bond." I finally let him have control of his hand and he pulled it away to hold both hands out, as if to ward off a misunderstanding. "Not a lifebond. Not like before," he rushed to clarify. "Just something small. Enough to give you some protection during this meeting we"re about to crash."

She gave him a disappointed look, like a parent whose child had just done something idiotic. "Sure."

He nodded and swallowed hard. I could feel his emotions, feel how hard he had to work to push down the plea that wanted to escape him. This had nothing to do with protecting our witch, not really. He wanted her inside his aura again, the same way he wanted to sink himself deep inside her, energetically and physically.

Oh, just shut up! Dyre thought to me. You get laid one time and suddenly you"re an incubus, rather than a wraith.

I let him feel my mental grin. We will mate with her again. I know you want that as badly as I do, no matter how much you moan and complain about silly mortal concepts like propriety or societal expectations. She is ours. We are hers. You"re only delaying the inevitable. Do you actually enjoy pain, Dyre? Do you like to suffer? Because I can certainly ensure you do, in much harsher ways than your childish self-denial.

"Dyre?" Andy said, pulling his furious attention away from me. "Are you and Sunny… arguing right now?"

He huffed a humorless laugh. "Something like that." He did his best to make his voice sound cold. "The bond? Are you in agreement?"

I sent a flood of memories through our shared mind space—the sight of Andy naked and flushed beneath us. The feeling of her soft skin sliding over our own. The warmth of her mouth wrapped around our hard cock. And the way I had held her fragile mortal body down while I fucked her so hard I nearly broke her. Dyre groaned internally. He yearned. And I reminded him that this was all his own doing. That it would be so easy to undo the damage he had done. Oleander Lovell was a forgiving witch with a boundless heart. All he had to do was repent, and she would open her arms to us again.

But the fool simply shook his head, pressing our lips together to keep the plea for forgiveness from escaping his lips.

I shoved him aside, pushing him back to the dark recesses of our mind as I took over, but giving him the ability to see and hear what we did. Andy blinked up at me, clearly sensing the shift from Dyre to me. From necromancer to wraith. "He wants more than some silly temporary bond," I informed her ruthlessly. "We both do. But he insists on being stubborn."

She sighed. "I know, Sunny." It was like she was looking through me to Dyre. "I know. But it has to be his decision. You can"t force him to love someone. And you can"t coerce him into a lifebond. No matter how badly we all want it."

Dyre"s discomfort was a balm to my anger. He deserved to twist and writhe. "Say the word, and I will bind you to this body for life," I told the lovely witch before me. Stepping closer, I took her face in my hands. So warm. So fragile, though she didn"t know it. "Say the word and I will use this body to give you pleasure." I bared my fangs. "I am in charge here, my witch. I only allow Dyre to make choices. And he has lost that privilege."

She stared up at me in shock. Her heartbeat sped up, and her lips parted, her breaths becoming shallow. Shock. But there was also lust there, obvious in the flush of her cheeks and the scent of her arousal, and in the way her aura reached for mine, rather than shying away from my darkness. She was tempted, so very tempted. I dipped my head, leaning closer, my lips brushing hers. "Say the word and I am yours, Oleander. I am done playing these games. We should be one."

Her hand pressed against my chest, not pushing me away, but not pulling me closer, either. She struggled under the burden of her silly mortal scruples. I could see it in her eyes. I could push her, use my magic and my power to make her mine. But I wanted her surrender just as much as I craved the surrender of my host. I waited, my gaze never leaving her own.

Finally, Andy drew in a shuddery breath and shook her head. "No. Sunshine, I… no. It doesn"t work that way. I didn"t free Dyre from the bestiary only to make him an unwilling prisoner in his own body. You need to leave him be. Stop bullying him and give him back control of his body."

I narrowed my eyes at her, tempted for one wicked moment to revert to my old ways. To be the formless, hungry terror who fed on life, taking what he wanted with no regard for the consequences. A shudder lifted through me, and I shook off the temptation. "As you wish," I whispered darkly. "For now. But my patience is not limitless."

She sighed, the tension in her body flowing from her with her exhalation. "Thank you."

You are right about one thing, I told my host as I gave him back control of our body. She is too good for you.

But his agreement took some of the fun out of the prodding. He really believed he didn"t deserve her. Mortal nonsense. We would have to work on that.

"I"m sorry," Dyre said slowly, pulling his hands away from Andy"s face. "But the offer still stands. I would like to bolster your magic and cast stronger personal shields around you. A small connection would be… beneficial."

She stared up at us for a long moment, her gray eyes full of a wealth of unvoiced emotions. "Whatever you want," she said at last, turning back to the stove to make her tea.

Dyre swallowed hard. Once. Twice. His hand twitched with the urge to reach out for her and turn her back around to face to us. To tell her he didn"t care if they shared blood. But my host was a master at denying himself and suffering in silence. He curled his hand into a fist and cleared his throat. "Good. I"ll… go get some supplies and we can put a binding mark on our hands. Kind of like the smaller one you had with your asshole jinn for a while there."

"Yeah, okay. Swell," Andy said without turning around.

Dyre strode from the room as if he were being chased.

You will come to your senses eventually, witch,I warned from the recesses of his mind.

He ran a hand through his long hair and gave it a frustrated yank as he made his way to Andy"s upstairs workroom. "I hate you," he muttered.

I just chuckled darkly. I hear hatred and love are very similar things. Isn"t that what mortals say?

He reached the upper floor of the mansion and stopped before a small, gilded mirror that hung with an array of dusty old Lovell portraits. Staring through his own eyes at me, he lifted one hand and gave me a rude gesture. "Fuck. You."

Still wanting to put him in his place, I took control of his hand, put the finger down, and reached down to cup our cock through our pants and give it a squeeze. I could, I taunted. Fuck you. That"s something we"ve never really explored.

His fury knew no bounds as he tried to remove his hand from his crotch, and I smugly kept it there.

"Um…" Niamh"s dry voice interrupted our bickering as she came down the hallway. "Gross. If you"re going to jerk off, do it in your room, necromancer. Not everyone around here is obsessed with dick."

I released my control of Dyre"s body, and he lurched forward at the unexpected loss of tension, his forehead smacking into the wall. "Fuck!" he yelped.

The fae laughed so hard tears wet her high cheekbones and her little fangs were fully exposed. "Oh, goddess," the fierce hunter wheezed. "I wish I had Andy"s phone right now so I could record you losing your mind, necromancer. That was priceless."

Dyre growled and stomped down the hall as Niamh laughed herself breathless, and I chuckled darkly. I might love my host, but I could and would make his life a living hell if he didn"t get his head out of our shared ass and fix things with our witch.

The temporary bond was a good start. Maybe once he felt her nearness again, the fog would clear, and he would see reason.

Otherwise, life-threatening mortification would be the least of his worries.