Caretaker (Silverlight Book 2) Read online

Page 22


  And when he did, my body remembered how it’d felt to be loved by a master vampire. What it’d felt like to have every part of him inside every part of me, even though it was only his teeth in my flesh.

  “Our time is coming,” Rhys whispered into my ear, into my mind, and my body seized up with the promise in his dark voice.

  And Shane, oh, Shane…my heart.

  He kissed me, his tongue dancing with mine, inside me as Angus was inside me, and I remembered the night in his bed when we’d given ourselves to each other.

  We merged, all of us, connected in ways both physical and metaphysical, and I felt them all. But mostly, I felt Angus, filling me up with his huge hardness, his grip both punishing and loving, overwhelming me with his almost brutal need, and I was suddenly, unexpectedly coming.

  My entire body climaxed, and I couldn’t breathe through the extraordinary pleasure of it, I could barely comprehend it, because it was...

  It was everything. Everything.

  “Alpha,” I said, or thought.

  He roared and shot his seed inside me and I felt it coating my insides with heat, marking me, claiming me.

  As I claimed it.

  Him.

  All of them.

  Mine.

  Mine.

  I wasn’t sure where the giant was, but I sensed him out there somewhere, outside the circle, looking in, perhaps, and I felt his longing, his need to belong, to be wanted, but with the certainty that he, with his thick features and huge size, would never be.

  We would see.

  There was that light inside him.

  There was that light.

  Angus moved off me with a groan and lay on his side, then pulled me against his chest and wrapped his arms around me. The ground cradled us all, a soft bed of loose, warm dirt, cuddling us as we lay together, a pile of lovers, slightly stunned and completely secure.

  I opened my fingers and Silverlight leapt into my hand, and without a single thought or hesitation, I slid her light into the top of my outer thigh. No one spoke—I felt their worry, their wonder, but no one questioned me and my connection with the sword that was now indisputably and forever only mine.

  She slid into the holster of my flesh, and she went to sleep. But she was always aware. She would always hear me. And when I needed her I would simply beckon her, and she would be there, springing into my grip, ready to fight. Ready to defend. Ready to kill.

  The knowledge lay like an ancient secret in the deep, dark shadows of my mind, and I couldn’t understand how I didn’t see it before.

  My men lay with me, holding me, touching me, and we remained connected that way until finally, Amias twitched and then slept, there on that special ground, and dawn came.

  I shivered with the magic and mystery of it, a place so special that not even the sun could hurt a vampire.

  Or maybe it was because I was Lady of the Way Station, and the vampire was mine. Whatever the reason, he was there, sleeping beneath a pearly pink sky.

  I quivered with excitement, and I could barely wait for him to awaken and see what the night had given him. I could barely wait for him to see something he had not seen for an eternity.

  The sun.

  The sun clothed in all her bright glory and cheer, as powerful as the moon but in a different way. The moon embraced the darkness of man. The sun chased it away.

  And I was comforted to know that someday, when he brought me back from death and I walked the earth as a vampire, I could come here, to Willow-Wisp, and allow the sun to warm my face.

  I would not have to live in darkness.

  I smiled, even as I cried, and my men wrapped me up in love and light and we fell into our dreams. But my dreams were disjointed and restless, because there was still something I needed to do.

  The way station itself sat a few yards away, dark and beckoning, in need of its master. And maybe I felt someone beating at its mystical walls, begging entry.

  The house had been empty for too long, and it was impatient.

  I climbed to my feet, Silverlight safe inside my body, my men secure inside my heart, and I went to take my place inside the way station.

  About Laken Cane

  The coffee-addicted urban fantasy/paranormal and horror writer Laken Cane lives in Southern Ohio with her genius son, two Yorkies named Daphnis and Lexi, and one Golden named Chloe who rules them all.

  If you enjoyed this book, would you do me an enormous favor and leave a review on Amazon? It may end up on the back cover of the paperback, as well as on my social media! I’d really appreciate it.

  Laken’s books:

  The Rune Alexander series (currently 10 book series, book 11 in progress.)

  The Waifwater Chronicles (2 books.)

  The Forsaken series (book 1 available, book 2 in progress.)

  Harbinger Bend (paranormal romance standalone)

  Silverlight series (Ongoing)

  You can find Laken on her Facebook page, Goodreads, Instagram, Bookbub, Amazon author page, and Twitter. For a full list of links, book list, reading order, and blog, visit her WEBSITE.

  Subscribe to Laken’s newsletter for updates.