“Care to share what this is about?” Agis asks in a tight voice. He crosses his legs. In the firelight I see the solid bulge of his cock. He’s turned on, even if he’s still guarded.
“I have a theory,” I say, pushing my hair out of my face.
“No,” Rupert interrupts, “we have a theory.”
She explains it quickly. Convincingly. How when we fell through the portal we didn’t just take the guardians place, we adopted the core of who they are. And that includes their bond with Morgan and the power that comes with it.
“You really believe that?” Agis frowns, his drink forgotten. “Doesn’t something like a mating bond just happen? It’s not really something you can force.”
“Maybe,” she says, her voice losing confidence. “But we’re role playing here. It may take a little massaging to get the magic flowing.”
He raises an eyebrow at Armin. “Do you feel it?”
He swallows, eyes lingering on me, cheeks turning a faint pink. “What I feel with Hildi is indescribable.”
He rolls his eyes and looks at Miya.
“And what about you? Do you believe this? Would you give up your vows for this?”
Miya looks at me, eyes dark and soulful. I want to know the answer to this question, too. So badly that my hands tremble in anticipation.
“I know that after we had sex, things have been different.”
“How so?” Armin asks.
“Over centuries, I’ve mastered the ability to keep a clear mind. To focus on my spirit and the energy around me. That is how I stay focused. It’s how I kill. It’s how I survive.” He licks his lips and the faint light in the tavern makes his jaw strong and sharp. “Since we slept together, I think about Hildi. Often. Always. When I’m meditating. When I’m fighting. Especially when I sleep. That night…it changed me.”
His words stun me. He’s been so aloof, so distant. “It did?”
He swallows and nods. “At first I panicked and tried to pretend it was just the after effects of the venom. But I can’t shake it—or you.”
That night had been intense. The venom filled me with a deep, uncontrollable longing. I had to have an orgasm, to keep myself sane. Miya sacrificed his beliefs to help me, and if we’re right about the bond, that single selfless act may have opened a connection neither of us understood at that point.
“I can’t shake you either.”
“It’s the venom,” Agis interjects. “You were drugged by a powerful vampire.”
Miya’s eyes dart to his fellow warrior. “It was more than that. Do you really think I’d break my vow of celibacy for just anyone? I’ve been tempted a million times.” He looks at me. “There’s something different.”
I ease out of Armin’s grasp and walk over to Miya. I take his face in my hands, cupping his cheeks. I run my fingers over the faint stubble on his chin and bend, kissing him gently. A flood of emotions releases between us, and it takes everything in me not to climb in his lap.
Agis grunts and slams his drink on the table. The God of Death stands, casting a shadow over the room with his large frame.
“I’m done with this,” he says, striding toward the portal entry.
Casting a worried glance at the others, I follow him. I grab the back of his shirt in a futile attempt to get him to stop.
“Why is this so hard for you to believe?” I shout, just before he gets to the tapestry.
He spins, and I’m surprised at the anguished expression on his face.
“Do you really want to know?”
Something about the darkness flickering in his eyes scares me but I say, “Yes,” anyway.
“Because I don’t believe that love can save the world, Valkyrie. I didn’t believe it with the Guardians, and I don’t believe it now. It’s too easy. It’s not enough. Winning a war takes power and bloodshed and strength. It takes strategy and sacrifice. It takes everything from you, and in the end there’s nothing left. Nothing. Especially not love.”
The intensity of his words, the anger laced in his tone rattles me so badly that I do nothing as he walks though the tapestry like a ghost.