Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (125 page)

Eventually they grew so restless and desperate for their old army, they tried to open the gates. But they only caused destruction.”

“The eruption,” I said, remembering Griffin explaining that it

had abolished an entire civilization on neighboring Crete.

“Hmm…” he said, from somewhere far away. “The wrath of

Hell moves quickly. The fury of angels merciless. The exiles were destroyed along with everything we had created. Thousands of

humans killed.”

“How did you survive?”

“Once again, we went to ground.”

“You and your wife?” I was actually starting to get excited,

caught up in their love story. “You both survived?”

“No. She…sent for us. But there was so little time. When I got

down here and realized she had gone back up in search of me, it was too late. The wave had already hit.”

“That’s why you’ll never leave,” I said, genuinely sad for him.

“This island was once hers. I could have sustained her mortal

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every day, the effects everlasting, but…” Pulling himself out of his memories, his expression shifted back to his previously amused

state. “I have discovered new indulgences to occupy my time.” He gestured to the cabinets that held shelf upon shelf of jewels and artifacts— ancient weapons, coins— and paintings on the walls

above. I did a double- take when I spotted a Van Gogh and beside that, what I suspected was a Rembrandt.

My eyes settled on a silver necklace. I was struck by its simplicity in comparison to the other more gaudy and elaborate pieces. I couldn’t take my eyes away from it, as if something was drawing me toward it.

Uri. This is what he meant. Why?

“Do you like it?” Irin asked.

I nodded. “But I don’t understand how it is in this collection.” He went to the cabinet and removed it. I shouldn’t have been surprised that it wasn’t under sensor security and behind locked doors, yet I was. He held it toward me and I took it in my hands, feeling the buzz of its presence immediately. The necklace held power.

“What does it do?” I asked, handing it back, just in case.

“It was my wife’s. It holds a piece of the angel realm and helps to prevent illusion caused by anything or anyone angelic to the wearer. Of course, it is of no use to you or I as we do not need such things, but to a human, it is very valuable indeed.” He slipped it back carefully into the cabinet. “She never adored this piece like others I gave her— she had lavish tastes— but our sons have always insisted we keep it,” he added.

And that’s when I stopped feeling sad for him. Sons.

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“Those…the people who let us in?” I asked, that small twinge

becoming a prickling sensation shooting up my spine.

He nodded. “Our surviving progeny.”

Ancient
Nephilim.

Fear coursed through me and I felt the pinch again, like some-

thing being pulled from me. Irin smiled.

He clasped his hands together. “Now, to our arrangement.”

I swallowed, my mouth still dry as I struggled to absorb every-

thing he was saying. He was
Grigori.
Not part human, part angel like us— one of the first all- angel Grigori. One of the ones who sided with exiles. Was the city he talked of Atlantis? Did that make him
more
dangerous or less? And I had no idea what he meant by his “way” of survival.

“You have presented the jewels quite beautifully,” Irin went on.

“Now, I will take possession of them.”

I nodded, eager to proceed, and started to pull at the ruby ring that was already slipping off my finger.

“No, Violet,” he said softly, taking a step toward me. “
I
will take possession.”

Oh.

I pressed my lips together to stop them from quivering. Give me a fight any day, but this? All I could think about was the emerald spider with its many clasps around my upper thigh. I hadn’t even let Morgan fasten it.

I took another step back but hit the glass wall. Irin smiled, closing the distance and putting his hands on my shoulders, pushing down 274

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steadily until I fell to the window seat. I was a fish in an aquarium and trapped with a shark.

“If you are quite comfortable…”

I couldn’t talk, but the second his hand took mine, my body

seized, knowing that his touch intended more.

“Violet?” Lincoln called again from the shadows, his tone

controlled but somehow forced.

“I’m okay.”

Then, I just shut down. Years of practice kicking in.

I retreated to that place where I’d long ago taught myself to go to block everything out, like removing myself from my body, to

find somewhere safe and light, somewhere I wanted to be, always.

I smelled food cooking. And basil, lots of basil. Lincoln’s warehouse.

Irin’s hands wrapped around my wrist, one sliding up my

forearm and then back again before he started to undo the clasp to the first bracelet, slipping it off slowly, so I could feel the chain trail against my skin.

I looked out the window, dead still, then thought about basil

and focused on the light that cascaded through Lincoln’s great arch windows every morning.

Hands slid across my collarbone to my opposite arm and the

silver snake. He started to uncoil it, his fingers sliding up and down from my elbow, finally removing it.

Two
down.

I went back to thinking of the belonging I’d always felt in my

core when I was with Lincoln. I ignored all the problems, the

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reason why we would never be together, and clung to all the things that made us right and made me feel so safe.

Then Irin’s mouth closed around the ring on my index finger

and I flinched. I had to look. He was awaiting my reaction.

“Enough!” Lincoln’s voice charged.

Irin smiled and stood up, letting my hand go.

Lincoln stepped out from the shadows. “You will not touch

her again.”

I wanted to speak up, tell him I could handle it, but I didn’t, relieved just to have him in my sights.

“A deal was made. The stones are only part of the arrangement.

Unless, of course, you have something better to offer?”

The way Irin spoke…the cat that got the cream.

Lincoln’s hands flexed by his sides and I wondered if that

“something better” Irin had in mind involved a dagger. Just when I thought Lincoln might make a move, he spoke again.

“You’re an incubus, aren’t you? Some exiles discovered they could sustain themselves and increase their power by feeding on human emotion. But not many could and even fewer dared to because it

was so…addictive. Just one more reason you don’t belong here.

After you lost your wife, you became one, didn’t you?”

What
does
that
mean?

Irin shrugged. “The need she left in me was great, yes. I never cared to control humanity like the others. I simply wanted to

enjoy its offerings.” He moved to take my hand again. He was still smiling. “Speaking of which…”

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“Do that again and I swear to you she will be the last thing

you ever touch.” Lincoln had his dagger in hand and had already moved closer.

Irin didn’t appear concerned at all, which worried me. We had no idea what he could do and I didn’t think it would be an easy fight.

“You feed on emotion…” I said, trying to defuse the moment

while putting all the pieces together. “No wonder you like me.”

“Oh, my dear, don’t get me wrong— you are simply delicious

and would be even more so if you were not so efficiently damaged, but you’re a mere appetizer compared to your partner.”

Lincoln didn’t look at me. I was relieved; I didn’t know if I

could bear to see those eyes right now. No one had ever called me damaged out loud before. Well, no one other than me.

Irin paced slowly, watching as I no doubt displayed my shame

as well as confusion at the second part of what he said. He was feeding off Lincoln.

He sighed, wistfully. “Like opening the cork on an aged wine…

On an island where most emotion is that of honeymooners in love, which, while ripe for my purposes— ah.” He shook his head in awe.

“You two are like lobster in a world of mudfish.”

I braced myself for him to continue removing the jewelry, but

Lincoln took another step toward us, lowering his weapon.

“I’ll do it,” he said, as if subjecting himself to corporal punishment. “I’ll take off the jewels.”

Irin paused, considering the offer. “Why would I give up the

feeding you provide me by being forced to watch?”

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“You know it will cause just as much…if not more this way.”

“Bringing you so close to your forbidden?”

Lincoln swallowed and nodded once.

Irin grinned and swept a hand from Lincoln to me. “Very well.

In return for a kiss.”

“No!” I wasn’t kissing anyone.

“Not me,” he said.

“No,” I said again, which seemed to please Irin even more.

He retreated to the large dining table in the center of the room.

Lincoln moved to me, and his green eyes burned into mine.

“I will not force her to do anything, ever.”

And though he spoke to Irin, his words were for me— a promise that I was safe with him and the apology for what we both knew we had to do. He knelt in front of me, a look of pain and fear covering his face.

“It’s him or me.” Then he leaned in close to my ear and whis-

pered, “Put up your guards.”

I felt an outpour of Lincoln’s power around me. Could taste and smell the honey flavors unique to him overlaying the ever- present feeling of warmth and sunshine.

He started with the ankle bracelet, taking it off slowly, giving Irin the show he demanded, but without the creeping fingers. I

tried to keep my barriers up, trying to put the pieces together like a wall of Lego, but I was not in Lincoln’s league when it came to harnessing my strengths this way. Even visualizing a heavy steel fortress, I could still feel his fingers moving against my skin and it put a match to something inside me I was powerless to contain.

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Lincoln moved to my hands and closed his eyes, as if praying for a moment, before his mouth closed around my finger and removed

the ring. He did it so gently, with an endearing respect. It didn’t surprise me that he used his mouth as Irin had. He knew that Irin would expect no less. But then he went to the second ring, and

the third, and by the fourth, my cheeks were flushed and the small spark within me had started to blaze. Lincoln’s touch had grown more sure and his contact more constant.

I tried to sing nursery rhymes in my head, to chant the alphabet, but when his mouth closed around the final ring…I had to hold

on to the skirt of my dress with my free hand to stop myself from grabbing him.

Irin wheezed a chuckle like he was reading my mind.

I’m going to kill you. If not today, one day, I swear, I’m going to come
back and kill you. Read that, you creep!

Thinking it might be best to direct Lincoln to the necklace

and earrings next, I stood up but almost fell back down, my legs were shaking so much. Maybe it was the champagne finally hitting me— I’d been subconsciously sipping from the ever- filling glass.

I tried to keep my defenses up, but I wasn’t doing a great job and was becoming increasingly unstable on my feet. I felt every minute movement as Lincoln unclasped the heavy necklace, releasing me

of its weight. He followed with the earrings.

“Is that everything?” he asked, his eyes downcast and his voice so rough it barely sounded the words.

I stepped back, the slit in my dress parting to reveal the emerald 279

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spider on my thigh. I saw his eyes widen and caught the sound he couldn’t contain.

It sent a shock wave through me.

Wordlessly, he dropped to his knees and started with the clasps at the back, but he struggled to work around the fabric of the dress. I pulled it back for him, leaving my whole leg exposed, hoping to hell that it meant he would get it done faster because I was burning up.

Don’t think about how every time he takes his hand away from you,
you want to scream.

Finally, Lincoln stood and turned to Irin, placing the emerald

masterpiece on the table in front of him.

“I want your word that once this is done, we will have no opposition to our stay on the island, and in addition, I want your assurance that you will not assist any other exiles coming here— for any purpose.”
Jesus
Christ. He is seriously some kind of warrior god to have been so
quick thinking. I was still stuck on the “champagne is magic and your
fingers feel sooo nice” part.

Irin laughed heartily. “Oh, my boy, I would do almost anything

for the finale. I give you my word on both, though I will not refrain from imposing a similar arrangement to grant these exiles abode.” Lincoln seemed to realize this was as much as he was going to

get and nodded, before walking back to me. But it got me thinking.

“Wait!” I said louder than I’d intended. Everyone stopped. “I