Artistic Vision

Chapter Eight

Shane stirred, moaned. Pain was etched into every cell of his body. Nausea raced through him and, barely managing to turn enough that he didn’t choke, Shane puked. Thick, viscous black goo poured from his stomach, as foul tasting as it smelled.

“Ew. What the fuck is that? Tar?”

His baby sister’s voice brought a weak smile to his face. He couldn’t even open his eyes, but he could imagine the expression he would see there if he did. Her nose would be wrinkled in disgust, but her green eyes would be lit with worry.

“Ugh. What the hell have you been eating?” Footsteps sounded on wooden floors; Akane hadn’t taken him to his studio. He must be in his parent’s house. “Ma!” Moira bellowed, confirming it. “He’s awake and he puked!”

“I remember when I used to bellow that,” Shane tried to joke, but the words were barely whispered. He tried to remember what Constance and Klaussner had done to him, but he couldn’t think past the pounding in his skull and behind his eyes. Pain wracked every inch of his body. “I think I was hit by a burning oil truck.”

“Close enough.” Warm fingers pushed back his hair, soothed him. His mate’s touch burned him, warmed the cold places that had started to settle through him. “Welcome back.”

He managed to open his eyes, but it was like a film had been drawn over his sight. He could barely see her, and what he did see was shrouded in shadows. “What did they do to me?”

Smoke curled from between her lips. “They hurt you.”

He blinked. “I got that. What exactly did they do to me?”

More smoke. His dragoness was ticked. “They put things into you, pumped poison through you.”

Oh. That. No wonder she was upset. Shane was in for a rough time of it, but when he told her the cure she was going to be really upset. He held back the shivers threatening to rip him to pieces. “I see.”

Her head tilted, her expression fierce. “Do you?” She lifted him in her arms, startling him. “Strip the bed please, Moira.”

Moira huffed but obeyed. Akane’s tone left no room for argument, but at least she’d said please. “I’m okay, a ghrá.”

Akane snorted. “Sure you are. You puke up black goo every day.” She placed him down on cold, fresh sheets, then curled up around him. “I thought you were dead.” She stroked the dragon on his arm, the tears she was desperately trying not to shed obvious in her voice.

“I know.”

“You knew they were coming for you.”

He nodded. He wouldn’t lie to her. He couldn’t. “Da?”

“He’s fine. Whatever they used to knock him out didn’t last long, but he is seriously pissed off.” Moira took the one seat in the room that wasn’t the bed and rubbed at her face wearily. “You are in big trouble.”

“Anyone hurt?” Shane could barely stay awake. All he wanted to do was sleep in his dragon’s arms.

“Leo.”

His eyes snapped open at that. He struggled to sit up, but Akane held him down. “What happened?”

“The leader of the redcaps showed up at his place to take him and Ruby to the Dark Queen.”

Shane shuddered. He hadn’t seen that possibility. “How badly is he injured?”

“Bres sliced him up, but he’ll be all right. Mostly cuts and bruises. He managed to take out most of the redcaps by himself. Robin was seriously impressed.” Akane stroked his arm, trying to calm him down.

Shane sagged back onto the bed in relief. “They shouldn’t have attacked him on his own land.”

“Ruby is pissed. She wants Bres’s head on a pike. Apparently one of the blows came close to Leo’s eye and she thinks it will leave a scar on that perfect face of his.”

Shane shuddered. “He’s all right?”

“Yes, Shane. He’s all right. It would have been different if Robin hadn’t been there, but he’ll be fine.”

“We owe him.” He snuggled back, Akane’s warmth once more driving away the strange chill, lulling him to sleep.

“Yes. We do.” She kissed the nape of his neck, and he got the feeling she wasn’t talking about Robin.

“Tá grá agam duit.”

She sighed. “What the hell does that mean?”

He smiled, unable to answer, as his sister did it for him. “It means I love you.”

Akane’s face burrowed into his hair, her breath hot on the back of his neck as he drifted off to sleep.

“Tá grá agam duit, you stubborn son of a bitch.”

If he’d been capable of it he would have demanded she repeat the softly whispered words, but the exhaustion wouldn’t allow it. Shane let himself fall into darkness, knowing when he woke he’d have little time to hear those words again.

Akane lay beside her mate and breathed him in. Her dragon slowly calmed, but something was off. His scent had changed, and Akane was terrified over what it could mean.

“Moira?”

“Hmm?”

“Get Sean.”

Moira nodded and left the room.

“What’s wrong with him?”

Akane wasn’t surprised to find Jaden had slipped into the room. The vampire would scent the change in Shane and come to investigate, especially if it involved her mate’s blood the way she thought it might. “I think the poison they pumped into him is hurting him.”

Jaden leaned down and sniffed, wrinkling his nose. “Let me check something.” A black claw curled from where his nail had been. Jaden sliced Shane’s arm, a shallow cut that should have bled a sluggish red.

What came out of Shane’s body was neither sluggish nor red. Tiny black tendrils oozed out, reaching for both Akane and Jaden, a parasite eager for a new host.

“Holy fuck!” Jaden leapt back, forcing Moira, who’d returned with her father, out the door. “Don’t come in.”

Moira, like every other member of this crazy family, was having none of that. She tried to push past her mate, but Jaden held her fast, one eye on the ick that slithered from Shane’s veins. The vampire gagged. “That is so fucking gross.”

Akane leaned over Shane, allowing one of the tendrils close to her face. She breathed out, her flames engulfing the tendril.

An almost inaudible screech of agony raced across her senses. The tendril curled in on itself, bubbling into inanimate black goo. The remainder of the tentacles pulled back within Shane’s body, writhing beneath the skin of his arm.

“Double gross.” Jaden allowed Moira in, ignoring the smack to his stomach. Sean raced toward his son, growling at Jaden when the vampire pulled him up short. “You don’t want to do that.”

“That’s my son.” The ground outside the farmhouse rumbled, a sure sign of Sean’s displeasure with his son-in-law.

“Listen to me. Whatever’s inside Shane is dangerous.” Jaden eyed Akane. “How fireproof is your mate?”

She blinked. He could not be suggesting what she thought he was.

His brows rose. “If he’s truly your mate, he’ll be safe, but the…thing should be fricassee. Think about it.”

Once again her dragon nature took over. She found herself crouched protectively over her mate, growling at the vampire. Her wings, which she hadn’t consciously unfurled, fluttered in a dominance display that would have sent another dragon either running for the hills or accepting the obvious challenge.

Jaden threw his hands up in the air. “Well, I sure as hell ain’t sucking it out.” He shuddered. “There’s no amount of Listerine or blowjobs in the world that could convince me to do that.”

She hissed at him. He wanted her to set her mate on fire or somehow drain his blood? Was he insane?

“It could work.” Moira leaned against Jaden, smiling slightly when his arm went around her waist. “Aren’t dragon mates immune to their mate’s flames?” Moira looked at her expectantly.

“I’m not a full dragon, remember? I’m a hybrid. For all I know I’ll accidentally barbecue him.”

Sean leaned close and grabbed something off of Shane’s nightstand. It was only when he pressed a button that she realized it was Shane’s cell phone. Sean’s eyes never left hers as he called the one person she should have thought of. “Is this the Seer?”

Akane bit her lip, hoping her mother had the answer they were seeking.

Apparently she did. Sean didn’t even get to asking his question before her mother’s quiet voice began speaking. Sean paled, but his gaze was glued to his son’s body.

The thing Shane had been injected with was moving under his skin, not just in his arm but in his abdomen, his thighs, even his face. They could all see it writhing like worms under his skin. Akane grew worried as his skin began to take on an unusual pallor. His bright hair darkened, turned copper. “He’s changing.”

Sean hung up the phone and turned to Jaden. “Take him into the yard. Please.”

Jaden nodded, silent for once. He picked up Shane and followed Sean out of the house, Akane and Moira hot on their heels.

“Why is Jaden carrying him?” Moira was watching her mate with a worried expression.

Sean grimaced. “The Seer said that whatever is inside Shane can’t hurt Jaden because his blood would destroy the invader. It’s part of Jaden’s nature.”

“Oh.”

“But it can still gross me the fuck out.” Jaden shuddered.

Aileen gasped at the sight of Shane in Jaden’s arms. The tea she’d been pouring for Duncan splattered on the tile floor. “What are you doing?”

Sean shook his head, unable or unwilling to speak. Jaden’s mouth was grim, his eyes glittering with green fire. Duncan stood and started to approach his mates, stopping when Jaden shook his head.

He obeyed when Moira gestured him closer. “Don’t touch Shane.”

“Why not?” Aileen tried to block their exit from the house. “What are you doing? Why is he out of bed?”

“He’s got a parasite inside him, a Dark Court one. We have to burn it out.” Sean gently set his mate aside and opened the back door. “The Seer says if we don’t…” He shuddered, and for a moment grief dimmed the vibrancy she was so used to seeing in the leprechaun. “I want them dead.” He looked at Akane and Jaden. “If I don’t get them, you will.”

Jaden nodded. “Damn skippy.”

Akane bared her teeth and snarled.

Aileen covered her face with her hands, but followed them out onto the back porch.

Jaden took Shane to a spot where grass had once been. Sean, using his powers, had cleared away all grass and undergrowth, even digging a shallow, round pit in the ground. There would be no chance of Akane’s flame damaging the house or accidentally setting off a grass fire.

Jaden set Shane’s body down in the fire pit. Her mate’s arms and legs were twitching, the thing under his skin controlling his movements. She prayed with all her might it hadn’t wound itself through his brain.

Akane took a deep breath and prepared to burn the affliction from the man who’d claimed her heart.

“Wait!” Aileen rushed forward. “What if he needs to be Bonded before he’s immune to your fire?”

Akane blinked. “We test it.” She stepped around Aileen, grateful her partner trusted her enough to let her do what she was about to do. He lifted Shane’s shirt out of the way and moved before Akane blew. Flames danced across Shane’s stomach. She dared not flame his hands. Those beautiful hands had to remain unscarred. A barely audible shriek made her flinch, but it didn’t come from Shane. Where her flame touched his flesh it turned pink once more, the pallor that had taken over the rest of his body disappearing under fire. She nodded, satisfied and curiously aroused at the thought of bathing her mate in her flame. “Strip him, Jade, then stand back.”

Jaden made quick work of Shane’s clothes, those lethal vampire claws tearing the cloth in a frenzy almost too quick to see. Everyone else obeyed, moving away from the circle of earth Sean had created to cradle his son. Akane crooned to her mate, her song hopefully soothing him. When Jaden stepped back and nodded, she spread her wings and let her inner flame fly.

He ran, trying to outrace the darkness that chased him, but everywhere he turned, every door he opened only led to more darkness. Soon he would have nowhere left to turn, no place to hide. The darkness wanted to devour him, use him for its own ends, make him like…like… He flinched, the thoughts whispering to him from the darkness too evil to contemplate.

It wanted him to bow down, to succumb. To become one with it.

Shane would rather die than do what the darkness wanted.

Flame licked across his senses and the darkness retreated, screeching in rage.

Shane grinned. She’d figured it out, his clever mate, and Shane would get to live another day. “Akane.” He followed that glow to its source, the warmth lulling him. He centered himself in that flame, allowed it to protect him. Shane marched in step with it, pointing out all the places the darkness had tried to hide. The flames obeyed his wishes, destroying the invader, eliminating every trace of the darkness within him.

Shane was finally warm again, oh so warm. He basked in it like a cat in the sun, stretching beneath a heat that smelled strongly of his fiancée. He moaned as the heat licked across his inner thigh, danced across his cock with light, teasing touches. The only bad spot was a constant itch across his arm, the last bit of the darkness trying to escape the purifying fire. Shane opened his eyes to see Akane standing over him in all her glory, fire dancing across her skin, licking at her breasts. Her hair danced in the breeze stirred by the heat of the flames. Her wings were spread wide, the delicate tracery of veins glowing with her inner fire.

She was so beautiful his heart stopped. He must have been a very good boy in a previous life to have earned her love.

Shane stood and immediately grabbed his arm. The pain there was intense, the fire he’d been basking in missing. The cold was a burning pain. From a shallow cut on his arm black ooze gushed forth, the last of the darkness trying to escape its fate.

The darkness gathered itself and leapt for Akane, landing on her stomach and began trying to claw its way in. Akane hissed and batted at it, but it clung to her fingers. She breathed at it, but it dodged her flames, no longer shackled by skin and bone.

When it leapt for her beautiful, vulnerable eyes, Shane lost it. No one, nothing would take his mate from him.

No one.

A strange roaring sound filled the air as Akane tried to bat away the black goo reaching for her eyes. The ground beneath her feet began to tremble. There was a faint, feminine gasp, Jaden’s throaty laughter, and Akane looked up, hoping to see what had surprised everyone.

Multicolored strands of light whipped around Shane’s body in a strangely erotic, lethal dance that entranced her. Within those lights she could see Shane’s visions appearing and disappearing like smoke. His Seeming had dropped, and a snarl was on his face as he glared at the black ooze.

“Oh fuck.” Akane had heard of this. If anyone attempted to touch Shane in that moment they would die a grisly death, whipped to shreds by the fury of Shane’s Sidhe half.

This was either going to hurt like hell or be the most sensual experiences of her existence.

Shane stalked out of the fire pit, the flames of her fire still glowing on his skin and hair. The others stepped away from her at his possessive display, all of them intimately aware of what was coming next. She resisted the urge to back up. It wouldn’t do her any good if she did.

Her mate was pissed as hell, and he had decided to Bind her.

“I vow that from this day forward you shall not walk alone.”

One of the whips of light darted out, decimating the darkness trying to wend its way inside her. Akane gasped at the touch of that light, her whole body on fire for her mate.

Gods above. No one had ever warned her that he would be able to bring her to the edge of orgasm with light.

“My strength is your protection, my heart is your shelter, and my arms are your home. I shall serve you in all of those ways that you require. I pledge to you my living and my dying, each equally in your care.”

Akane could feel his power wrap around her, and she gloried in it. Her mate was strong, strong enough to tame the dragon, strong enough to banter with the Hob. The warm caress of it was like bathing in liquid gold, and she longed to lap it up.

“Yours is the name I whisper at the close of each day and the eyes into which I stare each morning.”

Akane opened her eyes to see the last of the darkness fall to Shane’s light and smiled. The Vow was almost complete. Now was the final step. When Shane finished the Vow his Sidhe magic would kick in, binding their life forces together for all eternity.

“I give you all that is mine to give. My heart and my soul I pledge to you.” He lifted his hands to cradle her face between them. “You are my Chosen One. You are my Mate, and you are bound to me for eternity.”

The bands of light surrounding them reared back, then speared into Akane’s body in a rush of power so dizzying she almost fainted. She could feel the joining of their souls as Shane’s magic twined around hers, completing her. The rush of power tingled along every part of her, pushing her into one of the most intense orgasms of her life. She shuddered in Shane’s arms, her dragon song winging through the night sky. When he kissed her, drinking down her pleasure, it merely added fuel to the fire.

Akane rode the wave, barely hanging on to consciousness, Shane’s soul and hers now forever one.

Robin watched Leo Dunne sleep and smiled. The man’s wounds had been easily treated, painful but not life threatening. Bres had fled, his tail between his legs, his redcaps decimated by one man. And that man had not been the Hob. He almost gave in to the urge to laugh out loud at the memory of the look on Bres’s face when he realized what, and who, had taken out every single redcap save one.

Gods above, he loved this family. Would Aileen consider adopting him? He tried to picture what it would be like to have someone so loving and overprotective of someone like him, but he couldn’t seem to wrap his brain around it. No one, not even Oberon, felt the need to protect the Hob. At best, to most he was a carefully honed weapon.

Small arms wound around his neck from behind. Robin held perfectly still, unsure of why Ruby was choosing this moment to hug him. She rested the point of her chin in his shoulder and gently kissed his cheek. “You know, I saw something interesting tonight.”

Robin’s heart pounded. Dear gods, no. If Ruby had seen what he truly was, that would put paid to the rare, uncomplicated friendship the human had offered him. “Did you now?”

“Uh-huh.” And she whispered into his ear exactly what she’d seen.

Robin closed his eyes and waited for the rejection sure to come. He’d lived through it before, many times, but never had the thought of it hurt more.

Instead of the rejection he’d anticipated, the little human pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. “You look like hammered shit. You need to get some sleep, Rob.”

He drew in a breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding, the relief almost dizzying. She wasn’t going to send him away, protect her family from him. He was giddy with the knowledge that, for once, he could stay. “Didn’t you know Robin Goodfellow never sleeps?”

She chuckled. “Yup, and pigs are going to fly out of my behind any minute now.” She glanced behind her at her rear end. “Yup, aaaany minute.”

He laughed softly. “Your mate is extremely lucky his is a true bond, or I’d steal you away from him.” He would, too, if he didn’t know pretty Ruby would wither and die without Leo Dunne. The thought sent a shaft of pain through him.

He would have loved her so well.

“No, you wouldn’t.” He turned to contradict her, but wound up speechless at the tender look on Ruby’s face. “She’s out there, waiting for you, and she’s going to be everything you ever dreamed of and more.”

He swallowed, unwilling to show even Ruby his vulnerable side. He reached for arrogance instead, never far from him. “Yes, she will be.”

Ruby just tugged his hair. “Get some sleep before your head explodes.”

He winced. She had no idea how close to the truth that simple statement was.

Shane barely managed to close the studio’s outer door before Akane was on him, kissing him like she’d been starved of his touch, his taste for weeks instead of hours. Her teeth worried at his neck, drawing blood. Her purr thrummed against his skin, drawing a groan from him. Damn, he wanted her purring while she sucked on him, taking him deep inside her mouth. He wanted to feel that vibration, that absolute sound of want she was making right now.

“Gods, Shane.” She lifted her head from his neck, her dragon eyes wide, her pupils blown. “It was like bathing in liquid gold.”

Uh oh. Shane slung his new wife over his shoulder and padded to the bedroom. “Claws to yourself, woman.”

She huffed out an offended breath. “You’re not the one I want to rip to shreds.” She reached down and cupped his ass cheeks, her talons cold against his skin but her palms warm. “I just want to eat you all up.”

He repressed a shiver. His cock twitched, hard as a rock. He placed her on the bed, careful of her wings. “That can be arranged.”

Shane hissed as she darted forward, her tongue enthusiastically lapping at the head of his cock. Endearments and encouragement in the Sidhe language began pouring from his lips when she finally took him inside her mouth.

Then she began to purr.

Shane couldn’t stop himself. He grabbed both sides of her head and began to thrust in and out of her welcoming heat. Her fist wrapped around the base of his cock, stopping him from accidentally choking her, but otherwise she let him have his way, purring encouragement around him until his head fell back and he poured himself down her throat.

Akane leaned back and licked her lips, very much the dragon that got the gold. He had to laugh at the satisfied expression on her face. “Dare I ask, was that good for you too?”

She snorted, smoke curling from her nostrils. “Get your ass down here, Jethro.”

He grinned. He loved it when she called him that. “Anything for you, Miz Akane.” He lowered himself over her, forcing her onto her back. It was too soon for his cock to rise, but he was going to see to it she enjoyed herself thoroughly before he took her. He stroked one finger along her golden horns, enjoying the ways he shuddered beneath him. “Can I get you to come just by doing this?”

She turned dazed eyes up to him. “Wanna find out?”

He gripped both horns and began stroking up and down, enjoying the hard, cool feel of them between his fingers. Akane moaned and writhed under him, her hips jerking up against him. She bit her lip, her hands clutching at his ass in desperation.

Shane began to rise to the challenge. His wife wanted to get fucked, and Shane was more than willing to oblige her. He bent his mouth to hers, kissing and nipping at her fullness, loving the way her pupils dilated in sheer pleasure. The only thing his little seer was seeing was him and what he was doing to her.

Akane spread her legs, enticing him into her wet heat. She grabbed hold of his wrists, stilling his fingers on her horns. “Do it, Shane. Fuck me.”

“I thought you wanted me to make you come like this?” He stroked her horns again, grinning when she gasped. “Well?”

She snarled and yanked at his hair, the sting strong enough to bring tears to his eyes. “Fuck. Me. Now.”

“As you wish.” Shane slid into her, his hands gripping her horns to hold her steady. Or so he told her. “I wouldn’t want you to think I was trying to disobey and get you to come just by stroking them, right?”

She growled. “Stop and die, Shane.”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “Tá mo chroí istigh ionat.”

She didn’t even know what it meant, but she looked up at him with love. “Tá mo chroí istigh ionat.”

Shane began to move inside her, desperate now to feel her come around him. “My heart is within you,” he translated. He wanted her to know exactly what he said to her, what she meant to him.

She cupped his jaw. “My heart is within you.” She gasped, shivered and came, squeezing his cock like a vise.

He kept his movements smooth, nowhere near ready to come. “A grá, mo saol.”

She panted beneath him, a small smile on her lips. “A grá, mo saol.”

He shuddered as the Gaelic phrase dripped effortlessly from her lips. “My love, my life.”

Akane’s eyes cleared. She gazed up at him, her expression fiercely possessive. “My love. My life.”

Shane jerked, startled, as his orgasm tore through him, blinding him to everything but his wife’s brilliant, loving gaze.

Akane held Shane as he panted, exhausted, above her. His back was slick with sweat, his hair, that beautiful red-gold hair, darkened still by his run-in with Black Court poison. Her jaw clenched, cold fury overriding everything else. Shane belonged to her, and someone had almost taken him. “I almost lost you.”

“You didn’t.” He lifted his head, the weariness he’d fought to pleasure her deepening his blue eyes nearly to black. Dark circles ringed them. He’d made love to her without his Seeming, but his vibrant colors were dulled. A faint scar remained from where Jaden had first cut him, a vivid reminder of what had almost happened.

“Sleep, love.” She caressed his hair, smiling when he leaned into her palm. “Rest. I’ll protect you.”

He smiled against her hand. “I know.”

The utter confidence in his reply, the complete faith in his gaze almost undid the fury.

Almost.

“When do you go hunting?”

She blinked. “After.” He tilted his head, but the yawn he’d been fighting ever since he came broke free. “After I’m sure you’ve rested.”

Shane kissed her gently. “I just Bound you. You should be exhausted.”

She allowed her brows to rise arrogantly. She was a dragon. She could go days without sleep if she absolutely had to, but she’d pay for it by sleeping for days on end.

It was worth it, for Shane.

“Ruby was out for days when Leo Bound her. From what my parents tell me it was one of the strongest Bonding rituals they’d ever witnessed. Akane? I think ours was just as strong.”

Ruby was human. Akane was not. “Our lives are one now.” She could feel him inside her, his exhaustion threatening to drag her down too. “I need you to rest, Shane.” She licked his chin, tasting salt and Shane. “Rest for us.”

For just a split second his expression was shocked before carefully blanking once more. “Oh.”

“What?”

“I just understand what something meant, that’s all.” He rolled off of her, leaving her cold. “Good night, a ghrá.”

She sniffed. “You’re evil.” Now she was going to wonder all night what he was talking about.

“I know.” He pulled her into his arms and she curled around him, kept her mate warm when exhaustion proved too much for the hybrid to hold off any longer.

Akane almost blew a raspberry, but the man had finally fallen asleep, truly asleep, for the first time since he’d been taken. She rubbed her hand up and down his side, enjoying the feel of his warm skin. He’d been so cold when she’d first found him she’d been afraid he’d never be warm again.

Akane stopped, frowning when she noticed something on her arm. She lifted her hand and had to stifle a gasp. On her forearm was a golden spiral triskele, three joined, glittering swirls of light bound in the center by a single symbol. The center of the triskele was a dragon curled around a golden human form. The arms of the triskele rotated away from the dragon and her mate, the golden spirals glittering in the light like a Sidhe’s skin. Akane smiled at the sign that her mate accepted her protection until she got a closer look at the figures.

The tiny human figure held a dagger in one hand and a shield in the other.

Akane tsk’d. Why was she not surprised? “Stubborn man.”

Shane shifted against her, and Akane held her peace, afraid she’d wake her sleeping mate.

Shane woke to the knowledge that his wife was no longer in bed with him. “Damn it.” He shifted, stretching before he opened his eyes. “Akane?”

Silence. His wife was gone, probably out hunting the ones who’d harmed him. He wasn’t surprised. She’d been ready to hunt last night, but his exhaustion and her need to protect had overwhelmed her need to hunt. Shane slipped out of bed and headed for the shower, eager to get the dirt of the day before off his skin. He turned on the bathroom light and reached for his toothbrush. His mouth tasted like an open sewer grate. He had the feeling if he lit a match and blew he’d breath flame like his lover.

His hand froze as he got his first good look at himself. “Son of a bitch.” Shane reached up and fingered his hair. He’d forgotten to slip his Seeming back on the night before, and now he was seeing the effects of the poison Klaussner had pumped into him.

“Akane’s going to freak.” His hair was definitely a shade or two darker than it had been, the gleaming copper tarnished. The gold dust of his skin had also darkened, shadowed by poison. He blew out a quick, shaky breath of relief when he realized his eyes had remained the same sapphire blue as always.

He started the shower, hoping against hope the last of the darkness would wash off, but no such luck. The water was disturbingly clear of fae grime. The only thing that washed away was the dirt of the circle he’d fried in and the blood that had seeped from his wound. Shane fingered the cut, grateful Akane had figured out the solution before it had been too late. If she hadn’t burned out the parasite he’d be heading straight for the Black Court and a life of horror as Bres’s bitch.

Still, the one thing he’d expected to happen hadn’t yet. He was glad the initial ordeal was over, but if his vision had been correct then something else still needed to occur. Something painful.

Shane was still marked, but it was faint, a hint of what could have been. If Akane had delayed at all he’d be forever tainted, yearning for darkness in his soul. A daily battle within himself he could eventually lose, giving the Dark Queen access to his visions and an edge given to no other court. Access to possible futures was something the Seer made sure was either withheld completely or given to all courts equally. If the Dark Queen could have a sane seer at her command it had the potential to take the animosity between the courts and force it into open warfare.

Shane shivered, a chill racing across his skin at the thought. He upped the hot water, hoping to drive the coolness back, but the shivers intensified. Something stabbed him behind his eyes, the vision painful, eager to be built of glass, metal…and blood.

Oh. Shit.

Another vision hit, this one even more violent than the first one. Shane’s back bowed, his head aching, his hands twitching. He had to bring the vision to life. He had to.

The vision switched, changed into a new one, and Shane realized what was going on. It had finally hit, and now Shane would have to do his best to ride it out. If things went well, the prophecy would be fulfilled. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if it did not. The possibilities were endless, the visions of what could happen in the worst case scenario, torturous.

He reached out and turned off the water, knowing only one thing could warm him now. He stumbled out of the shower, the visions strong, grasping him in iron talons. He barely had the presence of mind to dry himself off before he staggered into the studio, naked and almost blind. He headed for the vault, seeing in sharp flashes what he had to create, the knowledge of what was to come etched in his mind and twitching through his body. His hands reached into bins over and over again until a pile lay on the worktable, the same table he’d first Claimed his mate on.

Shane’s hands and thoughts flew, piecing together something he hoped never came to pass, because if it did Shane would have more than his own blood on his hands.