Chapter 8
She’d taken a cab back to Noah’s hotel suite and paced back and forth across the length of the spacious living room more times than she could count. She was anxious to see him again. It was foolish—of course Noah was alright. The threat was gone, but still, after so much turmoil and terror, she just wanted to see him home safe.
He returned a little more than an hour later, and she hurried to meet him at the door to the suite, but he wasn’t alone. Nevertheless, he wrapped her in his arms and his lips descended on hers in a painstakingly tender kiss. The moment it began to grow fiery, he pulled away with a rueful smile.
“Claire, you’ve met Cade already. This is his partner, Hope and their little girl, Ruby. And this,” he said motioning to the young woman standing next to Hope, “this is Lexi. I think the two of you will have a lot to talk about.”
She smiled politely and nodded to each woman in greeting, but her mind was too caught up in what she saw to do much else. Hope and Lexi weren’t the same, that she could tell for certain, but they weren’t human either. The aura surrounding Hope was light and airy, not quite the color of an opal, but pearlescent in the same way. She immediately liked the woman.
And then there was Lexi. She was perhaps fifteen or sixteen, with honey blonde hair and blue eyes that were…well, they were identical to her own. She’d never seen her own aura, but knew without any proof of it that this young woman was a kindred spirit. She was the same. All these years she’d felt utterly alone, and standing right in front of her was a woman just like her.
Lexi reached out her hand and clasped Claire’s in a grip that she quickly realized wasn’t meant only as an introductory handshake. But there was no confusion in her head; no need to recoil from an onslaught of emotion that didn’t belong to her. It was a conversation of thoughts, though it was somewhat slow and stiff on Lexi’s part as if she was only beginning to learn the unspoken language.
“Lexi’s only recently begun to develop her gift, but the Venefica Eis can communicate with one another even from a much younger age,” she heard Cade explain, though her attention was mostly focused on what Lexi was telling her.
Lexi had been born to a Venefica Eis but was given over to a human woman just days later after a hunter got too close. It was the only thing her real mother could do to protect her daughter. Years later, the human woman married a man who wasn’t what he said he was. He was human, yes, but he wasn’t just the lawyer he appeared to be. He was a hunter, too, and whether it was deliberate or happenstance, he wound up with his prey for a stepdaughter. The man wasn’t certain at first, but he treated Lexi with vicious contempt, nonetheless. When it became evident that Lexi never got sick and no matter the injury, she always healed quickly, he began to do more than suspect. He had come to her room one night, knife in hand and his intention plain on his face, and Lexi had fled. Finding Hope had been a godsend, and she’d been safe and happy ever since.
Claire shared her own story with the girl, but the moment she’d finished, Lexi pulled away, looking up at Noah expectantly.
“I figured this is what you were looking for tonight,” he said and held out the fragment of the Creag Bruadar that had been in Damon’s office.
Her fingers shook. For so long, she’d searched for it, hoping it would undo the curse. But it wasn’t a curse; she saw that now. What if she touched it and it took back everything she was?
“The Creag Bruadar holds the potential of every living being. When you touched it, it simply opened your eyes to what was already there, Claire. It can’t take that away,” Noah assured her gently.
She nodded, staring at the luminous glow that surrounded the rock. He was right.
With trembling fingers, she reached out and took the fragment from him. Right away, she could see it, just like she could a human being. It also spoke to her, just like Lexi had. But it had so much more to say.
In that one moment, she knew every secret it contained—secrets that humans had been searching for throughout time. But like a living being, it gave her something else, too—a warning: these secrets were meant to be kept, and they were hers to guard, not to reveal.
So, she placed the small, living fragment on the table near the door, giving it her word she would heed its warning. And then she wrapped her arms around Noah and gave herself over to the new life before her. She was good at keeping secrets, but there was one, she realized as he held her close and she felt the connection between them, that she didn’t have to keep.
“I love you, Noah,” she whispered against his chest.
“I love you, too, Claire. And I will for a very, very long time.”
It struck her then just how true that was. A dragon and a Venefica Eis—they would be together for centuries.
Or longer, if she believed everything the Creag Bruadar had told her.
And she did.
THE END