"Then why are you always watching her?"
"Because she's dangerous, a ticking time bomb. Even if I canna get anyone to believe that, I know it." Though no one in the clan knew quite what to do about this situation, it was clear they all liked her. Of course, they had no idea what she was truly capable of.
No' like I do.
Munro said, "Chloe's still trying to eat food. Mayhap she can continue."
"If no', have the witches returned your calls?" He'd gotten Munro to ask for a potion to make them immune to strew.
Turning to the witches? Obviously Will was desperate. But this was one of his last hopes. His other was that Chloe could continue to eat normally, that her human half could rule her in this.
Will had also asked if the witches could scry for Webb using Chloe's blood.
Munro said, "I just heard back from Mariketa the Awaited."
If Will could ever bring himself to trust a witch, he supposed it'd be that one.
"She does no' have high hopes for an immunity potion. She said she'd try when she got back to town-but at the verra least, she needs a sample to base it on."
"A sample? By then it'll be too late." There went that hope.
"The witches had already used Chloe's blood to scry for Webb," Munro continued. "They've said their results were 'puzzling.' In short, they canna locate him. The Lore's back to square one with that."
Why could nothing work out for Will? What had he done to deserve his fate? Daughter of Webb and a succubus. Who the hell had Will pissed off?
Munro gazed out at the field, scrutinizing another scoring drive. "I doona want to say Chloe's unladylike, but she does no' remind me of Lady Ruelle at all."
"They're more alike than you know," Will insisted, though he couldn't quite come up with an instance. "Just trust me on this."
At that moment, Ronan accidentally elbowed Chloe in the face, then looked horrified to have walloped a girl. "Chloe, I'm sorry!"
Ruelle would've cried prettily, milking sympathy for all she was worth.
Chloe just shrugged, though her lip was now bleeding. "We're in the middle of a game, Ronan." As she signaled for the ball with one hand, she absently spat blood, then evaded Madadh with a clever spin move. She took it the length of the field and scored.
Ronan jogged up to her. "Your lip and cheek really look bad."
She rolled her eyes. "Ronan, I'm fine. Now, why don't you shove in a manpon and tug up your manties and PLAY SOCCER."
"Oh, aye," Munro began in a mocking tone. "She's just like Ruelle. They could be sisters."
Will scowled.
"Chloe's fierce, a fighter who does no' give a damn about her looks," Munro persisted.
Ruelle had been weak, cowardly, obsessed with her own beauty. Never a hair out of place, not even when she was feeding.
Chloe's attitude toward her own appearance could best be described as See me, love me, motherfucker. Even now her hair looked like she'd hacked it off with a knife. And it still bluidy looks good.
You'd never know the heavenly arse on that female because it was always hidden by loose men's shorts, and he could swear she wore more than one bra, just to conceal the size of her perfect breasts.
No, the two succubae were not alike. But if Will ever allowed himself to believe that Chloe wouldn't transform into a facsimile of Ruelle, and then she did . . .
I would no' recover.
Munro continued, "No' to mention that Chloe's no child molester."
Will gazed around wildly. "Doona ever say that again!" he sputtered, though that was precisely what Ruelle had been.
She'd poisoned him to make him do things his young mind couldn't understand-and his body hadn't been ready for-as if he'd been a puppet. It'd been terrifying to him. He remembered how she'd rise over him, her green eyes alight, smothering him with perfumed white flesh.
Even when his beast had risen, Ruelle-a fully grown immortal-had still been able to overpower him, a child.
"I'm tired of this, brathair." Munro scrubbed his hand over his chin. "We've tiptoed around the subject for centuries. We need to talk about this if we're ever going to get past it."
A flash memory of Nix arose. You need to rebreak that bone. It didn't set right. Was this all a part of her plan? Was she trying to get Will right with himself?
The more he'd thought about how he'd come to possess Chloe, the more he detected Nix's interference. He'd realized the soothsayer had gotten him to the auction; now he suspected she'd gotten Chloe there as well.
After twenty-four years, two factions had found Daughter of Webb on the same night? Dropped a dime to the witches about her existence, did you, soothsayer?
Munro said, "I keep thinking back to that night, Will. There were two females in Ruelle's cottage, and Chloe is more like Mam than she'll ever be like that succubus."
"Doona dare compare her to our mother!"
They fell silent, both gazing at Chloe. The sun flashed through clouds, prisms of light cascading over her. Her skin was beginning to bruise from the corner of her busted lip past her cheekbone. Looking pale, she abruptly ran for the woods. Will tensed, uneasy when she left his sight. Then he heard her throwing up.
She returned moments later, paler, heading straight for the cooler. She swished beer into her mouth, then spat it out.
Munro exhaled. "She's lost her breakfast, then."
"Aye. There went my second hope."
By the end of the game, her bruise had blackened her eye as well. And she'd hurt her ankle. When she put weight on it, she winced, then cast Munro a questioning glance.
He gave her a grave one in response.
Turned to Munro instead of me. My mate. Mine!
Munro said, "She's stopped healing. She'll need to feed soon."
"What do you expect me to do about it?" Chloe's black eye was as glaring as an accusation; he might as well have given it to her. "I'm no' eager to take on her venomous bond. To be tied to her forever." To discover that I canna satisfy her either. He'd never been able to feed Ruelle enough. And if she'd come during sex, he had no memory of it. No wonder she'd taken a vampire lover in addition to Will.
Munro gaped at him. "You could heal your eternal mate with one tup. Do you want me to be ashamed of you? Your choices are verra simple. Either you bed her or you allow another to feed her."
"I'll kill any who touch her!"
Munro raised his brows at Will's outburst. "Then you either bed her or watch her die."
Or I die. As soon as the thought occurred, he knew that path was closed to him. His newly returned Instinct would never allow him to harm himself, not while he had a mate who'd be left alone in the world, unprotected.
Munro pulled a stalk of grass, twirling it in his fingers. "When you were manhandling Chloe to the wall, you repeated the last words Mam said to you. What do you think she and Da would react to most: the fact that your mate is one among a hated species? Or that you're no' protecting or providing for her? Fate made a decision, and now you're to abide by it. They raised us to believe in fate as our faith, Will. They raised us better than this."