Lust slammed into her, ruthless and clawing, hungry and desperate. She reeled back from it, shocked at the intensity.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “You weren’t supposed to see that.”

“What was that?”

“I think it’s kind of obvious. I want you.”

“That was more than want.”

He shrugged, and she felt the powerful bunching of muscles against her cheek. “I’m used to it, I guess. Don’t worry. It’s under control. We should get to work.”

He let her go and she pulled away, shaking. Her nerve endings were sparking, tingling from just that brief contact. She had no idea how he could stand it—how he could be so nonchalant about something like that.

“Work?”

He tapped his temple. “You know. We need to puzzle out those images Tori gave me.”

Right. She knew that. “O-okay.”

Nika was still shaking, but he was right. If he could ignore that writhing lust while it was inside him, she could ignore the tiny little brush she’d had with it.

“You should sit down,” he said. “You look a little shaky.”

“I’m fine. Let’s just do this.”

Madoc pulled his shirt down and sprawled on the couch. He patted his knee. “Want to sit on my lap again?”

She did, but only if he was naked, which wasn’t going to get them very far at all. “I think I’ll sit beside you.”

“Suit yourself.”

Nika sat and took several deep, calming breaths. “Close your eyes and try to keep your thoughts on the job, okay?”

“Yes, my lady. Anything you like.” He closed his eyes and sat there, all relaxed.

Now he was compliant. Why hadn’t he been like this seven months ago?

Maybe because his soul was no longer dying. That could have something to do with it.

Nika lifted his hand to her throat until the two parts of the luceria connected. They locked together and power seemed to pour into her. She shivered at the sensation, loving the feeling of so much strength after years of weakness.

“Here I come,” she warned him before she slipped out of her body and into his.

He let out a deep moan of satisfaction. “That’s nice. We should do this more often.”

Nika ignored the compliment and went right to work. “Show me.”

Madoc felt like he was sunbathing. On the inside.

Everywhere Nika touched him, he was warm. He’d managed to tuck his lust for her away in a dark corner, but he felt it seething inside him, wanting to be set free.

Later. Much later, after Nika had healed from before.

The thought of her blood was enough to reinforce the barricade and ensure he behaved like the gentleman she deserved for as long as he was allowed to stay with her. And there were other, more important barricades he had to put in place now that she was inside his mind—things he didn’t want her to know.

Tynan held their future in his elegant hands. As ruthless as the Sanguinar were, Madoc had no doubt that Tynan would take the first chance he got to crush him. He was going to stay away from the leech for as long as possible, delaying the inevitable. And until then, he would not allow what might happen to taint his time with her.

“Show me what Tori gave you.” Nika’s voice reverberated in his mind, a soft caress of sound and light.

Madoc recalled Tori’s memories, playing them in what he thought was the right order. Most of them were dark and distorted by her childlike perspective. Many of them were blurry with tears. “Everything’s too big,” he said to Nika. “It’s hard to match anything up to the way I see things.”

“Hold on,” she said; then a moment later, he felt Nika’s presence weave sinuously inside his mind, as if searching for something. He had no idea what she was doing, but the feel of her there, a part of him, was both disturbing and erotic. He felt smarter, more aware of his surroundings.

The graze of his clothes against his skin was amplified. The hum of the ceiling fan overhead tickled. The scent of the leather sofa seemed sharper, while the womanly scent of Nika’s skin made him break out in a sweat. He swore he could almost taste her skin on his tongue.

“I can see why the sgath like this,” he said. “You’re nice to have around.”

“Don’t you dare distract me. I’m working here.”

“Right. Working.”

Something inside Madoc’s head shifted and the images Tori had given him all changed. Everything shrank to normal size. The giant images of Tori’s childlike perspective righted themselves. The trees no longer loomed overhead. Even the stars looked closer.

Stars.

“That’s it,” he said, excitement rolling through him. “They let her see the sky.”

“Will that help?”

“We know the date and time she was taken, right?”

“Yes.”

“Show me the rest of the images.”

Nika did. Several times during her abduction Tori had looked up. The sky had been clear that night. She’d gone southeast. He was almost certain they could use star maps to figure out her general vicinity. Once he got that close, the slope of the ground and the surrounding landscape—even most of a decade later—would likely be recognizable enough to lead them right to her.

“How close can you get?” asked Nika, her voice excited.

“I’m not sure. Why?”

“Because the closer I am to her, the stronger our connection will be. If we’re close enough, and if I use your power, she won’t be able to keep me out.”

“How close do we need to get?”

“I don’t know. It depends on whether she blocks me. We can head southeast and track her down while we wait for everyone else to gather.”

“It might be safer to go as a group. They might know we’re coming and set a trap.”

“We won’t go in after her alone. I don’t want to fail to save her. But don’t you think the chances of the two of us being noticed are slimmer than the chances of an entire group? We don’t want to give them time to prepare for our attack.”

“You can’t let Tori know we’re coming. If she’s been . . . compromised, she might give our intentions away.”

“She’d never do that.”

“She’d never willingly do that. You know as well as I do that they could force her to tell them. They could torture her or go into her mind the way you do.”

Nika’s throat moved as she swallowed. “You’re right. I don’t want to do anything that has even a remote chance of hurting her more. It’s probably best if I don’t even know what our plans are, in case she can somehow see inside me the way I can her.”

Madoc nodded. “I’ll talk to Joseph. We’ll keep you out of the loop.”

“But you won’t leave me here. Promise me.”

He didn’t want to do that. If he promised her, he’d be bound to that promise. And yet, she was reaching out to him, asking for his trust.

It had been a long time since Madoc had felt trustworthy. Nika had given that back to him and he wanted to do something for her in return. “I promise I won’t make you stay here when we go.”

The weight of his vow and what it meant wove around him, chaining him to his word.

He wasn’t sure if he’d made a good decision or a terrible mistake, but there was no turning back now.

Angus couldn’t let this go on any longer. Seven months was long enough. He had to find a way to get through to Gilda.

Through the closed bathroom door, he heard the bathwater run, then stop. He didn’t bother to knock, knowing she’d tell him to go away—that she wanted to be alone or some nonsense. Instead, he simply opened the door and walked in.

She jerked, covering her naked breasts with her arms. She’d never done that before, and it was just more proof of how far apart they’d drifted.

He let her see his displeasure in his face as well as shoving it through their link. The mental push was harder than it should have been; their link had shrunk more even since yesterday. “I’ve seen you naked a few thousand times.”

Her chin went up as she let her arms fall back into the water. “You startled me. That’s all.”

Angus ignored the lie, sat on the edge of the tub, and began unlacing his boots.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Getting undressed.”

“Why?” There was a hint of fear in her tone, and Angus wanted to pound his fists into a wall to vent some of his frustration.

“Seven months, Gilda. It’s been seven months since you let me touch you. Our bond is growing weaker by the day, and now the lives of several young women are in the balance. At least one of them is one of our own, and I’m damn well not going to be the cause of her death.”

Angus shed his clothes and stepped into the tub.

Gilda shrank back from him, pressing herself as far away as the giant soaking tub would allow. “Are you still letting Tynan experiment on you?” she asked.

“Yes. Nothing has worked. I’m just as infertile now as I was last year.”

“How can you be sure?”

Anger was getting harder and harder to fight with each day that passed. He couldn’t stop it from coming through in his words now. “Because I jerked off into a cup. Tynan checked under a microscope, and nothing has changed.”

“I told you that if you agreed to these experiments, I wasn’t going to let you bed me. I haven’t changed my mind.”

“Fine. You know I won’t force you, but I’m damn well not going to sit by while our bond fails. I’m going to touch you, and it has nothing to do with sex.”

“No,” she said, standing. Water sluiced down her curves. Her glorious body was just as beautiful to him now as it had been centuries ago. Age and the birth of their children had done nothing to take away from her perfection.

Angus swallowed, trying to ease the grinding sexual frustration he’d lived with for way too long. “No?” he asked, his voice deceptively gentle. The last thing he felt right now was gentle, and if she bothered to reach out for him through their link, she’d know it.

Her chin quivered a moment before she pulled herself together. “If you touch me, I’ll forget my intentions. You’ll seduce me, and I’ll never be able to forgive myself for giving in.”

“You make it sound like letting me make love to you would be a bad thing.”

“I won’t have another child. I won’t watch another child die, or worse, be lured by the Synestryn to kill and destroy everything I hold sacred.”

“I’m not asking you for another child. I respect your wishes. I even bought condoms and learned how to use them. But what I’m not willing to do is throw away everything we’ve worked for—everything we’ve spent our lives creating.”

“It’s too late,” said Gilda. She was shivering now, her flesh rough from the chill.

Instincts embedded in him deeper than his own bones forced him to stand and warm her with his body heat. When his arms came around her, she went stiff, but there was nowhere for her to run away fast enough to escape him.