Morrigan's Cross (Circle Trilogy 1)

“Let’s go again, then.”

Cian slanted Hoyt a look. Memories, the pleasure of them so long suppressed, crept back on him. “Another time. And when I’m finished pounding you, you won’t be up to romping with the redhead.”

Hoyt grinned. “I’ve missed you.”

Cian stared ahead as the house peeked through the trees. “The bloody hell of it is I’ve missed you, too.”

Chapter 14

With a crossbow armed and ready by her side, Glenna kept watch from the tower window. She’d considered the fact that she’d had very little practice with that particular weapon, and that her aim could be called into serious question.

But she couldn’t just sit up there, unarmed and wringing her hands like some helpless female. If the damn sun would come out, she wouldn’t have to worry. More than that, she thought with a little hiss, if the McKenna boys hadn’t wandered off—obviously to snarl at each other in private—she wouldn’t have these images in her head of them being ripped to pieces by a pack of vampires.

Pack? Herd? Gang?

What did it matter? They still had fangs and a bad attitude.

Where had they gone? And why had they been out, exposed and vulnerable, so long?

Maybe the pack/herd/gang had already ripped them to shreds and dragged their mutilated bodies off to…And oh, God, she wished she could turn off the video in her head for five damn minutes.

Most women just worried about their man getting mugged or run over by a bus. But oh no, she had to get herself tangled up with a guy at war with blood-sucking fiends.

Why couldn’t she have fallen for a nice accountant or stockbroker?

She had thought of using her skill and the crystal to look for them. But it seemed…intrusive, she decided. And rude.

But if they weren’t back in ten minutes, she was going to say screw manners and find them.

She hadn’t thought through, not completely, the emotional turmoil Hoyt was experiencing, what he missed, and what he risked. More than the rest of them, she decided. She was thousands of miles away from her family, but not hundreds of years. He was in the home where he’d grown up, but it was no longer his home. And every day, every hour, was another reminder of that.

Bringing back his mother’s herb garden had hurt him. She should have thought of that, too. Kept her mouth shut about what she’d needed and wanted. Just made a damn list and gone out to find or buy supplies.

She glanced back at some of the herbs she’d already bundled and hung to dry. Small things, everyday things could cause the most pain.

Now he was out there somewhere, in the rain, with his brother. The vampire. She didn’t believe Cian would attack Hoyt—or didn’t want to believe it. But if Cian were angry enough, pushed hard enough, could he control what must be natural urges?

She didn’t know the answer.

Added to that, no one could be sure more of Lilith’s forces were not out and about, just waiting for another chance.

It was probably silly to worry. They were two men of considerable power, men who knew the land. Neither of them were solely dependent on swords and daggers. Hoyt was armed, and he wore one of the crosses they’d conjured, so he was hardly defenseless.

And it proved a point, didn’t it, the two of the

m being out, moving freely? It proved they wouldn’t be held under siege.

No one else was worried, particularly. Moira was back in the library, studying. Larkin and King were in the training area doing a weapon inventory. She was, undoubtedly, worked up about nothing.

Where the hell were they?

As she continued to scan, she spotted movement. Just shadows in the gloom. She grabbed the crossbow, ordered her fingers to stop shaking as she positioned it and herself in the narrow window.

“Just breathe,” she told herself. “Just breathe. In and out, in and out.”

That breath came out on a whoosh of relief when she saw Hoyt, Cian beside him. Trooping along, she noted, dripping wet, as if they had all the time in the world, and not a care in it.

Her brows drew together as they came closer. Was that blood on Hoyt’s shirt, and a fresh bruise spreading under his right eye?