Bound by Forever (True Immortality 3)
“I guess I should be grateful you can’t use it on other supernaturals.” He flicked her a look. “Fionn said you couldn’t. You can’t, right?”
“I can’t,” she confirmed. “It doesn’t work against you.”
He nodded and then … “It was your brother, wasn’t it? He convinced you to use your gifts to live well while you were on the run.”
The mention of … him …
Niamh glared at Kiyo. “I’m a grown-up. I take responsibility for my actions.”
“Yeah? It’s just a strange contradiction. You care so much about people … it doesn’t make sense that you’d enjoy stealing from them or playing games with their minds.”
“Well, you’d know all about contradictions. You’re one big giant one.”
“I’m right, aren’t I?” He ignored her weak comeback. “Ronan convinced you to use your gifts.”
“You owe me, Nee. There’s no harm in it.”
Niamh flinched at the memory of his voice. “Don’t ever say his name again.”
A chill fell over the car and Kiyo’s mask of indifference slipped. His eyebrows rose in surprise at the icy cold in her tone, the freeze emanating from her very being.
Their eyes met and she dared him to push her on this.
Kiyo looked away first, watching the road ahead. “When we get to Kalmar, we need to find a phone so we can contact Bran.”
The chill in the vehicle dissipated. “Perhaps they can find us a safe flight out of this place. As beautiful as it is.”
“I’ve never been to Sweden,” the wolf muttered. “Traveled a lot but never Sweden.”
“Well, you can cross it off your bucket list. ‘Plummet into the Baltic Sea and swim to Sweden.’ Check!”
To her delight, Kiyo’s lips twitched. Just a little.7After Niamh programmed the GPS to find the nearest hotel, it took them just over an hour to reach it on the mainland of Sweden. Crossing the Ölandsbron Bridge from Öland to the mainland had been the only moment where the tension between Niamh and Kiyo was forgotten.
The sun had disappeared behind heavy, dark clouds, and the water on either side of them was like glass. Gray-blue sheets of stillness. There were hardly any other vehicles on the bridge, and for a moment it felt like they were on some lonely, safe corner of the planet. It was incredibly peaceful.
Kiyo enjoyed it for what it was. A moment of tranquility in amongst the chaos and danger.
He suspected Niamh appreciated it as well. Or maybe she just appreciated not having to interact with him for a while. Other than the bridge, the drive felt longer than an hour.
“… out of all of my incredible gifts, my soft emotions, as you call them, my kindness, my compassion, my love, are my greatest. Because without them, I am the darkest, most dangerous being you’ll ever meet. Be grateful I am who I am, Kiyo. For everyone’s sake.”
Her words echoed in his mind—more than that, his reaction to them.
He respected her, and it took a lot to gain his admiration.
More alarmingly, he wanted her.
Lust, Kiyo could deal with. He had a strong sexual appetite and no particular preference. His body reacted to all kinds of women, in all their varied glory. Sex was the one thing in this harsh existence that Kiyo could be thankful for. However, he never let his sexuality control him.
That was easy when you were just attracted to a body, a face.
The moment he’d seen Niamh, he reacted to her. She was beautiful. He was aware of her, as a male would be.
But it would never control him.
Being attracted to who she was as a person, to her mind, her heart … that was more concerning.
Kiyo had a job to do, and he couldn’t let softer emotions that hadn’t touched him in decades creep in. He had to keep her at bay, and if that meant pretending to have the moral high ground because of her talent for mind trickery, then so be it. She didn’t need to know he’d done the kind of wicked shit that made her look like Snow White in comparison.
This strange feeling toward her also meant he wasn’t going to push about her brother, even though her reaction was … damn, he didn’t even know what that was. He thought she was going to turn the entire SUV into an icicle. As much as he wanted to push, distance between them was best.
They’d crossed the bridge and were now on a highway flanked by trees when a lake appeared to their right. Kiyo glanced at the GPS. “We’re getting closer.”
Following the road around the lake, they turned right. They seemed to have hit the outskirts of town. It wasn’t much to look at it, especially on a gray day. Or at least that’s what he thought at first.
But then they turned left toward their hotel and the concrete road changed to wobbly cobbles and the buildings became older, quainter.