took you so long?” she demanded. Pushing out of his arms, she glanced at her surroundings, then glared up at him. “Those guys nearly killed me.”
Despite the pain of his bullet wounds, astonishment rose up. He hadn’t counted on this. Hadn’t expected it. He was prepared to deal with her panic. Her confusion over what was happening to her. Grimly, he acknowledged that he hadn’t been looking forward to a hysterical female. He remembered all too well how only last month his fellow Eternal Torin had been driven to distraction by his mate, Shea. Torin had had his hands full trying to protect her from both her enemies and her own refusal to accept her new reality.
His own mate, it seemed, was not only aware of the situation but felt free to condemn him for a perceived slight. Annoyance chewed at him even as he scowled at her accusation.
“You know who I am?”
“Yeah.” She took a breath and blew it out in an indignant rush. Then she pushed her tangled black hair out of her eyes and brushed at the sand nearly covering all of her. “You’re my Eternal, right? Supposed to be my bodyguard for the big ‘quest’?”
More than annoyance ran through Rune now as he tried to make sense of her reaction. The pain in his back was a distraction, but it was not enough to stop the hundreds of questions racing through his mind.
“I am Rune and yes, I am your Eternal,” he said, his frown deepening. “How can you know about this? Your powers have only just awakened.”
“And were nearly snuffed out,” she added, taking the time to have a thorough look around her. “If you had taken any longer to show up—”
“I had to wait until your true power erupted.”
“That was three days ago,” she snapped.
“No.” Rune reached out, cupped her chin. The tingle of her skin on his almost deadened the pain ratcheting up from the white-gold bullets that were slowly draining his magic. He fought past the pain, the slow drag on his power, and said, “Your magic quickened three days ago. Your awakened power happened only today—when you gathered your strength and managed to hit the helicopter. Now, tell me, how do you know of Eternals?”
“My abuela,” she said, then shrugged and translated. “My grandmother.”
“I know the word,” he assured her. Suddenly he understood a lot more about his witch. Of course Teresa’s grandmother would have known. Witches throughout the centuries had handed down the knowledge of the last great coven. Teresa’s ancestors would have passed along the legends of atonement and of the Awakening—when the reincarnated witches would reclaim their magic and try to set right what had once gone so wrong.
He knew that Teresa’s grandmother was a powerful witch herself. Of course she would have prepared her granddaughter for her destiny.
This meeting wasn’t going at all as he’d expected it to. For years, he’d kept watch over her. He had done so for centuries, through every one of her incarnations. In this life, she was—as always—obstinate and independent.
He looked at her now, his gaze moving up her lush body until it finally locked onto her steady gaze. He saw pride there, and self-confidence. But beneath those traits he recognized in her, there was also a touch of vulnerability that called to him. Brought out every protective instinct he possessed.
With the time of the Awakening upon them, Rune had felt the pull of her soul to his more strongly than he ever had before. In all the past centuries, he had been torn between his undeniable need for her and the longsimmering rage at her coven for what they had brought upon them all.
If she and her sisters had not hungered for power … none of this would have happened. They had thirsted for knowledge that came at too high a price. He and Teresa would have mated centuries ago and this time of Awakening would never have been necessary.
What, he wondered, would the world have been like if only his witch and her sisters had chosen wisely? And how could he get beyond his old anger to accomplish what they now must?
“My grandmother told me you’d be coming,” Teresa said, and Rune’s wandering thoughts arrowed in on her again. “She didn’t mention the fire, though. For a minute when I saw you, I thought I’d stumbled into a vortex.”
Teresa pulled away from his touch and Rune let her go. For now. Though his fingertips itched for the feel of her.