And this could be the last time Ginny looked upon her with open acceptance. She couldn’t squander that gift.
“I am Elias’s mate.”
Ginny’s lips popped open. “Whoa.”
“Da,” she sighed.
“I-I mean, we always suspected there was something serious there. You’d have to be pretty blind to miss the chemistry.” She paused. “But in order for him to know you’re his mate, he had to drink from you.”
Roksana rolled over until she was face down on the couch and groaned. “There was a potion involved and…I had a rare lapse in judgment.”
Liar.
I’m always this desperate for you. Every minute, every second, every day. The drink only took away my ability to hide it. Believe me, Roksana.
Her eyes had been wide open and so were his.
Roksana shoved her face further into the pillows.
She sensed Ginny sitting up slowly. “Where is Elias now?”
“I don’t know. Probably en route from Moscow.”
Several seconds went by. “Um. About those nerves you’ve been feeling…”
“Nyet.” Roksana sat up so fast she grew momentarily dizzy. “I know what you’re thinking and it’s not the same thing.”
Ginny failed to disguise her skepticism. “When we found out I was Jonas’s mate, because of—you know—that whole accidental fang scratch?” She shook her head. “You were with me, Roksana. You know how much suffering I went through.”
“You experienced his hunger because he was also your mate. Your soul knew this even as a human and…no. No, I am a slayer. A permanent human. There might be a boyfriend or a husband someday. That is all. I cannot have a mate.” Her friend said nothing, just letting the conclusions draw themselves. The answer Roksana had been staunchly avoiding since the yearning woke inside of her. “Perhaps it’s heartburn?” She avoided Ginny’s gaze so she wouldn’t have to see the doubt there. The complications dangling in front of her on invisible strings. “My mother…if she knew…”
“If she knew, what?” Ginny asked softly.
She would ridicule me. Have me beaten. Turn her back on me.
Hadn’t she already done those things, though?
Roksana mentally leapt back from the shock of the truth, lunging off the couch to go stare into the dancing flames of the fire. A crowbar seemed to slide between her ribs and twist, but she forced herself to breathe. To have no outward reaction. She was stronger than most, wasn’t she? If she ignored the yawning pit of hunger inside her, it would go away.
If Ginny’s theory was true, though…Elias was feeling it, too.
And it would never go away for him. Until he died.
“I knew Elias before he was a vampire,” Roksana whispered, turning to face her friend.
She drew up short when she found Jonas framed in the doorway of the study, several yards behind his wife. “I know,” he said, striding into the room in that royal way of his.
Roksana took several breaths, attempting to get her shock under control. It wasn’t so much shock that Jonas knew. The king surely made it his business to know everything, especially about his closest allies. It was the acknowledgment that the night she’d met Elias in Vegas existed. It had been real. That another person believed her, validated her, made Roksana want to sink to her knees and wail like a baby. In triumph, in pain. In both.
It wasn’t a dream after all.
Jonas laid a hand on his wife’s shoulder and Ginny covered it with her own, her face betraying nothing. Had she known, too? It would likely remain a mystery, because Roksana sensed Ginny would never reveal anything Jonas told her in confidence.
“How did you know?” Roksana asked Jonas, hating the threadbare quality of her voice. “He couldn’t have told you, because he doesn’t remember.”
The king’s stoic expression didn’t change. “I made it my business to know everything about Elias Perry before he became part of my inner circle. What I learned about his past satisfied any doubts about his character.”
Roksana breathed a humorless laugh. “Maybe you didn’t learn the whole story then.”
Jonas’s head tilted ever so slightly. “Does that sound like me?”
She ground her back teeth together. “My friends were mutilated by his hand. He was there. He put me in an office to be tortured by their screams—”
“Until I became king, I only had second-hand accounts of what happened that night. I trusted them. But I inherited a lot of things in addition to the throne.” He seemed to be unconscious of the fact that he was cupping Ginny’s cheek, tracing her earlobe with his thumb. “Whenever a vampire risks discovery by humans, evidence is collected.”
Roksana’s heart missed a beat. “What do you mean ‘evidence’?”
“My sire kept records of vampire transgressions. For blackmail, no doubt. We all remember how he liked eliminating his own kind as punishment while neglecting to provide them with the correct tools for survival.” Jonas’s jaw popped. “Most likely, the High Order are responsible for cleaning up the mess of that night. Paid off law enforcement to keep quiet. Hid it from the press.” He gave a heavy pause. “Roksana…there is an archive of evidence here in the hold. I’ve only begun to go through it, but…”