When I looked down…
The skin was back right along with the tattoo.
We both stared.
“Huh.” Mason stood. “Well we tried.”
“That’s it?” I roared. “We tried?”
“You could always ask Ethan to bite it off.” he grinned.
“Yes. A vampire biting my palm sounds lovely. Where do I sign up?” I jumped to my feet and ran my healed hand over my blond, almost white, hair. That was the other problem.
Changing.
I felt like I was changing.
For one, my ever-present horns had completely disappeared. I thought it was because my soul had been restored a year ago, because I had elf blood running through my veins compliments of a shady past and new friends I’d just made in the future, like Hope, the only remaining Elf princess, currently hitched to a male siren who I dreamed of killing on an hourly basis.
“Any luck?” A male voice that sounded like multiple orgasms and heat piped up, sweeping into the room.
I glared in Alex’s direction. “Speak of the devil.”
“I’m much better looking.” He grinned, his jet black hair had shots of orange in it today; it changed depending on his mood.
“Feeling horny are you?” I pointed to the orange streaks in his hair.
And got flipped off.
“Hope’s out with the girls… You know I don’t do well when I go without skin-to-skin contact for too long.”
“How sad for you…” I said, dripping with sarcasm, “You do know that some people go hours, days, weeks, and yes, years without sexual contact?”
Alex just looked at me with horror lining every pretty feature, and on cue, the plant near the door started to lean toward him and then it wilted.
Nature couldn’t help it.
I was more shocked that he’d mated in the first place.
I think everyone was.
A war was brewing. Then again, I’d been alive for thousands of years; a war was always brewing even in times of peace.
My head suddenly ached with thoughts I didn’t want, with memories that tasted like blood, and with images of kills I couldn’t forget.
I was born as the first of the demon race.
King.
Or so I’d thought—until the tattoo started itching, until I started seeing him, seeing them—so many Pharaohs, the sands of Egypt. See? Disconcerting.
Power surged beneath my skin, my fingertips buzzed with energy as I sidestepped Alex and made my way outside.
In a moment of complete insanity, I’d driven to Ethan’s house, where most of the council lived since it was protected by both vampires and werewolves, and asked for help.
And gotten Mason of all people, gruff, pinecone-eating, long-haired, recently married, Mason.
I stared up at the stars and wondered how many more lifetimes I would get the chance to stare, when a ticking time bomb was pulsing on my hand.