Leeha paused mid-stroke, her hand tightening on her hairbrush.
He's back.
Her Aiden was back, and he was close by.
Dropping the brush onto her vanity, she stared at her reflection. Her pale skin was flushed, her blood-red eyes roiling with emotion.
He was back. She threw her head back and ran her hands down her neck and her collarbone, over the mounds of her breasts and her flat stomach, until they came together again between her thighs.
Gods, she could feel him. Everywhere.
A maniacal smile lit her features. She knew he wouldn't have left her forever. Not her Aiden. Her Aiden was special. He cared about her. He would never leave her.
And now she could invite him to come to her.
She could feel his blood calling to hers like a siren's song. She could feel his mood, his emotions, and his angst.
A frown marred her smooth features. Why was he upset?
Unused to the privileges attained by becoming a creator, she forced herself to still and concentrate on the foreign emotions flowing through her, emotions that were not her own. Gradually, she learned to filter through them, separating the different feelings, picking out the bits and pieces.
She felt anger, yes. But she also felt sadness, frustration, protectiveness and...possessiveness. The type of consuming possessiveness one would only feel for a mate.
Her heart withered in her chest. No! It could not be!
Aiden would never succumb to that fate. He would always be available to her. Always searching but never finding one that would replace his lust for her. That was his part of the curse she'd had Keira place on all of Luukas' Hunters, and she'd even managed to weaken the Master vampire himself.
Luukas would be mad the rest of his unnatural life, unable to tell nightmares from reality.
Nikulas would kill any female he loved the moment he fed from her.
Shea would never be able to enjoy the touch of a male without excruciating pain.
Christian would spend his nights seeking carnal relief with female after female, enduring the never ending urge for sex, or suffer the agony of his decision.
Dante would always be in darkness, like the monster that he was.
And Aiden. Aiden would never be able to truly love another. Would never lust after another more than he did her. Though he may enjoy others, just as she did, he would always be hers in the end.
Rising from her stool, she wandered over to the window. Looking out over the pine-covered valley from her temporary mountain home, she tried to think of how these feelings he was having could be possible.
Her jaw suddenly clenched and her fingers tightened on the windowsill.
That bitch.
Keira had told her, but once Leeha left the cell that day, she became convinced the witch had only been trying to distract her. She should have seen it the moment Luukas had overcome his fears, to come back to the place where he'd been beaten and starved for seven years to save the one who had allowed it to take place.
And Nikulas, his brother, showing up with the witch's sister to save him. Leeha had known right away that he had mated with her...
Without killing her.
And now Aiden. Her Aiden. Having mate-like feelings for another female?
The witch had found a way to add a caveat to the curse. That was the only answer. She'd snuck something in there, unbeknownst to Leeha, something that would enable them to be...happy.
Turning away from the window, she went to call Josiah.
Aiden may have those feelings for another female, but he hadn't completed the mating ritual yet.
And if she had her way about it, he never would.