Page 4 of The Witching Hour
Celeste shrugged. “Other than that they exist? Not much. My coven doesn’t…”
She trailed off suddenly, looking uncomfortable.
“Doesn’t like vampires?” I guessed. “Doesn’t have anything to do with them? Doesn’t think we should exist?” My tone was casual, having heard all of this before and not bothered by it.
Celeste flushed, almost distracting me with thoughts of how far down it would go when she climaxed.
Focus, Bancroft!There would be plenty of time for that—eternity, in fact.
“All of the above?”
I chuckled and scooted an inch closer. “Not surprising.” Studying her neck again, I mused, “What is surprising is the lack of mark on your neck.”
“Mark?” Celeste echoed as she cupped her neck with her hands.
“You are my consort, Celeste. You should have a birthmark on your neck.” I frowned and gently pried her hands away, then ran my fingertips lightly over her collarbone and up to her face.
“Consort?” she gasped, jerking back. “Like your mate?”
“Exactly.” I moved to touch her again, but she leaned away. I knew I needed to help her understand, but I was incredibly frustrated by the fact that she had no visible birthmark. “You should have been born with a birthmark that looks like a vampire’s bite.” I continued explaining a little more about how fated mates worked in my world. She let me talk but looked as though she had a million questions.
“I promise to explain everything, love, and answer all your questions, but give me a few minutes to try to figure this out.” As I explored her neck a little more, something occurred to me. What if it was hidden? I sent out a pulse of magic, and suddenly, when my fingertips glided over the left side of her collarbone, it appeared, as if I’d wiped away makeup covering it.
There was only one reason that Celeste’s mark had been hidden, and from her genuine shock at my declaration, I knew she hadn’t been the one to disguise it. I was pissed as fuck that she’d been walking around without my brand on her. Even though no one would have known it was mine specifically, it still infuriated me. “There it is,” I said softly, restraining myself from leaning in to kiss and lick the two dark spots that were meant to be pierced by my fangs. Anger simmered in my gut at the person who hid her from her fate, and I wanted to demand to know who’d done it, but I didn’t want to scare my consort with my rage.
“What?” she yelped before jumping from the couch and hurrying to the foyer to look in the oval mirror. “Holy cow! What is that?”
“It’s my claim on you, love,” I told her with a smirk.
In an instant, the simmer in my stomach flared into full-blown fury when Celeste rested her left hand directly over the birthmark.
What. The. Fuck.
A diamond ring on her third finger sparkled in the firelight.
I shot to my feet and stalked over to her, grabbing her hand and yanking it toward me. “What the fuck is this?”
“Um…an engagement ring?” Celeste tugged her hand half-heartedly, but I didn’t let go.
“You’re engaged?” I shouted.
3
CELESTE
Fury shone from Ren’s blue eyes, and I couldn’t blame him for his reaction to my engagement ring. Although we’d just met, I had a feeling that I would be devastated to learn that the tall, dark-haired daywalker was supposed to belong to another woman. I’d met attractive men before, but none of them held a candle to Ren. And I had never felt drawn to any of them like I was to him. Which made sense, considering how little I knew about the connection between a daywalker and his consort.
I would have been stuck in a loveless marriage if I hadn’t met Ren today. One that wasn’t my choice in the first place. Something that I needed to explain to the sexy daywalker before he got even angrier.
“I am,” I confirmed with an apologetic smile, turning my hand to interlace our fingers. “But the engagement didn’t happen the way you’re probably thinking it did. What do you know about witch marriages?”
A slight gleam of humor broke through the anger in his intense blue orbs. “Turning my earlier question around on me?”
“It seemed appropriate.” I shrugged and stared down at the ring as he tugged it off my hand.
“There, much better.” He pressed a kiss to the spot where the gold had been wrapped around my finger, and a sensual shiver raced down my spine. “Now tell me how you ended up engaged to some bastard who never should’ve had any claim on you since you were meant to be mine from the moment you were born.”
“My world is different from yours in so many ways,” I began with a sigh. “Witches don’t have fated consorts like daywalkers. There are no mystical connections between couples in my coven. Instead, we’re paired off based on our powers.”