Page 55 of His Stolen Queen
"Except?" he pushed.
I slid my hand from his, twisting my fingers in my lap. "Except your eyes,” I murmured. “I'd never seen another person with eyes that blue and piercing. It was the only thing I could remember."
The silence between us was heavy with meaning. There was no doubt that my dreams weren't simply dreams; that the words, actions, and world I was in were more than a slumbering fantasy.
"Fascinating," Hammon hummed as he noted what I'd said, breaking the spell. He shook his head as his hand moved at a blurred speed across the pages.
"These shared memories are common with bond-mates. It has been reported that if they are apart, they can meet each other in their dreams and interact as if in real life. The dreams are lucid, and they are able to control every element of them. They both exist, but in their own unique world."
That definitely sounded like what I'd experienced. It was the only explanation as to why I woke up thinking I was still with Acheron. Why I felt the residual effects of what we'd been doing or talking about. Why I felt so overwhelmingly sad when I woke, and why I resisted the urge to go back on sleeping pills. A part of me knew that half of me belonged elsewhere. With someone else.
And not my husband.
My head throbbed. "I'm so sorry. This all makes sense, but at the same time, it doesn't." I rubbed at my temple. "I-I need to rest. This is all a bit much."
Acheron nodded, albeit reluctantly. "Rest. We will discuss more later."
I lay back down on our–his–bed, my heavy eyelids falling shut as exhaustion overtook me. I felt a ghost of a kiss on my hair before my mind took me elsewhere.
I opened the heavy door to our bedroom before peeking inside. A dimple deepened on my cheek when I spied the large male lounging back against the vast headboard.
He flashed me a smug grin. "What took you so long?"
With a delighted laugh, I rushed to be with my mate.
Chapter 21
Acheron
"Am I one of you?"
I glanced at Alice in surprise. She was sitting in our room, her legs bent and her arms wrapped around her knees. The urge to go to her, to gather her in my arms, was overpowering. I had to actively fight against my baser instinct in order to give her the space to process all that had occurred. Usually, I would not be so generous or patient, but I had waited so long for Alice, and now that she was finally in my home, I did not want anything to upset her.
She had been through so much: assaulted by Vladimir, watched both of us morph into something she no doubt thought was fiction, witnessed his beheading, and then woke up somewhere foreign…some place she remembered in her dreams.
Christ, I knew she dreamed of me, but I could never have imagined that she dreamed of me in that way. That she and I had a whole other life where we were together. I wished I'd experienced her visions in the same way.
"You mean a Vampire?" I bluntly clarified.
Her face blanched, and my keen hearing heard her breath hitch. Her seductive scent morphed into one of fear…a worry about the unknown. I could have been more sensitive in my approach, but it was best to face these truths head-on.
Alice slowly exhaled before nodding. My brave mate.
"No. But you are a descendant of a powerful pair of royal mated Vampires. Their blood runs through you, latent but strong. It is how it is possible that you are mated to me, a powerful King."
Her eyes grew wider the longer I spoke, her mouth dropping open. "Are they still alive?" She shook her head, frowning. "Or…is it undead?"
My lip curled before I censured my amusement. "No." I gave her a brief rundown of our history. I described how we used to hunt and kill humans until the Treaty was put in place.
"King Artemis and Queen Sarai were the first bonded royal pair. They helped spearhead the Treaty of ManKind. It forbids the murder of humans for blood. Now, we tend to either stick to our own kind or frequent blood banks and clubs that take bagged or live donations."
"Live?"
"There are a few humans who consent to it. They are like a modern version of a Familiar, as you call it, although we do have special powers that can glamour them; that is, bend their minds so they see and hear what we want them to."
Her head jerked up. "Is that what you did with me?"
My lips twitched at her question and the desperate glint in her eye. Ah, yes, that would certainly be an easy explanation for her, wouldn't it? A reason why her body and mind craved me and my touch. Why she couldn't settle with her poor human husband; why her thoughts—both waking and sleeping—turned to a manshe had not met. If only this could all be smoothed away neatly by way of mind control.
