Bound by Desire

Chapter Three

Hello, beloved readers! Thank you so much for enjoying these stories! Please remember that they are un-edited. Some things change between the first and the second book. I've gone back and edited into the original document, and will update those changes into Bound by Destiny soon! Thank you all for sticking with me!

Without further ado...

"How long?" Rosewen asked, shattering the silence that had fallen after Eve's declaration.

Eve looked at Sebastian. "A little over twenty-four hours."

Rosewen grimaced. "Time moves differently in faerie, Eve."

"What do you mean?"

"Sometimes it's faster. An hour here can be a day there. And then sometimes it moves so much slower."

There was a tone in her mother's voice that set her on edge. "Which one was it?" Eve braced herself, knowing she wasn't going to like the answer. But knowing something and actually hearing it were entirely different matters.

"Faster."

The breath rushed out of Eve with a suddenness that made her light-headed. "We have to go." She tried to stand but she was held by Rosewen and Sebastian.

"We can't yet," Sebastian said.

"I can't leave him there." He was a vampire and she was a personal witness to his strength. She knew she wasn't going to pull her hand away from his, but never let it be said she went down without a fight.

"Eve, sweetheart, stop. I'm not saying we're going to leave him there, but we need to know what we are walking into. We need information."

"Twenty-four hours, Sebastian. That could be twenty-four days of hell."

"Don't think for a second that I don't know that. I want, just as bad, to get him back. But rushing into the unknown is what got him taken from us in the first place. We are the only chance of him coming back and if we make the same mistakes, then..." he trailed off and Eve fought back tears at the shuttered look on his face.

How could she forget that? That while her love for Gideon was new, their bond was far older.

"Sebastian." Her voice broke. "I'm so sorry. I didn't think. Of course you want him back. I just—"

"It'll be okay. And you have nothing to apologize for. I understand grief and fear and rage, but we can't go in carelessly."

Eve swallowed. "You're right," she said.

"I can help with some things you need to know over the next couple of days," Rosewen said and Eve pulled her eyes from Sebastian's. "But honey, you must realize, there is not enough time to fully train you and you'll be incredibly vulnerable." She grew quiet and Eve opened her mouth to tell her she didn't care when she spoke again. "While he has a few that support him, there are many that hate what he has become. We may be able to find help when we get closer to the palace."

"Two more days..." Eve breathed out slowly. "Forty-eight hours. Possibly days." She wouldn't freak out. Couldn't freak out.

"Gideon is a big boy, princess. He can take a lot. You can't." Fallon's voice had her on her feet, arms around him.

"I'm glad your back," she said into his shirt. "How was it?"

"Quiet," he said. He almost smiled at the way her shoulders relaxed at his words. Looking over her head, he met the matching green eyes of her mother. "I'm Fallon."