Zoe's Blockade (Destiny's Trinities Book 5) by Tracy Cooper-Posey Read Free Book Online

to the truck. Next to her. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, his voice low and soft.
    “You don’t need me,” she said. “Neither of you.”
    Cole was standing on the verandah, leaning on the railings. Even though he was half naked and barefoot he didn’t seem to notice the cold. He was watching them with peculiar intensity.
    Diego was standing in the doorway, watching just as intensely.
    “Why are you talking to me?” Zoe asked Declan. “Why not Cole?”
    Declan didn’t look at Cole. “If Cole asks you to stay, you’ll believe him, yet you will still doubt me. Only, I don’t want you to leave, either. So I’m asking.”
    “Why?” she asked, anger stirring. She was being pulled apart here. Couldn’t he see that? “You’ve suddenly discovered in the last sixty seconds that you love me, after all?”
    “It has been much, much longer than sixty seconds.” His voice was low.
    Zoe stared at him. He looked back, his expression calm, his eyes the same black as always.
    Over his shoulder, she saw Cole’s head bend. His eyes were closed.
    “Cole needs you more.” Her voice was hoarse with unshed tears. She finally got the door open.
    “No,” Declan said swiftly. He put his hand against the door and shoved it back. It slammed closed.
    Zoe gasped and stepped back, looking from the door to Declan. Her heart was thundering again. “You moved it.”
    Declan looked at his hand in wonder. “The bonding,” he said softly. “It’s really working.”
    Zoe swallowed.
    Declan held his hand out to her, for her to take it. “Come back inside. Please.”
    Zoe looked at Cole once more. He was gripping the support post. When her gaze met his, he nodded. It was a tiny movement, yet it was enough for her to take Declan’s hand.
    His hand was cool, but so was hers, out here.
    Declan looked down at her hand. “So small,” he murmured.
    “My wedding ring fits through Cole’s,” she said. It was something she had said dozens of times, to her co-workers at the clinic and to friends. Even she and Cole had laughed about it.
    Declan didn’t smile. “Mine didn’t.” The tug on her hand was slight, yet it was there. “Please, Zoe. Let’s talk. Let’s really talk.”
    She let him draw her back inside.
    * * * * *
    When Zoe reached the verandah level, she tried to slip her hand free from Declan’s. His grip tightened. She could barely look at Cole, although from the corner of her eye she watched him straighten and head back inside. Even Cole could not withstand the cold for too long, despite physically challenging himself in small ways like this.
    Diego, though, was standing just inside the front door. He hadn’t moved and he was staring at the door sill, frowning.
    “Something wrong?” Zoe asked him. She had known a few vampires in the past and had learned to rely on their instincts, which were driven by far more powerful senses than humans could aspire to.
    Diego pushed the toe of his shoe up against the sill itself. “Recognize that?” he asked quietly.
    She peered at the tile and grout where it met the wood sill. There was dried mud there, tracked in by snowy boots, that she had not swept up properly. Among the grit, though, was a pale yellow sand. The particles were very fine and stirred in the air moved by Diego’s shoe. So, not sand. Something lighter.
    “Pixie dust,” Diego said, his voice still soft. He looked up and around the hallway.
    “Here?” Zoe breathed. “I thought they distrusted humans.”
    “They hate them more,” Diego said, nodding toward the bridge. “You can’t speak their name in front of them. It freaks them out.” He moved back to the bench under the coats. “They might emerge, now the bonding has started and has marked you all. Or they might not.”
    “You know, you could sit in the lounge room and be comfortable, if you really must stay here,” she told him.
    Cole and Declan had already moved back into the kitchen, although Declan hovered by the door, waiting