Night Hungers by Kathi S. Barton

were still doing things on paper then and she just destroyed it all. You’re right. She is more advanced than you.
    The things she can do, it’s amazing.” Aiden watched Mel shudder as she spoke.
    Apparently, everything she could do wasn’t so nice.
    “But that doesn’t explain my bond. How could I feel her pain so sharply? I took her blood only—wait! She did take mine. But it was only a drop. She said it was to communicate with me.”
    Aiden thought about her panther and how she had hit him. He could still feel her jaws clamped around his neck and unconsciously rubbed his hands over his throat. She could have killed him so easily.
    “I honestly don’t know much about her. I can read her mind, but it is so complicated that it takes so much energy to sort through it. I think she can feel me enter and jumbles things up just to throw me off.” Aiden looked up at Shamus when he snorted. “Aiden, meet my mate Shamus. He’s an ass.”
    “Hello. I’m Aiden St. James.” Aiden shook his hand. “Why do you laugh? What do you know about her?”
    Shamus shrugged. “Have you met Tess? She and Zane could fill an entire book on how to get on Mellie’s last nerve. Tess is a good friend of mine, but when I see her coming to the castle to talk to Mellie I run the other way. She and Mel can be very volatile. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hilarious, but dangerous when they start using their magic.” Shamus shrugged again, this time with a huge smile. “Zane is the same way. I run, but I love to hear them go at one another.”
    Aiden stood up. He needed to retire. He could already feel the sun beating on him.
    He looked at his brother and knew he was feeling the same effects. But Aiden was no closer to finding Zane than he had been before. As soon as he turned to ask, Mel answered him.
    “She’ll be at her lair. Her body returns there as soon as she loses consciousness. And before you ask, no, I don’t know where it is. I couldn’t find it if I tried. It was part of her sentence. She would be available when I called, but her personal life was her own and I could never interfere.”
    “But aren’t you? I mean, this whole mate business. Isn’t that interfering?” Aiden asked quietly.
    “No. You are her mate. I didn’t have anything to do with that. As soon as I found that out, I...she...I found out something recently. I think...I believe that my ex-mate Sherman is part of her DNA. I think that Sherman was responsible for her magic and for the labs. I think he may have taken some of the people from the future back in time to create a superior race of immortal beings for an army to take over the world, the human world. I feel...had I listened to my heart and not my head...without my magic when...”
    Shamus picked Mel up and nodded to them all before they both shimmered from the room.
    “Mother fuck, Shermie is back.” Although Aiden had a vague idea who he was, he was thinking Bailey might be right in her assessment of the situation.
    ~~~
    Zane woke in her lair. She could hardly move. Her body was torn up and she was still breathing painfully. While she had slept her body had repaired her kidney and her lung, but the other wounds, the deep cuts and tears in her tissue and muscles, would take a lot longer. Her weapons were also back in place. Groaning, she rolled to her side and started to rise when she felt someone touch her mind.
    “You need to mind your own fucking council, woman. I’m tired of working around you and your kind. I have things I’ve set into motion and you’re fucking them up. What will it take to make you stop listening to the Queen of Magick?”
    Zane didn’t answer but followed his connection back. She could find him now, the man who threatened her. Simon Sinclair. He was also the one who attacked the master vamp. Touching his mind, she also knew what he was up to. He wanted Sara MacManus.
    Not just wanted, but was obsessed with her and the realm in which she lived.
    “I’m speaking to you,