A Dangerous Hunger: (The Sentinel Demons) (5 page)

“You went hungry at one time, didn’t you?” Her mind calculating quickly, thinking about his year of birth, she asked gently, “Were you in Ireland during the potato famine?”

He held the treat patiently at her mouth, waiting for her to take it, and finally, she did. Not that she wanted or needed it, but she couldn’t bear the look on his face. His expression was haunted as he watched her chew and swallow before he finally answered. “Yes. My parents died when I was young and I tried to take over their small plot of land to farm. We were poor. Always poor. But after my parents died, I was at least able to survive on some of the potatoes. When the potatoes went bad, there was no food. I ate whatever I could find, even the bark from trees, to try to survive. I was nearly dead when Kristoff found me.”

Talia closed her eyes in horror, unable to keep herself from picturing an emaciated Drew, near death from starvation. The Great Famine during the mid-nineteenth century had killed more than a million people in Ireland due to a potato blight. Knowing Drew had suffered through most of it was almost unbearable. It had been a hellish, dreadful time in Irish history, and for a poor farmer like Drew, she could only imagine the suffering he’d witnessed and experienced. “Kristoff saved you,” she murmured, wrapping her arms around Drew’s waist and laying her head on his shoulder.

“It was a near miss,” Drew admitted huskily. “I was delirious, sick with one of the diseases running rampant through Ireland. I thought he was a delusion at first.” He released a masculine sigh. “But yeah…he saved my life. I never could figure out why. I was dying. I wasn’t straddling the line between good and evil. I had already stolen, begged, and done evil things just to try to stay alive. I’d given up.”

“Because you were worth saving,” Talia answered emphatically, her heart still breaking at the thought of Drew being so hungry for so many years. No wonder he ate all the time. Had she gone through the kind of deprivation that she knew had happened during the Great Famine, she’d be doing the same.

“So sure of that, are you?” Drew questioned softly, his tone slightly amused, his Irish brogue more prominent.

“Yes,” she answered honestly, pulling back to look up at him, amazed that she actually had to tilt her head back to see any man, given her height. “It must have taken incredible strength to have lived as long as you did. When did he rescue you?”

“Eighteen forty-eight. I hadn’t even hit my thirtieth birthday yet, and I was already dead,” Drew replied, his massive body shuddering slightly, obviously still reliving the memories of his past.

“How long had you been starving?” Talia couldn’t keep herself from asking, even though she didn’t want to think about it. Drew obviously needed to put some of those memories to rest. “And you weren’t really dead.”

“Very nearly. I was hungry for years, but by the time Kristoff arrived, you could see every bone in my body. I didn’t have anything left, and I knew whatever disease had taken hold of me was going to kill me.”

He’d been a skeleton ready to die. Talia felt a tear trickle down her cheek. Although she studied ancient history, she was familiar with the horrors of the Great Famine. “Were you afraid?”

Talia could feel Drew shaking his head. “No. By then I just wanted to die,” he admitted. “I prayed for death. I know what it’s like to not care if you live or die, to know that your presence on earth won’t be missed by one single person.”

More tears poured down her face and Drew gently wiped them away as they fell. “What would have happened to you if Kristoff hadn’t found you in time?” she said, her voice choked with emotion.

“Don’t agitate yourself, mo stór. It was long ago. I survived.”

Talia lifted her hand to his whiskered jaw. “I suddenly want to feed you. Desperately. Can you transport us slowly to the restaurant?”

Drew frowned at her. “I can, but I won’t. I won’t risk it. Besides, I’m not all that certain that my hunger is for food anymore. I’m more concerned about getting you food.” He took her hand as he wiped away the last tear on her face. “I’m beginning to think it never really was food that I actually wanted,” he finished huskily, his eyes liquid and dark.

Talia knew Drew ate just because he could, and because he’d never gotten over his period of starvation. Perhaps he really didn’t need food at the moment, but after hearing his story, she wanted to see him eat. Her stomach growled, and she thought it was probably more in empathy for Drew than her own need. Her connection to him grew stronger every moment that she was near him. “Well, then feed me,” she told him with a chuckle.

“We’ll go now,” Drew replied tensely. “I know you’re hungry.”

Hungry for you.

The turbulent look in his eyes told Talia he heard her thoughts. “And stop reading my mind,” she scolded, slapping him on the arm. “Feed me.”

He grinned wickedly. “I’m a demon,
mo mhuirnín
. Some things are not controllable.” He took her hand in hers. “Ready?”

“Yes.” Talia knew she was getting way too accustomed to Drew calling her his treasure, his darling, or his dear in Gaelic, and it was much too sexy said in his flowing baritone, rolling off his tongue so naturally. But it made her feel…cherished. Much like Drew could read her thoughts, she could sense his emotions, and the words were natural for him, an expression in his native tongue of his feelings for her.

He nodded once and took them to the restaurant, even driving more cautiously because she was in the vehicle. Maybe she shouldn’t become accustomed to it, but for the first time in her life, a man actually held her as something dear to him, and it felt so damn good.

“W
hat’s the mating ceremony like?” Talia asked the voluptuous, redheaded woman sitting across the kitchen table from her. Zach and Kat had come for a visit to Drew’s home, and the two males were currently taking care of Sentinel business, leaving the women together at Drew’s.

Talia could feel what seemed like a battalion of guardian Sentinels around them, no doubt put in place by Drew. When he’d promised to protect her, he hadn’t been saying it lightly. When he was here, he rarely let her out of his sight. And when he was gone, she was surrounded by protection. It didn’t matter that he could flash back to her in an instant whenever she called him. Despite this, it still took him a good five minutes to give her instructions about what to do should anything happen, and he made her promise that the first thing she would do was to call out to him.

He still claimed to hate cats, but Talia had caught him talking to Pumpkin before he left, stroking her fur and telling her to watch out for her owner. Like Pumpkin was a kitty version of a Doberman? Still, it had been such a touching scene between the self-professed feline-hater and her kitty that Talia had wanted to cry.

Talia had liked Kat immediately, sensing a kindred spirit almost from the moment they had met a few hours ago. Normally shy and quiet due to her isolation, Talia surprisingly found that she could talk easily and freely with Zach’s wife. Kat had filled Talia in on the demon world from a
radiant’s
perspective, which turned out to be quite different from the history she’d been gaining from Drew over the last week. Not that everything Drew had told her wasn’t true, but it was different from a
radiant
point of view.

Kat took a sip of her coffee and flushed slightly. “I’m not sure I can explain it. Not because I don’t want to, but because I can’t think of anything comparable.” After frowning in concentration for a moment, she added, “You know how you feel compelled to join with Drew, and that urgency just keeps getting worse?” Kat asked with a questioning look.

Oh, yeah. Talia knew. She’d been suffering through the effects of the mating instinct for the last week, finding it harder to resist with each passing day. But resist she did. She wanted to really know Drew, not be compelled by an ancient rule some god or goddess had decreed. Incredibly, Drew seemed to understand what she wanted, even though she knew it hadn’t been easy for him. “Yes,” she answered Kat’s query softly.

“Well…it’s sort of a culmination of all of the desire, need, and the emotions that go with it rolled into one…um…encounter, whipped around, and finally settling into place.” Placing her mug back on the table, she shot Talia a mischievous glance. “It’s like the most incredible orgasm imaginable, combined with intense relief. Once a Sentinel and a
radiant
merge, she gains a tiny piece of his soul, and he gets a sliver of hers, enough to flood his soul with light. It’s like you’re finally whole again after missing a part of yourself for a very long time.” She smiled. “Admittedly, it was much longer for Zach than it was for me, but I don’t think you really notice how much you were missing that part of yourself until you meet your mate.” Kat reached up and slid down the neck of her long-sleeved shirt. “We both carry the mating mark.”

Talia squinted at it before rising and walking around the table, examining the mark Kat was exposing. “May I look, touch it?”

“Be my guest,” Kat agreed amiably, yanking the V-neck shirt lower.

Talia stroked one finger over the mark. It was hot, radiating a warmth that was supernatural. But she was more interested in the tiny markings. “Twin souls?” she wondered aloud. The depictions were identical, resembling two minuscule illuminated specks that united as one to make a perfect flame.

“What does it mean?” Kat asked curiously.

“Plato once wrote about twin souls in Greek mythology,” Talia muttered thoughtfully. “He explained that humans were once both male and female, and that they had four legs, four arms, and two heads. When humans became too arrogant, Zeus split them in half so one part would yearn for the other eternally because their soul was separated and torn in half.”

“Do you think it’s true?” Kat asked as she pulled her shirt back up to her shoulder.

Talia took her seat again. “I study ancient history with scientific facts. I never believed in mythology at all until I met the demons. Now I’m forced to consider that everything I thought was truth really isn’t. There’s no proof that mythological creatures existed, but most people don’t see ghosts and otherworldly visions,” she grumbled unhappily. “But I suppose the
radiants
and Sentinels could have the same basic concept of twin souls, although I have no idea if the myth is actually true. The obvious conclusion I’ve made is that the ancient history I study is real…true scientific data, but only in one dimension.”

“One realm,” Kat added excitedly.

Talia gave Kat a weak smile. “Yes. Paranormal beings exist in another dimension. But somehow, the Sentinels exist in the same realm as we do, but the Evils don’t, although they can visit this realm. And some entities occasionally pass through the barrier into the human realm for a variety of reasons.”

Kat nodded. “Like me. I can walk realms, go to those other dimensions. Kristoff is working with me to control that power. Right now it’s kind of a crapshoot where I’ll end up if I try to leave the human realm, but I’m getting better.”

Talia had recently met Kristoff, who she personally thought resembled both a god and man. He was physically beautiful, almost too perfect, and he emanated a power that was frightening. “I have a special power, too,” she admitted to Kat. “But it’s an unknown until it’s released if I mate with Drew.”

“Just be careful when you do. I know Zach told you what happened to me. You said ‘if,’” Kat replied curiously. “Don’t you want to be with Drew?”

Yes. Yes. Yes.

If the theory of
radiants
and Sentinels being similar to twin souls was correct, and if one soul really did complete the other, Drew was her match. Oh hell, she knew Drew was her partner soul. There was no other way to explain her yearning to be with him. She wasn’t experiencing infatuation or a schoolgirl crush. The way she felt when she was around Drew was more like a super-powered magnet trying to suck her toward him, refusing to let go. “I’ve spent most of my adult life trying to avoid men. I’m a freak, Kat.”

“You’re not a freak!” Kat exclaimed furiously.

“I see the paranormal. My eyes glow when I spot one in the human realm. I’m taller than a lot of men, and I’m so ugly that the only sexual experience I’ve had in my life was a fraternity prank when I was in college to see who could sleep with an ugly virgin for initiation.” She shot Kat a dubious look. “Freak,” she repeated.

“You’re statuesque and you have beautiful eyes,” Kat defended angrily. “Maybe you’re different, unique, but that doesn’t make you a freak. And Drew thinks you’re the most beautiful thing on earth. Do you really think I’m such a catch?” Kat gestured at her own body and face. “Until I met Zach, I didn’t believe I was attractive. I’ve always been overweight, and my red hair has constantly been the bane of my life. But Zach still looks at me like I’m the most desirable woman he’s ever seen. Give Drew some time. He’ll eventually convince you because he’ll never stop looking at you the way he does now.” Kat stopped and took a deep breath. “Your IQ is off the charts. I’d love to be that smart. It’s likely that the people in your life were just jealous. Do you have family?”

Talia felt a twinge of pain in her chest, a reminder of a time when she had a mother who loved her. “I never knew my father. I was the result of my mom’s first and only one-nighter. But I lost my mother four years ago. Luckily, I was left enough money to survive, and had enough scholarships to finish school.”

“Siblings?” Kat queried.

Talia lowered her head, remembering how alone she’d been almost her entire adult life except for her mother. When her only parent had died of cancer, she’d been completely alone. “No. I don’t have anybody.”

“You have all of us, now, Talia. The Sentinels will be your family,” Kat said softly. “I’ve only been married to Zach for a little over a month, but I love Kristoff, Drew, and Hunter like brothers.”

Somehow Talia couldn’t see Hunter as a brotherly type of guy, and she told Kat her thoughts.

“Hunter’s troubled,” Kat admitted reluctantly. “But he lost his whole family to the Evils. He can’t ever seem to get enough revenge to dissolve his anger. He cuts through the Evils like a madman, but he’s kind to me. I think there’s more to Hunter than anyone knows.”

Talia had sensed that, and she’d never been afraid of Hunter, no matter how mad, bad, and angry he seemed. His vibes were volatile, but not evil.

“I think I’d really like to have family,” Talia answered Kat honestly as she looked up at her. The other woman’s eyes glowed with nothing but kindness, and Talia sensed that she’d found a friendship like she’d never known. She’d never been good with people, but Kat was somehow different. It was like the two women understood each other perfectly. “And I do want to be with Drew. But we barely know each other.”
But then, why does it seem like we’ve known each other forever, yearned for each other for a lifetime and beyond?

Kat leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “Patience isn’t exactly a Sentinel virtue, but get to know him. Drew has always been the reasonable Winston, the one who watches over everyone else, takes care of everyone else. He asks for very little in return. Except food. He deserves so much more, someone of his own. No one will ever care about you more.”

Talia wanted to get to know him in every way, including physically, but she answered aloud, “He’s trying to be patient.”

“Well, for a Sentinel in the mating process, it’s pretty hard,” Kat mused, smiling mischievously as she realized what she’d just said.

“It’s always hard,” Talia said with a laugh.

“Get used to it. It doesn’t change after you’re mated,” Kat snickered.

“Do you mind?”

“Nope,” Kat replied smugly. “Not a bit. I think I’d be disappointed now if Zach wasn’t so intense, although it took some getting used to.”

Talia wasn’t at all sure she’d have a difficult time getting used to being the object of Drew’s unrelenting desire. In fact, she was pretty sure she’d relish it once she got past her initial reservations and apprehensions. Right now, it was overwhelming, but she was fairly certain that she was living every woman’s fantasy with Drew.

“I think I could learn to live with that problem,” she answered Kat with a playful wink.

“It’s one of the perks of being a Sentinel’s
radiant
,” Kat corrected.

Talia reached out her arm and snatched a cookie to go with her coffee—one of Drew’s favorite treats.
One of many!
She chewed, letting the taste of chocolate and pecans explode inside her mouth. She swallowed before remarking hesitantly, “I just don’t want to disappoint him.”

“Not possible,” Kat said confidently.

Raising her coffee to her mouth, Talia hoped that Kat was right.

Drew watched as the penalty Sentinels prepared Hunter for another punishment, this time for decapitating two Evils without provocation. “Fuck! He can’t take any more of this. He damned went through it yesterday,” Drew said angrily to Zach, who standing at his side. “Why can’t he just stop?”

Drew and Zach usually didn’t watch the torture that their brother went through time after time for wasting Evils by the dozen. This time…they did. Hunter endured the penalties without complaint, but both brothers were concerned now, anxious that his sanity was starting to slip. Hunter broke the rules too often now, too close together, and it was taking its toll on him. He was already beaten and broken from yesterday’s infractions. Two days in a row was going to be too much. One of them would have to step in, trying to safeguard Hunter’s barely sound mind.

“Can’t you stop them?” Drew asked furiously, jerking his head at Kristoff, who was standing on his other side.

“I’d take his place if I could. But I’m not allowed to interfere. Not in the human realm,” Kristoff said regretfully. “But you’re correct. I’m not sure he can take much more.”