Darkness Bred (17 page)

“Perfect.” Niles bared his teeth and his hot-blue eyes narrowed. “So we are a tiny army against the battalions of the paranormal world. We don’t know what allies we have, but even if there are some, they may get the hell out of this mess.”

Elin twisted in Sean’s arms. “He won’t believe me, Sean. What can I do to help?”

“I think you know,” was all Niles would say.

S
ean and Leigh passed in her kitchen doorway. He started to speak but she looked away and pushed a box into his hand. Under her other arm she carried Elin’s Pokey, who had been in a huff since their return.

Then Leigh whispered so that he had to strain to hear, “Just do what you have to do. Wait half an hour or so. Two Chimneys will be unlocked.” He carried on into the hallway, sidestepped into the mudroom, and closed the door gently behind him.

There was no reason to turn on a light. Sean could see perfectly clearly in the dark and he examined what Leigh had given him. Not a plain box but a leather one shaped like a miniature trunk firmly closed with a strong gold hasp.

He knew what he held.

Beneath the lid in a cradle of velvet hollowed out to a perfect fit were the parts of the die and the seal used by the werehounds to seal a male to a female as permanent mates. This seal, when given by a woman to a man and a man to a woman, formed an indelible mark in their flesh, an unbreakable bond between them.

Even death did not break the seal.

Sean rested his back against the door and closed his eyes. Leigh had taken a bold step in getting and giving him the box. Her message was clear: Seal with Elin and prove to Niles that she was one of them. He closed the box without looking and held it in one fist. There was more to it than that. He didn’t give a damn what Niles did or didn’t think, did or didn’t want for Sean and Elin.

This was their life.

He had come to respect Leigh’s wisdom but this wasn’t close to being as simple as she thought. If Elin agreed to be his sealed mate, she must fully understand what that meant, including the bonds that would be between them whether they were together or apart. She had to know everything about him including the ties that bound the hounds together and their ultimate goal to get closer to their human roots again.

But if she agreed after that, he would have the proof that she put him before all else.

The door handle moved behind his back. Sean wasn’t ready to face anyone. He let whoever it was push. They would assume the door was stuck—or locked.

Moonlight penetrated the small window in the door to the outside, shimmered over icy crystals on the pane. All he could see clearly in his mind was Elin. He was convinced she was beautiful inside and out.

Leigh would have returned to the others by now. All the hounds were there, gathered close together at the front of the house, discussing strategy. They accepted Sean’s temporary leadership without question.

He heard the scrape of something pulled over frozen snow outside. The shadow of someone’s head appeared at the window, hands cupped to frame a face, eyes staring hard to see if there was someone inside.

Sean reached back and very deliberately, very quietly locked the door. There could be no mistaking Elin’s black hair shimmering around her head and shoulders, or her small, pointed face.

So perhaps his hand was being forced and he must make a decision.

He let in a stream of icy air and swept Elin inside. He bent and brought in the box she had stood on inside in case it raised anyone’s curiosity.

Holding her at his side, he closed and locked that door, too. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he whispered hoarsely, taking her in from head to foot. “At least you’ve got warm clothes. Are those Leigh’s?”

“Sally sent for them because Leigh’s wouldn’t quite fit.”

“Where do the others think you are?”

“Lying down trying to sleep,” she said sheepishly. “Leigh told them you’d gone to check on Two Chimneys. She knows you’re here. Sally does, too.”

“A setup,” he said, shaking his head. She resembled a balloon person, silvery parka and snow pants, reinforced ski gloves, puffy knee-high snow boots. “You, Leigh, and Sally hatched this up. How much did you talk about it? What did either of them tell you?”

“Sally left—well, she did make a suggestion. But Leigh told me to come and find you as soon as the others thought I was really asleep. She talked about a safe room somewhere but then changed her mind. She said it could be problematic.”

“Yeah,” Sean said. “Particularly if we set off alarms. I haven’t practiced turning them off fast. I should do that in case I ever need to know. There’s a heavily fortified safe room behind the house, built into the cliffs. It’s for emergencies.” And other things, like a place to go when a hound wanted complete privacy with his mate.

“Sean, I would never do anything to hurt you.” Elin’s voice broke.

“I know.” She struck him to the heart. He believed her absolutely but the truth was that Elin couldn’t be certain what influence Tarhazian, the wolves, and other malevolent forces could exert through her.

He bent to kiss her, softly on the lips. Driving his fingers into her hair, he nuzzled her face and she kissed him back feverishly. “We have to talk,” he said. “But we have to be careful we aren’t overheard.”

“Only Leigh knows we’re here,” Elin pointed out. “And probably Sally. We’d hear if there was someone coming.”

He hoped she was right.

“The One. The guy in the crater cavern on The Island, I know now that I met him before—more than once.”

She sat on the floor in a corner by the outer door and pulled him down beside her. “Hold me,” she said. “Don’t let me go.”

He did as she asked. “Did you understand what I just told you?”

“I wish I didn’t,” Elin told him. “I’m afraid to know about it.”

“You don’t have a choice unless you want to leave me.”

“Tell me,” she said, looking up at him.

“I was human, you realize that?”

“Yes, of course, but I don’t understand it all.”

“It was a long time ago, in a little room behind a saloon in Creed, Colorado.” He considered his next words. Either he trusted her absolutely or he gave this up. “My name was Jacob O’Cleary and I was barely twenty-two. My dad had been a sawbones and I learned a lot at his e
lbo
w—I had to. This man, Aldo is the only name I knew him by, he got badly wounded in a fight and I put him back together as best I could. It wasn’t until his teeth were ripping through my coat and shirt and I was wrestling with a monstrous creature covered in thick fur that I knew my life was fading away.

“Aldo was a werehound and he turned me.”

“After you helped him? After you saved his life?”

“He’s a monster,” Sean said. “He drew strength from me and left me close to death. I didn’t recover for weeks and then I couldn’t go back to my old life so I changed my name and struck out on my own. I didn’t see Aldo again until five years ago in San Francisco. You already know this was the man who wanted to take me as his slave—and he got me accused of murder so I had to flee. Now I think he’s closing in on me again, only he wants much more than me. He changed into something much more complex and he craves immense power in the paranormal world and he doesn’t care what he does to get it.”

“But—”

“Let me get through this. The One says he has absorbed Aldo, but I believe Aldo is the stronger and has chosen to meld into The One’s form. They are an unholy duo in one body. He won’t be happy with only the paranormal world scraping at his feet. He’s looking at the human world and figuring he can get his fingers into that, too. It’s going to be a deadly fight, unless we can get rid of him, or even get him on the run for long enough so that we can be more prepared.

“What we need are allies. We don’t know whom we can count on. If we can give him more time, he’ll make more enemies and we should be able to pick them up—but I’m not a politician so I can only go on what seems logical.”

Elin’s violet eyes caught the crystalline light. She lowered her lashes quickly but not before Sean saw tears hanging there. “Why won’t Niles let go of this theory he has about me?” she said, so quietly Sean had to bend over her to hear.

“It’s not that,” he said, rubbing his jaw over her brow. “Niles will never be able to stop feeling responsible for the Team. He doubts—”

“He’s suspicious of me,” Elin cut in. “I don’t even blame him, but I also don’t know what I can do to change his mind. If you and I are together, it could be the end of me unless I spy for Tarhazian—maybe the end of both of us. And she knows we’re together now, I’m sure of it. She has already interfered once when we were in the mountain. I can’t think of any other reason why I would slip out of invisibility.

“But I did feel some hope. It took a long time for my body to be stable and I think that’s because she’s finally wearing out her hold over me. I can see now that she always felt the two of us were in competition, even though it seems ridiculous, but maybe she’s spent so much energy controlling me she’s wearing it out. We have to hope she can’t send us into that living death she threatened.”

He gathered her into his arms. “Hush. I won’t allow anything like that to happen to you.”

“What do you know about magic? What do I know? Niles doesn’t realize that I have been kept from learning the ways of the fae. Sally is trying to help me, but she must be careful, too.”

Sean had put the box on the floor beside him. He knew what Leigh wanted him to do and what he wanted himself, but how could he figure out if Elin was ready?

“I will never hurt you,” Elin said. “I’ll settle for only being able to know how you are if that’s all I can have. I’ll…I’ll leave you before I’ll hurt you and the rest of the Team.”

This wasn’t the first time he’d considered leaving Whidbey and taking Elin with him. First he had to try and protect her—them—right here.

“Will you come up to Two Chimneys Cottage with me?” he asked her.

She looked puzzled. “Why?”

“Because I want to be with you without any chance of being interrupted. We have to make decisions and they aren’t simple.”

Elin scrambled to her feet. “We’ll have to be quiet leaving. You need warm clothes.”

“I’ve got a sweat jacket on. Werehounds don’t feel the cold, remember?”

She sighed. “I miss being like that.”

“I’ll lead the way because I know it better than you do. Be careful not to slip. The door will be unlocked.”

“How do you know?” She sounded bewildered.

“I was told it would be.”

“By Leigh?”

“Of course. The steps will be icy. Don’t say anything else until we’re up on the bluff.”

As soon as Elin turned to the door, Sean stuffed the little box in a pocket.

Once outside they held hands. Underfoot the crunch of the crisp snow seemed as loud as gunshots. They crept from the mudroom door to the corner of the house, across a terrace dotted with pots where the naked skeletons of plants cast ragged black shadows on the snow—to the steps leading up to the bluff in front of Two Chimneys Cottage.

Sean put Elin in front of him and made sure she used her hands as well as her feet to climb the treacherous, sheer face. Time and again one of them stumbled or slipped, scarcely breathing for fear of making too much noise.

They made it and at the top they stood hand in hand again before striking out for the cottage. Sean smelled wood smoke before he saw it unfurling faintly against the pewter sky.

“There’s a fire alight,” Elin whispered. “Leigh shouldn’t do so much. You think she did it? Light a fire?”

He grinned in the darkness. “Leigh will do as she likes.”

The front door opened as promised. Lamps had been turned on and the living room glowed. Only one of the fires had been lighted but warmth spread to meet them.

“Should we put off the lights?” Elin whispered.

“You can’t see the cottage from Niles and Leigh’s house,” he told her. “You don’t need to whisper anymore either.”

She grinned and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Don’t forget we have to get back before they miss us.”

“This doesn’t have to take long,” he said, looking over her head and deep into the flames. “This time.”

E
lin’s stomach flipped.

She felt a change in Sean and slowly withdrew her arms from around his waist although she made sure he would still feel the pressure of her body on his.

Predictably, when she moved away from him, his hand went to his middle and he frowned. At least Tarhazian hadn’t been able to interfere with a power she didn’t know about.

Sean gave a short laugh. “Now I think about it, I do feel a bit chilled.” He inclined his head and his eyes turned the piercing tiger gold that made her tingle. “It’s weird. Sometimes I think I can feel you touching me when you’re not.” His voice was even but the intense stare didn’t change.

It’ll keep on being weird,
Elin thought.
We all have our little secrets.

Like bringing her up to the cottage in secret with only known-romantic Leigh’s awareness.

Sweat prickled between Elin’s shoulder blades. Tension built until every breath she took was an effort.

“I’m too hot,” she said, struggling out of her parka, snow pants, and boots.

Sean unzipped his brown sweat jacket and set it on a table beside the couch that faced the fire.

She pulled a high-necked sweater over her head and sat down on the couch, once more dressed in one of her thin, silky dresses, this one a dark green. She wore leggings the same color that left her feet bare.

“You’re going to be cold again in that,” Sean said.

Instead of breaking the almost painful connection with his gaze, she had made it more intense. Standing beside her, he looked down, giving the impression that she was in the sights of a predatory jungle cat making up his mind whether to spring.

“Elin?”

She jumped. “Yes?”

“You’re close to Leigh.”

That wasn’t what she’d expected him to say. “Very.” A big, soft quilt draped along the back of the couch slipped to the seat. Elin drove her fingers into the down and held on.

“You’re edgy,” Sean said.

“You’re the edgy one,” she said. “Edgy as a cat.” She closed her mouth firmly and felt her eyes widen.

“Maybe we’re almost even.”

Sometimes holding your tongue was the best course. Elin didn’t ask who he thought won that contest.

“How much has Leigh told you about our history? The werehounds? Why there are so few of us? There are small groups spread around, mostly in Europe, but we keep to ourselves and we haven’t grown in number for a long time.”

“Leigh hasn’t talked about it.” She sounded croaky. “She said you’d tell me anything else I needed to know about your world.”

“So you did ask her.”

“Would you have asked?”

“About you?” He gave a fleeting smile. “If there had been anyone to ask, I would have, but you seem to be one of a kind and I know better than to grill Sally. You’re her chick, or kitten, or whatever.”

Elin put her hands in her lap and smiled, bending her supple fingers back one at a time. “Are you going to tell me about the werehounds?”

“I have to.”

Her chin snapped up. “Why would you say that?”

He sat beside her. “Because I’ve got to make sure you can’t tell me later that I held something back.” Resting one hand on her thigh, palm up, he waited for her to place her much smaller one on top and closed his fingers around it.

He had something big on his mind and it wasn’t the weather.
Elin almost laughed. She leaned against his hard bicep to hide her face. He thought she was edgy? Her insides were leaping like fireflies and any laughter would be hysterical.

The touch of his lips along the tendons on the back of her hand didn’t help a thing—except her desire for him. She wanted to hold time exactly here. It would be enough.

“There are no female werehounds—that I know of.”

She felt him watching for her reaction. “I never thought of that.”

“Not for years. And no children.”

He confused her. “I thought werehounds were made, not born.”

“Made from humans? In a way, and our greatest wish is to be accepted by the human world again. We are not like werewolves, we don’t enjoy being part wild animal.”

She held up a finger. “Leigh and Niles are expecting a baby.”

Silence fell between them and grew unbearably long before Sean said, “Yes, and that’s why Niles isn’t himself. Leigh is the center of his life and he’s afraid this pregnancy will kill her. The way pregnancy eventually killed off all werehound women and the babies they were carrying. Either Leigh’s baby, who will be mostly human, will be a step toward what we want most, or we will know it’s never going to happen.”

“If Leigh dies?” Elin’s heart beat faster and faster. “She’s not afraid. Leigh’s happy. She wants this and now I know why she seems to want it almost more for Niles than for herself.”

“She believes what we all hope, that her Deseran blood will keep her safe, and the infant safe. You don’t have that blood. I have no idea if there could be a sympathetic match between us.”

So he would say they could not seal, could not have children because it was too dangerous?

Elin pulled her hand away and rested her elbows on her knees. She hadn’t wanted to tell Sean, now she wasn’t sure. It was certain that it would be a mistake for Tarhazian to find out Elin was a valuable prize to offer the werewolves or vampires to get something she wanted.

“Sweetheart?” Sean’s big hand settled on her back and he rubbed her slowly, his heat permeating her skin as if she were naked. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

I’m Deseran, too. Niles and Leigh took the chance, why shouldn’t we?
If she told him that, he might think her an opportunist who only shared things closest to her heart when she wanted something in return.

“I’m not afraid.”

The rhythm of his hand faltered. “You would accept me as I am, knowing what it could mean to you?”

If they bonded, then she would tell him what she knew of her beginnings and what she had discovered about the Deseran connection—once she was certain she knew all the truth. “You might as well get used to me, Sean. I’m not going anywhere without you. And if you try to leave me, I’ll just follow.” She meant it.

“If Tarhazian tries to hurt you—”

“Please,” she said, fingers on his lips, “not now. We will manage and you’ve said you think that woman is weakening when it comes to me. Whatever happens, we won’t give up.”

His hand slid from her back to her neck, under the dress, and cupped her shoulder. “Will you be my mate, Elin?”

Her throat didn’t want to work but she said, “Yes, please.”

“You will seal with me?”

“Yes.”

“It means that we would be joined forever whether we’re together or apart—and even in death. We would be life and death mates.”

Only children leaped around when they were excited. Elin settled for kneeling beside Sean on the couch and kissing his face until he held her head, laughing.

He couldn’t hold her head and her hands at the same time. And he could never restrain the part of her that was only hers to use.

Sean’s face froze. He looked shocked, and dazzled at the same time. When he glanced at his lap, she deliberately didn’t do the same but slid her hands around his neck.

He closed his eyes and moaned.

Now she wished there had been someone to ask about the intricacies of her gift to excite a man by touching him in certain ways. She had felt before what she felt now, an aching need for complete closeness with Sean. She would never forget the night at his house when they had slept in separate rooms yet she had felt as if he were in the same bed.

When he took off his sweater, she couldn’t make a word. His wide shoulders and chest narrowed to a flat belly, where a slim line of bronze hair disappeared under the waist of his jeans.

She slid so easily beneath him, his face supported on one hand while he studied her, keeping his weight off her by leaning on an elbow.

The slow stroke of his free hand up her body, from thigh, to hip then waist and ribs, made her light-headed. She parted her lips and he kissed her, long and deep.

His hand remained, long fingers and thumb spread, beneath her right breast.

Elin let her head fall back on the couch. Never taking her eyes off his, she ran a single finger from the little dip between his collarbones, down the center of his chest, and on to his jeans. She unsnapped them and hooked the same finger inside to the base of his rigid penis.

So fast, she clung to him, Sean lifted her to her feet on the couch and stood before her. He caught the hem of her dress, pulled it over her head, and tossed it onto a chair.

Covering both breasts, he massaged them with his palms, making circles that rolled her burning nipples until they turned hard. He took one between his teeth, carefully, and sucked. Elin’s knees started to buckle but he held her up. With a thumb he flipped back and forth over the other nipple and she heard her own incoherent voice.

His hair was loose of the band and swung forward to slip against her skin. Each kiss he planted on her lips grew more demanding.

“These are cute,” he murmured with his fingertips working down her leggings and panties. He held her around the waist and pulled them over her feet.

She started touching him remotely again, skimming his buttocks, sliding beneath to cup his testicles and loving the absorbed amazement on his face.

Struggling, he tore off his jeans with the look of a man in pain and wrestling free of his bonds. She had not seen him naked and completely erect until now and she knew at once why he had seemed in pain. He belonged inside her and she recoiled slightly at the unlikelihood that it was possible.

Holding Elin by the hips, Sean lifted her high and shot his tongue between the most intimate folds of her body. He worked back and forth until her hands dropped away from his head and she arched helplessly backward. An exquisite spasm ripped through her, and another, and before it was done, Sean had brought her down and pushed himself into her wetness and the aching miracle leaped into full bloom again.

And when he started to move her, to move himself inside her, she clamped her feet onto his flexed thighs, holding in the cries that wanted to break free. With the beauty of it there was pain now, real pain that jarred her teeth together.

He will never know about any pain.
She let her hair hide her face and buried it in his neck, glad for the waves she felt breaking within him, and his muffled shouts of triumph and release.

Slipping to his knees, keeping her in a crushing embrace, his breathing gradually slowed although she still felt the wild thump of his heart.

“Elin,” he said, pushing back her hair. “My Elin.”

Slowly the joy faded from his expression. He stretched her out on the couch, on top of the quilt, and sat beside her.  

As if he were afraid to see, he looked down and winced. Gentle fingertips brushed the insides of her thighs and he raised his hand. “Too much blood,” he murmured. “I’ve torn you.”

“No,” Elin insisted. The pain was subsiding although she knew she would be sore. “I don’t think you’re like other men, are you? Don’t say anything. I wouldn’t change anything about you. In a little while it will be easier.”

His frown puzzled her.

“A little while?” he said.

“Perhaps half an hour?”

He hugged her hard enough to wind her and she didn’t get an answer. Instead he sat her against one of the couch pillows and wrapped her in the quilt. Quickly, he stepped into his jeans and fastened them.

Feeling her eyes on him, and seeing her amused smile, he said, “Someone has to preserve some decorum, my love. You said you would be sealed to me.”

She nodded, yes, emphatically.

He took a small leather box with a curved top from the pocket of his sweat jacket. Sitting down, he placed it on the couch between them and opened the lid. Inside were several small parts he took out and assembled. A little black stone bowl was suspended in a frame over a shallow stone well, also black.

First he took a piece of purple material from a silk pouch, dropped it in the bowl, and lit a candle beneath. The piece of purple quickly turned liquid and shiny.

A stylus, like a slender pen, fitted into an indentation beside the burner. Sean took this, showed Elin the tiny, deeply etched gold seal sunk into one end, and dipped it into the bowl.

“This is the mark of our forever bond,” he told her. “It will burn but only for a moment. Do you still want this, Elin?”

“You know I do.”

He pressed the seal into the flesh just beneath her thumb, on the palm side of her right hand. She closed her eyes briefly, then smiled at him.

Elin took the seal when he offered it to her and gritted her teeth as she sent it into the same spot on his right hand.

The candle was blown out and the box set aside.

Their kiss was tender and seemingly endless. Sean found her right hand with his and laced their fingers together. The night wouldn’t be long enough.

She owed him every truth about herself, had owed it for a long time. Gently, Elin shook him by the shoulder. “Sean, listen to me.”

“Mm?”

“I have not told you because I wanted to be sure it—” This would not sound as she’d thought it would. “I believe I am Deseran. I was taken from New Orleans by some sort of creature Tarhazian would never speak about and she stole me a second time.”

His body tensed beneath her. “And you didn’t tell me, why?” he asked slowly.

“I didn’t want to influence your decisions about me.” She choked and cleared her throat. “I wanted you to want me for myself, not because I’m Deseran and have the right kind of blood.”

He didn’t answer for so long she began to cry. She felt her tears run between her fingers on his chest.

“Stop,” he said, brushing a hand over her face. “Stop now. Am I happy you didn’t trust my love for you—no. But I’d be a fool if I couldn’t see why that was. You really do love me.”

She burrowed into him and he held her still. “Don’t do that,” he said. “It’s dangerous.”

“I kept wanting to tell you but there didn’t seem to be a right time and I kept doubting myself.”