Doomsday Brethren, Book 04: Entice Me at Twilight (17 page)

Duke raked a hand through his hair. He wasn’t behaving like a warrior, and Bram had called him on it. They were supposed to be working toward a common goal, and suddenly, he’d developed his own agenda. “Sorry.”

Bram eyed him carefully. “You sense that Felicia is your mate, yes?”

God, why didn’t Bram simply ask him to give himself a lobotomy. That would be no harder than admitting he needed his brother’s fiancée more than he needed to see his next sunrise. He’d become so bloody transparent.

Feeling the weight of all those gazes, he closed his eyes. “It’s irrelevant.”

“Clearly not. I understand that being near Felicia and not claiming her, especially when she’s in so much danger, is difficult. But your misery will end soon.”

No, making Felicia his while knowing that, in her heart, she belonged to Mason, would increase his misery a hundredfold. Somehow, Bram had failed to grasp the situation, or chose not to.

“It will destroy my family.”

Bram sent him an apologetic shrug. “Nothing about this
war has been easy for any of us.”

They’d all made sacrifices. And would continue to.

Lucan sighed. “What time do we leave tonight?”

“Midnight, perhaps. That depends on when our ‘information’ about the diary’s new location reaches Mathias. I’ve put in a summons for a few wizards who might pass along the word. Should have asked Shock whilst he was here. Now he’s not answering.”

Naturally. Dodgy bastard.

Then Bram addressed all the men. “I shouldn’t have to tell you that rescuing Tynan will be a dangerous mission and may require a great deal of energy and strength. Everyone with a mate, go spend a few hours of quality time with your chosen one.”

None of the mated wizards needed to be told twice to find their women. Ice nearly left a trail of fire as he beat feet out of the room. Ronan was hot on his heels, with Caden and Marrok fighting to get out the door next.

Bram sighed at the empty archway moments later. “I’ve called for a surrogate. Lucan—”

“I’m going out.” The wizard’s blue eyes looked furious and remote, and Duke wondered if Anka had any idea how badly Lucan pined for her, how much he hated having to touch someone else because she’d chosen Shock as a protector rather than renewing their bond.

Bram nodded. “Be back by ten.” Then he turned to Duke with that look of superiority that always annoyed the hell out of him. “Go to Felicia. I don’t want to see you again until you’re mated, brimming with energy, and have changed her imprint on your signature entirely.”

How the bloody hell was he supposed to do that without ruining his life?

“I can’t. I’ll go with Lucan.”

Lifting a golden brow, Bram drawled, “Do I need to ask some other wizard to mate with Felicia? Blackbourne’s son, Sebastian, would enjoy an exotic female to help him build that dynasty he craves. He’d have no qualms about tucking her into his bed from dusk to dawn.”

Bram had thrown down the gauntlet, his every word designed to push Duke’s buttons and ream his sanity.

If Duke spoke the Call, his urge to make Felicia his in every way would only multiply. The one time he had touched her had nearly decimated his self-control. Far beyond a mere kiss, he didn’t even know how to describe the contact. In that moment, he’d been connected to her in every way, felt her goodness, sensed her fear, ached to make her a permanent part of his life.

He’d be damned if Sebastian Blackbourne or any other wizard would touch her.

Clenching his fists, Duke glared at Bram. “Shut. Up. Now.”

“Felicia is ours to guard. We can’t protect her if you’re broadcasting an easy trail to follow. We need you. Man up.”

“I don’t respond well to coercion or guilt. Piss off.”

Duke grabbed Lucan’s arm and stalked out of the room, down the hall, and emerged into the blast of the cold night.

With January wind whipping around them, Lucan jerked his arm from Duke’s grasp. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

Anger jolted his system, and Duke turned to Lucan, silenced by the other wizard’s genuine confusion.

“What would you have me do? She belongs to my brother. I want her, and she knows it. Mason knows it. My family will disown me.”

“You know what’s at stake.” Lucan’s blue eyes blazed at him. “I needn’t spell it out for you.”

Shit
. Bram and Lucan were right. Felicia needed a mate. With a few words, he could protect her, the Doomsday Brethren, and all of magickind. He could speak the Call and solve many problems. Save many lives. Nothing else mattered.

He scrubbed a hand across his face. “I know.”

“So what’s truly stopping you?”

Duke sighed. “She’s meant to be
mine
, but as soon as the danger has passed, she’ll break our bond. Because she’s female, she’ll heal quickly and leave. Return to Mason. You
know
how that feels.”

Formerly mated females forgot their previous mates when the bond was severed, so they often sought the protection of another. Anka drifting to Shock was a prime example. Imagining Mason and Felicia together—it twisted deep in Duke’s chest until it became a pain he could scarcely endure. The greedy part of him wanted to mate her, then spend every free moment wooing her until she had no will to leave.

“And you fear Felicia will rip your heart out,” Lucan finished softly, “leaving you devastated and mad, like me. I wouldn’t wish that on any wizard.”

Once Felicia left him, Duke knew he would endure an anguish, a possible descent into madness, and a gaping hole in his heart that could take years to heal, if it ever did. Only a few weeks ago, Lucan had been chained to a bed like a madman, thrashing and screaming for his former mate. He’d been so distraught, unable to take energy from the solace of another woman’s body, that he’d nearly died. If it hadn’t been for Sabelle’s tenacity and Anka’s healing spell, he might have.

“If I mate Felicia, and she leaves me, I’ll have nothing. No family, no mate, no sanity. Nothing but war and vengeance and hate.”

“I can’t tell you that being torn away from your mate gets easier.
But I still wouldn’t wish away a second of the time I spent with Anka. Ten minutes with your mate is still better than a lifetime without her. Besides, if you don’t mate with Felicia, what will happen to her? Bram dreamed of her in Mathias’s clutches.”

Duke closed his eyes. Lucan spoke true. He must do whatever necessary to prevent that. Better to lose her to Mason than Mathias.

Even if that meant giving up his family, his sanity. His heart.

“You’re right,” he told the other wizard. “Go on without me.”

Nodding, Lucan shrugged deeper into his coat. Duke darted back toward the cave.

God, this was madness. And in an odd way, he was relieved to have this decision behind him. If all went well, Felicia would be his mate tonight. It was a temporary comfort, and he deceived himself by basking in it. But he had nothing else.

Shouldering his way back inside, he tore from room to room until he found Sabelle. “Where is she?”

Sabelle instantly understood. “Follow me.”

Down a series of stairs and narrow hallways they wended until she finally stopped at a closed door. “In here. Reassure Felicia. She’s afraid.”

“Of being here?”

The beautiful witch shook her head. “Of being with you.”

Duke drew in a sharp breath. That fit. Being with her scared the hell out of him. He had no doubt that if he bedded her even once, he’d be addicted. He’d be hers for life. The fact that Shock had read her mind enough to know that Felicia desired him too … Duke hardly needed more fuel for his fire.

“I’ll do my best.”

Sabelle sent him a rueful smile. “I’ve heard you have very persuasive ways with women. Use them.”

Duke swallowed. A vision of his type of persuasion played in his head: Felicia naked on his bed, his fingers clamping her wrists above her head holding her beneath him as he plunged deep, deeper.

No, he couldn’t use such methods on Felicia. She might become his mate, but in her heart, she was Mason’s. He had to remember that and keep his bloody hands off her. Still, fever burned through him when he thought of her on the other side of the door, alone. Waiting.

Ice hollered for Sabelle. Insistently. A mate’s demand. She turned and ran, leaving Duke to face Felicia alone. Fist clenched, he knocked as gently as he could manage.

“Who is it?”

“Simon. May I come in?”

A long pause. Finally, she opened the door a crack. Blue eyes like a Caribbean sea stared back. Pale curls twined around her shoulders and streamed over the sweet mounds of her cotton-covered breasts. He could still taste her sugary flavor on his tongue. And he ached for more. The need heated him from the inside out, and he wondered how he’d ever find the strength to leave her untouched, let her walk away. Somehow, he had to.

Felicia backed away from the door and let him in. The bed looked rumpled and warm. Duke saw the outline of her body on the sheets. And got hard. Damn …

“Felicia,” he began. “I know this situation isn’t optimal, but—”

“You needn’t give me your sales pitch. Sabelle already delivered it. You’re the most available wizard of the group. But we both know this is a fantastically bad idea.”

“Because I want you?”

Felicia blushed, hesitated. “Is that why Shock and Lucan think that you regard me as your mate? Even Sabelle hinted at it.”

Duke gritted his teeth. Telling her the truth would do no good, but as Shock had pointed out, he couldn’t lie. “That, coupled with my desire to protect you, may have planted the idea in their heads.”

“And it had nothing to do with our kiss?”

She was dangerously close to the truth.

He restrained an urge to wince. “I didn’t tell them about it. Everyone is on edge …”

Technically, not a lie.

Felicia paced. “The problem is, mating with any wizard to protect myself and help magickind betrays Mason, but you …”

Would be the worst choice because Mason despised him.

“I won’t touch you.”

Duke assumed she’d be relieved. Instead, she looked perplexed and a bit agitated.

“How will you get energy? Sabelle explained how you derive it.”

Damn it. Sabelle had best not explain more to Felicia, like the fact she was his destined mate and the lengths to which a wizard would go in order to claim his woman. Those facts would only make her more skittish.

“I’ll manage.”

She froze. “With other women?”

“Does it matter as long as I keep my distance?”

Would she be jealous? Duke held his breath, hoping she’d refute him, hoping she’d offer herself. If it weren’t for Mason, he’d be inside her morning, noon, and night. Evening, dawn, twilight—anytime he was awake and she was willing. And that would drag him deeper under her spell and
hurt so much more when she left. Mason would hate him even more. Regardless, need pounded inside him, and Duke almost didn’t care about Mason or the pain.

Almost.

“Can you? That kiss we shared …” She bit her lip, betraying her nerves.

“So help us both. Don’t let me …”
Touch you, taste you, feel you close around me while you scream in ecstasy
. “I only have so much strength. Stop me next time I tell you to.”

Anger tightened Felicia’s face. “You overwhelmed me. I had no time to think or breathe or speak.”

True. He’d backed her against the door, shoved his body flush against her soft curves, and devoured her tender lips. Her only crime had been responding—a small infraction comparatively. “You’re right. Sorry. I’m prepared to Call to you, which I believe is our best course of action, despite the … drawbacks.”

She looked wary, as if she didn’t like the fact he hadn’t assured her that he could keep away.
Smart girl
. Duke feared once the words had been spoken and she was his that the fever boiling his blood now would scorch away his restraint. But letting Mathias anywhere near her was far worse.

“We’re running out of time,” he pointed out.

“Yesterday, I nearly married a man I very much esteem. My best friend. I understand you’re suggesting a temporary arrangement, and I’ll forget it all eventually. But it’s frightening.”

“You’re not afraid of wizards.” If she had been, she’d have run screaming from the lot of them earlier.

“Perhaps foolish on my part, but no.”

He stepped closer. God, her scent, wholesome yet so fucking arousing, nearly brought him to his knees. “You know I’m willing to do anything necessary to keep you safe.”

Her shaky sigh reached deep inside him. “Yes. And I appreciate
it.”

Knowing he shouldn’t, Duke closed the distance between them a bit more, leaning against the wall, trapping her between him and the mattress. “You’re afraid of me. Our kiss.”

Felicia tried to hide it, but she was every bit as affected by him as he was by her. That fact sizzled all the way to his core.

She hesitated, stuttered, “It didn’t mean anything to you, I know. All your women … It was just energy, yes?”

“Magickind doesn’t exchange energy through kissing.”

“Oh.” She swallowed.

Duke frowned. Her reticence went deeper than normal uncertainty in a foreign situation, almost like she feared their attraction, their connection.

A terrible thought jolted him. “Did some man hurt you, Felicia? Break your heart?”

She jerked her startled blue gaze to him. “No. Before Mason, I only dated one other man. Tristan and I parted amicably.”

Shoving aside his burning jealousy that his brother and some unknown wanker had touched her, Duke frowned at her words. Though she wasn’t a femme fatale by nature, she was gorgeous enough to have men falling at her feet. Since she didn’t, there was a reason. Once they’d mated, he’d have time to figure the mystery out.

“Shall I Call to you, then?”

For a long moment, she said nothing, then finally nodded. “How do we … proceed?”

No one had prepared her. Damn. “Wait here.”

Duke dashed through the hall, looking in several rooms until he found a pen and paper. He jotted down the Binding words, then darted back to Felicia, his heart racing from more than the sprint.

Tonight, she would be his. Perhaps not in every way, but Duke couldn’t deny how wonderful it would feel to call her mate, even if only for a while.