Harlequin Nocturne May 2016 Box Set (26 page)

After a while, composed again, Isis let her thoughts return to Daniel. To what Ares had said.

Does he love you?
he had asked. Clearly Ares had believed it possible—more than merely possible—but Daniel had never told her.

Did it matter? Were her feelings for him dependent upon his for her, or upon what path he chose to take to help the people of Tanis? Could she be such a coward, when he had set aside his own pain to restore peace to the city?

Slowly she rose, climbed the ramp, and pressed the button for the elevator. When it reached the bottom, two more soldiers and three Opiri prisoners spilled out: two of Ba'al's courtiers and Hera. It was clear from their appearance that they had fought their captors; Isis knew that Hera, like the other “gods,” would have tried to use her influence against them. Either her will hadn't been strong enough, or she had simply been outnumbered. It remained to be seen what had become of the other conspirators.

At least Daniel would not keep the prisoners in the cells where Anu and Ba'al had imprisoned
him
. He had not lost all his compassion.

She entered the elevator and rode it to the top.. Daniel's suite now, if he chose to claim it. Which he would never do.

Half expecting to find the rooms still seething with soldiers and blank-faced humans, she was surprised to find it nearly empty. None of the Opiri remained, and the humans had either left of their own accord or been escorted to a safe place.

One man stood in the center of the reception room, his blood-caked hands at his sides, his expression empty. It was as if he had used up all his energy giving orders to those who needed direction, and had nothing left for himself.

Isis crept into the room, approaching him as if he were a stranger. “Daniel?” she said.

He turned his head toward her without meeting her eyes. “Isis?” he said in a tone of dazed exhaustion.

She continued toward him, waiting for him to come alive again. He was still in a state of shock when she took his hand and led him toward the rear of the suite. All Households had been built on much the same plan, and she knew where to find the bath.

The small, dark room was eerily silent, echoing with her and Daniel's footsteps. The bathing pool was rectangular, with a slightly sloping bottom, and filled with warm, clear water.

“Let me help you,” she said. While he stood at the edge of the pool, unresisting, she carefully removed his torn shirt and trousers, close to weeping again at the sight of his scarred body. He seemed utterly unaware of her touch, even when she led him to the stairs descending into the water and helped him enter the pool.

He slid down into the water automatically, as if his body understood what he needed better than his mind did. Isis found the cleaning oil and cloths, shed her clothes and slipped into the pool beside him.

For a while she did nothing but lie by his side. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Little trails of blood meandered away from his body.

“I am going to touch you now,” Isis said. She gathered a handful of oil and gently spread it across his chest. He inhaled sharply, and she thought he might bolt from the pool. But he settled again, staring straight ahead, enduring the sweep of her palm as she worked the oil into his skin and brushed carefully over recently healed wounds. His heartbeat slowed, and she began to work on other parts of his body: legs and arms, neck—so terribly abused—and shoulders. He resisted a little when she turned him over, but he relented and let her bathe his back with all its layers of scars, washing the dried blood from the most recent lashing.

When she had finished, she urged him to turn over again. With even more care, she began to wash his face, dabbing at the scrapes and cuts, working the cleanser into his stiffened hair. She rinsed him off with a basin at the pool's edge and thought of leaving him there to recover, believing that he would come back to himself when he had a chance to rest.

But as she moved to go, his hand clasped her wrist. She looked at his face and closed eyes, holding very still.

“You haven't finished,” he said, his voice a rasp.

CHAPTER 27

I
sis felt a flood of moisture between her thighs that had nothing to do with the warm water's caress. Still watching Daniel's expression, she slid her hand down into the water and took his half-erect shaft into her hand. Immediately it came to full attention. She massaged the oil into his skin, heard his breath catch, felt gentle waves slap against her as he shifted. She took her time, and he seemed suspended between relaxation and tension, pleasure and pain.

She knew then that he would take everything she could give. She moved to straddle him, welcoming him inside as easily as a lock accepting a key. Erotic sensation burst through her. She eased up and down, her hands spread across his chest where the skin was least marked. He made a sound low in his throat and caught her waist in his hands, thrusting up to impale her again and again. Then he cupped her breasts in his hands, drew her down and kissed her mouth, probing urgently with his tongue. She opened to him, always aware of her teeth, and he bent his knees to hold her astride him while he speared his fingers in her hair.

The kiss ended at last, and she grazed her lips over his brows and cheekbones and chin, thinking only of healing, of restoring some small pleasure to his world. He continued to stroke her hair, wordless, giving in return. He took another long, deep breath, and she was certain, as his hand dropped from her head, that he would sleep.

She was wrong. He opened his eyes, his gaze searching her face. She offered her breasts to him, and he suckled her, kissing and licking her nipples until she was gasping with delight. He lifted her in his arms with easy strength and turned her over, placing her on her hands and knees at the foot of the stairs.

Isis shuddered. Daniel braced his hands on her hips and thrust into her, gently rocking her forward, driving so deep that she thought it impossible that they should ever separate. She moaned as he caressed the most sensitive area between her legs in time to his thrusts, and she knew she would soon lose control over her body's desire for completion.

But he showed no mercy. He withdrew and turned her over again to pick her up in his arms, carrying her up the steps and setting her on her feet. He found a pile of feather-soft towels, tossed them on the tiled floor and laid her down on top of them.

Then they were face-to-face, Daniel braced on his arms over her, his hips cradled between her thighs, his blue eyes no longer distant but deeply tender. She wrapped her legs around his waist at the moment he entered her, preparing herself for the full force of his passion.

But this time his movements were not urgent, not marked by the almost desperate hunger that had imbued their other encounters. Now he was as gentle as his gaze, caressing her inside and out, kissing her nipples and her face and her lips. It was an act of love, of gratitude, of desire...and above all, of acceptance of everything she was or had ever been.

“I love you,” she whispered as he brought her to climax. But as he finished and rested against her, his face pressed into the hollow of her shoulder, he did not answer. He would not speak the words. Perhaps, Isis thought with profound grief, he could not. Perhaps those feelings were locked up inside him with the pain of his past, entangled so that he could no longer tell one emotion from another.

“Take my blood,” he said, positioning himself so that she could reach his neck. She knew this was another act of the love he couldn't accept, and she bit him with great care, piercing the healed flesh, shuddering with fresh ecstasy as his blood rolled over her tongue. Daniel began to shudder, but not with horror or disgust; he stiffened again, and as she drank he thrust into her, carrying her up and up, bringing her to another full completion. She ran her hands over the shifting muscles of his back as she sealed the wound.

And suddenly it was over. Daniel rolled over and rose to fetch another towel. He helped Isis to her feet and wrapped it around her, engulfing her in warmth and safety.

“I have to go back out,” he said, regret breaking his voice. “I still need you, Isis.”

Need her, yes, she thought. To pacify the city without violence. To gather the people to hear his pronouncement of Tanis's fate, as if only he had the right to determine it.

She shrugged out of the towel and put on her clothes again. Daniel watched her, his eyes following every motion. When she was finished, she took his hand.

“There will be clean garments in the suite,” she said. “Will you wear them, even if they belonged to Anu?”

“As long as they don't look like a god's,” he said.

Her loins still aching, Isis led him from the room.

* * *

Word had spread quickly throughout the city.

Daniel stood on the steps of the Hall of Justice, the administrative buildings and multistory apartments rising on either side. Ares, Trinity, Athena, Bes, Hermes and a dozen soldiers stood just behind him. To one side, Ares's soldiers guarded Hera, Ereshkigal, Hephaestus and as many of Ba'al's and Anu's supporters as they had been able to find and overcome; their serfs had been freed and taken into the care of human physicians. The Council, too, were under guard, until such time as their part in the recent events could be established. Certainly, Daniel thought, the human members would be absolved, and possibly the Opiri, as well.

Hundreds of citizens had gathered to hear him—men and women, Opir and human and half-blood were bathed in morning sunlight. But the crowd was divided. Humans had assembled on one half of the plaza, hooded Opiri on the other. Puzzled, half-hostile glances were exchanged. Information about the captive humans and Anu's ultimate plans for Tanis were still filtering through the ranks, provoking confusion, anger and fear. Ba'al's part in it was still little more than a rumor, but every human and Opir knew that a half-blood outsider had defeated the leader of the Nine and taken his place.

Scanning the plaza, Daniel searched for Isis. She wasn't there. He remembered every moment of the previous morning, the way Isis had cared for him when he had nearly lost himself, the joinings both urgent and gentle. She had spoken words to him she had spoken before, and again he had been unable to answer.

He laughed at himself. Here he was, with hundreds of people ready to hang on his every word, and the one thing he wanted was lost to him. Her love wasn't enough.

Daniel understood. She had given him that last time together. But she had clearly made a decision. She couldn't support his plans for the citizens of Tanis, and so she had left him.

He was alone. As he
must
be.

Daniel raised his hand. The crowd went silent.

“My name is Daniel,” he said. “I am the son of a human woman and the Opir Bloodmaster Ares, who commands the Freeblood army that freed the human serfs and took the law-breaking Opiri into custody.”

A murmur rose from the crowd, comments and questions rising like a stiff wind. The soldiers behind Daniel shifted their weapons. Daniel raised his hand again.

“I speak to you now as one who has been a serf and has also led colonies where Opiri and humans live in peace. I come to tell you what has happened to Tanis, and what lies ahead for all of you.”

“What gives
you
the right to speak?” a voice called from the Opir side of the gathering.

“He defeated the usurper Ba'al in formal challenge, after Ba'al killed the leader of the Nine,” Ares said, stepping forward. “And he has my army behind him.”

Those humans and Opiri who had known little of recent events reacted with sounds of surprise and confusion. Someone from the human side raised his voice above the chatter.

“The army protected us,” he said. “Let him speak!”

His exhortation was echoed by a hundred other humans, and gradually the crowd grew quiet again.

And then Daniel told them. He told them how the chaos in the city had been deliberately but subtly provoked; how humans had been stolen from their wards to become serfs to Anu's favored Opiri lords; how Anu had planned to return the city to the old ways and how his favorite, Hannibal, once known as the god Ba'al, had killed him in order to rule once more as a true deity, unchallenged and omnipotent in his own world. He spoke of Isis and Athena and the human resistance, and how they had helped to defeat the enemies of Tanis. And, without shame or pride, he explained how Ba'al had died, laying the fact before them plainly and letting them absorb it as they realized that everything had changed.

“The Nine founded Tanis on an ideal,” Daniel said. “Some intended to carry it through. The Lady Isis has always been devoted to all the people in this city.”

There were a few cries of “yes!” and a hum of approval from the audience.

“If it were not for her courage, either Anu or Ba'al would surely have succeeded. She—”

He stopped as Isis approached from the rear of the crowd, walking directly down the center of the plaza between humans and Opiri. She was every inch the goddess, and the watchers seemed to hold their breaths.

She's come to challenge me
, Daniel thought. Not in battle but with words. She would try to persuade the people of Tanis to begin again in this place where so much evil had occurred. She would do it because she believed with all her heart and every one of her long years that the city could still succeed.

He would have no choice but to argue against her.

“In spite of all she has done,” he said, “in spite of the good work of her allies and the humans and Opiri who stood against Anu and Ba'al, Tanis can never become what it was meant to be. Someday, it may be possible for humans and Opiri to live together in a city like this. But that time hasn't come. There are too many obstacles that face both peoples, decades of tradition and habit to overcome, pain and anger to be set aside.”

“You say we have failed,” Isis said, her voice carrying clearly across the plaza as she gazed up at him, “but for six years we lived in peace.”

“Yes,” Daniel said. He met her gaze, concealing all emotion in his eyes and voice. “But it didn't last, because a city is too big to nurture the dream of peace. People become anonymous to other citizens; Opiri and humans have room to live apart. There's no need for them to learn to understand one another.”

“But the will was there,” Isis said. She spoke to the entire gathering, but her gaze was for him, and she spoke of more than the city's fate. “The desire to live as equals—”

“Was not enough,” Daniel finished for her. “Not when the desire itself was unequal.”

“Do you blame the Opiri?” she challenged.

“I blame nothing but the system,” he said. His gaze swept over the crowd again. “There is another way. There are places in the west where humans and Opiri and half-bloods truly do live in peace. Settlements where each colonist knows every other, regardless of race. Where misunderstandings are worked out before they cause disputes.”

“Are humans forced to give blood?” a man shouted.

“They choose to do it, because there is no cause for resentment.”

A single sigh seemed to ripple over the divided audience. Relief, uncertainty, anxiety all intermixed along with hope and disbelief.

“I can take you to the west,” he said, raising his voice. “I can show you the colonies where you would be welcome, every human and Opir who still desires true equality.”

“All of us?” another human asked.

“When a colony grows too big, we form daughter colonies,” he said. “All are run the same. Some of you would become members of those daughter colonies, free to establish your own community.”

“And if what happened here happens again?”

“There is always sanctuary for those driven from their homes by violence and unfair laws,” he said. “But you must have the courage to try.”

He looked at Isis, asking her to hear him, to understand. The wide gulf between former serf and goddess might be unbridgeable, but if she was willing to lead her own people to a new life...

She turned her back on him. “Hear me,” she said. “You have been given a grave choice between journeying into the unknown with this man's promises to guide you, or rebuilding Tanis with your courage and goodwill.”

“Goodwill?” Daniel asked, struggling to harden his heart. “Can any amount of goodwill overcome the taint Anu, Ba'al and their followers have left on this city?”

The silence was painful, cutting Daniel to the heart. If Isis were repudiated by her own people, she would be cut loose from everything she had known during the time she had traveled with the Nine and all the centuries before. Severed from her dream, what would she become? Apart from her peers and her followers, without love...

“I offer a new life to the humans of Tanis,” he said, “and for any Opiri who wish to join us. But Lady Isis is a wise leader. Those who want to remain with her here are welcome to do so.”

Every voice in the plaza faded. It was some time before the next human spoke up.

“What will you do with the lawbreakers?” she asked.

“That is to be your decision,” Daniel said.

“Exile!” the woman shouted.

“Death!” someone called, followed by many other voices demanding the same punishment.

“Your anger is justified,” Daniel said, interrupting them. “But to kill them means that you'll be no better than they are. Their fates will haunt you when you try to start a new life, here or in the west.”

All over the plaza, humans and Opiri talked among themselves and exchanged wary glances across the aisle that separated them. Isis was still standing in the center, her gaze on Daniel.

“You defeated Ba'al,” an Opir shouted. “You make the law.”

“It was never my intention—” Daniel began.

“You decide!”

“You choose!”

“Tell us!”

Humbled and disturbed by the power all these people had put into his hands, Daniel descended the steps and stopped at the level of the crowd. Isis was no more than a few yards away, but the yards might as well have been miles.