Haunted by Your Touch (15 page)

“We both feel it’s too much, given your condition and recent loss.” He sent her a probing stare. “Raiden suspected you would disagree.”

And had done whatever the hell he’d wanted anyway. Lovely. “I’m pregnant, not hysterical.”

Ronan looked as if he swallowed a smile. “He will come to you for the decisions regarding clothing, location, time, and such. He merely wanted to spare you the preparation of the bodies.”

A physically arduous, emotionally trying
task—one usually reserved for family. If Raiden was truly protecting her, she ought to be glad. Instead, she couldn’t help but ask why. And why spare her the bathing, preserving, and painting of her family’s bodies? Merely to keep her from becoming overwrought and harming the baby? It was the most likely explanation… yet could his caring mean more?

Such hopes had landed her alone and pregnant. She had to stop wishing for some ridiculous fairy-tale ending now.

“Hmm. Would you like to tell me why he’s so secretive and closed?”

Ronan peered at her with amused disbelief. “I’d sooner wrestle in a pit of angry cobras without my wand.”

“Brilliant. Should have known you’d take his side.”

He shrugged. “Any good brother keeps his twin’s secrets. Though if he’s half as much like me as I believe him to be, there will come a point he won’t be able to keep anything from you.”

That didn’t sound like Raiden at all. “What point would that be, when I’m threatening his life or manhood?”

Ronan choked back laughter, then shook
his head. “When he stops denying what’s in his heart.”

Raiden entered his house with a curse on his lips. Nothing. Not a single goddamn clue that would help him protect Tabby or figure out this secret tree, whatever it was. Now what the devil was he supposed to do?

He entered the library moments later. Ronan sat in the room’s cozy armchair, studying Tabitha like an intriguing puzzle. Raiden would have been jealous if he hadn’t known how crazy his twin was about Kari, his mate. And since Ronan was ridiculously happy with Kari and believed every wizard should be thus, Raiden knew that Ronan was plotting his downfall into an equally harmonious state.

Matters weren’t that simple for him and Tabby. Never would be.

“Did you find anything useful? Or would you like me to take over the duties with my family?” she asked as he stepped farther into the room.

Raiden sent a glare his brother’s way. “So much for secrecy.”

“She has the right to be involved. It concerns her.” Ronan’s gentle chiding chafed him.

Raiden hated when his slightly older brother was right. “You may go now.”

“Looking forward to it. It’s somewhat painful to sit here and watch you make an ass of yourself.”

“Bugger off,” Raiden said with mock cheer.

Ronan saluted, then teleported away.

“So?” she prompted.

“Let me worry about this. You’re dealing with grief and—”

“And trying to figure out this puzzle so that my father’s sacrifice won’t be for naught takes my mind off my pain. Please.”

Raiden shook his head. She wasn’t going to bloody leave this alone. And he couldn’t just let her ache.

“I found nothing. Just an update to
The Peers and People of Magickind
that should be published soon, outlining changes to every family’s births, deaths, matings… all of it public knowledge, really. Why keep track of it at all?”

She shrugged. “The older generation cares about such things, you know. Father loved his work passionately, enjoyed marking the passing
of time by recording every magical family’s momentous occasions.”

“I can’t imagine sitting down to read page after page of someone’s family tree.”

His last word echoed around the room, and they both froze. Raiden’s thoughts started whirling.

“Tree?” she choked. “Father kept family trees for a living. Maybe…”

“… we’re not dealing with a real tree.” He rushed across the room and grabbed her shoulders—and tried to ignore the sting of desire that threatened to overwhelm him every time he touched her. “Do you know of any family tree that’s kept secret?”

“No. He took care to correspond with all families, no matter how Privileged or Deprived. Most people volunteered their family changes. Deaths, while sad, were always promptly reported. Matings, usually happy occasions, as well. He didn’t always hear of a mate breaking right away, but often within a few months.”

“Can you think of any circumstances in which that wasn’t the case?”

“No.” She paused. “Wait! Just one. That same trip when my father took me to that mysterious
office in London I mentioned. The evening before, he took me to a hospital. It was quite late, and we met with a human couple. The woman had just given birth. She held her daughter once, cried, then gave the child to other humans. Her husband pleaded with my father to strike the child’s name from his books. I remember asking him who the family was, why he would ever record a human birth, and why they wanted to keep the baby a secret. He never answered except to say that I was never to repeat the incident to anyone. He never spoke of the humans again. That’s the only secret I can recall.”

Raiden paced the airy room. “You went to the hospital
before
he took you to the office?” At her nod, he went on. “We must find that building. Perhaps he left something there.”

“But what?” She shrugged. “Why would Mathias have a sudden interest in a human baby girl born over twenty-five years ago?”

“I don’t know. But if there’s a connection, I’m going to find it. And deal with it. Mathias isn’t coming near you ever again.”

Raiden made a call to Bram in low, secretive tones that infuriated her. This was about her family and her future. Did he really think he was going to keep her in the dark?

When he rang off and turned to leave, she grabbed him by the shirt. “I’m going with you.”

He shook his head. “Too dangerous.”

“That’s what you’ve decided?” she asked tartly.

Raiden sent her a wary glance. “I have.”

“Too bad for you, then. You’re not my mate.” She shrugged. “You’ve no right to decide anything for me.”

His icy blue eyes narrowed. “The child you carry is mine. I have every right to care about your well-being.”

“Care, yes. Decide, no. Either I go with you or
I resume this search alone. If Bram Rion knew that easily how to find the office my father most likely visited, then someone else will as well. Unlike you, I’m more likely to have privileges to enter, given that I’m his next of kin. What reason will you use to access his paperwork?”

Raiden clenched his jaw. “Bram is a member of the Council. I’m sure he can pull a few strings for me.”

He was right, Tabitha realized. In fact, they both were. Between his connections and her familial relation, they should have no trouble viewing whatever her father might have kept in the building.

“Should we be wasting time arguing about this, or should we be working together? What could happen, really? It’s a Council building in the middle of the day. Others should be there. We’re doing nothing wrong.”

Raiden hesitated, looking like he was about to refuse.

“Hello?” Nathanial Wolvesey called.

Tabitha shivered. Raiden’s father had looked at her all too sexually, given that she carried his son’s child.

Raiden watched her with an unblinking gaze.
“What’s the matter? Did my father say something to you that made you uncomfortable?”

A ginger brow rose. “Merely that he understood why you desired me so much. Then he assured me the two of you had passed a woman or two between you over the decades.”

He winced. “Bloody hell.”

Tabitha didn’t ask if Nathanial had been lying. The truth was all over Raiden’s face, and pain bulldozed her. He
had
treated women like interchangeable playthings. Convenient energy sources. Likely still did.

“He said that you wouldn’t mind if I allowed him to—”

“I mind. A great deal.” He clenched his teeth but met her gaze without flinching. “I’m sorry.”

Sorry for the behavior or sorry his father had revealed the truth to her? She shoved the thought away. “I politely refused, in case you’re wondering. But I won’t be alone with him again.”

“Hello?” Nathanial’s footsteps across the gleaming hardwood floors came closer.

Raiden didn’t hesitate. He grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.”

As always with teleporting, a loud sucking noise filled her ears. Then eerie silence. Suddenly, she
lost her balance, and a sense of tumbling through air overwhelmed her. The weightlessness, the not knowing which way was up and which was down, made her slightly ill.

A moment later, they stood outside a neo-modern office building. Built in the 1960s and topping off at about five stories, the concrete structure had been carved with magical runes between each tier of white-draped windows. There wasn’t a soul in sight.

“It looks abandoned.” Eerily so, in fact.

He frowned, grabbing her hand tighter. “Indeed. Bram speculated that the Council ministries no longer use this building. Apparently, it’s been the source of human speculation, particularly the meaning of the runes.”

“I recognize some of the symbols. Magic, mastery, truth, Fate. Death.”

Raiden shrugged, his wide shoulders looking almost menacing in a dark trench. “We don’t have time to decipher it now. I have an uneasy feeling. Let’s move quickly. I don’t want you out in the open where you’re vulnerable to Mathias or any eyes he might have watching.”

“He likely has no idea where I am.”

He hustled her under the building’s portico,
deep in shadow, and pinned her with a glare. “Do you really think it would take Mathias very long to figure out that your father had a daughter he hadn’t managed to kill in the attack? And that the daughter carried my child? Once he pieces all the information together, he’s going to be but a breath behind us.”

Dear God, she’d never thought of that before, but her father would have recorded her own birth. There would be no mating listed in
The Peers and People of Magickind
because she’d never mated. The fact that she carried Raiden’s child wouldn’t be listed until the youngling’s birth, but even so, a wizard with Mathias’s cunning and resources could find that information. After all, he hadn’t managed to outwit most of the Council and stay a step ahead of the Doomsday Brethren by being a half-wit.

“Fuck.” Raiden ran a hand through his long, pale hair. “And once he starts pursuing us, I know where he’ll look first. We can’t go back to your house. Or mine.”

“You’re right.”

“I’ll tell Ronan to warn my father away until this is settled. He won’t be happy, but if we can find what we’re looking for now, then I can set all back to rights soon.”

“Meaning your father can go home, and you can wash your hands of me by dumping me on Sean Blackbourne’s doorstep?”

His face tightened, darkened. Raiden’s temper wasn’t a small thing, and she wondered if she’d crossed some line.

He cursed and turned away. “That would be for the best.”

“For whom?” she challenged, furious to the bone with his oblique answers. “It would certainly be easiest for you. Then you could rid yourself of me, guilt-free and—”

Raiden grabbed her and pulled her close. “Listen to me. I have tried every way I know to spare you more heartache. I was a bastard to you, yes. I seduced you with every intention of walking out the door. I don’t mate. I am my father’s son.”

“I refuse to believe that.” Tabitha shook her head.

“I’m trying to do the right thing now. Instead of seducing you again, I’m warning you away. Which do you think I’d rather do?” He raised a golden brow, his hot gaze wandering down her body.

She flushed hot and tingly. “You held me with such tenderness. The way you made me feel so
secure and whispered to me when we were together was—”

“Designed to separate a pretty female from her knickers.” He forced himself to be brutally honest. “It’s a skill I’ve spent decades perfecting. Your parents knew this when they threatened me out of your life.”

She blinked, her hazel green eyes wide and astounded. “Threatened you?”

“To step aside or have the Council elder, your mate-to-be’s uncle, censure and incarcerate me until you were happily mated.”

That would have left the Doomsday Brethren fighting with one less warrior. Had Raiden allowed that to happen, he might as well have signed his own twin’s death warrant—along with those of the other Doomsday Brethren. They’d already been woefully outmanned. He hadn’t wanted to leave Tabby, though he hadn’t believed for one moment that he would have made a genteel witch like her happy. His desires ran deep, dark. He’d barely begun to unleash his wants on her. Eventually, he would have shocked her, and she would have realized what her parents already knew: he wasn’t good enough for her.

“You didn’t fight for me at all.” She didn’t ask
because she knew the answer, but the hurt in her voice made Raiden bleed inside.

“No.” In good conscience, how could he?

Tabby stepped back, a protective hand over the gentle swell of her belly. Shielding their baby from him. Pain at that realization gouged his chest and nearly took him to his knees. Raiden forced himself to swallow and send her a stare of cold challenge.

“Why are you helping me now? Because of the baby?” she asked.

God, she looked ready to break into a thousand pieces, and Raiden couldn’t stand to heap more pain on her. His gaze softened. “I’m not cruel. You and the baby matter. It would devastate me to see Mathias hurt you. And if you remain near me, he’d certainly try. Besides, I’m simply not built for commitment. The sooner you accept that, the happier you’ll be.”

She stared at him as if he were a stranger, her eyes wary and tear-filled. “Then you’re right. We should find whatever is in this building quickly so we can part ways.”

Without another word, she tried the door. It didn’t budge.

“Drat!”

Bram had given him the heads-up on accessing these buildings, once used by Council officials and their ministers. Raiden closed his eyes and chanted the spell Bram had provided, then coupled it with his own ability to sense other beings near.