Point of No Return (23 page)

“Don’t do that. He’s a good man. I trust
him.”

“I don’t plan to,” Danial soothed. “Now get
on your clothes, Darling. Chuck just drove up with Annabelle Lee
and Poe.”

Excited, I hurriedly dressed. “So we’re
riding first?”

“Yes,” Danial nodded. “But, no, I haven’t
forgotten the pizza. It will be here soon.” He offered me his hand.
“Come.”

Happily, I took let him lead me outside,
eager to hear the first welcoming neigh of a horse on the night
breeze.

* * * *

Terian teleported Danial and I home late the
next afternoon. I went about the house, greeting the pets and
picking up, hoping the glow of contentment over me wasn’t too
noticeable, especially as Danial had elected to touch base with
Theo.

“Why can’t it wait?” I asked again, letting
out Ghost and Darkness. “This isn’t the time for you to talk to
Theo, Danial.”

Danial petted Cavity, who’d homed in on his
lap and was already curled up, purring happily. “Maybe not, but I’m
going to anyway.”

Theo walked in, Elle at his heels. “You’re
home,” he said happily.

Elle went right for Danial. “Dad, Theo says I
can come every weekend!” she said happily. “Is that right?”

“Yes,” he said. “Maybe we’ll go to the movies
again next weekend, too.”

“Great!” she exclaimed, and then ran into her
bedroom, to return with her bag.

“Ready to go?” Terian said from behind me,
startling me.

“Yes,” Elle said. Taking his hand, they both
disappeared.

“Why are you still here, Danial?” Theo said
pointedly, folding his arms across his chest. “There’s nothing that
can’t wait until tomorrow.”

“I’m waiting for Devlin to get here,” Danial
replied. “I need to talk to you both.”

Theo’s eyes cut to me questioningly. I
shrugged.

Devlin appeared with Terian, who let him go,
and then disappeared again.

“Why am I here?” Devlin said, folding his
arms, irritated at Danial. “What is so important?”

“I want Sar to go away with me for a few days
in the next month or so,” Danial said casually. “I wanted to talk
to you both about it, before I made arrangements.”

“You are not taking her, brother,” Devlin
growled, his eyes red.

Theo came up to stand beside Devlin, also
incensed. “He’s right,” Theo said. “Anything could happen.”

“Like what?” Danial said in exasperation.
“We’re going to go someplace not very far away from here. If the
Lust hits, I’ll handle it. I won’t let her roam by herself,
unattended—”

“Danial,” Devlin sang meaningfully. “She’s
having my child—”

Danial glared back, his answering words
brusque and forceful. “If there is any sign of anything wrong, I’ll
call Terian to teleport her out of there. And that’s only if Sar
can’t just do it herself.”

“I want to come, too,” Devlin said jealously.
“I—”

“You just had some time with her alone a few
weeks ago,” Danial retorted, his eyes red now. “It’s something I
want. We’re going to do it, Dev.”

Theo opened his mouth.

Danial shot him a look. “And you had a
honeymoon with her, so keep it shut!”

“Not a quiet one!” Theo retorted. “You were
always calling—!”

“Stop it!” I shouted. “Before I kick all of
you out!”

Devlin sighed. “If you want to go, go ahead.
I’m okay with it, Love.”

“I haven’t agreed yet,” Theo growled. “I have
a say in where she goes.”

Devlin rolled his eyes. “What objection could
you possibly have if she wants to go, and she’s safe?”

“It’s not safe,” Terian said, appearing
suddenly in our midst.

Theo grabbed for his gun, I let out a yell,
Devlin started, and Danial was knocked off balance, as Terian was
standing too close to him when he appeared. He half sat, half fell
down on the couch.

“Don’t ever fucking do that again!” Devlin
said, glaring at Terian. “You hear me, half-breed?”

Terian sneered at him. “Or what?”

Danial got up fluidly, and went to stand in
front of Terian. “Dev’s right, Terian. Enough theatrics. Lately
you’ve been full of yourself, and it’s annoying everyone, including
me. Knock it off.”

Terian’s look was cold, not respectful. For
some reason, that scared me.

“He’s right,” Theo said, his tone still
electric with adrenaline. “Stop scaring people, especially Sar. You
want to scare someone, save it for our enemies.”

“Fine,” Terian said coolly. “I was just
making a point.”

“What point?” Devlin said.

“That anyone can teleport in here at any
time,” Terian said. “I need to do some sort of spell here, as Titus
did at Hayden. I’ve done one at your house already, Danial.”

“So do it,” Danial said easily. “I want Sar
protected.”

“There’s more,” Terian said uneasily.

“What?” we all said.

“Leri is back in town,” he answered.

Chapter Twelve

“What do you mean, she’s back?” Theo asked.
“Have you seen her?”

“No, but Titus has. She came to him one night
in a dream, asked him for his forgiveness. She’s always been able
to do that with him, he said, but she has to be somewhere in the
surrounding towns. She can’t do it from a distance. So she’s
here—”

“Fucking great!” Devlin spat. “Before I know
it, they’ll be back together again!”

I looked at him, astounded. “She tried to
kill Terian. Titus wouldn’t take her back.”

Devlin shot me a bitter smile. “She’s tried
to kill him before, Sar. Three times. He took her back every damn
time.”

Fucking great, indeed
. “That’s
terrible.”

“He might at that,” Terian said sadly. “It
was in his words how much he misses her, despite what she did to
me.”

I couldn’t think of anything constructive to
say, so I said nothing. Theo had no such restraint. “He’d have to
be fucking crazy to do that. Devlin, if you let Titus take her
back, if she lives with you at Hayden, I’m not letting Sar come to
you at your home. Leri threatened her as well as Terian. She
probably wants revenge on Sar for doing that.”

“I agree, Dev,” I said.

“I agree, also,” Danial said, his eyes on
Devlin. “Sar is not going to your house to spend time if Leri comes
to live there again.”

“Agreed, for now,” Devlin said, holding up
his hands in a submissive gesture. “I don’t want Leri living there
again anyway. She wrecked a lot of the house, and I’m just starting
work on some of the worst areas.” He looked at me. “Sar is helping
with some of it,” he said proudly.

Theo gave me a curious look.

Danial nodded. “I thought she probably would.
She likes to keep busy, and fixing things is one of her favorite
hobbies.”

“There is a lot she is working on for me. In
fact, Theo, you may need to let her come to my house more
often—”

“Dev,” Theo growled. “I’ve been very
understanding about all this. Don’t push it.”

Devlin narrowed his eyes, but said
nothing.

“Back to the business at hand,” Theo
continued. “I’ll agree to Sar going with Danial on his getaway if
you both okay her going west with me and Elle sometime in the
summer.”

“Why?” Devlin said quickly, glancing from
Theo to me and back again. “Where?”

“Sar’s in-laws want to meet me,” Theo said
proudly. “And I want to show Elle where Sar found me, where we
spent time after she came to me. We’d stay a week or so.”

“I don’t have a problem with that,” Danial
said, after a moment. “But it has to be only a week at most.
Teleport.”

Theo nodded. For some reason, that small
movement caused my simmering rage to boil over.

“I’ll agree,” Devlin said slowly. “If you let
me have her for a week to myself as well—”

“Anyone want to bother asking me what I
want?” I screeched.

All eyes turned to me. Theo and Devlin looked
surprised, but Danial looked almost as if he had been expecting
this.

“It’s my decision,” I said bitingly “If I go
or stay, and who I go with where.”

No one said anything for at least a minute.
Then Danial cleared his throat.

“Are you saying you don’t want to go with
me?” he asked neutrally. “Because last night you made me believe
that you did.”

I knew I’d hurt him. Stifling my guilt, I
made myself go on. “I want to go with you,” I said, giving him a
soft look. “Check into places, and let me know.” I turned to Theo.
“Yes, we should go out west. I haven’t seen my relatives in a long
time, and Elle should come—”

I met Devlin’s eyes, red and wrathful. “And
you can calm down. We spent time alone just a few weeks ago. You’re
swamped with your duties anyway. Sometime next fall we can take a
short trip, when things settle down.”

Devlin’s eyes changed slowly back to gold.
“If you’re consenting to each request, what was your outburst
about?”

“That this fighting over me has to end. No
more taunts and nastiness, Devlin. No more trying to find a way to
free me from my Oath, Theo. And Danial, relax already; I said I’d
come to you. Don’t freak out if I’m a few minutes late, because
it’s going to happen occasionally.”

They all looked at me as if they weren’t sure
who they were looking at.

“Look,” I said, folding my arms across my
chest. “This is really hard for me. I was raised to believe it
should be one man, one woman. It’s not that I don’t love you,
because I do. I just don’t like this situation, if you can call it
that. As things are right now, I just can’t do it.”

I had their full attention now. “What do you
mean?” Theo said.

“I need you all to stop demanding so much of
me, or remove yourselves from our ménage-a-quatre. I like sex,
probably more even than the average woman, but I am worn out—”

“Sar—” Danial said tenderly, reaching for
me.

I stepped away from him, and held up my hand.
“Let me finish!” I said firmly.

He nodded, and drew his hand back.

“Is everyone okay with what I just said?” I
asked pointedly.

“I’m okay with it,” Devlin said. “But you and
I need to talk more about this, the next time you come to me. We
should come up with some clear plan, so I at least am not
contributing to your distress.”

Was he saying he’d need another lover? I’d
have to find out then.
“Fine.”

Devlin gave me a chaste kiss, then turned to
Terian. “Take me back.”

Terian took his hand, and then they
disappeared.

Danial slipped his arms around me. “I’m okay
with you visiting once a week. You can do nothing more than sleep
beside me when you need to. Not every time, please, but I don’t
want you to feel the way you are feeling now. And it goes without
saying, if you are pregnant that I won’t expect sex until sometime
after the child is born, when you’re ready.”

“Thank you,” I said gratefully.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Danial hugged me.
“Take me home, Sar.”

I teleported him home in an instant. When I
moved to step away from him in the great room, he stopped me.
“Wait! I wanted to be alone with you.”

“Why?”

“Devlin may ask you to let him be with other
women. He has always had more than one lover, Sar. I wanted to warn
you, in case you didn’t realize it.”

I took a burn. “Not when he was with Anna. He
said he was faithful to her—”

“She was his. They spent every night
together. He never had to share her like this.”

“Then he should give me up!” I said angrily.
“He—”

“Sar, it is within his rights to take you to
Hayden, and keep you there,” Danial said harshly. “Don’t push him,
because he wants to do that. He is waiting for Theo or you to give
him an excuse to do just that—”

Always about vampire rights and vampire
laws!
“Danial, he gave me his word that he wouldn’t be with
anyone else for a decade! I told him I understood if he wanted to
be, and he said he loved only me, that he wanted only me!”

Danial hugged me close. “He may have felt
that way at the time, but he thought, as I did, that Theo was
leaving you. If he only shared you with me, he probably could do
it. But his sexual appetites have always run to excess. He’d likely
have asked anyway when you are in your last months of
pregnancy—”

“What are you advising?” I said abruptly. “Be
blunt.”

“Share him, as he is sharing you. Let him
take other lovers. He can’t give you anything. There is no
danger.”

“That was never the reason I didn’t want him
to be with someone else,” I managed.

“I know, Love,” Danial said, hugging me. “But
if you really love him, you need to let him have what he
needs.”

Sickened, I nodded. “I’ll take it under
advisement. Now, I’d better get back to Theo.” I teleported back to
my home, not waiting for his reply.

Theo was on the couch vegetating. He shut off
the TV when I appeared. “He wanted to talk to you in private, too?”
he said, pulling me down beside him. “About what?”

I made a face. “He said Devlin will want
other lovers, and to give him what he wants.”

“Will you?” Theo asked.

“Probably,” I said, after a moment. “What
choice do I have? I thought he would get tired of me, just not this
soon.”

“If only he would,” Theo said, hugging me
close. “I want him to get tired of you, Sar, so it’s just the two
of us again. Well, three, but I don’t mind Danial anymore.”

The thought of losing Devlin to another woman
made me feel like my chest was on fire. It hurt to breathe.

“I didn’t realize how I was making you feel,”
Theo said gently. “We don’t have to be intimate every night. It’s
enough that you are here with me.”

“Thank you, Theo,” I said, hugging him
halfheartedly.

That night, despite my distraction over
Devlin, I was aware of a change in Theo. Not only did he heat up
dinner, he also made us popcorn. Later, when we went to bed, he
held me, but didn’t push for more. As much as I was relieved, I
wanted to know this was real, not just temporary good behavior.