Point of No Return (35 page)

“He liked it,” I answered, trying to keep the
distaste out of my voice, and not succeeding. “A lot—”

“Still, he can satisfy it for you,” Danial
said seriously. “I’ll do whatever you need me to, of course, but I
prefer not to hurt you, even though I can heal you after.” He took
my hand. “Come. We just have time for a walk before dinner.”

* * * *

For a long time that night, we just laid
together on the bed, touching gently as we talked.

“Did you call Elle today?” I asked.

“Everything is fine at home,” Danial
reassured. “Elle has started some advanced dancing lessons. Theo
took her today. I could tell by his voice he was enjoying the
attention.”

Theo made it a point now to dress in tight
T-shirts whenever he picked Elle up from her dance class. The other
mothers, as well as the instructor, fawned over him, wanting to
hear his latest stories of “working security detail.” He’d probably
worn his tightest jeans, too.

“Elle has talked about piano lessons also,”
Danial continued. “Would you mind if Devlin gave them to her?”

“He plays piano? I didn’t know.”

“Didn’t you see his grand piano at his
house?”

“No,” I said. “Maybe it’s in storage.”

“Probably,” Danial said thoughtfully. “It
used to be in the ballroom, and that’s being worked on. He wouldn’t
have risked it being damaged.”

“No, I don’t mind her learning from him. For
all his capability of being a pain in the ass, he was a good
teacher when he gave me voice lessons.”

Danial laughed, then said seriously, “Elle
also wants to have another sleep over. She said June. Is that
doable for you?”

“That should be fine. I’ll be six months
along by then.”

“You’re sure you’re pregnant? We haven’t seen
the doctor yet.”

“The Lust has been raised four times in less
than a week,” I said flatly.

“Are you sure it’s The Lust?”

“I have no symptoms of weakness, and my
health is perfect, thanks to you and Dev. So it’s got to be that.
I’m pregnant with a dhamphir.”

“I’m so excited, Sar,” Danial said tenderly.
“Theoron will have a half brother or sister, like I had in Devlin.
They won’t be separated, like he and I were, because of different
social standing. They’ll be true siblings.”

That was a silver lining in all this. My
heart lifted. “Yes,” I responded, pleased. “Yes, they will.”

* * * *

Thursday passed quickly. We both knew it was
our last day together, and we spent every moment of it in each
other’s company. The weather had taken a turn for the worse, so we
stayed inside, making love and sleeping. I also managed to finish
off the baskets of fruit and chocolate. That night, I wore the red
dress Danial so loved to dinner.

“I meant to ask you to bring it—” I began
over dinner.

“I found it when I was moving the boxes one
day last fall. It still smelled like you.”

“I wanted you to have it,” I said, putting my
hand over his. “I didn’t want to wear it for anyone else,
ever.”

“I’m going to have Tatiana copy it,” Danial
murmured lovingly. “The original I’ll save, but the replica I’ll
keep with your other clothes, for you to wear when you and I go
out.”

“Good,” I said, happily.

There was something sad about that last
night, even in our beautiful surroundings enjoying the excellent
food. I felt as Danial smiled at me across the table that he was
already missing me, thinking of tomorrow night, when he would be
alone, and I would be with Theo. It was in his eyes.

Later, after we had gone to bed, I initiated
lovemaking again, trying to tell him that I loved him, not to be
sad, because it didn’t matter if we weren’t together like this
every day, he was still in my heart.

* * * *

Friday dawned bright and early. It was then I
remembered Devlin’s words about meeting me at Camlyn’s.

I turned to Danial, and woke him. “Should I
pack? I have to be back in time for my appointment.”

Danial blinked. “What appointment?”

Chapter
Seventeen

Wonderful.
I’d told Theo and Dev, then
forgotten to tell Danial. “I have a doctor appointment tonight at
eight. We can teleport, though. There’s no rush.”

Danial got up. “Get dressed, Love. We need to
talk to Titus. Devlin set him to watch the house. See if he can
drive back the car, if I teleport with you. If he can’t we’ll have
to try to drive back. I think if we leave here right at dusk, we
can make it. Worst-case scenario, you can teleport there without
me, if you have to.”

I pulled on some clothes. “I’ll go out to the
SUV and get the maps. Titus will see me come out, if he’s out
there.”

Danial nodded, still dressing.

I was rooting around in the SUV for maps when
I felt a wave of evil blackness engulf me. “Hi Titus,” I said, not
looking up. “How’s it going?”

“You should be more careful,” Titus said in
his deep rumbling voice, looking in the opposite SUV window. “It
could have been any demon, Sar, not just me. We all feel this way,
you know.”

“I knew it was you.” I looked up, smiling.
“Dev said that he set you to watching the house by day.”

Titus walked around the SUV, dressed in only
a T-shirt, and jeans. With the heat he generated, he probably never
wore more than that. “I’m leaving at dusk, tonight,” he said, his
red eyes serious. “I’ve got a lot to do. Though I don’t mind the
cold, I’ve completely caught up on my reading. Guard duty is so
stultifying.”

Titus thought he was too much of an
intellectual to spend hours watching a house. Maybe he was. He did
know a lot of magic. Guard duty probably really was
stultifying...My amusement lessened sharply, remembering Lash had
used that same word to describe me.

“Will you and Danial be okay?” Titus rumbled.
“I would rather be bored than to leave you in a dangerous
position.”

Even standing a few feet away, his heat was
still warming me.
Ahh.
“No, actually, that’s what I came out
here to ask you. I need to head back for an appointment. Can you
drive the SUV back, and our things if I teleport myself and him
home?”

“Sure,” he replied. “When are you leaving?
I’ll stay until you leave.”

“Take off,” I said, giving him a quick hug.
“We’re leaving at dusk tonight. We should be fine until then. I’ll
be awake the whole time we’ll be here, and I’ll teleport us away,
if anything happens.”

“You’re sure?” Titus said hesitantly. “I
don’t want anything to happen to you.”

I noticed he didn’t include Danial in that.
Where did his loyalty really lie?
Devlin had not included
him on his short list of persons he trusted. Maybe there was a
reason for that.

“Why do you work for Dev?” I asked. “You
don’t seem to like him much. Do you have to?”

“Yes,” Titus said curtly.

Had Devlin summoned him out of Hell so he
had no choice but to do what Devlin told him?
The thought of
the real Hell complete with the devil and brimstone and fire gave
me chills. “Why?”

“I work for him because he’s a good
employer,” Titus rumbled, giving me a strange look. “I could either
work for myself, selling my magical knowledge or my strength, or
work for someone like him using the same talents. It’s easy working
for Devlin, especially as he’s a Ruler. He’s not a bad boss, and he
gives me what I need, which is a big plus.”

I gave him a quizzical look. “What’s that
mean?”

“Terian told you he ate flesh and blood
sometimes?” Titus prompted.

Suddenly I didn’t want to understand, because
I could guess where this was headed. “Yes.”

“I’m a demon, Sar,” Titus said, his eyes
burning into me, his smile a little sad. “I can’t eat real food.
That is all I can eat. What I need to eat.”

I got it loud and clear, yet I couldn’t seem
to get the words out. “You...you eat—”

“Sometimes,” Titus said in a low voice. “I
prefer not to. I prefer to eat only animals. But sometimes I have
to, to be healthy and stay as powerful as I am.”

I was very, very glad I hadn’t eaten
breakfast. I’d have gotten sick for sure.

“They are never alive,” Titus rumbled
gently.

The ramifications of that hit me like a fist.
I swayed, holding onto the SUV door. I couldn’t bring myself to say
it was okay that he ate people, even if they were bad. That they
weren’t alive when he ate them only made it marginally better. I
understood now why Devlin had taken Garrett’s body with him that
night he had taken Neoline.

My stomach rolled.
God. He’d taken Tasha
to feed to Titus, too...
I held onto the door with both
hands.

“It isn’t something I relish,” Titus said,
averting his gaze, upset. “I don’t have a choice about it, Sar. I
would have rather been born an angel or a human, in
retrospect.”

I fastened on that, anything else to get off
this topic. “There are angels? Real ones?”

“I think so,” Titus replied. “I’m not sure.
Books refer to them sometimes. But I’ve never seen any, and I’ve
seen a lot in the centuries I’ve lived.”

I was not going to ask him if the Devil was
real. I was too afraid of the answer. Titus kept talking, his
rumbling voice like stone grating on stone. “In any case, I have
what I need to survive and Devlin pays well. I’m loyal to him for
that, despite some of the reprehensible things he does sometimes.”
Titus paused. His next words were softer, content. “I’m as
comfortable as I’m going to be in this world, anyway.”

“Are you getting back with Leri?” I asked
flatly.

“I love her, Sar,” Titus said defensively,
meeting my eyes with his red ones. “I’m sorry for what she did to
you and Terian, but I love her and I want to be with her.”

Like father, like son, I thought but didn’t
say. “How’s that going to work? Devlin won’t let her stay at
Hayden.”

“She’s staying in the village below it, for
now. We are taking it slow. I want to be able to trust her. I don’t
yet. And I care about my son; I don’t want to alienate him after
I’ve missed so much time with him already.”

“I understand that, but I don’t want to see
her, Titus. She fucked up Terian badly with what she did to him.
I’m not going to forgive her for that.”

“Understood,” Titus said, nodding. “I won’t
be bringing her to Hayden anyway, so you should never meet her. Now
I should go, and report back to Devlin you are leaving at dusk.” He
left, fading out of sight in an instant.

Was he irritated I wasn’t jumping on the
Leri Bandwagon?
Grumpy at that thought, I went back in with the
maps.

Danial came over to me immediately. “What
were you two talking about? You looked upset.”

I relayed the conversation to him. “Devlin
draining Tasha was just. Knowing she got eaten after makes me feel
guilty.”

“You had to know he ate flesh and blood,”
Danial said with disbelief. “He’s a demon. That’s what they
do.”

I was an idiot. I’d thought of Titus as a
nice demon, who only ate pork chops and steak when I’d known what
he was capable of. “I didn’t think of it, really.”

The phone rang.

“Please answer it,” Danial said, taking the
maps. “I’ll look over these. Perhaps we do have time to drive
home.”

Why would I want to drive home when I
could teleport?
I picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Sar,” Theo said, relieved. “I’m headed out
for the day. I wanted to touch base before I left.”

“Will you be in time to meet me at the
doctor’s? I can’t remember if I told you about the
appointment—”

“You did. But I’m not coming. I don’t want to
be there.”

“Why?” I said, trying not to sound hurt. “It
might be—”

“It’s not,” he said flatly. “You have The
Lust, Sar. I can’t stand there and watch him look at me with glee
knowing how much I wanted it to be mine.”

“All right,” I said softly. “I
understand.”

“I’ll be waiting for you at Danial’s house.
Come there after your appointment, and I’ll drive you home.”

“Okay,” I said. “Bye.”

I stared down at the receiver, the dial tone
loud in my ears. Hate and resentment rose up in me; for Theo in his
bitterness, for the situation I was in, for the vampires who
controlled my life now...

Danial took the phone from me and hung it up
on the wall. “You look angry.”

I rubbed my eyes, my anger dissipating. “I’m
just tired of all this.”

“Then come,” Danial said, taking my hand. “We
still have today. Come share it with me, while it lasts.”

“Yes,” I said compliantly, following him
upstairs.

* * * *

Danial and I left the house as soon as the
sun had set. Stephen greeted us at the door, his blue eyes kind,
his weathered face crinkled in a smile. “Come in,” he said
pleasantly. “Devlin’s already here.”

He was standing over near the exam room door.
Lash was with him. Nice. “Please wait out here,” I said pointedly,
walking past them.

After taking a sample of my blood, Dr. Camlyn
asked me to undress, then went to leave.

I nodded. “What’s the blood sample for?”

“Devlin told me he bit you, and there was a
lot of blood,” Stephen said, annoyed. “I told him not to do it
again, but I need to make sure that you are okay.”

“I’ve been taking the vitamins, both
kinds.”

He nodded. “That will help, but I may need to
give you some of that blood replenishing formula.”

Fabulous.
That stuff tasted like used
car oil. “I’m fine, really.”

“We’ll look and see. Please undress.”

I did as he asked, then lay on the table in
my paper gown. When the door opened a moment later, I turned,
expecting it to be Stephen. Instead, it was Devlin and Danial.

“Stephen said we could come in,” Danial said
hesitantly. “We both want to be here with you when you find
out.”