Wrath: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 2 (38 page)

I walked into his open arms and he swept me up, carrying me to the bed where, for the very first time, I laid my ghosts to rest and made love to my intended.

We slept for six solid hours and would have likely slept longer if Mark hadn’t come to the door. Hellion stretched and called for the butler to enter. The young man entered as if hell’s hounds were on his heels, slamming the door behind him.

“What the blazes is your problem, Mark?” Hellion demanded as he took in the butler’s disheveled appearance.

“Sir, I—er, I—” he stammered, pulling at his shirt collar and rolling his shoulders around in the suit jacket he wore.

“Spit it out, Mark,” I said, sitting up. I felt the top of my head and was grateful to find it
 
healing. Getting hair pulled out hurts.

“Bahlin’s here!” he said quickly and with something that sounded suspiciously like fear.

“What?” I demanded as Hellion exploded out of bed.

“I’ll kill that sorry son of a bitch,” he swore as he stormed across the floor, his erection once again an awkward flagship as he strode away from me and toward the stuttering coven-member-turned-house-servant.

“Hellion,” I called, terrified this was about to turn irrevocably violent. When he didn’t stop but had reached the door, I bellowed, “Hellion son of Markalon, stop!”

He stopped so hard he stumbled as he swung around to face me, his chest heaving and splotched an angry red. The blacks of his eyes had again eaten the white, and his hair whipped about. He was no less aroused, though I imagined it was something similar to what old reports say would happen to warriors headed into battle. Other heads got involved as the testosterone skyrocketed. Shaking my head, I turned to Mark and barked, “Out! Stand by the door and give me five minutes. If he comes out that door, you are going to stop him or so help me I will rain fury down on you, Mark.”

The little man nodded and scampered out of the room.

“How
dare
you interrupt me,” Hellion boomed, his chest heaving and muscles quivering. “He killed Amaly, and he came for you last night. You will
not
deny me my vengeance.”

“What did you just say to me?” I asked in a soft voice as I stalked closer to him, slowly advancing and circling him where he stood immobile. “Don’t you
dare
speak to me as if you’ll command me, Hellion. Don’t. You. Dare!” I spat as I came full circle around him.

“Tell me you’ll defend him again, Madeleine. Say it,” he hissed back at me, bending down and getting in my face. “Say it,” he bellowed.

A strange sense of self washed over me, and I was aware of every hair on my body as it went on alert, and every square inch of skin as it puckered not with cold but with power. Knowledge flowed over me, and the words I spoke were strangely mine but not my own. “The vengeance you seek so desperately is not yours to dispense, Hellion. No amount of rage and punishment will change the fact that Amaly is dead, and your best efforts failed to keep me safe.” I jerked like a marionette whose puppet master had sneezed before continuing. “You will allow me to do my job and I, not you but
I
”—I pounded my chest—“will render judgment. This is not the burden of your heritage. It’s mine. You will not attempt to take it from me—not now, not ever.” I sagged as whatever it was that had empowered me left, and Hellion let me stumble.

His eyes we flat black, and I knew he was at his most dangerous when they became fathomless like this. “So you’ll choose him again,” he said in a bitterly cold voice. “Don’t do this to me, Maddy. Don’t do this to us.”

“I don’t have enough evidence to convict him, Hellion. If I did, I’d take it straight to the Council. But there are holes in the logic, holes you made me see. I can’t let you go blowing in there to kill him. I’m not convinced it’s right.”

Hellion closed his eyes and the wind around him eased down. When he opened his eyes, the whites had returned, but they were still flat and his face was expressionless. He walked to the closet and I heard him dressing, and then I heard nothing at all. I waited until Mark knocked on the door, and I ran back to bed and jumped in, pulling the covers to my chin.

“Come in!” I called.

“It’s been almost ten minutes, madam,” Mark formally announced, his composure restored.

“Thanks. Hellion?” I called. “Come out here.”

There was no response save an echoing silence.

“Hellion?” Nothing. “Mark, hand me my robe and wait outside for a few seconds while I sort this out.” He tossed me the robe that lay across the foot bench and shut the door quietly behind him. “Hellion?” I called one last time as I walked to the closet. But I could call all I wanted to.

Hellion was gone.

Unsure what to do, I dressed and made my way downstairs to the parlor. Someone had set it to rights since Hellion’s impromptu flash grenade had been set off last night. The furniture had even been polished so the smell of burned flesh was overpowered by the tang of lemon oil. I nearly choked.

The slight sound I made had Bahlin turning to meet my gaze as I came into the small room. I held my breath and waited for the worst of the pain to subside, but it didn’t. It just hurt. I didn’t know how long it would be before I could look at him without wanting to claw my heart out of my chest to make the pain of betrayal feel less like a mortal wound. Apparently a handful of weeks, the divine word of Odin and two marriage proposals weren’t enough.
Fabulous
.

“Madeleine,” he said, inclining his head toward me as he held out a hand to shake.

“Council Leader,” I said in return, ignoring his gesture. I didn’t want to touch him.

“Fair enough. I’ve come, as promised, to help you solve these recent crimes.”

“Who’s Connell Darach?” I asked, and I was pleased when Bahlin paled. “I see you know him.”

“He’s an old family friend,” he answered smoothly.

Going out on a limb I said, “You shouldn’t lie, Bahlin. It’s not becoming.” I walked over to the sideboard and poured a stiff three fingers of whiskey neat and didn’t offer Bahlin a drop. He wouldn’t be staying. I looked over my shoulder and found Bahlin a couple of steps closer to me and watching me in a predatory way. “You’ll need to keep your distance, Glaaca. It would be a shame for the blue weyr to lose another leader so soon.” It was a vicious blow, but I wasn’t going to play games with him.

Bahlin reacted as if I’d slapped him, taking a full step back. “What in Grenla’s name has he done to you?” he asked. “You weren’t such a bitch when you left me.”

“
I
left
you
? Is that how you remember it?” I snorted in bitter amusement. “You need to lay off the gold dust, dragon boy. It’s going to your head.” I threw the whiskey back, grateful for the burn as it washed through my stomach.

“You had the opportunity to come home with me in Ireland and, as I recall, you threatened to kill me.” He quirked a brow at me, and my heartbeat sped up at the familiar gesture.

“Why have you come, Bahlin? It’s obviously not to help. You’re days late for that. So own up and then get out.”

He turned and walked to the bookshelf and perused the knickknacks of several lifetimes. “I’m amazed he let you come down by yourself. If you were mine, I wouldn’t have let you near him without me as a chaperone.” When I didn’t answer, he continued. “I also wouldn’t allow you to be injured.”

A chill ran up my spine, and I felt like a pair of cold lips had been laid at the base of my skull. “What would you know about the injury?” I asked.

“Nothing other than you weren’t hurt when you were with me.”

I turned slowly and stared at him in disbelief. “I was shot when I was ‘with’ you, as you say, I got my ass thoroughly kicked, I was cursed, I
died
and then you broke my heart! In a matter of only a few
weeks
, Bahlin!” I bellowed the last, and Mark and Stearns came racing into the room. I waved them off and didn’t turn to see if they left. “Your track record isn’t spotless, Bay, so cool it.” The easy nickname I’d coined for him fell off my tongue before I could stop myself.

Bahlin turned back to face me, and a look of remorse passed over his features. “I’ve missed you, Maddy. Won’t you come home?” He approached me very slowly and reached for my good hand. Static jumped between us and, lifting my hand to his lips, he never took his eyes off my face. But when his lips met the cold weight of the stones, he glanced down.

I choked on a sob and shook my head. “I
am
home, Bahlin.”

“Gods alive, I swore to Aiden you wouldn’t do this,” he said, visibly reeling from the shock the ring had brought. “I swore you were just punishing me, but that’s not it, is it?”

“No, it’s not.” I shook my head and gently took my hand back.

“I was wrong to come.”

“Particularly if you only thought to try to coerce me to leave.”

“I was actually showing up for duty,” he said, bitterness tingeing what should have been benign words. “Seems you’ve got everything under control, so I’ll just be going.” He grabbed his leather motorcycle jacket and headed for the parlor door but he couldn’t go without one parting shot. “Connell Darach is my magus, Madeleine. At least I didn’t have to fuck mine to keep him.”

I stood quietly until I heard the front door slam, and then I folded in on myself and sank to the carpet, my one good hand clamped firmly over my mouth so I wouldn’t scream in rage or pain. I was too far gone emotionally to give over to angry tears, so I lay there, curled on my side, thinking of all the things I would have loved to have said. Unfortunately, there was no one there to hear me.

Darius wandered into the parlor a while later and froze when he registered the heartbeat in the otherwise silent, dark room. Looking around, he saw my prone form on the floor, and he took a half a dozen large steps to my side and lay cool fingers on the side of my neck. “Maddy? Darling?” he said softly. “Sweet Cain, what is going on in this house while I sleep?” Scooping me up in his arms, he headed for the stairs.

“I don’t want to go back to the master,” I rasped, my voice rough after the tension it had been under.

“That’s fine, love. What kind of man would I be if I were to try to get you into bed in another man’s room?” he teased, but I wasn’t sure there wasn’t some underlying truth to his words. He carried me passed the curious staff and, in particular, a goggling Mark, and headed for the second floor. I hadn’t explored the house, so I wasn’t sure what the second floor held beyond a couple of bathrooms and bedrooms. Darius held me easily, and I curled into his arms, strangely comfortable with my head tucked under the vampire’s chin. Opening the door to a room I wasn’t familiar with, he stepped inside confidently and kicked it closed. Darkness enveloped us like a shroud, and I felt inexplicably safe, as if the world couldn’t see me because I couldn’t see it.

“Foolish girl,” Darius chastised, but there wasn’t an ounce of malice in his voice. “Don’t you know to be afraid of me?”

“How do you know I’m not?” I whispered into the front of his soft silk shirt.

“Your heart rate slowed when the door closed behind us, and you took a deep breath and just…just…well, I suppose you sighed.”

“I suppose I did.”

He stopped and held me out from him but I clung tightly, turning so I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Would it bother you terribly, Darius, if I asked you to just hang on to me for a moment?”

“Oh, Maddy. I don’t mind, my little chick. What will you say if Hellion finds us cuddled up on the sofa?”

“To hell with Hellion,” I whispered harshly. I imagined the look on Darius’s face and I shook my head and said, “Just pretend he doesn’t exist.”

“You don’t want me to do that, love. Trust me.”

“I don’t know, Darius. You’re the only one who’s been honest about just wanting to get into my pants.”

He snorted out a laugh, and I felt him sink down into a deep sofa with my weight still held comfortably in his arms.

I turned my face into his chest and whispered, “If I asked you for a favor, would you do it?”

“I’ve been alive too long to blindly agree to anything, Maddy. But I will agree to help you if it’s a reasonable request.” He was silent as he waited on me to decide whether to ask or not. I slipped off his lap and settled into his side, and his arm wrapped around my shoulders in a casual manner.

“I’m close to catching the killer, and Hellion and I were going to go out with you and some of your people tonight to hunt. But now Hellion’s gone, and Bahlin’s been here—”

“Oh sweet hell,” Darius snapped, pulling his arm away from me and sitting forward to turn on the lamp.

I squinted into the sudden brightness.

“When were you going to mention this?” he demanded.

“Which part?” I snapped. “Because a lot happened while you were out.” I waved my hand under his nose, and he snatched it out of the air.

“Is it official then?” he asked quietly.

“No,” I answered, equally quiet. “It’s not. It’s more a promise now that we’ll make bigger promises later. But it wasn’t twelve hours this time before it all went to hell.” I took my hand back and slipped the ring off, intent on putting it in my pocket.

Faster than thought, Darius snatched the ring out of my hand and was slipping it back on my finger before I could react. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he muttered. “You’re going to turn me into a flippin’ bleeding heart yet. Look, don’t take it off, Maddy. Hellion may be quick-tempered at times,” he said, and I snorted, “but he’s a good bloke. I’ve known him since he was a lad. If he saw fit to commit to you, it’s for the right reasons. He’s a strong sense of right and wrong for all he’s a hot-headed prick.” He rolled the ring back and forth on my finger and looked at it speculatively. “I’ve envied him a time or two, Maddy, but never so much as the first time I met you.” He looked up, and the depth of feeling in his normally aloof eyes startled me. Darius tightened his hand around mine and lifted it to his mouth for a kiss. “If it had been different, if the Fates had seen fit to put me on the Council before Imeena’s disappearance, I like to think destiny would have offered you a third choice.” He leaned forward and brushed firm, cool lips over mine and I gently kissed him back. It was superficially platonic, but words went unspoken between us in the seconds he held his lips to mine.