Blood of Souls

by Vivien Dean

  “Let us disregard the fact that you are a beautiful woman,” Theo said. “Or that I have spent the last six years becoming intimately acquainted with your hands, your gentle touch, your giving disposition. You don’t wish to be seduced by compliments or flattery, even when I mean every single word. So let us consider the one thing most important to both of us.”

  It might not have been his wish to distract her with praise, but his melodious voice carried a seductive lull, one she’d noticed earlier when she’d dealt with him most rationally. Her body recognized it as well, and her skin flamed, aware of his half-nude state, knowing what the baggy sweats hid from view.

  “What’s that?”

  His caresses continued. “Quin. He loves you. He has no desire to lose you.”

  She didn’t need to look past Theo to know he was right. “So you think we should let him have his cake and eat it, too?”

  “I don’t see a practical reason to refuse him both of us, no. But this isn’t just about his desires and needs. This is about yours as well.”

  “My needs were being met just fine.”

  “Were they? If you hadn’t freed me, what would you have done when you were finished cleaning the sword?” Theo didn’t wait for an answer. “You would have spent the day taking care of whatever business you could for Quin. You would have waited patiently for him to return, and you would have been bored out of your mind. I’ve spent years listening to you, witnessing how many times he has left you alone because of his other responsibilities. You wouldn’t have to be alone any longer if the three of us learned to live together.”

  “Hey,” Quin protested. “I only leave Annie behind when I absolutely have to. She knows that.”

  Theo finally broke the spell he wove over her to include Quin in the conversation again. “But you still leave her. And you both hate it.”

  She locked gazes with Quin, his regret shining bright. “Sometimes, I wonder why you ever bothered with me,” he said before she could speak up.

  “Because I love you, you idiot.”

  Theo’s smile brightened. “So come back up to the house with us.” He took her hand and tugged, leading her away from the cottage. “There’s no reason for any of us to spend the eve alone. Nothing has to happen that you do not wish to. Simply give me a chance to show you I’m not the man you fear.”

  Though she knew she could pull away at any moment, Annie let him continue, his fingers warm where they wrapped around hers. Quin fell in at her side, but rather than take her other hand, he rested his in the small of her back. Aa small gesture, but his nearness felt so good, so right, she couldn’t tell him no.

  She glanced ahead to Theo more than once, trying to assess why he was trying so hard, but every time their eyes met, he just gave her that boyish smile, his light brown eyes twinkling. None of them spoke. She didn’t know what she would say anyway.

  In spite of her conflicting emotions, the kitchen was a welcome sight. Neutral territory. The box of Band-Aids was still on the counter by the sink, but the reminder of what had set all this in motion was a surprisingly soft one.

  Theo released her hand and stood in the middle of the room. “I’m hungry,” he announced. “What can I eat?”

  Quin snorted, and Annie bit back a smile. “What do you like?” she asked, going to the refrigerator. He followed her like a puppy, standing behind her to peer over her shoulder when she opened it. “I can throw together an omelet. That would be quick.”

  “Eggs,” Quin explained. “Whipped up together with other ingredients to make a sort of pancake.”

  “Oh, yes, that sounds good.”

  Annie bent over to rummage in the meat and cheese drawer. “I’ve got ham and cheddar to throw in.” She glanced back. “Unless you’re allergic or lactose intolerant or something.”

  She caught Theo looking to Quin for guidance again.

  “She worries you might be sensitive to them,” he said. To Annie, “And no, he’s not.”

  Annie gathered everything she was going to need and kicked the fridge shut with her heel. It felt good to be busy. An easy distraction. Until she nearly ran Theo over as he trailed her to the stove.

  “Sit down,” Quin instructed. Resting a hand on Theo’s shoulder, he guided him over to the table, smiling at her before turning away. “You have a lot of catching up to do, but driving Annie crazy with questions is not the way to get her on your good side.”

  She expected Quin to sit down with him. When he came back and took the eggs out of her hand, however, she looked at him in surprise.

  “We do this together,” he said. Setting the carton down, he grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and began cracking eggs into it. “Ask Theo about his art. That’s someplace neutral to start.”

  Annie hesitated where she reached for a knife from the block. “Art? I thought you were both soldiers.”

  “Only because that’s what my station demanded,” Theo said. “Given the choice, I would have much preferred to sculpt.”

  Her gaze drifted down to his hands and his long tapered fingers. She could see it. She could also see why it would attract Quin. That didn’t necessarily make it easier to look at Theo with objective eyes.

  “But you dabbled as well,” Theo was saying. “You need to show me some of your work. I’ve always wondered what your hands would create.”

  Her “How did you know that?” and Quin’s “You never told me you were an artist!” jumbled together in a flurry of heated stares and flushed cheeks. Theo was the only one who seemed nonplussed by his request, smiling up at both of them like a child with a secret.

  “Your mother called when you were cataloging one day,” Theo explained. “I think you discussed some items she’d found of yours. From your school days, perhaps? You told her to ship them to the house.”

  Annie remembered that incident. She couldn’t recall the exact conversation, but the box in question still sat in her small storage locker in the garage, unopened and unexamined. Stuff she’d left behind, the summers she’d lived at home during college. Her mother always made her take art classes with her at the Y during those months. A chance to reconnect, she always said.

  Annie had forgotten all about them.

  “I’m not really an artist,” she said to Quin, though her focus never left Theo. “Just some general courses my mom dragged me to when I was younger.” She forgot the ham and cheese, and crossed to the table, sitting down opposite Theo. “I can’t believe you remember that.”

  “You and Quin are all I have. Why wouldn’t I remember it?”

  She wanted to argue. She wanted to say she was never his, that she couldn’t be when she hadn’t even known he existed. But his guileless eyes stifled the words. Because from his perspective, she had loved him. She’d cared for the sword just as much as Quin had. She’d been the one to truly take care of it for the past six years. That was all Theo had ever known of her.

  “You can go back to sculpting now,” she said. “You’ll have all the time in the world for your art.”

  For the first time, something like sadness darkened his eyes. He glanced past her to Quin, but when she followed his gaze, she saw only the stiff set of Quin’s shoulders.

  “Not quite all the time in the world.” Quin turned the gas on the stove, waiting for the flame to catch. “Theo isn’t immortal.”

  Annie frowned. “But you said you are.”

  “We tested it already.” Theo held his hand out, showing her a narrow scratch along his palm. “I’m not the same as Quin.”

  If it had been anybody else, she might have commented about the irony of fate. Life never had a way of playing out exactly as you hoped, even when you planned for all the worst circumstances. Wasn’t the fact that they’d spent so many years together yet apart proof of that? But this struck Annie as particularly cruel. Now, Quin would lose Theo all over again, and this time, it would be permanent.

  “But that doesn’t make sense. Why would they let you be together just to tear you apart again?”

>   When Quin didn’t answer her, Theo turned his hand in order to cover Annie’s. “It means we have to take advantage of the time we have. You see why I don’t want you to leave us now? Our lives are so transient as it is. Why deny what you want, your own happiness, simply for the sake of something Quin doesn’t even desire? He needs you, just as much as he thinks he might need me. And you’re the only friend I have. Don’t turn your back on us because you think you’re being noble. Please.”

  It wasn’t noble. It was selfish. No matter what they might say, Annie didn’t know how she could possibly be an equal partner in the relationship they professed to want. Somehow, she couldn’t help but think that they would move beyond her, resume the love affair that time had interrupted.

  For now, she held her tongue. She wouldn’t be the one to put even more weight on Quin’s shoulders tonight. Or the one to extinguish the hopeful flame in Theo’s eyes.

  Perhaps tomorrow, both men would see the light.

  CHAPTER 6

  The last thing Quin wanted was to see Annie shut a bedroom door behind her that wasn’t theirs. He lifted his hand to push the door open again, to march inside and throw her over his shoulder and carry her back to their bed, but almost immediately let it drop again. Forcing her to agree would drive her away for good. Her return to the house was already tenuous. Anything but the most delicate of maneuvers might wreck what small chance he had at keeping her there.

  He didn’t remember getting back to their room. He was barely aware of sinking onto the edge of the bed. His thoughts tumbled together, knotting into problems he couldn’t unravel, and his head ached from the effort of trying. Part of him wanted to go back to the beginning of the day and start it over again. Maybe if he’d insisted she accompany him to the auction…

  But then Theo wouldn’t be sleeping two doors down. And no matter what else, Quin wouldn’t wish Theo’s absence for the world.

  With a sigh, he stretched out on the mussed blankets and stared up at the ceiling. Nobody had a partner that night. At his insistence, Quin put Theo in one of the spare rooms, avoiding the hurt glance Theo shot in his direction. He knew Theo didn’t understand. He didn’t know how to explain it. He couldn’t enjoy the sanctuary of Theo’s arms, knowing that was the one thing Annie feared most.

  Could he blame her?

  Not really. If a man from her past showed up, and she insisted on including him in her relationship with Quin, Quin knew beyond a shadow of a doubt he’d fire her. He was selfish. He didn’t want to play second fiddle to anyone. Why did he think for a second Annie might agree to the same set-up?

  Because she wouldn’t be second fiddle. He loved her as much as he did Theo. More, in some ways, if only because he and Theo needed to get reacquainted again. The only problem was, she didn’t know that. She didn’t know just how badly he needed her.

  He bolted upright.

  That was the answer. He needed to show Annie how much value she had to him. She wouldn’t leave then. She couldn’t.

  He was stepping out of his room when Theo’s door opened.

  “Don’t do it,” Theo warned.

  Quin halted. Pulling himself straight, he stared Theo down, quelling the automatic desire that surged through his veins at the sight of his tawny muscles. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Yes, you do. You’re going to try and plead your case with Annie again.” Theo advanced slowly. “You need to leave her be for the night. She needs time to think.”

  “She’s had time.”

  “Not enough.”

  “And you’re the Annie expert all of a sudden?”

  “No, I’m an expert on what it means to love you.” He stood in front of Quin now and pressed his palm to Quin’s chest. Gently, he pushed him back into the bedroom, though all Quin felt was the heat searing through his skin. “She’s hurt, and she’s confused, and we’ve done everything we can for the night.”

  It couldn’t be everything. There had to be more. But Quin was helpless to stop as Theo pushed him all the way to the edge of the bed, guiding him to sit down yet again.

  Theo crouched in front of him, running his palms up and down the top of Quin’s thighs. “I don’t want her to go either,” he said softly. “Do you have any idea how scared I am? I’ve so much to learn, so much to catch up on. And patience isn’t exactly your strong suit. Annie’s the only friend I’ve really had in centuries.”

  The more Theo touched him, the harder it got to concentrate. His hand shook as he reached out to glide his fingertips up Theo’s arm. Each muscle stood out in stark relief.

  “She won’t go.” Quin avowed it with more certainty than he felt. “We need her.”

  “Yes, we do.” Theo leaned forward, nestling more firmly between Quin’s legs. “Let me help you sleep tonight, Quintus. You’ll never rest if you don’t relax.”

  “No, we shouldn’t…”

  The rest of it faded away when Theo grazed his hand over his waistband. Neither man had put on shirts, even after sitting in the kitchen for nearly two hours with Annie, eating and talking about art. His pants weren’t tight, but neither were they baggy enough to hide his growing erection.

  “Annie.” Like it was enough of a reason not to. It was more than enough reason.

  “You’re not betraying her.”

  Except he was.

  The hardest thing he’d ever done was grasp Theo’s wrist and make him stop.

  Quin nudged only hard enough to make Theo sit back on his heels. He couldn’t quite find the fortitude to release him, though. “I’m not going to give her an excuse to leave.”

  “She won’t know.”

  “She will. I’ll tell her.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  “I do if I want her to stay. She has to know she can trust me. She feels insecure enough already without needing me to cave to my desire for you at the very first opportunity we get.”

  Theo’s warm gaze regarded him for long seconds. Quin felt every one like a tattoo against his heart.

  “Do you regret my presence?”

  The softly uttered question shook him to the core. “What? No! Never.” He finally let Theo go. He had to. Otherwise, he’d pull him back into his body and everything would be ruined. “Go to bed. We’ll talk about it in the morning.”

  Rising to his feet was clearly the last thing Theo wanted to do, but he did so anyway, backing toward the door without taking his eyes off Quin. “Promise me you won’t go to her.”

  Quin snorted. “You make it sound like you don’t want to share me, either.”

  “No.” His hand lingered on the doorknob. “It’s that I don’t want to lose her, too.”

  Then he was gone. And all Quin had was his empty bed and his tumultuous thoughts.

  * * *

  She couldn’t sleep. Annie knew she had to, but this wasn’t her bed, and Quin wasn’t in it with her, and she couldn’t get her brain to turn off. Somewhere in the house, two men waited for her to get her butt in gear and make a decision. Stay or go. Go or stay. It shouldn’t be that hard.

  On the one hand, she had a job she loved, a man she worshiped, and another man willing to bend over backward to get her to stick around.

  On the other, no job, no men, and months of searching for anything remotely as fulfilling as the last six years had been.

  With a frustrated growl, Annie shoved the blankets off. This was ridiculous. She needed to face both men and see what happened.

  She bypassed hers and Quin’s room to go straight to Theo’s. Her heart fluttered in her throat, but she swallowed and knocked. The tremulous sound was more of a tap, but inside, she heard the distinct creak of a bedspring, followed seconds later by the doorknob turning.

  Her gaze swept over Theo’s half-naked form. They really needed to get some clothes for him. As good as he looked without one, the absence of a shirt would get very distracting after a while.

  Theo frowned, glancing past her shoulder and down the hall. “Is something wron
g?”

  Now that she was here, she didn’t know what to do. Spending time with Theo in the kitchen had shown her one thing—he wasn’t a threat. He was awash in a world he knew nothing about.

  And he adored her. Not once had his attention not been focused and bright. The only time he didn’t look at her as if she hung the moon was when he looked at Quin.

  “No, nothing’s wrong,” Annie managed to say. “I…couldn’t sleep.”

  The lines between his brows smoothed. “Would you like to talk?”

  “I don’t know what I want.”

  “You do. You want Quin.” Carefully, he reached out and tucked an errant curl behind her ear, much like Quin often did. “You want this day to never have happened.”

  “That’s not entirely true. I just wish things weren’t so difficult.”

  His mouth canted. “I know. I’m sorry.” Stepping aside, he gestured behind him. “Come in. This would be better if we don’t wake Quin.”

  Annie wasn’t so sure Quin was asleep either, but on the chance he was, she complied. The click of the door throbbed in her ears, and she didn’t know what to do with her hands all of a sudden.

  Theo solved that by taking her wrists and pulling her to the bed. Perching on the edge, he guided her next to him, their bent legs brushing lightly against each other. He didn’t speak, but his dark eyes said volumes. They said, Trust me. They begged, Let me do this. They held her spellbound while he ran his fingertips up and down her forearm.

  “Do you remember dying?” she asked.

  Though she had no idea where the question came from, it didn’t seem to take Theo by surprise. “I remember Quin holding me. And then I remember not being able to feel him anymore.”

  “Did it hurt?”

  “Dying didn’t. It was Quin’s absence that I missed the most. Until I realized what exactly was going on.”

  His fingers were higher now, tickling the inside of her elbow. Annie wished she’d pulled on her robe before venturing out, but it was too late to do anything about it now.