Love Eternal

by Nikki McCoy

  He nodded as tears spilled down his temples.

  An indecipherable expression crossed Tailor’s handsome features before he grabbed Dhani in a crushing embrace, then brought their mouths together. The torrent of emotions coming through strong in his energy swamped Dhani, overwhelming him and, at the same time, narrowing his world down to only the feel of his mate holding him.

  Tailor was everywhere all at once. He delved his fingers into Dhani’s hair and pressed the solid mass of his upper body down, surrounding Dhani with the invigorating weight of his heat and passion. Need, heavy and intense, poured into Dhani with the demand of the kiss. He opened fully and drowned in the way his mate took control, swallowing his every breath as if his life depended on it. Desire surged within him as his cock swelled and he thrust his hips up almost involuntarily.

  He was on the verge of begging for more when somewhere in the background, a throat was cleared loudly.

  Tailor withdrew to stare down at Dhani, their faces inches apart. “I’ve missed you.”

  A grin tugged at Dhani’s lips. “I’ve missed you, too.” His grin deepened when Tailor rumbled and closed his eyes as if fighting for restraint.

  “Do you feel up to talking?”

  “I think so,” he replied with a frown. Only when Tailor helped him sit up did he become aware of the deep aches in his body. His abdomen and right shoulder flared as his muscles stretched, causing him to wince and bite back a curse. Both hands were wrapped in thin gauze and what he could see of his right palm was covered in bruises.

  He was in the bed he’d shared with his mate for a few hours at Rowan’s palace before Roh Se Kahn had teleported him out. Around the room stood everyone else, their gazes fixed on him in concern. Rowan and Manning held guns discreetly at their sides, their expressions guarded.

  Keenan stood between them with tears streaming down his cheeks. He ran to the bed and flung his arms around Dhani’s neck, squeezing until Dhani began to cough. With a soft chuckle, he pulled back and smiled. “I knew you were in there somewhere.”

  Dhani swallowed past the lump in his throat. “I never thought I would see you again.” Then a tide of fear shadowed his joy. “You have to get away from me. Your father’s going to make me kill you and I can’t—”

  “No,” Keenan hushed him, pulling him in for another quick hug. “You don’t have to be afraid anymore. We’ve figured it all out. When I saw you at the airport, I knew I was looking at my father. He’s not as clever as he likes to think. As soon as Rowan got a call from the guards at Deirdra’s place, we put two and two together. Your mom knew Roh Se Kahn was taking you to his castle from the message you gave that guard. That’s how we knew where to find you.”

  Dhani looked to Laya and, for the first time, saw his mother instead of the woman who had abandoned him. “I met my father,” he said in a strangled voice. “I’m…sorry that I blamed you. I thought you were the monster.” He glanced at Tailor, seeing the love he had for his mate reflected in the man’s eyes, then back again. “I was wrong. You did what you could to keep me away from him. I don’t know if I could’ve been as strong as you.”

  Laya’s chest heaved in a small sob and she pressed a hand to her mouth in an effort to keep her composure. She cleared her throat several times as her eyes glistened, then said, “You are my son. A woman needs no greater strength than that.”

  Dhani nodded then brushed the moisture from his own eyes. As much as he wanted to close the rift between him and his mother, there were still a hundred questions crowding his thoughts. To Keenan, he asked, “How am I here? Roh Se Kahn was in me. He had full control and now, I can’t feel him anymore. I can’t even feel my spirit—”

  “I had to put this on you.” Keenan lifted a hand to Dhani’s neck.

  With shaking fingers, Dhani touched the warm collar and shuddered. He recalled it all, now. Vane’s betrayal of Roh Se Kahn and the appearance of Tailor and the others just as the incantation had begun.

  “The collar inhibits my father’s power over you. It’ll buy us some time. I took a chance that Vane would have it on him at the castle. Since I’m the only one of us who can activate it, I couldn’t sit behind and do nothing. No matter how dangerous it could’ve gotten.” He slanted Tailor a meaningful glance.

  But it had been dangerous, Dhani thought. At least for him. He recalled his mortal wounds and stripped out of his shirt to find two livid scars on his shoulder and abdomen. “I was dying.”

  “You probably would have if we’d arrived two minutes later,” Rowan said as he and Manning holstered their weapons. “We’ve had to keep you asleep for the past two days while my blood healed you. Do you remember anything about what Roh Se Kahn is planning to do?”

  He shrugged. “Just that he wants to go through with his original plan of annihilating the Vam’kir and Ba’Kal, then go after Miel Se Luuda. He talked for a while with Achilles, my father, but he didn’t go into specifics. He only wanted to know what had happened over the past year, whether the races were still united, their numbers. Things like that. He tried to lead Vane on again by telling him he would let him rule, but Vane saw through his father’s lie. Vane turned all of the followers against him and was going to use the baby… Oh no, the baby!”

  “It’s okay,” Rowan said, holding up a hand. “We have Deirdra and Sevrick here with us. She told us Vane had planned on sending his father’s essence into the boy before trapping it with the collar. Did you see what spell he was going to use to steal Roh Se Kahn’s power?”

  Dhani shook his head. “Achilles might have. He knew more about what Vane was planning than anyone else.”

  “Too bad we can’t ask him,” Manning grumbled. At Dhani’s confused stare, he explained, “Vane teleported himself and all of the followers out with him. We have no idea where they could be.”

  “Well, that shouldn’t matter anymore, right? Vane was waiting for Roh Se Kahn to come back. He needs his father’s powers. It’s why he hasn’t done anything ‘til now. As long as I keep this collar on, Roh Se Kahn will stay trapped.” A twinge of anguish pierced his chest at the possibility that he might never again commune with his leopard or regain his falcon spirit, but it was a small price to pay. When Manning looked at Tailor grimly, Dhani repeated, “Right?”

  “It’s not that simple,” Tailor said hesitantly.

  Keenan stirred uneasily. “The collar is only a temporary fix. Since it’s inhibiting your spirit, it could also prevent you from shifting during the full moons every month. I can’t be certain because I stopped wearing it when I was sixteen. I hadn’t matured yet so I wasn’t forced to shift. I don’t think it’s going to be possible for you to live the rest of your life without shifting.”

  Dread coursed through Dhani’s veins. “It might be possible. We don’t know for sure. Quinn told me once he went for four years without shifting. If he can do it, so can I. Besides, my leopard isn’t dead, it’s just trapped.”

  Quinn’s brows drew down in sympathy. “I was beaten during each full moon. The pain took my mind off the shift, but it was still…excruciating. It would’ve driven me insane if Mara hadn’t rescued me. Trust me, if there was any way I thought it could work, I’d tell you.”

  Despair seized the air in Dhani’s lungs as he looked to his mate. “Then you have to kill me. There’s no other way.”

  “No!” Tailor said vehemently. “We’ve made it this far. I’m not going to give up now.”

  “We have some time,” Keenan said. “The full moon isn’t for another five days. There has to be a spell or something in my father’s books that can tell us how to get him out of you. He traded your second spirit for a piece of his soul, didn’t he?” At Dhani’s nod, he sighed. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to return your other spirit, but I’ll try.”

  “We all will,” Laya said. She stepped forward to kiss Dhani’s forehead. “I didn’t let your father take you from me and I damn sure won’t let Roh Se Kahn, either. I love you.”

  Dhani nodded again in a daze. W
hen everyone began to file out, he said, “Thank you.”

  They gave him quiet reassurances then left.

  “How are you doing?” Tailor asked after he closed the door.

  Dhani stared down at his wrapped hands. They might as well have been covered in blood with the amount of deaths he’d caused. “I killed all those people. They’re dead because of me. I almost killed you.”

  “Roh Se Kahn killed those people,” Tailor corrected.

  “With my hands!” he exclaimed, feeling his anger rise. This was all his fault.

  “He killed them with his power. Rowan and Manning had the bodies of their guards inspected. Every one of them was with killed by lightning, not a weapon.”

  “I should’ve warned you before he took control.”

  “Damn it, Dhani!” Tailor ground out. “Don’t do this. Do you really think Roh Se Kahn would’ve allowed you to warn me or anyone else? If it were that easy, he never would’ve released you. He knew exactly what he was doing.”

  Grudgingly, Dhani had to admit he might be right. Roh Se Kahn had known about his attempted suicides, and each time the thought of revealing the truth to his mate had crossed his mind, he’d been overwhelmed by fear. Could Roh Se Kahn have been behind that?

  Still, he couldn’t shake his guilt. His emotions and the hope Tailor was trying to give him were too disparate. His thoughts were a jumbled mess and his heart was conflicted. “You don’t understand. You shouldn’t even care. We’re only mates because my father killed Dominic and his spirit entered me. No matter how much we might love each other, it’s built on pure coincidence.”

  “You just don’t get it, do you?” Tailor let out a growl and raked his hands through his hair. “You are the most impossible, frustrating, dumbest smart man I’ve ever met!” He strode to the window and stared out for a minute, then whirled around. “Your leopard is the spirit trapped inside you now with Roh Se Kahn. Which means your falcon is the one he took to replace it with a piece of his soul.”

  Dhani frowned. “How did you know my other spirit is a falcon?”

  “Because that was Dominic’s spirit. If you think our attraction as mates stems only from Dominic’s spirit, then why have we still been able to feel that attraction? Your falcon has been in an alternate realm this whole time, yet I can feel the draw toward you even with that collar on.”

  He felt his anger begin to fade as comprehension dawned.

  “You can try to push me away all you want,” Tailor said softly, “but I’m not going anywhere. We’re mates as much because of your leopard as we are Dominic’s falcon. We can fight over it or blame fate or whatever else you can think of, but I’m not your father. I won’t leave you and I won’t turn on you.”

  The conflict of Dhani’s emotions swelled, filling his eyes with more tears. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t help feeling responsible—”

  Tailor was there in an instant pulling him into a strong embrace. “It’s okay. We’re going to get through this.” He rocked Dhani in silence for a time, then lifted his chin until their eyes met. “No matter what happens, I won’t leave your side. Not even in death.”

  The force of his mate’s conviction staggered Dhani. What if it did come down to his death in the end? He couldn’t stand the thought of inadvertently taking Tailor with him, yet his gut told him his mate’s conviction was more than a just promise to keep Dhani alive, even at the cost of his own life.

  Tailor was a proud warrior with unflinching principles. Would he really take his life if Dhani didn’t survive? Dhani didn’t want to think it, but neither could he deny that if their roles were reversed, he would choose the same path.

  He clung to his mate and prayed, pleaded with the Mother, that it wouldn’t come to that.

  * * * *

  The next two days passed by in a blur. It was the morning of the third and all Tailor could think about was time. The time he’d lost with Dominic and the countdown of hours until he might lose his second mate. They were going to attempt to rid Roh Se Kahn’s soul from Dhani tonight. If they failed, they would still have another couple of days before the full moon to try again. Only problem was…Keenan hadn’t yet found a spell to perform the act safely.

  Tailor poured himself a mug of coffee in the kitchen then added a few fingers of Amaretto to it. Cy entered minutes later wearing the same clothes he’d had on the day before. His eyes were bloodshot and his waist-length hair was mussed around his pale face. He squinted at the bottle of amaretto, glanced at the coffee, then snatched the bottle and took a long swig.

  Tailor chuckled. He knew that look—had worn it many times in the past, and always after a night of passion and sin. Cy was suffering bad, so Tailor did what any friend would do. He slapped Cy on the back and yelled, “How’s life treating you?”

  Cy yanked a knife from the back of his belt and snarled. “Talk again and I will slit your throat and use your tongue to slap you with.”

  Tailor laughed. “Now who’s chasing the sheep when he should be hunting the wolf?”

  Cy scowled darkly. “This sheep”—he said, holding up the bottle—“is doing a damn good job of saving me from the wolf.”

  “You’re scared of Xenessa, aren’t you?”

  “I’m not scared of that wolf—woman,” he tacked on quickly. When Tailor only narrowed his eyes, Cy’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “Scared. Terrified like a little bitch. How the hell do you do it?”

  Rowan strolled in with Laya beside him. “Do what? What are we talking about?”

  Tailor grinned. “Cy’s afraid of his mate.”

  Rowan paused then burst out laughing. At the deadly glare Cy shot him, his laugh turned to a choking cough and he banged his fist against his chest. “Sorry, I, uh…can see how that might be an issue. You two having problems?”

  Cy took another swig then glowered down at the bottle. “She wants me to bond. Says her biological clock is ticking. She wants to have kids! I mean, yeah, sure I want to have kids someday, and the woman is amazing in bed. She can do things with her body that defy—”

  “Whoa!” Rowan said, holding a hand up. “This is the woman that used to wipe my nose when I was a kid. Spare me the details. Please.”

  “I’m just saying,” Cy drew out with punctuation, “Things are going a little fast for me.”

  Tailor shrugged as he took back the bottle to pour more into his mug. “Well, it’s not like you’ve been playing hard to get. And you two are mates. I don’t really see what the issue is here.”

  “Talk to me again when you’ve been a bachelor for three and a half centuries,” Cy grumbled. He flicked a glance at Rowan, his lips forming a cagey grin, then canted his head. “Although, maybe you’re right. She is a hell of a woman. She does this thing in bed with her hips that hits me in just the right—”

  “Stop!” Rowan yelled, lifting his fingers to his temples to massage them. “It hurts.”

  Keenan stomped into the kitchen and threw a pair of white gloves onto the island counter. “There’s nothing!” he yelled. “Not a damn thing in any of those books on how to get my father out of Dhani.”

  Cy cringed. “Keep it down! Some of us are trying to have a hangover.”

  Keenan ignored him and looked to Tailor. “Should you be drinking that? We need to be focused for tonight.”

  “This was Dhani’s idea,” Tailor said, twisting his lips. “Said I was driving him crazy hovering over him all the time, which is why I left him with you in the library. Where is he?” He hadn’t wanted to leave his mate alone on the off chance Roh Se Kahn managed to break through the power of the collar supressing his soul.

  “He’s fine. Manning and Quinn are with him and Sevrick.”

  “Are you sure it’s a good idea for him to be around the baby?” Rowan asked.

  Keenan waved dismissively. “If the collar wasn’t holding up, we’d have known by now. Besides, my father never wanted to have anything to do with Sevrick. Dhani, on the other hand, really seems taken with the boy. I haven’t seen
him smile and laugh so much since… Well, it’s been a long time. I think their time together is good for both of them, especially considering Deirdra won’t have anything to do with him now.”

  Rowan poured a cup of coffee for Keenan and handed it to him. “I don’t think she’s doing it out of spite. I spoke with her yesterday and I have to admit, she’s changed. She truly believed Vane would’ve carried out his promises to make her his queen when he came into power, but she didn’t realize he would do so by killing Sevrick. Honestly, I’m proud of her. She was willing to give up everything she’d ever wanted to save her son.

  “On top of that, she actually trusts Dhani with Sevrick despite Roh Se Kahn’s presence. She said the few times Vane came to see their child on the island, Sevrick couldn’t stand for Vane to hold him. She thinks now the boy must’ve sensed his evil intent and I have to agree. Sevrick hasn’t cried once around Dhani.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” Keenan replied dubiously. “Anyway, I still don’t know what to do about Dhani. The only information I’ve been able to find is how my father was able to sire me and my brothers. Apparently, he retained a residue of the light used to free him from his prison in the first place and he used that light to procreate. However, that’s not going to help us with Dhani.”

  “So what do you think we should do?” Cy asked.

  Keenan sighed heavily. “If I still can’t find anything by tonight, I’ll just have to use the same spell Miel Se Luuda gave me a year ago to send my father back and hope it doesn’t kill Dhani in the process. I know it won’t kill me—”

  “Are you sure about that?” Rowan’s tone was angry, but the depth of concern in his eyes was unmistakable.

  “I’m positive. What killed me last time was a stake to the heart.” He chuckled lightly. “I’m like a modern day vampire.”

  “Yeah, well, who wouldn’t that kill?” Rowan muttered.

  Keenan rolled his eyes. “Like I was saying, the spell won’t harm me but I’m not so sure about Dhani. There’s also the fact that we’ll need to take the collar off for the spell to work. My father’s soul has to be free at the time I send it to the other realm. Problem is, as soon as the collar is off, my father will take control of Dhani again. He could kill us all in seconds.”